Aug
12
2023

About your Bowel Movements

By | Abdominal Pain, coffee, exercise, fiber, food

This article is about your bowel movements. Dr. Michael Camilleri is a consultant and professor in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He mentioned that in the Victorian era it was thought that a person should have a bowel movement every day. But now gastroenterologists agree that three bowel movements per week are satisfactory. If you don’t have that spontaneously, you are said to suffer from constipation. On July 12 CNN published a review about the same topic.

But other people who consume a lot of fiber may have a bowel movement two or three times a day. This, too is considered normal. But in addition to the frequency of bowel movements the consistency of it is very important as well. “The stool form, appearance or consistency of the bowel movement is actually a much better criterion than the simple numbers to frequency,” Camilleri said.

Bristol stool chart

The Bristol Stool Chart classifies stools into seven groups. With this in mind, the healthiest types of stools are types three and four. This is where the stool is shaped like a sausage with cracks on the surface or snakelike and smooth.

Experts say that if you are excessively straining during an attempt to poop or if you feel like you have not totally emptied after a bowel movement, you have to make changes. Either you need to poop more often or you need to get a healthier stool quality.

Your body posture influences the ease of your bowel movements

If you put your feet on a stack of books, this raises your knees above your hips. In that position your pelvic floor muscles relax, which supports your bowel. The end result is that poop passes through more easily. This advice comes from Dr. Trisha Pasricha, a gastroenterologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She commented further: “We did not evolve to have our bowel movements sitting with our hips at 90 degrees on a chair, which is what we do now. We used to all have bowel movements squatting. Sitting at that sort of upright, 90-degree angle actually closes off the passageway.”

Proper food intake necessary for a good bowel movement

Start with a Mediterranean type diet, which consists of a lot of vegetables, salads, fruit, whole grains and nuts. According to the FDA the daily fiber load should be about 25 grams or more. Kiwis and prunes are useful as a dietary fiber source. On the other hand, you don’t want to overdo the fiber intake as it can cause abdominal bloating and loose stools. A high fat diet slows your digestive system down. But caffeine and caffein containing beverages stimulate your bowels. In addition, regular physical exercise gets your bowels moving.

Constipation

Constipation is an important symptom that prompts patients to see their physician. There seems to be a lot of confusion in the general public about this topic. There are enormous cultural differences. For instance, in Africa where the population eats on average a much larger amount of fiber, the bowel movements are much bulkier.

Sir Dr. Burkitt, the famous English surgeon, examined bowel movements (stools) of African tribes in comparison to his English countrymen and came to the conclusion that in the Western world we need to remedy our constipation problem and cancer of the colon problem by eating more fiber.

What we know now

He is still right: fiber is mainly treating constipation (not preventing cancer of the colon), but the chemicals that are also in the vegetables contain a multitude of natural anti-carcinogenic substances, which provide the powerful preventative action against colon cancer and many other cancers. Lycopene is one of these. Tomatoes and tomato products contain it.

Sir Dr. Burkitt’s observation that high bulk food (with vegetables and green leaves) prevents cancer is as valid today as it was in the early part of the 1900’s.

Chronic constipation

Chronic constipation cases that start insidiously, but then remain despite taking a high fiber diet, make the doctor think about other underlying causes such as hypothyroidism (= low thyroid function) or metabolic causes such as hypercalcemia and uremia from early kidney failure.

We find that elderly people become too inactive. This lowers the natural peristalsis of the gut. In combination with poor eating habits and chewing problems because of poor teeth it is often responsible for chronic constipation. Also, elderly people often are on multiple drugs, all of which have a weak “anticholinergic” side effect, which translates into suppressing peristalsis chemically resulting in constipation. Psychogenic factors and chronic depression as well as obsessive-compulsive behavior can also feed into constipation. It can lead to a hyper awareness of one’s own bowel pattern. This is unhealthy and requires counselling. But first the doctor must rule out any serious cause of chronic constipation.

Treatment for constipation (simple steps that help)

As mentioned above, the patient has to modify the food intake to include as much fresh and steamed vegetables as possible. This will lead to bulk in the colon and make the stool softer thus allowing it to pass through the rectum and anal canal easier. The other advantage of this simple step is that the bulkiness of the stool triggers the normal peristalsis movement of the colon moving the contents towards and through the rectum. Decreasing the passage time in the colon allows less water absorption, keeping the stool soft and pliable until it leaves through the anal canal. This is easily achieved by a diet rich in fruits and vegetables. Cereals containing bran like slow rolled oats (not instant oats) are also useful when taken with breakfast. Cut down on meat and fat consumption.

Enema with lukewarm water

A simple tool for chronic constipation is an enema with lukewarm water (1500 ml or 50 fl.oz.) in a Faultless enema bag without any additives in it. The person who gets the enema needs to lay on the left side. This way the water can flow in easily into the colon. When entering the nozzle into the anal canal, do not force it. Instead use a bit of Vaseline ointment to facilitate entrance. The response usually comes within 5 to 10 minutes following the enema. It works by dilatation of the bowel wall, which leads to a reflex bowel contraction. Although it would be safe to take this every day, usually you should not have to take it more than two or three times per week even in chronic constipation.

Extra fiber (bulking agents)

Next, if this is not tolerated or does not appeal to the patient, I would recommend a bulking agent such as psyllium (brand names: Prodiem Plain, Metamucil, Novo-Mucilax) and bran (Brand names: Kellogg’s All Bran and Post’s bran flakes). These are mild laxatives, which are safe to take every day and which will not make the patient hypokalemic.

Osmotic agents

Osmotic agent: One or two tablespoons of sorbitol as a 70% solution is a hyperosmotic solution, which stays in the gut and draws water by osmosis into the colon. The bulking effect creates peristalsis and the water retention makes the stool softer. It takes often 1 or two days to get the full effect. There can be transient abdominal cramps until the stool is passed. One variation of this theme is to give sorbitol in a mix with other osmotic agents as a micro-enema in the form of Microlax (from Pharmacia and Upjohn).

The emergency break (laxative)

The “emergency break”: Occasionally all of the above is simply too weak. The constipated person normally is controlled with the above measures, simply could not go to the bathroom for several days. Bisacodyl (brand name: Dulcolax) and sennosides (brand names: Ex-lax Sugar-Coated Pills and Senokot products) can help you unload any held back stool on a one-time only basis. Increase your vegetable and fruit intake, cut down on refined foods and fatty foods, which are devoid of fiber.

About your Bowel Movements

About your Bowel Movements

Conclusion

Because of its role in nutrient absorption and body detoxification the digestive system plays a direct role in overall health and wellness. When the colon is unclean, waste and toxins can become trapped. This places an extra strain on the detoxification organs (kidneys, liver) and weakens the immune system causing illness. It is therefore important to watch that your bowel movements are regular. When chronic constipation sets in there are several measures, we can take to keep our bowels moving. I explained this in detail above.

Nov
28
2021

Marijuana and Uncontrolled Vomiting

By | Abdominal Pain, addiction, chronic pain, heart attack, marijuana, schizophrenia

Marijuana was considered safe in the past, but now marijuana and uncontrolled vomiting suddenly make the news. Recently there also were reports of marijuana causing heart attacks and schizophrenia.

Abdominal pain with cannabis hyperemesis syndrome

Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is a relatively new disease entity. It occurs in people who use marijuana daily for several years. But people affected by this condition often do not realize that it is an overdose of marijuana that brings on the nausea and vomiting of CHS. When they started marijuana use, they may have used intermittent doses of marijuana to treat nausea and vomiting. In intermittent doses marijuana may have been helpful, however constant use is a different story! During several years of use of marijuana, patients never had abdominal pains or vomiting, until one day CHS started.

Possible mechanisms regarding marijuana and uncontrolled vomiting

The body has its own endocannabinoid system with cannabinoid receptors that are distributed throughout the body. There are two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2. In the central nervous system, there are mainly CB1 receptors, in the rest of the body CB2. It appears that stimulation with intermittent small doses of marijuana suppresses nausea and vomiting in the hypothalamus area. However, constant stimulation of CB2 receptors in the gut with higher doses of marijuana are the cause of CHS. When a person develops cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, the only permanent cure is to stop marijuana use completely. This eliminates the CB2 receptor stimulation and allows the body to heal the gut. Researcher believe that Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC is more powerful than the endocannabinoids. THC overwhelms the CB1 and CB2 receptors. When people who were cured of CHS restarted marijuana, their symptoms of nausea and abdominal pain returned.

