Another fresh new year is here...by William Arthur Ward

Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!"

Wishing you all a healthy, happy and hormonally balanced 2014!

New Year's Resolutions

I don't like the word "resolution" when talking about the new year to come; it's been my experience that when I set a resolution I blow it before the end of the first month.  The word goal seems to work for me, yeah, we'll go with that.

One of my goals for this year is to read more to my potential; in the last couple years I have fallen into the chick lit and romance novel rut because it's good escapism.  While there is nothing wrong with chick lit/romance novels, and there are a few authors I will continue to follow, I need to challenge my brain more.  I have a couple non fiction books out of the library right now, and also a novel that is a little bit weightier than what I have been reading.  

I also need to work more on my emotional eating issues (and I have a couple books in my library on the subject----I will review on the blog).  I need to ask myself before I put something in my mouth --- am I really hungry? Or (more likely), am I tired, bored, angry or in pain?

However, I have one New Year's project/resolution that absolutely every one of you can keep. Before the first of the year, sit down at your computer and compile (or update) your health history. Include:

• Name, full address, and telephone number
• Surgical history (for me this is a big one---I had 15 surgeries post accident and there is no way I could remember them all without a written list)
• Current medications (name, dose, frequency)
• All bioidentical hormones (names, dosages)
• Supplements/Vitamins (complete list, this is important especially if you see more than one doctor)
• Names, specialty, and phone number of every doctor who is treating you
• Emergency contacts

I am going to update my medical history this morning, and I always keep a copy in my purse. I also make sure any physician that treats me has an updated copy of the list (trust me, doctors love it when a patient does this!), and I give a copy to any new physician that treats me.  I have also given a copy to the three friends listed as emergency contacts.  

It's important to review the list more than once a year, particularly if you are on any medications or hormones (and if you are reading this blog, you probably are!)  I know in my own case, Dr. Carr has made at least three adjustments to my thyroid medications this year; once to change from Levoxyl to Synthroid (because of the Levoxyl recall) and then we have had to make two adjustments to the dosage of Synthroid to get me to optimal levels.  Make sure you update your medical history when such changes occur.

Don't make excuses, don't put it off-----DO IT! And have a happy, healthy, peaceful 2014!

S-EBM (Selective Evidence Based Medicine) Takes a New Turn

Editorial note from Andrea----had to share this bit of humour with you!  In the post below this post, you will see a more serious (and a little bit snarky) response to a story about multivitamins and supplements (this is the story from USA Today).  While I will agree that multivitamins are largely a waste of money (check the labels on most multivitamins and you will see that there are very, very small amounts of vitamins in each tablet), even people who eat well and healthy are still almost always lacking in some vitamins and nutrients.  Those of us who still struggle with our eating habits (including me) definitely need to be taking supplements to stay healthy.  I take a number of different supplements, including CoQ10, Vitamins B, C, D, K and magnesium (I take others too, but would need to go check the list).  I know those supplements, along with my hormone optimization, have kept me off a whole bunch of medications (much to the chagrin of the pharmaceutical industry!)  Enjoy, and I encourage you to sign up for Orthomolecular's newsletter!

Commentary by Andrew W. Saul, Editor

(OMNS April 1, 2012) Perhaps I listened to too many Bob Newhart records while growing up, but even as a kid I knew that Abraham Lincoln did not have a PR agent. I also knew, although to this day I like their material, that neither Sherlock Holmes nor P.D.Q. Bach ever lived. Like most kids, I learned all too early that there was not really an Easter Bunny. However, I learned in school that large dinosaurs were slow moving, cold-blooded, and many mostly sat around in ponds for buoyancy to support their enormous weight. It was literally decades later that the lessons changed: the fast-stride spacing of footprints along with a lack of tail-tracks had caught up with the textbooks. Belief systems die hard. Many people have read many media reports about many dangers of many vitamins. In keeping with the media's current standard of accuracy (and noting the date of this release), here is an information leak.

Confidential Memorandum from the World Headquarters of Pharmaceutical Politicians, Educators and Reporters (WHOPPER) Most Secret: Your Eyes Only Distinguished members, our decades of disparaging nutritional therapy have paid off at last. The public, and their healthcare providers, are completely hoodwinked. By pushing "evidence based medicine" on the medical professions, we have elegantly slipped in our choice of evidence to base medicine on. And this is no mere journeyman accomplishment: this is high art. Mr. Machiavelli would be pleased. Certainly the pharmaceutical cartel is. We are well on our way to eliminating the competition, namely that increasingly irritating "orthomolecular medicine" faction. Here's how we are winning the Vitamin War: It is entirely too obvious, from our reading the nutritional literature, that vitamins and minerals are a well-proven, safe and effective therapy. Of course, anyone knows that to work they must be employed in appropriate doses, just as any drug must be given in an appropriate dose. That is the problem, but it is also our opportunity. Since high nutrient doses work all too well, we eliminate all those embarrassing positive high-dose results simply by ignoring them. By selecting, pooling and analyzing only unsuccessful low dose studies, our conclusions exactly fit what we want the public to believe. We also make certain to use either synthetic or fractional vitamin E to "prove" that that nutrient not only has no therapeutic value, but is actually dangerous and can kill! Sure, it is an onion in the ointment that there have been no deaths from vitamin E in 28 years of poison control center reporting. But that's a mere fact, and easily ignored. We are not going to rest on our proverbial laurels. Now that we have set the precedent for shaping medical practice into pharmaceutical hustling, there's even more we can accomplish. Here is our master plan. We have solidly established that research data can be selected, pooled, meta-analyzed and then dictate solidly "scientific" conclusions. It is now a mere step to do the same in other disciplines, including education, politics, and the social sciences. For example: Using data only from poorly-funded urban schools, we can prove mathematically, by statistical analysis of grade-point-averages, that inner-city kids have no academic future. By collecting data as to how many 19th century women graduated from college, we can show that women then were not as qualified to vote as men are today, and overturn the 19th amendment. If we assemble data on screen time and analyze actors' roles from Hollywood movies made in the 1920s and 1930s, we can demonstrate that some races are best qualified to be domestic workers, tap dancers or to operate laundries. By giving a large sample of the homeless 25 cents each, we can show that higher personal income is ineffective against poverty. If we tabulate inventory at Ferrari dealerships exclusively, we can prove Hondas are scarce. Repeatedly taking the temperature of thousands of cadavers is justification that funeral homes do not need central heating, at least not at night. Here is unlimited opportunity for social engineering, and we owe it all to S-EBM: Selective Evidence Based Medicine. Yes indeed: it logically proceeds from our widely-publicized analyses of vitamin supplementation, analyses that were limited to studies that used low doses. Math is a wonderful thing: when we sliced statistics into sound-byte-sized pieces, we even proved that vitamin E kills; vitamin C is worse; don't even THINK of taking those B-vitamin supplements; and even multivitamin pills are dangerous. Give us a just while longer: we will rip the carbons out of vitamin D next. There is so much to look forward to! (End of memo)

