Most successful people were not born into success; they simply did, and continue to do, things that help them realize their full potential. Here are twelve things they do differently that the rest of us can easily emulate.
1. They create and pursue SMART goals.
Successful people are objective. They know what they are looking for and why they are fighting for it. They create SMART goals: Specific – “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week for the next 52 weeks.” A specific goal has a greater chance of being accomplished because it has defined parameters. Measurable – There must be a logical system for measuring the progress of a goal. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement. Attainable – A goal must represent an objective toward which you are willing and able to work. The goal must be realistic. Relevant – Choose goals that matter and are relevant to your objective of building a profitable business. Timely – A deadline helps you focus your efforts on the completion of the goal by the due date. This prevents goals from being overtaken by daily distractions. When you identify SMART goals that are truly important to you, you become motivated to figure out ways to attain them. You develop the necessary attitude, abilities, and skills. Goals that seemed out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them.
2. They take decisive and immediate action.
Very few people ever live to become the success story they dream about. And there’s one simple reason why: They never take action! Growing happens when what you know changes how you live. So many people live in a complete daze. It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t make any sort of progress without taking action. There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it. Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action. It’s as simple as that.
3. They focus on being productive, not being busy.
In his book, The 4-Hour Workweek , Tim Ferris says, “Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is often a form of mental laziness. Work smarter, not harder.” Take a quick look around. The busy outnumber the productive by a wide margin. Busy people are rushing all over the place, and running late half of the time. They’re heading to work, conferences, meetings, social engagements. They barely have enough free time for family get-togethers and they rarely get enough sleep. Yet, business emails are shooting out of their smart phones like machine gun bullets, and their daily planner is jammed to the brim with obligations.
Their busy schedule gives them an elevated sense of importance. But it’s all an illusion. They’re like hamsters running on a wheel.
The solution: Slow down. Breathe. Review your commitments and goals. Put first things first. Do one thing at a time. Start now. Take a short break in two hours. Repeat.
And always remember, results are more important than the time it takes to achieve them.
4. They make logical, informed decisions.
Emotional gut instincts are effective in certain fleeting situations. When it comes to generating long-term, sustained growth in any area of life, emotional decisions often lead a person astray. Slow down and think things through before you make any life-changing decisions.
5. They avoid the trap of trying to make things perfect.
Many of us are perfectionists in our own right. We set high bars for ourselves and put our best foot forward. We dedicate copious amounts of time and attention to our work to maintain our high personal standards. Our passion for excellence drives us to run the extra mile, never stopping, never relenting. And this dedication towards perfection undoubtedly helps us achieve results… So long as we don’t get carried away.
True perfectionists have a hard time starting things and an even harder time finishing them, always.
Remember, the real world doesn’t reward perfectionists. It rewards people who get things done. Only by wading through years of practice and imperfection can we begin to achieve momentary glimpses of the perfection. So make a decision. Take action, learn from the outcome, and repeat this method over and over again in all walks of life.
6. They work outside of their comfort zone.
The number one thing holding smart people back is their own reluctance to accept an opportunity simply because they don’t think they’re ready. They feel uncomfortable and believe they require additional knowledge, skill and experience before they can aptly partake in the opportunity. Sadly, this is the kind of thinking that stifles personal growth and success. Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. They force us to stretch ourselves and our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first. And when we don’t feel comfortable, we don’t feel ready. Significant moments of opportunity for personal growth and success will come and go throughout your lifetime. If you are looking to make positive changes and new breakthroughs in your life, you will need to embrace these moments of opportunity even though you will never feel 100% ready for them.
7. They keep things simple.
Here in the 21st century, where information moves at the speed of light and opportunities for innovation seem endless, we have an abundant array of choices when it comes to designing our lives and careers. An abundance of choice often leads to complication, confusion and inaction. Several business and marketing studies have shown that the more product choices a consumer is faced with, the less products they typically buy. After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices. If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up. The solution is to simplify. If you’re selling a product line, keep it simple. And if you’re trying to make a decision about something in your life, don’t waste all your time evaluating every last detail of every possible option. Choose something that you think will work and give it a shot. If it doesn’t work out, learn what you can from the experience, choose something else and keep pressing forward.
8. They focus on making small, continuous improvements.
Making small, positive changes – eating a little healthier, exercising a little, creating some small productive habits, for example – is an amazing way to get excited about life and slowly reach the level of success you aspire to. If you start small, you don’t need a lot of motivation to get started. The simple act of getting started and doing something will give you the momentum you need, and soon you’ll find yourself in a positive spiral of changes – one building on the other. Start with just one activity, and make a plan for how you will deal with troubles when they arise. It will be hard in the beginning, but it will get easier. And that’s the whole point. As your strength grows, you can take on bigger challenges.
9. They measure and track their progress.
Successful people are not only working in their job/business, they are also working on it. They step back and assess their progress regularly. They track themselves against their goals and clearly know what needs to be done to excel and accelerate. You can’t control what you don’t properly measure.
The proper approach is to figure out what your number one goal is and then track the things that directly relate to achieving that goal.. On a weekly basis, plug the numbers into a spreadsheet and use the data to create weekly or monthly trend graphs so you can visualize your progress. Then fine-tune your actions to get those trends to grow in your favor.
10. They maintain a positive outlook as they learn from their mistakes.
Successful people concentrate on the positives – they look for the silver lining in every situation. They know that it is their positivity that will take them to greatness. If you want to be successful, you need to have a positive outlook toward life. Life will test you again and again. If you give in to internal negativity, you will never be able to achieve the marks you have targeted. Remember, every mistake you make is progress. Mistakes teach you important lessons. Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal. The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake. So don’t hesitate – don’t doubt yourself! Don’t let your own negativity sabotage you. Learn what you can and press forward.
11. They spend time with the right people.
Successful people associate with people who are likeminded, focused, and supportive. They socialize with people who create energy when they enter the room versus those who create energy when they leave. They reach out to connected, influential individuals who are right for their dreams and goals.
You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. Find your tribe or right people and work together to make a difference in all of your lives.
12. They maintain balance in their life.
If you ask most people to summarize what they want out of life they’ll shout out a list of things like: ‘fall in love,’ ‘make money,’ ‘spend time with family,’ ‘find happiness,’ ‘achieve goals,’ etc. But sadly, a lot of people don’t balance their life properly to achieve these things. Typically they’ll achieve one or two of them while completely neglecting the rest. It’s extremely easy to lose your balance. While drive and focus are important, if you’re going to get things done right, and be truly successful, you need to balance the various dimensions of your life. Completely neglecting one dimension for another only leads to long-term frustration and stress.
Source: MarcandAngel.com ; mercola.com ; 3/19/12
Monday, March 19, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Medical Care is the Number One Cause of Death in The US?
Medical Care Kills More People Than Heart Disease or Cancer (But Hardly Anyone Knows).
The latest data on the leading causes of deathi in the United States has been released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, which is based on 2010 data, lists the top 10 leading causes of death as follows:
1. Diseases of the heart
2. Cancer
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer's disease
7. Diabetes mellitus
8. Nephritis, nephritic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease)
9. Influenza and pneumonia
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
In an analysis, 24/7 Wall St. determined that the costs to the economy for these top 10 causes, amounts to a whopping $1.1 trillion! However, there is one leading cause of death that was left off of this list, and when that is factored in the costs to the economy, and the death toll itself, is actually even higher.
The CDC Left Conventional Medical Care Off of Their Death List -- It should be #1
Over a decade ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. More recently, an article authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, describes in excruciating detail how the modern conventional American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.
From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, heart disease, cancer deaths and infant mortality, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole, American medicine caused more harm than good.
In 2010, years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine – researchers found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.
Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person's death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery.
There were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions! In the update to the original Death by Medicine article, you can get an idea of just how deadly the conventional medical care system actually is:
• In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, study authors said that in looking over records that spanned from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) they found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost a quarter-million deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
• An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.
• The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
• Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
• The reason there are so many adverse drug events in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.
How Many Deaths by Medicine are Disguised as Other Causes?
Another issue is just how many "accidents" or "suicides" are actually the result of accidental drug overdoses. Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing -- and this is according to the CDC's own data.
In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms nationwide, with more than half due to adverse reactions to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed.
Further, between 2001 and 2008, there was a 36 percent increase in hospital admissions, and a 28 percent increase in emergency room visits, among children 5 and younger who had accidentally ingested medication. ER visits for ingestion of prescription opioid painkillers, such as Oxycodone, increased 101 percent! So it is unclear how many deaths from accidental drug overdose are classified as accidents or suicides.
The 9th and 11th Top Killers Might Also be Linked to Medical Care
Pneumonia is the 9th leading cause of death and in some cases may again be related to the high risk of acquiring an infection should you enter the hospital.
The 11th leading cause of death according to the CDC is septicemia (sometimes called blood poisoning), which is bacteria in your bloodstream that is often caused by an infection in your body -- an infection that is often acquired in the hospital! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 patients and ramped up health care costs by over $8 billion in 2006. The study also found that 20 percent of people who developed sepsis died; 11 percent of those who developed pneumonia died.
A different study in 2006 showed that "central-line-associated" bloodstream infections caused by catheters placed directly into veins resulted in a $26,839 loss for each patient that came down with this type of hospital-acquired infection. This same study estimated that 2 million people come down with hospital-acquired infections of any type in every year, and that approximately 100,000 die from those infections. Despite their high death toll, hospital-acquired infections make no appearance in the CDC's report.
Most of the Leading Causes of Death are Preventable
Most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life.
What Can You Do?
Imagine the lowered death toll, not to mention costs to the economy, if more people decided to take control of their health … heart disease and cancer alone accounted for 47 percent of deaths in the United States in 2010, and there are many strategies you can implement to lower your risk of these diseases … and most of the leading causes of death in the United States.
The added bonus to this is that the healthier you are, the less you will need to rely on conventional medical care, which is a leading cause of death. So what does a "healthy lifestyle" entail?
• Proper Food Choices
Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home.
For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Aim to eat about 80-85 percent of my food raw
Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.
• Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness
Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
• Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking
You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
• Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D
We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.
The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used as a last resort. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.
• High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats
Animal-based omega-3 fat like fish oil is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.
• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible
This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
Source: Dr. Dan Thibodeau, DC; mercola.com; 2/15/12.
The latest data on the leading causes of deathi in the United States has been released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report, which is based on 2010 data, lists the top 10 leading causes of death as follows:
1. Diseases of the heart
2. Cancer
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer's disease
7. Diabetes mellitus
8. Nephritis, nephritic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease)
9. Influenza and pneumonia
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
In an analysis, 24/7 Wall St. determined that the costs to the economy for these top 10 causes, amounts to a whopping $1.1 trillion! However, there is one leading cause of death that was left off of this list, and when that is factored in the costs to the economy, and the death toll itself, is actually even higher.
The CDC Left Conventional Medical Care Off of Their Death List -- It should be #1
Over a decade ago, Professor Bruce Pomerance of the University of Toronto concluded that properly prescribed and correctly taken pharmaceutical drugs were the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. More recently, an article authored in two parts by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD, ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, describes in excruciating detail how the modern conventional American medical system has bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.
From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, heart disease, cancer deaths and infant mortality, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole, American medicine caused more harm than good.
In 2010, years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine – researchers found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn't changed much at all.
Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person's death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery.
There were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions! In the update to the original Death by Medicine article, you can get an idea of just how deadly the conventional medical care system actually is:
• In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, study authors said that in looking over records that spanned from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) they found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost a quarter-million deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
• An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.
• The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
• Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
• The reason there are so many adverse drug events in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.
How Many Deaths by Medicine are Disguised as Other Causes?
Another issue is just how many "accidents" or "suicides" are actually the result of accidental drug overdoses. Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing -- and this is according to the CDC's own data.
In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms nationwide, with more than half due to adverse reactions to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed.
Further, between 2001 and 2008, there was a 36 percent increase in hospital admissions, and a 28 percent increase in emergency room visits, among children 5 and younger who had accidentally ingested medication. ER visits for ingestion of prescription opioid painkillers, such as Oxycodone, increased 101 percent! So it is unclear how many deaths from accidental drug overdose are classified as accidents or suicides.
The 9th and 11th Top Killers Might Also be Linked to Medical Care
Pneumonia is the 9th leading cause of death and in some cases may again be related to the high risk of acquiring an infection should you enter the hospital.
The 11th leading cause of death according to the CDC is septicemia (sometimes called blood poisoning), which is bacteria in your bloodstream that is often caused by an infection in your body -- an infection that is often acquired in the hospital! A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 patients and ramped up health care costs by over $8 billion in 2006. The study also found that 20 percent of people who developed sepsis died; 11 percent of those who developed pneumonia died.
A different study in 2006 showed that "central-line-associated" bloodstream infections caused by catheters placed directly into veins resulted in a $26,839 loss for each patient that came down with this type of hospital-acquired infection. This same study estimated that 2 million people come down with hospital-acquired infections of any type in every year, and that approximately 100,000 die from those infections. Despite their high death toll, hospital-acquired infections make no appearance in the CDC's report.
Most of the Leading Causes of Death are Preventable
Most chronic diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, are largely preventable with simple lifestyle changes. Even infectious diseases like the flu can often be warded off by a healthy way of life.
What Can You Do?
Imagine the lowered death toll, not to mention costs to the economy, if more people decided to take control of their health … heart disease and cancer alone accounted for 47 percent of deaths in the United States in 2010, and there are many strategies you can implement to lower your risk of these diseases … and most of the leading causes of death in the United States.
The added bonus to this is that the healthier you are, the less you will need to rely on conventional medical care, which is a leading cause of death. So what does a "healthy lifestyle" entail?
• Proper Food Choices
Generally speaking, you should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home.
For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Aim to eat about 80-85 percent of my food raw
Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.
• Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise like Peak Fitness
Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity interval-type training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
• Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking
You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
• Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D
We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. Vitamin D plays an important role in preventing numerous illnesses ranging from cancer to the flu.
The important factor when it comes to vitamin D is your serum level, which should ideally be between 50-70 ng/ml year-round. Sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the preferred method for optimizing vitamin D levels, but a vitamin D3 supplement can be used as a last resort. Most adults need about 8,000 IU's of vitamin D a day to achieve serum levels above 40 ng/ml, which is still just below the minimum recommended serum level of 50 ng/ml.
• High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats
Animal-based omega-3 fat like fish oil is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.
• Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible
This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
Source: Dr. Dan Thibodeau, DC; mercola.com; 2/15/12.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
The Drug Companies Newest Profit Weapon.
Story at-a-glance:
• The Australian newspaper has reportedly accepted an undisclosed amount of sponsorship money from the drug industry for a series of health policy articles.
• The drug industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, and part of this promotion allows the industry to dictate editorial policy.
• The drug industry uses their marketing and lobbying dollars to influence and control medical science, published journal articles, and government policy.
• Drug companies are the BIGGEST political lobby, and political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly every facet of the health industry.
Story in Full Detail:
The drug industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, and historically one of their key targets has been physicians. There are drug reps whose sole responsibility is to "educate" physicians about new drugs, a practice that includes lavish gifts, dinners and trips as persuasive perks. In fact, about $282 million was paid to doctors by drug companies in 2009, which, coupled with their potent brainwashing techniques, allows the industry to heavily influence physicians' prescribing habits. While physician directed marketing continues to be a common practice, the public is no longer entirely in the dark about it. Some doctors are rethinking the relationship and questioning whether it's really in their best interest, and the best interest of their patients, to accept "educational" material and gifts from drug makers. Over the past few years the drug industry has been riddled with negative publicity concerning ties with not only physicians but also medical schools and medical journals; so, it's not surprising that they would refocus their attention on the purveyors of such publicity, namely journalists and the media.
The Drug Industry is Infiltrating Supposedly "Independent" Media Outlets
If you don't like the bad press you're getting, why not buy out the media so you can have a say in what gets printed? This is the obvious next step for the drug industry, whose marketing budget (numbering in the billions) knows no bounds.