In some people hot bath and hot showers help uncontrolled vomiting

Researchers noted that people reported how sometimes having a hot shower or a hot bath stopped the vomiting. The hypothalamus controls both body temperature and vomiting. A hot bath may send a signal to the hypothalamus, which interrupts the vomiting for a period of time. But with continued use of marijuana the vomiting reoccurs.

Increased strength of marihuana preparations

Dr. Wang, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado noted: “It’s been well documented that the amount of THC that now comes in cannabis is increasing substantially. In the ’90s the average was like 4% or 5%. Now in Colorado, it’s anywhere from 15% to 20%.” This means that THC causes more and more toxicity in patients.

In Colorado medical marijuana was legal since 2009 and recreational marijuana was legal since 2014. Dr. Wang researched the cannabis hyperemesis syndrome in Colorado. He found over 800,000 cases of vomiting in Colorado between 2013 and 2018. This was an increase of 29% from the time before marijuana became legal.

Symptoms of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome

The 5 most common symptoms of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome are continuous nausea, repeated vomiting, abdominal pain, weight loss because of decreased food intake and dehydration from fluid loss. Many people have several showers a day because it diminishes their nausea.

Three phases of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome

The cannabis hyperemesis syndrome often presents in 3 stages: the prodromal phase, the hyper emetic phase, and the recovery phase.

During the prodromal phase symptoms consist of nausea and abdominal pain early in the morning. The eating pattern is still normal in this phase. Some people increase their marijuana consumption as they hope to treat the nausea this way. This phase can last for months or years.

During the hyper emetic phase all of the 5 symptoms mentioned above can occur. This phase often continues until the patient gives up all marijuana consumption. This is when the recovery phase starts.

In the recovery phase the patient returns to a normal eating pattern. All of the symptoms gradually disappear. This phase lasts between days to months. But if the patient starts marijuana again, the symptoms return very quickly.

Treatment of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome

Patients who have severe vomiting require treatment in a hospital. The doctor starts intravenous fluids to treat dehydration. Some medicine to stop vomiting helps in the beginning. The physician must convince the patient to completely stop marijuana use, which helps to treat nausea and abdominal pain. Antacid medication like proton-pump inhibitors is useful to treat stomach lining inflammation. Frequent hot showers help to tone down nausea and vomiting. Hot showers seem to work via the hypothalamic brain center, which is responsible both for nausea/vomiting and heat perception. The physician may prescribe small amounts of benzodiazepams to treat anxiety.

By avoiding marijuana in any form THC, which is a powerful stimulus for CB1 and CB2 receptors gets washed out of the system. This allows the endocannabinoid system to rebalance itself. As long as the patient stays away from marijuana there is usually a complete recovery.

Marijuana and Uncontrolled Vomiting

Marijuana and Uncontrolled Vomiting

Conclusion

Since marijuana is legal in many jurisdictions the cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) occurs more and more often. Emergency teams at hospitals are kept busy treating these types of patients. It appears that CHS develops in patients who use marijuana regularly and use it in higher concentrations. Nausea and vomiting are the most common symptoms. Some patients can cope for a period of time by taking frequent hot showers. But eventually this home remedy does no longer work. A brief hospital stay may help the patient to recover from this syndrome. The patient needs to stay away from marijuana products to recover from CHS completely, otherwise there will be a relapse.

Jul
04
2020

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

By | Abdominal Pain, antibiotics, diet, Gastrointestinal Disease, immune system

In general, probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems can help patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). It is important to realize that about ¾ of Americans suffer from digestive problems. They develop symptoms of gas, bloating, diarrhea and stomach pains. To put it another way, about 1 in 7 Americans suffer from the condition, called chronic irritable bowel syndrome. That is to say, he underlying problem is an imbalance of gut bacteria where the bad ones outnumber the good ones. There are a number or reasons why bowel flora gets disrupted. We eat more processed foods, less fiber, and beef products from industry farms contain antibiotic residues. In feedlots for beef cattle antibiotics are fed to the animals as growth promoters. The residues in the meat kill the good bacteria in our guts and the bad ones proliferate. This causes digestive problems, but also weakens our immune system.

How probiotics work

Probiotics can restore our gut flora to a large extent. But some of the probiotic action gets lost in the stomach from the acidic milieu. A recent publication from a panel of gastroenterologists has not supported the wide use of probiotics. They came to the conclusion that probiotics have not shown enough benefit to a number of clinical conditions. The researchers mentioned Crohn’s disease, C. difficile infection, ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in particular of not responding to probiotics. But this may be because of inactivation of some of the power of the probiotics by stomach acid. In addition, by not using phages to potentiate the probiotic action probiotics may fail to permanently to improve the gut flora. I have previously discussed the importance of probiotics for the gut flora.

History and use of bacteriophages

Bacteriophages are now often just called phages. Dr. Frederick Twort, an Englishman detected phages in 1915 during World War I. Essentially a phage consists of either DNA or RNA and a protein envelope around this. Phages are very specific for certain bacterial strains. They attach to the bacteria and inject their own DNA or RNA into the bacteria. This stops the bacteria from multiplying, but makes the bacteria produce many more identical phages. Phages are useful to control the growth of problem bugs including antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the regulatory agencies were slow to approve phages despite a good safety record. Life Extension Magazine recently published a review article about this subject.

Phages helping to protect probiotic bacteria

Phages naturally play a role in keeping the gut flora stable. In this lengthy review, published in January 2020 phage actions are reviewed. It also mentions the connection between the gut flora and the immune system. The Life Extension Magazine article mentioned above describes experiments that show the action of phages. E. coli is the main bacterium in the large intestine. It is also the bacterium that can cause pneumonia, diarrhea and urinary tract infections.

Experiments with bacteria and phages in Petri dishes

According to the Life Extension Magazine article researchers did experiments with Bifidobacterium longum, one of the desirable gut bacteria. This was placed on a Petri dish along with E. coli bacteria. In a second Petri dish Bifidobacterium longum, E. coli and a phage mix were placed. After 5 hours there was hardly any growth of Bifidobacterium longum in the first petri dish, as it was crowded out by E. coli. The result in the second Petri dish was interesting: the Bifidobacterium longum colonies were 7000-times higher in number than in the other Petri dish without the phage mixture. The phages had selectively attacked the E. coli bacteria, which made room for the Bifidobacterium longum bacteria to multiply.

Animal experiments with bacteria and phages

The Life Extension Magazine review mentions animal experiments with phages next. One group of mice received B. longum and the disease-causing E. coli in their food. The other group had the same bacteria plus a mix of phages directed against E. coli. For the phage group the results within 24 hours were as follows.

  • The E. coli count in the small intestine was 10-fold lower, in the large intestine 100-fold lower and in the fecal matter 100-fold lower.
  • The phage group also had a 100-fold increase of the B. longum count in the small intestine. The large intestine also had a 100-fold increase of the B. longum count. And there was a 40-fold increase of B. longum in the fecal matter.

Control mice without the phage mix developed constipation and intestinal segments showed redness, swelling and leaks. In contrast, the phage mix group of mice showed no side effects and had improved digestive function.

Human studies using probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems

Safety tests of phage therapy were next in 2005 involving 15 volunteers. There were no side effects using two different phage concentrations to diminish E. coli. Researchers had done other safety experiments in Russia and in Poland in the past. Patients with ulcerative colitis responded with improved symptoms and improved endoscopic findings to treatment with two probiotics. They received fermented milk products (Cultura) containing live lactobacilli (La-5) and bifidobacteria (Bb-12) for 4 weeks. There were 51 patients with ulcerative colitis and 10 patients with familial adenomatous polyposis. Abdominal cramps, Involuntary defecation, leakage and the need for napkins were significantly reduced in both groups. An endoscopic score of inflammation showed a significant decreased when the baseline exam was compared to the exam after the 4-week intervention.

Literature review about phages

Here is a thorough review in a publication dated 2011, which describes research from Poland and other countries describing the action of bacteriophages, now simply called phages. It lists many human experiments and shows that phages are safe to use in humans.

Irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) presents with a pathological intestinal function, which can be quite disabling. Another name for it is “spastic colon”, because many patients complain of significant bowel spasms. Some health providers still use this alternative term. This syndrome is more common among women and there is a theory that female hormones may have something to do with the pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome. Testosterone on the other hand may have a calming effect on the gastrointestinal tract.

Symptoms and treatment of IBS

Generally speaking, irritable bowel syndrome occurs first in the teens or early twenties, but then frequently tends to become chronic. The patient chiefly complains of abdominal bloating and distension. Bowel movements lead to a marked relief of pain. There is often mucous in the stools. After a bowel movement there is often a feeling that the rectum did not empty entirely, even though it did. Food intake or stress can bring on these symptoms and they always occur during the waking period. At nights most patients have no pain.

Among other measures taking probiotics alone or mixed with phages can normalize the bowel flora. In older men IBS symptoms may indicate a reduction in testosterone production. If the blood contains a low testosterone level, the physician may want to replace the missing testosterone with injections or bioidentical testosterone creams. This can improve IBS in older males.

A safe delivery system for probiotics and a phage blend for digestive problems

Life Extension has developed a dual capsule that brings the inner content safely through the stomach and protects the mix of probiotics and phages from stomach acid. The capsule only opens in the small intestine where it releases its content of probiotics and phages into the gut. This allows the good bacteria like B. longum to multiply and suppresses E. coli, which would otherwise interfere with the beneficial bacteria.

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

Probiotics and a Phage Blend for Digestive Problems

Conclusion

About ¾ of Americans suffer from digestive problems. Many have a disbalance of the gut flora. But it is not easy to replace poor gut flora with a healthy one. Recent research showed that a combination of 7 probiotic strains with a mix of 4 E. coli fighting phages can give tremendous relief from bloating, diarrhea and abdominal cramps to patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Life Extension has developed a special dual capsule that “sneaks” the capsule through the stomach. It will only open in the small intestine. This way the content of the inner capsule with the mix of probiotics/phages stays safe from the stomach acid. At the end many more beneficial bowel-bacteria are growing in the small and large intestine. This normalizes the symptoms of the patient and leads to better digestion of food. Probiotics and phages are the new players in the gut microbiome.

Jul
29
2017

Some Drink Milk, Others Are Lactose Intolerant

By | Abdominal Pain, autoimmune disease, breast cancer, diet, exercise, heart attack, Hormones, milk

Some drink milk, others are lactose intolerant; this is the fact about drinking milk.

For a long time the dairy marketing board advertised with the slogan: “Got milk?”. But dairy milk consumption has declined over the past decades.

Why this is has been reviewed in this article. I like to review the problem of lactose intolerance, milk as a source of calcium to prevent osteoporosis and offer alternatives to milk consumption.

Lactose intolerance

Milk cows have been around in Europe for about 6000 years. But not everybody can tolerate milk products. Most of the Europeans, North Americans and Australians have adjusted the digestive enzymes in their duodenum to produce enzymes, called lactase that digest milk sugar (lactose) into glucose and galactose. But up to 75% of the world population (Africa, South America, Asia) is lactase deficient; they cannot tolerate dairy products. They get abdominal cramping, intestinal gas, bloating, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting from drinking a glass of dairy milk. This link explains why goat milk is better than cow’s milk for those who cannot tolerate cow’s milk.

It is also interesting that many people who are lactase deficient can tolerate cheeses, yogurt and other fermented milk products as the fermenting bacteria have digested the lactose.

Other problems with dairy products

Problems with mass production of dairy items are the following:

  • Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) are responsible for the majority of milk products on grocery market shelves. This means that the animals are fed unnatural corn, which leads to deficiencies and omega-6 fatty acids in the milk products.
  • Herds of animals receive antibiotics to prevent infections.
  • Farmers are administering bovine growth hormone (bST, bovine somatotropin) to stimulate more milk production. The antibiotics lead to superbugs in humans, the bST may be causing autoimmune diseases and breast cancer in humans. The healthiest milk is milk from grass-fed cows. It is high in omega-3 fatty acids. All of the milk products derived from this type of milk are also healthy.

Milk as a source of calcium

One key advertising slogan of the dairy industry used to be that milk would be such a good source of calcium, which would prevent osteoporosis. But milk also has a lot of animal protein in it, which acidifies blood. This means that the kidneys use calcium to neutralize acidic blood and excrete calcium. The net result is that there is more calcium leaving the body. Some of the calcium from the bone serves to keep the balance between acidity and alkalinity neutral.

This 12 year long Harvard Nurses’ Health Study involving 77, 761 women between the ages of 34 to 59 showed that a higher consumption of milk did not protect against hip and wrist fractures.

The myth that full fat milk causes heart attacks and strokes

There is another myth floating around, namely that full fat milk would be bad for the heart because of increased saturated fatty acids. But an Australian study showed that full fat milk is healthier for you than milk with less fat.

After 14.4 years of follow-up the group that consumed the most milk compared to the lowest fat intake group had a 69% lower death rate from cardiovascular disease!

A 2016 study showed that consumption of plain yogurt was associated with better health outcomes on the long term. Be more concerned about the sugar content than the fat content of yogurt!

Prevention of osteoporosis

For years numerous sources have indoctrinated us to accept a false concept. It is the concept of increasing milk consumption (“Got milk?”) for increased calcium intake and possible osteoporosis prevention. The sales mantra went like this: Milk-calcium-osteoporosis prevention. Now we know the real truth. Milk provides protein and calcium.  But  absorption of calcium is poor and the acidified blood is alkalinized through calcium from milk and from the bone leaking calcium into the blood and into the urine. The end result is a net loss of calcium from the bone, as it is more important to the body to keep the blood’s acid/base stable than to increase the calcium level in the bone. Sadly all the high consumers of milk from the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study ended up having fractures from osteoporotic bones.

Prevention of osteoporosis requires intake of vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and calcium (supplement or diet) as I have reviewed in this blog. In addition regular exercise is also very beneficial as is bioidentical sex-hormone replacement. It is interesting that a large clinical trial that I mentioned in this blog showed after 7 years that there were 35% to 38% less fractures of the hip than in the placebo group. Vitamin K2 is essential to keep calcium in the bones and to keep calcium out of the blood vessel walls. Vitamin D3 is important for calcium absorption through the gut wall and to deposit calcium into bone. Without all of these ingredients it is not possible to prevent osteoporosis.

Alternatives to cow’s milk consumption

  1. One obvious step is to replace cow’s milk by goat milk. As you can see from this link, there are many advantages to goat milk. What I find important is the fact that those with lactase deficiency often can tolerate goat milk while they would otherwise react to cow’s milk. There are also many goat milk products like cheese and yogurt, all of which are very healthy. They do not contain any antibiotics or bovine growth hormone (bST), the use of which is confined to cows. Goat milk products are also an excellent source of protein.
  2. You can eat a more vegetable-based diet. A lot of vegetables and fruit have calcium and protein in them.
  3. You can consume almond milk instead of cow’s milk. The downside to know is the fact that almond milk is not a significant source of protein. It has the advantage of being slightly alkaline; this will ensure that the calcium absorbed in the gut will reach the bones as long as you also supplement with vitamin D3 and vitamin K2. The many “fake milk” products such as rice milk, coconut milk and hemp milk are also poor protein sources. The only product higher in protein is soymilk. But soy has its own problems: over 90 % of the crop in North America is genetically engineered, and soy is a known allergen. As of recent, another product based on pea protein is available, and the protein content is excellent, so it is worth looking for it (It is called “Ripple”).
Some Drink Milk, Others Are Lactose Intolerant

Some Drink Milk, Others Are Lactose Intolerant

Conclusion

Drinking milk as a source of protein and calcium has become an obsession a few decades back. In the meantime it turned out that drinking milk tips the acid-base balance in the direction of acidity. This causes osteoporosis, as the kidneys excrete all of the calcium from milk that is absorbed. On top of that even more calcium is taken out from bones to recalibrate the acid-base balance.

Up to 75% of the world population is lactose intolerant. They get sick from drinking cow’s milk. But they usually tolerate goat milk quite well. Considering the fact that antibiotics are used in cow milk production and recombinant bovine growth hormone as well, I have joined the crowd that prefers goat milk instead of cow’s milk. I take the supplements I mentioned for bone maintenance (vitamin D3 and K2) and I get lots of calcium also from vegetables and salads. I have no lactose intolerance, but that’s my take on milk.

