Earlier this week, I felt the light shining a LOT brighter on the path to health and well-being for people receiveing their medical advice in Grand Junction, Colorado. Pulmonologist Jimmy Thompson, MD, was standing in front of a very full lecture arena when I walked through the doors just after 7 am. Anyone who understands what happens with medical conditions caused by 'adrenal fatigue', and how to recover, will understand why it is a sacrifice for me to interrupt the later part of my sleep cycle to go to something at 7 am. But this one, I was EXCITED to see!

The physicians who were in the elevator with me said to each other how they were looking forward to this one in particular. I definitely had been, since seeing the schedule a month before. At the seminar, I'd picked up my handout as I arrived, and the very first slide of the PowerPoint, even before the title was the famous quote by Hippocrates: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

Outside the doors to the seminar auditorium is the usual array of foods and drinks provided with the medical education for providers in our region, which they so generously extent to all medical providers, not just physicians (how smart is that! Educate the TEAM of players!): -- assorted bagles (wheat, no gluten-free options), donuts (wheat and sugar and fats), fruit, bottled water bathing in a pretty bowl full of crushed ice, tea/hot water and coffee, none of which is organic/free trade, any of that 'good stuff' that those living 'outside the box' of conventional medicine tend to serve. Just so interesting to see both paradigms existing today, I'm not putting judgment, just noticing, observing, and 'sayin'... as as the saying goes.

When the Grate Groove of the Grand Valley gets together to discuss health care, I noticed EVERYONE orders water without ice and years back with the Fibromyalgia Forum I co-hosted in the Primary Care Partners/Docs on Call building, everyone with FM brought their own water bottles everywhere they went and nobody wanted cold water and they had 'gotten the memo' about why to get chlorine and fluoride out of their water. So it made me realize that even when it comes to the basic 'water', there's such a continuum of beliefs and desires and two very different 'schools of though'.

"You are what you eat" I think extends beyond what one individual eats, it has much to do with 'modeling' for others. In my work in the early 1990s in brain injury prevention through helmet safety, which I did collaboratively with Rollerblade and their local distributor in Fort Collins, Colorado (USA) for a project at Colorado State University, I brought together departments and organizations from the University and outside community to create change related to outdoor activities and safety. The #1 factor that lead to a child having a helmet on their head when they needed it, which is anytime they're on a bike, skates, skis, boards, horses, etc., based on my researching the subject in 1992/3, was seeing adults model the behavior/wearing helmuts. Food for though.....?, and yes, pun's intended.

On my way out, I noticed the waters were all gone and the fruit was mostly taken, as were most of the donuts. There were a LOT of bagels left though. So this particular group of attendees even had a vast array of eating habits when provided a wide variety. I wonder if peeled hard boiled eggs had been included, if they'd have been taken, as those seem to be popular at the less expensive hotels that do a complimentary breakfast.

Had the foods been made available AFTER the education and not before, I'd be interested to see how the same array of foods would have been consumed. You should have heard the conversations of people as they left to go on to their day at 8 am. I have rarely been in a room when I have felt such 'momentum' shift, such an 'aha' go on. The other time was a much smaller audience and was with the FibroForum when local expert Chris Young, PhD presented on Adverse Childhood Experiences and the relationship to chronic illness in adulthood, but you could literally feel the lightbulbs going on in the minds of people who were taking the time that evening to come and learn about something that might change their future wellness/illness reality.

The attendance at this seminar was awesome, and there were many spouses in the room, too! I personally like to see that because it takes 'systems' to make changes, including in the homes of medical providers! Many companies do employee wellness programs but if you don't extend that to their families for education, the change is very difficult to make, for instance.

In the LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley, we started with providers getting to know each other in the winter/startup and then in summer we got together out at an outdoor concert so the spouses and children could come too, just to get to know each other better, wholistically. And we were just doing normal things, eating BBQ, drinking whatever beverage we chose, and getting to know each other. That continues to be part of our M.O., but we also are doing more education within the professionals and plan to then be able to expand gradually with invitations to providers and consumers and ultimately be able to expand and reach a good number of people, if the demand is there for what we are doing and what we have to say! I look forward and hope to have Dr Jimmy come sometime.

Coming out of the seminar area, I noticed many people in white uniforms, mostly women, perhaps nursing student/interns, walking behind me saying "what am I going to eat? I eat TONS of chicken, I thought that was good for you! ... I had no idea about ...... " I LOVED IT!

I literally felt the paradigm shift as well for 'values based' medicine as the volume based medicine of years and decades past has clearly lead us down an unfortunate path and now we have dead-ended and have to work our way back and find the OTHER path and take it. Which is work -- for those who have already done the work of figuring out that foods are causing diseases and changed how you eat, you're on that path and ahead of many, so thank you. I left feeling MUCH more hopeful that day about what that hospital and all medical and nonmedical people in our community and country might experience in the future. Lower costs and happier, more fulfilling lives because we feel better and have more money for other aspects of our life than 'physical and mental health'.

Dr Thompson went out of his way to thank the research librarians/support staff who he said worked extensively for many months helping him with his research/learning so that he could teach. They say the best way to learn a subject is to teach it. He did well and I want to thank him for putting in the time to do so, and helping shift things, or 'raise the bar' related to the knowledge of the area's providers. (This only took him 50 minutes to present and took me about 50 hours to keyboard/input here. I exaggerate, but I whittled away at it for many sessions. So I hope that you appreciate what you find here, and that it serves many who find it at Lumigrate.com.)

Here is what he presented:

Physicians' nutritional education has about 20 contact hours; for comparison, registered dieticians have 500, and it tends to be in the form of biochemistry and not applied nutrition. So kudos to ALL the providers who were at the seminar to learn more. I encourage the consumers or providers who read this to let your providers or colleagues know about this piece on Lumigrate if you feel they could be inspired to learn more about nutrition in order to meet YOUR needs. And be sure to check back over time. Topics like these continue to get additional input from the Grate Group of providers who contribute their time and energies to educate here!

Next, obesity was covered; trends in the US, definitions, and most interesting to me, a 2011 Gallup poll of actual body weight comparing with a poll twenty years before. On average men were 16# heavier and women 18# heavier in 2011! Which leads into life expectancy.

The US is ranked TOP of the list of the world in obesity and chronic diseases; in 2005, almost half our country's people had at least one chronic disease. I was aware of this long ago, because in 2007 I took a business planning class and started developing the concept of what turned out to be "Lumigrate.com" in 2009. Initially I thought to have a website about fibromyaliga only, and then it was like unraveling a sweater and I saw the overall 'chronic illness' concept -- there really is such overlap with other conditions. I thought integrative medicine's concepts were suited to presenting about and giving information about solving the whole ballywick. But I'm always wanting to be sure others know this incredible statistic, and was pleased to see it included by Dr Thompson.

With the western diet the following diseases occur in increased rates: cardiovascular disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's, autoimmune disease.

Research shows all chronic diseases share the same underlying biochemical etiology -- a diet-induced pro-inflammatory state. This increases with age, obesity and the western diet. It decreases with a whole food, plant-based diet of fruit, veggies, whole grains, nuts, legumes. There is an inverse association with fitness and inflammation. Most chronic diseases reveal elevated markers including: CRP, IL-1, IL-6, TNF, homocysteine, and arachidonic acid (AA).

I remember hearing about AA from a friend of mine who has Chron's disease and who was seeking advice from a naturopathic doctor. It was the first year I lived in Grand Junction, 2004, and extensively seeking the advise of an MD who I thought knew a lot about fibromyalgia, but instead of being taught about AA, I was being educated about other theories which were not really valid as I understand things today. However, they were doing a lot of things which don't have evidence-based research and I did get better because more things they were trying with people helped than hindered or were neutral. But my new dentist thought I was a nut for asking them to not use mint-flavored products or latex gloves in my treatment!

And more importantly, the efforts I put into gooing down that path too AWAY from time/energy/money I could put into what was REALLY going to help. So I really appreciate now, more than in the past, providers who do more 'vetting' of information and am working to bring a cache of information to Lumigrate from those types of 'validating-minded providers' with MUCH experience at what they do. We're a work in progress, so please hang in there with us through the infancy and toddler phase -- we turn THREE remember, soon.

I'm encouraged because I'm seeing things which are first embraced by the 'progressives' might get the funding to prove or disprove them in the western medicine way of researching things. It's kind of how the political system used to work -- one side would get into the power seat or seats, then the other side, and IN THE LONG RUN, things progressed and had a good foundation underneath.

The pro-inflammatory western diet includes: red/processed meats, refined grains, sweets/ candies and desserts, chicken, high fat dairy, soft drinks, pizza, eggs. Overall, the #1 beverage in the US is soft drinks. (I did not know this statistic.) And interestingly, as a sidenote, Dr Thompson said the US Congress went into a special session years back related to how to show more vegetables being consumed in school lunches, and french fries and pizza were deemed to be vegetables! I believe, if I recall correctly, ketchup was as well. I did not know it was a special session however, to create that 'wonderful' step backwards for us in the past.

Whole food, plant based anti-inflammatory diet: Fruits, vegetables, unrefined grains/whole grains, nuts, legumes, and the most important concept of all, in my opinion: Variety and quantity.

Then he went into "Proposed Nutritional Mechanisms of Chronic Illness and Aging", which included mitochondrial theory of aging, nutritional epigenetics, omega 6/3 ratio, advanced glycation end products.

The mitochondrial theory of aging essentially attributes aging to the level of free radical damage accumulating in cells. Mitochondria are the cells where nutrients are converted to usable energy with oxidation and free radical formation as byproducts.

(For those who study Lumigrate with an interest in chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia, there's a belief by those specializing in this field that the mitochondia in people with these disorders are problematic and might even need intravenous supplementation of nutrition in order to have the levels in the blood they need to function properly, even when the gut is working properly for food digestion and elimination of wastes. Hence the long-time success with Myers Cocktails in this population. I refer you to my topic on Milton Hammerly, MD's book on integrative approaches to fibromaylgia. Thankfully, I saw an article about him when reading my newspaper in 1996 when I moved there for OT internships at the Denver VA, and the first time I became sick with a cold/bronchitis, he became my personal physician. I would not have had a career in OT if it weren't for that, I strongly believe. Hence you'd not be reading at Lumigrate at this moment, naturally.

Enzyme superoxide dimutase allows antioxidants into the mitochondria; levels of SD correlate to longevity. The enzyme activity is higher in women, which might explain why women typically live longer than men. Vegetarians, compared to omnivores, had 300% increase in enzyme activity, and the only reliable source of antioxidants is a plant-based, whole foods diet. HUH? "ONLY" SOURCE of antioxidants IS FOOD?

Oh, I see, he's pulled out the studies that I've been covering with Robin Thomas' collaboration related to supplements.... It's very handy that Robin has 25 years experience in the field of science, and many years in medical research. And since her personal history was related to chronic illness in her son, which took her into closely studying these things in order to help him in his wellness/illness, she's been up to her knees at least in these controversies about supplements and nutrition (and many other things such as heavy metals and etc.) for a while.

that I can get to this point and defer to her expertise to hop in with a comment on this topic and help clarify for us ALL. I'm learning along with the rest of you on many things! Just as Dr Thomas and the other providers in the room, myself included, were all continuing to learn through this seminar. I would LOVE to see this topic on Lumigrate serve as a means for him and others in the room who might become aware of it, to continue the learning process rather than it be a

for an hour and then no way to follow through.

