HealthBeat News

Category: Health Questions

  • Prostate Cancer – A Death Sentence?

    By Nurse Mark

    Conventional medicine and Big Pharma have people well-trained: a diagnosis of "Cancer" is accompanied with the caution that a reprieve from this death sentence can only be obtained through the immediate application of toxic chemotherapy, mutilating surgery, or destructive radiation – what we know ’round here as "Cut, Burn, and Poison." Even those who feel that there might just be natural approaches to dealing with cancer often become panicked and begin a frantic quest to "do something – before it’s too late!"

    The note that follows is representative of many that we receive here – this person wants to do something for his father, and wants to do it right away.

    DEAR DR. MY FATHER JUST FOUND OUT HE HAS PROSTATE CANCER DO YOU THINK I (should) JUST ORDER 3 BOTTLES OF THE PSA FOR HIM.
    I REALLY THINK IT WOULD HELP HIM A LOT. COULD I MAKE AN ORDER THROUGH YOUR WEBSITE?

    Poor Duwaine! I can feel his concern – after all, I’ve been there: my Dad was given the same diagnosis several years ago. Fortunately, I was familiar with the answer that Dr. Myatt gives to questions like this:

    Hi Duwaine:

    Wow… WAY too many "unknowns" for me to make a statement about whether or not your dad would benefit from Prostate Support, but yes, you can order it through our website.

    Here’s the scoop.

    Depending on your Dad’s age, and what stage of cancer he has, he may not require ANY treatment. My Dad just turned 91 and he’s had prostate cancer for about 15 years. Age of patient, stage of cancer, aggressiveness of the cancer all make a difference about what, if anything, should be done.

    The lecture notes from medical conferences I’ve presented at, on this very topic, will give you more specific guidance about what natural therapies may be applicable. If you want specific information about your Dad, then I’ll need to know more about his case. I am available for Brief Phone Consultations if there are additional questions I can answer for you  or full Holistic Telephone Consultations for those who want a complete work-up.

    Most older men don’t die of prostate cancer, they die with prostate cancer. This means that attention to overall health is also most important.

    let me know how it goes!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

  • A Reader Asks ‘What’s In It For You?’

    By Nurse Mark

    Salba seems to be a hot topic this week – there must be lots of folks looking to sort out hype from fact since there is so much heavy marketing of this product going on right now.

    Rad emailed us to acknowledge that the marketing hype convinced him to try Salba, and to say that at least for him it was not the miracle-product that it was promised to be.

    He also relates some other potentially serious health concerns – we’ll deal with those in a moment – and asks a very insightful question: in essence, Rad asks "Why do you do this? What’s in it for you?"

    Wow! I sure wish that more people would ask this question when they are reviewing the information that they find in their inbox or mailbox or on the internet or during some revival meeting style "health fair".

    Some people might be offended if asked such a question: "What’s in this for you?" We are not!

    Here is the letter that Rad sent to us:

    Hi Dr. Myatt,
    Thanks for your email – I only came to your site as I saw your unbiased opinion concerning Salba and Flax seeds. I only bought some Salba last week – after reading your comparison, I regret doing so as it is expensive and I seem to be getting headaches from it.
    As for my health concerns, I have an underactive thyroid gland for years, so taking Synthroid. Also suffers with very high Cholesterol problems. Use to take Lipitor and then Zocor for 3 years, created too many problems, so I stopped taking them since 2004.
    Recently, went to my family Dr. – my cholesterol very high, but the Triglycerrides are the biggest concern, too high. I could not convince my Dr. that as many people die with low cholesterol as with high cholesterol, he wanted me on Crestor, tried it for 5 days – had to stop, headaches, burning when passing water, and joint pains. Thus my quest for something else, I do take a lot of other supplements, but to no avail. So I heard about Salba, and bought some….
    As well, I feel exhausted most of the time, so it is hard to motivate myself to exercise. I am only 135 lbs. and do consider myself to be relatively ‘active.’
    So I am going to try the flax seed and see….thanks for your input. One other question – why do you offer this service? As you seem to be unbiased in what you promote,
    Thanks,
    RAD

    Dr. Myatt and I chatted about this during a break between patients. Rad poses an excellent question – what is in this for us? We do provide a lot of information and the benefit of a lot of research, all for free. Why the heck would we do that?!?

    Well, there are a whole host of reasons – some of them hard to quantify, others more pragmatic and practical.

    First, we actually like what we do – We enjoy helping people – It makes us feel good!

    For many of the same reasons that firemen or policemen or your pastor or minister like to do what they do – it just plain makes us feel good to know that our knowledge and skills are valuable and helpful to people.

