HealthBeat News

Author: Wellness Club

  • Lutein… Eye Can See Clearly Now (The Haze Is Gone)

    By Nurse Mark

     

    HealthBeat News readers may not know that I will be turning 60 this year, so there it is – my age, now known to all. And I feel that I’m in pretty good shape for being almost 60; I run every morning, I do daily body-weight exercise, I eat well, I sleep well, I take my vitamins faithfully, I’m a normal weight and I feel good.

    Like many people my age however I like to joke that “if I’d known I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself!”

    When we are in our 20’s and 30’s we are immortal, invincible. But as we move into our 40’s and 50’s and begin to notice little things we wish we had been more careful, more attentive.

    As I moved through my 40’s I began to notice that my arms seemed to be becoming shorter – I was having to hold printed materials further from my eyes in order to focus and read. As I approached my 50’s a set of “cheaters” – non-prescription reading glasses – became my constant companion.

    When I was in my 20’s and 30’s I actually preferred driving at night when there was less traffic on the roads – but as I moved into my 40’s I found that it seemed like more people had annoying, glaringly maladjusted headlights, and as I entered my 50’s I found myself going out of my way to avoid night driving – the glare from oncoming headlights seemed blinding and I felt I was not as safe as I wanted to be because of that.

    In my mid-50’s I earned my Private Pilot certificate, which meant learning to fly at night. I found that flying in darkness is a delightful experience. But while takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory and the glare from the runway edge lights and other airport lighting made night landings a nerve-wracking experience – I found myself avoiding night flight.

    As I entered my 50’s I also noticed that while my distance vision was still quite good, things sometimes looked a little “flat” in some light, and objects were becoming harder to pick out from backgrounds. Colors weren’t quite as “crisp” as I seemed to remember…

    So, around my 59th birthday last year Dr. Myatt and I were attending lectures at a medical conference in Las Vegas. One of those lectures explained the results of the NIH-sponsored AREDS2 study and the actions and effects of the supplements lutein and zeaxanthin. After sitting through what felt like hours of mind-numbing statistics and science the speaker began to get to the meat of the lecture and I started to think that perhaps there was something in it for me – and that since we carry a very high quality lutein supplement perhaps I would give the stuff a try. And so, when we got home from the conference I began to take a lutein supplement faithfully every day – it has been about 90 days now.

    Here is what I found: For the first month or so it didn’t seem to be doing a darned thing.

    Then about halfway through the second month of using it I was out for my usual morning run – a day like any other. As I neared one particular hilltop that affords a nice view of a local valley something seemed different. I stopped and admired the view. Colors felt brighter; distant homes, vehicles, trees, and other features somehow looked more prominent. Everything just seemed crisper, cleaner, like when the air is especially clear after a rainfall. But this is Arizona – we had not experienced any rain for some time. I drank in the beauty of it and continued my run without much more thought.

    A few days later I found myself needing to drive to a meeting at night. I really don’t like to drive at night anymore, but there was no way around it, so off I went. Oddly, though it seemed like there was as much traffic as ever, oncoming headlights weren’t quite as blinding – even the nasty high-intensity blue headlights. Headlights from behind (we have plenty of “jacked-up” trucks and SUV’s in our part of the world) were less annoying too. When I did get an unavoidable flash of headlights in my eyes I seemed to be recovering my vision faster – more like I was able to when I was 20 years younger. My own headlights seemed to be working a bit better too, and I was finding it easier to pick out objects at the edges of their illumination – the car in a dark driveway getting ready to pull out onto the road, the deer feeding in the ditch, the pothole to be avoided. All in all, I found myself enjoying driving at night again – wow!

    The next day I thought about my vision, and about the changes I was noticing. It isn’t like by vision is any better by measurable means – I still need my readers for close work, I don’t think my visual acuity has changed or improved – my distance vision seems unchanged (it was pretty good to begin with).

    What has changed though is the quality of my vision. Would it make sense if I said it feels “cleaner”? Colors seem less muddy. Contrast seems improved. There seems to be less glare. Perhaps there is a way to measure all this that I’m not aware of, but for now it just seems… better. And that’s enough for me.