Observational studies were cited about vitamin E (from Ann Intern Med 2005;142:37-46), vitamin A (JAMA 297(8): 842-857 2007), beta carotine (JAMA 297(8): 842-857 2007), zinc and increased prostate cancer in men (Cancer Causes Control; 2009 July 20(5) 691-698). The Iowa Women's Health Study which was in the mass media last year, leading us to work to clear up the misconceptions the public was getting and revealing the flaws in the study, was cited, found in Arch Intern Med 2011; 171(18); 1625-33). Swedish study related to increased breast cancer with multivitamin use (Am J Clin 2010;91:1268-72) and a study of 36,282 women which showed calcium supplements increased the risk of cardiovascular events by 24% for MI, 15% for CVA (BMI 2011:342:d2040).

Nutritional epigenetics, which is the altering gene expressions through environmental exposure without changing DNA sequence, is now considered an important mechanism in gene expression and disease. DNA methylation, histone modification and chromatin remodeling are some of the the mechanisms which cause these alterations. Dietary compounds have been shown to activate or suppress gene expression.

Advanced glycation end products (AGE), are macromolecules that are formed by nonenysmatic glycation of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids. The western diet is high in AGEs, which are formed when food is 'cooked' at high temperatures, such as frying, broiling, roasting, grilling. They have been proven to accelerate multisystem decline by increasing oxidative stress that occurs with aging. Since many of us start our health journey related to how we look, I'm pleased he specifically pointed out this is the primary component of 'aging of the skin'.

Dr Thompson also interjected that cereals and sugars are a primary example. This raised the question later of 'what to eat for breakfast' and he responded with 'fruit' and I talked with him afterwards about how I'd gone down that path in the early 1990s, after a medical provider, who helped me a lot overall, had me following The Fit for Life Diet. Unfortunately, that didn't lend itself well, for me, related to adrenal fatigue recovery due to the blood sugar issues that come from fruit/vegetable/juice only until mid-day. One of my medical providers said 'yeah, I've heard that a lot about that diet', so I hope my life experience pays off by sharing it here. That was for many years and might still be, the #1 selling diet program in the US. And it had a HUGE flaw in it, which, I believe, was about 1/4ish of what tanked my health recovery into fibromyalgia when I was in OT school. (Cadaver fumes/chemicals and stress of of the intentionally difficult 'weed out' first semester was the other, and interestingly, my not being able to eat meat after cadaver anatomy at a time 'carb loading' was popular, so I enjoyed pizza and pasta and breakfasts out on weekends without meat increasingly and didn't know I was allergic to wheat, dairy, and eggs.)

Throw a palmfull of nuts in with the fruit eating, and I can get on board with it for myself, because what I've gleaned from nutrition experts writing on Lumigrate, your brain needs fats in the morning. Eggs are what most providers might recommend, but in this paradigm of eating, which is getting away from animal-based and towards plant-based, then we need to look at other options. Again, we're all somewhere on the spectrum of what we're learning and doing and it's up to each of us to decide what is right for us and then do it -- or not. As Yoda would say "there is no 'try' ".

I personally like to have an apple and peanut or almond butter for a bedtime snack to help me not have a blood sugar drop in the early morning hours that wakes me up saying 'you're needing to wake up and go forage to feed me, your brain'. But that would be my suggestion for families to look into for breakfast. Kids could even eat it in the car or on the bus. Perhaps the providers at Lumigrate who are reading this might comment if they feel inclined within their realm of expertise.

He then provided a really interesting graphic from the J Gerontol A Biol Scie med Sci 2010; 65A(9):963-75 which is the "Conceptual Model of the effects of AGES in multiple organs systems during aging". He mentioned this was including things such as eye desease (such as macular degeneration, a particularly problematic and concerning factor for people as they age) and heart disease. And then AGE levels and Mortality was the next slide, which was based on a study of 1,200 people without diabetes over eight years.

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in processed foods, grains, animal products, and some oils (soybean, corn, etc.)

Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, leafy green vegetables, seeds including the popular flax seed, chia seeds.

The current ratio consumed is 20:1; approximately 150 years ago it was 1:1. That blew me away!

This current imbalance is associated with ALL chronic diseases. Multiple studies have shown dramatic decreases in chronic disease with increased omega-3 intake. (Experimental biology and medicine, 2008, 233:674-688 cited for this info.

The way these fatty acids end up contributing to or curbing inflammation is as follows (in abbreviated form):

Omega-6 fat/linoleic acid/gabba linolenic acid/acadhidonic acid /pro-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes

Omega-3 fat/alpha-linolenic acid/eicospentaenoic acid/docosahexaenoic acid/ anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes

CHICKEN gets it's very own slide, and Ann NY Acad Sci 1140:346-357, 2008 is cited. The highest concentration of omega-6 compared to other animal products. Today, chicken contains 10x fat compared to 100 years ago (2gm vs. 20gm/serving). (Note added: Due to preferences by consumers for having 'moist', juicy chicken when cooked in the ways we have cooked them, refered to above related to AGE.)

Chicken provides the highest level of arsenic, which is a heavy metal so is stored and becomes concentrated in fat as they all do; arsenic can be used to decrease parasitic infection in the birds and improve pink pigmentation of the meat they yield. Arsenic is associated with increased cardiovascular disease/CVD, diabetus millitus/DM, cancer/CA, and neurocognitive deficits.

Now he focuses on arachidonic acid with a slide citing National Cancer Institute 2010; Ten top sources of AA:

Chicken, eggs, beef (by far he noted), sausage, fish, burgers, cold cuts, pork, mexican mixed dishes, pizza.

Lipid profile was covered next, with the 'take home message' being that cholesterol increases with ALL chronic dieseases. He referenced The China Study which determined one of the strongest predictors of western diseases is cholesterol level. With 10 ml/dl increase in HDL ("good cholesterol") there was a 36% decrease in cancer risk. A noted community of 420,000 people averaged cholesterol at 127 mg/dl and there was no recorded mortality related to heart disease under the age of 64 in the three year timeframe of the study.

He also referenced a prolific researcher named Dr William Roberts, who was the editor of the American Journal of Caridiology, and authored more than 1,600 studies and 25 books, claiming that cholesterol is THE cause of heart disease. (This is perhaps a topic for discussion elsewhere, there is much to this subject to debate.)

The Framinhgam study stated heart disease is not seen if cholesterol is less than 150 and LDL less than 70.

Next was a portion about Esselstyn et al., J Fam Prac 1995, American J Cardiol 1999, Prev Cardiol 2000 which reported on 18 seriously ill "heart patients". (If you ask me, I put "people first" and say "patients with heart disease" but that does take more space and keystrokes or syllables when talking.) They all ate plat-based diet and took low dose statins and had 49 coronary events during the eight years prior to the study. During the 12 years of follow up, there were no coronary events in 17 of 18 patients they could use for follow up. IMPRESSIVE visuals /slides followed from Esselstyn, 2007, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease , showing three, six, and 12 weeks of intense plant-based diet on vessles which were occluded. Why does diet allow this to happen? It's affecting the WHOLE BODY.

Think about that. I'm pausing to do so. The WHOLE body, the brain, the toes, the hair, skin, intestines --- fast results showing up in the cardiovascular system, and imagine what else it impacts with more or less time.

The Lifestyle Heart Trial was also presented, which is reported on by Ornish et al., Lancet 336 (1990:129-133). Also in Am J Cardiol 2010: 105: 362-367. Basically, regression of disease occurred in 82% of the group that followed the experimental regimen of low fat, platn-based diet, fruit, vegetables, whole grains, 1 egg white, one cup of milk/yogurt, stress reduction techniques, exercise 3x/week and used no drugs or surgery. The control group used standard medications and care. Dr Thompson verbalized that statins don't stop it all together and have side effects at this point.

What he recommended: The Mediterranean Diet, and utilized resources from American Jounral of Clinical Nutrition (1997: 1882-6), Circulation 1999, 99: 779-785, N Engl J Med 2003; 348-2599-608). The overview of the history of the benefit for people eating it is this and goes beyond diet, it includes exercise: Walking 5-10 miles per day, high fruit/vegetable, legume, nut intake, saturated fat <6% of total fat calories, 40% of calories from fat is mostly olive oil, and meat 1-2x/MONTH, fish WEEKLY. Our American/western diet has increased meat, cheese and fish, decreased intake of whole plant foods, and we're physically inactive; greater than 50% of the population is "overweight".

The more impressive slide he had about cardiac disease was an article from JAMA 152 (1953):1090-1093. Autopsies on 300 American soldiers killed in action during the Korean war with an average age of 22 and showed 77% with gross evidence of heart disease, 6% with severe disease and 3% with complete obstruction of one or more coronary arteries. Comparatively, Korean soldiers were randomly autopsied as well without significant evidence of coronary disease.

There is an increased rate of cancer across the world - 12 million cases in 2008 and an estimated projection of 21 million cases in 2030. In the United States, in 2010, the lifetime risk was 47% for males and 38% for females. There is an increasing correlation between diet and cancer being shown. Multiple studies reveal dietary intake has major effects during cancer initiation and promotion through epigenetic changes. There is also a correlation with increased cancer risk and increased body weight/obesity.

A 2010 study reported that in the US, males have a 47% chance of cancer, women 38%, and there is increasing correlation between diet and cancer. Multiple studies show dietary intake has significant effects during cancer initiation and promotion through epigenetic changes. There is also a higher incidence in people who are obese. (From: Free Radical Research, August 2011 45(8):864-879, American Cancer Society.)

Reported in Arch. Intern. Med., March 12, 2012, a Harvard sudy with more than 120,000 people revealed:

The National Cattleman's Beef Association's response, from Shalene McNeill, R.D.: "Once again, what we are seeing here is an observational study that's limitted because it can't establish cause and effect."

Per Cancer Res. 27 (1967) 2370-2376 and Arch. Path. 85 (1968) 133-137, a study on rats performed in India:

There are multiple mecanisms that decrease initiation: Less AF/aflatoxin entered the cell, cells multiplied more slowly, 76% decrease in enzyme activity/toxic metabolite formation, 72% less DNA binding and mutation, 66% decrease in protein binding, 68% chromatin binding/creitical relevatn enzyme components.

(There were then three graphs related to dietary protein and foci formation, carcinogen dose versus protein intake, and aflatoxin dose - foci response which are from Nutr. Cancer 3 (1982) 200-206 as well as J. Natl Cancer Inst: 78 (1987) 365-369 to support the above which show tumor foci response charted against dietary protein level as well as high AF/ low protein and low AF/high protein and then aflatoxin dose. These are very interesting and well done so if you're really interested in this particular area, I suggest you find the study and the graphs at the cited sources.

Per the J. Nutr 121 (1991): 1454-1461 related to alternating protein, rats were given equal initiating dose FA and then over 12 weeks were given high protein for three weeks, then low for three weeks and that was repeated; each time there was a correlation with increased/decreased foci. "Multiple studies adjusting protein throughout promotion foci growth could be reversed, up and down, by protein intake alone." A bar graph of foci promotion by dietary protein charting tumor foci development versus dietary protein is dramatic and can be found at J. Nutr 117 (19870: 1298-1302. There is none with 2% dietary protein and 85% with 20%, 70% with 14 and then a big drop to just over 20% with 12% protein, then 10% at 10% with a taper that appears to my eye to be about 8% with 8%, 6% with 4 and 6% dietary protein.

