HealthBeat News

Category: Health Questions

  • What Do You Need For Healthy Bones?

    Bone Health Or Bone Death?

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    We get a lot of questions about osteoporosis – it is a very confusing and rightfully frightening subject for older people.

    Big Pharma takes advantage of that confusion and fear to offer a variety of drugs that are so dangerous that if they were subjected to the same intense scrutiny by the FDA that mere vitamins and supplements are they would be instantly banned!

    Big Medicine is a willing accomplice to Big Pharma, using such things as “bone density tests” to terrorize women into agreeing to take some variety of a bone-killing bisphosphonate drug.

    Did I just say “bone Killing“?

    Yes! These drugs “work” by actually killing one kind of bone cell – here is an explanation from Wikipedia:

    Bone undergoes constant turnover and is kept in balance (homeostasis) by osteoblasts creating bone and osteoclasts destroying bone. Bisphosphonates inhibit the digestion of bone by encouraging osteoclasts to undergo apoptosis, or cell death, thereby slowing bone loss.

     

    This rather reminds me of that famous quote from the Vietnam War years: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it” (that quote has transformed over the years into “We had to destroy the village in order to save it.”) It seems that Big Pharma has adopted that strategy, saying “We have to kill your bone cells in order to save your bones.”

    Yikes – what a strategy! A strategy only Big Pharma could get away with and only the FDA could approve of!

    Has Big Medicine never heard of “preventive medicine”?

    One of Dr. Myatt’s long-standing patients, Joyce, wrote recently to say that she was being pressured to accept one of the more recent bisphosphonate offerings and to ask Dr. Myatt’s opinion. Here is her question and Dr. Myatt’s answer:

    HI  I WANT TO ASK YOU A QUESTION. I was told that I have osteoporosis after having a bone density test, it is not real bad they did want to put me on more calcium and vitamin D3 but I think there is enough in my Maxi – Multi’s. They also wanted to put me on a once a year treatment of Reclast  given I V for 20 min. Because I don’t trust them I said no. Any way all I wanted to know is if there is enough calcium & vitamin D 3 in my Maxies.  Thank you Joyce.

     

    Hi Joyce:

    Wow… Here’s the scoop.

    Maxi Multi’s contain enough cal:mag for almost everyone except post-menopausal women.

    The recommendations for post menopausal females is 1200-1500 mg/day calcium, 500-800 mg/day.

    In order to achieve this dose, most women add 3 caps per day of Cal-Mag to their protocol.

    You might not need the additional if your diet contains enough extra calcium and magnesium.

    Also, strontium has been found to work as well as drugs for building bone.

    “Bone-building drugs” actually are bone-killing drugs. We’ve written about this in HealthBeat: The Ugly Truth About “Bone-Building” Drugs for Osteoporosis

    My complete recommendations for ensuring strong bones and preventing osteoporosis can be found on our website at this link: http://drmyattswellnessclub.com/osteoporosis.htm

    Please check this page out. It will give you complete instructions including amounts to take and why your idea of “no Reclast” is, in my opinion, a good decision.

    Hope this helps and here’s wishing you and yours a Happy Turkey Day!

    In Health,
    Dr. Myatt

     

    Now, just in case anyone thinks I am exaggerating the dangers of bisphosphonate drugs, I have taken the following information from the U.S. National Library of Medicine a government website that bills itself as “The World’s Largest Medical Library” and as a resource for conventional medical doctors:

     

    What side effects can this medication cause?

    Zoledronic acid may cause side effects. Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away:

    • redness or swelling in the place where you received your injection

    • red, swollen, or teary eyes

    • constipation

    • nausea

    • vomiting

    • diarrhea

    • stomach pain

    • loss of appetite

    • weight loss

    • heartburn

    • mouth sores

    • excessive worry

    • agitation

    • depression

    • difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep

    • fever, chills, and other signs of infection

    • white patches in the mouth

    • swelling, redness, irritation, burning, or itching of the vagina

    • white vaginal discharge

    • numbness, burning, or tingling in fingers or toes

    • hair loss

    Some side effects can be serious. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately:

    • rash

    • hives

    • itching

    • swelling of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, throat, hands, arms, feet, ankles, or lower legs

    • difficulty breathing or swallowing

    • upper chest pain

    • irregular heartbeat

    • numbness or tingling around the mouth

    • sudden tightening of muscles

    • unusual bruising or bleeding

    • painful or swollen gums

    • loosening of the teeth

    • numbness or heavy feeling in the jaw

    • poor healing of the jaw

    • dull, aching pain in the hips, groin, or thighs

    Zoledronic acid may cause other side effects. Call your doctor if you have any unusual problems while taking this medication.