    But I wasn’t satisfied with that – and so I dug out my notes from that medical conference lecture and reviewed them.

    I found that what I was noticing is exactly what the lecturer said that they had been finding in their research.

    My notes said that 6 to 9 weeks of continued supplementation was required to achieve any noticeable improvement. Check.

    I had noted that lutien forms a protective layer inside the eye that improves night sight and reduces glare effects by blocking blue light. Check.

    And that this blue light blocking effect also improves contrast and color rendition in full and in subdued light. Check.

    My notes also say that lutein is protective of the eye, functions as an antioxidant, and may prevent development and progression of cataracts and may prevent the progression of Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

    My Bottom line?

    I believe that using lutein faithfully for the last three months has made a difference to the quality of my vision. Not to my visual acuity: it hasn’t fixed my presbyopia – but has improved a difficult-to-define “quality” of vision.

    Let’s just say that I like what (and how) I’m seeing, and you’re not taking my lutein away from me!

    Learn more about Lutein and Zeaxanthin here:

  • NasoSympatico – Banned By The FDA. Here’s the recipe!

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Once again the Mighty FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has seen fit to demonstrate it’s all-powerful benevolence by protecting us from being exposed to a product that it has not officially blessed with its “approval.”

    Makers of the natural formula NasoSympatico have been told by the FDA that to continue to make and sell this formula puts them at risk of being deemed to be sellers of an ”unapproved drug” – an offence that is widely known to put companies at risk for armed SWAT team raids, confiscations of business and customer records, seizure of products, equipment, and assets, and even prison time.

    NasoSympatico has been around a long time and it is much beloved by a loyal but relatively small group of savvy users. But because it is a specialty product and doesn’t sell thousands of units a week or even in a month, and because as a natural product profit margins are very low, no one is willing spend the millions of dollars required for the endless tests and expensive “licensing fees” required by the FDA to earn it’s approval to sell – and certainly no one is willing to risk the wrath of the FDA by selling it without an FDA blessing.

    So, NasoSympatico is gone – lost to FDA regulation. But it is not forgotten.

    Just as recipes for any number of things that our government would like us to be ignorant of are freely available to us thanks to our First Amendment rights (just look up “gunpowder” on the internet for example), Dr. Myatt has decided to make the recipe for NasoSympatico available, for educational and informational purposes only, in order that people may see what the FDA is “protecting” them from.

    Learn more on Dr. Myatt’s Wellness Club website information page for NasoSympatico.

  • Dr Myatt’s Eye Drops Banned by FDA

    "Eye Drops from Hell" – here’s your recipe.

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Your FDA – ever vigilant, ever determined to protect you from… yourself.

    No natural substance is so inconsequential as to escape the watchful eye of the Mighty FDA – at least not as long as there is any evidence that such a substance actually works (and might represent competition to a patented drug).

    Such was the case with Dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) that we recently told you about in the HealthBeat News article Your FDA – Protecting You From… Yourself ?

    You see, the substance DMSA, long available without a prescription due to its record of safety and effectiveness, represented unwanted competition to a patented drug – so (we presume) the FDA heeded the calls of the patented drug’s manufacturer and declared the natural substance DMSA to be an “unapproved drug.” Presto! What was once legal to sell without prescription is now a prescription drug!

    But wait – it gets better! It seems that the FDA doesn’t even have to go to all the trouble of declaring something to be a drug: they have been known to simply send out a letter of “advice” to a supplement manufacturer suggesting that since a substance is being used by a number of people to relieve, or correct or improve some ailment it could be considered to be a drug and the manufacturer could be in deep trouble for selling it. Thus, the “advice” is to voluntarily remove that substance from the marketplace or face some very unpleasant FDA attention. Why am I suddenly reminded of Marlon Brando as the Mafia boss in The Godfather saying “I’m gonna make him an offer he cannot refuse…”

    According to the FDA and the language of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 anything that is intended to treat any medical or health condition is considered a drug.  There are no specific regulations for many therapies or treatments other than the catch-all wording “if it is intended to treat any condition it is a drug”.  Relieving stress, relieving nasal congestion, relieving constipation, relieving dry eyes, relieving aches, pains, or stiffness; all can be considered treatments and thus anything that does those things is a drug in the eyes of the FDA. Wow! Who knew?

