Month: July 2006

Physical exercise is a great preventative for a lot of sub-health conditions. Now there is evidence that it can be a benefit in avoiding diabetes as well!

Weight lifting can help overweight teens reduce risk of diabetes

“Teens at risk of developing diabetes can prevent or delay its onset through strength training exercise, a University of Southern California study has found. Research led by Michael Goran, PhD, professor of preventive medicine in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, showed that overweight Latino teenage boys who lifted weights twice per week for 16 weeks significantly reduced their insulin resistance, a condition in which their bodies don’t respond to insulin and can’t process sugars properly. Insulin resistance is common in obese children and is a precursor of diabetes. The findings were published in the July issue of Medicine and Science of Sports Exercise… The researchers chose to focus on Latino teens because they are at particular risk for diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, about half of all Latino children born in 2000 are expected to develop type 2 diabetes in their lifetime.”

Abraham Cherrix, a sixteen year old, who, with his parents, wanted to avoid another bout of chemotherapy and use a natural, herbal approach for treatment, will get his day in open court on appeal! His first hearing was held in closed court, but the appellate judge ruled that the next hearing will be in a public forum.

As public pressure mounts, Judge reverses chemotherapy sentence for Abraham Cherrix

(Judge) “Tyler also returned full custody of Abraham to his parents pending his new trial on Aug.16, which will be open to the public, unlike Abraham’s first trial. ‘I feel like I have been released,’ Abraham said after Tyler’s decision was announced. The 16-year-old has opted to treat his cancer with the Hoxsey method, an alternative treatment consisting of an organic diet and herbal supplementation. After being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s, Abraham underwent chemotherapy, but felt weak, nauseated and feverish. After his cancer returned in February, he opted for Hoxsey’s natural treatments offered by a clinic in Mexico.”

This is amazing and great news! I wish Abraham and his family well and believe that the public outcry about this case has set back “medical tyranny” by those that believe that being in a dominant medical position gives them powers that they do not, in fact, have!

Tests with mice have linked stress with ovarian cancer. Now, I am not a huge fan of testing on mice being a direct indicator of the human condition, however, this one makes sense to me. Stress is a problem that can be a direct cause of many sub-health conditions and a supportive factor in developing others.

Study finds stress worsens ovarian cancer

“Dr. Anil Sood of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and colleagues noticed that ovarian cancer patients who reported high levels of stress in their lives also had higher levels of a protein called VEGF, which stimulates blood vessel growth in tumors. The patients who had more social support in their lives had lower levels of VEGF. So the team infected mice with ovarian cancer and then stressed some by confining alone them in a small space for two or six hours. Mice stressed for six hours had 3.6 times as many tumors. And in half the stressed mice the tumors had already spread to the liver or spleen.” (Emphasis mine.)

Note that people “who had more social support in their lives” had lower levels of the protein that stimulated the cancer growth. As the Bible says, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) We need each other… we need support and strength derived from fellowship together. Don’t “go it alone!” Lean on one another! Reduce stress in your life. Relax more. It will be a blessing to your continued good health!

So… let’s say that you are a woman that has been told by your doctor that you are “at risk” of breast cancer… NOT that you have it, mind you, just that you are statistically “at risk.” So, the doctor recommends (as a precaution) that you begin taking a drug called “Tamoxifen.” Then you start doing some reading… you find that a new study has determined that not only does Tamoxifen NOT reduce your chance of contracting breast cancer, it actually INCREASES your chances of developing endometrial cancer, cataracts and blood clots! And, it turns out that they also found the drug to be extraordinarily expensive from a public policy point of view, costing up to $1.3 million per year of life “saved.” So… would you take it? Ah ha. Thought not. Will they tell you all this “up front?” That’s the question!

