An Ounce Of Prevention Blog

By Dr. Tony Vendryes

For over a quarter of a century, I have promoted prevention as the key to health and wellness. Initially, this message was not received with widespread enthusiasm. Some people even questioned my sanity. Today prevention is at least getting lip service. Wellness Centres are popping up all over, and almost every week you can find a so-called Health and Wellness event sponsored by a corporate, civic or governmental body.

I had enlisted Benjamin Franklyn’s famous quote “An Ounce of Prevention is worth a pound of cure” to bring focus to the importance of prevention.

My thinking has however evolved past that to: “PREVENTION IS THE CURE”

Without even realizing it, most of us are gravediggers, working hard at digging our own graves with our teeth.  The major causes of premature death are related to what you put in your mouth- what you eat. My personal congratulations to our current Minister of Health and his Ministry for their campaign to seriously promote good nutrition and healthy lifestyles. Money well spent. Please don’t stop sir.

The American Medical Association has estimated that over 70% of all the visits to doctors in the US are for nutritionally related disorders. Here in Jamaica the major killers - heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes are all diet related problems and as a society we are busy eating our way to an early grave.

The foods and beverages we consume provide two main things. They provide energy to run the various systems of the body and they are the source of the nutrients for building and repairing the body. The energy in food is expressed in units called calories. The ratio between the nutrients and the calories in the foods we eat is very important.  Consuming too many calories with too few nutrients is dangerous to your health.

The modern habit of overconsuming calorie dense foods has dire consequences even among those who may appear slim and healthy.

Medical research confirms the wisdom of many mothers of yesteryear- ‘eat up your breakfast – it’s the most important meal of the day’. But research also indicates that in our modern societies, over 20% of people including children, routinely miss this all-important meal. The percentage may be even higher in Jamaica where adults and children often go without breakfast and end up performing poorly. In an effort to correct this some societies have instituted breakfast feeding programs in their schools. In many Jamaican communities, my team of Wellness Coaches operates Nutrition Clubs that provide a very nutritious breakfast option.

What makes breakfast so important?

Eating breakfast is a vital step towards optimal health. Numerous scientific studies have shown that there are many benefits to starting your day with a healthy breakfast. There is good science behind the old adage “Have breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” Here are some of the reasons:

The word breakfast itself tells a story. It literally means to break the fast. A fast is an extended period of time in which one goes without food. We fast each night while we sleep. One way the body responds to fasting is to slow down it’s metabolism. The longer one goes without food, the slower your metabolism becomes. Breakfast ignites your metabolism. Regular breakfast eaters tend to have higher metabolisms and burn more calories to produce more energy.

Ackees and avocados are two unique fruits in that both have a high fat content, a very unusual feature for a fruit. The misinformed anti-fat propaganda has used this to claim that eating these foods may be unhealthy. Absolutely false statements like “eating ackees will increase a man’s risk of prostate cancer” or “avocados are high in cholesterol” are still being made even by health professionals. On the contrary, these fruits are not only delicious but very healthy food choices. Let’s examine them in detail.

ACKEE

The scientific name for our national fruit, ackee is Blighia sapida. According to Wikipedia, this name honors Captain William Bligh, an infamous English sailor who took the fruit from Jamaica to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England in 1793 and thus introduced it to botanists. It is originally from West Africa and is related to the lychee fruit. The common name is derived from the West African Akye fufo.

Health Benefits

Ancient healing traditions refer to the five elements of nature: air, water, fire, wood, and earth. They explained that our health depended on the balancing influence of all these elements. Modern scientific research shows that mankind could benefit greatly from applying this principle. Let's review how we may use these readily available, natural elements to heal disease and promote optimal health.

AIR

Humans like most animals are totally dependent on oxygen from the air for survival and health. I have written extensively in the past on the power and importance of breathing as it relates to health. Clean fresh air and the use of simple breathing techniques are powerful tools to enhance many bodily functions while providing several mental and psychological benefits as well. Yoga practitioners have long pioneered the use of the breath for healing and wellbeing

WATER

Our society actively promotes excessive drug use. Powerful brainwashing techniques are imposed on us every day to encourage more drug consumption. In addition to the problems from recreation drugs, like alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and cannabis, a deadlier threat looms from the extraordinary increase in the use of prescription and non-prescription medication.

