HealthBeat News

Category: Family Health

  • This Simple Activity Cuts Diabetes Risk 40%

    By Nurse Mark

     

    I remember my grandfathers – both of them. My maternal grandfather was a watchmaker. The old-fashioned kind of watchmaker, who could actually make a functioning watch out of brass and steel – not just a fumble-fingered clerk who might not be able to replace the battery in your new electronic watch without destroying it. In fact, Grandpa Pass wouldn’t have those newfangled quartz watches in his shop.

    Grandpa Pass didn’t own an automobile either. He really didn’t need to. His home was about a mile and a half from his watch and clock repair shop and he walked to work in the morning and back home again in the evening  – rain or shine, every day of his working life.

    And that working life spanned many decades. Grandpa Pass died in his 85th year having enjoyed good health right up to his final days.

    Did Grandpa Pass plan it that way? Was he some sort of a health nut or fitness buff? Hardly.

    Grandpa Pass worked at a very sedentary job – hunched over a workbench manipulating the tiny pieces of clocks and watches. He would occasionally stand to serve a customer at the counter, but there was no great physical labor to his work.

    So how did he do it? What was the secret to his remaining healthy and free from doctors and drugs right up to the end?

    Perhaps it was that mile-and-a-half of walking – about 30 minutes – twice a day, every day, for decades.

    According to a study just released by researchers at Imperial College London and University College London using data from a survey of some 20,000 people across the U.K., people who walk to work are 40 per cent less likely to have diabetes than those who drive.

    And it’s not just diabetes – they also found that people who walk to work were 17% less likely to have high blood pressure than people who drive. And of course, the walkers are far less likely to be overweight too.

    Wow – the drug companies would love to be able to sell a pill that would do all that!

    Moderation: the secret to longevity and health?

     

    Grandpa Pass was not an exercise fanatic – in fact, he really didn’t “exercise.” He just walked a half-hour or so each way to work and back. That might be called “moderate” exercise.

    He enjoyed the healthy, fresh foods that Grandma Pass prepared for him – in moderation.

    Perhaps there are lessons in this for us in our more modern world.

    Not everyone lives within a mile or two of their work so as to be able to walk, or even 5 miles which would be bicycling distance.

    But we can all find a half-hour or so each day for some moderate exercise.

    Not everyone has access to all those farm-fresh, wholesome, and natural foods that Grandma would prepare from scratch preserving their nutrition and freshness, either.

    But we can all eat in moderation, and we can all make sure that we make up for the nutritional depletion that has come from or modern industrial farming methods – even the USDA is acknowledging that two-thirds or more of Americans are mineral and vitamin deficient.

    Making sure that we get all our vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients is the easy part – with a basic daily regimen of:

    • An optimal dose multiple vitamin, mineral, antioxidant and bioflavonoid formula.
    • A green food formula that provides flavonoids and phytonutrients.
    • High-potency Omega-3 essential fatty acids.

     

    Dr. Myatt has put together a time and money-saving package of essential daily supplements – her Maxi Health Foundation Bundle – that saves you from having to shop around and drive all over town in order to find the best-priced , highest quality, optimal dose supplements. Each Maxi Health Foundation Bundle is a one-month supply of these essential health-saving nutrients for one person – at a substantial savings compared to locating and buying these items separately.

    We’ll help with the vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients – the exercise is up to you!

     

    References:

    Anthony A. Laverty, MSc, Jennifer S. Mindell, PhD, Elizabeth A. Webb, PhD, Christopher Millett, PhD.: Active Travel to Work and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the United Kingdom. http://www.ajpmonline.org/webfiles/images/journals/amepre/AMEPRE_3837-stamped-080613.pdf

  • Are You Missing This Important Mineral?

    By Nurse Mark

     

    Magnesium.

     

    You know the stuff; that really lightweight metal that you had fun with in high school chemistry class. There was always the class clown who would put a match to a piece of it, and it would burn with an incredibly bright, white light. Invariably, someone would panic and try to douse the flame with water – which would only make it burn more ferociously…

    Magnesium is one of the most common minerals on our planet Earth – the fourth most common element in fact after iron, oxygen and silicon.

    Yet many people are deficient in this important, precious (for health) mineral.

    How can this be?

     

    Our ancestors rarely suffered from magnesium deficiencies – they got plenty in their diets. That is unfortunately not the case today.

    Can you say “monoculture“?

