Jul
09
2016

Avoid That Heart Attack

Recently Dr. Mark Hyman mentioned a 7-point program to avoid that heart attack. If you follow the recommendations below, chances are that you do not only avoid heart attacks, but also strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

The Potsdam (or EPIC) study has shown that adhering to 4 simple things can reduce

Diabetes by 93%

Heart attacks by 81%

Strokes by 50%

All cancers by 36%.

What were those 4 points?

  1. Not smoking
  2. Exercising 3.5 hours a week
  3. Eating a healthy diet
  4. And maintaining a healthy weight

So with a few more points added it is no wonder that the figures can be even more impressive.

The INTERHEART study

Other studies have also shown the importance of lifestyle changes to improve health outcomes; the INTERHEART study was based on 30,000 people in 52 countries that were followed along. Researchers found that 90 percent of all heart disease could be prevented by simple lifestyle changes.  I have added another point, regular exercise that has been proven to be very effective in preventing many diseases.

So, what are the 8 points that can assure that our health improves?

1.Avoid that heart attack with a colorful, plant-based diet

Your dietary intake is important, because it provides all of the building blocks for your body. You want whole foods that are rich in phytonutrients. Often rainbow colors are mentioned, because the more varied your vegetables look, the more balanced the micronutrients, vitamins and minerals in the food items. Below we will learn that we want to avoid processed foods and hydrogenated fats, but we want to increase fiber and omega-3 fatty acids.

2. Avoid that heart attack by stabilizing your blood sugar

Never eat refined carbs alone, as this goes chases up your blood sugar levels and causes unhealthy insulin reactions. Too much insulin production causes inflammation in the body, which can cause inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, clogged arteries with heart attacks and strokes and Alzheimer’s disease. You want to balance complex carbs from vegetables with healthy fats and clean protein in every meal. Avoid sugars- no matter whether it is “natural brown” or white sugar and refined carbohydrates. Your pancreas does not differentiate between honey and other sugars, and it will react the same way!

3.Avoid that heart attack by increasing fiber intake

The more fiber you can tolerate, the better. 50 grams would be ideal, but not everybody can tolerate this due to bloating or a queasy stomach. But even if you can add 5 or 10 grams of fiber per day, this is progress. Fiber decreases LDL cholesterol by intervening with the enterohepatic pathway. Fiber is found in nuts, beans, vegetables, seeds and berries that have lower sugar in them. You can also take a fiber supplement directly like psyllium husk.

4.Avoid that heart attack by cutting out processed foods

Processed foods and junk foods are popular as they fill you up fast when you are hungry. But they need to be avoided at all costs. Sodas, juices and diet drinks affect your sugar and fat metabolism. The extra calories that come from sugary drinks are the biggest contributors to diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Even 100% fruit juice is not healthy, because all of the fiber is removed and you are drinking sugar water to which your pancreas reacts by producing extra insulin. As already discussed the extra insulin just causes inflammation.

Homemade lemon juice

May I suggest a homemade lemon juice that you make by squeezing ½ lemon into a glass; add a tiny bit of Stevia for sweetening and sparkling mineral water. This is a healthy drink without sugar. You can drink this as often as you want. Another component of processed food are omega-6 fatty acids. They are in processed foods, because they increase the shelf life in stores. But they cause inflammation in the body unless balanced by omega-3 fatty acids (see below).

5.Avoid that heart attack by increasing omega-3 fatty acids

Fish and seafood provide you with healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately not all fish are healthy. Tuna is a predator fish that accumulates a lot of mercury from the polluted oceans. As a result of this it is not on my fish list. I prefer wild salmon. I also take molecularly distilled fish oil, which has omega-3 fatty acids in it. Many processed foods contain only omega-6 fatty acids, because this is the cheapest way to produce them (they are based on vegetable oils). Also avoid soybean oil, which is the most popular oil in the last few decades to foul up the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

Omega-6 to omega-3 ratio

This ratio should be 1:1 to 3:1, but many Americans’ omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is 6:1 to 18:1. Omega-6-fatty acids cause arthritis, heart disease and strokes. Instead you want to eat healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids contained in nuts and fish. You can also add molecularly distilled, high potency omega-3 fatty acids as a supplement to help restore the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 in your food intake.

6.Avoid that heart attack by eliminating all hydrogenated fat

Hydrogenated fat like margarine has been shown to cause accelerated hardening of the arteries, which causes heart attacks and strokes. Read labels and eliminate any food that contains hydrogenated fats. If the label indicates that you are dealing with a product containing ”partially hydrogenated oil”, stay away from it as well! Butter from grass fed cows is a healthy fat. Olive oil and coconut oil are both good cooking oils. Olive oil is also good in salad dressings.

7.Avoid that heart attack by keeping alcohol to a minimum

The problem with alcohol is that it is a cell poison. On the other hand small amounts have been show to reduce heart attacks and strokes (one glass for women, two glasses for men per day). However, due to the cell poison effect even low amounts of alcohol contribute to cancer causation, and as a result of that alcohol remains a problem. If you must consume alcohol limiting the intake to minimal amounts is prudent. Alcohol can cause ovarian cancer in women and prostate cancer in men. In both sexes pancreatic cancer can be caused by alcohol. Higher amounts of alcohol raise inflammation with elevation of blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. One recommendation: either consume no alcohol or use alcohol in moderation. One glass does not kill you, but several ones may do it over time!

8.Avoid that heart attack by exercising regularly

Regular exercise is yet another factor that can help you to reduce heart attacks, strokes and cancer even further. I added it as point 8, because it is fundamentally such an important preventative factor. Some studies have shown as much as a 50% drop in many diseases simply by introducing regular exercise.

Avoid That Heart Attack

Avoid That Heart Attack

Conclusion

It is all about lifestyle factors. Pay attention to your diet. Add fiber, subtract sugar. Avoid processed foods, omega-6 fatty acids and hydrogenated fat. Have enough omega-3 fatty acids as fish and supplements. Keep alcohol to a minimum. Your benefits from changing these lifestyle factors, result in huge benefits. You are avoiding 90% of diabetes, 80% of heart attacks, 50% of strokes and 35% of cancers.

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Jun
25
2016

Prevent Unhealthy Aging

We know that stress can age you prematurely, but what do we need to do to prevent unhealthy aging? This is exactly what this review by cardiologist Dr. Joel Kahn has done. It points out that the right lifestyle makes the difference.

Studies showing how to prevent unhealthy aging

Several studies have shown how to avoid getting heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

2001 Harvard lifestyle study

Kahn reported that in 2001 the Harvard School of Public Health published a study where 84,941 healthy female nurses had been followed who were free of heart disease, cancer and diabetes at baseline. But only 3.4% of the 84,941 women managed to stay healthy after 16 years of the study. The secret? Their body mass index (BMI) was less than 25.0, their diet was high in polyunsaturated fat and fiber, low in trans fat and low in glycemic load, they engaged in regular moderate exercise with a minimum of 30 minutes per day; they did not smoke and they drank ½ an alcoholic drink per day. Their risk to get diabetes was 91% lower than the rest of the study. This shows you how powerful lifestyle choices are; it shows us how to prevent unhealthy aging.

INTERHEART study

In 2004 an international study (the INTERHEART study) reported in the Lancet the lifestyle of 15,152 cases that developed heart attacks in 52 countries with 14,820 controls who did not have heart attacks. The researchers found 9 risk factors that accounted for 90 to 95% of the heart attacks. They were smoking, cholesterol risk ratio elevation, diabetes, high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, stress, low intake of fruit and vegetables, high alcohol intake and lack of physical exercise. Obesity counted as a risk factor when the waist circumference measured more than 35 inches in a woman or more than 40 inches in a man. Lifestyle changes could eliminate all these 9 risks.

2006 Health Professional Study

The 2006 Health Professional Study spanned over 16 years in a group of 40 to 75 year old doctors without a heart attack at baseline. It noted that male doctors who were lacking the 5 heart attack risk factors had 87% less heart attacks than controls without health lifestyles. What were the lifestyle factors? A body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, being a nonsmoker, being physically active for more than 30 minutes a day, having not more than moderate amounts of alcohol intake and having a diet that was more than 40% plant based.

2007 Swedish study

In 2007 a Swedish study reported on 24,000 women after menopause that had no heart attacks initially. After 6 years of follow-up 308 women developed heart attacks. An analysis showed what the risk factors were for those who developed heart attacks. Those who did not have these risk factors reduced their risk of getting a heart attack by 92%. What lifestyle factors were protective? Four factors were identified: a low-risk diet (consisting of high vegetable and high fruit intake, whole grains, legumes, fish and moderate alcohol intake), not smoking, walking or biking 40 minutes daily and a low waist circumference.

