Posts Tagged ‘disease’

Macrobiotic oriental medicine

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Oriental philosophy and medicine

Macrobiotic and oriental philosophy are based on the priciple of balance in mutual complementation of two opposite energies Yin and Yang. Orient teaches, that all things are variations of one infinity, that everything is changing in time and space and all is unique. To the seven laws of universe includes yet more propositions, that what has beginning, has also ending, what has underside, has also frontside. According to these rules does infinite differentiate to yin and yang, two principles, known for many from the monade picture, circled black and white symbol, where abbundance of yin holds in itself rudiment of yang and opposite. On the base of this philosophy did build eastern civilizations their conception of medicine, different from our.

Yin and Yang are relative principles, one is changing to the other in the framework of endless transmutations. All exist in the form of contrasts. Without cold doesn’t exist heat, without high doesn’t exist low and similar. Characteristic of yin is centrifugal motion, exterior, ascending direction, woman, sympathetic nervous system, psychical activity, cold. Characteristic of yang on the opposite is centripetal motion, interior, man, parasympathetic, physical activity, heat. Also other categories could be similarly separated (chemical elements, light, colors, vibrations etc.), but for medical conception would these characteristics suffice.

Organs of the man are divided to these two principles on the basis of density and compactness. So will be hollow stomach, urinary bladder and intestine yin, dense liver, spleen, heart yang. In the books about acupuncture is possible to find yet different organs separation, according to their energy, called KI. This power is always contrary than the organ, the it flows into, that’s why is acupuncture using opposite division. In the oriental medicine is expected, that every organ is in opposite and supplemental relation at the same time to another larger organ. The relations are then following: lungs - large intestine, heart - small intestine, kidney - urinary bladder, liver - gall blader, spleen and pancreas - stomach. Unbalance of one organ is then signified by dysbalance of relevant organ. So could be explained on the base of yin and yang philosophy, that for example weakening of stomach condition and small intestine by unsuitable diet based on white flour and sweetness leads naturally also to diseases of pancreas, spleen and heart - modern medicine have explanation of heart attacks because of increased level of cholesterol and blood vessel clog, but this is actually caused by unfit diet initially.

Macrobiotic diet and development of man in the direction of humanity, are allegedly binded together, one is reflected in the second. Diet should be adjusted to surrounding, conditions we live in, it should recept our activity and direction. Judging according to principles of yin and yang help us to determine, which macrobiotic foods are appropriate for us and which not. At the same time we have to know the yearly cycle of energy in plant kingdom and their characteristic in accordance to local climate. In warm weather grow yin plants, in cold climate to the contrary yang plants. Winter vegetables, as a beet, contain less water, grow more slower and are heavy. Summer vegetables, as a salad, grow faster, are light and watery. Among yin foodstuff we include sugar, milk, fruits, fats, nuts, seaweeds, vegetables, some types of cereals, among yang foods belong buckwheat, fishes, venison, eggs and salt. Bedouin in desert eat juicy fruits of cactuses, Escymos after polar zone in the yin climate are eating yang with the base in many fishes and meat. Macrobiotic is way, how to make our life more extensive, how to harmonize it. This is also according to orient teachings, the manual for longevity. The truth certainly is, that modern civilized man, occupied predominantly by yin psychical activity with randy approach to world, does consume incorrect quantity of yin sugars, milk products, fats and that’s why his inner balance is slowly moving to the one side and his organs are becoming tender, ductile, predisposed to yin diseases of the modern world - diabetes, heart failure, diseases of skin, cancer of the large intestine, etc. Here I emphasize especially for our need, the necessity of physical activity and adequately balanced diet, to keep us in good condition for a long time. Oriental people use for strengthening of inner organs also various cleaning techniques, but about this more in the upcoming article, where I will direct especially to meridians of individual organ systems.

Diagnostic of oriental doctors is grounded in the attempt to see the whole condition of the man, his being - western medicine is oriented more to the disease as it is. By a long anamnesis they see to his history, to his psychical and physical condition, possibilities of his development, they estimate his common sense and spiritual level, and after then they study details like are symptoms. Intuition plays in the hands of these healers a big role. Not in the least line is the health of man connected with social activity, that’s why it’s not possibly to leave out this facet in the whole view. After then are analyzed in detail individual meridians, searching for the condition of supplemental organs, oriental healer does pay attention to the face of the man, its proportion, structure, wrinkles, lips, he notice the shape of ear, nose, color of the eyes, sclera, size of pupil and examining iris in detail, that is the mirror of probably the whole man - one comment, that by examination of iris does devote also modern ophthalmology. He is not playing on the visionary, when analyzing a palm, its size, shape, basic lines, depth and length of fingers, discrepancy of their harmony. During the five thousand years, did eastern healers founded simple medicine, practical and humane, that is paying attention to the disease on one side and also preserving health. The man is seen in unified relationship with the nature, social environment and family background.

Following is article about oriental phylosophy and medicine II, where I dedicate more to organ’s relations, their effect to our life and origins of some diseases.

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Cholesterol

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHOLESTEROL
Cholesterol, a waxy, fatlike substance produced in the liver, contributes to cell membranes, vitamin D, sex and adrenal hormones, bile production, and other metabolic processes. However, in excess, it causes atherosclerosis, or the build up of plaque in artery walls, that can cause a heart attack, stroke, or peripheral artery disease.
High serum cholesterol is associated with consumption of foods high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, including eggs, meat, poultry, and dairy foods. Whole grains, beans, soy products, sea vegetables, and other plant quality foods can suppress or lower cholesterol in the blood. Risk of cardiovascular disease is commonly measured by total cholesterol, the ratio of total cholesterol to “good” HDL cholesterol, and various cholesterol fractions. See Beans, Complex Carbohydrates, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Oats, Sesame, Soy Foods, Tarahumara Diet, U.S. Surgeon-General’s Report, Vegetarians, Vitamin B-12, Wakame, Wheat, Whole Grains.

• Pioneer Study Links Diet, Blood Pressure, and Cholesterol - In one of the first studies to show the direct effects of animal food on raising blood pressure, a study of 21 macrobiotic persons by Harvard Medical School researchers found that the addition of 250 grams of beef per day for four weeks to their regular diet of whole grains and vegetables raised serum cholesterol levels 19 percent. Systolic blood pressure also rose significantly. After returning to a low-fat diet, cholesterol and blood pressure values returned to previous levels.
Source: F. M. Sacks et al., “Effects of Ingestion of Meat on Plasma Cholesterol of Vegetarians,” Journal of the American Medical Association 246:640-44, 1981.