    Ah, but it gets even better yet! It seems that the reach and power of the FDA has no limit. They can declare anything to be anything else, as it suits them. Here is an example:

    Most readers will be familiar with the Avon product called “Skin So Soft” – a hand and body lotion popular for, well, keeping skin soft – just like the name says. But Avon ran into a problem: it seems that a number of people came to believe that this nice, benign hand and body lotion was also effective at preventing insect bites – that bugs don’t like the scent or some such. That may or may not be, but the FDA ruled that because some people were using this skin lotion as a bug repellent it now must be registered with the FDA as an insect repellent.

    Huh? you say; why would they do that – what’s in it for the FDA?

    Easy – fees, and lots of them. Money.

    As you know, almost every interaction that we have with our government involves giving them money for something, and the FDA is no exception. The fees involved in registering something with the FDA are enormous and the FDA relies upon those fees to fund it’s operations “in the manner to which they have become accustomed.” That is to say, lavishly.

    So, that brings us to the whole point of this article:

    Some time ago we were forced to stop selling Dr. Myatt’s Eye Drops From Hell – a product that had a very loyal following of satisfied users who loved the way it stimulated circulation and left their eyes feeling refreshed and clean.

    The company that mixed and bottled this formulation for Dr. Myatt was told by the FDA in very certain terms that because this product was intended for use in the eyes it was considered to be a drug and unless the company wanted to risk being raided (at gunpoint) and to have people sent to jail for selling “unapproved drugs” they had better stop making it.

    So, stop making it they did. And Dr. Myatt has been unable to find anyone else willing to risk the wrath of the FDA by making the formula for her.

    What to do? We have customers begging us for Eye Drops From Hell, pleading, asking when it will be available again. The short answer is it’s not ever going to be available again, as long as the FDA has it’s way.

    But all is not lost. While the mighty FDA can indeed ban substances and products like this, they cannot ban information, knowledge, and speech.

    For those who miss Eye Drops From Hell and want to try making their own, Dr. Myatt has revealed the ingredients and the exact proportions needed to re-create this formula. We do not sell Eye Drops From Hell, and we do not sell the ingredients needed to make the formula. But we will give you, for free, the recipe. Please see Dr. Myatt’s Eye Drops From Hell page for the information that you can use to make this beloved formula yourself.

    Folks, this is what happens when we let politicians get involved in our health….

  • New Miracle Drug For Cardiovascular Health?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Why is it that the so-called “modern miracles” presented to us with such fanfare by Big Pharma always pale in comparison to the truly magnificent gifts that Mother Nature gives us, quietly, every day?

    Could it be that Mother Nature has had so very much longer to “get it right”? Maybe it’s true: Mother Nature Knows Best!

    Such is the case with the variety of conventional Big Pharma drug offerings for heart and cardiovascular health.

    Statins are claimed to be the answer to high cholesterol and heart disease – at the expense of some terrible side effects that we’ve discussed in other HealthBeat News articles. Rhabdomyelosis – the destruction of muscle fibers – is just one of the more common side effects. You do remember that your heart is a muscle, right? Then there are the severe and incapacitating mental effects experienced by many people – a statin fog that we’ve written about before…

    Anticoagulants – AKA “blood thinners” – are handed out willy-nilly in the hopes of preventing blood clots from forming in fluttering hearts or weakened leg veins. From the original “rat poison” warfarin (coumadin) to the new “high tech” injectables, we accept the side effects; bruising, easy and prolonged bleeding from even minor injuries, and increased risk of hemorrhagic stoke (the most deadly kind) as “normal” and necessary.

    Beta Blocker drugs are passed out like candy in a vain attempt to control the damage caused by high blood pressure. When they do manage to achieve the desired effect on blood pressure they almost always do so at the expense of a person’s ability to perform normal daily functions because they are so dizzy, weak, and devoid of energy. Sexual dysfunction is common and depression is frequent. But hey – we got that blood pressure down a few points – so it’s worth it, right?

