By Nurse Mark

Every year Dr. Myatt and I attend 2 major medical conferences, one in November, and one in December. Neither conference fits the stereotypical “golf resort conference” that many people envision – both these conferences are packed with dawn-to-dusk lectures and evenings are spent reviewing the days notes and getting ready for the next day of lectures. Whew!

Our conference in November is called “Managed Care” and brings together the top talent from the conventional medical world, and also the top executives from the major insurance companies. We learn about the latest and greatest “cutting edge” conventional medical therapies, and we learn about what the conventional doctors  (and especially conventional oncologists – cancer doctors) are being taught is this year’s “Standard of Care.” Why is this important when you know that Dr. Myatt is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor, and practices integrative, holistic medicine? It’s important because she needs to know what to tell her patients when they want a second opinion – and even though conventional medicine has done it’s best to try to convince us that they are “evidence based”, much of their advice is anything but and some of it actually borders on what we call “B.S.” or Bad Science. Having the insurance companies represented also gives us an insight into why some things might be funded and others not – for them it is all about cost containment.

Our convention in December is the American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine, or A4M and this conference usually provides us with some really interesting news. Lecturers at this conference are freer to go against conventional medical thinking, and usually provide us with cutting edge, science-based information that is of immediate value to our patients. Dr. Myatt lectured to this conference several years ago – the subject of her lecture then, the benefits of a Ketogenic Diet, was considered very advanced at the time, but is now actually considered to be mainstream medicine.

There is a lot of good information to be had at both conferences, though much of it would be dry and boring to anyone but doctors, researchers, and other medical types. However, each year we come back with some gems that we like to pass along to you, our readers. This years nuggets, in no particular order of importance, are:

1.) Ketogenic diet. The ketogenic diet is a simple metabolic strategy that works for weight loss, diabetes, cancer, neurological disease and more. Dr. Myatt lectured at this same conference six years ago on the subject but it was so front-edge at that time that it didn’t make much of a stir. THIS year, EVERYBODY is talking about how important and useful a ketogenic diet can be for so many medical conditions. We also saw at least three vendors at the trade-show part of the conference selling ketone supplements. Not the bogus “raspberry ketones” that were being hyped a while back, but real, actual dietary ketones to provide energy. Even the military is eying ketones with interest.  We’ll be watching this so stay tuned.

2.) Gut microbiome (and how not to damage it) You do know that you have beneficial bacteria living in your gut right? Of course you do, if you have read our recent HealthBeat article on the subject. What you may not appreciate however is the wonderful diversity and importance of those little fellows – taken all together this universe of bacteria is known as the “gut biome” and it is far more than just bacteria that digest food. They protect us from toxins, modulate all manner of our body’s processes, and much more. Long underestimated, even conventional medicine is now recognizing the wonder and importance of this universe within us. Here is a link to a slideshow on the conventional medicine website Medscape that shows how serious they have become about our gut microbiome.

3.) The dangers of GMO. GMO foods are touted as being perfectly safe, even safer, than their non-GMO progenitors. “Scientifically Assisted Evolution” is what one GMO cheerleader called it. And it may be true that GMO foods do not poison us outright, and might even have been engineered to contain “improved” levels of nutrients. And they are certainly engineered to be resistant to the hideously toxic herbicides that Big Agra must now use to combat the “superweeds” that all the earlier, hideously toxic herbicides have created. But do we really know what this genetic engineering is doing to the somewhat fragile gut biome that we mentioned earlier? Bacteria that have evolved over millions of years to deal with very specific proteins, fats, and molecules are now being challenged to adapt – almost overnight – to things that they may have never seen before. Is this a good thing? I can’t say for sure, but my guess is no, it isn’t a good thing at all. Oh, and those hideously toxic herbicides? There is evidence that you may be eating them along with your GMOs – they are really quite persistent, not easily washed away and may even wind up in the meat of animals fed GMO feeds.. Even the U.S. Govenment Accountability Office is worried about it.

4.) Mycotoxins. Most laymen have heard that moldy food isn’t good to eat. We also know that yeasts, including Candida species, can overgrow in the human body and cause a host of problems. But here’s the part few are discussing with you (although we wrote about this in 2008) . The toxins produced by molds — called “mycotoxins” — are far more worse and “persistent” — than the molds themselves. Here’s the scoop.

Mold/yeast/fungus (all the same organism in different parts of its lifecycle) can cause health problems. Fortunately, much moldy food can be seen visually AND the fungus can be destroyed by heat. Not so for the yeast toxins called “mycotoxins.”