     

    Modern, “industrial” agriculture methods have depleted our topsoil of this and many other minerals, leaving our crops and thus our diets deficient. Even the USDA admits that less than a third of Americans don’t get even the minimal USDA recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of 240 to 420 millgrams per day.

    Why is magnesium so important to our health?

     

    Magnesium is involved in energy processes, nerve function, enzyme activation, and protein formation.

    Magnesium is essential to the basic chemistry of life – nucleic acid. Over 300 enzymes require magnesium to function, including all enzymes that utilize or synthesizing ATP (adenosine triphosphate – the most basic energy source for our cells), and enzymes used to synthesize DNA and RNA. ATP is found in cells in the form of ATP and a magnesium ion bound together in a chelate.

    So what – if I’m a little low?

     

    Since magnesium is important to so many vital physical processes in our bodies it’s easy to see how a deficiency can have so many, wide ranging, and serious effects.

    Magnesium deficiency is associated with:

    fatigue glaucoma depression
    high blood pressure diabetes hearing loss
    fibromyalgia kidney stones osteoporosis
    asthma gallbladder stones cancer
    stroke migraine insomnia
    heart disease (arrhythmia, CHF, angina, acute MI) pregnancy complications (toxemia, premature delivery) premenstrual syndrome
     

    And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

     

    Without magnesium our bones cannot utilize calcium properly, leading to osteoporosis. This also why a magnesium deficiency can lead to kidney and gall stone formation and can result in vascular calcification (AKA “hardening of the arteries”).

    Magnesium is Mother Nature’s “calcium channel blocker.” Calcium Channel Blockers are drugs used to control high blood pressure. The drugs have a multitude of nasty side effects. Magnesium doesn’t, and it lowers high blood pressure very nicely.

    Magnesium is a “calming” mineral. It reduces muscle cramps and spasms and is used in emergency medicine to treat life-threatening heart arrhythmias.

    Magnesium deficiencies are associated with metabolic syndrome and Type II Diabetes.

    Small doses of magnesium were found to be as effective as drugs in treating depressed elderly Type II Diabetics, and has been speculated to be useful in the treatment of other depression as well.

    But what if I take too much?

     

    Like anything, it is possible to get too much magnesium. Difficult, but possible. Excess magnesium in the blood is quickly and effectively filtered out by the kidneys, so it’s hard to overdose on magnesium from dietary sources alone.

    Overdose is possible with misuse of supplements, particularly in people with poor renal function and occasionally people using high doses of magnesium salts as a cathartic can get themselves into trouble, causing hypermagnesemia even if they don’t have renal dysfunction – they just overwhelm their kidneys ability to cope with the overload.

    For most people however, excess magnesium in the system is going to be quickly eliminated in the urine.

    Where can I get some?

     

    Diet is the best way to get your magnesium. Unfortunately, as we discussed earlier, our soils are depleted and our crops are lacking. Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, legumes, nuts, seeds, and whole grains, are good sources of magnesium.

    Like almonds? They provide up to 20% of the RDA of magnesium (80mg) per one ounce serving. Spinach runs a close second, providing 78mg per half cup. Cashews are number 3 with 74mg per one ounce serving – who knew that eating healthy could be so great!

    But remember, the RDA is 240 to 420 millgrams per day – and you really should be getting twice that much for optimal health!

    Supplementation provides a more certain source for magnesium.

     

    Multiple vitamin / mineral formulas should ideally contain goodly amounts of magnesium. For example, Dr. Myatt’s Maxi Multi provides 500mg per day. For those who need more, Magnesium Glycinate is available in 100mg capsules to allow optimal fine-tuning of daily intake. And for those who are concerned with osteoporosis and bone health, CalMag Amino contains 200mg of magnesium in the optimal ratio with calcium along with several other essential bone health nutrients including Vitamin D, boron, and Vitamin K.

    Ever get a charley-horse or other muscle cramps?

     

    Magnesium absorbs quickly through the skin and relieves muscle cramps fast. Try massaging in a few sprays of Magnesium Oil – Dr. Myatt uses this herself for muscle cramps after exercise and she swears by it. It’s not really oil – it is a very thick brine (like a salt solution) that feels oily going on but absorbs in to the skin quickly. It doesn’t stain like oil, but it does sometimes leave a light powdery residue on the skin that is easily wiped or washed away. This stuff is like a “miracle cure” for kids who are prone to night-time muscle cramps, “growing pains,” and charley-horses!

     

    Magnesium – who knew that “science class” stuff would turn out to be so important!