    Yes, indeed: a pill for every ill – according to Big Pharma. And if you don’t like the side effects of the pills? Well, they probably have a pill to manage those too…

    Or, we can look to Mother Nature – She has been mankind’s pharmacist for a very long time now, and if we just giver Her a chance She does a much better job of keeping us healthy than Big Pharma does.

    Let’s look at just one of Mother Nature’s tasty and effective offerings:

    Allium sativum – humble garlic – came to ancient man from Central Asia and belongs to the Alliacae plant family. It is used worldwide for it’s indispensable and distinctive flavor in cooking. It also has a vital place in traditional medicine, and as a functional food to enhance physical and mental health.

    The benefits of garlic consumption in treating a wide variety of human diseases and disorders have been known for centuries and garlic has found a special position in many cultures as a powerful preventative and therapeutic medicinal agent. The ancient Egyptians in their 3,500-year-old document the Codex Ebers, described it’s use in the treatment of heart disorders, tumors, worms, bites, and other ailments.

    In more modern times, garlic is known to inhibit the development of cardiovascular disease and to prevent cancer and other chronic diseases associated with aging.

    Over the past few decades the role of garlic in treating cardiovascular disease has received much attention – much of it likely sponsored by drug companies hoping to find a way to cash in on Mother Nature’s genius.

    Let’s look at a few of garlic’s better-known effects:

    Cholesterol and lipid-lowering effects.

    Several studies have indicated that garlic inhibits key enzymes involved in cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis, thus lowering the dreaded “bad cholesterol” levels and promoting overall cardiovascular health. (1, 2, 3, 4)

    Inhibition of platelet aggregation – known to most people as “blood thinning.”

    Since the 1990s, numerous clinical trials have been done, and all showed that garlic consumption leads to the inhibition of platelet aggregation (5, 6, 7). Performed on both normal, healthy subjects and on subjects with cardiovascular illnesses, the studies showed that no matter what form the garlic was in , whether powdered, oil, or aged extract, the garlic had a positive effect in the inhibition of platelet aggregation (abnormal blood “stickiness”) in both healthy subjects and the subjects with cardiovascular disease.

    Lowering blood pressure.

    Beginning in the 1990s, studies have been published demonstrating the effects of garlic on blood pressure (6, 8, 9, 10). Again, no matter what form of garlic was used; powdered, oil, extracts, or just garlic in the diet, all the studies showed a reduction in blood pressure.

    Reducing oxidative stress.

    Garlic beats out Big Pharma on this one – hands down. In fact, Big Pharma really doesn’t have anything to offer that they claim will reduce oxidative stress, even though it is widely known that oxidative stress can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease and certainly worsens existing cardiovascular disease. In study after study normal subjects and patients with hypertension (high blood pressure), hypercholesterolemic (high cholesterol), and tobacco smoking subjects all showed improvements in plasma (blood) antioxidant capacity, lowering of blood pressure and of cholesterol, and reduction in oxidative markers. (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)

    What else?

    Other direct heart and circulation protective effects of garlic in humans that have been reported include:

    • a decrease in unstable angina (chest pain) (16),
    • increased elasticity of blood vessels (17),
    • a decrease in peripheral arterial occlusive disease (blocked arteries) (18),
    • an increase in peripheral blood flow in healthy subjects (19),
    • an inhibiting effect on the progression of coronary calcification (hardening arteries) in patients using statin drugs (20).

    Garlic is also well-known for it’s potent antimicrobial effects as well – for example, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a potentially deadly bacteria that has Big Pharma throwing it’s hands up in defeat because it has become resistant to the “Big Guns” antibiotics. Garlic doesn’t concede defeat however – and it is one of the few effective treatments for this dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

    But that will be the subject of another HealthBeat News article…

    Doesn’t garlic make you smell like, well, garlic?

