YourHealthMatters

Will That Be A Glass of White or Red with Dinner?

And now, for something completely different - here's a good study on the relative effects on tooth enamel of white wine versus red wine. Given that I much prefer reds to whites, I was happy to see this German study found white wines much more likely to damage tooth enamel than reds and lead to more staining of teeth by caffeine,etc.

A simple solution was offered for those who still prefer white wine - eat cheese to counter the acidity problem and don't brush your teeth for 30 minutes after the meal and glass is finished.

Read the report here.

drBob

 

A New Service for Veterans in Liberal

Ed Poley has started a new center in Liberal for veterans, their families and first responders. He is a veteran himself and was Director of our SouthWestern Technical School until recently when he retired and took on a new career and a new challenge.

He has opened an office called The Whirlwind Center to serve veterans and families with counseling and career guidance. Too many of our veterans come home suffering with PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) which can ruin their lives here if they do not get help. The help for PTSD through the VA is a long way from Liberal which is part of the reason Ed decided he would open a center to offer local help. He is doing this on his own and I commend him for it. He has raised money to open the office and is seeing people now to begin helping them get back into society.

From his own proposal to start this center I quote:
"In order to entice these young people to seek assistance,we first must create a relaxed atmosphere where they truly believe they will be listened to and believed. Second, the individual working with the clients must be someone to whom they can relate, someone who has "walked in their boots".

I can tell you Ed has walked in their boots and has many skills to make this a success in Liberal. My hat is off to Ed Poley and please support his efforts and use his services if needed. You may not need his help directly but tell your friends and help Ed make this a model clinic for veterans that might spread far beyond Liberal.

His office is at 130 Pancake Blvd in Liberal. Phone 620-624-7684 Cell 620-482-3431  email ed.poley@yahoo.com

drBob

A Child Dies of H1N1

Here's what one little child had to go through when the swine flu overwhelmed her lungs. This is a risk in young children and a major reason why H1N1 shots are recommended for children. As I have written before, the nasal H1N1 vaccine has some limitations and should never be given to anyone with an asthma or lung disease history. Read this article posted on MSNBC.com. The vaccine shot does not have this limitation.

This lung problem can also occur in adults and pregnant women if they get an H1N1 infection. Because testing for flu is totally unreliable at present I am no longer relying on the nasal test to detect flu. But many doctors still do this and accept the negative result as proof the patient does not have H1N1 infection. If you have the symptoms of H1N1 but are told you are not infected on the basis of a negative nasal swab test, I'd get another opinion.

Although the majority of people I see with H1N1 infections still have mild infections and respond quickly to Tamiflu, the infection can last 7-9 days without treatment, which is an unacceptable loss of income to anyone in this economic climate.

76 children have died of H1N1 this year, some with no pre-existing medical problems. Pregnant women are also dying along with their unborn child.

The highest risk groups are pregnant moms (because their immune systems are depressed by pregnancy), children under 5, children under 17 in that order.

And to give you some local numbers, in the first week of October of all the patients I saw in the office, 10 percent had H1N1.

drBob

Side Effects of H1N1 Vaccine

Here is a reassuring report on side effects seen with H1N1 vaccine shots. China has reported only 4 people with mild headache or muscle aches in 39,000 people given the vaccine. China is part of the WHO and cooperating in monitoring this infection and treatment. The news report does not say this is the vaccine we are getting but that is the assumption. This is much better than I would have expected and is the first report from large-scale immunizations. Although the CDC here maintains their testing shows no problem, they are not revealing the numbers of people in their test sample.

So this vaccine may be easy for people to take and get good results. Here is the news report
 
This does not change one issue I have with the live attenuated nasal vaccine which will the first vaccine available here and will be likely used in school children. This is a live virus that has been partially deactivated but can still cause "mild" flu symptoms. This technology has been used for all nasal flu vaccines for some years so it is well understood that it works. It must not be given to anyone with lung disease or asthma. In the past there have been warnings on this type of nasal preparation that it should not be given to people in families with asthmatics or chronic lung disease present. I hope this understanding is conveyed to parents before they give consent for this vaccine for their children. Also anyone in the family on cancer chemotherapy or with weakened immune systems should not be exposed to anyone given this vaccine soon after administration. From talking to some parents and a local teacher, the letter going to parents for consent for their children to receive this nasal vaccine says nothing about the asthma contra-indication. Talk about giving a well-informed consent to parents.....