    Further, there is so much bad information out there – from holistic, natural, and even (oh, say it isn’t so!) conventional sources, that we just feel a compulsion – a calling maybe – to set the record straight for you with scientific holistic information.

    When we do research for our private practice patients we often find information that can be valuable for our readers – so much of the work is already done – we can make this information available in a more general form to our readers with just a little extra effort. Similarly, in responding to our readers’ questions we often come across research or information that is of value to our patients – so everybody wins!

    Now the pragmatic, practical reason: When we provide quality, referenced, unbiased information people know that they can trust what we say – they know that we are not hype-ing some product just to generate sales. People have come to trust that when Dr. Myatt recommends a product she is doing so because there is solid scientific research of it’s benefit. People know that when they buy a product from The Wellness Club they are getting the very best. That is important when we are bombarded daily with come-ons for breast pills, penis pills, hoodia, coral calcium, magic weight loss pills, and all manner of other schemes and scams.

    Finally, every now and again someone reads our material and says to themselves "That’s the kind of team I want on my side. That’s the kind of doctor I want looking out for me!" We often get New Patient Consultations with people who like what Dr. Myatt has to say and want to have the team here at The Wellness Club working with them to improve their health. And there is no greater reward that to know that we have helped someone feel better than they have in years, or, as often happens, to know that we have helped someone beat an illness that they were told was a death sentence by some conventional doctor.

    So, for Rad’s other questions:

    "Underactive thyroid" – here is a page of Thyroid Information to review. Also, Iodine plays an important role in both thyroid and general health.

    "High Cholesterol" – please review Natural Treatment And Support Strategies and Lower Cholesterol Naturally – Better Cholesterol Management with Vitamins and Herbs.

    "Exhaustion", fatigue, undesired low weight? There are so many possible causes or reasons… why not consider an Alternative Medicine Consultation with Dr. Myatt? Our team here will be happy to help you find the path to your best health ever!

  • Is It Real, Or Just Another Sales-Pitch? Dr. Myatt Will Know!

    By Nurse Mark

    There is just so much information out there in internet-land… and it all sounds so compelling and good! Too good to be true many times, as this Wellness Club member and reader relates.

    There is not much out there (dare I say there is nothing out there) that we have not heard of around here – as Dr. Myatt likes to say, you’ll have to get up pretty early in the morning to be able to find something that we are not familiar with here – we spend our days researching constantly to be certain that we know about anything that might possibly benefit our patients and customers and readers. Drugs, surgical treatments, vitamins, supplements, diets, crystals, energy, you-name-it, we’ve checked it out and if it sounds even the least promising we’ve investigated it. You can be sure that if it is worthwhile we’ll let you know – and if some new wonder is not listed on our website or hasn’t been written about by Dr. Myatt you can be sure that it is no oversight – we just don’t bother with the stuff that doesn’t work.

    Here is a case in point – Ethel has received a "free e-book" that in reality is a sales-pitch. I had received the same emailed "free book" offer quite some time ago and it sounded so good that Dr. Myatt and I decided to investigate it. I’ll let you read on to see what Dr. Myatt has to say about it…

    Hello Nurse Mark.

    I’ve received an unsolicted e-mail that provides a lot of info about MMS. Do you know anything about it, whether it is valid, or just a hoax?Here’s the link to the "free downloadable book" on MMS by Jim Humble. http://mmssupersite.com/MMS-book1.pdf. It sounds just too good to be true, so I thought it best to ask a reliable source for some valid info on the subject matter. Looking forward to your reply.

    Thank you.
    Ethel

    I remembered the book, and it’s premise – and I forwarded Ethel’s email and my comment to Dr. Myatt: This is indeed the "Stabilized oxygen"… do you want to make a brief comment to Ethel?

    And Dr. Myatt answered Ethel’s question:

    Hi Ethel:

    We’ve not only already read the ebook, we’ve been experimenting with the product for a number of months now.

    There is no proof that it works for anything, although the ebook’s many citations of help for malaria are compelling. If I had malaria, I’d probably try it. There’s nothing else particularly helpful for this condition.

    For all the rest of the problems this chemical complex supposedly helps? "Hearsay." There’s no proof that it helps anything. Even the one thing it is supposed to do really well —- cure malaria —- is still only backed up by anecdotal stories.

    I have used the product in several patients (actually, they elected to be guinea pigs) for conditions it might theoretically help according to their literature. Hepatitis C is one. If made no difference. I also tried it for a chronic viral condition I have (herpes) that it theoretically should have helped. No go.

    Bottom line: no proven benefit for anything; possibly worth a try if you have malaria.