"Our needs are about 10% protein", Dr Thompson stated. And then I see a slide in the presentation that cites The China Study, by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, Nutr. Reps. Int. 26 (1982) 793-806. The type of protein matters: All experiments discussed above used casein, which makes up 87% of cow's milk protein. All studies were repeated using plant-based proteins. No increase in tumor foci, even at the 20% level. Multiple other investigators infirmed these findings using different sources of animal proteins, initiating carcinogens and different types of cancers.

To me, the most dramatic slide was from Carcinogenesis 13 (1992): 1607-1613 and the J. Nat'l Cancer Inst. 81 (1989): 1242-1245 plotting full tumor response at 100 weeks in three groups of 3,500 mice fed different amounts of protein. With dietary protein at 6% (all 3,500 alive and less than 250 had cancer at 100 weeks. When given 14% protein it appears on the graph about 2,400 had tumor response, and with 22% protein diets about 3,400 of the 3,500 were with tumor responses and all were dead (which means some died of something else besides cancer, obviously, so we're then 'bridging' in my mind to see that protein at high levels affects other things besides tumor/cancer, naturally.

More on The China Study by T. Colin Campell, PhD, but from Am. J. Cardiol 1998:82 18T-21T highlights both cancer and cardiovascular disease:

The China Study assessed mortality rates of 890 million people and found 8,000 statistically significant associations between dietary factors and disease. There was low migration/significant differences in dietary habits by regions and a strong correlation beween cancer and the amount of animal protein, not just animal fat; consumption of lean meats/poultry still had strong correlation with high cancer incidence. Areas with extremely low animal intake were virtually free of cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Cardiovascular rates varied twentyfold by region, cancer rates varied several hundredfold by region and occurred in direct poportion to animal protein intake. People who ate the most animal-based foods had the most chronic disease, and relatively small amounts of animal-based foods had adverse effects on health. Individuals who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and avoided chronic disease generally.

Fat and Breast Cancer: Dr Thompson includes a slide from Cancer 58 (1986) 1818-1825 which plots age-adjusted death rate versus total dietary fat intake for females in what appears to me to be about 35-40 countries, and it's about as perfect 1:1 "linear regression line" (if I'm remembering my statistical terms) as I've ever seen! New Zealand, Denmark and the Netherlands are the only countries beyond the US in dietary fat consumed per day. It's really quite stunning to view. Dr Thompson added at this point "Protein may have more role than fat".

Related to cancer and the China Study: As animal protein intake incrased from once a week to 4x a week, breast cancer increased 70%. Ovarian cancer in 97,000 women studied showed 1/2 the risk with diet high in plants and fruit. A study in Germany showed colon cancer and rectal cancer decreased by 50% in adult vegetarians, with 75% reduction in cancer and all causes of mortality if they were vegetarian for longer than 20 years. (Am J. Clin Nutr. 1997: 59 (suppl): S1143-52, Am. J. Epidemiol 165 (7) 802-813, 2007; J Nat'l Cancer Inst 66 (1982) 1192-1265.

Squamous cell skin cancer had 50% the risk with vegetable intake equivalent of three leaves of spinach/day, underscoring, as Dr Thompson pointed out, it doesn't have to be a lot of some types of foods to make a significant difference. (Int J Cancer 19 (8) 1953-1960 (2006).

Dietary fiber cut the risk of brast cancer by 50%. (Int J Epidemiol 36 (2): 431-438 (2007).

Endometrial cancer increased/doubled with meat and animal products, whereas fruits/vegetables decreased the risk by 50% (Int J Cancer 120 (8), 1776-1781 (2007).

A report to Congress by the University of Oxford summarized migrant study research. Migrants assume chronic disease risk of place they migrate to. The study concludes only 203% of cancers can be attributed to genes. (Food, Nutr. and Prevention of Cancer, a Global Perspective. Washington, DC, American Institite for Cancer, World Cancer Research Fund, 1997. (Dr Thompson did interject here that diet AND genes is the key, it is not one OR the other).

Protein: Only 5-6% protein is reuqired to replace the protein regularly excreted by the body, 9-10% protein is the amount recommended to assure adequate intake. Average American in take is 15-16%.

From Healthy Eating, Healthy World, by J. Morris Hicks: Protein is formed from amino acids, and amino acids from plant and animal sources are exactly the same, no difference in quality, only in efficiency. Higher efficiency in animal-based protein in excess of physiologic needs has a linear relationship with chronic disease/increased health risks. The extra protein goes, for instance, to tumor growth seen in the cancer information presented. Plant protein intake yields slow, steady protein synthesis. The American Dietetic Association's official position: No need for vegetarians to combine foods to achieve protein requirements.

samples of protein foods from this book, (spinach tops the list with 51%, broccoli 45%, lentils 36%, asparagus 38% with T-bone steak 16%, Swiss cheese 30%, meat loaf/gravy 24%, chicken 24% and one cup of pasta (7 gm protein) at 14% ..... and

nutritent composition (cholesterol, calcium, fat, protein, beta-carotene, dietary fiber, vitamin C, folate, vitamin E, iron, magnesum) of plants vs. animal per 500 calories:

and finally a simple concept worth focusing on: More Bulk in the stomach means fewer calories consumed, providing a satisfied sensation. An artistic graphic was provided of what 400 calories looks like in the stomach for

Multiple studies to include Adventist Health study, Iowa women health study, physicians' health study, care study, reveal decreased ischemic heart disease and all cause of mortality. Substitution of nuts for carbohydrates and fats resulted in 30-45% reduction in cardiovascular disease. Antiarrhythmic and antiseizure effects dramatically reduced occurrned of sudden death (by 50%), decreased LDL, small dense LDL, increased HDL. Inverse association between nut intake and BMI/body mass index. Nut feeding trials show weight loss, not gain, with five servings per week of nuts.

4.5 million Americans living currently have been diagnosed witih Alzheimers and by 2050 the expected number will be 14 million. The number has increased 100-fold in the past 25 years, making Alzheimer's THE most rapidly-changing rate in the US. Theories such as the mitochondrial theory of aging apply with this, and, in Dr Thompson's opinion, the plant based diet is the only way to address it.

Recent studies show antioidants from dietary fruits and vegetables, not not from supplements confer protection from Alzheimers. (*Note from me to see above, related to supplement quality being a factor in studies that, in many people's opinions, has mired the studies which looked at supplements without taking into account QUALITY and efficacy of the supplements consumed by the studies' subjects.) Polyphenols from juices are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and show neuroprotection against H2O2 (oxidant). 3x/week juice consumption compared to less than 1x/week had 76% reduction in the development of Alzheimer's Disease.

Marilyn Albert, MD, scientific and medical researcher for the Alzheimer's Association is quoted as saying "The message is that the risk factors that are bad for the heart are bad for the brain."

A 27 year study of 9,000 patients showed high cholesterol noted for 42% increase in dementia. High blood pressure increased 24% and diabetes in middle age increased risk by 46%. The variation is direct with homocysteine levels, doubling for those with high levels. Women with cholesterol in the top 25% have 76% greater risk of Alzheimer's Disease than women with lower cholesterol levels. (Neurology 25 Jan 2005 (64) 2:277-81. Arch of Neurology, March 2002).

Osteoporosis (citing J. Gerontology 55 (2000):M585-592, Lancet May 4 (1968) 958-959 and Am J. Clin. Nutr. 73 (2001):118-122): Countries with the highest dairy intake per person have the highest hip fracture rates in the world. The Yale School of Medicine Report states in a study of 16 countries that fracture rate is attributable to animal protein consumption. There are multiple mechanisms at play: animal protein blocks vitamin D conversion and increases the loss of calcium from bones. A 7 year study of 1,000 women 65 years and older showed the group with highest ratio of animal protein to plant protein had 3.7 times more bone fractures and four times the rate of bone loss. (Graph from J Clin Nutr included in presentation related to this was included.)

Seventh Day Adventists were followed for 21 years (27,530) and showed vegetarians, on average, lived 7 years longer than average nonsmoking Californians, lived and average of 14 years longer if more than half their life was as vegetarian. Leafy greens were the greatest predictor of longevity, while meat and eggs increased mortality. (NOTE: On first impression, we must also take into account the other aspects of medicine, such as mind and spirit, which is a factor related to a group of people who subscribe to a way of life based in spiritual doctrine. In 2000, I was involved in studying a group of older nuns related to driving ability and they were, at the start of our time together prior to learning new skills, far more 'coordinated' and with faster psycho-motor response times than the average person let alone person of their age. Again, Just Sayin'.... think about things presented from allopathic, conventional thinkers that might be looked at differently if from a holistic, mind/body/spirit perspective instead.)

NIH-AARP study of 500,000 people ages 50-71 were followed for 10 years and showed statistically significant increase in mortality, cancer deaths, and CVD deaths in patients with the highest red meat and processed meat intake. Deaths were believed to be associated with increased saturated fats, nitroso compounds, inflammatory cytokines and heterocyclic amines.

The North Karelia Project (Public Health Magazine 2002: 4(1) 5-7) was launched in 1972 in Finland, which has the same heart disease rates as the US, in response to high cardiovascular disease and mortality rate. They changed dietary guidelines to promote decreased saturated fat, dairy and sodium intake and increased whole plant food intake. Education was done through primary health care and money was spent in public and youth education. The Dairies to Berries Project was created as an incentive for dairy farmers to change to berry farming. (Again, good graphics were included with charts showing a drop as time went on as this new program took effect over 25 years. In men 35-64 years, age adjusted, the mortality changed as follows: All causes (-49%), all cardiovascular (-68%), all coronary heart disease (-73%), all cancers (-44%), lung cancer (-71%).

Our national health care crisis is heavily attributed to our daily dietary consumption.

Dietary choices affect chronic disease through multiple mechanisms: nutritional epigenetics, inflammatory mediators, cholesterol, etc. Dietary choices play a critical role in what genes and carcinogens will result/be expressed in cancer developing.

Human protein requirements are easily obtained through a plant-based diet, excess protein does not confer health benefits and is linked to all chronic diseases.

Increase whole foods and adopt a plant based diet for the greatest benefits; the greater the adherence to it the greater the benefits.

Supplements to do not confer benefits and can cause increased morbidity.**Mardy's Note: See above about looking further into this, and I will be suggesting our resource about it to Dr Thompson as well, and naturally, please use the Comments area below for it so we can ALL have ONE discussion for everyone's benefit!, I believe there are differences of opinion related to fats and animal protein as well **

The "Silver Tsunami" of baby boomers (born just after World War II and through 1964) is a formidable wave of people whose health costs will potentially be crushing to our country and is a group which is worthy of particular focus for eduction about these issues. As always, general prevention with the most impact being on our youngest members of society and their parents is an additional key for our future wellness goals overall.

nutritionfacts.org/ [2](daily 2-3 minute reviews of latest nutritional related research, is "excellent" and utlizes PubMed as reference.