    Being treated with a bisphosphonate medication such as zoledronic acid injection for osteoporosis may increase the risk that you will break your thigh bone(s). You may feel pain in your hips, groin, or thighs for several weeks or months before the bone(s) break, and you may find that one or both of your thigh bones have broken even though you have not fallen or experienced other trauma. It is unusual for the thigh bone to break in healthy people, but people who have osteoporosis may break this bone even if they do not receive zoledronic acid injection. Talk to your doctor about the risks of receiving zoledronic acid injection.

     

    Please read the last paragraph again: “Being treated with a bisphosphonate medication such as zoledronic acid injection for osteoporosis may increase the risk that you will break your thigh bone(s).”

    Does this sound like a drug that anyone should be taking?

     

    References:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000306/#a605023-sideEffects

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisphosphonate

  • Sparks Fly! Spanked By A Subscriber Over Microwave Ovens…

    Our Reader Says “Duhhhh, Get A Clue!”

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    We get lots of letters at The Wellness Club, and sometimes folks take us to task since many of our positions are, shall we say, controversial in the “Natural Medicine” world – that is, we are not automatically against drugs, surgery, or modern technology. We feel that there is a time and place for all these things, but that they must be used carefully and wisely and only after a full analysis of the associated risks and benefits – just as vitamins, herbs, detoxification, energy work, and other non-allopathic treatments must be.

    Regular readers know that Dr. Myatt is one of the most scientific, fact-based, research-driven physicians in practice anywhere today. That rigorous scientific attention to detail is what keeps her “stage 4” cancer and cardiac patients (folks, there is no “stage 5″…) alive and well year after year when they have been given up on by the conventional medical powers-that-be. Dr. Myatt gets the “tough cases” that Mayo, Johns Hopkins, Yale, and others wash their hands of.

    When you read HealthBeat News you gain the benefit of that rigorous, hard-nosed research. When Dr. Myatt makes a statement you can be sure that it is based on fact – not fancy, not wishful thinking, not urban legend, and not somebody’s advertising campaign. You can bet your good health on it!

    So, we had to smile when this letter came in:

     

    Hi, I just subscribed to your newsletter. I was curious about the “healthy blueberry muffin” recipe you are featuring.

    The ingredients look great but the instructions explain to microwave the muffins… are you kidding???

    Duhhhh, how about your next featured article should explain the disadvantages of microwave cooking to all your subscribers and publishers who need a clue.

     

    Whew! I guess we’ve just been told!

    But we’ll cut this reader some slack – as a new subscriber this person has probably not seen our article of not-too-long-ago that was researched and written in response to a number of similar comments generated when we introduced our Healthy Blueberry Muffin recipe.

    The article, Cooking in The Microwave Oven: Is It Safe? is a must-read for anyone with questions about radiation, ionizing radiation, and the safety of microwave ovens.

    OK dear reader, here’s your clue: please read our microwave safety article and let us know if you have any questions or if you wish to dispute any of the facts of the article – just be prepared to back up your statements with referenced scientific facts, not with internet legend, superstition, or fear and fantasy!

    Oh, and welcome to HealthBeat News!

  • We Get Questions! How To Become Female?

    We Get Questions – Wow, Do We Get Questions!

    A writer asks us by email:

    please advise on initial hormones i can buy to become female

     

    Whoo-ee! What a question!  Not because it is an unusual request – after all, “gender re-assignment” therapies and treatments are not all that uncommon these days, thanks to the miracles of modern medicine – but because of the degree of complication involved.

    We have written before about hormones – sex hormones, neuro hormones, hormones that control and regulate everything from our blood pressure to our blood sugar to our feeling of satiety after we eat. Whenever we write about hormones it becomes painfully obvious that the endrocrine system – the body’s chemical messenger and control system – is an incredibly, exquisitely complicated, delicate, and important part of our physiology.

    Almost every time we write about hormones it is in response to a question like this – someone asking for a simple, easy answer to very complicated problems. Invariably the writer is asking for an easy, quick, “take these two herbal supplements” kind of answer.

    This is somewhat akin to asking how to drive a car blindfolded – on unfamiliar roads in heavy traffic no less!

    This writer knows where he wants to be: he wants to be a she.

    He understands that a large part of being female is in having a full compliment of female hormones.

    But he doesn’t know where he is right now in terms of his current hormone balance.

    You see, we all – male and female – have both male and female hormones in our bodies; just in different ratios and balances.