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Apr
01
2017

When Food Causes Inflammation

By | Abdominal Pain, Arthritis, autoimmune disease, Cancer, Cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, depression, Diabetes, diet, heart attack, Heart Disease, immune system, Inflammation, lifestyle, Nutrition, Obesity, Pain, Prevention, Processed food

Dr. Hal Blatman gave a talk about when food causes inflammation. He gave his talk on Dec. 9 at the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 9-11, 2016) in Las Vegas that I attended. The original title was “Food, Pain and Dietary Effects of Inflammation”.

Dr. Blatman is the medical director of Blatman Health and Wellness Center, Cincinnati and Batman Medical Services, Manhattan.

General remarks about nutrition

Dr. Blatman pointed out that mistakes of nutrition are often behind chronic diseases and illnesses. The physician’s task is to explain to patients how they can change their food intake to improve inflammation in the body and to allow the body to heal itself.

Hippocrates said 400 BC “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.

In this context Dr. Blatman stated that nutrition could exacerbate symptoms or relieve symptoms and there must be rules for good nutrition. If we do not take care of our nutrition, the gut flora composition changes and causes leaky gut syndrome. But if we consume healthy foods all of this improves.

Mathematical formula for when food causes inflammation

To make it easier to understand the impact of food on our health the speaker offered this formula:

G-B+R=P

G = stands for good, beneficial things you can put into your body.

B = bad, toxic things that affect your body negatively.

R = reserves that your body has since birth (minus the amounts you have used up)

P = pain and problems you are going to experience

It is P (pain and other medical problems) what brings the patient to see the doctor. G and B is what the patient can change. When done right, the P value in the formula reduces and the pain or medical problems go away.

Nutritional rules

Dr. Blatman said there are three rules about nutrition.

Rule #1 is to not eat fake or toxic foods

He listed NutraSweet, Splenda, Saccharin, margarine and olestra.

Aspartame

Aspartame experiments on rats showed that it can cause cancer: Dr. Blatman said that aspartame causes multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma in man. Aspartame worsens depression, 10% is metabolized in the liver into methanol, a nerve poison.

Splenda

Splenda (sucralose) originates from sugar. However, several chlorine atoms were inserted into the sugar molecule. It reduces beneficial microflora in the gut. It also interacts with liver enzymes, which interfere with the bioavailability of oral drugs.

Saccharin

Saccharin alters gut bacteria and increases glucose tolerance.

Hydrogenated fat and margarine

Insects don’t eat margarine, mold will not grow on it, and it will not support life. Merchants like it because food does not turn stale on shelves. Hydrogenated fats like margarine are like poisons. They raise the bad LDL cholesterol levels and reduce beneficial HDL cholesterol levels. The prostaglandin balance changes so that inflammation occurs. There is increased evidence of diabetes and the cell membrane composition changes. Proinflammatory cytokines can cause pain in the dorsal root ganglions. It follows from all of this that it is best to cut out all hydrogenated fat and margarines.

Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil

The cell membrane consists of two lipid layers at a specific ratio of omega-6 essential fatty acids and omega-3 essential fatty acids. It also contains triglycerides, phospholipids and protein. Cell membrane absorb nutrients to move into the cell and eliminate waste out of it. The cell membrane needs to remain flexible and within neurons needs to transmit electrical information. The membrane composition is critical for the cell membranes to perform optimally. It is here that the physician has to explain this to the patient. All the fats we eat are the raw material, which will make up our cell membranes. So what fat we eat that day travels into the cell wall that becomes part of it that day. The same process occurs with cell wall repair. If we eat hydrogenated fat that day, it travels into the cell wall.  A membrane with hydrogenated fat will:

  • Not transmit nutrients inside the cell
  • Will not transmit waste out
  • Causes the membrane to lose flexibility
  • In a nerve cell there will be abnormal neuron transmission

If we eat hydrogenated fat, we become like a “genuine GM truck fixed with inferior parts”, so Dr. Blatman. The interesting observation is that it takes 4 months after eliminating hydrogenated oil from the diet to get it out from red blood cells. Be aware that French fries increase pain for 4 months, so why eat them?

Olestra

Olestra, an artificial fat: This fat, Olestra has been developed as an artificial fat and is used in chips. It can cause diarrhea, abdominal cramps and weight gain with long-term use. Olestra belongs into the group of fake/toxic foods. Don’t eat Pringles or chips that are made with this.

Healthy oils

There are two types of essential fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids. Many processed foods contain only omega-6 fatty acids, because this is the cheapest way to produce them (they are based on vegetable oils). Instead you want to eat healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids contained in nuts and fish. You can also add molecularly distilled, high potency omega-3 fatty acids (purified fish oil) as a supplement to help restore the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 in your food intake. Avoid omega-6 fatty acids from corn oil, safflower oil, grape seed oil, soybean oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil and peanut oil.

Metabolism of omega-6 fatty acids versus omega-3 fatty acids

Compare the metabolism of omega-6 fatty acids with that of omega-3 fatty acids.

The linoleic acid of omega-6 fatty acids gets metabolized into arachidonic acid, which causes pro-inflammatory mediators, PGE2 and LTB4. On the other hand with omega-3 fatty acids alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is metabolized into EPA, DHA and the anti-inflammatory mediators PGE3 and LTB5.

It is easily understandable why a surplus of omega-6 fatty acids from processed foods will disbalance the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. This ratio should be 1:1 to 3:1, but many Americans’ omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is 6:1 to 18:1. Omega-6-fatty acids cause arthritis, heart disease and strokes. Be particularly careful in avoiding soybean oil, which is the most popular oil in the last few decades to foul up the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio through processed foods.

Balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids

When it comes to balancing omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your diet, be aware that nutritional balancing can help you restore the ideal omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 1:1 to 3:1. An easy way is to cut out processed foods as much as possible. Supplement with molecularly distilled fish oil capsules to add more omega-3 fatty acids into your food intake. Dr. Blatman gave the example of rheumatoid arthritis patients that were put on omega-3 supplements. After 24 weeks their joint swelling and tenderness went down.

Rebalancing the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio was able to treat depression as this research showed. This makes you wonder how much depression may be caused by overconsumption of processed food.

Suggested doses of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation

Dr. Blatman suggested the following doses of omega-3 supplementation for various purposes:

  • 1 gram/day as supplementation for healthy adults with a good diet
  • 1-3 grams/day for people with cardiovascular disease
  • 5-10 grams/day for patients with an autoimmune disease, with chronic pain or with neuropsychiatric conditions

He mentioned that these doses are empirical, but in his opinion definitely help. Due to quality differences he suggested that you buy fish oil capsules in a health food store where the quality is best. Stay away from discount stores (the quality is the worst) and drug stores.

Other healthy oils are olive oil and coconut oil. They are also useful for cooking.

Rule #2 is not to eat inflammatory foods

Our body functions like a luxury car; it needs pure food to function. Anything less leads to inflammation, particularly when you eat sugar and processed foods.

Inflammatory foods are sugar, white flour, fruit juice and white/red potatoes. A medium potato=1/2 cup of sugar! Other problematic foods are wheat grain contained in breads, pasta, cereal and thickeners in soups and sauces.

What is the problem with these foods? They break down the zonulin proteins that are a bridge between the lining cells of the gut.

This leads to an increase of intestinal permeability, and leaky gut syndrome can develop. Inflammatory cytokines from visceral fat add to the gut inflammation, and cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure can develop.

Fried potatoes, in particular the consumption of French fries, have been identified as the cause of inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD). Countries with the highest consumption of French fries have the highest incidence of IBD.

A Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet are anti-inflammatory diets.

Rule #3 is to not disturb the bowel flora

A healthy bowel flora is symbiotic with the body. You achieve this by eating green leafy vegetables. A toxic flora from dysbiotic microbes comes from eating white flour, white sugar and red meat. Red meat leaves residues on which dysbiotic bacteria thrive.

Symbiotic gut bacteria produce vitamin K, cobalamin, pyridoxine, biotin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and short fatty acids. They also degrade metabolic toxins, prevent pathogens from colonization and they stimulate the immune system to mature.

Dysbiosis occurs when the wrong diet consisting of sodas, white flour, sugar and red meat is over consumed. There are toxins that are produced by the dysbiotic microbes. These injure the bowel wall and make the immune system work harder. Immune system dysfunction, fatigue and fibromyalgia can follow.