     

    References:

    National Institutes for Health Office of Dietary Supplements Fact Sheet on Magnesium: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/ – includes numerous additional references.

    Eby Ga, 3rd; Eby, KL (2010). “Magnesium for treatment-resistant depression: a review and hypothesis”. Medical hypotheses 74 (4): 649–660.

    Barragán-Rodríguez, L; Rodríguez-Morán, M; Guerrero-Romero, F (2008). “Efficacy and safety of oral magnesium supplementation in the treatment of depression in the elderly with type 2 diabetes: a randomized, equivalent trial”. Magnesium research : official organ of the International Society for the Development of Research on Magnesium 21 (4): 218–23.

    Jee SH, Miller ER III, Guallar E et al. (2002). “The effect of magnesium supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials”. Am J Hypertens 15 (8): 691–696.

    Guerrero-Romero F, Rodriguez-Moran M (2002). “Low serum magnesium levels and metabolic syndrome”. Acta Diabetol 39 (4): 209–213.

    Zipes DP, Camm AJ, Borggrefe M et al. (2012). “ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force and the European Society of Cardiology Committee for Practice Guidelines (writing committee to develop Guidelines for Management of Patients With Ventricular Arrhythmias and the Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death): developed in collaboration with the European Heart Rhythm Association and the Heart Rhythm Society”. Circulation 114 (10): e385–e484.

    James MF (2010). “Magnesium in obstetrics”. Best Pract Res Clin Obstet Gynaecol 24 (3): 327–337.

    Hashimoto T, Hara A, Ohkubo T et al. (2010). “Serum magnesium, ambulatory blood pressure, and carotid artery alteration: the Ohasama study”. Am J Hypertens 23 (12): 1292–1298.

    Massy ZA, Drüeke TB (2012). “Magnesium and outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease: focus on vascular calcification, atherosclerosis, and survival”. Clin Kidney J 5 (Suppl 1): i52–i61.

    Turgut F, Kanbay M, Metin MR et al. (2008). “Magnesium supplementation helps to improve carotid intima media thickness in patients on hemodialysis”. Int Urol Nephrol 40 (4): 1075–1082.

    “Lack Energy? Maybe It’s Your Magnesium Level”. United States Department of Agriculture.

    Euser, A. G.; Cipolla, M. J. (2009). “Magnesium Sulfate for the Treatment of Eclampsia: A Brief Review”. Stroke 40 (4): 1169–1175.

  • Beware Of This New Crime

    By Nurse Mark

     

    “Sliders” is no longer a cute name for little hamburgers…

     

    Law enforcement around the country are warning of a new criminal activity that tends to target women – a new take on the old business of “purse-snatching.”

    Criminals are targeting women at gas stations – waiting until the women are distracted while fueling their car and then “sliding” out of their own car and stealthily entering the victim’s car to snatch a purse that the woman has most likely left unattended on the car seat.

    Here is a video showing how the bad guys do it:

     

    So, what can you do?

    Here are some suggestions:

    • Keep your doors locked – at all times. OK, so you have to get out to fill your car – the driver door will be unlocked. But keep the other doors locked!
    • Keep your windows rolled up. What good is it to lock your car doors if your windows are rolled down?
    • NEVER leave a purse or any other thing of value unattended or unlocked or even visible from outside the car.
    • Be aware of what’s going on around you. Keep your eyes in motion and as we used to say in the army “keep your head on a swivel” – don’t get so focused on your gas tank that you fail to notice the car full of thugs that just slipped in beside you or the gang of punks moving towards you.
    • If you must leave your car to go into the gas station, take your purse with you, remove your keys from the car, and lock your car fully.
    • Any time you are away from your car – LOCK IT UP! Even if there is nothing of value in it, do you really want to come back to your car to find (or fail to notice) someone sitting (or hiding) in your car because you left it unlocked?

    Gas stations have become dangerous places – we are distracted and vulnerable. The bad guys know this and prey upon us there. Requests for “the time” or “any spare change” or “can you help…” should be met with a polite but firm “NO!” as these are often ruses by which a criminal “tests” his potential victim.

    Please stay safe…!

  • Patients Lied To About Cancer Diagnosis, Doctor Arrested For Fraud

    By Nurse Mark

     

    When is it wise to get a “second opinion” ?

     

    Almost Always!

     

    No matter how “trusted” the doctor may be, no matter how “nice” and “caring” the doctor may seem, if there is a serious diagnosis involved, or an extended course of treatment, or multiple “scans,” or “tests,” or other “diagnostics,” there is a chance that a doctor might be wrong.