• Soy Lowers Cholesterol - Soy protein in tofu, tempeh, and other soy products can significantly lower cholesterol levels in people with moderately high to high levels, according to a review of 38 trial studies. The higher the cholesterol, researchers said, the greater the ability of soy protein to bring it down. The report found that a diet including 47 grams of soy protein a day cut cholesterol levels by an average of 9.3 percent in a month. For those with cholesterols over 300, the count dropped 20 percent. Harmful triglycerides are also blocked by soy protein, the scientists observed.
“Even a 10 to 15 percent reduction in blood cholesterol levels results in a 20 to 30 percent reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease,” said Dr. James W. Anderson of the University of Kentucky and one of the authors of the report. “This has the potential of making a huge impact on American public health.”
Source: Natalie Angier, “Health Benefits from Soy Protein,” New York Times, August 3, 1995.

• Reducing Cholesterol in Children - Top American health officials joined in calling for a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet for everyone over age two to prevent heart disease in later life, not just for adults at risk for heart attacks and other cardiovascular disease. The recommendations, sponsored by a panel convened by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Cholesterol Education Program and endorsed by a coalition of forty-two major health and medical organizations, called for the cholesterol testing of all children whose parents or grandparents had heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems, including a parent with blood cholesterol over 240.
The panel called for reductions in fat consumption and for intake of more grains, vegetables, and fruit.
Groups that endorsed the report included the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Source: Warren E. Leary, “Cholesterol Tests Are Recommended for a Quarter of Children,” New York Times, April 9, 1991.

• Low-Fat Diet Reduces Cholesterol - In a study of 1,232 men aged 40 to 49 with high cholesterol who were put on a low-fat diet, researchers found a 13 percent reduction in mean total cholesterol levels in comparison to a control group. At the end of 7.5 years, the incidence of heart attack and sudden death was 47 percent lower in the experimental group. The scientists attributed the changes to reduced cigarette smoking and diet.
Source: I. Hjermann, “Effect of Diet and Smoking Intervention on the Incidence of Coronary Heart Disease: Report from the Oslo Study Group of a Randomised Trial in Healthy Men,” Lancet 2:1303-10, 1981.

• Heart Deaths Decline - America’s declining cholesterol levels and change to a diet lower in fat have coincided with a 54 percent decline in heart disease deaths between 1978 and 1990. During this period, the average cholesterol level in adults dropped from 213 milligrams per deciliter of blood to 205, a 4 percent decline, according to figures compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Studies have shown that for every 1 percent drop in cholesterol level, there is almost a 2 to 4 percent drop in coronary heart disease. The proportion of adults with high cholesterol (over 240) fell from 26 percent to 20 percent during this period.
Source: “Study Shows Drop in Cholesterol Levels in U.S.,” Boston Globe, June 16, 1993.

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Chocolate

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHOCOLATE
Chocolate is native to Central and South America and has been enjoyed for centuries for its intoxicating qualities. High in caffeine, chocolate raises blood sugar and gives feelings of emotional satisfaction. It is the number one binge food among modern women and associated with hyperactivity in children. See Attention-Deficit Disorder, Children’s Health, Sugar.

• Chocolate Linked to Migraines - In a study of migraine headaches, British researchers reported that 16.5 percent of patients surveyed reported that chocolate could precipitate these painful, throbbing attacks. Other precipitating foods included cheese and alcoholic drinks, especially beer and wine.
Source: R. C. Peatfield, “Relationships Between Food, Wine, and Beer-Precipitated Migrainous Headaches,” Headache 35(6):355-57, 1995.

• Chocolate Increases Risk of Bowel Disease - Investigating the relationship between dietary factors and inflammatory bowel disease, Dutch researchers reported that in a case-control study of 290 patients with Crohn’s disease, 398 patients with ulcerative colitis, and 616 controls, consumption of chocolate was associated with two and a half more times the rate of these disorders.
Source: M. G. Russel et al., “‘Modern Life’ in the Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 10(3):243-49, 1998.

• Chocolate Increases Risk of Colic - In a study of maternal nutrition and its effect on babies, University of Minnesota researchers reported that breast-feeding women consuming higher amounts of chocolate had nearly a 50 percent higher risk of their infants developing colic than those with lower intake of this item.
Source: K. D. Lust et al., “Maternal Intake of Cruciferous Vegetables and Other Foods and Colic Symptoms in Exclusively Breast-Fed Infants,” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 96(1):46-48, 1996.

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China health study

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHINA HEALTH STUDY
The China Health Study, touted as the grand prix of epidemiology studies, challenged modern dietary assumptions in the early 1990s. Sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Chinese Institute of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, the study correlated average food and nutrient intakes with disease mortality rates in 65 rural Chinese counties. The typical Chinese diet included a high proportion of cereals and vegetables and a low amount of meat, poultry, eggs, and milk. Less than 1 percent of deaths were caused by coronary heart disease, and breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, and other malignancies common in the West were comparatively rare. Among the researchers’ chief findings:
• Fat consumption should ideally be reduced to 10 to 15 percent of calories to prevent degenerative disease, not 30 percent as usually recommended.
• The lowest risk for cancer is generated by the consumption of a variety of fresh plant products.
• Eating animal protein is linked with chronic disease. Compared to the Chinese who derive 11 percent of their protein from animal sources, Americans obtain 70 percent from animal food.
• A rich diet that promotes early menstruation may increase a woman’s risk of cancer of the breast and reproductive organs.
• Dairy food is not needed to prevent osteoporosis, the degenerative thinning of the bones that is common among older women.
• Meat consumption is not needed to prevent iron-deficiency anemia. The average Chinese consumes twice the iron Americans do, primarily from plant sources, and shows no signs of anemia.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a Cornell biochemist and principal American director of the project, noted, “Usually, the first thing a country does in the course of economic development is to introduce a lot of livestock. Our data are showing that this is not a very smart move, and the Chinese are listening. They’re realizing that animal-based agriculture is not the way to go.”
Source: Chen Junshi, T. Colin Campbell, Li Junyao, and Richard Peto, Diet, Life-Style, and Mortality in China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990). and Jane Brody, “Huge Study of Diet Indicts Fat and Meat,” New York Times, May 8, 1990.