Benjamin Franklin once said,   "The best doctor gives the least medicines." I would add "Less medicine, more health."  This is what might be called an inconvenient truth.

Some modern medicines do save lives and alleviate suffering, but their bad side effects often create new illnesses, toxicity and even death. A 2002 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that over two million hospital patients in the US suffered serious drug reactions annually, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. But other research estimated that only 5% of drug reactions are actually reported and that in reality over 400,000 people are killed in America every year by these dangerous chemicals. 

Some experts now consider adverse drug reactions to be the number one cause of death in the US. The side effects of drugs are also expensive. A 2000 report revealed that the side effects of just drugs used outside of US hospitals cost over $US177 billion for that year.

With the seemingly unending list of new infectious diseases, many people have developed a great fear of germs. Health authorities spend a lot of time and resources waging wars and campaigns against these hostile foes. I think we need to rethink these strategies. Germs may actually promote health.

In 2010, researchers discovered an amazing organ that doctors had failed to recognize before. They realized that the human body is crawling with hundreds of trillions of microorganisms, mainly bacteria plus fungi, viruses and parasites. It is estimated that for every single human cell in your squeaky clean body, there are at least ten bacteria in residence. This collection of organisms living outside and inside your physical structure is an actual organ, a functioning system called the microbiome.

Research shows that the body is a delicate ecosystem, and that germs are essential for its healthy function. Your intestines for example are populated by immense numbers of friendly and not so friendly bacteria that work together to promote health. At any given moment you have over two pounds of germs in your colon and a single bowel movement contains more bacteria than there are stars in the known universe!

But the microbiome is not only the germs in your guts. It is all over your body and is responsible for the development and function of other organs and systems, including the brain and the immune system. It even influences our behavior and intellectual function. Researcher Dr. Marco Ruggiero wrote a book about the microbiome and called it The third brain.

Up until recently, mainstream medicine openly discouraged healthy people from taking vitamin supplements. Now this position has changed, as studies now show that vitamin supplements could reduce the risk of several common diseases. Some doctors however continue to tell their patients that vitamin supplements are unnecessary if they eat a ‘balanced’ diet.

In April 1998, the editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine was entitled ‘Eat Right and Take a Multi Vitamin’. This article declared that certain vitamin supplements could reduce the risk of heart attacks and

strokes. This was the first time that a prestigious medical journal was recommending vitamin supplements. An even stronger endorsement for the use of vitamin supplements came in 2002 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It reported on Harvard University research that showed that people who consumed enough vitamins might prevent common illnesses like cancer, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Today a third of Americans take multivitamins and the same trend is developing across the developed and developing world. However research suggests that as much as one third of dietary supplements (vitamins, minerals and herbals), have one or all of the following problems:

The World Health Organization claims that one third of all adults has elevated blood pressure and that nine out of ten of us as we age will eventually have high blood pressure. Amazingly, conventional medical wisdom states that 90% of all cases of high blood pressure have no known cause and label this disease essential hypertension. Just imagine this situation: billions of people worldwide have been diagnosed with a very mysterious, killer disease!

Doctors declare the condition incurable and insist that their patients must take medication indefinitely. I believe that high blood pressure is not a disease in and of itself but rather a symptom with known causes. We should address the underlying cause and not just treat the numbers on the blood pressure machine, as is customary.

There are many lifestyle factors associated with high blood pressure but unfortunately the emphasis is on managing the problem with drugs. Many of these lifestyle issues can be corrected resulting in a lowering of the blood pressure. Here are four major issues that those with high blood pressure should first focus on.

Nutrition

The skin of the average person is embedded with from two to five million sweat glands and humans can produce as much as three liters of sweat per hour.

We have two different types of sweat glands: eccrine and apocrine. Eccrine glandsproduce a watery sweat and are found all over the body but more on the face, hands, and feet. This sweat, mostly water also contains sodium, some potassium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium as well as traces of copper, zinc, iron and other chemicals

Apocrine sweat glands produce a thicker sweat that contains fatty acids, urea and ammonia. They are found in the hair follicles in the scalp, armpits, pubic and genital areas. Stress triggers the apocrine glands to secrete this fatty sweat which bacterial action can give an unpleasant odor.