    There is also a good chance that money might be playing a role in a doctor’s advice.

    Many medical conditions involve incredibly expensive diagnosis and treatment – and much of that expense is in the form of profits paid to the doctors performing the diagnosing and treating. In many cases those profits reach to the millions of dollars.

    Do you see any potential for problems here?

    Insurance fraud, Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, and a medical billing system that hides the true costs of medical care from patients all conspire to attract the greedy and unscrupulous.

    If it were simple greed, if it were simple fraud, it would be bad enough – but it is often more than that. It is often people who are made to suffer for the enrichment of the fraudster. People like you and me. People who have suffered enough already.

    Doctors have been known to tell lies.

    Consider the case of oncologist (cancer doctor) Farid Fata, MD, who was arrested in Michigan on August 6 and charged with Medicare fraud in a federal investigation that, if the charges are true, is a sickening example of medical greed.

    In this federal case investigators allege that Fata bilked patients and insurance companies including Medicare of some $35 million dollars over just two years, “treating” people unnecessarily for cancer.

    That’s right, 35 million dollars! In just two years!

    How could this happen? Federal investigators charge that Fata would see anywhere from 30 to 70 patients a day, and that almost every patient was found to “need” expensive, extended courses of chemotherapy – purchased from the pharmacy that Fata also owns. And of course those patients also needed expensive positive emission tomography (P.E.T.) scans, performed by the imaging company that Fata also conveniently happens to own.

    Further, having established himself as a cancer “expert” Fata felt safe in bestowing false diagnoses of cancer on healthy patients – after all, who would doubt the word of such a respected “expert”? One of Fata’s Nurses told federal agents that “Dr. Fata falsified cancer diagnoses to justify cancer treatment” The Nurse explained that blood cancers were easy to falsely diagnose because Fata could “interpret” blood tests. In other words, he lied to patients to fill his pockets.

    Further, once diagnosed with cancer, Fata would tell patients that they must take chemotherapy drugs “for life” – even if they were in remission or if their cancer was so advanced that they would get no benefit from the toxic drugs.

    But surely this must be an aberration? Certainly this must be an isolated case of a doctor having become consumed with greed and lust for money right?

    Nope.

    In another case, two executives of a hospital in Chicago as well as 3 physicians and a podiatrist were arrested by federal agents in April in a case involving illegal kickbacks for referring Medicare and Medicaid patients and other fraud schemes.

    The worst scam in this case? It seems that the pulmonologist involved would perform an intubation (a procedure where a temporary breathing tube is placed into a patient during surgery) and would then drug the patient so heavily that it would become impossible for them to breathe on their own after the surgery. This would require another surgery to insert a tracheostomy tube through the front of the patient’s neck and of course an extended stay in the intensive care unit on a mechanical ventilator.

    One of the individuals arrested was the president and chief executive officer of Sacred Heart Hospital. He was secretly recorded saying that tracheotomies were their “biggest money maker” and that the hospital could make $160,000 for the procedure if the patient stayed 27 days.

    If that isn’t evil enough, it seems that this particular hospital had a hard time keeping those tracheostomy patients alive – the death rate for the tracheostomy patients of the surgeon involved was 3 times as high as other Illinois hospitals over a three year period.

    Those involved in the arrests are also accused of unnecessary emergency department and hospital admissions, and were paid “kickbacks” for those.

    Does all this sound like the plot for some sort of a medical horror movie? I wish that were so – but it isn’t – it is happening all across America because Big Medicine and Big Pharma are such obscenely profitable industries.

    So, how can you protect yourself or your loved one?

    Easy – insist on a second, and even a third opinion.

    Don’t allow yourself to be pressured or stampeded or panicked into a decision about a course of treatment. In cancer treatment the words “there’s not a moment to lose” or “we must start chemo immediately” are almost always a clear warning that there is something fishy going on.

    Certainly there are conditions where “there’s not a moment to lose” – an acute abdomen or ruptured appendix, a closed head injury, a stroke, a heart attack, an embolism, severe trauma… all of these require urgent and skilled care. But cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, “bone-on-bone” joints, and other similar conditions are what we call “chronic” meaning that they have developed over time – often a long time – and rarely do they need to be treated so quickly that there is no time for a second opinion.