As journalist Ray Moynihan recently reported in the British Medical Journal:
"Just as many doctors contemplate an end to their dance with drug company marketers, a fresh new crew is stepping lively onto the floor: journalists and media organizations looking for easy ways to fund their reporting, travel, and education. The BMJ reported … that the Murdoch empire's flagship newspaper in Australia has accepted an undisclosed amount of sponsorship money from the drug industry for a series of articles on health policy—and that the idea arose from a meeting between advertising agents. Defending the deal, the Australian's editor said that independence and integrity were maintained; but as others pointed out, this new form of financial closeness between journalists and the companies they scrutinize raises real concerns."
This is really not surprising considering that that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son, James Murdoch, is a member of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) corporate responsibility committee (a position he entered in May 2009). His job is to review "external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation" -- a position he's well suited for …
James Murdoch, as you may know, is the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which drug makers can benefit from having a media mogul on their payroll, as well as "sponsoring" media content on health policy. Clearly they've thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various wrongdoings. I think it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be pulled—hard. Drug industry influence is not restricted to Murdoch's newspaper empire.
Is Big Pharma Dictating Your Favorite Newspaper or TV Station?
If you still believe that most media outlets provide unbiased, impartial information, it's time for a wakeup call, as most are heavily controlled by corporate interests, including drug companies. As retired neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, MD put it:
" … We no longer have investigative journalists, we have a corporate controlled media. It is no secret that most media outlets are desperate for money, especially in this economy. The lifeblood of all media is advertising. An independent analysis appearing in a peer reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science estimated that pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. spent $57.5 billion on promotion in 2004, almost twice as much as they spend on research and development. Virtually every TV news network, magazine and newspaper is filled with very expensive pharmaceutical ads. These media outlets cannot afford to lose this money and this allows the pharmaceutical companies to set editorial policy. Stories criticizing vaccines are as rare as hen's teeth. With billions to use for influence, one witnesses resulting bias in academia and government regulatory agencies as well."
Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also has worrisome ties to the drug industry, spends $1.7 million for a Hollywood liaison as part of their Entertainment Education Program, which makes sure that when your favorite TV shows feature a health topic, that information is "accurate," or shall we say "CDC-approved." Have you ever wondered why you will rarely ever see a TV show that features a plot line including a vaccine injury or adverse drug reaction, even though they are incredibly common in real life? Now you know why. When you begin to peek beneath the surface at the funding sources behind most media outlets, the picture becomes clearer as to why there is a pattern of censorship in the mainstream press when it comes to revealing the truth about the drug industry. This even applies to the scientific evidence documenting drug and vaccine risks.
Massive Conflict of Interest in Drug Industry
In order for scientific studies to happen, someone has to pay for them. The top funder for any drug trial is the pharmaceutical company that makes it, since the manufacturer is most invested in "proving" how spectacular its drug is. In the case of statins as an example, all of the major statin studies have been funded exclusively by the drug industry. The second-highest funder of drug studies is the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is not the group of neutral government experts you may have assumed them to be. In fact, NIH accepts a great deal of money from Big Pharma and is deeply enmeshed with the industry. Further, drug companies publish only a fraction of the studies they fund -- the ones that promote their drugs. Often those favorable studies are submitted multiple times, in a way that the reader doesn't realize it's the same study, obscured by different author lists and different details. If a study does not have findings that are favorable to its product, it is unlikely it will ever make it into a journal for publication.
But, when a scientific study has findings that cast doubt on the efficacy of a drug, oftentimes the negative findings are morphed into positive ones through statistical and semantic manipulation. The editorials that follow from a study, submitted by so-called unbiased experts and then published in reputable journals, are also often done by non-neutral parties who have a financial tie to the drug maker. Many of the articles that appear in medical journals purportedly written by well-known academics are actually written by unacknowledged ghostwriters on Big Pharma payroll. Medical journals are generally considered by medical practitioners to be a source of reliable information. But medical journals are also businesses. In 2003, drug companies spent $448 million dollars on advertising in medical journals. It has been calculated that the return on investment on medical journal ads is between $2.22 and $6.86 for every dollar spent. Long-term returns may be even higher when you consider that one ad viewed by a physician could result in hundreds or even thousands of drug purchases, based on the prescriptions he or she writes.
At least certain medical journals are attempting to regain their unbiased reputations; in 2011 the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia announced it would no longer accept pharmaceutical advertisements, citing growing evidence that the drug industry "distorts research findings and engages in dubious and unethical publishing practices."
A BMJ news piece reported:
"George Jelinek, a former editor of the journal [Emergency Medicine Australasia], and Anthony Brown, editor in chief, wrote, "Marketing of drugs by the pharmaceutical industry, whose prime aim is to bias readers towards prescribing a particular product, is fundamentally at odds with the mission of medical journals."
How Lobbyists Have Taken Over and Stolen Your Government
In the CBS News video above, crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff explains how he influenced Congress for years, and how this kind of corruption still continues. He spent $1 million dollars a year on concert and sporting event tickets alone, and even had two full-time members of his staff devoted to booking tickets! If vacations, private jets, fancy dinners and other perks weren't enough to sway Congress, Abramoff's group would offer members of Congress a job when they leave Capitol Hill, at double or triple the salary. As Abramoff says in the video, once they accepted that offer that was it:
" … We own them … everything that we want, they're gonna do."
Political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly the entire health industry. Lobbyists, by definition, "conduct activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation." This is Big Business doing what it does best: using its power and money to strong-arm the legislative process. The pharmaceutical industry spent $1.5 billion lobbying Congress in the last decade, and in so doing has manipulated the government's involvement with medicine and secondarily reinforced our dependence on them, through government policies.
All the More Reason to Take Control of Your Health …
Drug companies are willing to do just about anything to make you, and your physician, think their drugs are great -- including buying off Congress, the media, and even corrupting studies in medical journals so they show only favorable results. If that doesn't work, they will try to get their products mandated so you have no choice but to use them or face legal action. It isn't always easy to fight back against this system, but know that the drug companies are not going to protect you or give you optimal health. You are the only one that can protect yourself and your family, and the chief way to do this is by taking control of your health.
Until real change takes place, your best health strategy is quite simply to employ and maintain a naturally healthy lifestyle that will optimize your body's innate healing abilities and minimize your need for the drug companies latest concoctions. We as Alternative Health Care Providers are working hard to change the system and help protect your health freedoms from corrupt influences like the drug industry.
Make a commitment to take charge of your own health today!
Source: Dr. Dan Thibodeau, DC; BMJ 2011; Mercola.com, 1/22/12
Please leave me comments or contact me if you have any questions.
• The Australian newspaper has reportedly accepted an undisclosed amount of sponsorship money from the drug industry for a series of health policy articles.
• The drug industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, and part of this promotion allows the industry to dictate editorial policy.
• The drug industry uses their marketing and lobbying dollars to influence and control medical science, published journal articles, and government policy.
• Drug companies are the BIGGEST political lobby, and political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly every facet of the health industry.
Story in Full Detail:
The drug industry spends nearly twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, and historically one of their key targets has been physicians. There are drug reps whose sole responsibility is to "educate" physicians about new drugs, a practice that includes lavish gifts, dinners and trips as persuasive perks. In fact, about $282 million was paid to doctors by drug companies in 2009, which, coupled with their potent brainwashing techniques, allows the industry to heavily influence physicians' prescribing habits. While physician directed marketing continues to be a common practice, the public is no longer entirely in the dark about it. Some doctors are rethinking the relationship and questioning whether it's really in their best interest, and the best interest of their patients, to accept "educational" material and gifts from drug makers. Over the past few years the drug industry has been riddled with negative publicity concerning ties with not only physicians but also medical schools and medical journals; so, it's not surprising that they would refocus their attention on the purveyors of such publicity, namely journalists and the media.
The Drug Industry is Infiltrating Supposedly "Independent" Media Outlets
If you don't like the bad press you're getting, why not buy out the media so you can have a say in what gets printed? This is the obvious next step for the drug industry, whose marketing budget (numbering in the billions) knows no bounds.
As journalist Ray Moynihan recently reported in the British Medical Journal:
"Just as many doctors contemplate an end to their dance with drug company marketers, a fresh new crew is stepping lively onto the floor: journalists and media organizations looking for easy ways to fund their reporting, travel, and education. The BMJ reported … that the Murdoch empire's flagship newspaper in Australia has accepted an undisclosed amount of sponsorship money from the drug industry for a series of articles on health policy—and that the idea arose from a meeting between advertising agents. Defending the deal, the Australian's editor said that independence and integrity were maintained; but as others pointed out, this new form of financial closeness between journalists and the companies they scrutinize raises real concerns."
This is really not surprising considering that that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's son, James Murdoch, is a member of drug giant GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) corporate responsibility committee (a position he entered in May 2009). His job is to review "external issues that might have the potential for serious impact upon the group's business and reputation" -- a position he's well suited for …
James Murdoch, as you may know, is the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and chairman of BSkyB. I can only imagine the extent to which drug makers can benefit from having a media mogul on their payroll, as well as "sponsoring" media content on health policy. Clearly they've thought this one through, and it makes perfect sense when you consider the clout they need to keep the media quiet about their various wrongdoings. I think it's safe to say that if strings need to be pulled, they will be pulled—hard. Drug industry influence is not restricted to Murdoch's newspaper empire.
Is Big Pharma Dictating Your Favorite Newspaper or TV Station?
If you still believe that most media outlets provide unbiased, impartial information, it's time for a wakeup call, as most are heavily controlled by corporate interests, including drug companies. As retired neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, MD put it:
" … We no longer have investigative journalists, we have a corporate controlled media. It is no secret that most media outlets are desperate for money, especially in this economy. The lifeblood of all media is advertising. An independent analysis appearing in a peer reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science estimated that pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. spent $57.5 billion on promotion in 2004, almost twice as much as they spend on research and development. Virtually every TV news network, magazine and newspaper is filled with very expensive pharmaceutical ads. These media outlets cannot afford to lose this money and this allows the pharmaceutical companies to set editorial policy. Stories criticizing vaccines are as rare as hen's teeth. With billions to use for influence, one witnesses resulting bias in academia and government regulatory agencies as well."
Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also has worrisome ties to the drug industry, spends $1.7 million for a Hollywood liaison as part of their Entertainment Education Program, which makes sure that when your favorite TV shows feature a health topic, that information is "accurate," or shall we say "CDC-approved." Have you ever wondered why you will rarely ever see a TV show that features a plot line including a vaccine injury or adverse drug reaction, even though they are incredibly common in real life? Now you know why. When you begin to peek beneath the surface at the funding sources behind most media outlets, the picture becomes clearer as to why there is a pattern of censorship in the mainstream press when it comes to revealing the truth about the drug industry. This even applies to the scientific evidence documenting drug and vaccine risks.
Massive Conflict of Interest in Drug Industry
In order for scientific studies to happen, someone has to pay for them. The top funder for any drug trial is the pharmaceutical company that makes it, since the manufacturer is most invested in "proving" how spectacular its drug is. In the case of statins as an example, all of the major statin studies have been funded exclusively by the drug industry. The second-highest funder of drug studies is the National Institute of Health (NIH), which is not the group of neutral government experts you may have assumed them to be. In fact, NIH accepts a great deal of money from Big Pharma and is deeply enmeshed with the industry. Further, drug companies publish only a fraction of the studies they fund -- the ones that promote their drugs. Often those favorable studies are submitted multiple times, in a way that the reader doesn't realize it's the same study, obscured by different author lists and different details. If a study does not have findings that are favorable to its product, it is unlikely it will ever make it into a journal for publication.
But, when a scientific study has findings that cast doubt on the efficacy of a drug, oftentimes the negative findings are morphed into positive ones through statistical and semantic manipulation. The editorials that follow from a study, submitted by so-called unbiased experts and then published in reputable journals, are also often done by non-neutral parties who have a financial tie to the drug maker. Many of the articles that appear in medical journals purportedly written by well-known academics are actually written by unacknowledged ghostwriters on Big Pharma payroll. Medical journals are generally considered by medical practitioners to be a source of reliable information. But medical journals are also businesses. In 2003, drug companies spent $448 million dollars on advertising in medical journals. It has been calculated that the return on investment on medical journal ads is between $2.22 and $6.86 for every dollar spent. Long-term returns may be even higher when you consider that one ad viewed by a physician could result in hundreds or even thousands of drug purchases, based on the prescriptions he or she writes.
At least certain medical journals are attempting to regain their unbiased reputations; in 2011 the journal Emergency Medicine Australasia announced it would no longer accept pharmaceutical advertisements, citing growing evidence that the drug industry "distorts research findings and engages in dubious and unethical publishing practices."
A BMJ news piece reported:
"George Jelinek, a former editor of the journal [Emergency Medicine Australasia], and Anthony Brown, editor in chief, wrote, "Marketing of drugs by the pharmaceutical industry, whose prime aim is to bias readers towards prescribing a particular product, is fundamentally at odds with the mission of medical journals."
How Lobbyists Have Taken Over and Stolen Your Government
In the CBS News video above, crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff explains how he influenced Congress for years, and how this kind of corruption still continues. He spent $1 million dollars a year on concert and sporting event tickets alone, and even had two full-time members of his staff devoted to booking tickets! If vacations, private jets, fancy dinners and other perks weren't enough to sway Congress, Abramoff's group would offer members of Congress a job when they leave Capitol Hill, at double or triple the salary. As Abramoff says in the video, once they accepted that offer that was it:
" … We own them … everything that we want, they're gonna do."
Political lobbying is one of the primary reasons why the drug companies are controlling nearly the entire health industry. Lobbyists, by definition, "conduct activities aimed at influencing public officials and especially members of a legislative body on legislation." This is Big Business doing what it does best: using its power and money to strong-arm the legislative process. The pharmaceutical industry spent $1.5 billion lobbying Congress in the last decade, and in so doing has manipulated the government's involvement with medicine and secondarily reinforced our dependence on them, through government policies.
All the More Reason to Take Control of Your Health …
Drug companies are willing to do just about anything to make you, and your physician, think their drugs are great -- including buying off Congress, the media, and even corrupting studies in medical journals so they show only favorable results. If that doesn't work, they will try to get their products mandated so you have no choice but to use them or face legal action. It isn't always easy to fight back against this system, but know that the drug companies are not going to protect you or give you optimal health. You are the only one that can protect yourself and your family, and the chief way to do this is by taking control of your health.
Until real change takes place, your best health strategy is quite simply to employ and maintain a naturally healthy lifestyle that will optimize your body's innate healing abilities and minimize your need for the drug companies latest concoctions. We as Alternative Health Care Providers are working hard to change the system and help protect your health freedoms from corrupt influences like the drug industry.
Make a commitment to take charge of your own health today!
Source: Dr. Dan Thibodeau, DC; BMJ 2011; Mercola.com, 1/22/12
Please leave me comments or contact me if you have any questions.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
10 Reasons to Add Strength Training to Your Workouts in 2012
10. Last time you tried to open a jar of olives you gave up and settled for a box of crackers. Why? You're losing it, baby! When it comes to muscle mass, we all experience a scary little process I call "The Great Decline." Every decade we lose muscle mass, and as we age the percentage of loss just keeps accelerating. By age 60, the average person will have lost one-third of his/her muscle mass. The good news: you can reverse it with resistance training. There's no age limit on your ability to add muscle and stop The Great Decline.
9. The phrase "Sitting AROUND the house" has more than one meaning -- and you'd like to avoid one of them. If you're reading this article, chances are you're interested in maintaining or losing weight. Too many people try to drop inches with diet alone, or by walking endlessly on the treadmill. Here's the bottom line: a pound of muscle burns 35 to 50 calories a day, just by sitting there on your body. A pound of fat burns about 3 to 5 calories a day. You do the math.
8. Your idea of "getting calcium in your diet" is a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. In your 30's, bone mass generally reaches its maximum level of growth. Then, in your 40's, it's another decline: your bone mass starts gradually decreasing. Once again, dumbbells save the day, as strength training maintains or even increases bone mass as you age.