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Chicken

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CHICKEN
Many people in modern society switch to eating chicken and poultry because it is lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than beef and other red-meat products. Poultry, however, has substantial fat content, which along with its protein, have been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease, various cancers, and other illness. In addition, the poor quality of most modern day chickens is a major concern of public health authorities. Recent food poisoning epidemics, such as Salmonella, have been traced to contaminated chicken. Antibiotics given to chickens in factory farms are also believed to be a principal cause in the appearance of drug-resistant strains of bacterial related disease. See Antibiotics, Arthritis, Eggs, Global Warming, Heart Disease.

• Vast Majority of Chicken Infected with Campylobacter - Campylobacter, the leading bacterial cause of food-borne illness in the United States, infects 70 to 90 percent of chickens, according to scientists at the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Campylobacter causes between 2 and 8 million cases of sickness annually and results in 200 to 800 deaths, according to various estimates. Symptoms include cramps, abdominal pain, bloody diarrhea and fever and results from eating undercooked chicken or other food that has come into contact with raw chicken. Campylobacter may lead to a potentially fatal nerve disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Campylobacter used to be treated by antibiotics, but new strains of drug-resistant bacteria are developing. A recent sampling of chickens in Minnesota supermarkets found 79 percent contaminated, including 20 percent with a strain resistant to antibiotics. In another sample, 58 percent of turkeys were infected with 84 percent drug-resistance.
Source: Marian Burros, “Health Concerns Mounting Over Bacteria in Chickens,” New York Times, October 20, 1997.

• Energetic Effects of Eating Chicken - Macrobiotic educator Michio Kushi, who has counseled thousands of people over the years, reports that chicken contributes to the tightening of bones, joints, muscles, and other parts of the body. Eating too much chicken, in his experience, is a leading cause of arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and other diseases in which the limbs or bones contract, wither, or waste away. Energetically, he compares this to assuming the appearance and qualities of a chicken.
Source: Michio and Aveline Kushi with Alex Jack, Macrobiotic Diet (Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, 1993).

• Poultry and Mutant Rats - Two-foot long “mutant” rats are attacking farm animals in Chile. They are believed to have evolved after eating the droppings of hormone-fattened poultry. Burrowing in the banks of the Mapocho, a polluted river that crosses Santiago, they have attacked chickens and small goats.
Source: “Chilean Mutant Rats,” Boston Globe, December 1, 1997.

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Crohn’s disease

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CROHN’S DISEASE
Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammation of the intestinal wall, occurs in both sexes, especially among younger people aged 14 to 24. Medically, Crohn’s disease is considered an irreversible, often fatal disorder that can be treated only by recurrent surgery to remove sections of the small intestine. See Chocolate.

• Case History - Virginia Harper completely recovered from Crohn’s disease and Takayasu Arteritis after adopting a macrobiotic way of eating. She now teaches and cooks in Tennessee.
Source: Gale Jack and Wendy Esko, Editors, Women’s Health Guide (Becket, MA: One Peaceful World Press, 1997).

• High-Fat, High-Sugar Diet Associated with Crohn’s Disease - People with Crohn’s disease eat more sugar and sweets than normal and increased amounts of dietary fat. In a review of nutritional factors associated with this disease, a researcher found that a diet that limits dairy products, yeast, and refined cereals contributed to prolonged remission in some studies.
Source: J. O. Hunter, “Nutritional Factors in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology 10(3):235-37, 1998.

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Complex carbohydrates

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES
Complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), found in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and sea vegetables, enter the bloodstream gradually and contribute to overall health and balance. Because of their protective effect in the development of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other serious disorders, scientific and medical guidelines all call for substantial increases in complex carbohydrates and corresponding decreases in intake of simple carbohydrates such as sugar, white flour, and white rice. See Paleolithic Diet, Premenstrual Syndrome, Whole Grains, World Health Organization.

• Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - Comparing the blood values of middle-aged Irishmen living in Ireland, their brothers who had migrated to Boston, and unrelated men of Irish descent living in Boston, researchers at Harvard School of Public Health found that mean total blood cholesterol levels were strongly correlated with intake of saturated fatty acid and dietary cholesterol from meat and other animal food. Fiber intake and vegetable consumption were also lower among those who died from coronary heart disease, leading the researchers to speculate that a decrease in complex carbohydrates rather than a change in fat consumption was the main causative factor in increased mortality from heart disease.
“Although the risk of coronary heart disease has been reported to be related to the intake of dietary lipids, an equally consistent finding has been the relation with starches and complex carbohydrates,” the scientists noted. “. . . The principal nutritional change that has occurred since the early 1900s has been a decrease in the consumption of dietary carbohydrates, not including sugar, of about 45 percent during the period from 1909 to 1976. In contrast, changes in the consumption of dietary lipids have been much smaller.”
Source: L. H. Kushi et al., “Diet and 20-Year Mortality from Coronary Heart Disease. The Ireland-Boston Diet-Heart Study,” New England Journal of Medicine 312:811-18, 1985.

• Complex Carbohydrates Stimulate Mental Development - At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researchers have investigated the effects of food on the brain and nervous system. “It is becoming increasingly clear that brain chemistry and function can be influenced by a single meal. That is, in well-nourished individuals consuming normal amounts of food, short-term changes in food composition can rapidly affect brain function,” explained Dr. John Fernstrom. According to scientists, whole grains and other foods high in complex carbohydrates have the capacity to increase the brain’s intake of tryptophan, an amino acid that aids in relief of pain and in lowering blood pressure. Tryptophan has also been associated in studies with lifting depression and improving sleep. In contrast to grains and vegetables, meals high in animal protein lower levels of tryptophan reaching the brain. This “growing body of information now points to new clinically useful applications of tryptophan and thus also for the use of specific meals that would increase tryptophan levels,” Fernstrom concluded.
Source: Tom Monte, “A Nutritional Approach to Mental Health,” Michio Kushi et al., Crime and Diet (Tokyo & New York: Japan Publications, 1987), pp. 146-47.

