An Ounce Of Prevention Blog

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

Less than a century ago it was not uncommon or doctors to advised patients to use cigarette smoking as an aid in weight control. The idea that inhaling tobacco smoke was harmful was regarded as alarmist, ridiculous and almost superstitious. Now smoking is universally recognized as deadly, causing lung and several other cancers, heart disease and other serious diseases. In hindsight we now shake our heads at our earlier stupidity.

In a short time, a technological and cultural revolution called the Wireless Age has exploded worldwide. In 2011 there were over 5.6 billion cellular telephones in use by almost 80% of the worlds inhabitants. Not to be left out, Jamaica ranks high in its addiction to the use of this electronic marvel. Here, everyone seems to have at least one cell phone. But are cell phones safe or are they the cigarettes of the new millennium?

At last after years of denials, in 2011, no less an authority than the World Health Organization (WHO) admitted that mobile phone use can be dangerous to your health.  Yes an active cell phone held next to your head can give you brain cancer. A special WHO team, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), reached this conclusion after reviewing several studies on cell phone safety. It found evidence of an increased incidence of brain cancer in mobile phone users. Sadly, cancer is not the only danger that cell phone users face.

Cell phones are highly compact ultrahigh- frequency transceivers that just happen to be situated directly at your head when the device is in use.  Two decades ago, Dr George Carlo, a public health scientist, was commissioned by the cell phone industry to conduct research that would reassure the public about the safety of their products. His studies however began revealing worrying dangers and he was dismissed and the project stopped.

Since their arrival in medicine, the cholesterol lowering drugs called statins have been among the most prescribed of all drugs. In the US an estimated 30 million Americans now take them daily. In the UK, almost one in four adults over age 40 are taking a statin drug.

A similar trend continues worldwide as doctors struggle with the global epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Some physicians now prescribe statins on a preventive basis to their all too trusting patients. The common statin drugs include simvastatin, or Zocor, atorvastin marketed as Lipitor, and rosuvastatin the generic name for Crestor.

Doctors believe that their use will reduce an individual’s risk of heart attack and stroke. Strangely, we are failing to reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes in our people, despite the popularity of these medicines. And if you are taking statins to lower your cholesterol, you might want to check out the insert in the package.

STATIN SIDE EFFECTS

We have become a culture of excessive drug use. In addition to the dangers from using recreation drugs, like alcohol, tobacco and cannabis an even greater threat has arisen from the unprecedented increase in the consumption of more prescription and non-prescription medication than ever before. Is this a healthy sign? I think not! It was Benjamin Franklin who said,   "The best doctor gives the least medicines." My perspective is, "The healthiest patient needs the least medicines." 

Though modern medicines sometimes save lives and alleviate suffering, many of these drugs create unwanted side effects, new illnesses, toxicity and even death. Drug induced disease is now a common everyday reality. One study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that each year in American hospitals over two million patients suffered serious drug reactions, resulting in over 100,000 deaths. However, another article in JAMA estimated that only 5% of drug reactions are actually reported and that in reality over 400,000 people are killed every year by these dangerous chemicals.  Some experts now consider adverse drug reactions to be the number one cause of death in the US.

Medical research clearly shows that most of our common diseases – heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis and many cancers are the result of unhealthy lifestyles. They can often be prevented and even reversed by simple interventions like optimal nutrition, vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements, exercise and effective stress management.  These natural alternatives are much, much safer than drugs.

Why then are so many drugs still used?  Modern medical training puts little emphasis on natural therapies and the financial interest of the pharmaceutical industry remains a powerful influence.  Also many patients have come to want and even demand drug therapy for a quick fix.  They accept the risks and the side effects because if the doctor says it’s OK then it is OK. 

Modern drugs have benefitted mankind in many ways. However, while pharmaceuticals can save lives, many of them have serious side effects, like heart attacks or suicide. It is very important to remember that all drugs - every single one of them, have side effects. Many drugs are known to actually have toxic effects on various organs like the liver or the kidneys or the brain. But did you know that many other side effects result from the ability of these drugs to rob the body of important vitamins and minerals.

Experts estimate that about 30% of the side effects of pharmaceuticals are the direct result of these drug-induced nutrient deficiencies. In other words, a drug steals nutrients from your body, and this lack of nutrients causes additional side effects. The drug acts like an “anti-vitamin pill,” taking away the substances you need for good health. Thus, nutrient depletion caused by the drugs is often directly responsible for many of the side effects associated with pharmaceuticals.

Among the most common nutrient stealing drugs are oral contraceptives (birth control pills), cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins), and the antibiotics. These and many other medications, both over-the-counter and prescription, can interfere with your body’s ability to digest, absorb, manufacture, or utilise certain nutrients, leading to “side effects. Let me specifically explain which popular drugs deplete vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the body.