2008 Harvard study (follow-up to 2001 study)

In 2008 the Harvard University released a study that was a further follow-up of the Health Professional study with more than 43,000 men and also the Nurses’ Health Study with more than 71,000 women. The question here was what would prevent the development of strokes? The investigators found that in both groups stroke risk reduction by 50% was achievable with the following 5 lifestyle factors: no smoking, keep the BMI below 25, exercise at least 30 minutes daily with moderate activity, don’t exceed a modest alcohol intake and have a diet intake in the top 40% of fruit, vegetables and whole grains. This, too shows us how to prevent unhealthy aging.

2014 study from the Netherlands

A 14 yearlong study from the Netherlands was published in 2014, where almost 18,000 men and women without heart disease at the beginning of the study were followed. More than 600 heart attacks occurred throughout the study. People who stuck to 4 lifestyle habits reduced their heart attack rates by 67%; if they adhered to 5 lifestyle factors they reduced the heart attack rate by 83%. The 4 initial lifestyle factors were: doing an average of 30 minutes of physical activity per day, eating a Mediterranean style diet rich in fruit and vegetables and whole grains, not smoking and having more than one alcoholic drink per month. This gave you a reduced risk of your heart attack rate by 67%. Add one more good habit: sleep 7 or more hours per night on average. This reduces the risk of you getting a heart attack by 83%!

Swedish heart study (more than 20,000 men)

A Swedish heart study with initially more than 20,000 men was going on for 11 years.  The investigators identified 5 lifestyle habits as essential to reduce heart attack rates. Unfortunately only 1% of the study group adopted all 5 lifestyle factors, but they dropped their chance of getting a heart attack or dying of a heart attack by 86%. The lifestyle factors were: a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains and low fat; not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, thin waistline and more than 40 minutes of physical activity. All of this demonstrates to us how to prevent unhealthy aging.

Preserving health and vitality to prevent unhealthy aging

There is a clear pattern in all of these large studies. A healthy lifestyle preserves your health by keeping your joints and muscles in good working order. When you engage in cardiovascular training every day,  your heart and lungs will work at their best capacity. This keeps your nitric oxide going, which is an important signalling molecule that in turn reduces your blood pressure.

When we remove disabling diseases like strokes and heart attacks and prevent diabetes from developing, life expectancy is increasing. There will be fewer disabilities and less frailty when people remain physically active even in old age. By adhering to good lifestyle habits even Alzheimer’s disease occurs less often.

Prevent Unhealthy Aging

Prevent Unhealthy Aging

Conclusion

The studies cited here show how lifestyle factors can make a significant difference in preventing heart attacks and strokes. In the past even doctors ignored the risk of smoking. A few years back conventional medicine negated that lifestyle factors could make a difference. Now we have more studies than we need to prove that this is so. It is more important that we adhere to as many of the lifestyle factors identified in these studies to make a real difference in our lives. We also need to set an example to the next generation and to our peers. Adopting healthy lifestyle factors has to become a cultural habit for society at large. This will help reduce healthcare costs, but most importantly this will help you and me to live longer, healthier lives. It will help us to prevent unhealthy aging.

May
28
2016

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

The newest craze is to treat menstrual cramps with medical marihuana, but there are two sides of medical marijuana. What women with menstrual cramps may not know is that it is estrogen dominance that is the cause of their symptoms. As women get closer to menopause they ovulate less often, and there are anovulatory menstrual cycles. This leads to a relative loss of progesterone from the corpus luteum that will form less frequently in the small cavity where the cyst with the egg was. Nature designed women’s menstrual cycle with mostly estrogen production in the first half of the menstrual cycle and mostly progesterone production in the second half of her cycle.

Other causes of estrogen dominance

When a woman gains weight, estrogen can also be produced in the fatty tissue due to an enzyme called aromatase. Androgenic hormones, which are testosterone-like and produced in the adrenal glands, get metabolized into estrogen through aromatase. This upsets the balance between progesterone and estrogen. Normally that balance when measured with saliva hormone tests should be higher than 200 to 1. But when progesterone production from the ovaries is missing, or when estrogen production is in overdrive through aromatase, estrogen is dominant.

Estrogen dominance

The progesterone to estrogen ratio drops below 200 to 1. This is bad news as it has consequences. It can cause a number of symptoms: migraine headaches, painful menstrual periods, endometriosis, and fibrocystic disease of the breasts with breast pain; even cancer can develop in the cervix, the uterus and the ovaries. Estradiol, the main estrogen compound in women, stimulates cells to divide, when it is not balanced by progesterone. Progesterone does the opposite: it balances the effects of estrogen.

Two sides of medical marijuana: treating symptoms

Drug companies always look out for symptoms that they can treat with a patented drug. The link at the beginning of this blog pointed out that “there are some very sick patients in need” to justify treating them with marijuana. This may relieve their symptoms for as long as they take the chemical compound. But it does nothing for the hormone imbalance. With the next menstrual cycle the symptoms will recur, and the marijuana will be consumed intermittently for years to come.

The problem with treating just the symptoms

What is worse is that the women think that nothing bad can happen to them: they are just relieving their symptoms. But as pointed out, unbalanced estradiol can give them migraine headaches. It can cause painful menstrual periods with or without endometriosis. Breast pain can be caused from fibrocystic disease. The worst of all is that after decades of estrogen dominance cancer of the cervix, cancer of the uterus and cancer of the ovaries can be caused. This is when drug manufacturers have unwittingly victimized their customers.

Proper treatment of menstrual cramps

1) Premenopausal women: The proper treatment for estrogen dominance because of a lack of progesterone in premenstrual women is to replace the progesterone deficit by bioidentical progesterone cream. Naturopathic physicians and anti-aging physicians understand this and treat it this way. Many practicing physicians including specialists, however, use anti-inflammatories and pain medications to treat this. Replacing the missing progesterone is causal treatment. Treating pain is symptomatic treatment. Treating the cause treats the medical problem properly; symptomatic treatment treats the drug company to a profit at the expense of the patient’s health.

2) Women with obesity: As explained already, estrogen dominance can also be produced from estrogen conversion of androgenic adrenal gland hormones due to aromatase in fatty tissue. The key here is to concentrate on watching the diet and exercising regularly. Even 10 to 20 pounds of weight loss can have significant effects on lowering estrogen production. The treating naturopath or anti-aging physician should measure progesterone and estrogen levels in a saliva hormone test. one should calculate the progesterone to estrogen ratio. If progesterone is missing, this can be added by giving a bioidentical progesterone cream or by taking oral micronized progesterone capsules at bedtime. As mentioned above, this is a causal therapy, and will in time not only cure the painful periods, but will prevent all of the other negative conditions mentioned. And most of all, there are no negative side effects, because the body knows the bioidentical hormones.

Two sides of medical marijuana: side effects of marijuana

Marijuana has real side effects. It can cause high blood pressure, dry mouth, headaches, dizziness, hallucinations, depression and sexual problems. Marijuana is unsafe with pregnancy, as it can cause childhood leukemia. Marijuana can cause rapid heartbeats and increases the risk of having a heart attack. Whoever uses marijuana regularly will develop lung cancer or emphysema. There is an association of marijuana use and seizures: in some patients it makes seizures worse, in others it makes them better. But marijuana is a central nervous system suppressant. So it is imperative that you stop marijuana two weeks before any surgical procedure, as the anesthetic and other medicines given during surgery will also depress the nervous system.

Why the difference between hormones and marijuana?

You may ask yourself why there would be such a difference in the side effect profile of hormones versus marijuana? Hormones are natural messenger molecules in the body. Our genes have designed hormone receptors to communicate between our brain, the hormone glands, and cells in organs with these hormone receptors. This design helps to ensure optimal balance of our metabolic processes.

In contrast, marijuana is affecting cannabinoid receptors in the brain. There are several subtypes of cannabinoid receptors that researchers defined at this point. But these were only detected because researchers were curious what marijuana was doing. This research is in flux. We do not know enough about the long term side effects of marijuana. We do know that marijuana has central nervous depressive effects, because it is binding to these receptors. This makes these receptors not available for the normal brain function. One of these effects may even be that it would block pain perception for a period of time. But nobody knows how safe this is in the long term.

Another possible effect, which makes it to the media a lot, is a possible anti-cancer effect. Before you get your hopes up, read this thorough review of all the cancer research with cannabinoids. I am afraid that at this point there is no clear evidence to support that cannabinoids help fight cancer persistently. There are occasional cures reported, but this is not a persistent pattern.

Safety of synthetic hormones versus bioidentical hormones

You may have heard of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) that came to an abrupt halt in 2002. They used synthetic estrogens (derived from horses) and synthetic progestins (bad copies of progesterone). Their results were breast cancer, uterine cancer, heart attacks and strokes that developed in patients who took these synthetic hormones. Originally the investigators wanted to show that HRT (hormone replacement therapy) would prevent heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the purpose of the trial was also to show that osteoporosis would improve. But the opposite was true!

