This past weekend I was able to attend an advanced women’s health seminar in Nashville. This seminar was sponsored by ZRT Labs. This company is a cutting edge company who is one of the grandfathers of saliva hormone testing. For about eight hours a day we heard some amazing lecturers talk about the body’s physiology and how things work. We also learned how to look for the root problems and treat it with nutriceuticals and some pharmaceuticals.

I then drove home and worked one day in our office then I was off to Greenville to attend a Primary Care Update for three days. We had some of the brightest guys in traditional medicine explain how to treat everything from hypertension, bird flu and even menopause. During one of the breaks I called my wife and remember commenting that the weekend conference was all about how the body works and this conference was all about how to use the latest pill. Sure we were getting some information on physiology but nothing substantial. Instead it was all about which drug worked better than the next.

Perhaps due to fatigue and lack of sleep I reached an epiphany. Traditional medicine is not “cutting edge”. They are not pushing the envelope to provide patients with true alternatives. The science is very good however it is very limited. Most of the science in traditional medicine at this point is all about how a chemical can change a lab value instead of how we can actually restore a person’s health.

I believe we at LivingWell Integrative Healthcare are uniquely positioned to bring these two disparate worlds together for our patient’s benefit. Sure it is an odd juxtaposition but the two worlds of alternative and traditional medicine need to come together.

1 cup Happy Cow milk

1/2 cup mayo (no soy oil)

1 free-range egg

Sea salt to taste(I used 1/2 tsp)

1 1/2 cups of Happy Cow’s 3 year cheddar cheese

Steam broccoli until soft/firm

Mix milk, mayo, and egg together(and salt if using). Mix in  half of the cheese. Add the broccoli and stir gently. Pour into a casserole dish coated with olive oil. Top with remaining cheese and bake at 350 until firm.

A group of scientists at the University of Japan have found a way of using just 4 chemicals to convert human adult skin cells into pleuripotent stem cells. While these cells are not exact replicas of embryonic stem cells they have most of the capabilities. So what this means is that we can create stem lines of cells that can be used to treat many of the diseases that embryonic stem cells have potential to help. These include MS, Parkinsons Disease, degenerative joint disease and a host of others.

So why “harvest” embryos or create cloned embryos when we can use skin cells as our base cell lines. Hopefully this will end the ethical and moral debate. It makes no sense to insist on such morally heinous practices in the name of research.

1 cup each cut up broccoli and squash (or any two fresh veges you like) -steamed

1 pound of cooked meat (ground meat, chicken or turkey chunks, etc.)

1 cup grated cheese (of course I use Happy Cow sharp cheddar, long horn, farmer’s, etc)

1/2 cup mayo (remember no soy oil)

1/2 cup sour cream

3/4 cup chicken stock (or beef, whichever you happen to have)

Combine rice, veges, and meat.  In a separate bowl combine mayo, sour cream and stock.  Mix these two together and put in a casserole dish and sprinkle cheese over top. Bake at 350 until bubbly and heated through. Delicious!!! (Per my family)

“Vitamin D May Not Reduce Cancer Deaths

By LAURAN NEERGAARD

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large new study found no sign that vitamin D lowers the overall risk of dying from cancer, injecting a note of caution to the latest vitamin craze. The exception: People with more vitamin D in their blood did have a significantly lower risk of death from colorectal cancer, supporting earlier findings.”

The study referenced here was first published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute this week. It has been fodder for many great health headlines of all the major news outlets. Unfortunately no one seems to have read the article. If you read the article you find that just the opposite was found by this study.

This study was a longitudinal prospective study in which the researchers looked at nearly 17000 people and whether or not they were diagnosed with cancer over the years between 1988 to 2003. One of the flaws in this study is that they assume that the initial serum level of Vitamin D will never change because they NEVER retested these people’s Vitamin D level. Whether or not these people become sun worshipers or began to live in a cave for 10 years. Or what if some of these people began taking Vitamin D. These are questions that were not asked.

While these are important questions the real meat of this study revealed that the folks with the highest level of Vitamin D had a 72% reduction of colorectal cancer. In case you missed that. A higher level of Vitamin D REDUCED COLORECTAL CANCER MORTALITY BY 72%. An inverse relationship was found between the Vitamin D level and colorectal cancer mortality.

Just to put this in perspective, an estimated 153,760 people will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year in America and estimated 52,180 Americans will die from this cancer this year. If this is reduced by 72% these numbers become 43,053 and 14,610. In 2003 numbers the estimated overall cost of colorectal cancer was $6.4 Billion dollars. If this was reduced by 72% the cost to a strained healthcare system would be$1.8 Billion instead. Now understand that these figures represent just a quick estimate but they do represent quite a potential reduction in human suffering and monetary expenses.