    In order to safely and meaningfully effect the desired change, this person will need to know where he is starting from and more importantly, how he will get to where he wants to be without putting his health at serious risk or wasting massive sums of money on things that don’t work – no matter how easy it might sound on the internet forums.

    For those that want a small sample of how “simple” sex hormone analysis and regulation can be please see the following simplified diagram: Metabolism of Select Steroids – this is one of the worksheets that Dr. Myatt uses when she is doing hormone replacement or balancing work with a patient.

    As you look at this chart you can see that cholesterol (yes, that evil substance that Big Pharma wants to medicate out of existence with their statin drugs!) becomes pregnenolone (which most folks think of as a female hormone) which goes on to become any number of other hormones, including that most male of hormones, testosterone!

    So you can see that it is not quite as easy as just “taking a female hormone” in order to become female – it just won’t work.

    My first suggestion to the person who sent us the inquiry would be to start out by performing a Comprehensive Hormone Analysis to see where he is at in terms of a start point. Then he will want to consult Dr. Myatt to get an idea what might be involved in making the hormonal changes that he desires.

    This will be a long, difficult, and trying road for this person to travel – and unless this person is very-well trained and experienced in working with hormones, it could be filled with risk if he chooses to travel it alone.

    My second suggestion to this person is that he should evaluate carefully his nutritional status and overall health and begin using the basic healthy optimal-dose supplementation using things like Maxi Multi, Maxi Greens, CoQ10, and Maxi Marine to ensure that his body is as healthy as possible to undergo what may well be some stressful times to come.

    Fortunately most of Dr. Myatt’s patients are satisfied with the gender that has been assigned to them, and her work with them is much easier – though no less complicated – when she works with them to optimize and balance their hormones for optimal health and well-being.

    If you feel like your hormones “just aren’t right” – if you are easily fatigued, easy to cry or become emotional, have inappropriate anger or sadness, are overweight and unable to lose weight, losing hair or having unwanted hair, or having hot flashes or other symptoms of hormonal imbalance you may want to consider performing a hormone analysis and consulting with Dr. Myatt too.

    Hormone balancing is a small investment in good health that has a huge payoff!

  • Folic Acid Or Folate – What’s The Difference?

    Folic Acid Or Folate – What’s The Difference?

     

    All these supplements and substances with similar and sometimes scary-sounding names sure can be confusing! How is a person to keep them all straight?

    Easy! Just ask us!

    Our article in the last issue of HealthBeat News, The Vitamin Deficiency That Can Cause Dementia showed just how confusing this can be for those without a strong background in human biochemistry and organic chemistry.

    We had several letters come in, but this one from Bill was the most succinct:

    concerning the “senile dementia” article:  isn’t there a difference between folic acid and folate?    bill

     

    Here’s an equally succinct answer for Bill and all the others who were wondering:

    Folic acid is what our bodies use to make folate.

    To expand on this a little bit, folic acid (also know by it’s International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) chemical name (2S)-2-[(4-{[(2-amino-4-hydroxypteridin-6-yl)methyl]amino}phenyl)formamido]pentanedioic acid – don’t bother trying to pronounce it!)  is considered to be by itself biologically inactive until our liver works it’s magic and converts it to what is commonly called folate but is actually several slightly different substances that are each used in different ways by our bodies: tetrahydrofolate, dihydrofolic acid, and l-methyltetrahydrofolate are three examples.

    Many common prescription drugs can interfere with this conversion or with our bodies ability to effectively use folate: trimethoprim, pyrimethamine, and methotrexate; the sulfa drugs (sulfonamides) and the anticonvulsant drug Valproic acid are some examples of drugs that can cause folate deficiencies.

    Certain fairly rare genetic abnormalities can result in folate deficiencies, usually due to differences in the ability of the liver to convert folic acid to folate. Dr. Myatt makes a supplement called L-MethylFolate available for people who need to get their folate directly instead of by converting folic acid. L-MethylFolate can be found on Dr. Myatt’s special-order Health Concierge Products page.

    Most folks do just fine obtaining their optimal amounts of folic acid from supplements such as Hi-B-12/Foliplex.

    So, there you have it – a quick story about a spooky-sounding chemical that is essential to our continued good health!

    Cheers,

    Nurse Mark

  • Can I Get Too Much Of These Supplements?

    When it comes to vitamins and herbs and dietary supplements, can there be “too much of a good thing”?

     

    By Nurse Mark

     

    We often get questions from people who don’t really understand the difference between the drugs that Big Pharma synthesized in it’s labs and that your conventional doctor so willingly prescribes, and the natural vitamins and minerals and herbals that Mother Nature obligingly creates for us.