The Okinawa Program, by Bradley J., Willcox, MD, Craig Willcox, PhD, Makoto Suzuki, MD

Thank you for your interest in this CRUCIAL part of health education at Lumigrate.com! ~~ Mardy

Another GRATE and similar topic in this forum is at this link, for your ease, titled 10 Ways to Stop Chronic Inflammation Now, by Dr Jeff McClusky, another doctor in Grand Junction, Colorado, or the Doctor of Chiropractic 'flavor' as I jokingly call types of doctors or types of religious 'persuasions' for that matter:

www.lumigrate.com/forum/10-ways-stop-chronic-inflammation-now [3]

Comments

Sun, 04/22/2012 - 5:13pm

#1 [5]

Dr Marc Spurlock MD

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 1 2010

Posts: 72

If you can't go through the door, find a window! Important info!

In response to the lecture for health care professionals, I must say that I was impressed with both the amount of information and the quality thereof. It truly was pertinent information for health care professionals to incorporate and advise their patients.

I am pleased to see Mardy and Lumigrate extending the reach of the education to others, and encourage patients to consider letting their providers know about it being here. I know I appreciate patients appropriately providing information if they are asking for my input in an area I'm not well versed yet. It is a process we are involved in together.

I have worked with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum on helping patients with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. He used the anagram "SHIN" to talk about the therapies required to reverse these syndromes. "S" stood for sleep....if you don't sleep, you don't get well. "H" stood for hormones......you need all you processes functioning properly to achieve good outcomes. "I" stood for infections.......which drain the body of energy and nutrients. And "N" stood for nutrition! Nutrients come both from foods and from nutritional supplements.

Now actually, this is way too big a topic to address here. But I do have some small insights in the difficulty dealing with patients and their eating habits. I will only discuss two here.

I have a patient, actually, someone who had worked for me, and we had done some lab work for her hormones. Certain things in her family history made me think we needed to go a little further with cancer markers. I did a test to check the levels of 2-hydroxy-estrone and 16-hydroxy-estrone. Her levels were going in the carcinogenic direction. This had to do with the breakdown of estrogen in the liver. It was being done incorrectly in her particular liver.

As we discussed the issues, I told her that eating the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.) would supply the proper nutrient, indole-3-carbinol, to correct this problem. She said, "Dr. Spurlock, I am not going to eat those vegetables, so just give me a pill!"

Well, I probably looked a little shocked at first, but I realized I was not going to convince her to make these changes. And I did have a nutritional indole-3-carbinol I could offer her. So I did!

The lesson here is this: As health care professionals, we can offer outstanding advice which may not be followed by our patients. But if we want better outcomes, you must think this way....."If you can't go through the door, find a window!"

Changing people's diets may be one of the most difficult things to do, but we should still try. It is extremely important. Even making small changes is a start....."A thousand mile journey begins with a single step."....Old Chinese proverb.

We also may see misguided patients who are trying to be healthy with their diet and making big errors due to lack of understanding and education. One gentleman I follow thought that eating salmon every day was great for all the Omega 3s and other nutritional benefits. I suggested he come in for testing for heavy metals; he was loaded with mercury! He then participated in chelation, with my guidance and education about only eating tuna or salmon once a week. I also made sure his thyroid was correct as it is the detoxifying hormone. (Please see the forum on thyroid / hypothyroidism here at Lumigrate for more about this if you're interested.)

In summary, this is an extremely huge topic and not everyone agrees on what is best for us. It will be a life journey for all of us.

Best wishes for good nutrition and good health!

Wm. Marcus Spurlock, MD

__________________

"There is no one to blame. There is simply taking action!"........Wm. Marcus Spurlock, MD Dr. Spurlock presently works in Dallas, TX treating people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Bio-Identical Hormone Deficiences and Environmental Illnesses. He has been doing this work exclusively for the last 9 years. In the fall of 2011 he opened a new health center; please visit his website, which is where he posts education beyond what is sprinkled at Lumigrate. http://www.renewedvitalitymd.com/ [6] Through a total body approach, the treatments he and his team provide are 85-90% successful in returning patients to their previous health potential. You can see his complete vitae in Lumigrate's forum "About Our Writers" (link: http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/my-vitae-wm-marcus-spurlock-m... [7]), and the majority of his contributions on Lumigrate are in the FMS/CFS/CPain section, where you'll see a forum which includes his name: http://www.lumigrate.com/forums/health-issuesdis-eases/fibro... [8].

Sun, 04/22/2012 - 11:03pm

#2 [12]

Mardy Ross

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 16 2009

Posts: 2032

Question about Fish Oil and is it SHIN, not SHINE?

Dr Spurlock this was eye opening, thank you. I have two questions AND I'm putting a link at the bottom of this comment to my topic from summer 2009 from when I heard Dr Teitelbaum do a 45 minute presentation about CFS/FM:

1.
I actually did not realize that salmon can be high in mercury, I thought it was tuna and other BIG BIG fish that eat a lot of other smaller fish. That's good to know: I actually have a fish vendor who is involved with Lumigrate related to education, we're still just starting to get a few pieces together to collaborate about. I'll be sure to let him know about this topic.

Question is: what about fish oil supplements? I use one of two of the top brands, and naturally they've tested for heavy metals, which is a very important detail. I've heard Carlsons and Nordic Naturals are the most reputable and I take enough that I buy liquid form (unless for travel then I get capsules). Oddly, my integrative MD in 1997 is who got me eating salmon (2-3x a week was his recommendation), and naturally I enjoy ahi and actually regular tuna fish from a can or pouch too.

So would it be safe to be relying on fish oil supplementation for the Omega 3s and eating tuna or salmon for enjoyment at the most once a week, and perhaps eating other forms of fish instead and thus getting all your Omega 3s from the tested, bottled fish oil?

AND what about the newfangled fish oil that's perhaps companies jumping on the bandwagon to get in on the money action, concentrating it and I think there's something available by prescription now. I'm actually not that up on this end of things. That's why I'm asking you, as I know you ARE.

Dr Teitelbaum and I "go way back" -- not the way he and Dr Spurlock go way back, having worked for the same company which specialized in treating CFS/FMS in the past; I had the pleasure to meet Dr T in July of 2009 when we both spoke at a conference in Berkeley on chronic pain, and he stayed until the last person with fibromyalgia/chronic pain attending the conference talked with him. It was late evening, and I recall he was giving advise about a heel lift and I bet he knows more about that topic than most providers who you would think specialize in feet, legs, backs, hips, etc., such as PTs and DCs. I had the good fortune of working in two large outpatient clinics in my career as an OT and both had one PT who, I joked, had a 'foot fettish'.

It's not every day you find someone who is well versed in this information. I suggest people look at Lumigrate's bodywork expert Frank Gresham (find him in the chronic pain forum or Search on his name at our Search bar or at your browser with Lumigrate with it. You'll find a link to his website which has specific information about foot orthotics and his services for advisement 'remotely', in addition to if you're lucky enough to be in his geographic area and can go to his office. Frank's 'thing' with CFS/FMS is to look at that aspect of the body and heel lifts are something he recommends for a lot of people. So it's NOT surprising that Dr Teitelbaum was talking that up with someone when we were together 'way back' in 2009.

Even within PTs and DCs there are specialties that each providers is 'into' (and not), so please be aware of that as you venture out to hire providers to be on YOUr team. Our Yenta would call Dr T a 'mensch' (a good man). It was so exciting to meet him: I bought the second edition of From Fatigued to Fantastic in the late 1990s when I was again having problems with my energy/body/pains after becoming an occupational therapist. (I think it was having to get up and see up to three patients for morning ADLs before their breakfast with was long before 8 a.m.)

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in early 1999, but my pain and fatigue came on in 1995; it was different than the fatigue I had in 1989 which was diagnosed at the time as chronic Epstein-Barr virus (CEBV), which would now be called chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS. I had made a good and fast recovery (six months from not being able to walk a block or climb a flight of stairs without resting) with the help of good MDs initially and then when I'd hit a plateau, I went to a chiropractor in 1991 who focused on foods/diet such as Dr Thompson's presentation was bringing to the providers of Grand Junction that I've reported on here. (There is a similar topic in this same forum, provided by Dr Jeff McClusky titled about 10 things about inflammation. I'll put a link at the bottom to where it is now on Lumigrate.

Generally, the eating program he recommended in the early 1990s, The Fit for Life diet, helped me, but there was one key fault, in my opinion today, and I truly term it a 'fatal flaw'; only fruit and fruit juice until noon. Too much sugar, and not enough protein and fat for starting the day and I think it's part of what tipped me into adrenal fatigue and lead to the fibromyalgia coming on in 1994/5 - the extreme muscle fatigue started the same summer I was taking cadaver anatomy and got a load of toxic chemicals two hours a day, five days a week for two months plus I couldn't handle eating meat so started eating more carb/pastas which were popular at the time.

When I was on the Fit for Life Diet for a while, I remember saying that I felt 110% .. well, that bonus 10% was a critical clue that is part of early stages of adrenals getting wiggy, I now know, after reading a very good book on adrenal fatigue. For people who like to know the 'why' and the details, I cannot more highly recommend Adrenal Fatigue by a Dr Wilson who is both a DC and an ND; I very much like Dr Teitelbaum's latest best seller Beat Sugar Addiction Now! as a more distilled version of the information.

The Lumigrate Bookshelf forum has some of the books that I recommend for people, and others are spread within the specific forums that address the topics covered in the books. I work to have Lumigrate have valid and progressive information which will increase the likelihood of our users/customers -- providers on consumers of medical information, finding better health information (and providers) without the pitfalls I have over the 50+ years I've been dealing with developing or having these complex conditions be more or less (thankfully, more recently) difficulties.

My question is that I thought it was SHINE, is it no longer with the Exercise component?

Thank you in advance, Dr Spurlock.
~~ Mardy

Topic in fibromyalgia, CFS area related to Dr Teitelbaum, titled "Jacob Teitelbuam, MD has come from Fatigued to Fantastic!" for those who are interested in learning more about him and getting links out to his website presences: www.lumigrate.com/forum/jacob-teitelbaum-md-has-come-fatigued-fantastic-0 [13]

__________________

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! is my motto. I'm Mardy Ross, and I founded Lumigrate in 2008 after a career as an occupational therapist with a background in health education and environmental research program administration. Today I function as the desk clerk for short questions people have, as well as 'concierge' services offered for those who want a thorough exploration of their health history and direction to resources likely to progress their health according to their goals. Contact Us comes to me, so please do if you have questions or comments. Lumigrate is "Lighting the Path to Health and Well-Being" for increasing numbers of people. Follow us on social networking sites such as: Twitter: http://twitter.com/lumigrate [4] and Facebook. (There is my personal page and several Lumigrate pages. For those interested in "groovy" local education and networking for those uniquely talented LumiGRATE experts located in my own back yard, "LumiGRATE Groove of the Grand Valley" is a Facebook page to join. (Many who have joined are beyond our area but like to see the Groovy information! We not only have FUN, we are learning about other providers we can be referring patients to and 'wearing a groove' to each other's doors -- or websites/home offices!) By covering some of the things we do, including case examples, it reinforces the concepts at Lumigrate.com as well as making YOU feel that you're part of a community. Which you ARE at Lumigrate!