Another big question I keep getting asked is whether there will be mercury in these vaccines. Here is a report out of Washington State stating their reasons for keeping the mercury preservative, thimerosal, in the H1N1 vaccine. You be the judge of their logic. The vaccine that I will be getting in sometime this month will probably not be mercury-free either. 

First groups to be immunized on a mass scale are health care workers, children and pregnant moms. The rest of us will be offered the immunization later as the government and Public Health Departments figure out how to do the largest mass immunization program in many years.

I think if you have a good understanding of the risks versus the benefits of this vaccine, it is worth considering the shot for helping you lower your risk of getting the H1N1 flu. The shot will take 6 weeks to build your immunity and already I am seeing a steadily increasing number of patients with H1N1 illness. I do not recommend this vaccine for anyone who already has had H1N1 infection this summer although that is not the official position of the Public Health Department. It is not recommended for people 65 and older.

drBob

Better Food -> Better Health

I have long believed that in some way "we are what we eat" and here is a recent Newsweek article that details 9 foods that improve our health. This is a must read.

Some examples from the article to increase your interest in this important health issue.
1. Food can help you beat stress and I don't just mean "stress-eating" which many of my patients talk about. Dopamine and  other neurotransmitters help us maintain a good mood in the face of stress. The production of these neurochemicals depends on certain key ingredients in food, B6, serotonin, tyrosine. B6 can be found abundantly in healthy foods. Serotonin and tyrosine may have to be supplemented. Food and supplement sources of these are in Julia Ross's excellent book - The Mood Cure.
2. Folate improves memory and can help in just over a month if you boost your intake. I also recommend other brain-boosting supplements but folate is a key food ingredient also for improving brain function.
3.Anti-oxidants have been written about a lot in recent years because they help us in so many healthy ways. The benefits include neutralizing chemicals in us that promote aging and attacking cancer cells before they take hold in our body.

Now read the entire article for the details.

drBob

Alternatives to Armour Thyroid

There is still no answer as to whether Armour Thyroid will come back as before. In the meantime I have found some alternatives.

1. Compounded thyroid can be made in the equivalent doses to Armour. The cost is reasonable, some insurances will likely cover it.

2. Canada has no shortage of Armour and it can shipped into the US to individual patients with appropriate prescriptions. Cost is half what it has been here but insurance will not cover it directly, only if you submit your bill to them. They may refuse payment since it was purchased in another country.

3. Since the active part of Armour that helps people the most is the free T3, this is available in a prescription version called Cytomel. This is expensive and very short-acting so it is difficult to manage in most people.

As I have written before, check out the new website www.savenaturalthyroid.org and watch it regularly for their news. If they develop a petition to the FDA, please add your name if you agree.

drBob

Dr. Blaylock on H1N1 Vaccine

In my email today was the following message which I am posting to this site because I know this doctor and his reputation. His advice is worth reading. His recommended dose of Vit D I agree with and I also carry that brand of fish oil in my office for my patients. His newsletter is available from www.blaylockreport.com and I recommend it.

For an alternate point of view about the vaccine and H1N1 read this article.

drBob

Subject: DR. RUSSELL BLAYLOCK ON PIG FLU

 This is an email sent to a friend of Dr. Blaylock and is now being forwarded to anyone interested. Please pass it along. Also note the attached biography of Dr. Blaylock. Dr. Blaylock is a board certified neurosurgeon, author and lecturer. He attended the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and completed his general surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.

No one should take this vaccine—it is one of the most dangerous vaccines ever devised. It contains an immune adjuvant called squalene (MF-59) which has been shown to cause severe autoimmune disorders such as MS, rheumatoid arthri tis and Lupus. The newsletter for August covers this and it may not be out yet. This is the vaccine adjuvant that is strongly linked to the Gulf War syndrome, which killed over 10,000 soldiers and caused a 200% increase in the fatal disease ALS (Lou Gehreg disease). This virus H1N1 kills by causing a “cytokine storm”, which means that it cause the body’s immune system to overreact and that is why it is killing young people and is a mild disease in the elderly. (The elderly have weakened immune systems.) This vaccine is a very powerful immune stimulator and carries the real possibility of making the lethality of the virus much greater.