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Carotenoids

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CAROTENOIDS
Carotenoids are a family of nutrients in plants that are associated with increased health and less disease. Altogether there are nearly 600 types of carotenoids, of which beta-carotene, which makes up about 25 percent of edible varieties, is the most well known. It is efficiently converted by the body into vitamin A and as an antioxidant blocks free radicals which can damage cell membranes and protects against cancer.
In the 1980s, dozens of studies reported that increased intake of beta carotene was associated with a decreased risk of many cancers of the respiratory and digestive tracts, including lung, oral cavity, throat, stomach, colon, and rectum. Taking beta-carotene in the form of supplements, however, has been linked with increased incidence of lung cancer. Scientists strongly recommend that the carotenoids be taken in whole foods. See Immune Function, Lung Cancer, Macular Degeneration, Olestra, Polyps, Smoking, Vegetables.

• Carotenoid Rich Vegetables Protect Against Heart Disease - In a study of middle aged men at risk of heart disease, those who had the highest carotenoid levels in their blood were one third less likely to suffer a heart attack. Nonsmokers consistently show the strongest benefits. In another study of nurses, Boston researchers reported that those who ate five or more servings of carrots a week had 68 percent less strokes than those who ate one or less a month.
Source: Jane E. Brody, “Health Factor in Vegetables Still Elusive,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1995.

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Cancer

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

CANCER
The word “cancer” comes from the Greek term karkinos, which means crab. Hippocrates, who first applied it to medicine, evidently likened tumors to the crablike properties or spread of the disease. He taught a dietary approach to cancer, and through the ages there have been many reported recoveries using natural means.
In the modern era, health reformers have linked cancer with diet since the early 1800s. Modern medicine, however, generally ignored this relationship until the 1970s. One of the 20th century pioneers in nutritional research was Dr. Albert Tannebaum, director of the department of cancer research at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. In an address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science on August 4, 1944, he stated: “At the present time there is widespread interest in the relationship of nutrition to tumors . . . It is likely that a natural diet contains a more adequate quality, quantity, and balance of essential components than our present day synthetic diets. Nutritionists are beginning to believe that synthetic diets may give effects quite different from natural diets. Fundamentally, it is the natural diet that is of interest in human nutrition and disease.”
See Brain Tumors, Breast Cancer, Colon Cancer, Leukemia, Lung Cancer, Lymphoma, Pancreatic Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Stomach Cancer.
See American Cancer Society, Carotenoids, Carrots, Chewing, Ginger, Green Tea, Hiziki, Immune Function, Japanese Diet, Lentils, Macrobiotics, Microwave, Millet, Miso, Natto, Phytochemicals, Phytoestrogens, Rice, Sea Vegetables, Shiitake, Soy Foods, Sugar, Tempeh, Vegetables, Vegetarians, War-Restricted Diet, Water, Whole Grains, World Health Organization.

• Protective Mechanisms of Plant-Quality Foods - In a review of the epidemiological data, including both cohort and case-control studies, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle reported that plant-quality foods have preventive potential at all cancer sites and that consumption of the following groups and types of vegetables and fruits is lower in those who subsequently develop cancer: raw and fresh vegetables, leafy green vegetables, Cruciferous vegetables, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and raw and fresh fruit, including citrus fruit and tomatoes.
Foods high in phytoestrogens, particularly soybean foods (high in isoflavones) or grains and fibrous vegetables high in precursor compounds that can be metabolized by bacteria in the intestines into active agents are associated with a lower risk of sex-hormone-related cancers.
Biologically, plant foods may slow or prevent the appearance of cancer because of anticarcinogenic substances including: carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, dietary fiber (and its components), dithiolthiones, isothiocyanates, indoles, phenols, protease inhibitors, allium compounds, plant sterols, and limonene.
“At almost every one of the stages of the cancer process, identified phytochemicals are known to be able to alter the likelihood of carcinogenesis,” the researchers concluded. “For example, glucosinolates and indoles, thiocyanates and isothiocyanates, phenols, and coumarins can induce a multiplicity of phase II (solubilizing and usually inactivating) enzymes; ascorbate and phenols block the formation of carcinogens such as nitrosamines; flavonoids and carotenoids act as antioxidants, essentially disabling the carcin-ogenic potential of specific compounds; lipid-soluble compounds such as carotenoids and sterols may alter membrane structure or integrity; some sulphur-containing compounds suppress DNA and protein synthesis; carotenoids can suppress DNA synthesis and enhance differentiation; and phytoestrogens compete with estradiol for estrogen receptors in a way that is generally antiproliferative.”
“Consumption of diets low in plant foods results in a reduced intake of a wide variety of those substances that can plausibly lower cancer risk,” the researchers concluded. “In the presence of a diet and lifestyle high in potential carcinogens (whether derived from fungal contamination, cooking, or tobacco) or high in promoters (such as salt and alcohol), overall risk of cancer at many epithelial sites is elevated. Plant foods appear to exert a general risk-lowering effect; the patterns of exposure to cancer initiators and promoters and of genetic susceptibility may determine the variations in the site-specific risks of cancer seen across populations.”
Source: J. D. Potter et al., “Vegetables, Fruit, and Phytoestrogens as Preventive Agents,” IARC Science Publications 139:61-90, 1996.

