Category Archives: Health

Hide Your Food and You’ll Lose Weight

Professor Brian Wansink, at the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, found that the closer food was to a person, the more likely they were to eat it. Basically we are creatures of laziness, if it’s there, we eat it. If it’s convenient, we eat the food.  Dr. Wansink said “When it comes down to it, we’re efficient people, We want something that’s convenient. And if it’s fruit or vegetables that’s a whole lot more convenient than that cake that’s wrapped up in the freezer, guess what’s for snack today? Fruits and vegetables.”  

The lesson here is, don’t have food on your desk at work. Make it harder to have easy to access junk food at home. Eat your dinners on smaller plates, pre-portioned food, not “family style” (you tend to eat a lot more that way). Don’t eat food directly from a bag or container, grab a portion of the food and make it a thought out process. Also, when buying soda, if you absolutely have to (please don’t), buy cans and not the big 2-liter sized bottles. Skip the mega sized drinks and stay away from the candy.

The candy eating was interesting, as Wansink said that if you ate 5 candies a day at 125 calories total, that adds up to 12 pounds a year! Now add to that toxicities affect on resting metabolism and you gain weight real fast. As I have lectured about around the world, if you inhibit your metabolism by a mere 5-7 percent, you could put on an amazing 20-50 pounds without eating any more food.

Must See Movie on DVD – Thank You for Smoking

Last night I watched the movie “Thank You for Smoking” and it was hilarious. It may be fiction but it so illustrates how companies that sell dangerous products like cigarettes can spin the truth and keep in business. Toxins in your environment like bisphenol A and phthalates have industry spokespeople and paid “scientists” try to make you believe that their chemical poisons are safe despite evidence to the contrary.

Aaron Eckhart does a great job as the lead character Nick Naylor who is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. The moral dilemma’s he avoids and the way he deals with his enemies is both funny and quite scary. Worth the 1 1/2 hours, but make sure the kids aren’t around as there is some rather racy language.

 Thank You for Smoking (Full Screen Edition)

Quercitin and Sports – A Way to Help Fight Off Illness

Doctor at Appalachian State University did a study on endurance athletes and found remarkable benefits to the nutritional supplement quercetin. Giving 40male cyclists either a placebo or 1 gram of quercetin daily, they found that the ones given the placebo had nine chest infections after two weeks of rigorous training and the quercitin group only had 1. This is a major improvement and should be studied in bigger groups.

In lab studies, quercetin, a flavonoid found in fruits, berries and tea, bound itself to bacteria and viruses, stopping them from duplicating. This may be why quercetin supplementation may be beneficial this winter when you’re trying to avoid catching a cold. I would suggest combining it with about 1,200 IUs of vitamin D and 1,000 mgs of vitamin C each day. I know I will.

Drug Reactions Up….. Way Up

In 1998, 5519 people died from side effects due to prescription and non-prescription drugs. In 2005 the number sky rocketed to 15,107. And these numbers may be underestimating the effect. So why the rise?  Here are a few reasons.

First off, the number of prescriptions given by doctors has gone up quite a bit but not by as much as the number of adverse reactions have. There have been a number of drugs pulled from the market recently because of adverse effects but they only account for less than 1 percent of total reports of side effects. The real reason is that so many people are on an unconscionable number of drugs and the interaction possibilities have not been throughly looked into.

In my consults with physicians, I have heard list of drugs people are taking that just makes me shudder. One person was on two antidepressants, thyroid medication, NexiumTM, blood pressure meds, a statin drug and Depakote (an antiepileptic drug). Their complaint to their doctor?  They felt like hell. Well no kidding. How can any physician stand by and put their patient on this array of meds without wincing and feeling guilty about turning their back on the Hippocratic oath they took when they graduated from medical school.

More work needs to be done to educate physicians how not to prescribe drugs instead of being sent on trips and being bribed by the pharmaceutical industry to prescribe more drugs. This is a cover-up mentality that does nothing to address causes of disease. More research dollars should be spent on prevention of disease not on covering it up.

A recent study showed that people with type 2 diabetes had improved blood sugar control just by simply exercising three times a week. How many other such suggestions should find their way into a physicians discussion with their patients?  A whole lot of them but instead of doing that, it’s easier to throw a pill or two at the patient even if it eventually may harm them.

Antioxidants Are Not Always a Good Thing

You’ve all heard the comment “you can get too much of a good thing” well it does come up with antioxidant use. Scientists from the University of Utah found that mice who had the gene mutation known as alpha-B crystalline produced too much glutathione in response to abnormal clumps of protein in the heart which led to heart failure. The over use of antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids are also known to be a problem with people with congestive heart failure as they need more oxidation around the heart and not less.