Synthetic hormones block natural hormone receptors

The synthetic hormones blocked the natural receptors, so the woman’s own hormones could not reach their target cells. Had the investigators used bioidentical hormones, these would have stimulated the natural receptors, and research objectives of making these women symptom-free would have been reached. The WHI was a huge debacle, which showed that research with drug company support can lead to disasters. The only problem now is that women are fearful, as they do not understand how hormones work. The bioidentical hormones, when balanced properly, are harmless. Synthetic hormones from drug manufacturers are interfering with the body’s hormone receptors causing all kinds of serious side effects including cancer. Bioidentical hormones don’t do that.

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

Conclusion

Those who like to push the sale of marijuana will minimize the side effects of marijuana. They also push testimonials of women who received help with regard to painful periods.

You rarely hear about a physician who analyzes the hormones of a women and replaces what hormone is missing with bioidentical hormones to normalize estrogen dominance. The latter approach is a safe approach with no side effects, because you are using a natural hormone (progesterone) that stimulates your body’s hormone receptors. Synthetic hormones or marijuana are foreign substances to the body, partially blocking cell receptors, which blocks normal cell function. But nobody knows exactly what these chemicals do other than produce a myriad of side effects. Are you really willing to put your health at risk? After reading this, the answer should be clear.

May
14
2016

Hormone Replacement Therapy In Menopause

Back in the 1980’s many physicians were hopeful that hormone replacement therapy in menopause (HRT) could extend the lives of postmenopausal women by approximately 10 years, if HRT would be started early enough. But the HERS study (Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study) in 1998 and the WHI study (Women’s Health Initiative) of 2002 changed things dramatically.

The HERS study did not show any benefit with regard to prevention of heart disease. Instead it showed more gallbladder disease (1.38-fold) and blood clots (2.89-fold) develop in the experimental group versus the placebo.

The WHI study was complex and had several arms. There also were some methodological errors in the study as pointed out here.

Instead of a decrease in heart attacks, there was an increase, when estrogen and progestin was combined. There were more cases of colon cancer, more blood clots and heart attacks in the placebo groups compared to the experimental groups. It seems that something went wrong with these trials.

Unknown facts about hormone replacement therapy in menopause

Premarin is not bioidentical to human estrogens

Both clinical trials used the wrong hormones to do the trials. If you use the wrong hormones in a trial, you would expect to get the wrong test results. Horse derived estrogen (equine estrogen) is hardly a match for bioidentical, human estrogen in women. But decades ago the drug manufacturer had decided that estrogen was easiest to manufacture on a large scale when urine from pregnant mares was used. The product contains conjugated horse estrogen and is known by the name Premarin. Premarin is not bioidentical to human estrogens.

Synthetic progesterone causes heart attacks

The other hormone, medroxy progesterone (MPA) is a progestin, a bad copy of the bioidentical progesterone that a woman’s corpus luteum of one of her ovaries produces. This is in the second half of her menstrual cycle. During pregnancy the placenta produces lots of progesterone to protect the pregnancy. As Dr. Masley, a cardiologist stated synthetic progestins cause heart attacks, while progesterone does not. Masley said: “Medroxy progesterone (MPA) increases the risk for heart disease and for breast cancer. I can’t understand why any physician would recommend medroxy progesterone during menopause, but it is still in use.”

Don’t use estrogen orally, but only by estrogen patch or estrogen cream

Next there is the question whether the liver changes the composition of an oral hormone tablet metabolically or not. The answer is: yes! Dr. Masley stated in the link above that oral estradiol, when compared to estrogen rubbed onto the skin, increases levels of inflammation by 192%. The C-reactive protein (CRP) can be measured with a blood test. The risk for a blood clot increases by 400%. A woman using estrogen should always use the estrogen patch or an estrogen cream with bioidentical estrogen to avoid these complications.

Measure hormones, don’t estimate

Measure hormones – don’t estimate: Hormones are constantly changing and if you don’t measure, you don’t know what you are dealing with. Dr. John Lee showed a long time ago that you should measure hormones and identify those women who are truly hormone deficient. These are the ones who need hormone replacement. However, you use only bioidentical hormones to replace and you replace only as much as is needed to normalize the levels. This is also the level where postmenopausal symptoms disappear. Lee noted: “A 10-year French study of HRT using a low-dose estradiol patch plus oral progesterone shows no increased risk of breast cancer, strokes or heart attacks.”

Measure progesterone hormone levels only in saliva

The elusive progesterone: when the physician measures progesterone as a blood test, it may come back as high while it can be low in a saliva hormone test in the same woman. Dr. Lee has pointed out that studies have shown that progesterone levels in tissue are usually higher by several factors when compared to blood levels and that blood levels are not reliable predictors of tissue levels (Ref.1). On the other hand he found that saliva levels have a good correlation with tissue levels in organs like the ovaries or the uterus. Dr. Lee preferred saliva hormone tests for this reason. When it comes to progesterone levels you can trust saliva test, but you cannot trust blood tests. Many physicians ignore that fact and strictly order blood progesterone levels coming to false conclusions.

Progesterone to estradiol ratio

We know that estrogen and progesterone must be balanced to avoid troubles of developing heart attacks or cancer. The link of Dr. Lee above stated that women without breast cancer have saliva progesterone hormone levels that are more than 200-fold higher than the saliva estradiol levels. On the other hand women with breast cancer have a ratio of less than 200 to 1 with respect to progesterone to estradiol saliva levels. There is a similar ratio in men. Here the ratio of testosterone to estradiol must be larger than 20 to 1. If this is not the case, he is at a higher risk of developing prostate cancer. Unfortunately many older men, when overweight or obese, have high estrogen levels and the ratio is less than 20 to 1.

Bioidentical hormones can prevent heart attacks and strokes

Masley has mentioned that in the first 6 years after menopause using a topical form of estrogen and micronized progesterone as tablets can minimize the risk of future heart attacks and strokes. But after 10 years it is less obvious what is the best solution. The question is what type of estrogen application is used. Is it estradiol or is it Bi-Est or Tri-Est, which are other topical estrogen applications. Tri-Est is 80% estriol, 10% estrone, and 10% estradiol while Bi-Est is 80% estriol and 20% estradiol. Tri-Est in particular would be very close to the natural composition of estrogens in a woman’s body.

What to do after 10 years of hormone replacement therapy in menopause

Given the insecurity what to do after 10 years of menopause, my suspicion is that there are other factors that play a role with respect to hormone replacement. A lot of women have extra pounds accumulated. Fatty tissue contains an enzyme called aromatase.

This makes estrogen from androgenic hormones including testosterone. The adrenal glands situated above the kidneys produce these hormones in menopause. The more overweight or obese a postmenopausal woman is, the higher the estrogen levels in her blood because of the action of the aromatase. Most physicians have not measured hormones in the past, but just replaced hormones monitoring only postmenopausal symptoms. This is changing. What I said under point 4 above is happening more.

Bioidentical hormone replacement practiced by naturopaths

Naturopaths tend to be more comfortable with bioidentical hormone replacement the way I have described it. If you did hormone tests (preferably saliva hormone tests) you would pick up higher estrogen levels and low progesterone levels with unfavorable progesterone to estrogen ratios as mentioned. These women do not need estrogen (they have it already in their systems). They need progesterone replacement only. A woman can take progesterone by mouth as micronized bioidentical progesterone capsules at night. It also  comes as bioidentical progesterone cream for application to the skin. Here is another take on the use of bioidentical hormones.

Hormone Replacement Therapy In Menopause

Hormone Replacement Therapy In Menopause

Conclusion

Bioidentical hormone replacement is complex. It requires some basic knowledge of the facts mentioned above. I find it surprising that two separate research groups could not free themselves of the Big Pharma grip. In not doing so they unwillingly produced studies showing all of the undesirable side effects of using artificial hormones. When manufacturers modify natural hormones with unnatural side-chains, the end products are synthetic hormones. These do not fit the appropriate natural hormone receptors. The anti-aging community as represented by the A4M group (American Academy Of Anti-Aging Medicine) with more than 25,000 physicians worldwide has been saying this all along. Now we know that it is really true. Use hormone replacement knowledgeably and use bioidentical hormones!

References

  1. Dr. John R. Lee: “Natural Progesterone – The remarkable roles of a remarkable hormone”, Jon Carpenter Publishing, 2nd edition, 1999, Bristol, England.
Apr
23
2016

Healing Powers Of Green Tea

Powerful catechins that are a special form of bioflavonoids provide the healing powers of green tea. Researchers have proven that these catechins are only in green tea, not so much in black tea. The most effective of several catechins contained in green tea is EGCG, which stands for EpiGalloCatechin-3-Gallate. It crosses the blood/brain barrier and is very important for the protection of the brain from Alzheimer’s disease. But green tea or green tea extract has a diversified pharmacological action. Researchers said that green tea protects you from cardiovascular disease, from obesity, from diabetes, from autoimmune disorders, from cancer, from Alzheimer’s and dementia.

In the following I like to comment on how green tea or its extract can protect from all of these diseases.