7. Last time you slipped in the shower, you almost reenacted the "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercial. Poor balance and lack of muscular strength can result in falls, leading to fractures, broken bones, and worse. When performed properly, strengthening exercises increase flexibility and balance -- so you can stay on your toes.
6. Heart disease is so 2007. Heart disease risk is lower when your body is lean. The American Heart Association recommends strength training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease -- it helps you lose visceral fat (the fat around your internal organs), the most dangerous type of fat when it comes to cardiovascular health.
5. The idea of offering a piggy-back ride to a child is as horrifying as the latest Saw sequel.
Got back pain or posture issues? The best non-surgical alternative for remedying back problems is strength training along with good quality Chiropractic Care. A strong core supports your lower back and protects you from injury, and strong back muscles contribute to good posture.
The bonus: good posture naturally makes your abdomen look flatter.
4. Bladder-control issues bring back painful schoolyard memories.
Muscular agility is proven to help prevent incontinence. Moving on.
3. Psssst ... There are wild rumors going around that better sex can be ENJOYABLE. But you didn't hear it from me. Shhhh …
Resistance training is a must when it comes to reshaping your body, targeting "trouble spots," and transforming your figure into a younger, fitter, and, yes, sexier you. Not only does it help you improve your state of mind and ensure that you look terrific in a bathing suit ... but building muscle actually improves sexual function. (Before you run away from the computer to pick up your dumbbells, hang tight. We're almost finished reading.)
2. Lifting a bag of groceries doesn't have to be the greatest achievement of your day. Let's aim a little higher with our goals, shall we?
Nothing trains your body to perform functional movement for everyday living (bending, twisting, lifting, and reaching) like strength training.
1. I said so!
OK, all jokes aside ... Don't start your resistance training routine just because I told you to. Do it because you need to start building muscle now -- for all the reasons I just mentioned. Do it because muscle is about better coordination, agility and balance. Do it because muscle is about staying active and empowering yourself to enjoy life on a fuller level, from the boardroom to the bedroom. Do it because muscle revolutionizes your metabolism, transforms your body from the inside out, and is your best bet for reversing the aging process. In short, do it because muscle is about all the things you associate with youth -- and the clock is ticking for each and every one of us.
***Don’t forget that strength training can be done with any type of resistance. You can use dumbbells, barbells, stretchy bands or tubing, bendable rods, small hand weights, kettle balls or your own body weight. Please ask one of the doctors at Beck – Thibodeau Chiropractic for suggestions to get started safely.
(About the Author
Kathy Smith has stood at the forefront of the fitness and health industries for more than thirty years with a collection of books, videos, audios and DVD's on walking, cardiovascular health, nutrition, strength training, yoga, Pilates, menopause, dance, and all-things-exercise. She has sold over $500 million in lifestyle products and fitness equipment. In addition to her DVD library, Kathy is an accomplished author, with bestselling titles including "Feed Muscle Shrink Fat Diet" and "Moving Through Menopause". She has also contributed her expertise on health and wellness to countless media outlets, including the LA Times, USA Today, The Today Show, Oprah, The View, Larry King Live, and many more.
Source: Dan Thibodeau,DC; www.mercola.com; 11/18/11
***Please join my blog if you like the information and leave me comments if you have any.
9. The phrase "Sitting AROUND the house" has more than one meaning -- and you'd like to avoid one of them. If you're reading this article, chances are you're interested in maintaining or losing weight. Too many people try to drop inches with diet alone, or by walking endlessly on the treadmill. Here's the bottom line: a pound of muscle burns 35 to 50 calories a day, just by sitting there on your body. A pound of fat burns about 3 to 5 calories a day. You do the math.
8. Your idea of "getting calcium in your diet" is a pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. In your 30's, bone mass generally reaches its maximum level of growth. Then, in your 40's, it's another decline: your bone mass starts gradually decreasing. Once again, dumbbells save the day, as strength training maintains or even increases bone mass as you age.
7. Last time you slipped in the shower, you almost reenacted the "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercial. Poor balance and lack of muscular strength can result in falls, leading to fractures, broken bones, and worse. When performed properly, strengthening exercises increase flexibility and balance -- so you can stay on your toes.
6. Heart disease is so 2007. Heart disease risk is lower when your body is lean. The American Heart Association recommends strength training as a way to reduce risk of heart disease -- it helps you lose visceral fat (the fat around your internal organs), the most dangerous type of fat when it comes to cardiovascular health.
5. The idea of offering a piggy-back ride to a child is as horrifying as the latest Saw sequel.
Got back pain or posture issues? The best non-surgical alternative for remedying back problems is strength training along with good quality Chiropractic Care. A strong core supports your lower back and protects you from injury, and strong back muscles contribute to good posture.
The bonus: good posture naturally makes your abdomen look flatter.
4. Bladder-control issues bring back painful schoolyard memories.
Muscular agility is proven to help prevent incontinence. Moving on.
3. Psssst ... There are wild rumors going around that better sex can be ENJOYABLE. But you didn't hear it from me. Shhhh …
Resistance training is a must when it comes to reshaping your body, targeting "trouble spots," and transforming your figure into a younger, fitter, and, yes, sexier you. Not only does it help you improve your state of mind and ensure that you look terrific in a bathing suit ... but building muscle actually improves sexual function. (Before you run away from the computer to pick up your dumbbells, hang tight. We're almost finished reading.)
2. Lifting a bag of groceries doesn't have to be the greatest achievement of your day. Let's aim a little higher with our goals, shall we?
Nothing trains your body to perform functional movement for everyday living (bending, twisting, lifting, and reaching) like strength training.
1. I said so!
OK, all jokes aside ... Don't start your resistance training routine just because I told you to. Do it because you need to start building muscle now -- for all the reasons I just mentioned. Do it because muscle is about better coordination, agility and balance. Do it because muscle is about staying active and empowering yourself to enjoy life on a fuller level, from the boardroom to the bedroom. Do it because muscle revolutionizes your metabolism, transforms your body from the inside out, and is your best bet for reversing the aging process. In short, do it because muscle is about all the things you associate with youth -- and the clock is ticking for each and every one of us.
***Don’t forget that strength training can be done with any type of resistance. You can use dumbbells, barbells, stretchy bands or tubing, bendable rods, small hand weights, kettle balls or your own body weight. Please ask one of the doctors at Beck – Thibodeau Chiropractic for suggestions to get started safely.
(About the Author
Kathy Smith has stood at the forefront of the fitness and health industries for more than thirty years with a collection of books, videos, audios and DVD's on walking, cardiovascular health, nutrition, strength training, yoga, Pilates, menopause, dance, and all-things-exercise. She has sold over $500 million in lifestyle products and fitness equipment. In addition to her DVD library, Kathy is an accomplished author, with bestselling titles including "Feed Muscle Shrink Fat Diet" and "Moving Through Menopause". She has also contributed her expertise on health and wellness to countless media outlets, including the LA Times, USA Today, The Today Show, Oprah, The View, Larry King Live, and many more.
Source: Dan Thibodeau,DC; www.mercola.com; 11/18/11
***Please join my blog if you like the information and leave me comments if you have any.
Monday, November 14, 2011
The New Epidemic Sweeping Across America (it's not a Disease)
• For the first time, deaths from properly prescribed drugs (37,485) now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States (36,284).
• Drug-induced fatalities are being fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications. Fatalities doubled among teens and young adults: tripled among ages 50-69.
• Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people in their 40s, but teenagers and the elderly are also at risk.
• From 2001 to 2008, there was a 36% increase in hospital admissions, and a 28% increase in emergency room visits, among children 5 and younger who had accidentally ingested medication.
Death by medicine is a 21st-century epidemic, and America's "war on drugs" is clearly directed at the wrong enemy! Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing. These drug-induced fatalities are not being driven by illegal street drugs; the analysis found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
"Pharmageddon" is Upon Us
Pharmageddon is "the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good" -- it is no longer a prospect but fully upon us. Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people you would least expect; the analysis revealed the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, but all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, and all walks of life are being affected. In fact, prescription drugs are now the preferred "high" for many, especially teens, as they are typically used legally, which eliminates the stigma of being a "junkie." Even if you don't have your own prescription, drugs of all kinds can be found in the nearest medicine cabinet in most homes.
These drugs are also now being sold on the black market and on street corners, where people who have run out of prescriptions are willing to pay upwards of $80 a pill to get their fix. Many become addicted after using the drugs for headaches or back pain, and teens are increasingly taking the pills from their parents to use recreationally, under the false assumption that they are safe.
As written in the Baltimore Sun:
"According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription drugs are second to marijuana as the drug of choice for today's teens. In fact, seven of the top 10 drugs used by 12th-graders were prescription drugs. More than 40% of high school seniors reported that painkillers are "fairly" or "very" easy to get. They also reported that they believed that if they were to get caught, there was less shame attached to the use of prescription drugs than to street drugs. This mirrors the perceptions of their parents, who when queried said that they felt prescription drugs were a safer alternative to drugs typically sold by a drug dealer."
How Many are Dying From Prescription Drugs?
Nearly 20% of Americans have used prescription drugs for nonmedicinal reasons, three-quarters of whom may be abusing them. Legal prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic, and is part of the reason why the American medical system has become the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. Authored by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, the Death by Medicine article described in excruciating detail how everything from medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures caused more harm than good.
Seven years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine November 25, 2010 found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety, the health care system hasn't changed much. The original Death by Medicine article shows more of the same:
• In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, records spanning from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost 250,000 deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
• 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.
• Adverse drug reactions cost more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
• Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
• The reason there are so many adverse drug events in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.
There are numerous repercussions to a society that eats, breathes and sleeps prescription medications. ER visits for ingestion of prescription painkillers, such as Oxycodone, increased 101%. In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms, with more than half due to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed. When you add in the growing numbers of people who are using these drugs, you begin to see the magnitude of the problem that the pharmaceutical industry is propagating. This problem is now seriously impacting the next generation. When you were a teenager you may have snuck a beer or two at a party … nowadays teens will mix a variety of prescription pills together in a bowl and take a mouthful of them like candy. Kids think this is a safe way to get high, since they see their parents taking the same medications all the time, but it often turns out to be deadly.
The Real Thugs of the Drug World
The "war on drugs" has focused nearly exclusively on the illegal trafficking of drugs like cocaine, heroin and marijuana, while pharmaceutical companies grow their businesses with the U.S. government's seal of approval. Make no mistake, the leading pharmaceutical companies are among the largest corporate criminals in the world, and they are nothing more than white-collar drug dealers. Although many fail to realize that prescription drugs can be just as addictive as illegal drugs. In fact, in many cases there's no difference between a street drug and a prescription drug. For example, hydrocodone, a prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It's indistinguishable from any other heroine as far as your brain and body is concerned. So, if you're hooked on hydrocodone, you are in fact a good-old-fashioned heroin addict. Aside from the nature of their business, fraud, kickbacks, price-setting, bribery and illegal sales activities are all par for the course for big drug companies. You can read the grim details in full here, but here is just a sampling of what the top drug companies are up to:
• Merck: With a long list of deaths to its credit, and more than $5.5 billion in judgments and fines levied against it, it was five years before Merck made its $30-billion recall of the painkiller Vioxx that I warned my readers that it might be a real killer for some people. After the drug was withdrawn, and 60,000 had already died, Merck picked up the pieces painlessly by getting a new drug fast-tracked and on the market.
That drug is Gardasil, a vaccine that so far has been linked to thousands of adverse events and at least 49 unexplained deaths. It's a situation that the FDA and CDC have been denying repeatedly, keeping their heads buried in the sand even as the adverse reports mount.
• Baxter: Dozens of recalls of products that caused deaths and injuries, at least 11 different guilty pleas to fraud and illegal sales activity, more than 200 lawsuits – many of them stemming from selling AIDS-tainted blood to hemophiliacs – and more than $1.3 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties.
• Pfizer: In the largest health care fraud settlement in history, Pfizer was ordered to pay $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including the painkiller Bextra, the antipsychotic Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the anti-epileptic Lyrica.
How Can You Avoid Being Killed by a Prescription Drug?
There is a risk of side effects every time you take a prescription drug. No one expects these medications to kill them, but they can do just that, and it happens far more often than you might think! In a study recently released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, officials emphasized that people should not assume there's no risk in prescribed medicines. The only way to avoid all risk, including death, from prescription drugs is to not take them at all. It is your body, not your doctor's and not your pharmacist's, so it is up to you to make the decision of what drugs to take, if any. Be SURE you are aware of the risks of any medication prescribed to you, and weigh them against any possible benefit. Then you can make a well-informed decision of whether it's a risk you're willing to take.
Of course, of paramount importance is also taking control of your health so you can stay well naturally, without the use of drugs. If you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need medications in the first place. This includes:
1. Proper Food Choices: You should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home. For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.
2. Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise: Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
3. Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking: You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
4. Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D: We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. There is preliminary evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D may not provide the identical benefits, although it's still better than none at all. Just keep in mind that it's really best to get ALL your vitamin D from the sun.
5. Take High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Animal-based omega-3 fat is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.
6. Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible: This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
Sources: Los Angeles Times; MSNBC; Journal of Pediatrics; CDC Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009; mercola.com; 11/13/11.
• Drug-induced fatalities are being fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications. Fatalities doubled among teens and young adults: tripled among ages 50-69.
• Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people in their 40s, but teenagers and the elderly are also at risk.
• From 2001 to 2008, there was a 36% increase in hospital admissions, and a 28% increase in emergency room visits, among children 5 and younger who had accidentally ingested medication.
Death by medicine is a 21st-century epidemic, and America's "war on drugs" is clearly directed at the wrong enemy! Prescription drugs are now killing far more people than illegal drugs, and while most major causes of preventable deaths are declining, those from prescription drug use are increasing. These drug-induced fatalities are not being driven by illegal street drugs; the analysis found that the most commonly abused prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma now cause more deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
"Pharmageddon" is Upon Us
Pharmageddon is "the prospect of a world in which medicines and medicine produce more ill-health than health, and when medical progress does more harm than good" -- it is no longer a prospect but fully upon us. Those most at risk from dying from this new drug crisis are people you would least expect; the analysis revealed the death toll is highest among people in their 40s, but all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, and all walks of life are being affected. In fact, prescription drugs are now the preferred "high" for many, especially teens, as they are typically used legally, which eliminates the stigma of being a "junkie." Even if you don't have your own prescription, drugs of all kinds can be found in the nearest medicine cabinet in most homes.
These drugs are also now being sold on the black market and on street corners, where people who have run out of prescriptions are willing to pay upwards of $80 a pill to get their fix. Many become addicted after using the drugs for headaches or back pain, and teens are increasingly taking the pills from their parents to use recreationally, under the false assumption that they are safe.
As written in the Baltimore Sun:
"According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription drugs are second to marijuana as the drug of choice for today's teens. In fact, seven of the top 10 drugs used by 12th-graders were prescription drugs. More than 40% of high school seniors reported that painkillers are "fairly" or "very" easy to get. They also reported that they believed that if they were to get caught, there was less shame attached to the use of prescription drugs than to street drugs. This mirrors the perceptions of their parents, who when queried said that they felt prescription drugs were a safer alternative to drugs typically sold by a drug dealer."
How Many are Dying From Prescription Drugs?
Nearly 20% of Americans have used prescription drugs for nonmedicinal reasons, three-quarters of whom may be abusing them. Legal prescription drug abuse is a silent epidemic, and is part of the reason why the American medical system has become the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. Authored by Gary Null, PhD, Carolyn Dean, MD ND, Martin Feldman, MD, Debora Rasio, MD, and Dorothy Smith, PhD, the Death by Medicine article described in excruciating detail how everything from medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures caused more harm than good.
Seven years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine November 25, 2010 found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety, the health care system hasn't changed much. The original Death by Medicine article shows more of the same:
• In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, records spanning from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost 250,000 deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors.
