by Loraine Holden • May 13, 2010
The Food and Drug Administration is asking doctors to tell them about misleading drug ads. In fact an article on Netscape New by Matthew Perrone says that the drug industry spends 4 billion dollars a year on advertisements directed to consumers.
Ads often say, “Ask your doctor for this medication” .From my experience as a medical student, I know that doctors are trained to memorize what they read in textbooks and what their professors say. They are used to accepting the ideas from an authority. It’s easy to carry that attitude to the drug representative and accept what he says along with some free pills.
In the case of anti-cholesterol pills, some ads say that your cholesterol level can be blamed on family and food. However, in truth only one in a million people have two faulty genes so their cholesterol con be from 650-1000 and indeed be correlated with heart disease. Even if only one of the genes is faulty, this occurs in less that one in 500 people whose levels are between 350 and 650. So the family of almost all of the patients put on statins, (the anti-cholesterol drugs) is not relevant.
Food may or may not be causing a rise in the bad LDL-cholesterol. The media and others blame eggs and animal fat, but most LDL-cholesterol and blood fats have been made by the person’s liver from all the high-fructose corn syrup he is getting. Two ways to get more good HDL-cholesterol are vigorous exercise and eating saturated fats, not avoiding them.
It took over 30 years after Dr. Mary Enig published research about the danger of trans-fats like margarine, before we are now told to avoid them.
Similarly it might take as long to get much more research to advocate a “heart-healthy” diet that eliminates high-fructose corn syrup.
by Loraine Holden • April 28, 2010
In the April 19, 2010 issue of Netscape, Marilyn Marchione reports on the research of Dr. Scott Lippman. In a long term study of older women who also have a genetic high risk of breast cancer, he found that Tamoxifen and Evista both blocked estrogen but had different side effects. He says use of one or the other drug should be individualized.
I ask if a simpler method might work. In my book, I cite Dr. Bob Arnot who tells breast cancer survivors they can prevent a recurrance by cutting out sugar and common salad oils containing omega-6 fatty acids.
I think that omitting these common foods probably allows the woman’s immune system to act effectively against potential cancer cells. Cutting out sugars would prevent the sugar from combining with protein immune factors in a glycation reaction that makes them less effective.
A moderate amount of omega-6 fatty acids as found in raw nuts helps the immune system. However the modern American diet has too much of this fatty acid. Excess omega-6 fatty acids (from corn,cottonseed or soybeans) in salad oils and other foods can produce excess arachidonic acid which can nterfere with the immune system’s natural removal of foreign cells or particles, whether they are outside invaders like bacteria and viruses or potential cancer cells.
Keep your immune system strong with natural foods like anti-oxidant containing berries and a healthy ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids and you might not have to worry about becoming a high risk patient..
by Loraine Holden • April 18, 2010
An article by Robin Hindery in Netscape News on April,4,2010 tells about a woman farm worker who said she had a miscariage after exposure to pesticides. Other workers in the same field felt ill but did not report their symptoms, afraid of losing their jobs.
California farm workers handle 5 million pounds of pesticides a year. The article says that only 22% of reported poisonings were from use in agriculture and 45% were from homeowners. Of course homewowners would be more likely to report it. For a real assessment, the United Farm Workers reports cite high rates of cancer and fetal abnormalities from their members.
Indeed householders should be more careful. My book tells how I was affected by malathione, with muscle weakness for several days and joint pain for weeks. Now I don’t use any pesticides in my large yard with several fruit trees.
I think the mysterious bee hive abandonment phenomenon might be from insecticides weakening the bees and making them susceptible to mites or viruses. If honey bees disappear, killing pests on other crops will be trivial because bees pollinate all fruit and nut trees.
We should encourage organic farms and orchards with weedy fence rows between fields where insect-eating birds could flourish. Insects mutate and become immune to standard pesticides so stronger ones must be used. Can we humans survive the many new chemicals that come out every year?
by Loraine Holden • March 8, 2010
A March 1 article by Lauran Neergaard in Netscape News said it was a mystery why some obese people have heart disease and diabetes and others don’t. It’s a common belief that obesity is a CAUSE of diabetes and heart disease not that it is another RESULT of consuming too many SUGARS.
A fat person who eats lots of protein or fat can be healthy like Sumo wrestlers or Eskimos. But when Eskimos use alcohol, soft drinks or starchy junk foods, they get diabetes and heart disease.
Sugar causes the pancreas to release insulin into the blood. High blood glucose causes type II diabetes as cells get resistant to more insulin.
We now know that high blood sugar can damage all body cells by combining with proteins in their membranes in a process called glycation that can make these cell walls stiff and prone to injury.
Inflammation, a collection of white cells, occurs to patch injuries. It is measured by C-ReactiveProtein. This correlates with the likelihood of heart disease. Where high blood pressure meets stiff cell walls, the resultant micro-injuries cause inflammaation then plaque. Aspirin can prevent bigger clots here. Salsalate, an older anti-inflammatory drug mentioned in the article could help in any collection of white cells.
But the hypothesis that fatty acids leak out of overfull fat cells may not be why they’re high in diabetics. The liver makes blood fats from high-fructose corn syrup. Couldn’t this source of fatty acids set off the chain reaction in the macrophages that produce PAI-1 that causes blood clots and diabetes?
by Loraine Holden • February 4, 2010
More researchers are coming to the conclusion that inflammation of blood vessels as measured by c-reactive protein correlates much better with the risk of heart disease than the level of cholesterol in the blood. As mentioned in my book, cholesterol collects at the site of micro-injuries. Stiff blood vessel walls can be damaged by high blood pressure, nicotine and insulin. They are prone to injury. Then white blood cells and cholesterol collect at the site.
A recent article by Jonny Bowden,PhD,CNS says that blaming cholesterol for heart disease is like blaming the St.Bernard for the avalanche. The article in Better Nutrition, Feb, 2010 says that this cholesterol isn’t a problem unless oxidized by free radicles. Half of the people with heart attacks have normal cholesterol, and half the people with high cholesterol don’t get heart attasks.
Dr. Fank Wu at Harvard Medical School says a heart healthy diet is high in omega-3 fatty acids from fish or flax, has lots of vegetables, nuts, fruits and whole grains. It is low in sugars and starches and avoids processed foods and trans-fats.
A natural diet with plenty of plant-based antioxidants prevents inflammation and doesn’t let insulin get too high.
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