Mon, 04/23/2012 - 9:56am

#3 [14]

Dr Marc Spurlock MD

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 1 2010

Posts: 72

E for Exercise, fish and fish oil/omega-3 answers

I typically recommend doing approximately 4 grams of fish oil per day.

You need to check with your fish oil supplier on how they remove the heavy metals from their product. I use the Pharmanex brand and they use cold molecular distillation. If they have to get back with you on that topic, be wary of their quality.

Some people cannot do fish oil, and then we offer flax seed oil. Not quite as good but close. There is a lot of hoopla about who is the best, what are the best sources, should you add krill oil......my spin is to get a good brand, make sure it doesn't smell rancid when you open it and learn the brands that need to be refrigerated and those that don't.

I always prefer fresh fish to anything canned or pouched, but do what you can do. Some areas really don't have good seafood markets or there is not enough business to support fresh fish. There are increasingly good options for ordering online, as well, for those people, but that can be costly. Those people will need to do whatever they can. Frozen is better than canned/pouched also. Look out for preservatives and artificial colorings/flavorings, too, and if the fish was farm raised or wild caught, and then the quality of the water of the area is a factor to consider, naturally.

The prescription fish oil is not any better. Check what the copay is if you have insurance, and if it is more than the OTC fish oil, buy the OTC product.

As for EXERCISE - Dr. T later added the E/exercise as a strategy to make the anagram be a positive statement and easier to remember. I believe that the Exercise element is too overwhelming at the beginning of the therapy.

Thanks for asking the questions!

Wm. Marcus Spurlock

__________________

Sun, 04/22/2012 - 11:32pm

#4 [15]

Mardy Ross

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 16 2009

Posts: 2032

Fish Oil Follow-up. Fibromyalgia or Frail:'Grade' the Exercise

Thank you, that clarifies a LOT about Omega 3 supplementation -- this will help a lot of people, myself included. I was getting fish oil from my local health food store, a brand that the ND on Lumigrate at the startup, Dr Lepisto, recommended -- he had become my personal ND a couple of years before I started Lumigrate and when he and two others I knew were going to form an integrative center, I felt so strongly about integrative and functional medicine being the wave of the future for mainstream, particularly for reversing or solving fibromyaligia for people, that I went in the direction you see the results of today, several years or more later.

THEN I started getting my compounded hormones (including thyroid) and Iodoral (iodine supplementation to support/detox the thyroid as you have referred to, above) and some other supplements (including prebiotics, probiotics, 'green drink', etc.) from ITC Compounding and Natural Wellness Pharmacy (ITC Pharmacy for short), which YOU connected me up with in 2010. They have patients in all states in the US and beyond, and are large so they get a lot of orders for each type of thyroid so what I call 'batch testing', similar to what BigPharma does to be sure what a person is getting is within a certain %.

I'd had problems when Armour became unavailable and went to a compound at that time and had some bad symptoms going on which tied in time-wise with picking up and taking a refill on that. I had it tested, it was 50% low and 50% high on two things that are mixed together (T3 and T4). I actually stopped taking it immediately and eased off of my other hormones and felt better than I had on them for a while and then things started go fall apart (my connective tissues are very much affected if my hormones are not adjusted, everything from going out of alignment in my SI joint to plantar fasciitis and upper extremity/hand/arm issues.) So, for a variety of reasons, I approach 'exercise' differently. I've truly been 'in the shoes' of the frail patient!

I'll get to that in a bit. I wanted to share more about fish oil. For one, RANCID: if you take fish oil and you 'burp fish', that means it is rancid. Correct me if I'm wrong, GRATE providers who read and will comment, but that is what I learned and have found to be true. I did not know that for MANY years of taking fish oil that was not of high enough quality or which I was not getting through vendors specific to quality health products.

In 2011, I shifted to purchasing ALL my supplements from the vendors that I support on Lumigrate and who support us at Lumigrate because I cannot attest to how they are if I don't work with them as a customer. I was finding Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers' staff getting mixed and diluted in terms of knowledge about supplements at the store I shop at mostly; they're a rapidly growing health food store in the US which started on the west side of Denver, not far from where I was growing up in the mountains about 30 minutes away. I think it's impossible to give the same quality when you're bigger than when smaller, in some businesses at least.

When I routed people to them with their national online ordering, they didn't have anyone to ask questions of, etc. So there were some 'holes' in terms of my providing them as the sole supplement vendor, as I had originally done when Lumigrate launched in 2009 (with links to their website from our Products page). Though they are a GRATE company and offer many items to ship to people, and I wholeheartedly encourage people considering them as a source for MANY things; I just bought $200 worth of animals (protien), vegetables, but not minerals (supplemenents) this weekend.

I've been getting some things from Robin Thomas and others from ITC Pharmacy and it's like parents with children: I love them equally and they're very different. Which is GRATE, as people using Lumigrate have different needs. ITC carries the same reputable brand the ND/Dr Lepisto had recommended, and co-president Gary King said 'why pay us to ship it to you, just get it at Vitamin Cottage/Natural Grocers'. I was also taking a fairly high amount (as you recommend, and state, above, Dr Spurlock) and Gary said 'at that quantity, don't pay us to get you a capsulized version, just take the liquid'. I just had never tried the liquid, so I went to Natural Grocers and bought some, and you know, it's not as bad as I thought it would be, and I don't feel I need a 'spoon full of sugar to help the medicine go down' as Mary Poppins so beautifully sang. (Hint: I still use capsules when I'm on the road/traveling.)

I just really appreciate businesses which are run by people looking out for their customers' 'bottom line'. And while, in general, direct marketing/network marketing products cost more in dollars, I now fully appreciate the advantages to having a QUALIFIED person working with you -- it's very supportive. I get a call every month from Robin saying "Do you really need your autoship or should I move it for you", as she knows I am not very compliant about getting the ideal number of supplements into my body. And we have the opportunity to talk about why that is and I then have the opportunity to work on that and do better. (Or not.) One of the supplements I have gotten from her/USANA AK tested a while back as negative for me due to the selenium. Why would that be? I picked her brain, and she has a GRATE brain to pick. That's why she's on Lumigrate!

I work hard to find "unrelated", QUALITY, providers of information (and services/products) at Lumigrate.com, and to provide at least two different sources because consumers have different needs. USANA is one of the highest rated supplement companies in the US, and the information she and USANA provide at their websites and e-newsletters, etc, are wonderful reminders coming into my email (and not too often, by the way, I like their frequency and there are not 'hooks' that I've found at least. "Ethical" is a topic we discuss a lot by the way.)

There are other people at Lumigrate who provide services and products, and their products might be what someone wishes to take, which is fine and I trust those providers to be sure their clients which come from Lumigrate know about our focused supplement providers as well so they know of the options. I'm really trying to increase the odds for people that they get what they are intending to purchase, and in supplements, there are huge problems with substandard manufacturing, which ends up with most people in the US having taken bad supplements in the past and so the data is skewed in research that is reported on today, particularly in the mass media.

The Iowa Study that hit the news in 2011, which is part of this seminar summary, above, had me picking up the phone and calling Robin the second I heard it and she went to work looking at the study; with her background in medical research, she knows how to look at these things critically and her writing ability and interest in marketing on Lumigrate and her website, etc. lead to our having a really good response for that which I hope nipped that 'in the bud' for our followers. I will include Gary/ITC as well, but they have slightly different skill sets and focus differently with their businesses, naturally. One operates out of a home office, as do I, the other out of a 9,000 ft2 facility and they are EQUALLY valuable as resources, in my opinion, and I share them with all at Lumigrate becasue of my commitment from day one doing Lumigrate to bring the best I can find to 'the table' for the public/consumers and providers in the US and beyond looking for solutions related to health and well-being.

If you want a link to that information, it's what is in a block up at the very top of this piece when I get to reporting on the part of Dr Thompson's presentation where I went , so I hope it is a for those who hear the differing information about supplementation. Again, learn for yourself, decide for yourself, act (or not) for yourself or on behalf of someone YOU advocate for or with related to their health and well-being.

I've now worked closely with ITC's co-presidents, Allan and Gary, and with Robin for many months and my admiration for both entities deepens all the time. As it does with you, Dr Spurlock, you're providing such a high quantity of information at Lumigrate. I feel that ITC's leadership has a standard for high quality which extends to the supplements they sell and some are even made 'for them', which makes them economical, which is a key for many people, including those with chronic illness as their funds are typically 'impaired' direction proportional to their wellness.

EXERCISE: On one hand, it makes sense to get the SHIN underway FIRST and then go to Exercise, I know all people who are making health goals sometimes bite off more than they can chew (food pun intended .) On the other, when I had CFS in 1989 when very little was understood about it, the ENT I was referred to by my PC physician, who had the most up-to-date information out of National Jewish in Denver (a hospital which has an interest in chronic disease, immunology, etc.), gave me this advice, because they didn't have as much knowledge as doctors like you, Dr Spurlock, have today. "You might not feel like doing it, because you're so weak and exhausted, but exercise will help you, just don't do more than you can comfortably do."

I started with doing about half a block and turned back and went home, shaking and having rubbery weak legs after and feeling like a wilted lettuce salad. But something inside of me said 'I feel better at another level'. The hormone system, the circulatory system, the body, mind and spirit, get SO MUCH from getting outside in the sun and fresh air, perhaps even with bare feet in the grass if possible and safe. Important to note, I was working 5 days a week, a bit under full time as I was unable to get out of bed before about 9 am. I literally could not get out of bed, I was that week, until later in the morning, my eyes weren't even strong enough muscle-wise to stay open.

I was walking about that same distance in the morning from car to desk, and the big photocopier was in another building, about that distance. So was it something about having a walk after dinner/time of day dependent? Did that time of day have something to do with sleep a few hours later? Or was it that I was having a walk for leisure and 'for me', whereas the other walking was related to the 'job' aspect of my life? WHO KNOWS! But it worked! And I used that experience when, eventually, as an occupational therapist, I had a stream of patients with FM finding their way to my door. (And today it's easier for you to find me and it's cheaper too, being the 'concierge' of Lumigrate!

I know that almost all my patients with fibromyalgia when I was an OT in the 'insurance based', allopathic-referring, outpatient clinic, were anti physical therapy; they'd been prescribed it by their insurance-based doctors who send people with orthopedic problems and the 'usual stuff' to the usual stuff PT/providers and fibromyalgia is a speciality that many massage therapists admit they don't treat and refer on to someone who does.

So the patients were getting hurt at PT; and when you have FM and "overdo it", it's not just being stiff or sore, it causes quite a decrease in function for many days or longer and that, in turn, causes a downward spiral. In my opinion, people who have had chronic pain are struggling to get more active and functional and feel better and 'brighter' and pain is always working against that. It actually causes a 'rewiring'/short circuiting in the brain, leads to balance problems, and all kinds of things. Those are topics for other topics at Lumigrate in other forums, so please look around if this is of interest to you.

BUT, if you're a consumer NOT giving feedback to your providers, they cannot know of their mistakes, and it actually results in YOU, the FM patients, having a majority of providers who, quite frankly, don't want to work with you because you 'no show' or come back and don't feel comfortable being forthright with the provider about what is and is not working. OR the provider is doing a GRATE job and then you need a 'soft shoulder' to cry on or an understanding ear to vent to. That makes some providers uncomfortable; perhaps instead say 'I need someone to talk with, can you recommend someone". If you're reading this and don't have resources, CONTACT US here, and we can help direct you. This applies equallty to consumers and providers.