How much a person sweats depends on factors like age, gender, body temperature, and level of exertion, anxiety or obesity. Exercise and heat are the most common triggers of perspiration because sweating main role is to cool down the body. However sweating offers several other benefits.

The term 'gut' refers to the intestinal tract, a passage about 30 feet long, which starts at the mouth and ends at the anus. You are not just what you eat. You are what you eat, digest and absorb. No matter how good your diet is, the food must first be digested in and absorbed from your gut before the nutrients can be transported to the organs and tissues of the body to nourish your cells.

Without a properly functioning intestinal tract, much of the nutrients in your food may end up in the toilet bowl. That is why some people complain that they notice no difference in their health and wellbeing even when they eat well and take supplements. I actually recommend a program called Cellular Nutrition, to ensures that you not only take in the right nutrients, but that they are readily available to fuel your cells.

Your gut is smart

The passage of food through the digestive tract is directed by a remarkable network of nerves called the enteric nervous  system. It is located in the gut wall and it communicates with the brain. Signals go backwards and forwards between gut and brain that control the muscles, the membranes and the blood vessels in the intestines. Researchers have estimated that there are almost as many nerve cells in the gut as there are in the brain.

In today’s world more people are displaying mental instability. Depression, violence, suicide, homicide, abusive, irrational and anti-social behavior has become all too common in our society. Did you know that there is actually a connection between our diet and our mental and emotional stability? Yes foods can heal and they can also harm.

HARMFUL FOODS

Excess sugar: The brain needs lots of energy and its favorite energy source is glucose – blood sugar. Sudden shifts in blood sugar, up or down can drastically disturb the brain’s chemistry resulting in big changes in energy levels, behavior and feelings.

The frequent consumption of sugar-laden drinks and foods has been shown to have a negative impact on school children’s performance and social interactions. Hyperactivity, irritability, temper tantrums and violent actions are increased with high sugar intakes.

It serves little purpose merely to be scared by viruses.

But it serves a good deal of purpose to understand them.

Frank Ryan, MD

After Dengue came CHIKV and now we have the Zika virus (ZIKV). Question – when will this trend end? Answer – never! Viruses are very interesting and intelligent agents. Scientists are still debating about whether they are living things or not.  We need new ways of thinking about viruses and how we treat them.  We underestimated CHIKV and hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans suffered and we have only now begun to take ZIKV seriously when we discovered that it could cause babies of infected mothers to be born with abnormally small brains.

The World Health Organization has announced that there are now more overweight than underweight people on the planet. Most of us are well aware that there are many health problems associated with excess body fat, as health authorities everywhere are encouraging everyone to get to their ideal body weight. But the truth is that your body shape and body composition are actually more important than just your body weight.

Body Shape

As individuals we all have our own unique shapes and that should recognized and appreciated. But there is one part of the body – the waistline, where the accumulation of excess fat is a medical disaster.

Excess of this unhealthy fat around the waist and upper body is called truncal obesity and increases your risk of a long list of disorders: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease, gall bladder disorders and even some cancers. Men with a waist measurement greater than 39 inches, and women whose waistlines are more than 34 inches, have an over 500% increased risk of many of these problems. This kind of fat is not just sitting under your skin; it enters organs like your liver and pancreas and damages them. It causes inflammation and hormone imbalance.

By the end of the festive season, most of us would have done our fair share of feasting. But the heavy consumption of food and drink can take its toll on our bodies. It would be healthy to consider doing some detoxification and cleansing at the very start of the year. This would be a great way to focus on our health and wellbeing for 2016. Juicing is a wonderful way to begin and here is a great detox recipe.

Detox Juicing

If at all possible choose fresh, organic sources of the ingredients listed below to make a powerful cleansing and health promoting drink.

1 small or medium beet

If you found a medicine that was free and powerful, that cured many ills and was readily available, would you not use it? Well laughter may just be that medicine. And it’s infectious, as the sound of a loud laugh can be more contagious than a groan, a cough or a sneeze.

