Prevent the Ravages caused by Type-1 & Type-2 Diabetes

In today’s mail I received my latest copy of Dr. Robert Jay Rowen’s newsletter, SECOND OPINION. I have a lot of respect for Dr. Rowen’s approach to today’s form of medicine, because I have found he is trying to open our minds to allow all of us to see the many different views of how we can deal with our health and not be regimented by the controlling medical power structure.

Diabetes is one of the monster chronic diseases that have become an industry worth billions of dollars and Dr. Rowen has touched on a way to block some of the ravages caused by Type 1 & Type 2 Diabetes. At first I was not interested in reading his article, as I do not have diabetes, but a voice told me to read it anyway. He made his point in the first sentence, “….. You have a very high risk of getting severe vascular disease. In particular, high blood sugar leads to more Age Related Glycation (AGE) productions. …suffer a loss of an important vascular protecting enzyme called prostacyclin - - - up to 70%.” This is bad, but it does not end there. Because you can also suffer tissue damage caused by an increase in monocyte hexosamine-modified proteins. Yes this is scary, but there is an effective method for overcoming these dangers.

Dr. Rowen quickly touched on two studies that have just been reported, one study on rodents and the other on humans. The studies showed that two key nutrients can reverse all of the above damage.

Alpha lipoic acid and benfotiamine are the key nutrients that can reverse the tissue damage. Benfotiamine is a superior sulfur-bearing and lipid –soluble form of Vitamin B1. The rodent study found both nutrients improved the chemical injury markers. Yet, the human study produced the most impressive results.

The human study showed that alpha lipoic acid and benfotiamine completely normalized the increase AGE. There were also reductions in monocyte hexosamine-modified proteins by 40% and normalized the 70% decrease in prostacyclin production.

Dr. Rowen said he has used both of the supplements for years in type-2 diabetes. He recommends the following, “no matter what form of diabetes you have, -- consider 100 mg daily of benfotiamine and 300mg daily of alpha lipoic acid. You should be able to find both of these supplements online or in health food stores.

Ref: Du, X., M. Brownlee, et al. “Benfotiamine plus alpha-lipoic acid normalizes complication-causing pathways in type-1diabetes,” Diabetolgia, 2008 July 29; [Epub ahead of print]].

RESVERATROL - ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

I just read several articles about resveratrol. I was attracted to learning more about resveratrol because some of my friends were giving me a hard time because of my diet. Yes Sir, I am very serious about my health, and taking care of myself. But it seems there are those that do not believe I am personally disciplined to match my image. So I figured I would prove them wrong. Now that the beating is over and I have to admit they are right on some points, I am excited about what I learned about resveratrol.

A new Harvard Medical School study says that it might be possible to eat the wrong foods and still have more energy, a healthy heart, liver and arteries; using resveratrol would give you more stamina, and greater mental clarity.

This new study may have found a way to overcome the negative effects of a high-calorie diet loaded with trans-fats. They used resveratrol to accomplish these successes. I am sure you know that resveratrol is bioflavonoid found in red grape skins. Earlier research has shown that resveratrol supports your heart, healthy blood flow. Now, scientist think resveratrol can act to keep you healthy even if you eat all the wrong foods.

The Harvard researchers wanted to know if resveratrol could help us live longer, healthier lives. To get the answer, they set up a research project using a group of middle aged mice, divided into two groups. One group of mice was fed a really bad junk food diet; 60% of the calories came from fat, including Trans fats. Yes Sir, this group of mice got very fat and developed a long list of health problems, i.e. bloated livers, insulin resistance, and strained cardiovascular systems. They died prematurely.

Amazing, the second group of mice, eating the same exact diet at the same time did not have any health problems. The big difference is that this group of mice was given resveratrol.

What were the results? Yes, the mice did become overweight, but they looked healthy and their organs functioned in a healthy manner as thin mice would function. The big surprise is that the resveratrol mice lived 15% longer.

The researchers did not stop there. It was decided to put the overweight mice through endurance tests against normal, thin mice. The fat mice had twice the stamina and agility as the thin mice; that was considered incredible. It was concluded that these overweight mice performed in such an exceptional manner because resveratrol increased blood flow and charged their muscles with energy.

A similar study was carried out by the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology. In this study they put mice on treadmills and measured how far they’d run before collapsing. The average mouse was able to run 1 kilometer. Mice fed resveratrol were able to run 2 kilometers.

Based on the results of these two studies, it has been concluded that resveratrol helps to give a person a longer life and it also give you more energy to enjoy life.

What Makes this Happen?