Alzheimer’s disease

Although there are 5 or 6 approved anti-Alzheimer’s drugs, none of them work for very long. They may at best postpone the deteriorating memory for 6 months, but then the effect of the drug wears off. The reason is that the drugs do not stop the production of the deadly beta-amyloid. It is the beta-amyloid that damages nerve cells that you want to preserve so you can think and memorize. In contrast a simple phytochemical, the catechin EGCG has been shown in animal experiments and in human trials to stop beta-amyloid production and increase solubility of beta-amyloid fragments in the brain. The end result is better memory and no further deterioration.

Two studies showing less strokes and better working memory processing with green tea

In a study of 13,988 elderly Japanese observed over 3 years the group that consumed 3 to 4 cups of green tea daily had 33% less strokes, cognitive impairment and osteoporosis.

Researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland enrolled 12 healthy volunteers aged 21 to 28 and fed them extracts of green tea or placebo fluid via feeding tubes. They did this to rule out taste as a factor. The patients underwent functional MRI scans and they also received memory-stimulating tasks. Only the green tea extract was boosting activity in the frontal brain of the subjects. This was located in a specific area, called dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This area has a connection with language comprehension, reasoning and learning. It also switches short-term memory into long-term memory, called working memory processing.

Healing powers of green tea through new nerve cell development

Researchers showed with animal experiments that green tea extract protects nerve cells from the toxic effect of beta-amyloid. At the same time green tea extract triggers the production of new brain nerve cells (neurons). This is really good news for Alzheimer’s disease patients and their families: green tea extract delays further memory deterioration and stimulates the development of new nerve cells in the brain!

Cardiovascular disease

In a 2006 Japanese study 40,530 Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 years without history of stroke, coronary heart disease, or cancer at baseline were observed for 7 years. Diaries were kept about how many cups of green tea each person was drinking per day. The prevention of heart attacks and strokes was the the biggest effect of green tea extracts.

Men had a mortality reduction of 12% for heart attacks when they drank 5 cups or more of green tea; in women the corresponding mortality reduction for heart attack was 31%, a bigger effect. Overall mortality from strokes was lower than from heart attacks. This made the effect of green tea consumption even more beneficial with respect to stroke prevention. This study did not show any cancer prevention effect for green tea.

Obesity

It appears that green tea increases heat production and burns fat in the process. There was a small effect in terms of weight loss and a beneficial effect increasing the protective HDL cholesterol in this 2012 Polish study on obese patients. The authors compared either 379 mg of green tea extract, or a placebo, daily for 3 months. They concluded: “The results of this study confirm the beneficial effects of green tea extract supplementation on body mass index, lipid profile, and total antioxidant status in patients with obesity.”

Diabetes

Although there are claims in some studies that green tea would prevent diabetes, this question was thoroughly investigated in this Chinese 2014 study.

Researchers did not see any effects on fasting blood sugars or on hemoglobin A1C values. Hemoglobin A1C is a very sensitive indicator for the presence or absence of diabetes. All these lab tests showed no change following consumption of green tea or green tea extract. Forget using green tea for diabetes prevention; cut out sugar and starchy foods instead.

Autoimmune disorders

Sjogren’s syndrome and lupus are both autoimmune diseases. Green tea extract has shown in humans that symptom severity can improve; green tea polyphenols (GTPs) possess anti-inflammatory properties that benefit patients with autoimmune diseases.

In an animal model arthritis researchers determined that T helper cells are weakened and bone resorption is inhibited by EGCG from green tea extract.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA have noted that green tea extract is useful in calming down the immune response in autoimmune diseases. They concluded: “Altogether, these studies identify and support the use of EGCG as a potential therapeutic agent in preventing and ameliorating T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases.”

Cancer

Many researchers found that EGCG from green tea extract has immune modulatory effects. Furthermore, they saw a positive effect when patients received EGCG in combination with chemotherapy. A combination of cisplatin therapy with green tea extract has been found to have more effects on colorectal cancer and ovarian cancer than each one on its own. Similarly chemotherapy of breast cancer had better results in humans when EGCG from green tea extract was added as an immune modulation. More research, particularly in humans is needed to fully understand the mechanism of action of EGCG.

Toxicity of green tea extract

Animal experiments showed that higher doses of green tea extract could cause toxicity in the liver and in the nose of rats and mice. I was not able to find objective evidence for green tea toxicity in the PubMed system with respect to humans.

Healing Powers Of Green Tea

Healing Powers Of Green Tea

Conclusion

Perhaps the most important discovery regarding green tea extract is as follows. It crosses easily through the blood/brain barrier into the brain. This can postpone Alzheimer’s disease and can even lead to new neuron formation. The beneficial cardiovascular effects are also useful and combine well with exercise and good nutrition for prevention. Particularly stroke prevention is a useful property of EGCG from green tea extract. The effect on obesity is marginal whereas there was no effect of green tea on prevention of diabetes. The immune modulatory effect of green tea extract is useful in the treatment of autoimmune diseases and of cancer. Existing treatments for these conditions are becoming more effective by adding green tea extract.

Apr
02
2016

Women Win Turning Older

Supercentenarians may teach us something about the question “Why do women win turning older”? Supercentenarians are people who are 110 years or older. Presently there are 53 of them distributed over the world, 51 are females and two are males. According to Ben Dulken and Anne Brunet this is not by chance: in other mammal species females often live longer than their male counterparts. They theorize that stem cells live longer under the influence of estrogen and this may be the explanation for the difference. They wanted to answer the burning question: “Is life expectancy linked to gender and stem cells”?

Observations regarding why women win turning older

Ben Dulken and Anne Brunet describe that several pieces of evidence are important to note.

Human eunuchs live longer than average males

Castrated males, called eunuchs, live on average 14 years longer than the average male.

Treatment of male mice with estrogen caused longevity

Experiments with male mice treated with estrogen increased their lifespan compared to untreated male controls.

Estrogen receptors on some stem cells in women

Neural stem cells (NSCs) and hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) have estrogen receptors in females. This leads to extra stimuli during pregnancy, but also during the menstrual cycle in women or the estrus cycle in female mammals.

Faster wound healing in women may be from extra X-chromosome

It gets more complicated: There are non-estrogen regulated stem cell niches in the liver, skin and subcutaneous tissue (important for wound healing and resident muscle stem cells, called satellite cells (SCs). For some reason liver regeneration and wound healing, but also healing of muscle injuries in women and female mammals occurs at a faster pace. Scientists still do not have an answer for this. Theories are that perhaps women with their two X-chromosomes are at an advantage in comparison to males (only one X-chromosome) with respect to certain wound repair mechanisms.

Longevity and self-repair capacity may be related

There is the question whether longevity and self-repair capacity would be related, either through stem cell populations (NSCs, HSCs, SCs), other repair mechanisms or tissue proliferation.

Telomere length in older persons longer in females than in males

There are gender differences in aging patterns of stem cells. For instance studies in dizygotic twins showed that telomere length of blood cells in the female twin was much longer than in the male twin. Genetic factors appear to be the dominant factor to explain this phenomenon rather than hormones. But again this was favoring the female.

Comparison between muscles in older men and younger men

A study in males showed that there is an accumulation of damaged DNA in SC’s of muscle tissue with older age that leads to muscle senescence. In older men there is a delayed response to a specific exercise stimulus with regard to the satellite cell division (SC) when compared to the response in young men.

Women’s telomeres in stem cells grow longer

In females estrogen stimulates telomere growth of stem cells (NSCs and HSCs), which prevents premature stem cell exhaustion.

Effects of diet and exercise on life expectancy

The Potsdam study analyzed 4 healthy behaviors in 23,153 German participants aged 35 to 65 years over 7.8 years. They looked for the development of cancer, heart attacks, strokes and cancer as end points. The 4 healthy behaviors were: to be a lifelong non-smoker , having a body mass index lower than 30, performing 3.5 h/week or more of physical activity, and adhering to healthy dietary principles (high intake of fruits, vegetables, whole-grain bread and low meat consumption).

Those who had adopted all 4 healthy lifestyles reduced the development of serious disease by up to 80%. Dr. David Katz delivered a keynote address at the 22nd Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine in Las Vegas Dec. 10-14, 2014 entitled “Integrative Medicine: A Bridge Over Healthcare’s Troubled Waters”. He mentioned the Potsdam study. And he mentioned what the new logic of a healthy lifestyle is: a healthy lifestyle causes healthy telomeres of somatic cells and of stem cells; this causes health until a ripe old age.

Life Expectancy Linked To Gender And Stem Cells

Life Expectancy Linked To Gender And Stem Cells

Conclusion why women win turning older

It seems that women and female mammals are more protected by nature than males. The previously called ”weak sex” is in fact a lot stronger! This may be the reason that among supercentenarians there are only a few males remaining. But we don’t know how many males take the lifestyle factors of the Potsdam study serious. Males who want to age gracefully have to pay more attention to healthy lifestyles. This leads to longer telomeres and this allows for stem cell and somatic cell renewal. There are still many unanswered questions, but life expectancy is definitely related to how well we preserve stem cells throughout our body. This in turn depends very much on our lifestyle patterns.