From my standpoint, as a functional advisor/consultant and my history with the label 'occupational therapist', it depends on what a person thinks of as 'exercise'. People and figuring out what to do for them is really like 'peeling an onion' and sometimes very small things are all that are needed to bring out to the surface to work on.

One patient always comes to mind on related to FM/fibromyalgia and exercise: she was young when she got fibromyalgia (high school) and learned exercise was good so she thought a 20 minute walk was a small bit of exercise. Naturally, that overwhelmed her, and then she did nothing, not thinking 'well, maybe five minutes (or less) would be right'. I'm happy to report that with only insurance-based providers guilding her, and her active participation with the help of a supportive mother/single parent, she went from being 17 and thinking social security disability was going to be all the income she would have in the future to, within months, working part time at a call center and being allowed to get up frequently and make a lap around the bullpen/cubicles back to her desk.

I start people with exercise the FIRST day, you have to do something and not just evaluate on the first day of treatment in insurance-based medicine so perhaps my habits carry over from seeing my successes, but this is what I would prescribe; exercising the diaphragm and teaching how to belly breathe and then drop into information about mindfulness meditation. There is now quite a lot on Lumigrate.com about these techniques so I can refer clients to it as can any providers using Lumigrate as a tool for their patients/customers, and naturally all who come to Lumigrate to learn as the consumer and then ask for help from providers on Lumigrate or who they have access to with their insurance where they live. It all comes together to create a lot of reform for people's health and wellness.

For mindfullness, I personally learned from the work/books/tapes of Jon Kabat-Zinn who developed 'mindfulness meditation' back in the 1970s I believe; the research was being done then. But there are a million similar ways now, kind of the way Myers-Briggs personality test inspired many others to put their own slant on similar thinking/testing. If they would start with that, and the importance of hydration (and I'd suggest they look into water quality/purity/toxin removal as an option to city tap water) we could build from there. I'd ideally liked to have had them three times a week but twice was the norm, sometimes it was just once a week or less often; time, energy, money are all factors in how much treatment someone can come to.

But then I'd take them to the clinic's gym and suggest they work on up to three pieces of equipment for up to two minutes, but we'd have discussed pacing and monitoring of fatigue first; the rule was, as soon as you started to feel fatigued, you stop and rest. Breathe. Sip on water. And they'd get JUST as much of a compliment from me for stopping short. People who have FM typically were 'overachievers', were often raised or have been in relationships in their personal or professional lives where they are trying to please impossible to please people or organizations. It's good to get them guided to information or providers to help them with that if they could benefit and we have all of that also, now at Lumigrate ('trauma in childhood', ACE or Adverse Childhood Experiences are search words to use at Lumigrate.com and we route you out to select websites for more information.)

Once the person could do that much activity/exercise and go home and not have a 'flareup' or 'backslide', meaning not feeling any negative effects the next day, they could progress to more time on any of the equipment using those same limits. Ideally they felt better the day after the appropriate amount and type of activity/exercise.

It's my preference to start everyone on treadmill and 'arm bike', then let them chose stair climber or eliptical; naturally that is all dependent upon any physical impairments such as balance and arm/shoulder problems, etc. I never have worked where there is a rowing machine with the fans on the front flywheel for resistance, those are my favorite piece of equipment personally, and if I join a gym or health club that is one of the criteria I look for; -the air blowing on the person cools you, and with CFS the body's not able to cool itself properly. I also like the rhythmical and soothing experience with the rowing motion. I would have them start with limited dumbell exercises; as with people who have had strokes/CVAs (and other neurological injuries or conditions), 1# (or less) can be the right place to start and you ideally want to have them starting to feel fatigue at about 10 repetitions and not do more than a dozen in a set. One to three sets. Again, these are guidelines, but it's SO drastically different than the way most 'trainers' or PTs and OTs working with people with orthopedic conditions do things that it is beneficial to cover here for those who are interested.

I would do this for one or two sessions is all, just to reinforce these concepts with the patient, as well as the overall concept of proactivity and empowerment about giving feedback to providers and being in the 'power seat' related to their care. At that point in time, I would put in a Rx request to their provider for them to have 'evaluation and treatment with PT to include home exercise program'. This benefitted the patient because the PTs have expertise beyond mine about the physical body, and the clinics I was at had massage therapists who could work under the PTs for massage if appropriate, along with the usual techniques they have in their toolbox, including warm, moist heat! (Which everyone, almost, LOVES, when done 'right'. Again, sometimes patients just hadn't been proactive enough giving feedback to their providers in the past and we worked on that in our time together, and that is still the core of what I do with my direct clients whether local or at a distance, and the content at Lumigrate.com.)

It is important to note that I also teach and reinforce until the 'got it', that when you have a chronic condition you're not going to always be able to do longer/go further as time goes on the way you do when training when you're chronically well. Then I could turn most of my focus with their treatment on their FUNCTION and goals for everything that occupies time for them; the occupation of health care is one of those things, and when a person has a complex medical condition of any type there is much to educate and "shepherd" them, and their advocate if they have one, related to navigating from where they are to where they ideally can be someday in the future.

This benefits them with a higher quality of life and benefits us all with their being more independent and having fewer health care costs; as with the young woman I referred to, above, she became a working tax payer and was requiring less from social security disability/insurance than had we not worked together! I got the impression she was pretty relieved to be getting back to doing 'what normal 18 year olds do', which is enter the world of work and continue their education, formally or at the 'school of life'.

I would always want to refer them for nutritional counseling and they typically didn't have insurance for that or their provider didn't understand this type of nutritional information and would want to send them to a registered dietician who was teaching the food pyramid with dairy and wheat and all kinds of stuff that, in my experience, had not been of benefit to people with fibromyalgia. Again, since 2009, Lumigrate.com has been on the Internet to meet these needs for my clients and others', plus for those consumers who are looking for information to do on their own or with their team around them (remember the Lumigrate You model).

A woman who was referred to OT for bilateral upper extremity repetitive motion injury (of both arms) due to keyboarding at work was an impetus for my getting out of that type of provider relationship to patients/consumers and creating Lumigrate.com. To her knowledge, she did not have any chronic illness. But her arms were not healing as they should despite her being completely compliant -- it was clear as could be to me that she likely had systemic inflammation so I suggested she go back to her workers comp physician for testing and guidance on that.

She came back with a BIG bottle of BIG 800 mg ibuprofen. The emotions I had, in this order: for all this. And within that calendar year, the opportunities came together for me to shift to doing things differently. So I find this information and having this kind of information and providers giving input and my heart feels like it is (healed heart).

So I hope that the consumers and providers alike out there reading this realize that there ARE providers like Dr Thompson, you -- Dr Spurlock, and me, ITC's primaries, Robin Thomas .. and many others, who are going through a lot of extra 'stuff' and working EXTRA HARD to learn different things, work differently, and "progress" medicine and health care.

I think we have a lot to offer and I appreciate those who come together to collaborate here at Lumigrate. It's a 'virtual team around YOU' for all who come. I am GRATEfull to all. ~~ Mardy

__________________

Mon, 04/23/2012 - 9:25pm

#5 [16]

Robin Thomas

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Aug 21 2010

Posts: 94

Re: Nutrition and Chronic Disease - Presentation by Jimmy ...

I've enjoyed reading Mardy's thorough article on the presentation by Dr. Thompson and also your comments, Dr. Spurlock. It encourages me to hear more and more physicians promoting nutrition as such an important part of the whole health journey. Too many physicians in my local area are happy to write a script and send their patients on their way with only the outdated food pyramid as a guide.

Interested in reading more background information, I headed over to Dr. Spurlock's website, http://www.renewedvitalitymd.com/ [6] to find within those pages much that resonates with me.

Over the years, as I enrolled patients with chronic degenerative diseases into various clinical studies, the nurses and I were amazed to find many patients did not want to adjust their diets to reduce inflammation. They, like the clients Mardy and Dr. Spurlock mentioned, wanted a pill to "fix their kidney" or their arthritis, or their heart disease.

My own son was under the care of many physicians who believed in "medication first" --- insulin for his beta cells, levothyroxine for his thyroid, an antidepressant for anxiety.... We only discovered the Cu (copper) toxicity much later when I finally flew him to Minnesota to Dr. Troy Spurrill, DC founder of Synapse, http://officialsynapse.com [17]

Nutrition is key to the journey towards health

Medical detoxification is worth way less when good nutrition is ignored. Eating as "clean" as possible, with a high percentage of organic fruits and vegetables, including plenty of fresh greens, is so important. Yes, minimizing meat, and making sure that the meat that is eaten is clean of hormones, metals, and antibiotics. I also prefer grass fed meat... avoiding corn fed as much as possible.

It is also important to determine specific sensitivities: food sensitivities can be quite common, including commonly gluten, wheat and dairy sensitivities. But even foods that are generally considered "healthy" can cause sensitivities. It was determined that my own mother was sensitive to the bowl of oatmeal she ate every morning, causing her IBS symptoms.

But supplementation is important, too, as it is almost impossible to eat enough for the higher concentrations needed by an individual who already has chronic inflammation. And many individuals do have a distinct need for supplement support.

My son is a perfect example. He required extra support, including an ox bile, pancreatin, dehydrocholic acid and black radish supplement (GB-3) to help support detoxification. Chelation therapy was out of the question due to his seizure disorder. Liver support has also been helpful, using USANA's Hepasil [18] with its combination of choline bitartrate, alpha lipoic acid, betaine, turmeric extract, milk thistle extract, olivol, and green tea extract. These supplements have helped immensely, as well as taking quality digestive enzymes [19] to aide digestion and probiotics [20] for his Candida infection.

The caveat is to choose the highest quality of supplements you can find. I have written a recent article about how to determine if your nutritional supplement is safe and effective [21]. One of the best indicators is to ask if your supplement is "manufactured to pharmaceutical grade GMPs", and to ask about "third party certification". This is particularly important for multivitamin supplements, which are notoriously difficult to manufacture, due to the varied ingredients.

Fish Oil

There are a number of great sources for fish oil. I agree with Dr. Spurlock that you need to be careful that heavy metals are removed from any fish oil product. Isogenix and Carlton's are both excellent products.

I use USANA's BiOmega: the source of fish is deep, cold-water small anchovies and sardines, purified through high vacuum double distillation. Take mercury, for example. BiOmega [22] is as purified as it gets with regard to mercury, and is tested to contain a maximum of 0.01 ppm (parts per million). In other words, it is at least 99.999999% free of mercury. This level is thousands of times lower than a typical can of tuna fish, and well below the acceptable safe level (1 ppm, as specified by the FDA [23]).

I defer to Dr. Spurlock's expertise on determining what specific supplements are most appropriate for specific conditions. As I always emphasize, each person is an individual with their own specific needs and consulting with appropriate and knowledgeable medical providers is encouraged.

And of course, never ingest rancid oils, either fish oil or vegetarian pressed seeds. The vegetable seed oils used in OptOmega [24] are cold-pressed and certified organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture [25]. Keeping these oils in the refrigerator will help maintain their potency and purity.

Be Well!