Every cell has a small furnace inside the nucleus, it is called mitochondria. The mitochondria burn nutrients and fats into energy. The faster the metabolism, the more energy the body has. The faster your metabolism, the quicker you burn unnecessary fats so they do not get stored as fat in the body causing health problems.

As we age, our mitochondria start to degenerate and so our metabolism slows down. Good news, resveratrol increases mitochondria production by activating a protein call SIRT-1; and this creates mitochondria. Thus we get an increase in energy, helps maintain healthy blood pressure, healthy blood sugar and protects your liver.

TIME FOR THE TRUTH

TIME FOR THE TRUTH

Ok, your doctor gives you bad news after he finishes his exam. You are sick and need to take the drugs he is prescribing. Does he tell you what side effects are produced by the prescribed drugs? No Does he explain how dangerous some of these side effects may be? NO. He does not have time and goes on to the next patient. You, of course, think the medicine is going to make you feel healthy and fit, so you pay your bill and leave the doctor’s office. You have no idea what is in the drug, how was it approved or how it was tested before it was approved. In fact, I doubt if you even have any kind of idea how to investigate a drug. The only important thing that concerns you is the cost of the drug and how you can be sure your insurance pays for the drug.

Ok, some time has passed and you have diligently taken your medicine as prescribed. But, you are not getting well. In fact you are feeling lousy. So back to the doctor and he gives you another prescription to deal with the side effects of the first drug. Now do you get well and feel great? NO! Nothing seems to improve.

Enough of this fiction. The average person that goes to a doctor takes no responsibility for their health. They are not motivated to find out what is happening in this MODERN FORM OF MEDICINE WE WORSHIP SO STRONGLY. There are so many options and ways to treat even the worst diseases. Instead we accept the advertising paid for by the drug companies without question, even when there are cases published in the media pinpointing fraud and lethal activities of drugs being prescribed by our doctors. Here are two recent examples of the fraud and illegal activities being carried out by the drug companies with the co-operation of the FDA.

First, let’s talk about (elithromycin) known as Ketek. Ketek was approved by the FDA to treat mild-to-moderate pneumonia. But Ketek can cause sudden and serious liver damage. There have been cases of complete liver failure requiring a liver transplant. Still there were patients that could not get the transplant in time and died. The FDA knew about the liver failure, and other side effects, before the FDA approved Ketek. To convince an outside scientific advisory committee to recommend approval of Ketek the FDA knowingly allowed a fraudulent safety study to be presented to the advisory committee. The Senate Investigative committee uncovered the following:

1. FDA accepted a resubmission of a new drug application that included fraudulent safety data.
2. FDA employees knowingly presented the fraudulent study data to the advisory committee responsible for recommending Ketek’s approval or disapproval.
3. FDA approved a pediatric clinical trial of Ketek; it involved infants as young as six months old … There was no concern given to the known toxicities affecting the heart, eyes, liver, and vascular system.
4. FDA instructed its personnel preparing to appear before the advisory committee to present the fraudulent safety data.
5. FDA approved a pediatric clinical trial of Ketek; it involved infants as young as six months old... There was no concern given to known toxicities affecting the heart, eyes, liver, and vascular system.
6. FDA continued to willfully release safety data on Ketek.
While the Senate investigation was being conducted there was also a criminal investigation being conducted. They found that the clinic where the study was supposedly conducted was closed during the time the study was to have been carried out. A number of other inconsistencies were also found. Right after the advisory meeting where the fraudulent data was presented to the committee, the FDA employee who conducted the study was criminally indicted and pled guilty. He received a five year sentence in jail. The FDA is still citing the fraudulent data on Ketek. It would appear, in my opinion, that the FDA has continued to function in this criminal enterprise.

Drug-Induced Suicides. The Senate committee that investigated Ketek discovered another study with fraudulent data. This fraudulent data was used to uphold the approval of a popular antidepressant drug being used by large numbers of people in the US.

A Harvard doctor wrote a report that when Paxil application was presented to the FDA advisory committee in 1991, the “Drug Company improperly put people who had previously attempted suicide into the placebo group.” This made it appear that the Paxil group would have the same or lower rate of suicide as the placebo group. The drug company did this to make it appear as if there was no greater suicidal behavior risk for the placebo or Paxil.

In 2006 the manufacturer of Paxil sent a letter to doctors admitting that the risk of suicidal behavior was 6.7 times higher in study subjects taking Paxil when compared to the placebo group.

Suicide is rated as the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. In 2004 Suicide killed over 32,000 people. “The number of suicides attributed to drugs like Paxil (selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors) could be in the hundreds of thousands during the 13 years it was fraudulently marketed.”