• The Cancer Prevention Diet - In The Cancer-Prevention Diet, Michio Kushi introduces the macrobiotic approach to cancer, including complete dietary and way of life guidelines for 25 major types of malignancies. The book includes summaries of hundreds of nutritionally oriented medical studies, including many dietary observations from the Renaissance through the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as contemporary recovery stories.
“From the macrobiotic view, cancer is the final stage in a sequence of events in an illness through which individuals in the modern world tend to pass because they fail to appreciate the beneficial nature of disease symptoms. A healthy organism can deal with a limited amount of excess nutrients or toxic materials taken in the form of daily food. This imbalance can be naturally eliminated through daily activity, sweating, urination, bowel movement, or other means. However, if the person continues to overconsume, the body begins to fall back upon abnormal measures for elimination including colds, fever, coughing, skin disease, and other symptoms. From the macrobiotic perspective, such sickness is a natural adjustment, the result of the wisdom of the body trying to keep us in natural balance.
“However, in modern society these symptoms are generally suppressed or controlled with drugs, surgery, and other methods which separate people from the natural workings of their own bodies. If minor ailments are treated in this symptomatic way with no adjustment in what we eat, the excess held in the body eventually begins to accumulate in the form of fatty-acid deposits and chronically troublesome mucus, and manifests in vaginal discharges, breast or ovarian cysts, kidney stones, or other worrisome conditions. In this state, the body is still able to localize the excess and toxins consumed. By gathering the unwanted material in local areas, the rest of the body is maintained in a relatively clean and smooth functioning condition. From the macrobiotic view, the process of localization is part of our natural healing power, saving us from complete break-down. In contrast, the modern view looks on those localizations as invasive enemies that have to be destroyed and removed.
“As long as excess continues to accumulate and exceeds the body’s normal or abnormal discharge ability, it must be stored somewhere. These storage depots gradually grow and become tumors, and when they are filled they spread and overflow into new areas, or what are called metastases.
“As long as we continue to take in excessive nutrients, chemicals, and other factors that serve no purpose in the body, they must continue to accumulate somewhere in order to continue our normal living functions. If we don’t allow them to accumulate in limited areas and form tumors, they will spread throughout the body, resulting in a total collapse of our vital functions and death by toxemia. Cancer is only the terminal stage of a long process. Cancer is the body’s healthy attempt to isolate toxins ingested and accumulated through years of eating the modern unnatural diet and living in an artificial environment. Cancer is the body’s last drastic effort to prolong life, even a few more months or years.”
Source: Michio Kushi with Alex Jack, The Cancer-Prevention Diet, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

• Diet Linked to 30% of Cancers - In a report on diet, lifestyle, and cancer, a Harvard School of Public Health study attributed 30 percent of cancer deaths to diet and obesity, 30 percent to smoking, and 5 percent to lack of exercise. Carcinogens in the workplace, family history of cancer, and viruses were responsible for 5 percent of cancer deaths, while alcohol, socioeconomic status, and reproductive factors each were associated with 3 percent. The report recommended eating more vegetables and fruits to reduce the risk of cancer of the lungs, esophagus, and larynx; eating more beans and grains to reduce cancer of the stomach and pancreas; eating less red meat to prevent colorectal cancers; eating less animal fat which is associated with prostate cancer; exercising daily and avoiding ultraviolet light from the sun.
Source: “Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention, “ Cancer Causes & Control 7 Supplement 1:S7-9, 1996.

• Diet vs. Conventional Treatment - The National Cancer Institute reported that radiation therapy and chemotherapy were ineffective and in some cases produced toxic side-effects as follow-ups to surgery in the treatment of cancer. “Except possibly in selected patients with cancer of the stomach, there has been no demonstrated improvement in the survival of patients with the ten most common cancers when radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or both have been added to surgical resection.” In an autopsy study, researchers reported that 44 percent of 250 cancers examined had been undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and 57 percent of the people with the missed diagnoses died as a result of the malignancy or its complications.
Source: Steven A. Rosenberg, “Combined-Modality Therapy of Cancer,” New England Journal of Medicine 312:1512-14; Elizabeth C. Burton, M.D., et al, “Autopsy Diagnoses of Malignant Neoplasms,” Journal of the American Medical Association 280:1245-48, 1998.

• Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Reduces Cancer Risk - In a review of 200 studies that examined the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and cancer at selected sites, researchers found that consumption of these foods offered a significantly protective effect in 128 of 156 dietary studies in which results were expressed in terms of relative risk. For lung cancer, these foods were protective in 24 of 25 studies after control for smoking in most instances. Fruit was protective for tumors of the esophagus, oral cavity, and larynx in 28 of 29 studies. Vegetables and fruit were protective in 26 of 30 studies for the pancreas and stomach, as well as in colorectal and bladder cancers (23 of 38 studies). For malignancies of the cervix, ovary, and endometrium, a significant protective effect was shown in 11 of 13 studies. In breast cancer, a protective effect was found to be strong and consistent in meta analysis. Overall, the relative risk of cancer was about twice as high for those eating few fruits and vegetables compared to those who ate plenty of these foods. “In 1854, John Snow stopped a cholera epidemic simply by taking the handle off the pump. The research presented above suggests that consumption of fruits and vegetables may be a handle that, if manipulated by public policy, clinical advice, and public education, could have a substantial impact on a wide range of cancers,” the researchers concluded.
Source: Gladys Block et al., “Fruits, Vegetables, and Cancer Prevention: A Review of the Epidemiological Evidence,” Nutrition and Cancer 18:1-29, 1992.

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Buckwheat

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

BUCKWHEAT
Buckwheat, a hardy cereal plant traditionally eaten in Russia, Eastern Europe, and northern Asia, is popular as the principal ingredient in kasha and soba noodles. Buckwheat gives strong, warming energy and is excellent as a preparation for hard, physical labor. A buckwheat plaster is good for drawing excess liquid from the body.

• Buckwheat Reduces Risk of Heart Disease - In a study of the Yi, an ethnic minority in southwest China, researchers reported that buckwheat intake was associated with lower serum total cholesterol, lower LDL cholesterol, and a higher ratio of HDL to total cholesterol, all protective factors against high blood pressure and heart disease.
Source: J. He et al., “Oats and Buckwheat Intakes and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in an Ethnic Minority in China,” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61(2):366-72, 1995.

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Biological weapons

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS
Russia had developed a new variant of anthrax that is completely resistant to antibiotics and could cause a worldwide catastrophe, the British military defense service reported. “It only needs this, or the new chemical nerve agents to be independently discovered by an ostracized nation’s scientists and then developed for missile delivery for an Armageddon situation to occur whereby the only reliable retribution may well be overwhelming nuclear response,” Jane’s, the authoritative defense manual warned. Anthrax, a disease carried by sheep and cattle, can infect human beings and cause an agonizing death. In addition to this bacteriological disease, Jane’s reported that Russia had developed three new nerve agents that were eight times as deadly as the VX nerve agent stockpiled by Iraq. (The Pentagon belatedly confirmed that chemical weapons were used in the Gulf War in 1991 and may be a factor in Gulf War Syndrome, the debilitating illness many Gulf War veterans later experienced.)
The ready availability of virulent microbes from research laboratories is also a cause for alarm. In 1997, an Ohio man was sentenced to perform 200 hours of community service and serve 18 months probation for illegally obtaining bubonic plague germs by mail. A Maryland lab sent him three vials of the freeze-dried, inactive bacteria which he said he needed to research a book.
Source: Jane’s Land-Based Air Defense 1997-98 and wire service reports.