What this study suggests is that some people can overdose themselves with antioxidants under the impression that all oxidation is bad, it isn’t. To live we need a good amount of oxidation. It is part of how our immune system works, how we create new cells, hormones, neurotransmitters and a whole array of biochemical actions.

The key here is the way and the types of antioxidants you take. Because of the stressful and toxic world we live in, we need to be taking a variety of antioxidants daily. Things like freeze-dried Acai, Coenzyme Q10, and Vitamin C should be in everyone’s daily routine. A whey protein drink  is another good idea. What is a bad idea is the overuse of IV glutathione, something that should only be used rarely in my opinion and not for every disease and syndrome like some people who claim to be scientists do.

Doing IVs is a pharmacologic intervention that should only be used when a person is in clear and present danger from excessive oxidative stress. Oral co factors like the ones I mention above is a way to get your own body to produce the needed antioxidants like glutathione in a natural and safe manner. Train your body to be more efficient, don’t intervene and cover up a problem. It’s the smart thing to do.

Combinational Toxicity – The Toxic Soup Within Our Bodies

In an article published in the British journal, New Scientist, author Bijal Trivedi reports on how combinations of the toxic effects of the toxins within our bodies can be far greater than the sum of the toxins. Say if the lethality of each of 8 chemical toxicant by themselves was .01 on a scale of 0-5, with 0 being non-toxic and 5 being deadly. Put them together in your blood stream and the toxicity goes to 4, you can see that each alone add up to just .08, but combine them and they become much more toxic, you see why scientists in the field of toxicology are getting nervous seeing that there are an estimated 75,000 artificial chemicals that you and I are exposed to every day.

As Mr. Trivedi point out, “Most toxicity testing has been done on a chemical-by-chemical basis, often by exposing rats to a range of concentrations to find the maximum dose that causes no harm.” Dr. Andreas Kortenkamp from the University of London found that when he added 8 chemicals ranging from plasticisers, sunscreen ingredients and others found in cooling and insulating fluids in quantities that were considered very low or the level toxicologist call “no-observed-effect concentration, something strange happened.  The chemical combination created an endocrine disruption which should not have logically happened. The effect is called “the new math – zero plus zero equals something.”

As noted phthalate researcher Shanna Swan said “People can’t keep phthalates [or other chemicals] out of their air, water or food.” So what to do? Make your body an efficient detoxifier. Make sure you eat organic when possible and test yourself for toxins to see if you have high levels in your body. One real good test is the Environmental Pollutants Biomarker from US Biotek, From that test you can find out what detoxification protocol you need to do to the best protect yourself from the inevitable exposures you face each and every day.

Healthcare Policy on Obesity Needs Changes

The blog Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review came our with an interesting write-up on the troubling epidemic about obesity and the pressure it is putting on our health care system. As a lecturer in the field of health and obesity I have seen how our nation has become lazy and unwilling to do what is necessary to take back our health. Health care practitioners I lecture too have expressed utter frustration when trying to get people to change their habits. They just don’t want to be bothered. They would rather take a drug, or pop a few vitamins under the assumption that is all that is necessary to help them get healthy.

Health should be defined as not just the absence of disease but as the vibrance that comes with optimal health. We need to stop having the mind set that we don’t need to be responsible for our own health and that of our children. Making those who abuse their bodies by overeating, not exercising and having bad health habits pay more for their health care is the first step in reversing the growing obesity trend. If you want to abuse yourself, it will cost you more.

I don’t want to continue to pay higher and higher medical insurance bills for those of you who refuse to take care of themselves. That is a form of welfare that I am tired of supporting. Many of those people would scream and yell if they had to pay for people on welfare but would think nothing of taking subsidies from people who actually try to keep themselves healthy.

Heart Attacks and Cholesterol – Public Policy That Makes No Sense

I have touted the book Overdosed America by Dr. John Abramson over and over. It is shocking to me that so few people, especially doctors, know that high cholesterol and heart attacks are only correlated through the age of 40. Lowering weight, eating right, not smoking and exercising have more benefits and reduce heart attack risk more than statin drugs by far. Too low cholesterol increases the risk of other fatal diseases and over use of statin drugs does little but enrich the pharmaceutical industry.

On his blog site, Dr. Abramson has reviews of his book listed which are well worth reading. Here is one such review from the San Diego Union Tribune:

“Abramson, who has a background in statistics and health policy, took the time to read the full 284-page version of the panel’s 2001 report, rather than the 11-page summary that most doctors saw. The results of his careful analysis are enough to shock a healthy heart into failure. He notes that data from the venerable Framingham study – a large, long-term study of risk factors for heart disease – show that elevated total cholesterol levels correlate with an increased risk of death only through the age of 40. Even more astounding is the finding that the risk of death from causes other than coronary heart disease increases significantly with lower total cholesterol levels for both men and women after the age of 50. And that doesn’t even touch on the question of the long-term side effects – both known and unknown – of the statins themselves.”