    For several generations now people have been raised on pharmaceuticals – and not only do they expect prompt, even miraculous effects or results from these synthetic substances, most people have an instinctive awareness that too much of many of these substances can be harmful, poisonous, toxic, even fatal.

    While it is true that too much of virtually anything can be, well, too much – that is to say that you can overdose on almost anything, including water – most natural substances tend to be far less likely to cause harm when used sensibly.

    Yes, we all have heard of the people who turn themselves blue by taking huge doses of colloidal silver daily for years, or the overweight, out-of-shape, and dehydrated baseball player who collapsed in the heat and died at spring training camp after using ephedra as a weight-loss aid – the FDA loves to use these stories in it’s war on natural medicine and the press likes to sensationalize them because, well, after all, it is all about selling newspapers and commercials…

    What we don’t hear about are the people who have been limping along, chronically malnourished from our nutrition-light modern diet who experience near-miraculous improvements in energy and overall health through the simple addition of an optimal-dose daily multivitamin like Maxi Multi or discover that they can throw away their “little purple pills” for that long-standing GERD and heartburn when they improve their digestion with Betain HCL or digestive enzymes like Similase.

    Unlike most pharmaceutical drug offerings, which tend to have a prompt and often profound effect (think “tranquilizers” or “muscle relaxers” or “asthma inhaler”) most natural substances tend to have a more subtle effect. Often someone may use a natural substance for days or weeks or months without noticing any big obvious change – until they suddenly realize that they feel better and somehow no longer feel those aches and pains or whatever other problem was bothering them – it’s just, well, better now.

    Unlike the “water pills” given for congestive heart failure, or the “blood pressure pills” given for hypertension that will have an obvious effect virtually overnight (often at the expense of some nasty side-effects), the simple dietary change and few simple herbs that will accomplish the same thing might take a week to achieve full effect – but they do it without the dangerous side-effects…

    We often work with fertility patients who are receiving treatment from Dr. Jeff Braverman who works closely with Dr. Myatt to use natural herbs and supplements to enhance his high-tech, cutting-edge infertility treatments. This synergy of cutting-edge “high-tech” and scientifically-based natural therapy has proven to be highly effective. Still, it leaves some folks wondering about the possible interactions between these two treatment modalities, and about the potential for there to be “too much of a good thing” as can be seen in this patient’s questions:

    I had a telephone consultation with Dr Braverman last week & while I wait for blood test results he suggested I start taking melatonin, antioxidants, mixed greens, etc. I have found the melatonin here & have been taking it but I was unsure what products from here to take for all the others. Dr Braverman suggested Maxi Multi, Maxi-Flavone & Maxi Greens. I see that the Maxi-Greens has some of the same ingrdients as the Maxi-Flavone – if I take both, will I be taking too much of those ingredients or is it safe to take both? Also, if I take all 3 of these products mentioned above, plus the Melatonin, can I also order & take the CoQ10? What about things like Lipoic Acid, Lycopene, Acetyl L-Carnitine – should I be taking those too?

    I really want to be sure that I am taking the right stuff & not doing anything that would have adverse side effects. Would they all work together or would that all be too much? I just want to be sure I order the correct stuff & get the maximum benefit for my fertility journey which has been such a struggle for the past 5 years.

    Regards
    Giselle

     

    Hi Giselle,

    In general terms, you should understand that dietary supplements such as those you mention are not akin to pharmaceutical drugs in that they are not isolated, synthetic compounds designed to modify or interfere with specific or discrete physiologic processes, but rather they are concentrated nutrients which provide the nutritional building blocks needed to allow your body’s own natural processes to achieve a more healthy balance and better function.

    As you know, our modern way of life, coupled with the decline in the nutritive values of our modern diet has left a lot of people sadly malnourished in many ways and this results in a wide variety of health problems including sub-optimal fertility.

    To say that you might “overdose” on these natural substances would be like saying that someone could “overdose” on fresh vegetables – it’s possible, but highly unlikely!

    Still, this is a complicated subject and it is easy to become confused and misdirect one’s efforts – which is why we always suggest a Brief Consultation with Dr. Myatt to help you get a much clearer understanding of the nuances of these dietary supplements and a far more focused approach to using them to achieve your health goals. This intense 20-minute conversation with Dr. Myatt could be your very best natural health-improvement investment ever!

    I will be happy to work with you to get a Brief Consultation scheduled.

    Please find more information regarding Dr. Myatt’s Brief Telephone Consultations here: https://www.drmyattswellnessclub.com/BriefConsults.htm

    Cheers,
    Nurse Mark