Mar
19
2016

Book Review: “Healing Gone Wrong – Healing Done Right”, By Ray Schilling, MD

This book entitled “Healing Gone Wrong – Healing Done Right” (Amazon, March 18, 2016) is dealing with the practice of medicine then and now. Medical errors, false diagnoses and wrong treatments are nothing new in the history of medicine. It happened in the past, and it is happening now. My first book was about anti-aging. The title was “A Survivor’s Guide to Successful Aging” (Amazon 2014).

Book overview

Chapter 1

Here I describe describe that famous people like President Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Churchill, Beethoven or more recently Michael Jackson have something in common: all of them suffered the consequences of blatant medical mistakes. In Beethoven’s time lead containing salves to plug the drainage holes from removing fluid from his abdomen caused lead poisoning. In this chapter I review also how doctors treated the illnesses of the above-mentioned celebrities, but then ask the question: “What better treatments have offered to prevent some of the disastrous treatment outcomes?”

Chapter 2

Modern drugs seem to come and go. We learn that twenty-first century medications that are supposed to be the latest therapeutic agents are having their potentially deadly consequences too: COX-2 inhibitors, the second generation arthritis drugs cause strokes and heart attacks! Your doctor may still prescribe some of these dangerous drugs for arthritis now.

Chapter 3

This chapter deals with the fact that medical treatments for people’s diseases may be inappropriate when the doctor treats only symptoms, but the doctor does nothing about the causes of their illnesses. This is a scary thought.

Chapter 4

What does it take to prevent these poor health outcomes, so that we will be able to prevent any disastrous outcomes pertaining to our own health care in the present and future? As we will see, the problem today is still the same as it was in the past, namely that many physicians still like to treat symptoms instead of the underlying cause of an illness. Big Pharma has the seducing concept of a pill for every ill, but it is not always in your best interest, when these medications have a slew of side effects. “Gastric reflux” means a mouthful of stomach acid. Big Pharma simply offers the patient with the symptom of gastric reflux a multitude of medications to suppress this symptom. But it is more important to dig deeper to find the reason for the illness and treat the underlying cause.

Chapter 5

We all need our brain to function. This chapter concentrates on the brain and how we can keep our brains functioning optimally until a ripe old age. This review spans from prevention of head concussions to avoiding type 3 diabetes (insulin sensitivity from overconsumption of sugar). It manifests itself in Alzheimer’s disease. It is a form of diabetes of the brain that leads to deposits of a gooey substance. Prevention of this condition is also reviewed .

Chapter 6

This chapter reviews what we now know about how to keep a healthy heart. Certain ingredients are necessary such as regular exercise, a healthy Mediterranean diet, supplements etc. The good part is that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain. You are preventing two problems (brain and heart disease) at the same time.

Chapter 7

What should we eat? And why does healthy food intake matter? Without the right ingredients of our body fuel, the body machinery will not work properly. The Mediterranean diet is an anti-inflammatory diet that is particularly useful.

Chapter 8

We need healthy limbs, bones and joints. We are meant to stay active in our eighties and nineties and beyond. No osteoporosis, no joint replacements, no balance problems that result in falls! Learn about how to deal with problems like these in this chapter.

Chapter 9

This chapter deals with detoxification. What do we do as we are confronted with pollution, with radiation in the environment and poisons in our daily food? A combination of organic foods, intravenous chelation treatments and taking supplements can help us in that regard.

Chapter 10

I am dealing here about reducing the impact of cancer in our lives. A lot of facts have come out in the past 10 years telling us that reduction of sugar and starchy food intake reduces cancer. Curcumin, resveratrol and vitamin D3 supplements also reduce cancer rates as does exercise and stress management. All of this is reviewed here.

Chapter 11

This chapter tells you all you need to know about your hormone status. Women need to avoid estrogen dominance; both sexes need to replace the hormones that are missing. By paying attention to your hormonal status and replacing the missing natural hormones with bioidentical ones, most people can add 10 to 15 years of useful, active life!

Chapter 12

Here you will learn more about anti-aging. You will learn about the importance to keep your mitochondrial DNA healthy. Apart from that there are ways how to keep your telomeres longer; certain supplements that are reviewed will help. Also your lifestyle does make a big difference in how old you can turn.

Chapter 13

This chapter investigates the limits of supplements. Many supplements are useful, but you do not want to overdo it and get into toxic levels. More is not necessarily better!

Chapter 14

Here is a review of an alternative approach to treating ADHD. Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder has been over diagnosed, has been neglected and has been over treated with dangerous drugs. An alternative treatment plan is discussed, which includes a combination of therapeutic steps.

Chapter 15

This gives you a brief summary of the book.

Kirkus Review

Kirkus Reviews reviewed the book on March 17, 2016: “A retired physician details how various preventative measures can fend off disease and disability in this consumer health guide. Schilling (A Survivor’s Guide to Successful Aging, 2014) had a family medicine practice in Canada for many years before retiring. Although Schilling ventures into some controversial territory in his latest book, it’s generally an engaging, helpful synthesis of ideas that draws on reputable research from the Mayo Clinic and other sources. Overall, it serves as an intensely detailed wake-up call to the importance of preventative health. He largely brings an accessible and even-tempered tone to his narrative, warning readers, for example, that preventative health measures can only aid in “a delay of aging, not ‘eternal living.’ ” A thought-provoking, impassioned plea to be proactive about one’s health.”

Healing Gone Wrong – Healing Done Right

Healing Gone Wrong – Healing Done Right

Conclusion

In this book it becomes evident that it is better to prevent an illness whenever possible rather than to wait for illness to set in and cause disabilities or death. You heard this before: “Prevention is better than a cure” or “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure”. I will give an explanation, based on scientific data that there is indeed evidence to support these notions on a cellular level.

Mitochondria, the energy packages within our cells

The mitochondria, the energy packages within our cells, are the driving force that keep people vibrantly healthy well into their nineties. All this can only happen when the mitochondria function properly. If toxins poison the mitochondria and as a result they malfunction, we are not looking at a person with vibrant health. Instead sixty or seventy year-olds may use a wheelchair. If you want a life without disabilities, a life without major illnesses and enjoy good health to a ripe old age, you are reading the right book.

The book is written in American English.

Available in the US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1523700904

In Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Healing-Gone-Wrong-Done-Right/dp/1523700904/  

In other countries the book is available through the local Amazon websites.

Mar
12
2016

Fiber, An Essential Food Ingredient

The Standard American Diet will not provide enough fiber, an essential food ingredient. The fiber intake in the US population is between 12.5 grams and 16.8 grams on average, which is way below the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine as listed below.

Depending on age and gender the Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, National Academies has recommended the following guidelines for adequate daily fiber intake in grams per person.

Institute of Medicine fiber recommendations (gram per person per day)

Males: age 9-13: 21 grams; age14 to 50: 38 grams; age 51 and higher: 30 grams

Females: age 9-18: 25 grams; age 19-50: 21 grams; age 51 and higher: 21 grams

Children: age 1-3: 19 grams; age 4-8: 25 grams

Brief history regarding fiber

Sir Dr. Denis Burkitt, the famous English surgeon, examined bowel movements (stools) of African tribes in comparison to his English countrymen and came to the conclusion in the 1940’s that the Western world needed to remedy constipation problems and cancer of the colon problems by eating more fiber.

He is still right: fiber is mainly treating the constipation (not preventing the cancer), but the chemicals that are also in the vegetables contain a multitude of natural anti-carcinogenic substances, which provide the powerful preventative action against colon cancer and many other cancers. Lycopene, not known at the time of Sir Dr. Burkitt is one of these and is found in tomatoes and tomato products.

Old historic observation by Dr. Burkitt still relevant today

Sir Dr. Burkitt’s observation that high bulk foods (like vegetables and green leaves) prevent cancer is as valid today as it was in the mid 1900’s. In the meantime it has become evident that fiber also lowers cholesterol and helps prevent heart attacks and strokes as well.

What are some of the problems with fiber intake?

Here is a typical day for a Standard American diet:

1. The average breakfast with two toasts, an egg and sausage. This contains 0.7 grams of fiber. The coffee or tea or juice that is consumed contains no fiber.

2. For lunch you may eat a hamburger in a bun and a helping of French fries. There are 2 grams of fiber in the bun and 3.9 grams of fiber in the French fries, a total of 5.9 grams. Alternatively you may want to eat a pepperoni medium pizza: 0 grams of fiber!

The Standard American diet goes on

3. Dinner may consist of one baked potato (3.4 Grams of fiber), beef steak (0 grams of fiber, no matter whether it is an 8 oz. or 10 oz. steak) and mixed vegetables (1 cup, which contains 5 grams of fiber). For dessert you may have a bowl of ice cream (1 gram of fiber). If you eat in a restaurant you also get a bun with butter (0 grams of fiber) plus a small garden salad (0.9 grams of fiber).