Dr. Blatman stated that gut dysbiosis that causes leaky gut syndrome could also cause ulcer disease, diabetes, heart disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain and even cancer.

When Food Causes Inflammation

When Food Causes Inflammation

Conclusion

This was a whirlwind tour through a talk given by Dr. Blatman during the 24th Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging Medicine (Dec. 9-11, 2016) in Las Vegas. What food we eat determines what gut bacteria we harbor, symbiotic ones or toxic ones. This in turn determines which way our health develops. But the content of what we eat is also important. If we consume processed foods we end up consuming way too many omega-6 fatty acids, which cause inflammation, arthritis and heart disease. This is happening in front of our eyes, if we start seeing things the way they are. I was aware of this since the mid 1990’s. In a lecture I attended at a continuing education conference a cardiologist pointed out that inflammation was the determining factor of whether or not our patients would get a heart attack.

Cholesterol concept being replaced by inflammation concept

The lecturer mentioned then that the older cholesterol concept would be replaced by the newer inflammation concept. He was right, but it goes even further! There is the important omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, and fish oil supplementation helps. At the same time it is necessary cutting out processed foods. But there is the newer insight that our bowel flora and red meat consumption can culture toxic bacteria in our own gut. It is in our power to start eating more vegetables and cut out sugar and starchy food. It is time to see chips and French fries not as a “convenience” but a hazard to your health. Food does not have to cause inflammation; right food choices will help us to stay well and live longer.

May
28
2016

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

By | Abdominal Pain, Cancer, heart attack, premenopause, Stroke, Women’s Diseases

The newest craze is to treat menstrual cramps with medical marihuana, but there are two sides of medical marijuana. What women with menstrual cramps may not know is that it is estrogen dominance that is the cause of their symptoms. As women get closer to menopause they ovulate less often, and there are anovulatory menstrual cycles. This leads to a relative loss of progesterone from the corpus luteum that will form less frequently in the small cavity where the cyst with the egg was. Nature designed women’s menstrual cycle with mostly estrogen production in the first half of the menstrual cycle and mostly progesterone production in the second half of her cycle.

Other causes of estrogen dominance

When a woman gains weight, estrogen can also be produced in the fatty tissue due to an enzyme called aromatase. Androgenic hormones, which are testosterone-like and produced in the adrenal glands, get metabolized into estrogen through aromatase. This upsets the balance between progesterone and estrogen. Normally that balance when measured with saliva hormone tests should be higher than 200 to 1. But when progesterone production from the ovaries is missing, or when estrogen production is in overdrive through aromatase, estrogen is dominant.

Estrogen dominance

The progesterone to estrogen ratio drops below 200 to 1. This is bad news as it has consequences. It can cause a number of symptoms: migraine headaches, painful menstrual periods, endometriosis, and fibrocystic disease of the breasts with breast pain; even cancer can develop in the cervix, the uterus and the ovaries. Estradiol, the main estrogen compound in women, stimulates cells to divide, when it is not balanced by progesterone. Progesterone does the opposite: it balances the effects of estrogen.

Two sides of medical marijuana: treating symptoms

Drug companies always look out for symptoms that they can treat with a patented drug. The link at the beginning of this blog pointed out that “there are some very sick patients in need” to justify treating them with marijuana. This may relieve their symptoms for as long as they take the chemical compound. But it does nothing for the hormone imbalance. With the next menstrual cycle the symptoms will recur, and the marijuana will be consumed intermittently for years to come.

The problem with treating just the symptoms

What is worse is that the women think that nothing bad can happen to them: they are just relieving their symptoms. But as pointed out, unbalanced estradiol can give them migraine headaches. It can cause painful menstrual periods with or without endometriosis. Breast pain can be caused from fibrocystic disease. The worst of all is that after decades of estrogen dominance cancer of the cervix, cancer of the uterus and cancer of the ovaries can be caused. This is when drug manufacturers have unwittingly victimized their customers.

Proper treatment of menstrual cramps

1) Premenopausal women: The proper treatment for estrogen dominance because of a lack of progesterone in premenstrual women is to replace the progesterone deficit by bioidentical progesterone cream. Naturopathic physicians and anti-aging physicians understand this and treat it this way. Many practicing physicians including specialists, however, use anti-inflammatories and pain medications to treat this. Replacing the missing progesterone is causal treatment. Treating pain is symptomatic treatment. Treating the cause treats the medical problem properly; symptomatic treatment treats the drug company to a profit at the expense of the patient’s health.

2) Women with obesity: As explained already, estrogen dominance can also be produced from estrogen conversion of androgenic adrenal gland hormones due to aromatase in fatty tissue. The key here is to concentrate on watching the diet and exercising regularly. Even 10 to 20 pounds of weight loss can have significant effects on lowering estrogen production. The treating naturopath or anti-aging physician should measure progesterone and estrogen levels in a saliva hormone test. one should calculate the progesterone to estrogen ratio. If progesterone is missing, this can be added by giving a bioidentical progesterone cream or by taking oral micronized progesterone capsules at bedtime. As mentioned above, this is a causal therapy, and will in time not only cure the painful periods, but will prevent all of the other negative conditions mentioned. And most of all, there are no negative side effects, because the body knows the bioidentical hormones.

Two sides of medical marijuana: side effects of marijuana

Marijuana has real side effects. It can cause high blood pressure, dry mouth, headaches, dizziness, hallucinations, depression and sexual problems. Marijuana is unsafe with pregnancy, as it can cause childhood leukemia. Marijuana can cause rapid heartbeats and increases the risk of having a heart attack. Whoever uses marijuana regularly will develop lung cancer or emphysema. There is an association of marijuana use and seizures: in some patients it makes seizures worse, in others it makes them better. But marijuana is a central nervous system suppressant. So it is imperative that you stop marijuana two weeks before any surgical procedure, as the anesthetic and other medicines given during surgery will also depress the nervous system.

Why the difference between hormones and marijuana?

You may ask yourself why there would be such a difference in the side effect profile of hormones versus marijuana? Hormones are natural messenger molecules in the body. Our genes have designed hormone receptors to communicate between our brain, the hormone glands, and cells in organs with these hormone receptors. This design helps to ensure optimal balance of our metabolic processes.

In contrast, marijuana is affecting cannabinoid receptors in the brain. There are several subtypes of cannabinoid receptors that researchers defined at this point. But these were only detected because researchers were curious what marijuana was doing. This research is in flux. We do not know enough about the long term side effects of marijuana. We do know that marijuana has central nervous depressive effects, because it is binding to these receptors. This makes these receptors not available for the normal brain function. One of these effects may even be that it would block pain perception for a period of time. But nobody knows how safe this is in the long term.

Another possible effect, which makes it to the media a lot, is a possible anti-cancer effect. Before you get your hopes up, read this thorough review of all the cancer research with cannabinoids. I am afraid that at this point there is no clear evidence to support that cannabinoids help fight cancer persistently. There are occasional cures reported, but this is not a persistent pattern.

Safety of synthetic hormones versus bioidentical hormones

You may have heard of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) that came to an abrupt halt in 2002. They used synthetic estrogens (derived from horses) and synthetic progestins (bad copies of progesterone). Their results were breast cancer, uterine cancer, heart attacks and strokes that developed in patients who took these synthetic hormones. Originally the investigators wanted to show that HRT (hormone replacement therapy) would prevent heart attacks and strokes. In addition, the purpose of the trial was also to show that osteoporosis would improve. But the opposite was true!

Synthetic hormones block natural hormone receptors

The synthetic hormones blocked the natural receptors, so the woman’s own hormones could not reach their target cells. Had the investigators used bioidentical hormones, these would have stimulated the natural receptors, and research objectives of making these women symptom-free would have been reached. The WHI was a huge debacle, which showed that research with drug company support can lead to disasters. The only problem now is that women are fearful, as they do not understand how hormones work. The bioidentical hormones, when balanced properly, are harmless. Synthetic hormones from drug manufacturers are interfering with the body’s hormone receptors causing all kinds of serious side effects including cancer. Bioidentical hormones don’t do that.

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

Two Sides Of Medical Marijuana

Conclusion

Those who like to push the sale of marijuana will minimize the side effects of marijuana. They also push testimonials of women who received help with regard to painful periods.