Robin

__________________

Robin started contributing to Lumigrate in August 2010. "Meet Robin Thomas", a topic in our biographies/vitae forum is at http://www.lumigrate.com/forum/meet-robin-thomas [26] to read all about her journey, which was greatly influenced by the need to help solve her youngest son's significant health challenges. For those who want just the overview here: After working over 22 years in medical research at the University of North Carolina on chronic inflammatory diseases she switched her focus to preventive health in 2004 when she was introduced to USANA Health Sciences. Robin is passionate about helping others improve their health, have more energy, manage their weight, and improve their skin.

I love meeting new friends !

LIKE me on Facebook [27] Connect on LinkedIn [28]

Follow me on Twitter [29] Learn more at my BLOG [30]

"I dream of a world free from pain and suffering. I dream of a world free from disease. The USANA family will be the healthiest family on earth. Share my vision. Love life and live it to its fullest in happiness and health."

-Dr. Myron Wentz, Founder and Chairman, USANA Health Sciences

Sat, 09/29/2012 - 12:22pm

#6 [31]

Mardy Ross

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 16 2009

Posts: 2032

World Renowned Heart Surgeon: What REALLY Causes Heart Disease

"World Renowned Heart Surgeon Speaks Out on What Really Causes Heart Disease" are words that caught my eye yesterday on "Amazing Alice's" Facebook page (Alice is one of Lumigrate's original 'users' and provided amazing recipes/food, and spiritual articles). I wanted to share it here as an adjunct/supportive comment to this topic which has gotten a good number of reads -- Dr Thompson, the local and forward-thinking pulmonologist is NOT 'world renowned' as Dr Lundell is (see box below). Yet! He did such a great job researching and thinking through and presenting this topic, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a future that shines out on a larger number of people.

Does it really matter if anyone is renowned or not? Perhaps it indicates that someone has been so valid and good that they've gathered increasing numbers of people 'following them', I get that. But to me, what matters the most is that a person has taken the time to look and learn, and, in this case, to say 'I'm changing my approach'. This can be difficult for 'doctors' and other conventional providers, as the system that created them has historically been based on them 'passing' or 'failing' and 'having to stand up to pressure against you'. I remember being on internships at the Denver VA to become an occupational therapist in 1996, and the way the men and women interning to become physicians were grilled in small groups and that might include the stranger barely introduced as the new occupational therapy intern. I also remember that it was clear the physician supervisor was making a point to be educating me on something she felt my discipline in general and the education I was being given by my department was off on; I appreciated that. It was something to do with open-chained exercise/activity and if it would benefit the neurological system -- from occupational therapist to occupational therapist since the discipline was invented in World War I in the early 1900s, something thought to work was passed on, and the medical science of 1996 had disproven it, so this one thing was needing to go by the wayside and be replaced with something better. I'd be curious if, a generation later, that activity is still being performed by veterans in the OT gym.

It frustrates me that it takes so long for systems to change, for things to be replaced -- it seems to take about a generation. And some of that has to do with ego on the part of the person creating the change: isn't it a GOOD thing to 'progress your thinking'? To me, it means we're moving forward! So let's not indict, let's go beyond exhonerating professionals who are making a good attempt at "The Paradigm Shift" and CELEBRATE them! I hope people see that I've done that with my enthusiasm about Dr Jimmy's talk, AND that when it came to the points that perhaps I had more time to learn and gain experience, I spoke up and said 'but I don't agree with this part', and asked others I know to contribute to the discussion for all reading to benefit from. So that we can perhaps all shift forward faster in order to have the benefits sooner than later and help more people's lives be better NOW.

I suggest people follow out to the article at this link, but in order to demonstrate what it is about, I'm providing the highlights as well, for your learning ease. http://myscienceacademy.org/2012/08/19/world-renown-heart-surgeon-speaks-out-on-what-really-causes-heart-disease/ [32]

Dr. Dwight Lundell is the past Chief of Staff and Chief of Surgery at Banner Heart Hospital , Mesa , AZ. His private practice, Cardiac Care Center was in Mesa, AZ. Recently Dr. Lundell left surgery to focus on the nutritional treatment of heart disease. He is the founder of Healthy Humans Foundation that promotes human health with a focus on helping large corporations promote wellness. He is also the author of The Cure for Heart Disease and The Great Cholesterol Lie. [33]

The official news release can be found here: Prevent Disease [34]

We physicians with all our training, knowledge and authority often acquire a rather large ego that tends to make it difficult to admit we are wrong. So, here it is. I freely admit to being wrong.. As a heart surgeon with 25 years experience, having performed over 5,000 open-heart surgeries,today is my day to right the wrong with medical and scientific fact.

I trained for many years with other prominent physicians labelled “opinion makers.” Bombarded with scientific literature, continually attending education seminars, we opinion makers insisted heart disease resulted from the simple fact of elevated blood cholesterol.

The only accepted therapy was prescribing medications to lower cholesterol and a diet that severely restricted fat intake. The latter of course we insisted would lower cholesterol and heart disease. Deviations from these recommendations were considered heresy and could quite possibly result in malpractice.

It Is Not Working!

These recommendations are no longer scientifically or morally defensible. The discovery a few years ago that inflammation in the artery wall is the real cause of heart disease is slowly leading to a paradigm shift in how heart disease and other chronic ailments will be treated.

The long-established dietary recommendations have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the consequences of which dwarf any historical plague in terms of mortality, human suffering and dire economic consequences.

Despite the fact that 25% of the population takes expensive statin medications and despite the fact we have reduced the fat content of our diets, more Americans will die this year of heart disease than ever before.

Statistics from the American Heart Association show that 75 million Americans currently suffer from heart disease, 20 million have diabetes and 57 million have pre-diabetes. These disorders are affecting younger and younger people in greater numbers every year.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol would accumulate in the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Inflammation is not complicated — it is quite simply your body’s natural defence to a foreign invader such as a bacteria, toxin or virus. The cycle of inflammation is perfect in how it protects your body from these bacterial and viral invaders. However, if we chronically expose the body to injury by toxins or foods the human body was never designed to process,a condition occurs called chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is just as harmful as acute inflammation is beneficial.

What thoughtful person would willfully expose himself repeatedly to foods or other substances that are known to cause injury to the body? Well,smokers perhaps, but at least they made that choice willfully.

The rest of us have simply followed the recommended mainstream dietthat is low in fat and high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates, not knowing we were causing repeated injury to our blood vessels. Thisrepeated injury creates chronic inflammation leading to heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity.

Let me repeat that: The injury and inflammation in our blood vessels is caused by the low fat diet recommended for years by mainstream medicine.

What are the biggest culprits of chronic inflammation? Quite simply, they are the overload of simple, highly processed carbohydrates (sugar, flourand all the products made from them) and the excess consumption of omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods.

Take a moment to visualize rubbing a stiff brush repeatedly over soft skin until it becomes quite red and nearly bleeding. you kept this up several times a day, every day for five years. If you could tolerate this painful brushing, you would have a bleeding, swollen infected area that became worse with each repeated injury. This is a good way to visualize the inflammatory process that could be going on in your body right now.

Regardless of where the inflammatory process occurs, externally or internally, it is the same. I have peered inside thousands upon thousands of arteries. A diseased artery looks as if someone took a brush and scrubbed repeatedly against its wall. Several times a day, every day, the foods we eat create small injuries compounding into more injuries, causing the body to respond continuously and appropriately with inflammation.

While we savor the tantalizing taste of a sweet roll, our bodies respond alarmingly as if a foreign invader arrived declaring war. Foods loaded with sugars and simple carbohydrates, or processed withomega-6 oils for long shelf life have been the mainstay of the American diet for six decades. These foods have been slowly poisoning everyone.

How does eating a simple sweet roll create a cascade of inflammation to make you sick?

Imagine spilling syrup on your keyboard and you have a visual of what occurs inside the cell. When we consume simple carbohydrates such as sugar, blood sugar rises rapidly. In response, your pancreas secretes insulin whose primary purpose is to drive sugar into each cell where it is stored for energy. If the cell is full and does not need glucose, it is rejected to avoid extra sugar gumming up the works.

When your full cells reject the extra glucose, blood sugar rises producing more insulin and the glucose converts to stored fat.

What does all this have to do with inflammation? Blood sugar is controlled in a very narrow range. Extra sugar molecules attach to a variety of proteins that in turn injure the blood vessel wall. This repeated injury to the blood vessel wall sets off inflammation. When you spike your blood sugar level several times a day, every day, it is exactly like taking sandpaper to the inside of your delicate blood vessels.

While you may not be able to see it, rest assured it is there. I saw it in over 5,000 surgical patients spanning 25 years who all shared one common denominator — inflammation in their arteries.

Let’s get back to the sweet roll. That innocent looking goody not only contains sugars, it is baked in one of many omega-6 oils such as soybean. Chips and fries are soaked in soybean oil; processed foods are manufactured with omega-6 oils for longer shelf life. While omega-6’s are essential -they are part of every cell membrane controlling what goes in and out of the cell – they must be in the correct balance with omega-3’s.

If the balance shifts by consuming excessive omega-6, the cell membrane produces chemicals called cytokines that directly cause inflammation.

Today’s mainstream American diet has produced an extreme imbalance of these two fats. The ratio of imbalance ranges from 15:1 to as high as 30:1 in favor of omega-6. That’s a tremendous amount of cytokines causing inflammation. In today’s food environment, a 3:1 ratio would be optimal and healthy.

To make matters worse, the excess weight you are carrying from eating these foods creates overloaded fat cells that pour out large quantities of pro-inflammatory chemicals that add to the injury caused by having high blood sugar. The process that began with a sweet roll turns into a vicious cycle over time that creates heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetesand finally, Alzheimer’s disease, as the inflammatory process continues unabated.

There is no escaping the fact that the more we consume prepared and processed foods, the more we trip the inflammation switch little by little each day. The human body cannot process, nor was it designed to consume, foods packed with sugars and soaked in omega-6 oils.

There is but one answer to quieting inflammation, and that is returning to foods closer to their natural state. To build muscle, eat more protein. Choose carbohydrates that are very complex such as colorful fruits and vegetables. Cut down on or eliminate inflammation- causing omega-6 fats like corn and soybean oil and the processed foods that are made from them.

One tablespoon of corn oil contains 7,280 mg of omega-6; soybean contains 6,940 mg. Instead, use olive oil or butter from grass-fed beef.

Animal fats contain less than 20% omega-6 and are much less likely to cause inflammation than the supposedly healthy oils labelled polyunsaturated. Forget the “science” that has been drummed into your head for decades. The science that saturated fat alone causes heart disease is non-existent. The science that saturated fat raises blood cholesterol is also very weak. Since we now know that cholesterol is not the cause of heart disease, the concern about saturated fat is even more absurd today.

The cholesterol theory led to the no-fat, low-fat recommendations that in turn created the very foods now causing an epidemic of inflammation. Mainstream medicine made a terrible mistake when it advised people to avoid saturated fat in favor of foods high in omega-6 fats. We now have an epidemic of arterial inflammation leading to heart disease and other silent killers.

What you can do is choose whole foods your grandmother served and not those your mom turned to as grocery store aisles filled with manufactured foods. By eliminating inflammatory foods and adding essential nutrients from fresh unprocessed food, you will reverse years of damage in your arteries and throughout your body from consuming the typical American diet.