• 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.
• Adverse drug reactions cost more than $136 billion annually -- greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.
• Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.
• The reason there are so many adverse drug events in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.
There are numerous repercussions to a society that eats, breathes and sleeps prescription medications. ER visits for ingestion of prescription painkillers, such as Oxycodone, increased 101%. In 2009, there were nearly 4.6 million drug-related visits to U.S. emergency rooms, with more than half due to prescription medications – most of which were being taken exactly as prescribed. When you add in the growing numbers of people who are using these drugs, you begin to see the magnitude of the problem that the pharmaceutical industry is propagating. This problem is now seriously impacting the next generation. When you were a teenager you may have snuck a beer or two at a party … nowadays teens will mix a variety of prescription pills together in a bowl and take a mouthful of them like candy. Kids think this is a safe way to get high, since they see their parents taking the same medications all the time, but it often turns out to be deadly.
The Real Thugs of the Drug World
The "war on drugs" has focused nearly exclusively on the illegal trafficking of drugs like cocaine, heroin and marijuana, while pharmaceutical companies grow their businesses with the U.S. government's seal of approval. Make no mistake, the leading pharmaceutical companies are among the largest corporate criminals in the world, and they are nothing more than white-collar drug dealers. Although many fail to realize that prescription drugs can be just as addictive as illegal drugs. In fact, in many cases there's no difference between a street drug and a prescription drug. For example, hydrocodone, a prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It's indistinguishable from any other heroine as far as your brain and body is concerned. So, if you're hooked on hydrocodone, you are in fact a good-old-fashioned heroin addict. Aside from the nature of their business, fraud, kickbacks, price-setting, bribery and illegal sales activities are all par for the course for big drug companies. You can read the grim details in full here, but here is just a sampling of what the top drug companies are up to:
• Merck: With a long list of deaths to its credit, and more than $5.5 billion in judgments and fines levied against it, it was five years before Merck made its $30-billion recall of the painkiller Vioxx that I warned my readers that it might be a real killer for some people. After the drug was withdrawn, and 60,000 had already died, Merck picked up the pieces painlessly by getting a new drug fast-tracked and on the market.
That drug is Gardasil, a vaccine that so far has been linked to thousands of adverse events and at least 49 unexplained deaths. It's a situation that the FDA and CDC have been denying repeatedly, keeping their heads buried in the sand even as the adverse reports mount.
• Baxter: Dozens of recalls of products that caused deaths and injuries, at least 11 different guilty pleas to fraud and illegal sales activity, more than 200 lawsuits – many of them stemming from selling AIDS-tainted blood to hemophiliacs – and more than $1.3 billion in criminal fines and civil penalties.
• Pfizer: In the largest health care fraud settlement in history, Pfizer was ordered to pay $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its drugs, including the painkiller Bextra, the antipsychotic Geodon, the antibiotic Zyvox, and the anti-epileptic Lyrica.
How Can You Avoid Being Killed by a Prescription Drug?
There is a risk of side effects every time you take a prescription drug. No one expects these medications to kill them, but they can do just that, and it happens far more often than you might think! In a study recently released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, officials emphasized that people should not assume there's no risk in prescribed medicines. The only way to avoid all risk, including death, from prescription drugs is to not take them at all. It is your body, not your doctor's and not your pharmacist's, so it is up to you to make the decision of what drugs to take, if any. Be SURE you are aware of the risks of any medication prescribed to you, and weigh them against any possible benefit. Then you can make a well-informed decision of whether it's a risk you're willing to take.
Of course, of paramount importance is also taking control of your health so you can stay well naturally, without the use of drugs. If you adhere to a healthy lifestyle, you most likely will never need medications in the first place. This includes:
1. Proper Food Choices: You should be looking to focus your diet on whole, unprocessed foods (vegetables, meats, raw dairy, nuts, and so forth) that come from healthy, sustainable, local sources, such as a small organic farm not far from your home. For the best nutrition and health benefits, you will want to eat a good portion of your food raw. Nearly as important as knowing which foods to eat more of is knowing which foods to avoid, and topping the list is fructose. Sugar, and fructose in particular, acts as a toxin in and of itself, and as such drive multiple disease processes in your body, not the least of which is insulin resistance, a major cause of accelerated aging.
2. Comprehensive Exercise Program, including High-Intensity Exercise: Even if you're eating the healthiest diet in the world, you still need to exercise to reach the highest levels of health, and you need to be exercising effectively, which means including not only core-strengthening exercises, strength training, and stretching but also high-intensity activities into your rotation. High-intensity training boosts human growth hormone (HGH) production, which is essential for optimal health, strength and vigor.
3. Stress Reduction and Positive Thinking: You cannot be optimally healthy if you avoid addressing the emotional component of your health and longevity, as your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease and depression, to arthritis and cancer. Effective coping mechanisms are a major longevity-promoting factor in part because stress has a direct impact on inflammation, which in turn underlies many of the chronic diseases that kill people prematurely every day. Meditation, prayer, social support and exercise are all viable options that can help you maintain emotional and mental equilibrium.
4. Proper Sun Exposure to Optimize Vitamin D: We have long known that it is best to get your vitamin D from sun exposure, and if at all possible, I strongly urge you to make sure you're getting out in the sun on a daily basis. There is preliminary evidence suggesting that oral vitamin D may not provide the identical benefits, although it's still better than none at all. Just keep in mind that it's really best to get ALL your vitamin D from the sun.
5. Take High Quality Animal-Based Omega-3 Fats: Animal-based omega-3 fat is a strong factor in helping people live longer, and many experts believe that it is likely the predominant reason why the Japanese are the longest lived race on the planet.
6. Avoid as Many Chemicals, Toxins, and Pollutants as Possible: This includes tossing out your toxic household cleaners, soaps, personal hygiene products, air fresheners, bug sprays, lawn pesticides, and insecticides, just to name a few, and replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
Sources: Los Angeles Times; MSNBC; Journal of Pediatrics; CDC Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009; mercola.com; 11/13/11.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Which Sleep Position is Healthiest?
Your preferred sleep position could be giving you back and neck pain, stomach troubles, or can even be aging you prematurely. CNN has listed both the best positions for your body, and worst.
The Best: Back position
Sleeping on your back prevents neck and back pain, reduces acid reflux, minimizes wrinkles, and helps maintain a perky chest. However, it is a bad position in terms of snoring.
Next Best: Side position
Sleeping on your side also prevents neck and back pain and reduces acid reflux, and it also reduces snoring. It's the best position for sleeping during pregnancy, if you sleep on your left side. However, it can be bad for your skin and your breasts.
Not Ideal: Fetal position
It's good for snoring less and sleeping during pregnancy, but it's not so good for neck and back pain, minimizing wrinkles, or maintaining your breasts.
The Worst: Stomach position
It's good for easing snoring, but it's bad for everything else. This position puts pressure on your joints and muscles, which can irritate nerves and lead to pain, numbness, and tingling.
Comments:
Getting a sound night’s sleep is an incredibly important part of optimizing your health and well-being, and one facet of restful sleep is the position in which you sleep. Most people naturally favor one sleep position over another, and it’s perfectly natural to listen to your body in this respect.
Whether you prefer sleeping on your back, side, stomach or somewhere in between, as long as that position equates to a good night’s sleep for you -- and allows you to wake up feeling refreshed and pain-free -- go ahead with it. If you’re waking up with back and neck pain, or struggling with snoring or acid reflux, adjusting your sleep position may help.
Sleeping on Your Back: The Best Position of All?
It’s generally accepted that the best sleep position is on your back. When you sleep on your back your head, neck and spine maintain a neutral position, and acid reflux symptoms are minimized. Because your face is not pushed up against a pillow, back sleeping may also be best for preventing facial wrinkles. When sleeping on your back no pillow is actually best for your spine, but a pillow that keeps your head and neck supported while still being relatively thin will also work. If you use a thick pillow you’ll lose out on some of the benefit of back sleeping, as this will push your head and neck forward, impacting your breathing.
The biggest downside to back sleeping, though, is that it may lead to snoring in some people. The New York Times reported one study found that 54 percent of snorers were "positional snorers," which means they only snored while sleeping on their backs. So switching to your side while sleeping is a simple trick to try if snoring is interfering with your sleep or your partner's sleep -- although it likely won't work to reduce snoring for everyone.
What about Side and Stomach Sleeping?
Side sleeping allows your spine to stay in a fairly neutral position while helping to reduce snoring issues in some people. If you like to put your hand under your head while in this position it can compress nerves in your shoulder and arm, making your fingers numb. You may also experience some tightness in your shoulder and neck muscles.
Sleeping on your side in the fetal position may lead to even more aches and pains, due to the fact that your body is tightly curled up for hours at a time. As for stomach sleeping, it’s generally regarded as the worst position of all because of the way it distorts the natural curve of your lower spine. Stomach sleeping may also impact your neck and lungs. Some people do find that sleeping on their side with a pillow between their knees radically improves their low back pain, as it tends to normalize the spinal curves and reduce pressure on your hips and knees.
The Best Sleep Position if You’re Pregnant
Sleeping on your back is generally not recommended during pregnancy, particularly during the later months, because the weight of your uterus presses on your spine, intestines and major blood vessels. Aside from leading to backache, this can reduce circulation to your baby as well as lead to low blood pressure and problems with breathing and digestive upset. Sleeping on your stomach will also become uncomfortable in the later months of pregnancy.
The best position overall during pregnancy is on your side, and particularly on your left side. This optimizes circulation and blood flow, increasing the amount of nutrients that reach your placenta and baby, while also allowing you to support your back, knees and stomach with pillows.
What Your Sleep Position Says About You
Your preferred sleep position may reveal clues about your personality, according to an analysis by Professor Chris Idzikowski of the UK’s Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service. For instance:
• The Fetus: Sleeping in the fetal position means you are tough on the outside but have a sensitive heart. You may also be shy at first when meeting new people.
• Log: People who sleep on their side with legs straight and arms straight at their sides are easy-going and social, but may be gullible.
• The Yearner: Side sleepers who stretch their arms out in front make slow decisions but stick with them once their mind is made up. They tend to be open in nature with an air of cynicism.
• Soldier: The solider position is flat on your back with arms down at your sides. Soldier sleepers are typically reserved and quiet but hold themselves to high standards.
• Freefall: Freefall is sleeping on your stomach with your head turned to one side and arms cradling your pillow. Freefallers may be nervy and brash but dislike criticism.
• Starfish: Sleeping on your back with both arms up over your head (bent at elbows) is the starfish position. Starfish sleepers are helpful and make good listeners, but they prefer not being the center of attention.
The analysis found that virtually everyone chooses one sleeping position to stick to, only 5 percent sleeping in a different position each night. The most popular position was the fetus, with 41 percent of survey participants (including twice as many women as men) sleeping in this position.
Simple Tips for Sound, Restorative Sleep
Choosing the best sleep position for you is only one part of proper “sleep hygiene.” Also incredibly important is making your bedroom a sleep sanctuary that is cool in temperature and free from light-emitting distractions like a TV, computer or iPad. Even the dim glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your ability to sleep -- and more importantly, your long-term health.
If your bedroom is not already pitch dark at night, I highly recommend installing blackout shades or thick drapes. Even the barely noticeable light from a streetlight, a full moon, or your neighbor‘s house can interfere with the circadian rhythm changes you need to fall asleep. You want your bedroom as dark as possible.
Alternatively, wear an eye mask to block out light, but this is a poor second-best option. As for temperature in your bedroom, studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, as low as 60 to 68 degrees.
Keeping your room cooler than 60 degrees or hotter than 70 degrees can lead to restless sleep. This is because when you sleep your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop.
For an additional boost, try taking a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime. This increases your core body temperature, and when you get out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that you are ready for sleep.
Researchers have linked poor sleep to a number of health ailments, from short-term memory loss and behavioral problems, to weight gain and diabetes, for example. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lack of sleep can even adversely impact more serious diseases, such as:
• Parkinson disease
• Alzheimer disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Gastrointestinal tract disorders
• Kidney disease
A disrupted sleep cycle also adversely affects your body's production of melatonin, which is both a hormone and a potent antioxidant against cancer, thus raising your risk of breast cancer. So it’s incredibly important that you’re getting a sound night’s sleep.
If you're even slightly sleep deprived I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight.
Source:
Mercola.com; CNN April 19, 2011; 10/15/11
The Best: Back position
Sleeping on your back prevents neck and back pain, reduces acid reflux, minimizes wrinkles, and helps maintain a perky chest. However, it is a bad position in terms of snoring.
Next Best: Side position
Sleeping on your side also prevents neck and back pain and reduces acid reflux, and it also reduces snoring. It's the best position for sleeping during pregnancy, if you sleep on your left side. However, it can be bad for your skin and your breasts.
Not Ideal: Fetal position
It's good for snoring less and sleeping during pregnancy, but it's not so good for neck and back pain, minimizing wrinkles, or maintaining your breasts.
The Worst: Stomach position
It's good for easing snoring, but it's bad for everything else. This position puts pressure on your joints and muscles, which can irritate nerves and lead to pain, numbness, and tingling.
Comments:
Getting a sound night’s sleep is an incredibly important part of optimizing your health and well-being, and one facet of restful sleep is the position in which you sleep. Most people naturally favor one sleep position over another, and it’s perfectly natural to listen to your body in this respect.
Whether you prefer sleeping on your back, side, stomach or somewhere in between, as long as that position equates to a good night’s sleep for you -- and allows you to wake up feeling refreshed and pain-free -- go ahead with it. If you’re waking up with back and neck pain, or struggling with snoring or acid reflux, adjusting your sleep position may help.
Sleeping on Your Back: The Best Position of All?
It’s generally accepted that the best sleep position is on your back. When you sleep on your back your head, neck and spine maintain a neutral position, and acid reflux symptoms are minimized. Because your face is not pushed up against a pillow, back sleeping may also be best for preventing facial wrinkles. When sleeping on your back no pillow is actually best for your spine, but a pillow that keeps your head and neck supported while still being relatively thin will also work. If you use a thick pillow you’ll lose out on some of the benefit of back sleeping, as this will push your head and neck forward, impacting your breathing.
The biggest downside to back sleeping, though, is that it may lead to snoring in some people. The New York Times reported one study found that 54 percent of snorers were "positional snorers," which means they only snored while sleeping on their backs. So switching to your side while sleeping is a simple trick to try if snoring is interfering with your sleep or your partner's sleep -- although it likely won't work to reduce snoring for everyone.
What about Side and Stomach Sleeping?
Side sleeping allows your spine to stay in a fairly neutral position while helping to reduce snoring issues in some people. If you like to put your hand under your head while in this position it can compress nerves in your shoulder and arm, making your fingers numb. You may also experience some tightness in your shoulder and neck muscles.
Sleeping on your side in the fetal position may lead to even more aches and pains, due to the fact that your body is tightly curled up for hours at a time. As for stomach sleeping, it’s generally regarded as the worst position of all because of the way it distorts the natural curve of your lower spine. Stomach sleeping may also impact your neck and lungs. Some people do find that sleeping on their side with a pillow between their knees radically improves their low back pain, as it tends to normalize the spinal curves and reduce pressure on your hips and knees.
The Best Sleep Position if You’re Pregnant
Sleeping on your back is generally not recommended during pregnancy, particularly during the later months, because the weight of your uterus presses on your spine, intestines and major blood vessels. Aside from leading to backache, this can reduce circulation to your baby as well as lead to low blood pressure and problems with breathing and digestive upset. Sleeping on your stomach will also become uncomfortable in the later months of pregnancy.
The best position overall during pregnancy is on your side, and particularly on your left side. This optimizes circulation and blood flow, increasing the amount of nutrients that reach your placenta and baby, while also allowing you to support your back, knees and stomach with pillows.