Here are just a few of the more troublesome mycotoxins:

Aflatoxins are a potent carcinogen and have been directly correlated to adverse health effects such as liver cancer. Aflatoxins are found in crops such as cotton, peanuts, spices, pistachios, and maize.

Ochratoxin is a mycotoxin that is a carcinogen and a nephrotoxin, and has been linked to tumors in the human urinary tract. It is found as a contaminant in many commodities including beverages such as beer and wine. Aspergillus carbonarius which produces this mycotoxin is the main species of fungus found on vine fruit, and it releases its toxin during the juice making process.

Citrinin is a toxin that is associated with many foods such as wheat, rice, corn, barley, oats, rye, and food colored with Monascus pigment. Citrinin can also act synergistically with Ochratoxin to depress RNA synthesis in mouse kidneys (and probably human kidneys as well).

Fusarium toxins are produced by over 50 species of Fusarium fungus that infects grain such as wheat and maize. They include the trichothecenes toxins, which are strongly associated with both chronic and fatal toxic effects in both animals and humans.

Mycotoxins can’t readily be “washed off” or cooked away. They must simply be avoided by avoiding the foods that are most likely to contain them.

Want to learn more? Here is a lengthy and detailed article from the national Institutes of Health:

5.) The REAL reason meat and dairy can be dangerous (hint: it’s not antibiotics): see “mycotoxins” above. Food products, especially corn, peanuts and soy (some of the worst offenders for mycotoxins) can be legally fed to animals after they exceed human intake levels. Remember that these toxins are “persistent,” meaning that they will remain in the animal flesh, be transferred to milk (and hence to cheese) and eggs. They are not destroyed by heat. SO, food that is unfit for human consumption can be fed to animals destined for human consumption and guess what? Humans who eat these meats and foods still get the toxins.

6.) Eat regular meals, don’t “graze.”  Our grandparents had it right: “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a poor man at dinner.”  They also tended to eat at the same times each day, and didn’t “snack” throughout the day. Did you really think that a day filled with unending candies, chips, donuts, and other snacks would help you maintain a healthy weight and healthy mind and body? We’ve been preaching this forever, and now it seems that conventional medicine is catching on too. Recent research shows improvements in weight control, type II diabetes, cognition, and mental health. No surprise there, huh?

7.) Sleep  – same time, same amount, every day. Sure, we all goof off from time to time, but if you keep the “coloring outside the lines” to a minimum you can have better energy, health, and brain function. Recent research shows that seniors who had regular sleep and wake hours experienced a 20% boost in cognition (the fancy term for brain function.) We are still tracking down the studies on that 20% improvement, but the lecture material was sound and and the lecturer was an expert in the field. When we find the actual science we’ll update you.

8.) Silver. I’m not going to battle with any unarmed, ill-informed “experts” over the correct particle size of good colloidal silver. I’ll just say that one company has FDA approval for HOSPITAL USE of their colloidal silver products because they kill bad — but not good — bacteria including MRSA. We reported on this 2 years ago, in this HealthBeat article: . And let’s not forget the recent announcement by the FDA that they will be banning a large number of so-called ‘antibacterial’ soaps because they are no more effective than plain soap and water.

It seems for persistent antibacterial action, silver just can’t be beat.

Everybody and their dog is going to argue that “they” have the best stuff. The company I use has a sliver product so reliable that it is used medically to kill bugs. Anyone else making big claims can try to beat that. Find silver here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/SilverGel.htm and  here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/colloidalsilver.htm

There are more gems and news of course, and we are still, a couple of months later, processing all our conference notes. Dr. Myatt’s concierge patients get the benefit of all this knowledge first of course, but you HealthBeat News readers win too as we pass it along in our newsletters.

Resources and links:

Military studies ketones for soldiers: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/867065

HealthBeat article on gut microbiome: http://healthbeatnews.com/the-most-important-immune-supplement-ever/ 

Medscape slideshow on gut microbiome: http://www.medscape.com/features/slideshow/rise-of-microbiome

U.S. G.A.O. report on GMOs: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-38

Mycotoxins HealthBeat article: http://healthbeatnews.com/fungus-yeasts-and-molds-hidden-cause-of-many-unexplained-diseases/

Mycotoxins N.I.H. article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC164220/

HealthBeat silver article: http://healthbeatnews.com/is-there-a-silver-bullet-for-disease/

FDA bans antibacterial soaps: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm517478.htm

Find best quality silver: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/SilverGel.htm and  https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/colloidalsilver.htm

Become one of Dr. Myatt’s chosen few Concierge Patients: http://drmyattswellnessclub.com/ConsultDrMyatt.htm

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