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Vitamins = Expensive Urine?
Written by Wellness Club on April 27, 2018 – 4:14 pm -By Dr. Dana Myatt
If I hear or read this one more time, I’m going to ….. go take some additional magnesium to calm down.
The conventional press and most conventional doctors (who receive post-grad education from drug companies) keep saying that all vitamins do is make expensive urine.
What do they think? That saying it over and over will make it true? Kind of like saying the Earth is flat a million times will make it flat?
The bulk of scientific evidence points to the positive value of nutritional supplements on health, not just urine. I’ve written about this many times before and I hate to beat a dead horse. You can refresh your memory here: “Vitamins a Waste” — Fake News or Fact? and Do Vitamins Really Make Any Difference?
Mom on her 95th birthday – the Princess of the party!
So let’s talk about “expensive urine” from a different perspective, a funny but true story to illustrate. This one is close to home. Literally.
My Mom is 95 and she lives with us. Five years ago, when Mom was living independently with Dad, she went to her conventional doc for a routine check-up. It’s always a good idea to keep an “insurance doc” on the hook in case of emergency and for things that are best-served by the conventional side. I’m a big proponent of having a local doc who can write prescriptions and perform tests, hospital admissions, etc.
And you don’t want to just show up on their doorstep the first time you need them, hence the value of a routine exam. Then they will know who you are, at least a little. Plus you will have an established medical chart with your insurance connections in place. This is all good.
I encourage having a local conventional general doctor and this is the reason Mom was in for an exam. She did not have any complaints. Well, OK, maybe her low back. She’s been complaining of that for the last 50 years that I recall and nothing is wrong that can be fixed with surgery, drugs, manipulation, etc. With additional low back stretches, she feels much better. But I digress.
Mom was in good health. The doctor didn’t know this yet. Test results take a week. All he knew was that her blood pressure was enviable for a 40 year old much less a 90 year old, her heart sounded good, her pulse was normal and she was nearly 80 pounds overweight.
The doc asked her what medications she was taking. Mom told him “none.” He didn’t believe this. After all, she was 90. It would be downright un-American to be 90 and not on at least two or three medications, especially for blood pressure. So he asked her again what she was taking. She told him that her daughter, a naturopathic doctor, had her on vitamins. She recited her list. A multiple (9 caps per day, not one), digestive enzymes, fish oil, extra magnesium and melatonin at bedtime.
“That’s all I take” she assured him. He chuckled and said, “All that does is give you expensive urine.” Then he scolded her for being overweight, suggested she go on a diet (but didn’t give any instructions on how to do this) and told her to come back next week for results.
The next week, Mom went for follow-up. Her test results showed normal cholesterol, borderline high-normal blood sugars, no evidence of osteoporosis and nothing else wrong. Nothing. Nada.
“Well, even though you need to lose weight, you are in otherwise really good health” the doctor grudgingly acknowledged. To which Mom replied, “Maybe it’s all that expensive urine”!
Mom has been living with us for nearly two years since Dad passed. She has lost 80 pounds. Her fasting blood sugars are as right as rain now. Her B.P. is 130/80, no drugs. Her new local doc still can’t find anything wrong, although he did want to do a bone density test. (Why? “Because we can and insurance will pay”). I told him that we’d already done a bone density test at home. “How did you do that?” he wanted to know. “Well, Mom has fallen a couple of times and injured nothing but her ego.” (Note: she hasn’t taken a tumble in a looooong time since we started exercising, by the way).
Dr. Myatt, Mom Flo Wishmeyer, and Nurse Mark delivering Meals On Wheels – this picture appeared on the front page of our local newspaper.
She and I walk a half mile 3-5 times per week. Mom calls it “The Green Mile.” (Look up the Tom Hanks movie by the same name if you don’t get the joke).
The three of us deliver Meals on Wheels once a week which requires walking and getting in and out of the car frequently.
We entertain (tonight is movie night in our hangar), give parties, go to parties and generally enjoy life as much as possible. In fact we’re planning Mom’s 96th b-day party coming up next month.
Oh yes, and we still take our vitamins. I’ve seen the research (my eyeballs are in it most of the day) and I’m hedging my bet that I, too, can live well into my 90’s. After all, I’ve got good genetics and “expensive urine”! 
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