4. Snacks during the morning: medium oat bran muffin: 5 grams of fiber

5. Afternoon snack: cinnamon roll: 1 gram of fiber.

Fiber total of the day for Standard American diet

Grand total of the day for Standard American diet: 22.9 grams of fiber. It depends whether or not you consumed the mixed vegetables and the bran muffin. If you did not eat the mixed vegetables and the bran muffin, you may only have consumed 12.9 grams of fiber. If you had pizza for lunch, you only got 7 grams of fiber that day.

Sources of fiber from foods

You can see from these few examples that processed foods tend to have a lot less fiber than vegetables and fruit. Particularly pastas and bread are devoid of fiber, but very rich in calories. So, if we were serious about wanting to increase our fiber content in the food we eat, we need to ensure enough intake of fruit and vegetables that contain fiber. There are many useful websites that list the fiber content per food item: if you look for the fiber content of a medium sized apple using this website, you find that it contains 4 grams of fiber.

This would be a much better snack than an ice cream with no or very little fiber. Here are more fiber suggestions.

How can we increase fiber intake?

We need to think about the whole nutritional equation, how many calories are in food, how much sugar, how much fat and protein. If we want to increase the amount of fiber we take in, we definitely have to watch the sugar content of the food item in question.

For instance ¼ cup of raisins has 2 grams of fiber in it, but also 29 grams of sugar, translating into 130 calories. Conversely, ½ cup of raspberries contains 4.6 grams of fiber and has only 20 calories. This choice is definitely a winner compared to raisins.

Use the Internet to learn about the fiber content of the various foods while you keep an eye on sugar content and calories as well. The idea is to maximize the fiber content in your food intake by cutting out fiber empty foods and adding fiber rich foods as much as possible.

Example of a fiber rich day

1. Breakfast: Omelet with green onions, mushrooms and spinach. Garnish this with ½ avocado and two tablespoons of salsa. The spinach/onion omelet with mushrooms has 3 grams of fiber. ½ avocado provides 5 grams of fiber; the salsa adds 0.6 grams of fiber. Breakfast total: 8.6 grams of fiber.

2. Lunch: Greek salad with turkey breast (4 grams of fiber). Add a snack of one handful (1.5 oz.) of walnuts as desert: 3 grams of fiber. Lunch total: 7 grams of fiber.

The fiber rich day goes on

3. Dinner: Small salad, salmon with broccoli and 1 grilled tomato. Fruit salad for desert. Salad: 0.9 grams of fiber; salmon: 0 grams of fiber; ¾ cup of cooked broccoli: 7 grams of fiber; grilled tomato: 0.6 grams of fiber; fruit salad: 3 grams of fiber. Dinner total: 11.5 grams of fiber.

4. Snacks throughout the day: 1 pear in the morning: 4 grams of fiber; 1 apple in the afternoon: 4 grams of fiber; 1 handful of walnuts: 3 grams of fiber. Snacks total fiber: 11 grams of fiber.

Total of fiber for the fiber rich day: 38.1 grams of fiber.

Fiber math

This is where it is getting interesting. Depending on whether you are a woman aged above or below 50 years or a man aged above or below 50 years, you have different fiber intake requirements as mentioned above. With the fiber rich diet you have exceeded your daily goal easily whether you are a man or a woman above or below 50. You won the race easily. Fiber intake does not mean that you eat fibrous food that tastes like sawdust! This diet example shows you delicious and nutritious food.

Measuring fiber content of food

But with the American Standard diet you barely reached the goal if you ate your mixed vegetables and the bran muffin and you are a woman above or below the age of 50. 22.9 grams of fiber is not enough for a child between the ages of 4 and 8 and it is definitely not enough for a man above or below the age of 50.

Watching what we are eating based on fiber content

This type of math just shows you how deficient our modern Western type food intake is. And if you look at the aspect of it being delicious or even nutritious it leaves a lot to be desired! This is what Sir Dr. Denis Burkitt found when he compared the food intake of civilized English citizens with tribes in the African jungle. He recognized last century that England’s fiber deprived diet compared to the fiber rich diet in Africa was responsible for the much higher colon cancer rates in England. It is only now that we are recognizing the enormity of his investigations.

Cardiovascular significance of high fiber

Apart from reducing colon cancer incidence fiber has also gained recognition for prevention against heart attacks and strokes. It turns out that the enterohepatic pathway is interfered with through the intake of fiber. Cholesterol from bile is bound to fiber in the gut and transported to the sewer instead of being taken up through the enterohepatic pathway, which includes the portal vein system and the liver. The end result is that triglycerides and LDL cholesterol fall, while HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol) is raised, and hardening of the arteries slows down significantly. The patient lives longer, heart attack and stroke rates go down, and there is less disability.

Supplement fiber, if you are not getting enough in food

There is good news. Psyllium husk, Metamucil and any other fiber supplement can help you to reach and surpass your daily fiber goal. There is no danger of overdosing as any surplus simply comes out in your stool. You will notice as you increase your fiber intake that your stool volumes go up. Sir Dr. Burkitt actually weighed the stool of patients in Africa and in England: African tribes had voluminous stools, while people in English had much smaller stool volumes. This is how Sir Dr. Burkitt detected the importance of fiber intake.

Example of how to fit fiber into your dietary schedule

Let’s assume you are a male aged 45 years and your diet is a bit better than the average Standard American diet with a daily intake of 25 grams of fiber. Your daily goal is 38 grams of fiber, so you are 13 grams short. You can solve this problem. Get a fiber supplement from the health food store where 1 teaspoon contains about 5 grams of fiber. Be careful: fiber is very thirsty and uses up a lot of water. If you use psyllium husk powder, make sure to add about 1 cup of water to 1 ½ teaspoons of the psyllium husk powder or another similar product. Once you added enough water and stirred well you can drink it down.

Always drink enough fluids to get the fiber down

Between fiber gulps drink some more water to dilute any fiber stuck in your esophagus as it goes down into your stomach. Enough fluid intake is crucial, as the fiber binds fluid in your digestive tract. Repeat this procedure (1 ½ teaspoons of psyllium husk powder with lots of water) at lunchtime. You have now added 15 grams of fiber (2×7.5 grams) to your daily 25 grams of fiber. This brings you to a total of 40 grams of fiber, well above your goal of 38 grams. If you plan to use a fiber supplement it is recommendable that you start with small amounts of fiber. Start  maybe with just one teaspoon per day and increase the amount gradually.

The best is to switch your diet to the fiber rich diet

Your alternative would be to switch your diet to the fibre rich diet described above. Your basic intake was 38.1 grams, just enough to reach your goal. If you want to play it even safer, you may want to add another handful of walnuts (3 grams of fiber) or ¾ teaspoonful of psyllium husk powder with water to bring your total fiber intake to above 41 grams.

With the introduction of the various fiber products that you can buy at the health food store, it is now much easier to manage your total fiber intake.

 

Fiber, An Essential Food Ingredient

Fiber, An Essential Food Ingredient

Conclusion

In the past few years we heard from cardiologists that heart attacks, strokes and high blood pressure could all be helped by much higher fiber intakes. But the public in general has not listened very well to this message. Gastroenterologists also have been urging people to eat more fiber for colon cancer prevention, but many other cancers are also diminished by regular fiber intake. Breast cancer is one of these cancers responding to extra fiber intake. The bottom line is that we all need to pay attention to what we eat. We need to learn how little fiber there is in many foods. The tables can be found online. It may come as a surprise to you that a healthy bowl of tossed salad has only very little fiber. The total fiber content in our food may not add up to what we need (see table above). Simply supplement with psyllium husk powder or another fiber supplement. Do not forget to drink plenty of liquids. This is not only help for those who experience constipation. It is powerful prevention of heart attacks, strokes and many cancers.

Feb
06
2016

Effects Of Hormones On The Heart

Since February is heart month, this is a good time to discuss the effects of hormones on the heart. I believe that this is a timely topic to understand how we can protect ourselves from heart disease. During the 23rd Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine on Dec. 11-13, 2015 in Las Vegas Dr. Ron Rothenberg gave a talk entitled ”Hormones And The Heart”. He stated that he wanted to give an overview of the effects on the endocrine system and on the cardiovascular system, in particular the effect of testosterone and estrogen. Also discussed were the effects of thyroid hormones, growth hormone, vitamin D and melatonin. In the following I will summarize what he explained in detail.

Testosterone treatment in men

He stated that there has been some confusion about the protective effect of testosterone on the heart in men. But Dr. Sharma and colleagues who investigated 83,010 male veterans with documented low testosterone levels clarified this confusion with this large study.

One group received testosterone replacement therapy, another did not receive replacement therapy and one group received replacement with testosterone, but the testosterone levels did not normalize.

Mortality reduction with testosterone replacement

The observation time for the various groups was between 4.6 years and 6.2 years. The results were impressive. A comparison between the results of men on testosterone replacement and the results of men without testosterone replacement, showed that there was a 56% reduction in overall mortality. Furthermore, there was a reduction of heart attacks by 24% and a reduction of strokes by 36%. There was no difference between the control group without testosterone replacement and the partial testosterone replacement group where the testosterone levels did not come up. It is clear from this that with proper testosterone replacement where the physician monitors testosterone levels and corrects the levels, significant reductions in strokes and heart attacks can be achieved. The explanation for these findings is simple: both, brain cells and heart cells in males, have testosterone hormone receptors that need to be stimulated for full function.