    Thanks for asking about this and believe me, if we come across a product that really IS a "cures-everything" formula, my readers and patients will be some of the first people to hear about it!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

  • More About Salba…

    Salba continues to generate interest and comments – we still get occasional emails from Salba devotees who take us to task for failing to praise their beloved chia seed, and we get plenty of other comments, both positive and otherwise – This recently arrived in our mailboxes…

    Hi Dr. Myatt,

    I love your website and am using your advice to help one of my clients who suffers from IBS.

    On a personal note, I discovered ground Salba about a year ago and really liked it at first. Then, after a while, I began to experience terrible diarrhea which would stop almost immediately if I stopped taking the Salba. I tried whole Salba and that seemed to be o.k. for a bit, but then the diarrhea returned. I just wrote it off as an intolerance for Salba. Unfortunately for me, this also had a nicely positive impact upon my blood glucose management (I’m a type II diabetic…a hereditary curse…you’d never know by looking at me!). I’m now using another supplement to get my Omega 3s and cinnamon bark extract for blood glucose management, in combination with Metformin HCl (extended release 500 mg. 1x/day). Any other ideas for me? I would love to get off the Metformin altogether as it sometimes causes GI irritation as well.

    Warm Regards,

    Sean

    Dr. Myatt took a moment to respond to this one with the following advice:

    Hi Sean:

    Flax seed meal (ground flax) and/or psyllium also help stabilize blood sugar; this is not "magic" unique to salba/chia.

    ALL fiber types will help blood sugar levels (they will help cholesterol levels, too), but this is a function of fiber, not salba.

    Here’s a previous article we published about fiber FYI: Twenty-Five Surprising Benefits of a Dietary Non-Nutrient

    Why don’t you try my Myatt Muffin? It’s not only delicious and nutritious, it will perform the "magic" needed to improve your blood sugar levels. You can access the recipe through this link: They’re Tasty, They’re Healthy, They’re Myatt Muffins!

    Let me know how it works for you!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

    P.S. You have a GI problem yourself, or so it sounds. You would benefit from a consultation with me about this AND your diabetes. Type II diabetes is almost always curable (yes, I said curable) by dietary means, something you’ll NEVER hear from a conventional doctor!

  • Questions About Gugulipid And "Male Potency Formulas"

    One of our regular readers and Wellness Club member Ann writes in often with questions – I was unaware until now that Ann is also a Nurse, but that helps to explain her frequent and interesting questions!

    Ann wrote recently to ask a couple of questions:

    Hi Mark
    More questions from me.  Being a nurse also , I often get asked things for which I am not sure how to reply!  So I am passing these onto you.
    I have a friend in his late 60’s who had prostrate surgery about 10 years ago.  His MD recently prescribed Ciallis which he says works, however he was wanting something more natural.  He asked about zenerex which I looked up and seems fine.  But, is there anything from Dr. Myatt that might help.?  He already takes the maxi multi and exercises regularly so is in good shape.
    Question two:  Have you heard of gugulipid for lowering cholesterol?  I have directed this person to your site also for the niacin.  He says that he has been taking niacin and it is not working as well as he would like.
    Thank you once again.  Don’t mean to be a pest!
    Ann

    Ann, you are definitely not a pest! We like a good question here, and questions like this are of interest to many of our other readers too. Here are the answers:

    Hi Ann,

    Zenerex looks like it is a typical "Pixie Dust" formulation – this is a formulation in which the maker puts a little bit of everything that has ever been suggested to be beneficial into a capsule and markets it as being the next great miracle supplement by describing the wonderful results claimed for each individual ingredient. Unfortunately formulations of this sort sound wonderful but can rarely ever contain enough of the individual ingredients to do much good – the capsules just aren’t big enough – and that is why we refer to them as "Pixie Dust" formulas. They do market and sell well though, because human nature says that people tend to like products that have "lots of stuff" since they seem like "a better deal". Further, there is no "herbal viagra" or "herbal cialis" that we are aware of – natural products tend to work by correcting deficiencies and underlying problems and show their effects over a matter of weeks or months – not in 15 minutes or so like the pharmaceuticals do.

    I am quite sure that even a brief consultation with Dr. Myatt would get this gentleman much better results than "shooting in the dark" with random supplements. He may wish to consider hormone testing as hormonal imbalances can have a dramatically adverse effect on male performance and male hormones naturally decrease with age, just as female hormones do. Bio-identical hormone supplementation is not just for women!

    Regarding gugulipid – please review our article: Lower Cholesterol Naturally – Better Cholesterol Management with Vitamins and Herbs and please remember that despite what the pharmaceutical companies would like us to believe, it is quite possible to have dangerously low cholesterol levels – cholesterol is essential for life and excessively low levels put one at risk for hemorrhagic stroke and hormonal imbalances amongst other things.

    Hope this helps,

    Cheers,
    Nurse Mark