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Big Pharma, Bad Karma

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

Big Pharma, Bad Karma

“One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.”
- William Osler, The Principles and Practice of Medicine (1892)

“We have a system that nobody but Big Pharma is happy with.”
- former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber, now with the Foundation for Medical Excellence

A progressive hospital administrator is currently touring the country, speaking out on the virtues of disease prevention. He begins his presentation with the observation that the modern medical system is not really focused on prevention or health promotion at all. As he puts it, “We don’t have a health care system in this country. What we have is a disease treatment system.”

This bold statement is highly effective in getting audiences on board with the idea that the priorities in modern medicine are seriously out of whack. But the situation is actually far worse than our administrator makes it out to be. The problem is not so much that we have a “disease treatment system.” Rather, the problem is that we have a “disease promotion system.”

Big Pharma wants your body

“How can this be?” you might ask. Surely the health care industry is inefficient, over-priced and frustrating to both patients and providers. But isn’t the whole point to help people get better?

Not anymore it’s not. If you’ve been paying attention to trends in media and marketing, you know that the pharmaceutical industry has seized control. Big Pharma has been let out of its cage and is now tyrannizing the medical marketplace. Not content to simply promote products for existing diseases, Big Pharma now promotes a wide range of human afflictions and expands the definitions of disease; their goal is to manufacture new, more profitable disorders.

Pharm facts

To get a sense of how warped the system has become, consider these facts:

Big Pharma now spends more than $5.5 billion to promote drugs to doctors–more than what all U.S. medical schools spend to educate medical students. (New England Journal of Medicine, June 23, 2005 “The Lessons of Vioxx”)

Major drug companies employ about 90,000 sales representatives – one for every 4.7 doctors in the United States. (American Medical Association)

The total pharmaceutical marketing budget is $25 billion. (Forbes magazine “Just Say NO!” by Robert Langreth Nov. 29, 2004)

Drug firms have spent $800 million since 1998 buying influence, including $675 million on direct lobbying of Congress. No other interest group has spent more money to sway public policy. (Center for Public Integrity)

Selling Sickness

Big Pharma has had a free ride for a long time, but finally, some people are starting to sit up and take notice. For example, consider Selling Sickness: How The World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels. The story on the front flap summarizes the whole sordid mess:

“Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsen, the head of Merck, one of the world’s largest drug companies, told Fortune magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley’s. It had long been his dream, he said, to make drugs for healthy people–so that Merck could “sell drugs to everyone.” Three decades on , the late Henry Gadsen’s dream has come true.”

Moynihan and Cassels lay out their case in methodical detail, telling us about Big Pharma’s efforts to expand the patient pool and create new diseases. Their conclusion: “there’s a lot of money to be made telling healthy people they’re sick.”

Disease by definition

To understand Big Pharma’s power over our health, it’s important to understand how disease is managed in large populations. Most medical conditions are defined by a set of numbers. If we broaden the range of those numbers, even slightly, and apply it to a population of millions of people, the consequences can be profound.

For example, think about the numbers that are attached to your blood pressure. If it’s above X, you’re officially “diseased” and a candidate for medication. If it’s below X, you’re “healthy.” But X is determined, not by some perfect medical formula, but by consensus within the medical community. Exact cut-off points are debatable and relative.

This is where Big Pharma steps in. If they can expand the statistical definition of a disease, even by a small margin, they can cash in. One or two percentage points, spread across America or better yet, the world, adds up to millions of newly created patients. Thus it comes as no surprise to hear that Big Pharma has become an active participant in the process of defining disease. By pouring money and influence into experts, conferences and journals, Big Pharma stretches the definitions and expands the patient pool.

The power of suggestion

It would be one thing if human disease was a matter of absolutes, but it’s not. Social and cultural forces play an immensely powerful role in determining how we interpret our physical experience. Is obesity a disease? Workaholism? Weak sexual desire? Social anxiety? It’s easy to imagine situations in which any physical sensation or experience of the human body might be labeled as health or disease, depending on the context.

Our health is the product, not simply of genetics and biochemistry, but also of human influence. As intensely social animals, we pay close attention to the physical well-being of our families and friends. If people in the tribe speak of getting one disease or another, we naturally begin to wonder if such afflictions are part of our experience as well. If everyone around us is complaining about headaches or low back pain, we may very well decide to join the gang.

Have you ever noticed how trendy diseases can be? One month it’s eating disorders, the next month it’s carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome. None of these conditions even existed 100 years ago, but now they’re “epidemic.” Similarly, medical students frequently observe how closely their physical sensations parallel the conditions that they’re studying. “Med student’s disease” is legendary.

Big Pharma is well aware that disease is creatable; they know full well that their customers are vulnerable to suggestion. By manipulating images, ideas and narratives, they shape the way people think about their bodies and in turn, their health.

The greatest therapy is the least advertised

It’s important to be aware of Big Pharma’s relentless disease promotion, but we should also take note of what’s gone missing along the way. That is, whatever happened to exercise?

Technically, Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer marketing campaigns are “commercial speech” but they also become a form of education. People learn about their bodies from all kinds of sources and in this sense, Big Pharma’s pitch has become part of a larger health-education curriculum.

In the process, exercise is being squeezed out of the picture. Health professionals know that exercise is an immensely powerful therapy with effects that are both broad and deep. And yet, its powers are completely obscured by mega-profit therapies. Tragically, the most powerful therapeutic tool in our collection is also the one that is the least often promoted.

In fact, when we do hear about exercise in commercial media, it’s usually presented in the negative. When Big Pharma promotes drugs for conditions in which exercise is highly effective, they make sure to emphasize the failure of fitness. “If you’ve tried exercise and diet and your cholesterol is still high, ask your doctor about our miracle pill.” The sub-text to such promotions is that exercise is likely to fail and that you’ll probably have to “ask your doctor” anyway, so there’s no point in even trying. Over time, consumers are conditioned to bypass movement entirely and go directly for the pills.