The BIRTH CONTROL PILL

With the invention of the microscope, early scientists were able to observe minute organisms called germs and the germ theory of disease then evolved.  The germ theory of disease stated that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases. It became a fundamental part of modern medicine and this lead to important developments such asantibiotics and better hygienic practices.

But by thinking of all microbes as the enemy, that must be destroyed at all costs, man has fought an uphill battle with germs. It turns out that germs are an unavoidable and important part of our inner and outer environment and may well be more our friends than our foes.

GERMS are EVERYWHERE

Only recently, scientists under the direction of the National Institutes of Health in the US have fully mapped out the microbial makeup of healthy humans. They discovered that the human body is home to a vast number of bacteria, viruses and fungi. For every cell that exists in your body, there are ten bacteria in residence there. These bacteria are quite sophisticated; their genes collectively outnumber human genes by a factor of hundreds.

The liver is a large and important organ located in the upper right side of the abdomen, below the rib cage and diaphragm. It is dark red in color and holds about one pint of the body's total blood volume at any given time.

This organ regulates the levels of many substances in the bloodstream and all the blood flowing from the digestive tract must pass through the liver to be processed. Experts have identified more than 500 vital functions that the human liver performs and  it is a very important organ for cleansing the blood and body. All the food and drink we consume, the drugs we use and all the environmental chemicals that enter our body, pass through the liver for detoxification when necessary. In the process of detoxification (making toxins harmless) it creates a dark green liquid called bile. The bile is then passed into the small intestines where it helps to digest fats while carrying away waste products from the liver.

Our modern lifestyle and diet with its toxic load puts a great burden on the liver. A periodic liver cleansing program is of great benefit in maintain optimal health. Individuals with chronic illness like cancer or who are on long term medication or who live or work in a toxic environment will particularly benefit. The following is a suggested plan that helps to detoxify, protect and help regenerate this important organ, the liver:

Five day liver cleanse.

Conventional health propaganda has caused the general public to think that germs are bad things that should be killed and avoided at all costs.

The reality is that our bodies are constantly in intimate contact with countless billions of germs both internally and externally. An estimated 100 trillion microorganisms from over 500 different species can be found in the bowels of every normal healthy individual. They are inescapable and essential to optimal health. The overwhelming majority of these germs are friendly and only a few are normally dangerous.

The key factor is balance. Science now tells us that these different germs form a complex and delicate eco-system in our bodies. In simple terms, the good germs keep the bad germs in check and they all live together in harmony when conditions are healthy. There is evidence to suggest that the really bad germs (pathogens) are often the result of man’s interference with nature e.g. excessive use of antibiotics, leading to an imbalance. On the other hand, good germs called probiotics have been used to improve our health and treat disease.

What are Probiotics

In Jamaica as in many other parts of the world, prostate cancer is the commonest cancer in men and becomes a life threatening illness when it spreads out from the prostate gland and invades other tissues. In the past whenever a natural substance was suggested for the treatment of a major illness like cancer, conventional medicine tended not to give it serious attention. That trend is now shifting. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has an annual conference where new cancer treatments are often introduced to doctors. In 2013 the ASCO program included a report on a natural food pill that appears to offer significant benefit for prostate cancer.

A group of UK based researchers identified four plant foods known to have anti-cancer properties. They created a specific concentrated blend of these four cancer-fighting foods in a capsule to be taken by mouth twice daily. Then they tested its effect in the strictest way known to science - a double blind, placebo controlled, randomized trial. 

Changes in Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) are the most widely used indicators of the progression of prostate cancer. Recent research suggests that a rising PSA may not only suggest prostate cancer but PSA may itself encourage prostate cancer cells to grow faster. The investigators therefore decided to study the effect of the ‘four food pill’ on the PSA of 203 men diagnosed by prostate biopsy with prostate cancer. Half of the men were given the “four food pill” while the others were given a placebo for a six month period during which time their PSA levels were monitored.

The results were that the PSA of the placebo group increased 63.4% more than the “four food pill” group and almost half of the men in the “four food pill” group had a stable or lower PSA after six months. All the four components of the pill, green tea, pomegranate, turmeric and broccoli, have independently demonstrated protective benefits on the prostate gland.  Let us examine each ingredient in this new prostate cancer fighting food pill, to see what each one offers and how they complement each other to lower the risk of prostate cancer progression.

When we talk about health not much is usually said about the element sulphur. (Sulfur is the American spelling). Although it does not attract the attention nutritional stars like calcium, magnesium, iron or zinc gets, it is an important mineral for the optimal health of your body. Despite its low profile, sulphur is the third most abundant mineral element in the body ranking just after calcium and phosphorus.

BENEFITS OF SULPHUR

Cardiovascular Benefits. German research has shown the importance of dietary sulfur for cardiovascular health. Sulphur compounds found in some foods may increase cardiovascular health by acting as a natural blood thinner and by lowering blood cholesterol. Sulphur is needed for the manufacture of taurine, an amino acid critical for a healthy heart.

Joint Skin and Nail Benefits.