You rarely hear about a physician who analyzes the hormones of a women and replaces what hormone is missing with bioidentical hormones to normalize estrogen dominance. The latter approach is a safe approach with no side effects, because you are using a natural hormone (progesterone) that stimulates your body’s hormone receptors. Synthetic hormones or marijuana are foreign substances to the body, partially blocking cell receptors, which blocks normal cell function. But nobody knows exactly what these chemicals do other than produce a myriad of side effects. Are you really willing to put your health at risk? After reading this, the answer should be clear.

Dec
06
2014

Regrets Following Holiday Foods

By | Abdominal Pain, Angina, gout, heart attack, High Blood Pressure, Nutrition

Countless blogs have been written about gaining pounds with holiday food. This is not my topic in this blog. I am looking at the medical evidence of what is happening to our bodies, some of which is permanent. I like to focus on the gallbladder, blood pressure, heart function and gout. I will provide little clinical vignettes that make my points clear.

Gallbladder disease

Many patients are unaware that their gallbladder has developed stones that accumulate over several years, perhaps even several decades. But, if infection sets in there is an acute flare-up of gallbladder pain, which can be excruciating. Also, when one of the stones is transported into the gallbladder duct, there is a sudden colicky pain similar to labor pains. In cases where the migrating stone blocks the common bile duct, the patient can get jaundiced and the pancreatic juice can get backed up leading to an acute pancreatitis.

What does that have to do with overindulging during a Thanksgiving meal? Fatty sauces, ham, and gravy can all lead to more cholesterol deposits in the gallbladder and make stones larger. Add to this a rich dessert with ice cream and a dollop of whipped cream and you’ve got yourself a fairly fatty feast. So, this one fatty meal can make a difference by bringing on symptoms of a previously undiagnosed condition, and you spend hours in an emergency room of a hospital.

The scenario could look like this case:

Fred is a 40-year-old teacher, somewhat overweight who enjoyed a holiday meal at his parent’s place for Thanksgiving. His health has been good with no surgeries. Following the turkey dinner, which he enjoyed he noticed right upper abdominal pain, and he started to vomit. As the pain did not improve, his parents called an ambulance that brought him to a hospital. The emergency physician said that he was concerned about Fred’s gallbladder. He ordered a CT scan and this showed multiple stones with one of the stones being stuck in the cystic duct. Despite pain medication and bed rest the situation did not resolve (the stone did not pass). A surgeon was called in and a laparoscopic cholecystectomy was performed. Fred recovered within only 3 days and could return to teaching. The fatty food of the Thanksgiving dinner was only the tip of the iceberg in this case. The fact that there have been many pre-existing gallbladder stones tells us that this patient had the chronic habit to eat foods with too much fat and cholesterol.

High blood pressure

Extra salt intake leads to an elevation of blood pressure. If a person has borderline high blood pressure, the extra salt intake from holiday meals can get the blood pressure out of control and this in turn can cause a stroke (typically a hemorrhagic stroke) or is a strain to the heart leading to a heart attack or to congestive heart failure.

Janice is a 50-year-old janitor who has had problems with borderline high blood pressure readings. Normally her blood pressure was 140 over 90, and when she watched her salt intake it would go down to 125 over 80. She bought a blood pressure monitoring device, just so she could measure her own blood pressure at home. Following the Thanksgiving turkey dinner she noticed that she developed fullness in her head and a headache and her face looked flushed. She took her blood pressure with a reading of 160 over 100. It had never been that high. When she saw her doctor he asked her what she had for Thanksgiving dinner: they sat together with friends and had potato chips with dip and drank some red wine with it. Next for the meal she enjoyed the roasted, brined turkey and ham. Yes, she did add some more salt to the mashed potatoes too.

The doctor found her blood pressure to be 165 over 100. He explained to her that she needs to go on a DASH diet, which is low in salt. He also started her on blood pressure pills. Here is another link for a low salt diet.

Heart attack following turkey dinner

When working as an intern in teaching hospitals of McMaster University of Hamilton/Ont. during my training in 1975 to 1978 I noticed a strange correlation between holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and intensive care unit admissions with acute heart attacks. Later a formal study was published that there is indeed such a correlation between consuming a big meal with fat, salt and refined carbohydrates and the development of a heart attack.

This likely does not develop without prior silent conditions of high triglycerides, high cholesterol and insulin resistance leading to inflammatory substances circulating in the blood. The C-reactive protein is one of the substances that has emerged as a useful monitoring device and a fasting insulin level. Both should be low or the person is at a higher risk of developing a heart attack.

Add to this a festive, large meal and you got troubles at your hand like in the next case:

Joan is a 62-year-old high school principal who developed chest pain within 2 hours of having enjoyed her Christmas dinner. She was known to have high cholesterol levels for about 5 years and she had been taking statins for 4 years as diet alone could not control it. But she loved food in general and was about 20 pounds overweight. The doctor had discussed exercise with her, but she felt too busy doing other things. Now all of this came back to her as she was recovering in a hospital bed from an emergency stent procedure. They had to insert two stents to overcome narrowing of the coronary arteries. She was now pain free and felt that she needed to do something about her lifestyle. She would see a dietician and record her weights daily. She wanted to loose 20 pounds and yes, she wanted to start mild exercise when her doctor allowed it and gradually build it up to a maintenance program.

Regrets Following Holiday Foods (Gout Patient)

Regrets Following Holiday Foods (Gout Patient)

Gout attack following rich meal

It is known since the Middle Ages that feasting on a large meal of beef combined with lots of beer or wine can cause a gout attack. Gout at this time was known as a disease of the affluent. The poor obviously could not afford big feasts. Today we know that purines are the end product of meats and this gets excreted in the kidneys. However, alcohol prevents the purines to be excreted in the urine so that uric acid levels exceed a certain limit beyond which uric acid crystals are precipitated in soft tissues like around joints, which is very painful.

The following case will illustrate this:

Carl, a 45-year-old sales person suddenly developed excruciating pain and swelling in his left big toe. He went to the emergency room of the closest hospital. After some tests he was told that he had come down with acute gout. His blood tests showed a high uric acid level and biopsy samples from the left toes also revealed uric acid crystals. With the help of colchicine and allopurinol things turned back to normal within 3 days.

The gout episode occurred just 4 hours after his holiday meal consisting of a few beers and copious amounts of turkey meat. He also seems to be addicted to soft drinks which are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup which he consumes freely all day long.

It is known that sugar from soft drinks make a person 85% more prone to develop gout than a person who uses diet drinks or water.

Here is a diet sheet for Carl to prevent his next gout attack.

Conclusion

Who would have thought in the past that food could be a dangerous substance with the potential of making us sick? But this is exactly what I wanted to point out in this blog. Of course, it does not stop at holidays where we tend to eat more of what we normally eat. It pays dividends watching what we consume even in the days between feasts. For instance a DASH diet is a good idea for those of us who may have developed borderline high blood pressure. Avoiding excessive red meat is a good idea for prevention of heart attacks and strokes, as your cholesterol stays lower. Avoiding soft drinks with sugar and fructose is good prevention for avoiding obesity, cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Get the greens going (vegetables, salads etc.) to live longer without disabilities.

Last edited Dec. 6, 2014

Sep
03
2014

Probiotics Are Important For Your Health

By | Abdominal Pain, Cancer, Diabetes, Gastrointestinal Disease, Heart Disease, Infectious Disease, Nutrition, Obesity, Stroke

We need to be aware that probiotics are important for your health. Growing up in Germany after World War II I remember that occasionally there were interesting newspaper headings. It  showed an older person in the nineties when the average life expectancy was in the late 60’s. The reporter asked, “What did you do to turn that old?” The answer was that the person always ate a lot of yogurt.

This did not sink into mainstream medicine at that time and people did not really believe this statement. How could eating yogurt make a person live longer?

Fast forward to 2014. You read about probiotics in magazines, on the Internet, and even TV commercials expose you to it.

In the Wikipedia it is accepted that yogurt can help seniors who have a lower bifidus bacteria population in their colon to rebalance their gut flora, which will prevent colon cancer. It also describes that yogurt can help yeast infections in women.

In the meantime probiotics have been developed and concentrations like 20 to 80 billion bacteria per capsule with a mix of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species are available in the health food store for prevention.