    It depends on how you are using it. Fresh garlic cloves will certainly have you smelling like garlic – though that is not necessarily an offensive scent to many people… and other garlic preparations – oils, and extracts especially – can give a garlicky odor to your breath. Enteric garlic like Garlitrin 4000 delivers all the health benefits of fresh garlic, but does so in a special tablet that dissolves only when it reaches the small intestine where it is able to be fully-absorbed, undamaged by stomach acid. Because it dissolves and is absorbed so far along in the digestive tract it causes no garlic odor of the breath.

    A special deal on the very best Garlic – Garlitrin 4000 – 50% Off – for HealthBeat News Readers Only!

    We believe in the benefits of garlic and we want you to try it for yourself. For the months of January and Ferbruary (Heart Month!) only we invite you to try Garlitrin 4000 at half our usual low price. Here’s the Deal:

    We have a small supply of Garlitrin that has passed it’s “best by” date of November 2014. This product has been carefully kept in our climate-controlled facility, and each tablet is individually sealed in foil-backed blister packs. I am using it myself and I can tell you that it is as fresh and good as the day it was made. Worried about “best by” dates? Read our HealthBeat News article on the subject: About Those “Expiry Dates”

    Just enter the discount code “ Garlic “ (exactly as it is written, without the quotes) in the discount field when you order online and checkout and a 50% discount will be applied to your Garlitrin 4000 purchase. There are 100 enteric coated tablets individually sealed in foil blisters in each box – that is a 3-month supply!

    There has never been a better time or more reasons to try the health benefits of daily garlic!

    Click here to buy Garlitrin 4000!

    (Good only while current supplies last, applies only to on-line orders – no phone-in or mail-in orders. Current stocks of Garlitrin 4000 carry “best by” dates of 11/2014)

     

    References:

    1. Gebhardt R. Multiple inhibitory effects of garlic extracts on cholesterol biosynthesis in hepatocytes. Lipids. 1993;28:613–9.

    2. Liu L, Yeh YY. Water-soluble organosulfur compounds of garlic inhibit fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis in cultured rat hepatocytes. Lipids. 2001;36:395–400.

    3. Yeh YY, Liu L. Cholesterol-lowering effects of garlic extracts and organosulfur compounds: human and animal studies. J Nutr. 2001;131:989S–93S.

    4. Yeh YY, Yeh SM. Garlic reduces plasma lipids by inhibiting hepatic cholesterol and triacylglycerol synthesis. Lipids. 1994;29:189–93.

    5. Rahman K. Garlic and aging: new insights into an old remedy. Ageing Res Rev. 2003;2:39–56.

    6. Banerjee SK, Maulik SK. Effect of garlic on cardiovascular disorders: a review. Nutr J. 2002;1:4–14.

    7. Steiner M, Li W. Aged garlic extract, a modulator of cardiovascular risk factors: a dose-finding study on the effects of AGE on platelet functions. J Nutr. 2001;131:980S–4S.

    8. Turner B, Molgaard C, Marckmann P. Effect of garlic (Allium sativum) powder tablets on serum lipids, blood pressure and arterial stiffness in normo-lipidaemic volunteers: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Br J Nutr. 2004;92:701–6.

    9. Dhawan V, Jain S. Effect of garlic supplementation on oxidised low density lipoproteins and lipid peroxidation in patients of essential hypertension. Mol Cell Biochem. 2004;266:109–15.

    10. Durak I, Kavutcu M, Aytac B, Avci A, Devrim E, Ozbek H, Ozturk HS. Effects of garlic extract consumption on blood lipid and oxidant/antioxidant parameters in humans with high blood cholesterol. J Nutr Biochem. 2004;15:373–7.

    11. Dhawan V, Jain S. Effect of garlic supplementation on oxidised low density lipoproteins and lipid peroxidation in patients of essential hypertension. Mol Cell Biochem. 2004;266:109–15.

    12. Durak I, Kavutcu M, Aytac B, Avci A, Devrim E, Ozbek H, Ozturk HS. Effects of garlic extract consumption on blood lipid and oxidant/antioxidant parameters in humans with high blood cholesterol. J Nutr Biochem. 2004;15:373–7.

