An Ounce Of Prevention Blog

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.  

Exercise can become your anti-aging medicine. The science of exercise has evolved greatly and we now know a lot more about how exercise creates health benefits, especially the effects of exercise on weight loss, hormones and the aging process itself. More exercise is not necessarily better.

As an example consider the most popular weight loss exercise, jogging. Every year million of people worldwide start jogging to lose weight and get the physique they want. But in 2006, research from Berkley and Stanford Universities on habitual runners including those who ran as much as 8 miles a day, showed that they got fatter with each passing year.

As you pass age 30, your levels of an important hormone called human growth hormone (HGH) begin to fall dramatically. This is part of what influences the process of aging. Almost everyone over 30 has low levels of this important hormone as our life styles become increasingly more sedentary. 

The higher your levels of HGH, the healthier and stronger you are going to be and the longer you will enjoy robust health and strength. Kids and most wild animals do not run in long races or lift weights. They run around at high speeds in short bursts and then rest. This is naturally what optimizes the production of HGH and the basis of the exercise program I will share below.

I am pleased at the larger number of Jamaicans of every age, class and sex now involved in various sports and physical activities as I consider exercise to be one of what I call “The Four Pillars of Wellness”.

Exercise by its very nature is stressful to the body, so recovery and repair to traumatised muscles, tissues, and joints, the replacement of nutrients, and the removal of wastes like lactic acid is essential. Many athletes seem reluctant to give recovery its due, perhaps from the misguided thinking that more work is always good. But in reality, recovery is an integral component of the process of athletic training and overall fitness.

Recovery is the time when the body adapts to the eustress of physical training by developing new muscle mass and restoring the body’s glycogen levels. The period directly following an intense workout is particularly important for athletic training. During this time, the body is especially drained and vulnerable to injury and exhaustion.

Recovery has four basic parts:

I am pleased at the large number of Jamaicans of every age, class and sex now involved in various sports and physical activities as I consider exercise to be one of what I call “The four Pillars of Wellness”.

Exercise by its very nature is stressful to the body so recovery and repair to traumatised muscles, tissues, and joints, the replacement of nutrients, and the removal of wastes like lactic acid is essential. Many athletes seem reluctant to give recovery its due, perhaps from the misguided thinking that more work is always good. But in reality, recovery is an integral component of the process of athletic training and overall fitness.

Recovery is the time when the body adapts to the eustress of physical training by developing new muscle mass and restoring the body’s glycogen levels. The period directly following an intense workout is particularly important for athletic training. During this time, the body is especially drained and vulnerable to injury and exhaustion.

Recovery has four basic parts:

Like food, I consider exercise to be a powerful medicine because when properly applied it can provide amazing benefits to mind and body. There are different forms of exercise that offer different benefits. Ideally you want to perform a variety of exercises and avoid doing the same ones all the time. Lets look at the basic types of exercise.

Aerobic Exercise (Cardio):

Jogging, walking fast, using an elliptical machine, are all examples of aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise helps your heart and lungs work more efficiently, and increases your stamina while activating your immune system.  Research has shown that aerobic exercise stimulated the production in the brain of powerful substances called  endorphins. Endorphins elevates mood, combats depression, relieves pain and is thought to be responsible for the runners high – the euphoric feelings runners often experience while running.

On the other hand prolonged aerobic exercise can have negative effects on the body with excess physical and mental stress and the production of unhealthy levels of the stress hormone cortisol. I recommend combining 30 minutes of cardio with other types of exercise in a session that in total should ideally not exceed one hour.

All alcoholic beverages contain the same chemical substance ethyl alcohol (ethanol) that has been consumed by mankind since prehistoric times. Today, alcoholic drinks are divided into three main classes: beer, wines and spirits.

The first two are produced by fermentation while spirits are made by distillation. Whatever their name or class all alcoholic drinks contain the identical chemical – ethanol which is a powerful drug. In countries like Jamaica with a drinking culture, the social conditioning cause many people to disregard the fact that alcohol is an addictive psychoactive drug whose misuse creates a multitude of problems.

Men and women who consume alcohol are known to have increased risks of many diseases. These include cirrhosis of the liver, digestive system diseases, such as gastritis, ulcers or pancreatitis, several painful and often deadly cancers, such as throat, oesophagus and liver cancer, heart disease, bone disorders, type 2 diabetes, hypertension and gout.

Alcohol is particularly poisonous to the nervous system and causes disorders such as blackouts, seizures, tremors and neuritis. It can inflame and disrupt brain function creating encephalitis and psychological and psychiatric disturbances like psychosis, personality changes, anxiety and depression. Experts estimate that a single drink of alcohol results in the death of thousands of brain cells. It negatively influences behavior, reactions, coordination, focus and judgment.

As people get older, one of their greatest fears is the fear of losing their mental functions, a condition referred to as dementia. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in older people, robbing them of their cognitive ability and making it harder for them to think, remember, and reason. It destroys a person's memory, particularly short term memory and the capacity to think clearly, eventually making it difficult for them to perform very basic activities.