The medical profession has studied the effects of higher potency probiotics and came to the conclusion that probiotics have indeed effects on the body far beyond the gut.

Here are a few highlights.

Bowel disease improves

In cases of bacterial or viral diarrhea the frequency of bowel movements and the intensity of bowel cramps gets helped within a few days, and recovery from the diarrhea is much faster with probiotic than without. Patient with irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis are helped with probiotics. Probiotics help both constipation and diarrhea in otherwise healthy people as well.

Immune system booster

The small bowel contains clusters of immune cells within the bowel wall. Together they are a formidable immune organ in the gut, which connects to the blood and the rest of the immune system throughout the body (lymph glands, spleen, bone marrow). Specifically it has been proven in humans that macrophages, natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T-lymphocytes, which are the working horses of the immune system, are all stimulated by probiotics.

Less respiratory infections

School children who were given 1 capsule of probiotics twice per day for 3 months and flu symptoms and absenteeism were observed due to colds and flus. When they did get a viral infection, the illness had a shorter course, resulting in much less school absenteeism over the course of the trial when compared to a placebo group. It seems that a healthy gut flora stimulates the immune system to work at its best.

Cancer prevention

To a certain degree cancer can be prevented by probiotics and other nutritional factors. Breast cancer is one of the cancers where probiotics have been shown to be effective in reducing disease.

Apparently the probiotic bacteria bind to the cancer causing factors (carcinogens) that some of the bad gut bacteria produce. Probiotics also suppress other bacteria that convert pro-carcinogens into carcinogens. This is not all: the probiotics also interfere with enzymes involved in the production of carcinogens in the gut. This stimulates the gut immune cells to produce cytokines that are needed in the battle against early cancer. Probiotics play a role in multiple processes that help the body to fight cancer, not only in the gut, but also in the rest of the body!

Helps diabetes get better

How can gut bacteria help diabetes, which is an endocrinological disease? Both human and animal studies have shown that insulin resistance is improved by probiotics. In a 6-week study both blood sugar levels and hemoglobin A1C values (that measure long-term control of diabetes) dropped significantly by eating 300 grams of yoghurt per day when compared to a control group who did not.

Obesity

Probiotics given to mothers at least one month prior to birth and at least up to 6 months after birth prevented excessive weight gain in both the mothers and their children. In addition, probiotics can suppress a lot of the inflammatory substances in obesity.

Probiotics reduce cardiovascular risk

Several studies have shown that probiotics lower LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol and inflammatory markers in the blood stream resulting in lower risk for hardening of the arteries.

One should not look at probiotics as a single factor for prevention of heart attacks and strokes. Combine probiotics with exercise and a low refined carbohydrate diet. High sugar and starch diets lead to absorption of sugar in the stomach and small intestine. This results in a lack of nutrients to support the gut flora. Combine probiotics with vegetables and lettuce. Then you have the proper mix of fiber, minerals and other nutrients to sustain balanced bacteria in the bowels. This prevents heart attacks and strokes and keeps inflammatory markers down. I have blogged about this before and stated that the combination of organic food (to avoid antibiotic residues in our diet), fruit and vegetables combined with probiotics will protect you from heart attacks and strokes.

Probiotics Important For Your Health

Probiotics Are Important For Your Health

Conclusion

Maybe the newspaper articles in Germany after the Second World War were right. There is something in yogurt (Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species) that can make you live longer. The explanation seems simple: add probiotics to your diet.  You will have a better immune system and get less respiratory infections. But you also prevent heart attacks, strokes and prevent obesity and cancer. All of this in combination will lead to healthier lives, and more people will live to tell about it.

Last edited Sept. 3, 2014

Aug
23
2014

Ebola Virus An Emerging Killer Infection

By | Abdominal Pain, Infectious Disease, Prevention

Ebola virus has now infected about 2600 and killed more than 1400 people in its short history. That’s a mortality of about 54% overall.

Two Americans who had been treating patients with Ebola virus disease (formerly called Ebola hemorrhagic fever) in Liberia, West Africa had been treated back in the US at a hospital in Atlanta. They have just been released as cured. They have been treated with an experimental drug called ZMapp. This is a monoclonal antibody from mice against surface components of the Ebola virus.

At this point no safety studies on humans have been performed with ZMapp, but a recent ethics committee meeting of the WHO has determined that the emergency use of ZMapp would be ethically acceptable due to the high death rate of the disease otherwise without treatment.

Other scenarios of killer infections

Several decades back some of the diseases mentioned in this article were basically unknown to the general population, but in the meantime some new infectious diseases have received a lot of media attention.

You will remember that there was an outbreak of anthrax spores by inhalation in 2001 in the US. A recent New England Journal of Medicine report points out that prior to 2001 the death rate of patients who had inhaled anthrax spores was 80% to 90% even with the use of antibiotics. However due to earlier detection and diagnosis, and due to aggressive supportive measures this epidemic of anthrax by inhalation had a mortality of only 45% toward the end or that epidemic. Had there been a new substance used that was ineffective, but harmless otherwise the reduced death rate would have been attributed to the erroneous conclusion that this new drug was effective in reducing mortality rates. This article cautions that rigid safety and effectiveness studies have to be done on ZMapp to ensure that it is a safe and effective drug to treat Ebola virus and that the reduction in death rates is truly from the drug, not just from improved supportive measures.

Other newer infections have been Marburg hemorrhagic fever caused by the Marburg virus. This also belongs to the Filoviridae family of viruses to which Ebola virus belongs as well. Then there is the SARS virus, the cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome. Not too long ago the BSE prion, which is the virus causing bovine spongiform encephalopathy made history.

What do we know about the Ebola virus?

There are 5 strains of the Ebola virus, one of which (the Zaire strain) is responsible for the present outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Africa. Dr. Jon Lai who is associate professor of biochemistry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City has developed antibodies in mice that will slow down and attack the aggressive Ebola virus when it enters the human body.

Ebola virus disease occurs in remote villages of the rainforest in Central and West Africa where fruit bats are the natural hosts of Ebola virus. It is transmitted from local fruit bats to animals (monkeys among others), to humans and can then be transmitted to other humans. The virus is not as easily transmitted as colds or the flu. For instance, the Ebola virus does not transmit through the air, food or water. But you can get Ebola virus through skin contact, fluid contact and through needles with blood from an infected person. Also, when surfaces are contaminated with infectious body fluids and you touch this contaminated surface with your skin, the virus will penetrate through the skin and get you infected.

There have been several outbreaks in Africa since 1976 as you can see from this WHO link.

This link also suggests that proper hygiene measure like cleaning of pig and monkey farms with sodium hypochlorite should be effective in inactivating the virus, which makes virus transmission to humans more difficult.

Ebola Virus An Emerging Killer Infection

Ebola Virus An Emerging Killer Infection

Symptoms of Ebola virus disease

Ebola virus disease has an incubation time of 8 to 10 days where the person may complain of some tiredness, but is not sick yet. This is the time when the Ebola virus multiplies. It  paralyzes the immune system and distributes itself through the organ system.

After these initial days of incubation there is a sudden onset of a sore throat, high fever and headaches, lack of appetite, a stomachache and weakness.

Now the Ebola virus disease takes off and becomes life threatening as the major organs are infected with the virus, and as a result, vital organs shut down their functions. As the production of coagulation factors from the liver stops, there is major bleeding from body orifices (nose, ears, eyes, mouth, and bloody diarrhea). A skin rash develops all over the body from bleeding into the skin.

At this point the disease gets out of control as the blood circulation collapses and the affected person dies in shock. Otherwise, if fluid loss can be corrected in time with intravenous fluids, there is the danger to die from multi-organ failure. A few persons manage to survive, if the immune system produces enough antibodies in a timely manner to inactivate the Ebola virus.

Treatment options

At this time there is no effective treatment against the Ebola virus disease. As mentioned earlier, ZMapp is an experimental drug that may have some merit treating Ebola virus disease in the future, but at this point it is considered experimental as human safety studies and effectiveness studies of the drug have not been completed. Any experimental treatment with ZMapp will be part of these studies for the next few years, but production issues will have to be sorted out as well as presently there is not enough ZMapp around to treat all of the Ebola virus infected people in Africa.