Vitamin D3 Can Save Lives

VITAMIN D3 CAN SAVE LIVES


Vitamin D3 is an absolutely fascinating supplement that I have ignored for a long time. Last month, Life Extension Magazine, January, 2009 issue had a startling article written by the magazine’s editor, William Faloon. MILLIONS OF NEEDLESS DEATHS tells how this vitamin can save lives by preventing heart attack, cancer and stroke. Mr. Faloon has been on a crusade to get our federal government to recognize the benefits of vitamin D3. After almost two years of trying to gain co-operation from the government nothing had happened. But in his 16 months of effort new studies have appeared to show optimizing vitamin D intake will save even more lives than what had been expected.

A study published in June, 2008 showed men with low vitamin D levels suffered 2.42 times more heart attacks. This caused me to look back on an article I read by Chris D. Meletis, ND. It has become clear that this nutrient acts to widen the role of vitamin D3 in an individual’s total health. This has only made it clear that a large percentage of the population at large is deficient in this important nutrient. Faloon made this deficiency even more apparent when he placed the number of Americans dieing each year from coronary artery disease-related heart attacks at 157,000. He went on to say that based on a recent study, if Americans were optimizing their vitamin D status, the number dieing would have been reduced to 92,500, 55% would have been saved.

He put the number of lives into context by pointing out that millions of dollars are being spent to promote Lipitor as reducing heart attacks by 37%. Yes, this is an impressive number; but not when compared to the number of lives that would be saved by vitamin D. He makes the point the latest study, men with higher levels of vitamin D levels had a 142% reduction in heart attacks. This does not mean that you should stop taking your prescribed medications, but it does mean you do not want become vitamin D deficient.

All forms of heart disease kill over 869,700 Americans per year. The lethal forms of heart disease include all of the following: cardiomyopathy, valvular insufficiency, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, coronary thrombosis (blood clot in coronary artery), and coronary atherosclerosis. It is believed that vitamin D would help to give protection against many of the forms of cardiac-induced death.

Today we are surrounded by an economy that seems to be on the verge of disaster. President Obama is trying to find a solution to our many financial problems. The politicians talk about how health care has to be made more effective and affordable for the average American citizen. Consider these facts; there are 920, 000 heart attacks per year, according to the American Heart Association. Annual cost for health care services, medications, and lost productivity caused by these heart attacks is over $156 billion.

Now compare the annual retail cost of all 300 million Americans supplementing with 1,000 IU of vitamin D is $6.6 billion. This would give us a savings of $149.40 billion. Ok, if vitamin D’s only benefit is to reduce heart attacks by 142%, the net savings (after deducting the cost of vitamin D) would be around$84 billion each year. Do you not agree that would put a huge dent in our national health care cost?


References
1. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis. Accessed September 4, 2008.
2. Faloon W. Should the president declare a national emergency? Life Extension. 2007 Oct;13(10):7-17.
3. Giovannucci E, Liu Y, Hollis BW, Rimm EB. 25-hydroxyvitamin D and risk of myocardial infarction in men:
a prospective study. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jun 9;168(11):1174-80.
4. Available at: www.americanheart.org/downloadable/heart/1200082005246HS_Stats%202008.final.pdf. Accessed October 29, 2008.
5. Dobnig H, Pilz S, Scharnagl H, et al. Independent association of low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin d and 1,25-
dihydroxyvitamin d levels with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Arch Intern Med. 2008 Jun 23;168(12):1340-9.
Refrences: Chris D. Meletis, ND
4. Hathcock JN, Shao A, Vieth R, Heaney R. Risk assessment for Vitamin D. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jan;85(1):6-18.
5. Vieth R. Critique of the considerations for establishing the tolerable upper intake level for Vitamin D: critical need for revision upwards. J Nutr. 2006 Apr;136(4):1117-22.
6. Wilkins CH, Sheline YI, Roe CM, Birge SJ, Morris JC. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with low mood and worse cognitive performance in older adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2006 Dec;14(12):1032-40.
7. Lotfi A, Abdel-Nasser AM, Hamdy A, Omran AA, El-Rehany MA. HypoVitaminosis D in female patients with chronic low back pain. Clin Rheumatol. 2007 Mar 22; [Epub ahead of print].