AD was named after a German physician, Alois Alzheimer, who in 1906 first identified the condition when he performed a post mortem examination on the brain of a woman who had suffered severe memory loss and confusion for years.

Fewer men are diagnosed with AD than women but it is still a problem that men need to be aware of. About 16 percent of women over age 70 have this progressive brain disease compared with 11 percent of men in the same age range but his may be due to the fact that women tend to live longer than men. Unfortunately, these numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. Here are some useful definitions relevant to this subject.

Dementia – the usually progressive deterioration of mental function such as memory that can occur while other brain functions such as those controlling movement and the senses are retained.

The Andropause is the male counterpart to the female menopause. While it is not as rapid, as obvious or as extreme an event as the menopause, men do suffer from declining hormone levels as they age.

In the menopause, women’s sex hormones rapidly decline over several years, usually in their 50's. The sex hormones in men also decline as they age, starting earlier but much more gradually. As one doctor states, ‘women fall off a cliff. Men sort of roll down the hill.’

The Andropause is a condition in which level of the major male hormone testosterone slowly declines with age, and decreases a man’s ability to enjoy sex.  In addition to a lowering of sexual desire and erectile function, men with a low testosterone level may also notice changes in mood and emotions, a decrease in body mass and strength due to loss of muscle tissue, and an increase in body fat.

TESTOSTERONE the male hormone

The average person breathes over twenty thousand breaths per day (about 15 breaths/minute, every 60 minutes, every 24 hours). This process of breathing is fundamental to all our physical and mental functions. The respiratory system powerfully influences our heart and circulation while supporting our digestive and lymphatic systems. On a moment-to-moment basis your nervous system reacts to your breathing pattern whether you are awake or asleep. Yet although it is so important, breathing can take place unconsciously or can be brought under our deliberate control.

For thousands of years ancient traditions like Yoga have stressed the critical importance of proper breathing for good health. Modern medical science has now recognized breath-work as a complementary wellness tool in reducing stress, anxiety and depression and in lowering blood pressure. But there are important details involved in healthy breathing.

BREATHE FROM YOUR BELLY

The two main patterns of breathing are thoracic or chest breathing, and abdominal or diaphragmatic breathing. The former uses the muscles of the chest while the latter employs the diaphragm and this is far more effective. The diaphragm is a large tent like muscle that contracts to take air into the lungs. In abdominal or belly breathing, the belly rises with the in breath and sinks down with the breath out. Breathing with the chest muscles uses up more energy while moving less air.

Health and Happiness are two of the universal goals of all people. Many philosophers, spiritual teachers, the world's major religions, including Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam have prized gratitude as a morally beneficial emotional state. Pastors, priests, parents and grandparents have long extolled the virtues of gratitude, but until recently, scholars have largely ignored it as a subject of scientific inquiry. Now doctors and psychologists have joined the chorus.

Medical research indicates that there is something you can do each day to be healthier and happier and it will cost you nothing and take very little time. Be grateful. Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, say their scientific study indicates that gratitude plays a significant role in a person's sense of well-being. Here are some of the benefits that a regular expression of gratitude brings.

A Healthier Lifestyle

Grateful people - those who embrace gratitude as a permanent trait rather than an occasional state of mind - have an edge on the not-so-grateful when it comes to health. Dr. Emmons' research on gratitude revealed "Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular medical checkups”. It seems that gratitude encourages more self appreciation, more self esteem and thus more self care.

In medical terms, depression is a disorder of mood and ranges in seriousness from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe, persistent depression. Doctors use the term "clinical depression" of "major depression" to describe the more severe form of depression.

A depressed mood is not necessarily a psychiatric disorder as it may be a normal reaction to certain life events, a symptom of some medical conditions, or even a side effect of some drugs or medical treatments.

For the layman the term ‘depression” brings to mind images of a sad, withdrawn, teary person who stays in bed and who may be unable to eat, sleep or function normally. These are the usual symptoms associated with depression, but when a man has depression he may present quite a different picture.

Suicide risk

I often refer to the Four Pillars of Wellness: Diet, Exercise, Cleansing and Stress Management. The fourth pillar, which related to how we deal with stress, is probably the most poorly understood and handled. Emotional distress plays a significant role in virtually all medical problems and a simple yet extremely powerful tool for healthy stress management is meditation. Unfortunately, many individuals particularly some fundamentalist Christians, are strongly opposed to this practice.

WHAT IS MEDITATION

You may not have realized that the word meditation comes from the same root as medicine and medical, and the word originally described a technique for being healthy and whole.  In fact meditation is medicinal and it can help to promote optimal health.

The human mind is a powerful facility that gives us the capacity to think. Scientists estimate that the average person thinks about 60, 000 thoughts each day and most of those thoughts are the ones we have day after day: we repeat the same thoughts over and over again. Our thoughts have power and influence our health, our peace and our fortune. This makes the mind an extremely powerful tool that can heal us or harm us.