    13. Munday JS, James KA, Fray LM, Kirkwood SW, Thompson KG. Daily supplementation with aged garlic extract, but not raw garlic protects low density lipoprotein against in vitro oxidation. Atherosclerosis. 1999;143:399–404.

    14. Dillion SA, Lowe GM, Billington D, Rahman K. Dietary supplementation with aged garlic extract reduces plasma and urine concentrations of 8-iso-prostagalandin F(2 alpha) in smoking and non-smoking men and women. J Nutr. 2002;132:168–71.

    15. Durak I, Aytac B, Atmaca Y, Devrim E, Avci A, Erol C, Oral D. Effects of aged garlic extract consumption on plasma and erythrocyte antioxidant parameters in atherosclerotic patients. Life Sci. 2004;75:1959–66.

    16. Li G, Shi Z, Jia H, Ju J, Wang X, Xia Z, Qin L, Ge C, Xu Y, et al. A clinical investigation on garlicin injection for the treatment of unstable angina pectoris and its actions on plasma endothelin and blood sugar levels. J Tradit Chin Med. 2000;20:243–6.

    17. Breithaupt-Grogler K, Ling M, Boudoulas H, Belz GG, Heiden M, Wenzel E, Gu LD. Protective effect of chronic garlic intake on elastic properties of aorta in the elderly. Circulation. 1997;96:2649–55.

    18. Kiesewetter H, Jung F, Jung EM, Mroweitz C, Koscielny J, Wenzel E. Effect of garlic on platelet aggregation in patients with increased risk of juvenile ischaemic attack. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 1993;45:333–6.

    19. Anim-Nyame N, Sooranna SR, Johnson MR, Gamble J, Steer PJ. Garlic supplementation increases peripheral blood flow: a role for interleukin-6? J Nutr Biochem. 2004;15:30–6.

    20. Budoff MJ, Takasu J, Flores FR, Niihara Y, Lu B, Lau BH, Rosen RT, Amagase H. Inhibiting progression of coronary calcification using Aged Garlic Extract in patients receiving statin therapy: a preliminary study. Prev Med. 2004;39:985–91.

  • Insurance: Friend Or Foe?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Many readers may know that I am a private pilot. I was at the airport the other day chatting with some other pilots about the subject of drugs and drug testing when one fellow (a commercial pilot) observed:

    The problem is that pilots are human, and subject to all the normal problems everyone else goes through. When a pilot gets depressed, they cannot seek help, or they could be grounded for a period that can last for years.

    Why is it OK for police, judges, firemen, doctors, and other jobs with great responsibility to be successfully treated with anti-depressants, but pilots are expected to be superhuman physically and mentally?

    He is quite right – it is really NOT ok for there to be such a double-standard.

    On the other hand, no one is functioning at their best when taking side-effect producing pharmaceuticals.

    In the case of pilots the FAA has the oversight and the clout to do something about it and as a result the list of drugs that pilots are allowed to use while flying is very small. Most other professions do not, and so you find judges making bad decisions that affect peoples lives, cops who put themselves, their partners, and the public at risk with dulled (or hyped-up) reflexes, crane operators making bad decisions with drug-dulled judgment, and so on.

    It is worth remembering however that depression is not caused by a Zoloft or Paxil or Effexor deficiency, anxiety is not caused by a Valium or Xanax deficiency, high blood pressure is not caused by a Beta Blocker deficiency, diabetes is not caused by any drug deficiency… and yet these are common problems that people use judgment and reaction-time dulling drugs for.

    Maybe you can get this stuff "covered" by some health care plan, and maybe it doesn’t affect your employability, and maybe you really don’t care that you are disabled to some degree by side effects… lots of people don’t really care, just as long as their insurance “covers” it.

    But if you’re a pilot, it’s a big concern. Allopathic (conventional) treatment for many illnesses uses conventional drugs that will ground a pilot, resulting in a sudden and severe loss of income – no wonder many attempt to hide their problems. While hypertension or arrhythmias or diabetes will probably be found out on the FAA physical, depression can be hidden with varying degrees of success.