What Your Sleep Position Says About You
Your preferred sleep position may reveal clues about your personality, according to an analysis by Professor Chris Idzikowski of the UK’s Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service. For instance:
• The Fetus: Sleeping in the fetal position means you are tough on the outside but have a sensitive heart. You may also be shy at first when meeting new people.
• Log: People who sleep on their side with legs straight and arms straight at their sides are easy-going and social, but may be gullible.
• The Yearner: Side sleepers who stretch their arms out in front make slow decisions but stick with them once their mind is made up. They tend to be open in nature with an air of cynicism.
• Soldier: The solider position is flat on your back with arms down at your sides. Soldier sleepers are typically reserved and quiet but hold themselves to high standards.
• Freefall: Freefall is sleeping on your stomach with your head turned to one side and arms cradling your pillow. Freefallers may be nervy and brash but dislike criticism.
• Starfish: Sleeping on your back with both arms up over your head (bent at elbows) is the starfish position. Starfish sleepers are helpful and make good listeners, but they prefer not being the center of attention.
The analysis found that virtually everyone chooses one sleeping position to stick to, only 5 percent sleeping in a different position each night. The most popular position was the fetus, with 41 percent of survey participants (including twice as many women as men) sleeping in this position.
Simple Tips for Sound, Restorative Sleep
Choosing the best sleep position for you is only one part of proper “sleep hygiene.” Also incredibly important is making your bedroom a sleep sanctuary that is cool in temperature and free from light-emitting distractions like a TV, computer or iPad. Even the dim glow from your clock radio could be interfering with your ability to sleep -- and more importantly, your long-term health.
If your bedroom is not already pitch dark at night, I highly recommend installing blackout shades or thick drapes. Even the barely noticeable light from a streetlight, a full moon, or your neighbor‘s house can interfere with the circadian rhythm changes you need to fall asleep. You want your bedroom as dark as possible.
Alternatively, wear an eye mask to block out light, but this is a poor second-best option. As for temperature in your bedroom, studies show that the optimal room temperature for sleep is quite cool, as low as 60 to 68 degrees.
Keeping your room cooler than 60 degrees or hotter than 70 degrees can lead to restless sleep. This is because when you sleep your body's internal temperature drops to its lowest level, generally about four hours after you fall asleep. Scientists believe a cooler bedroom may therefore be most conducive to sleep, since it mimics your body's natural temperature drop.
For an additional boost, try taking a hot bath 90 to 120 minutes before bedtime. This increases your core body temperature, and when you get out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that you are ready for sleep.
Researchers have linked poor sleep to a number of health ailments, from short-term memory loss and behavioral problems, to weight gain and diabetes, for example. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), lack of sleep can even adversely impact more serious diseases, such as:
• Parkinson disease
• Alzheimer disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Gastrointestinal tract disorders
• Kidney disease
A disrupted sleep cycle also adversely affects your body's production of melatonin, which is both a hormone and a potent antioxidant against cancer, thus raising your risk of breast cancer. So it’s incredibly important that you’re getting a sound night’s sleep.
If you're even slightly sleep deprived I encourage you to implement some of these tips tonight.
Source:
Mercola.com; CNN April 19, 2011; 10/15/11
Sunday, September 18, 2011
How To Succeed: The Secrets of the Masters
Rules to Guide Your Life by Dr. John Amaro, DC
On a bulletin board in my office, I have the following laws posted and have reviewed them daily for nearly 40 years. I am asked by patients and visitors a minimum of three to four times per week if they can have a copy. To read and study the following rules of life on a daily and weekly basis will, without question, positively impact your family, social life and practice.
Post these laws in a conspicuous place and read just one or two of them each morning. Do not try to intently study and focus on all of these laws daily. Take one law per day and focus on it for the entire day and evening. Once per week, read and review all the laws. Memorize them and make them an integral part of your life.
I first learned these laws in 1972 from one of my early mentors, a master of the martial arts and master of acupuncture in Kowloon, China. I can say without hesitation that each of these laws has made a major impact in my life, and I sincerely believe my practice and personal success would not have come as early as it did without these philosophies.
Lao Tzu has been credited with saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Best wishes on your life journey; you've taken the first step.
THE LAW OF CREATION: Whatever we think about and focus on, grows into reality. We create the situations we think about throughout the day. Think you will succeed, you will. Think you will fail, you will do that too. Focus on being sick, you end up creating the illness, focus on being healthy and vibrant, you create that as well. Think you are old, others will perceive you that way. Feel and think you are young, you will create that as well.
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION: We attract people, places, things and circumstances into our lives in direct proportion to our wants, needs and desires. People and situations come into our lives not by accident, but by our attraction and creation of the need.
THE LAW OF CONTROLLING OUR OWN LIFE: If we are not specifically controlling our own life and creating the circumstances which are necessary to meet our desires, we will become an instrument for others who do have control of their own life. We in essence will be used by others to meet their mission and destiny.
THE LAW OF RELAXATION: With physical laws, the harder we work, the more is accomplished. With mental laws, the more we relax, believe and expect to succeed with ease and confidence, the better the results.
THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY: Whatever we see in the universe sees us! Whatever attitudes, feelings, thoughts and desires we put out, regardless of if they are negative or positive, will always return to us.
THE LAW OF THE UNIVERSE (KARMA): Like the Law of Reciprocity, which deals with mental factors, the Law of Karma deals with physical manifestations. This law is what may affect our personal belongings, physical health and financial status. This law works both negatively or positively depending upon what we have put out in the universe.
THE LAW OF RETURN: Our rewards in life are in direct harmony with the value of our products, services or ideas. Very important!
THE LAW OF SUBSTITUTION: Consciously substitute all negative thoughts with positive ones immediately upon experiencing the negative thought. We can only experience one thought at any given time, therefore by substituting a positive for a negative, only positive will reach the subconscious.
THE LAW OF BELIEF: Whatever we believe with strong feelings becomes our reality. We are not limited by what we think we can do, but by what we think we can't do. Self-limitations are not based upon reality, but negative belief systems.
THE LAW OF PRESENT-TIME CONSCIOUSNESS: It is imperative that we live in the present as opposed to "tomorrow" or "yesterday." Preparing for tomorrow with righteous living and positive thoughts prepare us for what we will manifest; however, it is what we do today, right now (present-time consciousness) that is most important to achieve the rewards of life.
THE LAW OF PERSONAL GROWTH: "To become, act and feel as if." To become a successful practitioner, businessperson, parent, athlete, etc., act and feel as if you are already successful. The human spirit will act upon what it is given.
THE LAW OF EXPECTATION: We must know what it is we want to accomplish or obtain before the universe can manifest our desires. Most people don't know what they want due to unclear thinking and foggy mental vision.
THE LAW OF CLARITY: The clarity of our mind and thoughts is in direct proportion to the physical clutter in our lives. Take a look around you.
THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: Within universal law, our thoughts are the cause; the conditions, either good or bad, are the effects. The outcome is totally dependent on our creation of thought. (See the LAW OF CREATION.)
THE LAW OF PERSEVERANCE: People who succeed never stop trying. People who stop trying, never succeed. You see it time and time again in life. Never stop trying and reach your dreams.
THE LAW OF FORGIVENESS: Forgiving all others is a necessary and effective purgative for a successful life. The law doesn't demand that we like the other person or situation, just that we forgive them and let go of the mental chains that entrap us.
On a bulletin board in my office, I have the following laws posted and have reviewed them daily for nearly 40 years. I am asked by patients and visitors a minimum of three to four times per week if they can have a copy. To read and study the following rules of life on a daily and weekly basis will, without question, positively impact your family, social life and practice.
Post these laws in a conspicuous place and read just one or two of them each morning. Do not try to intently study and focus on all of these laws daily. Take one law per day and focus on it for the entire day and evening. Once per week, read and review all the laws. Memorize them and make them an integral part of your life.
I first learned these laws in 1972 from one of my early mentors, a master of the martial arts and master of acupuncture in Kowloon, China. I can say without hesitation that each of these laws has made a major impact in my life, and I sincerely believe my practice and personal success would not have come as early as it did without these philosophies.
Lao Tzu has been credited with saying, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Best wishes on your life journey; you've taken the first step.
THE LAW OF CREATION: Whatever we think about and focus on, grows into reality. We create the situations we think about throughout the day. Think you will succeed, you will. Think you will fail, you will do that too. Focus on being sick, you end up creating the illness, focus on being healthy and vibrant, you create that as well. Think you are old, others will perceive you that way. Feel and think you are young, you will create that as well.
THE LAW OF ATTRACTION: We attract people, places, things and circumstances into our lives in direct proportion to our wants, needs and desires. People and situations come into our lives not by accident, but by our attraction and creation of the need.
THE LAW OF CONTROLLING OUR OWN LIFE: If we are not specifically controlling our own life and creating the circumstances which are necessary to meet our desires, we will become an instrument for others who do have control of their own life. We in essence will be used by others to meet their mission and destiny.
THE LAW OF RELAXATION: With physical laws, the harder we work, the more is accomplished. With mental laws, the more we relax, believe and expect to succeed with ease and confidence, the better the results.
THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY: Whatever we see in the universe sees us! Whatever attitudes, feelings, thoughts and desires we put out, regardless of if they are negative or positive, will always return to us.
THE LAW OF THE UNIVERSE (KARMA): Like the Law of Reciprocity, which deals with mental factors, the Law of Karma deals with physical manifestations. This law is what may affect our personal belongings, physical health and financial status. This law works both negatively or positively depending upon what we have put out in the universe.
THE LAW OF RETURN: Our rewards in life are in direct harmony with the value of our products, services or ideas. Very important!
THE LAW OF SUBSTITUTION: Consciously substitute all negative thoughts with positive ones immediately upon experiencing the negative thought. We can only experience one thought at any given time, therefore by substituting a positive for a negative, only positive will reach the subconscious.
THE LAW OF BELIEF: Whatever we believe with strong feelings becomes our reality. We are not limited by what we think we can do, but by what we think we can't do. Self-limitations are not based upon reality, but negative belief systems.
THE LAW OF PRESENT-TIME CONSCIOUSNESS: It is imperative that we live in the present as opposed to "tomorrow" or "yesterday." Preparing for tomorrow with righteous living and positive thoughts prepare us for what we will manifest; however, it is what we do today, right now (present-time consciousness) that is most important to achieve the rewards of life.
THE LAW OF PERSONAL GROWTH: "To become, act and feel as if." To become a successful practitioner, businessperson, parent, athlete, etc., act and feel as if you are already successful. The human spirit will act upon what it is given.
THE LAW OF EXPECTATION: We must know what it is we want to accomplish or obtain before the universe can manifest our desires. Most people don't know what they want due to unclear thinking and foggy mental vision.
THE LAW OF CLARITY: The clarity of our mind and thoughts is in direct proportion to the physical clutter in our lives. Take a look around you.
THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: Within universal law, our thoughts are the cause; the conditions, either good or bad, are the effects. The outcome is totally dependent on our creation of thought. (See the LAW OF CREATION.)
THE LAW OF PERSEVERANCE: People who succeed never stop trying. People who stop trying, never succeed. You see it time and time again in life. Never stop trying and reach your dreams.
THE LAW OF FORGIVENESS: Forgiving all others is a necessary and effective purgative for a successful life. The law doesn't demand that we like the other person or situation, just that we forgive them and let go of the mental chains that entrap us.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Statin Drugs Actually Worsen Your Heart Function.
A study found that statin drugs are associated with decreased myocardial (heart muscle) function.
Statin use is known to be associated with myopathy, muscle weakness and rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents into the bloodstream. For the study, myocardial function was evaluated in 28 patients.
According to Green Med Info:
“There was significantly better function noted ... in the control group vs the statin group”.
The majority of people who use statin cholesterol-lowering drugs are doing so because they believe lowering their cholesterol will prevent heart attacks and strokes. How many of these people do you think would continue to take them if they knew these very same drugs have been linked to decreased heart muscle function and increased risk of stroke?
No one in their right mind?
The truth is, the usefulness of statin drugs has received tough scrutiny in recent months, and that scrutiny is well deserved. Take this study in Clinical Cardiology. It found that heart muscle function was "significantly better" in the control group (NOT taking the statin drug) compared to those taking statin drugs!
The researchers concluded:
"Statin therapy is associated with decreased myocardial [heart muscle] function."
What's often the end result when your heart muscle function is weakened or decreased? Heart failure!
How Statins May Actually Cause Heart Failure
The Clinical Cardiology study did not address causes, but it's widely known that statins lower your CoQ10 levels by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production -- the same pathway by which Q10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports CoQ10 and other fat-soluble antioxidants. The loss of CoQ10 leads to loss of cell energy and increased free radicals which, in turn, can further damage your mitochondrial DNA, effectively setting into motion an evil circle of increasing free radicals and mitochondrial damage.
There are no official warnings in the U.S. regarding CoQ10 depletion from taking statin drugs, and many physicians fail to inform you about this problem as well. Labeling in Canada, however, clearly warns of CoQ10 depletion and even notes that this nutrient deficiency "could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure." As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure, so it is imperative if you take statin drugs that you take CoQ10.
Statins Fail Miserably at Heart Attack Prevention
Originally, statin drugs were prescribed for secondary prevention, meaning the prevention of a second heart attack or stroke if you'd already suffered one and had clear signs of heart disease. But today a majority of people taking the drugs are doing so for primary prevention, i.e. "preventive medicine" -- to help prevent people with certain risk factors of heart disease -- although otherwise healthy -- from having a heart attack or stroke in the first place.
This switch came largely as the result of the JUPITER study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008. It boasted that statin drugs could lower the risk of heart attack by 54 percent, the risk of stroke by 48 percent, the risk of needing angioplasty or bypass surgery by 46 percent, and the risk of death from all causes by 20 percent.
As you might suspect, the funding for this study came from Astra-Zeneca, the maker of statin drug Crestor -- and once again, we find that industry-funded claims of health benefits for highly profit-producing drugs need to be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Two years after the original study came out; three articles were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, refuting the claims by the industry-funded JUPITER study.
One of these studies titled Cholesterol lowering, cardiovascular diseases, and the rosuvastatin-JUPITER controversy: a critical reappraisal, carefully reviewed the methods and the results of the JUPITER trial and concluded that the trial was flawed and the results "do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases …"
In addition, a second study, a meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials, found no evidence to back up the JUPITER trial claim that statins can reduce your risk of death when used as primary prevention against heart disease.
Increased Risk of Stroke, Serious Side Effects
Statin drugs are frequently prescribed like candy for tens of millions of Americans, but you need to think long and hard before deciding to take your physician up on this prescription, as they have very real, and very steep risks, and they are NOT right, nor safe, for everyone. Case in point, a new study found that statin drugs actually increase your risk of having a type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain if you've already had one before. Among such patients, the risk of a second stroke was 22 percent in those who took statins compared with 14 percent in those who did not.
There are two reasons why this might happen: the drugs may either lower your cholesterol too much, to the point that it increases your risk of brain bleeding, or they may affect clotting factors in your blood, increasing the bleeding risk.
At GreenMedInfo.com you can see 71 diseases that may be associated with these drugs, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are actually over 900 studies showing the risks of statin drugs, which include:
Cognitive loss Neuropathy Anemia
Acidosis Frequent fevers Cataracts
Sexual dysfunction An increase in cancer risk
Pancreatic dysfunction
Immune system suppression
Serious degenerative muscle tissue condition (rhabdomyolysis) Hepatic dysfunction. (Due to the potential increase in liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal liver function)
Oftentimes statins do not have any immediate side effects, and they are quite effective, capable of lowering cholesterol levels by 50 points or more. This makes it appear as though they're benefiting your health, and health problems that appear down the line are frequently not interpreted as a side effect of the drug, but rather as brand new, separate health problems.