Buy two copies of the book which is in paperback and give one to your doctor. Physicians need to know that prescribing statin drugs to all but a small percentage of individuals is bad medicine, morally wrong and just plain harmful. Statin drug prescriptions is an industry not true medicine.

Update on Tasya – Seizures, Health, Behavior and Mood

It’s about time I updated everyone on my now 11 year old daughter, Tasya. As many of my readers know, she has a rare and as of yet, uncatergorized form of epilepsy that was so severe at one time, we thought that either she would die of it or become retarded by the age of 11 or 12. I am very happy to report that despite the doom and gloom that seemed to follow her 3 years ago, she is now doing better now than she has at anytime since her seizures began 8 years ago.

So what have we been doing to help her so much? Well, aside for the diet and avoiding crappy foods, aspartame, MSG and the foods on her LEAP test that cause inflammatory responses, we added two key nutrients from our previous regimen. The first was Glycerophosphocholine also known as GPC. GPC is a great phospholipid that has been shown in numerous clinical trials to be beneficial to people who have suffered strokes as well as restoring memory and concentration in both young and older individuals. Concentration issues were a major problem for Tasya so we asked Dr. Kidd what the dosage should be and his suggestion was 300 mg per day, always in the morning. I can honestly report that her concentration has markedly since starting on a regular regimen of GPC.

The second nutrient PS Omega Synergy which is a combination of Phosphatidylserine and two Omega 3 fatty acids, EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), has made a truly profound change in her mood, social skills and helped to lower the number of seizures she has to almost nothing. This is the best seizure control that she has had ever since they started in October of 1999. Her classmates have noticed a difference, her teachers have and we have. She is less likely to lose her temper, she has exhibited a wider range of emotions than ever before and has started to get excited about things that normally wouldn’t have moved her off the couch. PS Omega Synergy was the right nutrient at the right time for Tasya.

Is this the answer for others?  I can’t say that honestly. Did it make that much of a difference with Tasya?  That and more. We have a happy and predominantly seizure free child for the first time in years. Even her neurologist had a smile on his face yesterday when Tasya and my wife Hillary visited him. He decided that instead of the every four month visit, we could extend it to every six months.

My big thanks today is for two people, Robert Crayhon and Dr. Parris Kidd. Robert, thanks for being who you are and focusing on brain nutrition. The second is to Dr. Parris Kidd for bringing these two marvelous products to the market and doing the research to get them done right. Both of you should be proud that you helped save a little girls life as well as give her a future. I am also proud to call you both, friend.

The Hippocratic Oath – Do Doctor’s Today Even Read It Much Less Practice It?

The Hippocratic Oath is something that every physician who graduates from medical school presumably takes. While most physicians follow a great proportion of this important pledge, there is one passage in the modern version created by the late Dr. Louis Lasagna that is rarely followed by those physicians practicing allopathic medicine. It reads, “I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.” Is that the way medicine is really being practiced in today’s world?  I think not and here is why.

The purple pill NexiumTM helps people with severe esophogeal acid reflux. These people suffer greatly from their disorder but by prescribing the drug without first making the sufferers change obvious bad habits are we really preventing disease? By denying the healing benefits of nutrients and proper eating do they also fail to fulfill their oath. Having been to a number of physicians over the years I really believe that it is not that they don’t want to prevent disease but that they cannot spend the time necessary to help their patients stop doing things that harm their health. There is plenty of blame to go around and here are my big three.

First off we should point our finger at the pharmaceutical industry and its focus on profits and selling drugs to overcome issues that can often times be treated by lifestyle and habit changes as well as low side effect nutritional supplements (note that I say low side effect not no side effect). Restless Leg Syndrome, while a serious issue is often times better treated with magnesium and well formulated electrolytes instead of the drug RequipTM which has numerous serious side effects. The way the pharmaceutical industry markets their drugs is a major reason why people look for a short cut drug instead of slower lifestyle changes.

Secondly, we need to blame our society as a whole where we eat bad foods and enormous supersized meals, cut back on funding physical education in our schools and take a laisse faire attitude towards health. This societal degredation is so reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Empire that it is just history repeating itself. So many physicians feed into this societal illness that they refuse to make their patients change their habits in fear of losing them.

Thirdly, we need to lay the ultimate blame on the individuals who allow themseslves to get caught up in the “blame others but not me” syndrome. From the moronic ex-judge who sued the dry cleaner for losing a pair of pants to the people who demand that their children get an antibiotic prescription for the flu. Each of us, and I am guilty at times, look for shortcuts, ways not to pay the required price for real health, not just the lack of disease. We all need to look in the mirror and assess what we need to do to get better and then do it. We need to follow our own personal Hippocratic Oath, something I will propose in my next blog.