Hormone replacement in women

This topic was confusing for many years because of the insistence of the medical profession to use horse estrogen extracts from pregnant mares (Premarin) and synthetic Provera (instead of bioidentical progesterone). These artificial hormone-like substances were used in the much-discussed Women’s Health Initiative (WHI).

Dr. Rothenberg said about this study that investigators used the wrong estrogen, the wrong progesterone, the wrong route of administration of estrogen (oral estrogen causes inflammation), and the wrong women at age 63 who already had cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.

Revisiting the Women’s Health Initiative

One important aspect that was learnt by re-interpreting the WHI was that when estrogen replacement was initiated right away when menopause started, the heart attack risk went down by 34%. Estrogen and Provera together reduced the risk only by 28% (Provera being the wrong hormone). Again, the explanation for this findings is simple: women have both estrogen and progesterone receptors in heart and brain cells, which want to be stimulated with the natural hormones. When estrogen is missing, women need bioidentical replacement of what is missing with estradiol transdermal creams. When a woman is progesterone-deficient, she needs replacement with bioidentical progesterone transdermal cream or with micronized progesterone orally.

Estrogen

KEEPS study

With regard to estrogen replacement the KEEPS study has shed a new light on what is going on with hormone replacement in women.

700 women in early menopause participated in this study. Treatment consisted of 0.45 mg of Premarin (still the wrong hormone) or 50 micrograms of transdermal estradiol (the right active human estrogen). Women also received 200 mg of micronized progesterone (Prometrium, the real human progesterone) for 12 days each month. After 4 years of observation there was no case of breast cancer, uterine cancer, heart attack, transient ischemic attack, stroke, or blood clots in veins between the three groups. Both Premarin and transdermal estrogen had slightly reduced coronary artery calcifications on CT scans compared to the placebo group without hormones. The Premarin group increased the triglyceride and the CRP (a measure of inflammation) levels while the transdermal human estrogen did not do that.

It is a disadvantage to the woman, if she does not receive bioidentical hormone replacement after menopause 

Another study showed that due to the WHI study with the wrong synthetic hormones many women were fearful of starting estrogen replacement. The lack of hormone replacement with nature-identical hormones is responsible for the death of many women, who did not have the beneficial effects. They died of cancer and heart disease.

Dr. Rothenberg explained that this study and others have shown the following
  1. Bioidentical hormone replacement must be started immediately at or before menopause to have the best results in terms of cardiovascular and neuroprotective (Alzheimer’s) prevention.
  2. Oral estrogen induces inflammation, which causes heart attacks, strokes and venous thromboembolism (blood clots). To prevent this, estradiol must be given as a transdermal cream. This will avoid the first pass effect through the liver, which is the cause for inflammation. Transdermal estradiol does not have the first pass effect. Inflammatory cytokines are implicated in autoimmune processes, initiation of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
  3. If estrogen replacement is not done right away with the start of menopause, the estrogen receptor may get damaged, which means that when estrogen replacement is started at a later date, it is no longer effective.

Progesterone

Progesterone is the other female hormone that physicians often overlook. It balances the effects of estrogens, but the body can also metabolize it into estrogen or testosterone. Tiny amounts of testosterone are necessary for normal libido. In premenopause the ovaries already reduced progesterone production. She should receive progesterone replacement by transdermal bioidentical progesterone cream in premenopause.

Estrogen dominance needs to be treated with transdermal progesterone (or micronized oral progesterone). Both estrogen and progesterone can be accurately determined using a saliva hormone test. Blood tests are accurate for estrogen levels, but not for progesterone levels.

Thyroid replacement

Not infrequently thyroid tests are low (hypothyroidism) and cholesterol levels rise. This can lead to heart attacks and strokes. For instance, a slightly elevated TSH of 5.5 is associated with a total cholesterol level of 209 mg/dL, and a TSH level of 7.0 is associated with a cholesterol level of 270 mg/dL (normal less than 180 mg/dL). It is very important to detect hypothyroidism early and to treat it effectively to prevent cardiovascular disease. The active thyroid hormone is T3. Thyroid replacement has a stabilizing effect on the heart rhythm. It works together with testosterone in men and estrogen in women to stabilize metabolism of all cells, but in particular the heart muscle cells and brain cells. Hypothyroid patients are often depressed, but thyroid replacement lifts the depression. Cognitive deficits in patients with hypothyroidism are also remedied with thyroid treatment.

Growth hormone replacement

Growth hormone (GH) is important in childhood for bone growth and growth of all the organs. But GH still has an important function later in life. GH improves cardiac performance; it does so by thickening the wall of the left heart chamber, the main pump of the heart muscle. GH improves the contractility of the heart muscle, reduces the stress on the heart muscle wall and decreases vascular resistance. In animal experiments GH plays an important role in remodeling the heart after a heart attack.

GH deficiency occurs with aging; it leads to high LDL (bad) cholesterol and high triglycerides in the blood and increased fibrinogen, which causes blood clots. All of this increases the risk for heart attacks and strokes.

Age-related GH production declining

When people age, they lose GH production, which puts them at a considerable risk to get heart attacks and strokes, but they are also at a higher risk of serious falls due to muscle weakness and balance problems. When the doctor detects low IGF-1 levels in the blood and confirms low GH metabolites in a 24-hour urine sample, the time has come to do daily GH injections with human GH. You achieve this using a similar pen that is in use for insulin injections. The dosage is only between 0.1 mg and 0.3 mg per day before bedtime. This is remarkably effective not only for heart attack and stroke prevention, but also to treat muscle weakness, lack of mental clarity and general well being. Patients report that their joint and muscle aches disappear and they can engage in physical activities again.

Melatonin replacement

Most people think of melatonin as the “sleeping hormone”. The pineal gland releases melatonin. It rules overnight giving you a refreshing sleep. In the morning and during the day the light that enters your eyes inactivates it.

Melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, stabilizes the heart’s rhythm (anti-arrhythmic activity), is anti-inflammatory, anti-hypertensive and protects against heart attacks and strokes. People who have heart disease often have very low blood melatonin levels. Physicians can use melatonin intravenously in patients who have heart attacks. This will reduce the amount of damage to the tissue and stabilize the heart rhythm.

Age-related decline of melatonin production

Like with GH, the production of melatonin deteriorates significantly beyond the age of 40. Blood levels of melatonin can be easily ordered, and replacement is easy to do. 3 mg of melatonin taken at bedtime will be a sufficient dose for most people. You can take another 3 mg, if you wake up in the middle of the night. It will wear off within 3 to 4 hours.

Vitamin D replacement

The history of vitamin D3 is interesting. Vitamin D3, the active form of vitamin D has many actions: it stimulates the immune system and reduces the risk of infection, it reduces blood pressure, it reduces inflammation by reducing circulating cytokines, and it increases insulin sensitivity making insulin receptors more responsive.

Vitamin D3 binds to the vitamin D receptor, which is contained on all cells.

Many middle-aged and older people are deficient for vitamin D.  A lack of it leads to higher mortality. Vitamin D helps to restore circulation in patients with ischemic heart disease. Vitamin D insufficiency causes high blood pressure, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. In addition, vitamin D deficiency also causes enlargement and thickening of the wall of your heart’s main pumping chamber, heart failure and chronic vascular inflammation.

More on the effect of vitamin D3 preventing mortality

A prospective 7.3-year study looked at the hazard ratios of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and linked mortality files with lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. There were 33,994 persons part of the survey, of whom 1,493 died.

Below 10 ng/ml of 25-hydroxyvitamin D level the mortality was 2.5 fold for all causes and 3.08-fold for cardiovascular causes compared to those with levels of 100 ng/ml or higher.

The recommendation presently is to maintain serum levels at 60-80 ng/ml of 25-hydroxyvitamin D to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Effects Of Hormones On The Heart

Effects Of Hormones On The Heart

Conclusion

The following is important to remember regarding prevention of heart disease.

  1. Never smoke or if you do, quit smoking.
  2. Have your thyroid hormones checked. Thyroid hormones are important as an energy source for your heart muscle, and they lower LDL cholesterol levels.
  3. Your sex hormones matter: in men it is testosterone, in women estrogen and progesterone that support your heart.

Other effects on the heart

  1. Vitamin D is not only important when we grow bones as youngsters, but it continues to be important when we are older. It supports our heart and other body functions. It is an essential team player, as it prevents premature deaths. Blood levels of vitamin D are easy to measure.
  2. Two hormones leave us rapidly as we age: melatonin and human growth hormone. However, the physician can measure the levels of both hormones and if low he can replace what is missing.
  3. There are only two more things you need to do: eat a Mediterranean type diet and exercise on a regular basis. This will ensure your heart is still healthy in years to come.