Introduction to Health Debate

Hi, my name is Dick Miller, and I am just a normal guy that is over 70 years old. I work a full time job and of course I am very concerned about my health. Yes, there are a number of things that frustrate me a great deal about standard, conventional medicine. In many ways it is very corrupt. Yet there are real doctors and others that are trying to clean up the mess and create systems that are so much more successful. In my opinion we have a number of problems that everyone seems to be afraid of. Ignorance on the part of the public at large is one of the major problems and there are those that take advantage of this ignorance to make very large amounts of money by herding the ignorant into health care programs that increase the sales of the drug companies, and treatment methodologies that are very expensive, do not cure the medical problems or they just kill the patients. If we could freely use all of the technologies out there, the average person would be amazed at how they could live a more robust life with out expensive drugs. Heart Disease, Cancer, and Diabetes are serious and very dangerous medical problems. Today these medical problems are multibillion dollar industries that have no intent to find a cure. But fantastic advances have been developed in the field of Alternative Medicine and they are not allowed to make the public aware of these advances.

Today, when I see people sitting in a doctor’s waiting room I get very up set. I doubt if any of those individuals have any real understanding of why they are sick. The majority just accept what ever the doctor tells them to do; buy a prescription, accept the prescribed surgery or what ever medical methodology that is prescribed. Most doctors will not take any time to explain in detail what the problem is, or what the causative factors are. Very few will explain how to control the causative factors; assuming that all that is solved when the prescription is followed.

I went through this type of routine when I had my heart attack. I lay in that parking lot for 2 hours before I had regained the strength to crawl over to my car. I pulled myself into the driver’s seat, by this time I was soaking wet from sweating and hurt like hell. I had to gasp to breath. I drove to a medical center down the street and went into the Emergency room and asked for help. A nurse checked me over and told me there was nothing wrong. I went out to my car and sat there until the pain in my chest and my back stopped and I could breathe without effort. Several months later my regular doctor ordered an electrocardiogram for me. She told me I had a heart attack and I told her what happened. She called a Cardiologist and made an appointment for me. In short, I went through a series of very dangerous and painful tests, which resulted in my diagnosis. The Cardiologist gave me a fist full of prescriptions and restrictions on my life style. He would not answer any of my questions. I went back to my regular doctor and explained what had happen. My doctor got very angry and called the Cardiologist’s office. From that point on my education started on heart disease. She put me on a number of supplements and herbs. I did not understand how the supplements like Coenzyme Q10, L-Carnitine, D-Ribose, or Magnesium did anything to help my heart, but I faithfully did as the doctor directed, and guess what, my pain disappeared, I did not get dizzy, I had more stamina and strength. I was not totally healed, but I was a hell of a lot better. I knew I had to know to know what exactly was wrong with my heart and why I had the problem. So I had a lot of questions. My doctor was a practitioner of Alternative medicine. She answered most of my questions and agreed that I needed to learn more. I asked a lot of questions and I will admit it was not easy. But I was fortunate and started getting more and more answers. One day I called a company that had a top quality D-Ribose supplement and I was asking a lot of pointed questions, because I was not a believer in what this supplement was supposed to do. Finally, the lady I was talking to told me about a book written by Stephen T. Sinatra, a practicing cardiologist in Connecticut. The Sinatra Solution, is a fantastic book. It is written for laymen, not doctors; it explained what was wrong with my heart, why I had the problems I had; very clearly explained why the supplements worked to solve my problems. Dr. Sinatra spends a lot of time explaining how each supplement works, what the good points are and bad points. The toughest chapter is where he actually explains the different conditions that can affect the heart. It took me a lot more time to understand what he was trying to get across to the reader. When I finished it I knew how to put a plan together to save my life. I say this because the only person that can be responsible for my life and good health is myself. This is one example of what I mean when I say we have to become informed and responsible before we can improve our health. Doctors can only assist us, but we have to know what they are attempting and why they are going in the direction they have chosen.

I would recommend that you check out two magazines. Life Extension magazine, at www.lifeextension.com; they will send you a copy of the magazine for free. It is a terrific publication. I subscribe to the magazine and I am also a member of the Life Extension Foundation. There are a lot of benefits that they have to offer.

Total Health Magazine is another terrific publication. Go to www.totalhealthmagazine.com

I would also like to recommend a book written by Suzanne Somers, BREAKTHROUGH, EIGHT STEPS TO WELLNESS.

I started reading this book in August. It completely stopped me. I had never given Suzanne Somers any real attention. Man was I wrong. She is an accomplished author and really knows the problems of medicine. In the book she interviews some very accomplished doctors and does not hide the shocking details she learns from the doctors. The first doctor she interviewed was one of my heroes, Dr. Jonathan Wright. This is a book that every one has to read before they can really put their health plans together.

I hope you found some of my thoughts valuable and useful. This is a new adventure for me and I am very excited about how I may be able to help people.