Tamoxifen Doesn’t Extend Life for Most Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer

“In other words, even though the drug may help prevent many cases of more curable hormone receptor-positive cancers, it is not effective in protecting against more deadly receptor-negative tumors. Added to that is the raised risk for endometrial cancer and blood clots among women taking tamoxifen. The end result is no difference in mortality for many high-risk women using the drug, the researchers concluded. Meanwhile, the mathematical model found that the drug cost as much as $1.3 million per year of life saved, based on the U.S. price of the drug. That’s a concern not only for public policy makers, she said, but also for individual women. For example, a patient living in the Sacramento area can expect to pay between $240 and $1,500 per year for tamoxifen. The bottom line: ‘For most women, they don’t think it is going to help improve survival,’ said Dr. Herman Kattlove, medical editor for the American Cancer Society who is familiar with the analysis. ‘If you are in the [high range] of the high-risk group, it may help survival. But ‘may’ is the operative word.’ The drug does decrease the chance of getting breast cancer, he added.”

Again, we need to examine what drugs do, and what the side-effects can be. While a drug may be designed to have a benefit, the side effects can be as bad as the condition they are designed to treat! In this case, it seems that it could cause congestive heart failure according to research.

Novartis Cancer Drug Gleevec May Harm Heart, Researchers Say

“Novartis AG’s Gleevec cancer drug may harm patients’ hearts, researchers said after studying the product in mice and a small group of humans. Gleevec, which can keep a form of the blood cancer leukemia in check, may cause congestive heart failure, the researchers said. Still, the scientists didn’t say patients should stop taking the treatment. ‘The message is that patients need to stay on Gleevec,’ said Thomas Force, the lead researcher and a doctor at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, in a telephone interview. Gleevec, which brought in $2.2 billion last year for Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis, is a type of targeted cancer medicine that’s thought to have fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy. The toxicity found in Gleevec may be present in other similar drugs, Force said.”

At the end of every Traditional Naturopath Podcast I say, “Remember that YOU are the person most responsible for YOUR health!” This article illustrates a good reason to take on that responsibility! If someone (ANYONE) tries to get you to take a drug, YOU need to demand to know what it is, what it does, and what the side effects and interactions may be! As a Naturopath I try (personally) very diligently to stay completely away from drugs in any form, preferring a more natural approach… however, in the cases where I have HAD to use a drug, I always ask all the “hard questions” until I understand the implications of using it!

Forbes Article: Medication Errors Injure 1.5 Million Americans a Year

“Medication errors injure at least 1.5 million Americans annually, costing the nation more than $3.5 billion a year, according to a new government report released Thursday. In hospitals alone, the sobering statistics translate into an average of one medication error per patient per day, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies report found. And those costly totals don’t even begin to include lost wages and productivity. ‘Errors in medication happen all too frequently, but they are not unavoidable,’ Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, said at a news conference Thursday. ‘There’s much that can be done and, indeed, should be done to reduce the frequency and mitigate the harm that may come from medication errors.'”

It goes on to say, “The report suggests that patients could do much to protect themselves. ‘We tell the public to take an active role in their own health care, and ask about the risks and benefits of each medication,’ said Dr. Wilson Pace, another member of the report committee and a professor of family medicine at the University of Colorado, in Aurora. The report provides a list of questions to ask health-care providers.”

Hopefully, you aren’t getting tired of me trumpeting the benefits of MODERATE amounts of sunlight on your health! No, I am not saying to fry yourself to a crisp, but staying inside all the time and never getting any sunlight is problematic as well! The bottom line is that around 20 minutes of daily sunshine will help your body create Vitamin D… and more!

How The Sunshine Vitamin Zaps Disease

“Getting your vitamin D naturally from safe sunshine exposure is one of the best things you can do for your health as it works like a drug to treat all sorts of conditions, from strengthening bones to slowing down cancer. But just how powerful is vitamin D? Among other things, vitamin D increases your body’s production of naturally occurring antibiotics, called antimicrobial peptides, that are produced throughout the body the cell walls of viruses and bacteria, including tuberculosis. Based on Dr. Niels Finsen’s Nobel Prize winning work on sunshine as a cure for tuberculosis of the skin more than a century ago, a good part of Dr. John Cannell’s latest Vitamin D Newsletter describes experiments in the United States that demonstrated how irradiating blood created pharmacological amounts of vitamin D that work like a safe, natural antibiotic more than a half-century ago.”