But there's an ever-growing body of evidence showing that potentially serious side effects begin to manifest several months after the commencement of therapy. Further, according to a review published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, adverse effects are dose dependent, and your health risks are also amplified by a number of factors, such as:
1) Drug interactions that increase statin potency, 2) Metabolic syndrome, 3) Thyroid disease, 4) Other genetic mutations linked to mitochondrial dysfunction
High blood pressure and diabetes are linked to higher rates of mitochondrial problems, so if you have either of these conditions your risk of statin complications increases. Additionally, since statins can cause progressive damage to your mitochondria over time, and your mitochondria tend to weaken with age anyway, new adverse effects can develop the longer you're on the drug.
Are You Taking a Statin for No Reason?
For certain individuals who are at very high risk of dying from a heart attack, statin drugs may be useful -- but this is only true if you have strong heart attack risk factors (NOT if you simply have "high" cholesterol levels). It is important to note that it is also not necessary for you to remain on the drug for the rest of your life. Once your cholesterol ratios have been optimized by a course of treatment on statins, you can safely go off them if you have changed your diet. So, odds are very high -- greater than 100 to 1 -- that if you're taking a statin, you don't really need it.
The only two subgroups that might benefit are:
• Those at very high risk of heart attack (based NOT on your cholesterol levels but on your heart attack risk factors)
• Those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes you resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol
If you are not in one of those two categories, statin drugs are an unnecessary health risk you're better off avoiding -- and you definitely want to avoid the trap of taking them to lower your cholesterol when your cholesterol is actually well within a healthy range. I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL.
Further, if you take statin drugs unnecessarily, there's a good chance your cholesterol levels will become too low, which is dangerous since your body NEEDS cholesterol -- it is important in the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps your brain form memories and is vital to your neurological function. There is also strong evidence that having too little cholesterol INCREASES your risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson's disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behavior – so keeping your cholesterol high enough is important.
Do You Want to Optimize Your Cholesterol?
The goal of the tips below is not to necessarily lower your cholesterol as low as it can go; the goal is to optimize your levels so they're working in the proper balance with your body.
Seventy-five percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol. This is why my primary strategies for optimizing your cholesterol have to do with modifying your diet and lifestyle:
• Reduce fructose, grains and sugars in your diet. It is especially important to eliminate dangerous sugars such as fructose, which is found in soda and most processed foods. If your HDL/Cholesterol ratio is abnormal and needs to be improved it would also serve you well to additionally eliminate fruits from your diet, as that is also a source of fructose.
Once your cholesterol improves you can gradually reintroduce fruits at levels that don't raise your cholesterol.
• Consume a good portion of your food raw.
• Make sure you are getting plenty of high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil. Research suggests that as little as 500 mg of krill per day may lower your total cholesterol and triglycerides and will likely increase your HDL cholesterol.
• Eat the right foods for your nutritional type. Examples of heart-healthy foods and fats include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for your nutritional type.
• Exercise daily. Make sure you incorporate exercise, which also optimize your human growth hormone (HGH) production. When you exercise you increase your circulation and the blood flow throughout your body.
• Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
• Be sure to get plenty of high-quality, restorative sleep.
Sources: mercola.com; Clinical Cardiology, December 2009; 8/18/11.
Statin use is known to be associated with myopathy, muscle weakness and rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle fibers resulting in the release of muscle fiber contents into the bloodstream. For the study, myocardial function was evaluated in 28 patients.
According to Green Med Info:
“There was significantly better function noted ... in the control group vs the statin group”.
The majority of people who use statin cholesterol-lowering drugs are doing so because they believe lowering their cholesterol will prevent heart attacks and strokes. How many of these people do you think would continue to take them if they knew these very same drugs have been linked to decreased heart muscle function and increased risk of stroke?
No one in their right mind?
The truth is, the usefulness of statin drugs has received tough scrutiny in recent months, and that scrutiny is well deserved. Take this study in Clinical Cardiology. It found that heart muscle function was "significantly better" in the control group (NOT taking the statin drug) compared to those taking statin drugs!
The researchers concluded:
"Statin therapy is associated with decreased myocardial [heart muscle] function."
What's often the end result when your heart muscle function is weakened or decreased? Heart failure!
How Statins May Actually Cause Heart Failure
The Clinical Cardiology study did not address causes, but it's widely known that statins lower your CoQ10 levels by blocking the pathway involved in cholesterol production -- the same pathway by which Q10 is produced. Statins also reduce the blood cholesterol that transports CoQ10 and other fat-soluble antioxidants. The loss of CoQ10 leads to loss of cell energy and increased free radicals which, in turn, can further damage your mitochondrial DNA, effectively setting into motion an evil circle of increasing free radicals and mitochondrial damage.
There are no official warnings in the U.S. regarding CoQ10 depletion from taking statin drugs, and many physicians fail to inform you about this problem as well. Labeling in Canada, however, clearly warns of CoQ10 depletion and even notes that this nutrient deficiency "could lead to impaired cardiac function in patients with borderline congestive heart failure." As your body gets more and more depleted of CoQ10, you may suffer from fatigue, muscle weakness and soreness, and eventually heart failure, so it is imperative if you take statin drugs that you take CoQ10.
Statins Fail Miserably at Heart Attack Prevention
Originally, statin drugs were prescribed for secondary prevention, meaning the prevention of a second heart attack or stroke if you'd already suffered one and had clear signs of heart disease. But today a majority of people taking the drugs are doing so for primary prevention, i.e. "preventive medicine" -- to help prevent people with certain risk factors of heart disease -- although otherwise healthy -- from having a heart attack or stroke in the first place.
This switch came largely as the result of the JUPITER study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008. It boasted that statin drugs could lower the risk of heart attack by 54 percent, the risk of stroke by 48 percent, the risk of needing angioplasty or bypass surgery by 46 percent, and the risk of death from all causes by 20 percent.
As you might suspect, the funding for this study came from Astra-Zeneca, the maker of statin drug Crestor -- and once again, we find that industry-funded claims of health benefits for highly profit-producing drugs need to be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Two years after the original study came out; three articles were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, refuting the claims by the industry-funded JUPITER study.
One of these studies titled Cholesterol lowering, cardiovascular diseases, and the rosuvastatin-JUPITER controversy: a critical reappraisal, carefully reviewed the methods and the results of the JUPITER trial and concluded that the trial was flawed and the results "do not support the use of statin treatment for primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases …"
In addition, a second study, a meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials, found no evidence to back up the JUPITER trial claim that statins can reduce your risk of death when used as primary prevention against heart disease.
Increased Risk of Stroke, Serious Side Effects
Statin drugs are frequently prescribed like candy for tens of millions of Americans, but you need to think long and hard before deciding to take your physician up on this prescription, as they have very real, and very steep risks, and they are NOT right, nor safe, for everyone. Case in point, a new study found that statin drugs actually increase your risk of having a type of stroke caused by bleeding in the brain if you've already had one before. Among such patients, the risk of a second stroke was 22 percent in those who took statins compared with 14 percent in those who did not.
There are two reasons why this might happen: the drugs may either lower your cholesterol too much, to the point that it increases your risk of brain bleeding, or they may affect clotting factors in your blood, increasing the bleeding risk.
At GreenMedInfo.com you can see 71 diseases that may be associated with these drugs, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are actually over 900 studies showing the risks of statin drugs, which include:
Cognitive loss Neuropathy Anemia
Acidosis Frequent fevers Cataracts
Sexual dysfunction An increase in cancer risk
Pancreatic dysfunction
Immune system suppression
Serious degenerative muscle tissue condition (rhabdomyolysis) Hepatic dysfunction. (Due to the potential increase in liver enzymes, patients must be monitored for normal liver function)
Oftentimes statins do not have any immediate side effects, and they are quite effective, capable of lowering cholesterol levels by 50 points or more. This makes it appear as though they're benefiting your health, and health problems that appear down the line are frequently not interpreted as a side effect of the drug, but rather as brand new, separate health problems.
But there's an ever-growing body of evidence showing that potentially serious side effects begin to manifest several months after the commencement of therapy. Further, according to a review published in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, adverse effects are dose dependent, and your health risks are also amplified by a number of factors, such as:
1) Drug interactions that increase statin potency, 2) Metabolic syndrome, 3) Thyroid disease, 4) Other genetic mutations linked to mitochondrial dysfunction
High blood pressure and diabetes are linked to higher rates of mitochondrial problems, so if you have either of these conditions your risk of statin complications increases. Additionally, since statins can cause progressive damage to your mitochondria over time, and your mitochondria tend to weaken with age anyway, new adverse effects can develop the longer you're on the drug.
Are You Taking a Statin for No Reason?
For certain individuals who are at very high risk of dying from a heart attack, statin drugs may be useful -- but this is only true if you have strong heart attack risk factors (NOT if you simply have "high" cholesterol levels). It is important to note that it is also not necessary for you to remain on the drug for the rest of your life. Once your cholesterol ratios have been optimized by a course of treatment on statins, you can safely go off them if you have changed your diet. So, odds are very high -- greater than 100 to 1 -- that if you're taking a statin, you don't really need it.
The only two subgroups that might benefit are:
• Those at very high risk of heart attack (based NOT on your cholesterol levels but on your heart attack risk factors)
• Those born with a genetic defect called familial hypercholesterolemia, as this makes you resistant to traditional measures of normalizing cholesterol
If you are not in one of those two categories, statin drugs are an unnecessary health risk you're better off avoiding -- and you definitely want to avoid the trap of taking them to lower your cholesterol when your cholesterol is actually well within a healthy range. I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who were actually at low risk for heart disease due to their elevated HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen many people with cholesterol levels under 200 who had a very high risk of heart disease, based on their low HDL.
Further, if you take statin drugs unnecessarily, there's a good chance your cholesterol levels will become too low, which is dangerous since your body NEEDS cholesterol -- it is important in the production of cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps your brain form memories and is vital to your neurological function. There is also strong evidence that having too little cholesterol INCREASES your risk for cancer, memory loss, Parkinson's disease, hormonal imbalances, stroke, depression, suicide, and violent behavior – so keeping your cholesterol high enough is important.
Do You Want to Optimize Your Cholesterol?
The goal of the tips below is not to necessarily lower your cholesterol as low as it can go; the goal is to optimize your levels so they're working in the proper balance with your body.
Seventy-five percent of your cholesterol is produced by your liver, which is influenced by your insulin levels. Therefore, if you optimize your insulin level, you will automatically optimize your cholesterol. This is why my primary strategies for optimizing your cholesterol have to do with modifying your diet and lifestyle:
• Reduce fructose, grains and sugars in your diet. It is especially important to eliminate dangerous sugars such as fructose, which is found in soda and most processed foods. If your HDL/Cholesterol ratio is abnormal and needs to be improved it would also serve you well to additionally eliminate fruits from your diet, as that is also a source of fructose.
Once your cholesterol improves you can gradually reintroduce fruits at levels that don't raise your cholesterol.
• Consume a good portion of your food raw.
• Make sure you are getting plenty of high quality, animal-based omega 3 fats, such as krill oil. Research suggests that as little as 500 mg of krill per day may lower your total cholesterol and triglycerides and will likely increase your HDL cholesterol.
• Eat the right foods for your nutritional type. Examples of heart-healthy foods and fats include olive oil, coconut and coconut oil, organic raw dairy products and eggs, avocados, raw nuts and seeds, and organic grass-fed meats as appropriate for your nutritional type.
• Exercise daily. Make sure you incorporate exercise, which also optimize your human growth hormone (HGH) production. When you exercise you increase your circulation and the blood flow throughout your body.
• Avoid smoking or drinking alcohol excessively.
• Be sure to get plenty of high-quality, restorative sleep.
Sources: mercola.com; Clinical Cardiology, December 2009; 8/18/11.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Obesity Surgery Even Worse Than Thought
A study has found that nearly half of a group of patients who received gastric band surgery for weight loss over ten years ago had the bands removed because of medical complications. The study is the first to track laparoscopic gastric band surgery outcomes over a long period. The bands eroded in almost a third of the patients, and sixty percent went on to undergo additional weight loss surgery in spite of the bands.
According to the New York Times:
"Researchers concluded that the adjustable gastric band surgery, which is growing in popularity in the United States, 'appears to result in relatively poor long-term outcomes.' The results 'are worse than we expected,' said Dr. Jacques Himpens ... lead author of the new study."
Furthermore, significant bone loss has been shown to occur in teens receiving gastric bypass surgery, the same result that occurs in adults receiving this more invasive type of stomach surgery. Researchers took bone density measurements every three months for two years after the teen's surgeries and according to USA Today found that:
"Two years after the surgery, the bone mineral content of the 61 obese teens studied had declined, on average, by 7.4 percent."
However gastric banding is not the magic bullet panacea that it is being promoted as. There are powerful forces at work that motivate those who struggle with obesity to consider this option. There is no question that it is occasionally effective but at what price? Since NO ONE was ever designed to have their gut artificially shortened, there are inevitable damages that occur in everyone undergoing this procedure. So the question becomes a risk/benefit analysis. We make these types of judgments every day and some risky procedures are worth it. We all know that we can die when we travel by plane or auto yet most of us are willing to take that risk. However when you carefully examine the complications I review below, it is hard to imagine any rational individual ever choosing these procedures. The results of the first ever long-term gastric banding study are now in, and they are not promising.
Over a third of the adults receiving the surgery experience eroding bands, while a whopping 60 percent need additional surgery to address their weight problems.
Gastric Banding Surgery up Ten-Fold Since 2000
Gastric banding, known as the Lap Band, has increased in popularity for two main reasons.
• First, the number of obese Americans has now surpassed the number of merely overweight Americans, which brings the total number of either overweight or obese to almost three quarters of the American population. And the increase is seen mostly in the number of obese people, according to the National Center for Health Statistics:
"Although the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980, the prevalence of overweight has remained stable over the same time period."
• Secondly on February 16, 2011 the FDA approved lowering the BMI (body mass index) to qualify for health care-covered gastric banding surgery from 40 to 30 if health related conditions are present.
Remember it's hard to sustain a BMI of 30 for very long without exposing yourself to "health related conditions" like sleep apnea, GERD, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and certain cancers. A BMI of 30 is the minimum threshold to qualify as obese. So in other words, the requirements for this surgery have changed from morbidly obese to just barely obese, resulting in millions of more Americans qualifying for health care-covered gastric banding surgery. Gastric bypass surgery, on the other hand, is both more invasive and still available only for the morbidly obese (those with a BMI of 40 or higher).
Gastric Bypass and Gastric Banding Surgeries are NOT Normal
Gastric bypass refers to creating a small thumb-size pouch in the upper stomach which connects directly to the small intestine, thereby bypassing the majority of the stomach and leading to a greatly reduced stomach size. It is the more invasive procedure of the two surgeries, but less widely performed due to increased BMI requirements to qualify for insurance coverage.
Gastric banding refers to a surgery that inserts an inflatable silicone band into your stomach to create a smaller stomach size. Short-term, these procedures usually do produce significantly greater weight loss compared to lifestyle modification.
Both procedures limit the amount of food you can consume, and the rapid weight loss is clearly the natural effect of this forced starvation produced by the smaller stomach size. But in exchange for this rapid weight loss, the health risks are VERY high, and long-term safety and effectiveness according to the featured article above are "worse than expected".
Some of the side-effects listed on Lapbandsurgeryfaq.com can include:
Vomiting- A common side effect. Due to overeating or eating large chunky food. Eating in a hurry or drinking water on an empty stomach can cause this. The important thing is it results with lap band slippage and slippage can cause hospitalization or re-operation. Nausea is also common.
Gastro esophageal reflux- Often a problem of an eating disorder. When you lay down after eating you may experience heart burn. This may be caused due to tightness of lap band system.
Difficulty swallowing- This is the problem of passing food from mouth to stomach. This results with reflux and vomiting.
Constipation- This is also a normal lap band surgery side effect. Happens due to the liquid food eaten.
Stomach obstruction- If your lap band is not placed at correct position then you can have an obstruction of the stomach opening. This problem has been reported by almost 14% of banders.
Esophageal dilation- This happens after the enlargement of the esophagus. This means your pouch becomes too large and there is the problem of pushing food by the esophagus. As a result you can have bleeding, perforation, painful swallowing, heart burn etc.