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Jan
31
2016

The Gut and Brain Connection

There is a lot of talk about the gut and brain connection. At the 23rd Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 11-13, 2015) in Las Vegas there were several lectures pointing out the importance of the gut flora for proper brain function. As a matter of fact, if you have the wrong gut flora, you can get a number of diseases like diabetes, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, some cancers and even obesity. Martin P. Gallagher, MD, DC talked about this in his talk entitled “Gut on Fire, Brain on Fire!”

Function of the microbiome

The microbiome is the sum of all microbial organisms inhabiting the human body, which colonize mainly the colon, but also to a lesser degree the small intestine. Dr. Gallagher stated that the microbiome weighs only 7.1 oz., although in the past some have estimated its weight to be as high as 3 pounds. The purpose of the microbiome is to help form a gut/blood barrier. It forms a 30-micron thick layer in the GI tract, protects the intestinal lining and metabolizes food remnants, especially from carbohydrates. In addition, it also communicates with the immune system. There is a cross talk between the lining of the gut and the and the body’s immune system. The gut bacteria help the body to create stability; as a result the good bacteria also decrease intestinal permeability.

Leaky gut syndrome develops

When inflammation occurs in the gut, the thickness of the biofilm is less than 30 microns. Intestinal permeability increases and becomes “leaky gut syndrome”. This can be the cause of autoimmune diseases and possibly other diseases.

The enteric nervous system

The gut can produce as many neurotransmitters as the brain and spinal cord can synthesize. The enteric nervous system communicates with the brain through the vagal nerve. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that regulates motility of the gut. The control system of the gut can work on its own and override the concerns of the central nervous system.

Parkinson’s disease is a disorder of the enteric nervous system as well as the brain. With Alzheimer’s disease the characteristic brain lesions are also present in the enteric nervous system!

A mouse experiment showed the following. The Lactobacillus strain is  normally part of the microbiome of the gut.  Re-introduction of Lactobacillus into the gut flora resulted in healing certain parts of the brains of these animals, which researchers associate with anxiety and depression. But when the researchers severed the vagal nerve of these animals, none of these healing changes occurred.

The gut-brain-axis

For this reason the researchers suggested that the gut bacteria are able to communicate with the brain via the vagal nerve. Researchers have coined this connection the “gut-brain axis”. These protective gut bacteria have the ability to protect humans from gastric acidity, from bile acid toxicity, they adhere to the lining of the gut and they persist to reside within the gastrointestinal tract. Probiotics help the immune system to maintain the immunologic memory and to secrete antibodies, called immunoglobulins.

Two strains with benefit to humans are Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and Saccharomyces boulardii. Probiotics often help against diarrhea. The natural food for gut bacteria in the colon comes from starches of chicory, asparagus, inulin and onions that are indigestible in the stomach and small intestine, but are fermented in the colon to provide food for the bacteria residing there.

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

Overgrowth of the small intestine with bacteria that produce endotoxins appears to have significance in both animal models and human disease. Chlamydia species as well as Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme) can produce toxins that cause hypersensitivity to pain in soft tissues in fibromyalgia and animal models of fibromyalgia. Moreover, SIBO – small intestinal bacterial overgrowth – in experimental animals caused the same hypersensitivity of the soft tissues and also leaky gut syndrome.

Risk factors for SIBO

What causes SIBO is too little stomach acid production, treatment with proton pump inhibitors (powerful anti acid medications) and antibiotics. To summarize, Dr.Gallagher said that SIBO also occurs in post-surgical patients, in patients with diabetes, is brought on by alcohol, nicotine, drugs and GMO foods.

Neurogenic inflammation

Normally the blood brain barrier keeps immune cells from the body out of the brain. Only glucose, proteins and lipids are allowed into the brain, but not lipophilic neurotoxins. In contrast, neurogenic triggers, when admitted to the brain, will compromise the function of the immune cells of the CNS, called microglia. In essence, this can result in memory loss, Alzheimer’s, dementia, seizures, migraines, Parkinson’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, weakness, numbness, etc.

What triggers inflammation?

Here is a long list of different items that cause inflammation: aging, hormone deficiencies, obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, fungal infection, the Standard American diet (SAD), pain, trauma and mechanical stress, heavy metals, food allergies, toxins, gut dysbiosis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, mal-digestion/absorption, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, recreational drugs and alcohol, lack of exercise and lack of sleep.

Neurotoxic insults start the chain of reactions  like heavy metals, nutritional deficiencies, viruses/fungus/bacteria, inflammatory diet, MSG, solvents, pesticides, herbicides, etc.. One or more of these factors destabilize the tight junctions of the blood brain barrier, which leads to neurogenic inflammation.

Result of neurogenic inflammation

The result is Parkinson’s disease, MS, dementia, chronic pain, behavioral and personality changes, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS and Lyme disease. What seems to be happening a lot is that there is overgrowth of abnormal bacteria in the small bowel, which produce toxins. These in turn lead to leaky gut syndrome, which allows neurogenic triggers to attack the blood brain barrier. It seems like from here it is a short step to neurotoxic insults of the brain overstimulating the microglia, which will produce the diseases listed above.

Healing of brain inflammation

First of all, treatment starts with the Mediterranean diet, which has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties. Second, people who are gluten sensitive need to eliminate gluten entirely from their food. Third, casein sensitive people need to eliminate dairy products. Furthermore, a triple strength, molecularly distilled fish oil product is taken as a supplement every day with 4 grams or more of DHA/EPA. This helps the anti-inflammatory response.

Glutathione

One of the most powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatories is intravenous glutathione. This is given as intravenous chelation therapy, which removes heavy metals. Other chelation agents such as EDTA intravenously may be given alternatively. Dr.Gallagher said that glutathione serves as primary cellular defense against free radicals, is a powerful antioxidant and serves as detoxifying agent against xenobiotics. Xenobiotics are remnants of artificial fertilizers, pesticides and pollutants that are contained in crops we eat.

Dr. Gallagher gives 600mg of glutathione twice per day intravenously for 30 days. Uniquely, in Parkinson’s disease patients whose mid brain is often poisoned by mercury this leads to 42% decline of disabilities and the effect lasts for 2 to 4 months after this treatment has been stopped. Coupled with this the treatment also protects telomeres, the caps on the ends of cellular DNA as well as mitochondrial DNA. In addition, glutathione is protective of neurons and nerves.

Curcumin

This common Indian spice, found in turmeric is a potent anti-inflammatory. It is a safe natural agent and has also anti-viral and anti-tumor activities. It binds to the vitamin D receptor and works synergistically together with vitamin D3. Solid lipid curcumin particle technology makes curcumin 65-fold more bioavailable; free curcumin is allowed to pass the blood brain barrier. Lower doses achieve the same effect than regular curcumin.

According to a publication using lipidated curcumin the following observations were made: improved vascular function; equally important, inflammatory markers reduced by 14%; in like manner, triglycerides lowered by 14%; by the same token, oxidative stress reduced; not to mention, catalase increased and finally total antioxidant status improved. Here is another paper about lipidated curcumin.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory by countering the arachidonic acid pathway that leads to inflammation. Physicians recommend it as triple strength, molecularly distilled fish oil. DHA/EPA are the active ingredients. Chronic inflammation requires 2 to 12 grams daily; irritable bowel syndrome 6 to 12 grams daily; depression, anxiety and insomnia require 2 to 4 grams per day; autoimmune disease, back pain and degenerative joint disease 4 to 12 grams per day.

Gut/brain dysbiosis

For gut/brain dysbiosis Dr. Gallagher recommended to start with a 10-day fruit/vegetable detox program. Milk thistle, glutathione and pancreatic enzymes in combination lead to improvement. Lipidated curcumin is also useful. The physician also gives glutamine, prebiotics and probiotics for gut support. He also tells the patient to take molecularly distilled fish oil (DHA/EPA) and vitamin D3 as anti-inflammatories. Doctors also administer oral and intravenous glutathione to detoxify. Many doctors use natural as a combination of glutathione, oregano, olive leaf and silver salts.

The Gut and Brain Connection

The Gut and Brain Connection

Conclusion

Inflammation can start in the gut, lead to leaky gut syndrome and break down the blood/brain barrier. The end result is that inflammation develops in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease and dementia can occur. The sooner the physician starts with treatment, the faster the recovery is. When the patient has reached the end stage, it is difficult to turn the inflammatory process around. Fortunately there are effective ways to get the inflammation under control with intravenous glutathione in the beginning and subsequent treatment with lipidated curcumin, omega-3 fatty acid and vitamin D3. A permanent switch to a Mediterranean diet is important as well to keep inflammation under control.

Lifestyle and nutrition choices are important for prevention

A few years back this mainstream medicine considered this type of approach as “quackery”; now it is the latest information from research into the brain/gut connection. The right lifestyle and nutrition choices can do a lot on a preventative basis. Once disease has taken root, treatment may still be possible, but once it is at a later stage a full cure is unlikely.

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