Posts Tagged ‘vitamins’

Can Your Doctor Fix This?

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

I love talking about health, health care and natural treatments.

When hearing about ulterior or underlying reasons for health problems and solutions, sometimes people will say they want to run it by their doctor. I think that is good. However they often say this as a way of saying they are not interested in taking charge of their health. They want their doctor to be in charge.

This is not meant to bash doctors. I have mostly worked with some of the best in the world. Incredible men and women in numerous fields of medicine. When I grow up, it is my hope to be even a little like them.

Even so, very few doctors are experienced in complimentary alternative medicine or CAM.

So, this got me to wondering, will those folks who have to run things by their doctor make an appointment to go and actually ask their doctor. Will they sit in the office for a few hours to get the answer. Even pay the office co-pay. I think not.

Perhaps they will run it by their doctor the next time they are in to see him. Here is something else you can ask him about.

Ask him if he has any idea of how anyone can fix the out of control health care system? Is there a cure. Are physicians applying the counsel to heal thy self or the system they are a part of.

You see, catastrophic illness is out of control. Both in the elderly and the very young.

I keep hearing of…

Heart disease

Type 2 Diabetes

Cancer

Crohn’s disease…

…and others serious diseases in our teen populations.

It is no secret that the US spends more on health care than anyone else at about $6000 per person. The United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and France are close behind spending to $2,000 to $3,000 per person and it is going up.

We keep hearing that close to 50 million Americans do not have health insurance because it is just too expensive.

To be fair, one break down of the numbers deducts college students, those in prison, those covered by medicaid and those not American citizens as totaling 44 million.

The real number by some estimates is 4 to 6 million. (Hmmm, where will the trillions of dollars go?)

Ok, Mark Twain had it right when he said there are three kinds of liars. Liars, (Darn) liars, and statisticians.

Even so, it has been reported that $1500 of a new car price difference of a US car over a Japanese produced car is for health care.

Lets say your in good health, self employed and have a 10,000 dollar deductible per person per year. It can still cost close to $400 per month.

Unlike a car payment that eventually goes away, this keeps getting ever higher.

If health care is nationalized, we will pay more in taxes. We would not want the pharmaceutical stake holders going second or third homeless even losing an island or two. This though some can barely keep their first home.

There is another problem in addition to providing health care from teens to old age with diseases that used to afflict the older ones of our population. That is we are living much older. 75 is fast becoming the new 65.

One patient I assessed was 100 and seemingly in great health for her age. I can not remember but it seems she even knew who the president was as part of my assessment.

There are only two solutions. Government subsidized health care is not one of them.

One solution that will allow us to beat the system is to take control of our health. This may be a bitter pill. Eating right, exercising, eliminating junk foods and supplementing our diets with foods or nutrients to prevent disease and conditions.

There are simple steps we can take. We need not invest in 600 to 700 dollars of vitamins per month to accomplish this either. A few basic ones, different ones depending on the disease process. Mostly, trying to avoid what is bad.

Of course, boosting the glutathione is high on my list. It is not the only one though. Spices like cinnamon and herbs like garlic are also very important too (by the way, they also boost your GSH too) as they do numerous good things for life.

Fresh clean water is important. Berries and cherries when they are in season.

Even a daily mile walk or what ever you will do are all are important parts of a healthy life.

Good health to you.

Pills: Two Types, Two Problems

Monday, June 16th, 2008

Have you noticed all the ads about all the medications you can take for just about everything. More importantly, have you noticed you cannot take some medications if you have certain underlying conditions or problems. Almost all refer to life threatening side effects.

A well known fact in health care: when you take 10 or more medicines, there is a 100% chance of all of them having an interaction of some sort with each other. In gambling terms, this means it is a sure bet.

This is not advocating that you should stop taking pills. On the contrary, you should see you doctor before making any changes or dietary modifications.

The other kinds of pills are the all natural, herbal or vitamin and mineral type.

Listening to an informercial one day a simple fact occurred to me. Trying to take all the pills for all the potential ailments we would want to protect ourselves from would bankrupt most millionaires.

Think of it, if you take one pill for your eyes, one for you stomach, one for your liver, one for your kidneys, one for your lower left ear lobe, one for your toe, how many more, I do not know.

Then to make matters worse, some of the so called natural pills that are advocated by the “what doctors don’t want you to know group” are in fact dangerous to you.

An independent lab found that calcium claiming to have come from coral actually is no better than lime stone. The problem, it has a higher level of dangerous heavy metals like Lead than other forms of calcium you can buy.

They make it sound like you will be preserved alive even though you die if you just take this all natural pill. The only problem, there are a total of 27 different pills you have to take to live forever. They all cost $35 per month. This means for under $1000 per month or less than $31.79 a day you can live forever with out health problems.

In addition to the cost, the number of vitamins and supplements you will need and the ones that are actually harmful…there is another problem.

This problem has to do with overdosing. Have you ever heard of someone overdosing on Black Strap Molasses? This food has one of the highest forms of absorbable iron and a side effect of being a stool softener. It is a great food and a wonderful nutriceutical. So what is the problem?

The pill form, on the other hand has some really bad side effects. The supplement iron pills are one of the leading causes of poisoning of children. For adults, they have a different side effect related to not being able to do what our bodies normally do with poo.

The thing is, very little iron is actually absorbed to do what it is taken for. In investing terms, the ROI or return on investment is very little.

So there is a problem with pills. Both medical and natural.

The Third Problem

There is a third problem. Since we do not eat enough of the right foods or the right foods are depleted of the proper nourishment or we face health challenges, there may be times we need supplementation.

In the hospital when a patient has lost a lot of blood from surgery or cancer, they need a rapid infusion of the building blocks of blood. Vitamins B6, B9, B12 and C along with iron are essential for the production of red blood cells. The only way to get these in sufficient quantity is by taking a vitamin pill.

So there may be times when supplementation is necessary. The reasons may be varied.

But wait, there are other poisons in our diet. Do you know what the biggest offenders are?