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you:http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S. (USA)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email:omns@orthomolecular.org Readers may write in with their comments and questions for consideration for publication and as topic suggestions. However, OMNS is unable to respond to individual emails.

The Final Word on Supplements Yeah, Right.

Commentary by Mark McCarty

(OMNS Dec 21, 2013) "Centrum Silver Adults 50+" was the low-dose multivitamin tested in a much-trumpeted recent study that "proved that supplements don't work." Here is the manufacturer's webpage for this paragon of applied nutritional science: http://www.centrum.com/centrum-silver-adults-50-plus#tablets However, to actually see in detail what's in the product, you have to click the tiny "Product Labeling" link directly under the package illustration . . . and then scroll all the way down to the fine print in the "Ingredients" box.

But it is worth the effort. In addition to three artificial colors, note the whopping big doses (this is satire, now) of protective nutrients such as:

Vitamin D - 500 IU (Bet they thought they were going way out on a limb, adding that great extra 100 IU!)

Vitamin E - 50 IU (All provided by cutting edge, synthetic dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate)

Magnesium - 50 mg (Wow, one-eighth of the RDA, in the ever-so-soluble oxide form!)

Zinc - 11 mg (Cleverly well below the elevated range shown to exert any "dangerous antioxidant activity" by inducing metallothionein [1])

Calcium - 220 mg (Note the 4.4 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium; way too high, and that is nota satirical comment)

Lutein - 250 mcg (Macular degeneration is now a thing of the past!)

Evidently, the failure of this nutritional powerhouse to prevent dementia can only mean that all supplementation is inherently worthless.

Granted this supplement did reduce cancer incidence by 8% (http://www.nbcnews.com/health/daily-multivitamin-cuts-mens-cancer-risk-8-percent-large-study-1C6519472), but who can remember back that far?

Of course, you would think that even modest, conservative doses of micronutrients might provide some benefit to the many mentally-challenged people whose baseline diets are overloaded with empty calories. So to give the supplement the very best chance to demonstrate efficacy, the researchers chose a population of research subjects most likely to be nutritionally deficient: American physicians!

Now that we have gotten all this supplements nonsense out of our systems, we can all go to our doctors to get prescriptions for the many drugs proven to prevent dementia (of which there are none).

But as for vitamins, thank heavens our ever-vigilant media have set us straight again! Whatwould we do without them?

(Mark McCarty is a nutritionist and Research Director at the non-profit organization Catalytic Longevity. He is also President of NutriGuard Research, and a consultant to several medical clinics.)

Notes:

1. In regard to zinc - are you aware of this result from the AREDS1 study?:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15136320 The 27% reduction in total mortality observed in those getting 80 mg zinc daily has been largely ignored - even though it was a robust finding in a rather massive controlled study - presumably because few people understand it. It likely represents a protective effect of metallothionein induction, which is dose-dependent above the usual dietary range of zinc (and is likely of minimal significance with modest zinc intakes). A key target of metallothionein is cadmium, which is emerging as a major mediator of multiple risks, even in people without industrial exposure: http://catalyticlongevity.org/prepub_archive/Cd[1][1].pdf published here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22959313

For further reading:

Are Antioxidants Bad for Us? A Response to Dr. Paul Offit http://catalyticlongevity.org/prepub_archive/Are%20Antioxidants%20Bad%20for%20Us.pdf

Excellent analysis of the flawed research used to attack multivitamin supplements:http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/Flawed-Research-Used-to-Attack-Multivitamin-Supplements.htm

Gossard B, Schmid K, Huber L, Joyal SV. Flawed research used to attack multivitamin supplements. http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/Flawed-Research-Used-to-Attack-Multivitamin-Supplements.htm

Additional humorous commentary on vitamin-bashing:

Multivitamins dangerous? Latest leak from the World Headquarters of Pharmaceutical Politicians, Educators and Reporters: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n15.shtml

How to destroy confidence in vitamins when you do not have the facts: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n02.shtml

Confidential Memorandum from the World Headquarters of Pharmaceutical Politicians, Educators and Reporters: scroll down at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n11.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Dean Elledge, D.D.S., M.S. (USA)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Peter H. Lauda, M.D. (Austria)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Atsuo Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D. (Japan)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email:omns@orthomolecular.org This is a comments-only address; OMNS is unable to respond to individual reader emails. However, readers are encouraged to write in with their viewpoints. Reader comments become the property of OMNS and may or may not be used for publication.

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