Psychologists say laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. It can quickly bring your mind and body back into balance lighten your burdens, renew hope, reconnect you to others, and keep you grounded. When shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy.

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

Laughter creates physical relaxation.A good, hearty laugh releases physical tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.

The word ‘wellness’ and ‘holistic’ have become increasingly fashionable  these days. Sadly however it seems that these conceprs are still poorly understood and applied in a very superficial way. Most ‘wellness’ events are still stuck in a very outmoded approach to health care.

The term Holistic comes from a Greek word, ‘holos’, which means‘whole’ or ‘complete’. (The popular spelling ‘wholistic’ is an American innovation). The holistic doctor focuses his/her attention on the total patient and not just on a particular symptom or illness.

There are actually several underlying principles that typify the holistic approach to wellness. They guide the way I myself practice medicine and I would like to share them with you.

The Body/Mind/Spirit connection: The holistic approach recognizes that each person has a physical, mental, and spiritual dimension, and that these are closely related. For a long time doctors have been aware of the intimate connection between mind and body and identified a long list of psychosomatic diseases – illnesses that have physical symptoms and signs, but have a mental or emotional cause. The holistic practitioner recognizes this close relationship between mind, body and spirit and understands that a disturbance in one area will impact on other areas as well.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.  By~William James

Since 2009 World Sickle Cell Disease Day has been observed and thankfully Sickle Cell Disease is now being given the global attention it both needs and deserves. Sickle cell disease is an inherited disease in which hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying pigment found in our red blood cells, is abnormal.  Hemoglobin is the substance that makes your blood red. Over 10% of my fellow Jamaicans have the sickle cell gene.

Normal red blood cells, with normal hemoglobin, are disk shaped and flexible, able to squeeze through the smallest blood vessels in the body. On the other hand, sickle cells, because of their abnormal sickle or crescent shape, can block small blood vessels and impede the flow of blood. This reduces the oxygen supply to tissues, may damage many organs and cause severe pain, in what doctors call ‘painful crises’. While normal red blood cells live for about 120 days, sickle cells with their abnormal hemoglobin die after only 10 to 20 days, causing chronic anemia. Other common problems include lung and breathing difficulties, chronic leg ulcers, jaundice, liver enlargement and an increased susceptibility to infections.

Sickle-cell anemia and its many variants like sickle-cell trait are genetic disorders and cannot be "cured" in the conventional sense. However, medical research and the emerging speciality of “epigenetics” clearly demonstrates that we are not helpless victims of our genes. Simple lifestyle modification involving things like good nutrition and nutritional supplements can help to moderate many of the problems of sickle-cell anemia. This can mean fewer problems with anemia and pain, and improvements in the general health of those with this illness.

Greetings. Please share the following Health & Wellness tip from the leading Complimentary & Alternative Specialist in the Caribbean, Dr Tony Vendryes, with your audience.  Please Click Read More for more info on this week's radio show

Thank you.

Tune in to An Ounce of Prevention with Dr Vendryes today on Power 106FM

This week’s show, An Ounce of Prevention, on Power 106 FM Radio highlights some of the amazing herbs from China that I myself have used and have recommended to my patients and listeners for over two decades. 

Painful menstruation, referred to as dysmenorrhea by doctors, is one of the commonest health problems from which women suffer. As many as 90% of women experience this problem at some stage in their life. For over 10% of females the problem is so severe that they are unable to function normally while menstruating.

This problem translates into millions of dollars of lost wages and productivity as well as a significant decrease in women’s quality of life for several days each month. One medical textbook estimated that painful periods cause the loss of over 140 million work hours each year in the United States. At the same time billions of dollars are spent on ‘pain killing’ drugs which do nothing to address the underlying cause of the pain.

In my view, dysmenorrhoea is in most cases a lifestyle related disorder having to do with nutritional, hormonal and emotional imbalances. In a minority of cases it may be the result of other medical conditions, like pelvic inflammation, infection, fibroids and endometriosis, in which event those underlying problems should be treated. For the majority of sufferers, here is a natural approach.

GOOD NUTRITIONAL