These findings did not merit a headline. Obviously Vitamin D does not help prevent cancer. (Please forgive my sarcasm. )

Maybe we should read the headlines somewhat more critically.

Link to Pub Med abstract of referenced study.

2 large cucumbers, peeled and grated(I used the food processor grating blade)

2-8 ounce cream cheese

3/4 cup mayo (no soy oil!)

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

Pour vinegar over cucumbers and let sit for 1 hour then drain (do not rinse). Add all ingredients into the food processor and blend together. If you don’t have a food processor, I would try a mixer, but make sure your cream cheese is softened. Chill several hours and serve with your favorite veges.

3 apples (peeled if you like) and cubed

2 pears (peeled if you like) and cubed

1/2 cup local honey (if you like it sweeter, add a tsp of stevia)

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 cup white raisins

1/2 cup orange liquor(Triple sec-grand mariner)

Cook all together except the liquor, until cranberries are all “popped”. Add the orange liquor and cool to serve.

Even Mild Thyroid Problems Double Risk

 Of Heart Condition

Science Daily —
Individuals with subclinical hypothyroidism—a mildly underactive
thyroid only detectable by a blood test—are twice as likely to develop
heart failure, compared to those with normal thyroid levels, according
to a new study. Heart failure, also called congestive heart failure, is
when the heart can’t pump enough blood to the body’s other organs,
which can cause fatigue, ankle swelling and shortness of breath.

Although previous studies have shown that
hyperthyroidism—an overactive thyroid—and hypothyroidism can cause
heart problems, this is the first time that a large study found a
negative effect on heart function when the thyroid was only mildly
under-active.

“If other studies confirm these findings, then
physicians might want to consider treating mild thyroid problems to
prevent potential cardiac problems or to avoid increasing the severity
of an existing heart condition,” said Doug Bauer, M.D., an author of
the study and a Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine in
San Francisco.

Subclinical thyroid disorders are detected by a
blood test that evaluates the levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone
(TSH). Subclinical hypothyroidism is defined by TSH levels greater than
4.5 mU/L and normal free thyroxine levels. Individuals with subclinical
hypothyroidism can evolve into overt hypothyroidism, where the free
thyroxine levels fall below normal, which always requires thyroid
hormone therapy.

The Cardiovascular Health Study involved over
3,000 adults 65 years and older, who were evaluated to determine if
those individuals who had subclinical hypothyroidism had an increased
risk of developing heart failure over a twelve-year period. The study
shows that individuals who had a TSH level equal or greater than 10
mU/L had a two-fold risk of developing heart failure, compared to those
who had normal thyroid levels.

This research was presented on Oct. 4, at the 78th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) in New York.

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A September 18,2007 paper published by Stanford School of Medicine researcher Dr. Alison Rigby have found that less than one third of women interviewed were aware of the landmark study concerning hormone replacement therapy. The interviewers found that less than a third of all women interviewed knew anything about the Women’s Health Initiative Study which showed among other things that the combination of Provera and Premarin (PremPro) lead to more deaths from cardiovascular events than women who took no hormone replacement therapy.

We at LivingWell Integrative Healthcare have been talking about this study for quite some time and the results have been highly publicized in the popular press. It is sad that so many women are ignorant of these findings.

Hormone replacement therapy is an important issue and women need to have the latest information when considering this issue. It is amazing that this landmark study on HRT is so unknown to the vast majority of women.

We at LivingWell obviously have “miles to go before we sleep…” concerning educating our families, friends, patients and others regarding the results of these studies and the alternatives.

Just so you’ll know….

DrC

The full article referenced here can be found at the link below.

http://med.stanford.edu/news_releases/2007/september/WHI-awareness.html

ScienceDaily: Promising New Source Of Stem Cells: Mouse Testes Produce Wide Range Of Tissue Types

The above link is a “Science Daily” article detailing the work being done at the Howard Huges Medical Institute using testicular cells from adult mice to create cells that can be reprogrammed just like embryonic stem cells. This is just another example of how much of the reporting of scientific research is not complete.

Many people who have ethical and moral objections to embryonic stem cell research have felt torn because the press and certain celebrities have convinced them that they are denying them life saving treatments. The truth is that adult stem research has shown to be more effective and has a much greater history of success than any embryonic research. Instead of focusing on an unproven and morally objectionable form of research we should be focusing on research that actually works and does not present so many ethical problems.

The use of adult reproductive tissue, adult fat cells and umbilical cord tissue continue to provide more than ample sources of cells that can be used to produce cells that can be “reprogrammed” to make other types of cells.

Please take a look at the link. Science is marching forward in the field of genetics and many scientist are ethical and and they are producing amazingly useful research data.

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