MARCH 6, 2012 TOO MANY SUPPLEMENTS OR TOO MANY MEDICATIONS

"WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE TRUE,

WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE HONEST,

WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE JUST,

WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE PURE,

WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE LOVELY,

WHAT SO EVER THINGS ARE OF GOOD REPORT;

IF THERE BE ANY VIRTUE, AND IF THERE BE ANY PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS." Philippians 4:8

Be the shining vision of joy, just for today. Whether you feel good or bad, up or down, for today think only of good. I meet patients every day. Last week a woman had a recurrence of breast cancer . It is now metastatic. I focused on the good. I want her to be surrounded by positive energy especially from her physician. I had to try to remove the hostility and anger from her heart. It is not easy, but I do try to the best of my ability. For today, think only of the good. Do not think of the bad, --only for today. There is good in everyone's life. You might have to look beyond the hate, fear, and anger to know there is joy. Find plenty of good for today

In October 2011, The Archives of Internal medicine published a report that too many vitamins may kill you. It was a ridiculous study. 60,000 women over the age of 60 were studied. 50% took a multivitamin and the other half did not. The women taking the multivitamin reportedly had a higher mortality rate (death rate).

Now that would scare me-- however lets look more closely. We do not know what the criteria was to be admitted into this study. For all we know the 30,000 who took this multivitamin already had heart disease. I despise these kinds of studies.

I want to see double blind studies of certain supplements and herbs against a conventional drug. Why aren't these studies published? It is possible that the herbs/supplements would be more beneficial than a drug? The answer could be yes. What pharmaceutical company would therefore want to study their drug against a herb/supplement? NONE

For millions of men and women, sometimes nutrition and vitamins/supplements/herbs are the difference between life and death . Overdose of anything including vitamins and even water can shorten your life. The death rate in the older population is often due to poly pharmacy. I see older patients who are on 10-12 pharmaceutical drugs. Each doctor adds another one. Do the specialty doctors even talk to the other doctor or do we as physician's just prescribe?

UNTIL TOMORROW...