 One’s best protection is

vitamin D3.. One should take 5000 IU a day now and when the disease begins to spread increase the dose to 15,000 IU a day. Vitamin D3 modulates the immune reaction, reducing the chance of an overreaction and stimulates the body to produce what are called antimicrobial peptides, which are powerful killers of viruses that does not involve immunity. This is dose related, which means the higher the dose of vitamin D3 the better the protection. Fish oils (the best is Carlson’s Norwegian lemon flavored fish oil) also reduce immune overreaction. One teaspoon a day should be sufficient. For severe symptoms, one teaspoon twice a day. Antioxidants of various kins also help—this includes, quercetin, curcumin, gr apeseed extract, vitamin C and natural vitamin E. A good multivitamin/mineral such as Extend Core (www.vrp.com) is also essential.

Feel free to spread this around. People need to know how to protect themselves.

Russell

Have We Been Wrong about the FDA's Plans for Armour Thyroid?

I have been assuming that the FDA has been planning to bring natural thyroid extract drugs such as Armour Thyroid and NaturThroid back to market as soon as possible after changing the tablet inert ingredients. MAYBE I have been wrong. Maybe the FDA is up to something not in our best interests.

Mary Shomon's thyroid web site today has a new article about her attempts to get the FDA to answer questions and how they are not revealing their plans at all. It's possible after all the FDA plans to take natural thyroid extracts off the market since they never have gone through the New Drug Approval process because they have been around so long.

Read her newest comments here.

She also announces a new Citizens Group at www.savenaturalthroid.com which is providing the latest news updates and connections to various other forums where this is being discussed such as a Facebook.

I strongly urge everyone who has concerns about what the FDA is doing to Armour to go to this site, read it, watch it and lodge a complaint with the FDA about their handling of this much-needed drug.

drBob

Will You Take the H1N1 Vaccine?

The public media campaign is certainly ramping up to get every person immunized against H1N1 rapidly this fall. The number of articles in the media describing possible dire consequences of H1N1 infection is mounting.

BUT - consider this - 10 million people die worldwide yearly from cigarette smoking. Of this staggering number 440,000 die every year in the US. Does anyone mount a big campaign to outlaw cigarettes altogether? Of course not. Does government spend as much money on trying to stop cigarette sales as on the campaign to get us immunized against H1N1? I doubt it. Of course there is the matter of tax revenues from cigarettes sales to consider.

The current projected deaths from swine flu this year in the US is now estimated at 90,000 if we don't act fast. And estimated cases of swine flu in this country are forecast to be up to 120 million (up from 40 million projected just a few weeks ago)

This recent article in Time presents some interesting aspects of the testing and preparation of the vaccine. It should be available in mid-October. I am already seeing cases of flu every week and have been all summer. The people are recovering quickly with Tamiflu and so far I have not seen other family members get sick soon after the patients I have seen. This suggests so far the H1N1 is mild and does not spread easily in a family. However, stopping the spread of the virus, as mentioned in the Time article is paramount for everyone's safety.

You should also read this recent article posted on MSNBC for some opposite views to the Time article.

And this article in the Washington Post provides some more information.

H1N1 immunization will likely require two shots spaced three weeks apart and immunity may take 6-8 weeks after the second shot. Do the math and figure out when this immunization should be protecting us from H1N1 if you get the shots starting in late October.

These articles do not mention Guillain-Barre syndrome, which did occur in a few people after the swine flu shots in 1976.  Do you know what Guillain-Barre syndrome is? The FDA claims about 25 cases for every 100,000 shots given occurred in 1976. Again if we immunize 120 million people, how many might develop GBS?

The World Health Organization is now calling for worldwide immunization and even saying the H1N1 vaccination program should be made mandatory. They also advocate enforcing quarantines by the military if necessary. Four countries in Europe have already passed laws in accordance with the WHO mandate. The Public Health Departments are supposed to provide plans to us on what to do if an outbreak occurs in a school or other businesses.

drBob

How Dangerous Will H1N1 Be ?

Right after I wrote about ways to reduce your risk of the H1N1 flu comes an article from Newsweek entitled "Will You Die From the Swine Flu?" This article is a MUST-READ for all of us.

It can be found here. The article clearly puts into perspective the possible death rate compared to what FDA wants us to believe and then gives the death rates from cancer, heart disease,etc.

The last line is important - "And while it’s always good sense to wash your hands and not cough on strangers, there’s no need to break out the protective masks and quarantine kit quite yet. Instead, hit the gym, eat some fiber, and wear your seat belt." 

To which I add - read my previous post and follow its advice too.

drBob