Gallstones—Gallstones can form and cause abdominal pain with indigestion and vomiting because of rapid weight loss.
Gastric perforation- Tearing of stomach wall. As a result of this, food comes of your stomach. It may cause infection or other severe problem. It may require transplantation, otherwise repair is also an option.
Pancreatitis- enlargement of the pancreas. You can have breathing problems, bacterial infection etc.
Lap band slippage—lap band may slip from its place due to any reason like vomiting and this can result in hospitalization and re-operation.
Other possible lap band surgery side-effects include diarrhea, hair loss and protein deficiency, rejection of lap band by your body, infection, band erosion, leakage from the balloon, esophageal dilatation, and pouch dilatation.
Besides all of these side-effects, a third of the adults in the study featured above had the band erode and 60 percent needed additional surgery. So a third of the time the band becomes non-functional and over half of the time further surgery is needed. Not exactly an inspirational long-term performance record, is it?
Death Can Result from Gastric Banding or Gastric Bypass
Would you be willing to trade your life for the possibility of losing weight? This is a serious question as both of these surgeries can lead to death.
As stated directly on Lap-Band's safety information page:
"You should know that death is one of the risks. It can occur any time during the operation. It can also occur as a result of the operation. Death can occur despite all the precautions that are taken."
What else is buried on the Lap-Band safety page? Disclaimers letting you know that along with the laundry list of possible complications, there's a chance you may not lose any weight at all:
"Complications can cause reduced weight loss. They can also cause weight gain … It is possible you may not lose much weight or any weight at all."
So weight loss surgery, which includes gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass, may seem like a simple quick fix, but they are NOT a safe solution because of the many negative long-term health consequences inherent with both of these surgical options. Over 40 percent of weight loss surgeries result in major complications within six months, including black-outs, malnutrition, infection, kidney stones, bowel and gallbladder problems, liver failure, and, again, an increased risk of death. All surgeries have inherent risks, but bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. In fact, you are far more likely to suffer an adverse event from these types of surgeries than not.
A More Natural Approach to Weight Loss
Lifestyle modification is the more natural way to address your weight loss concerns since it more permanently treats the source of the problem rather than using a surgically inserted Band-Aid to curb overeating. Addressing your diet and lifestyle without surgery is also much safer, and in the long run, much more effective, as this option will not present you with all of the risks of side-effects and complications that accompany these surgeries, not to mention the "worse than expected" outcomes. While exercise is crucial for everyone seeking to control their weight it plays a variable role in its important. For those that are massively overweight the single most important element will be the foods that are selected. So don't expect doing two to three hours of cardio will work miracles, it, won't. You have to focus on food first.
Fasting and using freshly squeezed organic green vegetable juices are two of the more powerful interventions to rapidly normalize your weight. Other healthy lifestyle tips that will help you to reach your ideal weight naturally requires just three basic steps:
• Eat a healthy diet that's right for your nutritional type, paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down, primarily by avoiding fructose as much as possible. When you eat for your nutritional type, you eat the foods that are right for your biochemistry, and these are the foods that will push your body toward its ideal weight. A healthy diet means eliminating soda and processed junk foods, along with eating non-GMO and organic options whenever possible. Again, organic green vegetable juicing and fasting are key elements when seeking to lower large amounts of weight.
• View exercise as a drug. When you're trying to lose weight, a casual walk here and there is not going to cut it. There are a number of routes you can go here, but ideally, you need to exercise each and every day. It is simply impossible to optimize your health and weight without regular exercise. Fortunately, there's a highly effective exercise strategy that can dramatically reduce your workout time and maximize your weight loss; it's called Peak Fitness.
• Manage your stress. Tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are your friend and ally when it comes to losing weight. For some, emotional eating is more complex and an experienced EFT practitioner may be able to help unravel some of your deeper emotional issues that are impacting your weight.
As you naturally start to shed your unwanted pounds by following this healthier lifestyle, you will be stepping into a future with a greatly reduced risk of all the degenerative diseases that are linked to being overweight and obese, giving you a greater chance at a longer life to enjoy your newfound optimal health.
Sources:
New York Times, Archives of Surgery, USA Today, Pediatrics, mercola.com; 6/19/2011
According to the New York Times:
"Researchers concluded that the adjustable gastric band surgery, which is growing in popularity in the United States, 'appears to result in relatively poor long-term outcomes.' The results 'are worse than we expected,' said Dr. Jacques Himpens ... lead author of the new study."
Furthermore, significant bone loss has been shown to occur in teens receiving gastric bypass surgery, the same result that occurs in adults receiving this more invasive type of stomach surgery. Researchers took bone density measurements every three months for two years after the teen's surgeries and according to USA Today found that:
"Two years after the surgery, the bone mineral content of the 61 obese teens studied had declined, on average, by 7.4 percent."
However gastric banding is not the magic bullet panacea that it is being promoted as. There are powerful forces at work that motivate those who struggle with obesity to consider this option. There is no question that it is occasionally effective but at what price? Since NO ONE was ever designed to have their gut artificially shortened, there are inevitable damages that occur in everyone undergoing this procedure. So the question becomes a risk/benefit analysis. We make these types of judgments every day and some risky procedures are worth it. We all know that we can die when we travel by plane or auto yet most of us are willing to take that risk. However when you carefully examine the complications I review below, it is hard to imagine any rational individual ever choosing these procedures. The results of the first ever long-term gastric banding study are now in, and they are not promising.
Over a third of the adults receiving the surgery experience eroding bands, while a whopping 60 percent need additional surgery to address their weight problems.
Gastric Banding Surgery up Ten-Fold Since 2000
Gastric banding, known as the Lap Band, has increased in popularity for two main reasons.
• First, the number of obese Americans has now surpassed the number of merely overweight Americans, which brings the total number of either overweight or obese to almost three quarters of the American population. And the increase is seen mostly in the number of obese people, according to the National Center for Health Statistics:
"Although the prevalence of obesity has more than doubled since 1980, the prevalence of overweight has remained stable over the same time period."
• Secondly on February 16, 2011 the FDA approved lowering the BMI (body mass index) to qualify for health care-covered gastric banding surgery from 40 to 30 if health related conditions are present.
Remember it's hard to sustain a BMI of 30 for very long without exposing yourself to "health related conditions" like sleep apnea, GERD, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and certain cancers. A BMI of 30 is the minimum threshold to qualify as obese. So in other words, the requirements for this surgery have changed from morbidly obese to just barely obese, resulting in millions of more Americans qualifying for health care-covered gastric banding surgery. Gastric bypass surgery, on the other hand, is both more invasive and still available only for the morbidly obese (those with a BMI of 40 or higher).
Gastric Bypass and Gastric Banding Surgeries are NOT Normal
Gastric bypass refers to creating a small thumb-size pouch in the upper stomach which connects directly to the small intestine, thereby bypassing the majority of the stomach and leading to a greatly reduced stomach size. It is the more invasive procedure of the two surgeries, but less widely performed due to increased BMI requirements to qualify for insurance coverage.
Gastric banding refers to a surgery that inserts an inflatable silicone band into your stomach to create a smaller stomach size. Short-term, these procedures usually do produce significantly greater weight loss compared to lifestyle modification.
Both procedures limit the amount of food you can consume, and the rapid weight loss is clearly the natural effect of this forced starvation produced by the smaller stomach size. But in exchange for this rapid weight loss, the health risks are VERY high, and long-term safety and effectiveness according to the featured article above are "worse than expected".
Some of the side-effects listed on Lapbandsurgeryfaq.com can include:
Vomiting- A common side effect. Due to overeating or eating large chunky food. Eating in a hurry or drinking water on an empty stomach can cause this. The important thing is it results with lap band slippage and slippage can cause hospitalization or re-operation. Nausea is also common.
Gastro esophageal reflux- Often a problem of an eating disorder. When you lay down after eating you may experience heart burn. This may be caused due to tightness of lap band system.
Difficulty swallowing- This is the problem of passing food from mouth to stomach. This results with reflux and vomiting.
Constipation- This is also a normal lap band surgery side effect. Happens due to the liquid food eaten.
Stomach obstruction- If your lap band is not placed at correct position then you can have an obstruction of the stomach opening. This problem has been reported by almost 14% of banders.
Esophageal dilation- This happens after the enlargement of the esophagus. This means your pouch becomes too large and there is the problem of pushing food by the esophagus. As a result you can have bleeding, perforation, painful swallowing, heart burn etc.
Gallstones—Gallstones can form and cause abdominal pain with indigestion and vomiting because of rapid weight loss.
Gastric perforation- Tearing of stomach wall. As a result of this, food comes of your stomach. It may cause infection or other severe problem. It may require transplantation, otherwise repair is also an option.
Pancreatitis- enlargement of the pancreas. You can have breathing problems, bacterial infection etc.
Lap band slippage—lap band may slip from its place due to any reason like vomiting and this can result in hospitalization and re-operation.
Other possible lap band surgery side-effects include diarrhea, hair loss and protein deficiency, rejection of lap band by your body, infection, band erosion, leakage from the balloon, esophageal dilatation, and pouch dilatation.
Besides all of these side-effects, a third of the adults in the study featured above had the band erode and 60 percent needed additional surgery. So a third of the time the band becomes non-functional and over half of the time further surgery is needed. Not exactly an inspirational long-term performance record, is it?
Death Can Result from Gastric Banding or Gastric Bypass
Would you be willing to trade your life for the possibility of losing weight? This is a serious question as both of these surgeries can lead to death.
As stated directly on Lap-Band's safety information page:
"You should know that death is one of the risks. It can occur any time during the operation. It can also occur as a result of the operation. Death can occur despite all the precautions that are taken."
What else is buried on the Lap-Band safety page? Disclaimers letting you know that along with the laundry list of possible complications, there's a chance you may not lose any weight at all:
"Complications can cause reduced weight loss. They can also cause weight gain … It is possible you may not lose much weight or any weight at all."
So weight loss surgery, which includes gastric banding and the more invasive gastric bypass, may seem like a simple quick fix, but they are NOT a safe solution because of the many negative long-term health consequences inherent with both of these surgical options. Over 40 percent of weight loss surgeries result in major complications within six months, including black-outs, malnutrition, infection, kidney stones, bowel and gallbladder problems, liver failure, and, again, an increased risk of death. All surgeries have inherent risks, but bariatric surgeries seem to have a much higher ratio of complications. In fact, you are far more likely to suffer an adverse event from these types of surgeries than not.
A More Natural Approach to Weight Loss
Lifestyle modification is the more natural way to address your weight loss concerns since it more permanently treats the source of the problem rather than using a surgically inserted Band-Aid to curb overeating. Addressing your diet and lifestyle without surgery is also much safer, and in the long run, much more effective, as this option will not present you with all of the risks of side-effects and complications that accompany these surgeries, not to mention the "worse than expected" outcomes. While exercise is crucial for everyone seeking to control their weight it plays a variable role in its important. For those that are massively overweight the single most important element will be the foods that are selected. So don't expect doing two to three hours of cardio will work miracles, it, won't. You have to focus on food first.
Fasting and using freshly squeezed organic green vegetable juices are two of the more powerful interventions to rapidly normalize your weight. Other healthy lifestyle tips that will help you to reach your ideal weight naturally requires just three basic steps:
• Eat a healthy diet that's right for your nutritional type, paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down, primarily by avoiding fructose as much as possible. When you eat for your nutritional type, you eat the foods that are right for your biochemistry, and these are the foods that will push your body toward its ideal weight. A healthy diet means eliminating soda and processed junk foods, along with eating non-GMO and organic options whenever possible. Again, organic green vegetable juicing and fasting are key elements when seeking to lower large amounts of weight.
• View exercise as a drug. When you're trying to lose weight, a casual walk here and there is not going to cut it. There are a number of routes you can go here, but ideally, you need to exercise each and every day. It is simply impossible to optimize your health and weight without regular exercise. Fortunately, there's a highly effective exercise strategy that can dramatically reduce your workout time and maximize your weight loss; it's called Peak Fitness.
• Manage your stress. Tools like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) are your friend and ally when it comes to losing weight. For some, emotional eating is more complex and an experienced EFT practitioner may be able to help unravel some of your deeper emotional issues that are impacting your weight.
As you naturally start to shed your unwanted pounds by following this healthier lifestyle, you will be stepping into a future with a greatly reduced risk of all the degenerative diseases that are linked to being overweight and obese, giving you a greater chance at a longer life to enjoy your newfound optimal health.
Sources:
New York Times, Archives of Surgery, USA Today, Pediatrics, mercola.com; 6/19/2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Bone Strengthening Drugs Cause Fractures!
Orthopedic surgeons and bone specialists have been seeing an increasing number of unusual fractures among long-term users of bisphosphonate bone-strengthening drugs such as Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva and Reclast.
The latest and largest study suggests that women who've been on bisphosphonates for more than five years have a nearly three times higher risk of these fractures. Since tens of millions of women take bisphosphonates, this suggests thousands of them may suffer devastating atypical fractures every year.
According to NPR:
"... [A] growing number of experts agree ... that the risk of such fractures should discourage premature use of the drugs... [T]he take-home message is: Don't start one of these drugs too early ... [and[ don't stay on one of these drugs longer than necessary."
For 15 years women have been able to take a class of drugs called biphosphonates, which are marketed directly to consumers as a so-called treatment for osteoporosis. While the drugs do show some short-term effectiveness at preventing hip fractures in severe cases of osteoporosis, multiple studies are now beginning to point to the drugs causing some unusual bone problems in many older women. Researchers state these unusual bone problems are rare, but with millions of more women beginning to reach the age when these drugs are commonly prescribed (as the baby boom generation turns grey), perhaps these rare effects are now in danger of becoming quite common. I believe this is another classic illustration of the failed drug model. Once again, this is an instance of pills being over-prescribed, mainly through the direct-to-consumer marketing, resulting in increasing unnecessary risks for the majority of people taking these drugs, and especially in people taking these drugs longer than five years.
Also, as so often happens with pharmaceutical drugs in the US, the FDA allows them to be sold on the market before they are actually proven to be safe! Only later, when large-scale problems start to get reported in the media, are the drugs re-evaluated for safety, and often the new studies citing problems with drugs are done by a third-party unrelated to the drug manufacturers or the FDA (never by the FDA itself, because the FDA is loathe to interfere with its drug-company-client-partner profits). This is part of the broken health care model currently in effect in the US, where the FDA sees its mission as rushing drugs to market for maximum profits for corporations (it's said drug companies lose one to two million dollars for every day that a drug is kept off the market!), instead of thoroughly evaluating a new drug or new class of drugs for safety in order to protect the public.
What are Biophosphonates and What Does the New Study Say about Them?
Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. But in the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones. A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25% of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result.
Biphosphonates are branded and marketed under these names: Aredia, Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel, Zometa and Aclasta
Non-nitrogenous versions that work through a different cellular mechanism are branded and sold under these names: Didronel, Bonefos, Loron, Ostac and Skelid
All these different marketing names belong to the class known as biphosphonates. But these drugs may not be the magic bullet for thinning bones that the drug companies would lead you to believe. The new study above found that women taking biphosphonates for five years or longer actually showed signs of having weaker femurs. Taking this drug long-term you have about a three times greater risk of suffering a very unusual fracture either at the socket connecting the femur to the hip, or in the upper femur itself (which is usually the strongest part of the bone).
More Women Hurt than Helped by these Drugs
This means that for every woman gaining a benefit in their hips from taking a biphosphonate for a short-term, there are many more women out there in danger of weakening their femur bones as a result taking this class of drugs long-term. The problem is, thanks to the drug companies' multi-million dollar PR campaigns, many doctors AND the public today believe this class of drugs should be given even before bone density starts dropping, meaning the vast majority of women currently taking biphosphonates are beginning them too early, and staying on them too long. Experts are beginning to agree that only women with documented osteoporosis should even consider taking these drugs, and not stay on them for a very long duration if they do use them. But will the treatment of osteoporosis now change thanks to this new study and studies like it that have been appearing for the last few years?