    But it doesn’t need to be that way. Given the financial incentive for a pilot to maintain the ability to fly, it’s worth stepping outside of the "corporate medical insurance plan" box to investigate alternative, non-conventional health care.

    A visit with a naturopathic physician, while still reportable to the FAA, could be legitimately reported simply as "Nutritional and Dietary Counseling" even though the desired effect of that counseling might be to correct imbalances that may be causing, say, neurotransmitter imbalances and resulting feelings of depression. Result: reporting legitimately accomplished and privacy maintained.

    A good Naturopathic Medical Doctor would perform neurotransmitter testing and make dietary and supplement changes to correct out-of-range neurotransmitters, without using reportable drugs. This is not fantasy or psychic woo-woo stuff – we do it successfully, every day here. Though Dr. Myatt is licensed to prescribe drugs she very rarely does – it just isn’t necessary. Drugs are more like Band-Aids – they treat the symptoms not the cause.

    Why not treat the cause? Doing that usually gets much faster and more complete healing than just covering up the symptoms with a drug.

    As a “bonus,” dietary supplements like L-5HTP, SAMe, St. Johns Wort, bromelain, grape seed extract, niacin, etc. are NOT reportable to the FAA or anyone else as "drugs"…

    We are constantly amazed at the medical "problems" that folks drug themselves for that can be corrected without drugs.

    Some examples:

    • Hypertension – easily correctable without drugs,
    • Type 2 diabetes – not just correctable but cured without drugs,
    • Allergies – yep, drugless relief – that means no drowsy-making pills, and probably little or no return of symptoms next season too…
    • High cholesterol – back to healthy ranges without drugs,
    • GERD – a "slam-dunk" drugless cure with no “little purple pill” required,
    • Heart arrhythmias – most respond very nicely to drugless treatment.
      (True Story: We have a lawyer patient who was told after 3 successive EKG’s that he had a permanent and irreversible heart block – and that he was "a ticking time-bomb" who would likely need a pacemaker. After a month of drugless treatment his cardiologist repeated the EKG and shook his head in disbelief saying "If I were a lawyer I would not want to have to go into court to explain this – it’s gone and your heart is fine – and that isn’t supposed to happen!")

    The list goes on and no, but you get the idea – mankind has survived and thrived for millennia without the help of modern drugs – what the heck has changed so in the last century to make us any different?

    It amazes me that folks insure their automobile and don’t expect the insurance company to pay for their tune-ups, oil changes, new tires, or new muffler – but when you suggest to someone that they might part with a few of their hard-earned dollars for a health care consultation or vitamins or supplements they react with horror, expecting that to be "covered by the plan" or they just won’t do it. They maintain their cars better than they do their own bodies…

    It would be like knowingly driving your car on a bald tire, waiting for it to blow out on the road so that you can call road service to come out and put the spare on… and still not bothering to get new tires "because insurance won’t cover it."

    “Well who cares,” you say – “I’m not a pilot, and I don’t worry about the FAA.”

    For everyone there is increasingly a privacy issue: more and more often we hear reports of HMO’s and insurance companies tracking health care usage and even day to day purchases with an eye to “adjusting” premiums or requiring “lifestyle changes.” You bought a candy bar in the checkout line at the grocery store? You might get a call from your insurer suggesting dietary counseling… Do you smoke? Even just an occasional cigar? Brace yourself for higher premiums. Did you mention some recent stress, insomnia, or blue feelings to your doc? Remember, all your medical records are on-line and accessible to your “insurance provider” (and who-knows-who-else) now… And all your prescriptions? There they are, “in the cloud” for all the world to see…

    Or maybe you are a top executive in a company with nervous shareholders – or an employee in a company with a HMO that tells HR who is healthy and who is a “drag” on the company’s health plan…

    So, if you have aviation buddies who are dancing around the FAA trying to avoid reporting ground-able stuff have them call us – I’ll bet we can help keep ‘em flying… and healthier than they’ve ever been… And for anyone else who wants to keep their health and their privacy, well, we can help you too.

    No, your “insurance” is not your friend – good health, achieved without drugs, is.