    Even if a doctor is able to convince you that “there’s not a moment to lose” and persuades you to start a treatment regimen immediately, you can still get a second opinion. It’s not “against the rules” to be receiving treatment from one doctor and seek the advice of another doctor about that same issue. And it’s not against the rules to confront one doctor with the conflicting opinion of another doctor.

    Beware of being pressured to undergo scans and tests and biopsies – these are often moneymakers for both the doctors and the hospitals. A sober second opinion from someone with no connection to the first doctor or hospital could end up saving you expensive, unnecessary, and possibly hazardous “diagnostic workups.”

    An additional benefit of a “second opinion,” especially one from an holistic doctor (such as Dr. Myatt) is that an experienced holistic doctor can not only offer alternatives to conventional treatment, but if conventional treatment is truly indicated a good holistic doctor can find ways to make that treatment more effective and less toxic or harmful. And, in the case of a scamming doctor like Fata, having an holistic doctor like Dr. Myatt review the case would quickly expose any fraud and save the patient from unnecessary and harmful treatments.

    Finally, having an holistic doctor (like Dr. Myatt) reviewing and overseeing your care can help to keep your specialists “honest” and can save you grief by helping you to coordinate care among different doctors, who often seem to never communicate with each other.

    Learn more about Holistic Health Consultations.

     

    Resources:

    Feds accused Dr. Farid Fata of fraud, prolonging chemo for cancer patients

    Medicare Kickback Bust in Chicago Hinged on Wired Colleagues

  • More Reasons To Have A TENS Unit – Motion Sickness!

    By Nurse Mark

     

    TENS therapy – it’s a modern miracle, an example of the wonders of applied technology, and the list of uses just keeps growing. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) therapy uses low-voltage electrical current for pain relief, and it can also be used for muscle stimulation.

    Patients tell us they use TENS-type devices to relieve pain from many illnesses and conditions.

    Some common uses are to treat muscle, joint, or bone problems that occur with illnesses such as osteoarthritis or fibromyalgia, or for conditions such as low back pain, neck pain, tendonitis, or bursitis. Many people have also used their TENS to treat sudden, acute pain from muscle strain or overuse, and even labor pain, and chronic pain such as cancer pain. Diabetics have reported good results with the use of these devices to improve diabetic neuropathy. Bodybuilders use these devices both for soothing relief after a workout, and as a muscle stimulator for very targeted muscle exercise (Like working a biceps for example).

    Now we have found that there is another, surprising use for this device – relief of motion sickness!

    Motion sickness (kinetosis) is also known as travel sickness. Researchers believe it is a condition in which a disagreement exists between movement that we see visually and our inner ear’s sense of movement. Depending on the cause, it may also be called seasickness, car sickness, simulation sickness (experienced by pilots using flight simulators), airsickness and even spacesickness in astronauts.

    Because it affects so many people, especially highly trained (and expensive) people like military pilots and astronauts, there has been research into ways of combating it’s effects.

    In doing some related research, Dr. Myatt came across a study performed by the Institute of Aerospace and Undersea Medicine, School of Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan that found TENS stimulation to be highly effective in their test subjects of healthy young men from the Aviation Physiology Research Laboratory of Gangshan Armed Forces Hospital in China.

    The bottom line?

    Anyone who has ever suffered from motion sickness of any kind knows just how debilitating it can be. It can strike in seconds, without warning, and can effectively debilitate the sufferer. This is especially important for people like pilots, who must be able to continue their duties – there is no pulling over to the side of the road for a few minutes when you are flying an airplane!

    The Chinese studied the use of TENS to combat motion sickness that occurs in flight simulators – presumably because that is easier and safer to do that to induce airsickness in actual, flying pilots. Their findings?

    Preventive TENS was effective in reducing SS [Simulator Sickness] symptoms and alleviating cognitive impairment. The beneficial effects of TENS should aid researchers and occupational therapists in implementing best practices for their clients receiving simulator-based training or rehabilitation services.

    So, if motion sickness has held you back from doing things that you would like to do, this is a treatment that is well worth trying: it is easy, non-drug, non-invasive, has no side effects, and the TENS unit itself is relatively inexpensive with a wide variety of additional uses.

    iRestMassagerThose who wish to replicate the treatment used in the Chinese study will find it very well described in this paper:

    Simultaneous transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation mitigates simulator sickness symptoms in healthy adults: a crossover study. 

    This article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/13/84

    Dr. Myatt feels strongly about the benefits of TENS therapy and makes a very high quality device available at a significant savings – check out the IREST Mini Massager here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/TENS_Unit.htm