A particularly egregious example of this approach is brought to us on behalf of Avandia, a blood sugar drug by GlaxoSmithKline. The advertisement pictures a frustrated middle-aged male, slumped on a bench in a stark, depressing fitness facility. The defeated expression on his face tells us that he’s had his fill of exercise. “If diet and exercise won’t get your blood sugar number down, adding Avandia can help” the ad tells us. The meta-message is obvious; exercise is a drag, so you may as well go directly to the pharmacy.

UneedUs: the axis of disempowerment

Like true drug dealers, Big Pharma makes it a point to promote dependency in its customers. The mission is simple: get people thinking about drugs as a first-line solution to physical problems. “You can’t manage your health on your own: you need us. You need us to design the drugs and test them in clinical trials. You need us to monitor your symptoms and adjust your dosage. You can’t possibly know your body on your own. You are powerless.” Ultimately, this systematic disempowerment produces the precise opposite of health; a weak, dependent and passive population. Hippocrates would be appalled.

Fueled by fear

Not surprisingly, fear plays a big role in Big Pharma’s marketing style. Lurking behind the smiling faces of happy drug consumers is the implicit threat of physical disaster. If you don’t “ask your doctor” your body will fall into an inevitable sink hole of disease and your loved ones will be dragged along with you.

We see this threat in many ads, but one particularly vivid example has recently appeared on health-related websites. Users are greeted with a big question mark and the ominous message, “What you don’t know could kill you.” Follow the link and you’ll discover that “You may be at triple the risk of developing the condition again in the future.” What’s this?” you wonder as you click through. “Talk to your doctor and click here for your online risk assessment. It’s a visit that could save your life or the life of a loved one.” This fearvertisement turns out to be a pitch for deep-vein thrombosis, an occasionally serious condition that is currently being hyped into a compelling medical emergency.

Universal disease: the dreams of medical marketers

While romantics dream of universal health, Big Pharma dreams of the inverse, a world in which the entire population is afflicted by chronic, incurable syndromes that require frequent diagnostic tests, expensive specialists and pharmaceuticals. The ideal Big Pharma customer is afflicted with disease throughout his lifespan. He is literate enough to read medical advertising, yet docile enough to follow directions “Ask your doctor about the green pill.” He doesn’t know what the green pill is, but he asks his doctor anyway, just to be sure.

A particularly chilling manifestation of this vision comes, not from Big Pharma itself, but from one of its pusher clients, Target. An advertisement in popular news magazines showcases its newly designed medication bottles with personalized, color-coded rings “to clearly identify the medication for each family member.” The advert shows three smiling children and their father, each with his own personalized bottle of drugs. The assumption is clear: if you’re a human being, you are supposed to be on something.

Turning disease into the default

Big Pharma’s direct-to-consumer strategy is not mere advertising. It is an audacious attempt to rework the default status of the human body. As Moynihan and Cassels put it in Selling Sickness, the goal of Big Pharma is “putting disease at the center of human life”

For the vast majority of human history, vigorous, robust health has been the default. Yes, there were plenty of infectious diseases, suffering and early death in the mix, but if you managed to avoid the pathogens and the predators, your body would be strong and resilient. The norm, as it is for all animals, is health.

Big Pharma wants to change all that. From this point forward, you are assumed to be diseased. You may be asymptomatic at the moment, but that’s a temporary state. By redefining what’s normal, we can make you sick merely by moving a few data points on a graph. Given the right kind of management, you will soon become a patient/customer. Once you are absorbed into the body of Big Medicine, you will become dependent for life.

Call to action

Obviously, we need is an antidote to Big Pharma. (Hmm…Maybe there’s a pill for that…”Taken once a day, this convenient new medication will decrease your anxiety about pharmaceutical marketing and help you live free again. Ask you doctor about Pharmaway.”)

Satire aside, we can begin by taking matters of health into our own hands. We start by taking care of our bodies with a movement-based lifestyle and a food-based diet. Craft a lifestyle that promotes health and independence and don’t deal with Big Pharma unless it’s absolutely necessary. (Avoid Big Pharma like the plague!) Don’t believe what you see in a Big Pharma advertisement and don’t allow your relationship with your body to be defined or distorted by fear marketing.

Use pharmaceuticals only as a last resort. Give your body a chance to seek out homeostasis on its own. Let your natural regulatory mechanisms do their thing. Make your body stronger with robust physical movement, stress relief and joy. It’s really the best approach; just ask your doctor.

References

Selling Sickness: How The World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients
Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels
Nation Books 2005

The Truth About Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It
Marcia Angell

Peddling Paranoia
Alan Cassels

Suddenly Sick: The Hidden Big Business Behind Your Doctor’s Diagnosis
Seattle Times, June 26 - June 30, 2005

No Free Lunch: an alliance of health care providers who believe that
pharmaceutical promotion should not guide clinical practice

This article is a copy from http://goanimal.com/newsletters/2005/big_pharma/big_pharma.html

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Antibiotics

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

ANTIBIOTICS
Initially, penicillin and other antibiotics proved to be extremely effective, saving the lives of millions of people who otherwise would have died. However, the euphoria surrounding these “miracle drugs” quickly began to fade. Streptomycin almost completely lost its effectiveness after two months of use, especially on pulmonary tuberculosis. It also left many patients deaf or permanently dizzy. However, because the life-saving benefits still clearly outweighed the drawbacks, postwar physicians continued to prescribe strong drugs like these, and they became the treatment of choice for most acute conditions.
Within several decades, they began to be used prophylactically to prevent future infection, as well as remedially to treat existing disease, and antibiotics were routinely added to livestock feed, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other non-prescription products.
In the United States, 240 million doses of antibiotics are prescribed every year, almost one per person. One of every three hospital patients receives an antibiotic, and physicians routinely administer antibiotics for everything from the common cold to pneumonia.
Altogether, medical use accounts for 60 percent of antibiotic use. The other 40 percent is used in livestock feed to promote rapid growth. By 1980, 75 percent of all cattle in the United States received antibiotics, 90 percent of swine and veal calves, 50 percent of sheep, and nearly 100 percent of chickens and poultry. The drugs not only were used to prevent infection but to fatten up the animals and ensure maximum growth—and thus profits.
In recent years, research has shown that antibiotics can interfere with the production of red blood cells, the metabolism of vitamin B-12, and kill benign or beneficial bacteria in the intestines that synthesize Vitamin K, biotin, riboflavin, panthothenate, and pyridoxine. These nutrients are all associated with proper immune function and protection against disease. Side-effects associated with antibiotic use and misuse include diarrhea, rashes, fever, allergic reactions, hemolytic anemia, bleeding, bone marrow toxicity, and disorders of the kidneys, liver, and central nervous system. The rapid spread of candida albicans and other acute infections has been associated with chronic antibiotic use that has disrupted the normal homeostasis in the digestive system and enabled the selection of pathogenic strains of yeast, fungi, bacilli, and other microorganisms. See Drug-Resis-tance, Infectious Diseases.