It's not likely, because the drug companies usually let nothing stand in the way of their profits.
Although the FDA has already included a warning against long-term use on the label of these drugs, the direct-to-consumer marketing continues unabated, ensuring that many older women will show up at their doctor's office demanding a prescription for the drug that they mistakenly believe will strengthen their bones with little risk of ill effects, since nothing in the advertisement mentions long-term risks associated with biphosphonates.
Although the advertisement does mention (because they are forced to by law) some disturbing potential side effects, including: Difficult or painful swallowing, Chest pain, Severe or continuing heartburn, Severe joint, bone or muscle pain
Other side effects, listed by WebMD include: Abdominal pain, and irritation of the esophagus, Headache and pain in muscles and joints, Constipation, diarrhea, and increased gas (flatulence), Allergic reactions
Other Problems Associated with Biphosphonates
Some media reports have indicated that biphosphonates have been associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), also called "jaw death". ONJ occurs when your jawbone is weakened to the point that it "is no longer alive", because unlike other bones in your body there is a limited supply of blood to the jaw, which is not sufficient to grow new bone. And this class of drugs is reported to permanently weaken the jawbone, leading to a chronic, painful, and disastrous outcome. According to a study in The Journal of Endodontics:
"There are an increasing number of reports of bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaws that have substantial implications for the patient and for the treating dentist."
That is quite an understatement if you are no longer able to use your jaw to chew your food!
Another study involving cancer patients indicates that as many as 1 in 10 women taking biophosphonates will develop this jaw problem. So, a potential 10 percent chance of having your jaw "die" as a result of taking this medication is clearly a cause for alarm if you don't already have a fairly serious case of osteoporosis. But that's not all, another study has linked biphosphonates to an increased risk of erratic heart rhythms, called atrial fibrillation. Also a 2010 study suggests that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with 10 or more prescriptions for oral bisphosphonates and with prescriptions over about a five-year period. This same study also cites research stating:
"Adverse gastrointestinal effects are common among people who take oral bisphosphonates for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis; they range from dyspepsia, nausea, and abdominal pain to erosive oesophagitis and oesophageal ulcers."
How to Reduce your Risk of Osteoporosis
Prevention, once again, is a much preferable route than trying to "cure" osteoporosis symptoms with the drug companies' offerings, so here are some top ways you can reduce your risk of having to deal with osteoporosis in the first place: Optimize your vitamin D levels, Avoid processed foods and artificial sweeteners, Increase your Omega 3 intake, Get some exercise, including weight-bearing exercise like resistance training, Women should always maintain healthy levels of estrogen, Avoid steroidal drugs.
The Truth about Osteoporosis and Calcium Deficiency
I'm sure you've heard that the cause of osteoporosis and the key to its prevention revolve around calcium, right? Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Dr. Robert Thompson, M.D., wrote an entire book on this subject called, The Calcium Lie, which explains that bone is comprised of at least a dozen minerals and the exclusive focus on calcium supplementation is likely to worsen bone density and increase your risk of developing osteoporosis! As mentioned in this previous article, Dr. Thompson recommends the use of unprocessed salt as a far healthier alternative to calcium supplementation. I recommend using Himalayan salt as it is an excellent way to feed your body the trace minerals it needs to function optimally.
Steer Clear of Steroids
According to a study done at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, there is a strong link between osteoporosis and the use of steroids," so says senior author Steven L. Teitelbaum, M.D., Messing Professor of Pathology and Immunology:
"High-dose cortisone is the second most common cause of osteoporosis, and we currently have no real treatment for this serious side effect. Given how frequently these drugs are used to treat many different conditions, that's a major clinical problem."
The conclusion of the study revealed that although the steroid cortisone appears to inhibit the ability of osteoclasts to dismantle old bones in genetically normal mice, the inability of the skeletal structure to renew itself may cause bones to weaken dramatically from aging and stress.
Other Foods that Lead to Bone Loss
Processed and fast foods are the worst stuff you can put into your body. In order for your body to function optimally. Processed foods such as potato chips, French fries, microwaveable "meals", soda and candy contain very little nutrients and are chock full of undigestible fats and dangerous additives such as high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and preservatives. When cooking, I advise you to avoid most all omega-6 based oils such as corn, safflower or soy oil. These oils are loaded with highly processed, damaged omega 6 fats, which contribute to inflammation in your body. Instead, I recommend using healthful olive- and coconut oils.
Prevent Bone Loss with Appropriate Sunshine Exposure
The health benefits of vitamin D cannot be overstressed. An alarming number of people in the United States are vitamin D deficient, and vitamin D deficiency can lead to a host of health problems, including osteoporosis. Despite what you may have heard, appropriate sunshine exposure is not bad for you. It is healthy and necessary. Just 15 to 20 minutes of sun exposure per day can make a dramatic improvement in your health, and appropriate sun exposure is the ideal way to maintain your vitamin D levels in the optimal range.
Exercise to Prevent Bone Loss
Remember that bone is living tissue that requires regular physical activity in order to renew and rebuild itself. Peak bone mass is achieved in adulthood and then begins a slow decline. Exercise is very important in maintaining healthy bone mass. Weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis. Your bones are actually very porous and soft, and as you get older, your bones can easily become less dense and hence, more brittle. Especially if you are inactive. Resistance training can combat this effect because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then respond by continuously creating fresh, new bone. In addition, as you build more muscle, and make the muscle that you already have stronger, you also put more constant pressure on your bones.
Osteoporosis in Men
Here is something about osteoporosis in men you may not have realized: Men over the age of 50 are at greater risk for developing osteoporosis than prostate cancer. Men develop this disease because of a condition called hypogonadism, which may lead to shrinking in height by several inches. Risk factors in men include: Alcoholism, Obesity, Smoking, Gastrointestinal disorders, Sedentary lifestyle, Lack of sunlight exposure
Men with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, emphysema, Crohn's disease, herniated disks, and autoimmune disease taking steroids such as prednisone or cortisone are increasing their risk of developing osteoporosis that much further.
Sources: NPR, The Journal of American Medicine; May, 21 2011.
The latest and largest study suggests that women who've been on bisphosphonates for more than five years have a nearly three times higher risk of these fractures. Since tens of millions of women take bisphosphonates, this suggests thousands of them may suffer devastating atypical fractures every year.
According to NPR:
"... [A] growing number of experts agree ... that the risk of such fractures should discourage premature use of the drugs... [T]he take-home message is: Don't start one of these drugs too early ... [and[ don't stay on one of these drugs longer than necessary."
For 15 years women have been able to take a class of drugs called biphosphonates, which are marketed directly to consumers as a so-called treatment for osteoporosis. While the drugs do show some short-term effectiveness at preventing hip fractures in severe cases of osteoporosis, multiple studies are now beginning to point to the drugs causing some unusual bone problems in many older women. Researchers state these unusual bone problems are rare, but with millions of more women beginning to reach the age when these drugs are commonly prescribed (as the baby boom generation turns grey), perhaps these rare effects are now in danger of becoming quite common. I believe this is another classic illustration of the failed drug model. Once again, this is an instance of pills being over-prescribed, mainly through the direct-to-consumer marketing, resulting in increasing unnecessary risks for the majority of people taking these drugs, and especially in people taking these drugs longer than five years.
Also, as so often happens with pharmaceutical drugs in the US, the FDA allows them to be sold on the market before they are actually proven to be safe! Only later, when large-scale problems start to get reported in the media, are the drugs re-evaluated for safety, and often the new studies citing problems with drugs are done by a third-party unrelated to the drug manufacturers or the FDA (never by the FDA itself, because the FDA is loathe to interfere with its drug-company-client-partner profits). This is part of the broken health care model currently in effect in the US, where the FDA sees its mission as rushing drugs to market for maximum profits for corporations (it's said drug companies lose one to two million dollars for every day that a drug is kept off the market!), instead of thoroughly evaluating a new drug or new class of drugs for safety in order to protect the public.
What are Biophosphonates and What Does the New Study Say about Them?
Loss of bone mass is one of the common signs of aging, because as you age your existing bone is absorbed by your body while new bone is created to replace it. But in the case of osteoporosis, the formation of new bone falls behind the rate of bone absorption, leading to weakened, thinner and more brittle bones. A thinning hipbone is a major concern if you are elderly, because any fall increases the risk of a broken hip, which always carries a great risk of complications and usually requires prolonged specialized care for recovery. It's estimated that 25% of elderly people suffering a hip fracture die as a direct result.
Biphosphonates are branded and marketed under these names: Aredia, Fosamax, Boniva, Actonel, Zometa and Aclasta
Non-nitrogenous versions that work through a different cellular mechanism are branded and sold under these names: Didronel, Bonefos, Loron, Ostac and Skelid
All these different marketing names belong to the class known as biphosphonates. But these drugs may not be the magic bullet for thinning bones that the drug companies would lead you to believe. The new study above found that women taking biphosphonates for five years or longer actually showed signs of having weaker femurs. Taking this drug long-term you have about a three times greater risk of suffering a very unusual fracture either at the socket connecting the femur to the hip, or in the upper femur itself (which is usually the strongest part of the bone).
More Women Hurt than Helped by these Drugs
This means that for every woman gaining a benefit in their hips from taking a biphosphonate for a short-term, there are many more women out there in danger of weakening their femur bones as a result taking this class of drugs long-term. The problem is, thanks to the drug companies' multi-million dollar PR campaigns, many doctors AND the public today believe this class of drugs should be given even before bone density starts dropping, meaning the vast majority of women currently taking biphosphonates are beginning them too early, and staying on them too long. Experts are beginning to agree that only women with documented osteoporosis should even consider taking these drugs, and not stay on them for a very long duration if they do use them. But will the treatment of osteoporosis now change thanks to this new study and studies like it that have been appearing for the last few years?
It's not likely, because the drug companies usually let nothing stand in the way of their profits.
Although the FDA has already included a warning against long-term use on the label of these drugs, the direct-to-consumer marketing continues unabated, ensuring that many older women will show up at their doctor's office demanding a prescription for the drug that they mistakenly believe will strengthen their bones with little risk of ill effects, since nothing in the advertisement mentions long-term risks associated with biphosphonates.
Although the advertisement does mention (because they are forced to by law) some disturbing potential side effects, including: Difficult or painful swallowing, Chest pain, Severe or continuing heartburn, Severe joint, bone or muscle pain
Other side effects, listed by WebMD include: Abdominal pain, and irritation of the esophagus, Headache and pain in muscles and joints, Constipation, diarrhea, and increased gas (flatulence), Allergic reactions
Other Problems Associated with Biphosphonates
Some media reports have indicated that biphosphonates have been associated with osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), also called "jaw death". ONJ occurs when your jawbone is weakened to the point that it "is no longer alive", because unlike other bones in your body there is a limited supply of blood to the jaw, which is not sufficient to grow new bone. And this class of drugs is reported to permanently weaken the jawbone, leading to a chronic, painful, and disastrous outcome. According to a study in The Journal of Endodontics:
"There are an increasing number of reports of bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaws that have substantial implications for the patient and for the treating dentist."
That is quite an understatement if you are no longer able to use your jaw to chew your food!
Another study involving cancer patients indicates that as many as 1 in 10 women taking biophosphonates will develop this jaw problem. So, a potential 10 percent chance of having your jaw "die" as a result of taking this medication is clearly a cause for alarm if you don't already have a fairly serious case of osteoporosis. But that's not all, another study has linked biphosphonates to an increased risk of erratic heart rhythms, called atrial fibrillation. Also a 2010 study suggests that the risk of oesophageal cancer increased with 10 or more prescriptions for oral bisphosphonates and with prescriptions over about a five-year period. This same study also cites research stating:
"Adverse gastrointestinal effects are common among people who take oral bisphosphonates for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis; they range from dyspepsia, nausea, and abdominal pain to erosive oesophagitis and oesophageal ulcers."
How to Reduce your Risk of Osteoporosis
Prevention, once again, is a much preferable route than trying to "cure" osteoporosis symptoms with the drug companies' offerings, so here are some top ways you can reduce your risk of having to deal with osteoporosis in the first place: Optimize your vitamin D levels, Avoid processed foods and artificial sweeteners, Increase your Omega 3 intake, Get some exercise, including weight-bearing exercise like resistance training, Women should always maintain healthy levels of estrogen, Avoid steroidal drugs.
The Truth about Osteoporosis and Calcium Deficiency
I'm sure you've heard that the cause of osteoporosis and the key to its prevention revolve around calcium, right? Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Dr. Robert Thompson, M.D., wrote an entire book on this subject called, The Calcium Lie, which explains that bone is comprised of at least a dozen minerals and the exclusive focus on calcium supplementation is likely to worsen bone density and increase your risk of developing osteoporosis! As mentioned in this previous article, Dr. Thompson recommends the use of unprocessed salt as a far healthier alternative to calcium supplementation. I recommend using Himalayan salt as it is an excellent way to feed your body the trace minerals it needs to function optimally.
Steer Clear of Steroids
According to a study done at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, there is a strong link between osteoporosis and the use of steroids," so says senior author Steven L. Teitelbaum, M.D., Messing Professor of Pathology and Immunology:
"High-dose cortisone is the second most common cause of osteoporosis, and we currently have no real treatment for this serious side effect. Given how frequently these drugs are used to treat many different conditions, that's a major clinical problem."
The conclusion of the study revealed that although the steroid cortisone appears to inhibit the ability of osteoclasts to dismantle old bones in genetically normal mice, the inability of the skeletal structure to renew itself may cause bones to weaken dramatically from aging and stress.
Other Foods that Lead to Bone Loss
Processed and fast foods are the worst stuff you can put into your body. In order for your body to function optimally. Processed foods such as potato chips, French fries, microwaveable "meals", soda and candy contain very little nutrients and are chock full of undigestible fats and dangerous additives such as high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and preservatives. When cooking, I advise you to avoid most all omega-6 based oils such as corn, safflower or soy oil. These oils are loaded with highly processed, damaged omega 6 fats, which contribute to inflammation in your body. Instead, I recommend using healthful olive- and coconut oils.
Prevent Bone Loss with Appropriate Sunshine Exposure
The health benefits of vitamin D cannot be overstressed. An alarming number of people in the United States are vitamin D deficient, and vitamin D deficiency can lead to a host of health problems, including osteoporosis. Despite what you may have heard, appropriate sunshine exposure is not bad for you. It is healthy and necessary. Just 15 to 20 minutes of sun exposure per day can make a dramatic improvement in your health, and appropriate sun exposure is the ideal way to maintain your vitamin D levels in the optimal range.
Exercise to Prevent Bone Loss
Remember that bone is living tissue that requires regular physical activity in order to renew and rebuild itself. Peak bone mass is achieved in adulthood and then begins a slow decline. Exercise is very important in maintaining healthy bone mass. Weight-bearing exercise is one of the most effective remedies against osteoporosis. Your bones are actually very porous and soft, and as you get older, your bones can easily become less dense and hence, more brittle. Especially if you are inactive. Resistance training can combat this effect because as you put more tension on your muscles it puts more pressure on your bones, which then respond by continuously creating fresh, new bone. In addition, as you build more muscle, and make the muscle that you already have stronger, you also put more constant pressure on your bones.
Osteoporosis in Men
Here is something about osteoporosis in men you may not have realized: Men over the age of 50 are at greater risk for developing osteoporosis than prostate cancer. Men develop this disease because of a condition called hypogonadism, which may lead to shrinking in height by several inches. Risk factors in men include: Alcoholism, Obesity, Smoking, Gastrointestinal disorders, Sedentary lifestyle, Lack of sunlight exposure
Men with pre-existing conditions such as asthma, emphysema, Crohn's disease, herniated disks, and autoimmune disease taking steroids such as prednisone or cortisone are increasing their risk of developing osteoporosis that much further.
Sources: NPR, The Journal of American Medicine; May, 21 2011.
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