This leaves us with the only preventative approach of interrupting the infectious pathway. We do know that there is a geographic zone in Africa where fruit bats, the natural hosts of Ebola virus live. It is in the same geographic zone that all of the known Ebola virus disease cases have originated from. It follows from this that it is safer for humans to live outside that zone. So do not plan sightseeing or other trips into those areas, if you value your life; I should qualify this by saying “until an effective treatment against the Ebola virus has been established”.

Those who bury dead ones who came down with this disease must wear safety suits, which look like space suits. As already indicated, surfaces need to be disinfected with sodium hypochlorite. All of these hygienic measures interrupt the Ebola virus transmission. Quarantine measures need to be strictly enforced for those who are suspected of harboring Ebola virus disease to prevent spreading this disease into the rest of society.

Conclusions

Although the medical puzzle of the Ebola virus disease has not yet been completely solved, there are encouraging facts that have been learnt. The Ebola virus has been around Africa since 1976 and several outbreaks have occurred on this continent since. But spread beyond these borders has been avoided due to strict isolation practices. Even within Africa the worst cases of Ebola outbreaks have occurred mostly in villages where hygienic measures are not adhered to as thoroughly when compared to larger African cities where isolation around Ebola virus disease patients is strictly enforced by the local authorities.

Hopefully with the emergence of an effective treatment this disease will get out of the lime light as did other killer diseases in the recent past.

More information on Ebola virus: http://nethealthbook.com/infectious-disease/infectious-disease-infections/ebola-virus/

Last edited Nov. 8, 2014

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Oct
26
2013

Being SAD in Fall (Seasonal Affective Disorders)

By | Abdominal Pain, Hormones, Insomnia, Mental Health, Pain, Prevention, Stress management, Vitamins and supplements

Any general practitioner knows that fall and winter are the time when patients come in with a variety of complaints like a lack of energy, problems sleeping, inability to cope with stress, but often there may be non-specific pains like muscle spasm in the back, the shoulders, or indigestion. These symptoms can all be part of seasonal affective disorders (SAD) like depression, the winter blues, often coupled with anxiety.

Emotional health does not fit easily into our health care model. The receptionist will warn the doctor that this is going to be a “difficult” patient. If the doctor has only time for a 5 or 10-minute visit, where only one or two problems can be dealt with, then this does not fit when a patient with SAD has a problem concentrating, falling asleep, and presents with a long list of other complaints. Even 20 minutes or 30 minutes may not be enough to deal with this patient adequately. It is easier to send the patient for tests and to prescribe an antidepressant and a sleeping pill and reschedule for a follow-up appointment. But this likely will result in normal blood tests and investigations, added health care costs, but no solution to the patient’s problem when he  or she simply states “doctor, I feel so sick”.

I thought it would be interesting to review how our emotions can get out of balance and review an integrative approach to SAD.

Definition of SAD

Seasonal depression (also called seasonal affective disorder) occurs during fall (autumn) and winter, but this alternates with no depressive episodes during spring and summer. A person defined to suffer from SAD would have suffered from two major depressive episodes during the past 2 years with no depressive episodes in the intervening seasons of spring and summer (Ref.1). Alternative names for SAD are winter depression and wintertime blues. Typically SAD lasts about 5 months.

Brain hormone disbalance

Around 2002 it was detected that in mice there was a second light sensitive pathway from ganglion cells in the retina that were responsible for circadian hormone rhythms. This was later confirmed to be true also in humans, where photosensitive retinal ganglion cells buried deep in the retina and containing the pigment melanopsin absorb blue light in the visible light spectrum. The electrical signals are sent along the retinohypothalamic tract, so that light from the retina regulates the hormone circadian rhythm (daily hormone fluctuations including the sleep/wake cycle) in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is one of the major hormone centers in the center of the brain. As this publication shows there are minor genetic sequence changes for the retinal photopigment, melanopsin in patients with SAD. This affects about 1 to 2% of the American population. Many more have probably partial defects in the function of this pigment.

Being SAD in Fall (Seasonal Affective Disorders)

Being SAD in Fall (Seasonal Affective Disorders)

Many hormones in our brain experience a circadian rhythm.

When the sun goes down, melatonin is produced making us sleepy. In the morning serotonin production goes up and stays up all day, which normally prevents depression. There are other hormones that cycle during the course of the day. Cortisol is highest in the morning and low in the evening and at night. Growth hormone and prolactin are highest during sleep.

There is a lack of serotonin in the brains of patients with SAD and depression.

Symptoms of SAD

A person affected by SAD or any other patient with ordinary depression will present with symptoms of lack of energy, with tearfulness, negative thought patterns, sleep disturbances, lack of appetite and weight loss and possible suicidal thoughts. On the other hand symptoms may be more atypical presenting with irritability and overindulging in food with weight gain. Some patients somaticize as already mentioned in the beginning of this review experiencing a multitude of functional symptoms without any demonstrable underlying disease. It is estimated that up to 30 to 40% of patients attending a general practitioner’s office have some form of depression and in the fall and winter season a large percentage of them are due to SAD.

Treatment approaches to SAD

There are several natural approaches to SAD. However, before deciding to go this route, a psychiatrist should assess the patient to determine the risk for suicide. When a patient is not suicidal, light therapy can be utilized.

1. Light therapy: According to Ref. 2 a light box from Sun Box or Northern Light Technologies should be used for 30 minutes every morning during the fall and winter months. The box should emit at least 10,000 lux. Improvement can occur within 2 to 4 days of starting light therapy, but often takes up to 4 weeks to reach its full benefit (Ref.2).

2. Exercise reduces the amount of depression. The more exercise is done the less depression remains. A regular gym workout, dancing, walking, aerobics and involvement in sports are all useful.

3. Folate and vitamin B12: Up to 1/3 of depressed people have folate deficiency. Supplementation with 400 mcg to 1 mg of folic acid is recommended. Vitamin B12 should also be taken to not mask a B12 deficiency (Ref.3). Folate and vitamin B12 are methyl donors for several brain neuropeptides.

4. Vitamin D3 supplementation: A large Dutch study showed that a high percentage of depressed patients above the age of 65 were deficient for vitamin D3. Supplementation with vitamin D3 is recommended. (Ref.3). Take 3000 to 4000 IU per day, particularly during the winter time.

5. St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) has been found useful for minor to moderate depression. It is superior in terms of having fewer side effects than standard antidepressant therapy (Ref.3).

6. Standard antidepressants (bupropion, fluoxetine, sertraline and paroxetine) are the treatment of choice by psychiatrists and treating physicians when a faster onset of the antidepressant effect is needed (Ref.3).

7. Electro acupuncture has been shown in many studies to be effective in ameliorating the symptoms of depression and seems to work through the release of neurotransmitters in the brain (Ref.4).

8. A balanced nutrition (Mediterranean type diet) including multiple vitamins and supplements (particularly the vitamin B group and omega-3 fatty acids) also stabilize a person’s mood (Ref.3). Pay particular attention to hidden sugar intake, as sugar consumption is responsible for a lot of depression found in the general population.

9. Restore sleep deprivation by adding melatonin 3 to 6 mg at bedtime. This helps also to restore the circadian hormone rhythm.

Conclusion

Seasonal affective disorder is triggered by a lack of light exposure in a sensitive subpopulation. An integrative approach as described can reduce the amount of antidepressants that would have been used in the past in treating this condition. This will reduce the amount of side effects. The use of a light box can reduce the symptoms of this type of depression within a few days. But the addition of electro acupuncture and St. John’s Wort may be all that is required for treatment of many SAD cases. Regular exercise and a balanced nutrition (with no sugar) and including vitamin supplements complete this treatment. If the depression gets worse, seek the advice of a psychiatrist and make sure your doctor has ordered thyroid tests and hormone tests to rule out other causes where depression is merely a secondary symptom.

More information on depression: http://nethealthbook.com/mental-illness-mental-disorders/mood-disorders/depression/

References

  1. Ferri: Ferri’s Clinical Advisor 2014, 1st ed. © 2013 Mosby.
  2. Cleveland Clinic: Current Clinical Medicine, 2nd ed. © 2010 Saunders.
  3. Rakel: Integrative Medicine, 3rd ed. © 2012 Saunders.
  4. George A. Ulett, M.D., Ph.D. and SongPing Han, B.M., Ph.D.: “The Biology of Acupuncture”, copyright 2002, Warren H. Green Inc., Saint Louis, Missouri, 63132 USA

Last edited Nov. 7, 2014