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...

JULY 25 , 2011 WHERE HAVE THE YEARS GONE..AM I AGING ?

"Children are gifts; if we accept them." - Kathleen Turner Crilly

I was a child once. I was a gift to my parents. If you have children they are gifts. If you do not have children, consider you nieces and nephews as gifts. You own pet at this time might be your child. That pet is a gift from the universe. Some of us had parents who didn't know that children were gifts, and some of had parents who treated us as gifts. I can say I had parents who treated my brother and I as if we were gifts. Was my childhood perfect? It was as perfect as I can remember , but I know today there is no perfection. Our parents did the best they knew how to do.

This is how I view the past. I do not blame my parents for anything. Perhaps maybe it wasn't the right time to have children, but they did. Is there ever a perfect time to have children? I do not know, but I do know if you wait until the exact moment you will have another reason not to have children. Whether it is the financial situation or the world problems, you never know when it is the right time. Every one has a different circumstance. I cannot speak for every one's childhood. I can only speak from my own experience. I know that despite the many differences I have with my son and daughter, they are always gifts to me. I am sure at different times, both of my children view it differently. But I know GOD chose me to be a father. I did my best to raise them properly. I can say, now and today, I did this to the best of my ability. No more no less.

As the children get older, I realize that I am getting older and going through the natural process of aging. I can compare this to rusting. Inside of rusting from the outside in, we are all rusting from the inside out. This 'rusting' is caused by the free radical damage. We all get free radials by eating the wrong foods, the exposure to the environmental toxins and not drinking enough water.

Most of us are taking in the wrong fuel for our foods. We all eat to many processed foods and refined carbohydrates. The main prevention for aging is eating right. Cancer, heart disease and many other diseases and health issues related to aging are all linked to free radical damage.

Did you ever think of this concept? Do you realize you might be eating the wrong foods and not drinking enough of water? We all need water. If we continue to abuse the planet we all will age even more quickly. We will experience more rusting. To neutralize the free radical damage and thus the aging process you might need to take some antioxidants. I feel if you eat better, you might not need these antioxidants because many antioxidants are found in food. Which foods, you might ask?

All the green vegetables and alkaline fruits as all berries are a start. In case you want a list of some antioxidants I suggest some of the following below. I would not take all of them as you can start with 2 of the list. Ask a health care professional.

1. Coenzyme Q 10

2. Alpha lipoic acid

3. Resveratrol

4. Grape seed extract

5. Pycnogenal

6. Green tea - an herb

7. Tumeric- an herb

8. Ginkgo biloba - an herb

9. Ginger - an herb

10. Lycopene

11. Lutein

12. Vitamins C and E

13. N -acetyl cysteine - precursor to gluthathione

14. omega 3 oils

This is just the beginning..

Until tomorrow...

JULY 8, 2011 ARE VITAMINS ALL HYPE?

"The best thing to hold onto is each other."

When a queen bee leaves her hive in search of a new dwelling, half of the hive leaves with her. This is called a swarm. All the bees surround the queen bee to keep her warm and protected while a new dwelling is sought out. Each worker bee holds on to another. Links and chains form from bee to bee.

Why is it so difficult for humans to hold on to each other for support? Why can't individuals ask for help? What has happened to human kindness? With the ever changing world... the economics and the tragedies in life-- we need someone to hold onto. Hold onto your partner. If you do not have a partner hold onto a true friend. Hold onto someone - we all need the touch of another human. When you grab another, hopefully that individual will grab and squeeze back.

I hug a lot

Hug at least 3 new people a day.

Can diet alone provide all nutrients needed for optimal health? I feel the answer is no. During my working days with the famous Robert Atkins, MD I found that diets cannot provide it all. There were studies on his famed high protein, high fat and low carbohydrate lifestyle. His diet did not provide all the needed nutrients especially the trace minerals.

I feel there is no more effective and convenient way to address a nutritional deficiency than by taking the lacking nutrient as a dietary supplement. There will be some debate on this topic. I do not know if I want to trust the vegetables and fruits alone since comparison between now and the 1960's revealed a 30-70% reduction in nutrient content. This is likely due to the agricultural industry's use of petroleum based nitrogen rich fertilizers and the use of pesticides. Growing food crops pull minerals from the soil. For many years now we have not been replacing the full range of these minerals. Many nutrients are lost by patients taking some of the new pharmaceuticals. There is also genetically modified (GM) foods. GM food labeling is not mandated in the United States.

What is going on?

If you didn't know that the Standard American Diet is lacking in fruits and vegetables, then you are not up to date on your nutrition. Fad diets and 'yo yo dieting' have not put a dent in the ever growing increase in the twin epidemics, diabetes and obesity. Both lead to cardiovascular disease. Many people are now opting for a vegan diet. I have no problem with a vegan diet provided that the individuals know that this type of dietary lifestyle will put them at risk for deficiencies in iron, Vitamin D, selenium, zinc and B12. We all could eat better. With our busy lives we turn to fast food. We also get less sleep, less exercise and have more economic stress than we ever have had.

Many conventional doctors who state they do not believe vitamin supplementation is necessary have used the following supplements to treat conventional diseases:

1. Folic acid for neural birth defects

2. Vitamin B6 - used during pregnancy for vomiting/nausea

3. Vitamin B12 - to treat pernicious anemia

4. Vitamin D - to treat osteoporosis

These are but a few examples.

The message: take some vitamins that you know are not be found in your dietary lifestyle.

Until tomorrow...

Thanks for the hugs dad- July 8 -12 ,1921- Nov 21, 2005