• End of the Antibiotic Era? In a review of the history and therapeutic use of antibiotics, two medical researchers in Texas document how the modern science was lulled into complacency. “The scientific community grossly underestimated the remarkable genetic plasticity of these organisms and their ability, through mutations and genetic transfer, to develop resistance to antibiotics,” they explain. “Antibiotic resistance has made potential killers out of bacteria that previously posed little threat to mankind. The indiscriminate and reckless use of antibiotics has led to a fast ap-proaching crisis in which human dominance of the planet is threatened by single, elementary cells of the microbal world.”
Source: J. W. Harrison and T. A. Svec, “The Beginning of the End of the Antibiotic Era?,” Parts I and II, Quintessence International 29(3):151-62, 1998 and 29(4):223-29, 1998.

• Overprescription of Antibiotics - Abuse of antibiotics is contributing to disease, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Every year doctors write 12 million antibiotic prescriptions—one in every five—for colds, bronchitis and other viral infections for which antibiotics are useless. “Every time we use an antibiotic, we run the risk of promoting antibiotic resistance, or drug resistance, by bacteria,” said lead scientist Ralph Gonzales.
In the last 10 years, an epidemic of Streptococcus pneumoniae that is resistant to penicillin drugs has developed and is a leading cause of ear and sinus infections, meningitis, and other common illnesses.
Source: R. Gonzales et al., “Antibiotic Prescribing for Adults with Colds, Upper Respiratory Tract Infections, and Bronchitis by Ambulatory Care Physicians,” Journal of the American Medical Association 278(11)”901-4, 1997.

• Dangers of Antibiotics - In a critique of modern medicine and agriculture, a noted public health official presents evidence that the overuse of pharmaceuticals is creating an epidemic of new drug-resistant diseases.
“The sheer magnitude of this assault [the creation of new diseases by antibiotic-resistant microbes] is staggering. For four decades now, we have thrown hundreds of tons of antibiotics against our Hollywood imagination of microscopic enemies. In the process we have sown seeds for a whole new array of actual germs and diseases. . . . We favor simple technological fixes for complex disease entities, while our medical complex fosters a near-sighted one-germ, one-chemical mentality. Together, these positions contribute to a world view that encourages the proliferation of new chemotherapeutic agents, and in turn, the proliferation of new disease entitles. . . . The answer clearly does not consist of throwing more troops into a losing battle.”
Source: Marc Lappé, When Antibiotics Fail: Restoring the Ecology of the Body, (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 1986).

• European Meat Tests Positive for Drug-Resistant Bacteria - In samples from a European Union-licensed meat-processing plant, German researchers found that 8 percent of minced beef and pork samples tested positive for vancomycin-resistant enteroccoi (VRE), antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria associated with human infections.
Source: G. Klein et al., “Antibiotic Resistance Patterns of Enterocci and Occurrences of Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci in Raw Minced Beef and Pork in Germany,” Appl Environ Microbiol 64(5):1825-30, 1998.

• WHO Calls for End to Antibiotics in Livestock Feed - The World Health Organization has recommended phasing out the use of antibiotics to promote livestock growth. “Farms are factories of drug resistance,” stated Dr. Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation, Genetics, and Drug Resistance at the Tufts University School of Medicine. “The non-therapeutic misusage is just causing more multi-drug resistance in human therapy. They can transfer resistance, whether it’s something we eat or touch or waste that’s tilled into another source.”
Source: Stan Grossfeld, “Animal Waste Emerging as U.S. Problem,” Boston Globe, September 21, 1998.

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Alzheimer’s disease

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects affects about 5 percent of elderly people in modern society, including many of those in nursing homes. It is also increasingly found in people under 65.
Memory loss and senility, its principal features, are associated in Far Eastern medicine with more expansive, dispersing foods, especially sugar, sweets, alcohol, and drugs.
Physiologically, Alzheimer’s bears similarity to the human variant of mad cow disease (but is not contagious), so that animal food consumption, especially low quality beef or chicken (grown with antibiotics and other chemicals) may also be a factor in its spread.
Medical studies have recently reported that nutrients found in whole grains and vegetables may help control the symptoms of this degenerative neurological disorder. See Fluoridation, Soy Foods, Water, Women’s Health.

• Folic Acid May Prevent Alzheimer’s - Folic acid, found in many green vegetables, may protect millions of people from Alzheimer’s disease. Helga Refsum, a researcher at Norway’s Bergen University, said, “The idea of reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by diet is a promising hypothesis.” A study of 76 Alzheimer’s patients in the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Aging (OPTIMA) at Oxford University found elevated high levels of homocysteine, an amino acid associated with higher risk of heart disease and stroke, and lower levels of folic acid and vitamin B-12 compared to a control group of 108 people the same age who did not have Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s is the fourth leading cause of death in the Western world.
Source: “Scientists Probe Link Between Diet and Alzheimer’s,” Reuters News Service, April 26, 1998.

• Fat Linked to Alzheimer’s - In a review of Alzheimer prevalence in 11 countries, a researcher reported that incidence of this form of dementia was associated with consumption of foods high in fat (including meat, eggs, poultry, etc.) and in total caloric intake. Fish consumption, on the other hand reduced the risk of developing AD. The researcher found that the diet just prior to the development of the disease is the most critical in determining the risk for developing AD. “Diets high in total calories including acidic drinks, alcohol, fat, salt and sugars promote trace mineral imbalances and elevated free radical production in the body. Several dietary components and supplements have been found effective in delaying the onset of AD, including antioxidants, estrogen (for post-menopausal women), fish or fish oil, and anti-inflammatory substances,” the researcher concluded.
Source: Willaim B. Grant, Ph.D., “Dietary Links to Alzheimer’s Disease,” Alzheimer’s Disease Review 2:42-55, 1997.

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