__________________

Sun, 01/26/2014 - 3:20pm

#7 [35]

Mardy Ross

Title: LumiGRATE Poster - Top of the Totem Pole

Joined: Feb 16 2009

Posts: 2032

Mercola on Cholesterol - inflammation -statins -CoQ10 -Vitamin D

Thank you, Robin Thomas! There is such an interplay of related information that stems back to having the foundational 'root' in inflammation as this topic is about, and it's great to keep tacking onto threads so that it's 'one stop shoppin' rather than fragmented information YOUsers have to go from here to there to obtain. What you've added is invaluable (as always), so on behalf of the Lumigrate YOUsers, I thank you, Dr Spurlock, and everyone who contributes to telling others about Lumigrate and / or this topic, and in particular the experts who take the time to contribute information here.

YES, a longer topic thread makes for increased time to look it over and/ or read, while delving into the parts that are specific interest to each reader, but we're basically talking about the extraordinarily complex biochemistry of the human body AND it's of utmost importance to wellness: Those who understand the importance make the time and find the energy to dig in, that's just what YOUsers do!

Here is the link at Mercola dot com, and I highly encourage taking the trip to see what it's about. The highlight to pique your interests will be below in order to have it right here what you'll be missing if you don't!

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/08/10/making-sense-of-your-cholesterol-numbers.aspx [36]

at the time of my posting this, it had 791,003 views since it's arriving at their website on 8/10/2013; let's hope that Lumigrate YOUsers help put this one over the 1M mark someday! Note -- since I know that there are certain things that YOUsers would be pointed to for this information by me as their 'info concierge' or by their searching on their own, I have bolded some things in what is provided below, in order to make them POP.

The Cholesterol Myth That Is Harming

By Dr. Mercola

Cholesterol could easily be described as the smoking gun of the last two decades. It's been responsible for demonizing entire categories of foods (like eggs and saturated fats) and blamed for just about every case of heart disease in the last 20 years.

Yet when I first opened my medical practice in the mid-80s, cholesterol, and the fear that yours was too high was rarely talked about. Somewhere along the way however, cholesterol became a household word -- something that you must keep as low as possible, or suffer the consequences.

You are probably aware that there are many myths that portray fat and cholesterol as one of the worst foods you can consume. Please understand that these myths are actually harming your health. Not only is cholesterol most likely not going to destroy your health (as you have been led to believe), but it is also not the cause of heart disease.

And for those of you taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, the information that follows could not have been given to you fast enough. But before I delve into this life-changing information, let's get some basics down first.

What Is Cholesterol, and Why Do You Need It?

That's right, you do need cholesterol.

This soft, waxy substance is found not only in your bloodstream, but also in every cell in your body, where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps in the formation of your memories and is vital for neurological function.

Your liver makes about 75 percent of your body's cholesterol,^{1 [37]} and according to conventional medicine, there are two types:

High-density lipoprotein or HDL: This is the "good" cholesterol that helps keep cholesterol away from your arteries and remove any excess from arterial plaque, which may help to prevent heart disease.

Low-density lipoprotein or LDL: This "bad" cholesterol circulates in your blood and, according to conventional thinking, may build up in your arteries, forming plaque that makes your arteries narrow and less flexible (a condition called atherosclerosis). If a clot forms in one of these narrowed arteries leading to your heart or brain, a heart attack or stroke may result.

Also making up your total cholesterol count are:

Triglycerides: Elevated levels of this dangerous fat have been linked to heart disease and diabetes. Triglyceride levels are known to rise from eating too many grains and sugars, being physically inactive, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol excessively and being overweight or obese.

Lipoprotein (a), or Lp(a): Lp(a) is a substance that is made up of an LDL "bad cholesterol" part plus a protein (apoprotein a). Elevated Lp(a) levels are a very strong risk factor for heart disease. This has been well established, yet very few physicians check for it in their patients.

Understand this:

Your Total Cholesterol Level Is NOT a Great Indicator of Your Heart Disease Risk

Health officials in the United States urge everyone over the age of 20 to have their cholesterol tested once every five years. Part of this test is your total cholesterol, or the sum of your blood's cholesterol content, including HDL, LDLs, and VLDLs.

The American Heart Association recommends [38] that your total cholesterol should be less than 200 mg/dL, but what they do not tell you is that total cholesterol level is just about worthless in determining your risk for heart disease, unless it is above 300.

In addition, the AHA updated their guidelines in 2004, lowering the recommended level of LDL cholesterol from 130 to LDL to less than 100, or even less than 70 for patients at very high risk.

In order to achieve these outrageous and dangerously low targets, you typically need to take multiple cholesterol-lowering drugs. So the guidelines instantly increased the market for these dangerous drugs. Now, with testing children's cholesterol levels, they're increasing their market even more.

I have seen a number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who actually were at low heart disease risk due to their HDL levels. Conversely, I have seen even more who had cholesterol levels under 200 that were at a very high risk of heart disease based on the following additional tests:

HDL/Cholesterol ratio

Triglyceride/HDL ratio

HDL percentage is a very potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. That ratio should ideally be above 24 percent. You can also do the same thing with your triglycerides and HDL ratio. That ratio should be below 2.

Keep in mind, however, that these are still simply guidelines, and there’s a lot more that goes into your risk of heart disease than any one of these numbers. In fact, it was only after word got out that total cholesterol is a poor predictor of heart disease that HDL and LDL cholesterol were brought into the picture. They give you a closer idea of what’s going on, but they still do not show you everything.

Cholesterol Is Neither 'Good' Nor 'Bad'

Now that we’ve defined good and bad cholesterol, it has to be said that there is actually only one type of cholesterol. Ron Rosedale, MD, who is widely considered to be the leading anti-aging doctor in the United States, does an excellent job of explaining this concept:^{2 [39]}

"Notice please that LDL and HDL are lipoproteins -- fats combined with proteins. There is only one cholesterol. There is no such thing as 'good' or 'bad' cholesterol. Cholesterol is just cholesterol. It combines with other fats and proteins to be carried through the bloodstream, since fat and our watery blood do not mix very well. Fatty substances therefore must be shuttled to and from our tissues and cells using proteins. LDL and HDL are forms of proteins and are far from being just cholesterol.

In fact we now know there are many types of these fat and protein particles. LDL particles come in many sizes and large LDL particles are not a problem. Only the so-called small dense LDL particles can potentially be a problem, because they can squeeze through the lining of the arteries and if they oxidize, otherwise known as turning rancid, they can cause damage and inflammation.

Thus, you might say that there is 'good LDL' and 'bad LDL.' Also, some HDL particles are better than others. Knowing just your total cholesterol tells you very little. Even knowing your LDL and HDL levels will not tell you very much."

Cholesterol Is Your Friend, Not Your Enemy

Before we continue, I really would like you to get your mind around this concept. In the United States, the idea that cholesterol is evil is very much engrained in most people's minds. But this is a very harmful myth that needs to be put to rest right now.

"First and foremost," Dr. Rosedale points out, "cholesterol is a vital component of every cell membrane on Earth. In other words, there is no life on Earth that can live without cholesterol.That will automatically tell you that, in and of itself, it cannot be evil. In fact, it is one of our best friends. We would not be here without it. No wonder lowering cholesterol too much increases one's risk of dying. Cholesterol is also a precursor to all of the steroid hormones. You cannot make estrogen, testosterone, cortisone, and a host of other vital hormones without cholesterol."

Vitamin D and Your Cholesterol

You probably are aware of the incredible influence of vitamin D on your health. If you aren't, or need a refresher, you can visit my vitamin D page [40]. What most people do not realize is that the best way to obtain your vitamin D is from safe exposure to sun on your skin. The UVB rays in sunlight interact with the cholesterol on your skin and convert it to vitamin D. Bottom line? If your cholesterol level is too low you will not be able to use the sun to generate sufficient levels of vitamin D. Additionally, it provides some intuitive feedback that if cholesterol were so dangerous, why would your body use it as precursor for vitamin D and virtually all of the steroid hormones in your body? Other "evidence" that cholesterol is good for you?

Consider the role of "good" HDL cholesterol. Essentially, HDL takes cholesterol from your body's tissues and arteries, and brings it back to your liver, where most of your cholesterol is produced. If the purpose of this was to eliminate cholesterol from your body, it would make sense that the cholesterol would be shuttled back to your kidneys or intestines so your body could remove it.

Instead, it goes back to your liver. Why? Because your liver is going to reuse it. "It is taking it back to your liver so that your liver can recycle it; put it back into other particles to be taken to tissues and cells that need it," Dr. Rosedale explains. "Your body is trying to make and conserve the cholesterol for the precise reason that it is so important, indeed vital, for health."

Cholesterol and Inflammation - What's the Connection?

Inflammation has become a bit of a buzzword in the medical field because it has been linked to so many different diseases. And one of those diseases is heart disease... the same heart disease that cholesterol is often blamed for.

What am I getting at? Well, first consider the role of inflammation in your body. In many respects, it's a good thing as it's your body's natural response to invaders it perceives as threats. If you get a cut for instance, the process of inflammation is what allows you to heal. Specifically during inflammation:

Your blood vessels constrict to keep you from bleeding to death

Your blood becomes thicker so it can clot

Your immune system sends cells and chemicals to fight viruses, bacteria and other "bad guys" that could infect the area

Cells multiply to repair the damage

Ultimately, the cut is healed and a protective scar may form over the area. If your arteries are damaged, a very similar process occurs inside of your body, except that a "scar" in your artery is known as plaque. This plaque, along with the thickening of your blood and constricting of your blood vessels that normally occur during the inflammatory process, can indeed increase your risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks. Notice that cholesterol has yet to even enter the picture. Cholesterol comes in because, in order to replace your damaged cells, it is necessary.

Remember that no cell can form without it. So if you have a bunch of damaged cells that need to be replaced, your liver will be notified to make more cholesterol and release it into your bloodstream. This is a deliberate process that takes place in order for your body to produce new, healthy cells. It's also possible, and quite common, for damage to occur in your body on a regular basis. In this case, you will be in a dangerous state of chronic inflammation. The test usually used to determine if you have chronic inflammation is a C-reactive protein (CRP) blood test. CRP level is used as a marker of inflammation in your arteries. Generally speaking:

A CRP level under 1 milligrams per liter of blood means you have a low risk for cardiovascular disease

1 to 3 milligrams means your risk is intermediate

More than 3 milligrams is high risk

Even conventional medicine is warming up to the idea that chronic inflammation can trigger heart attacks. But they stop short of seeing the big picture. In the eyes of conventional medicine, when they see increased cholesterol circulating in your bloodstream, they conclude that it -- not the underlying damage to your arteries -- is the cause of heart attacks. Which brings me to my next point.

The Insanity of Lowering Cholesterol

Sally Fallon, the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and Mary Enig, Ph.D, an expert in lipid biochemistry, have gone so far as to call high cholesterol "an invented disease, a 'problem' that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood."^{3 [41]}And this explanation is spot on. If you have increased levels of cholesterol, it is at least in part because of increased inflammation in your body. The cholesterol is there to do a job: help your body to heal and repair.

Conventional medicine misses the boat entirely when they dangerously recommend that lowering cholesterol with drugs is the way to reduce your risk of heart attacks, because what is actually needed is to address whatever is causing your body damage -- and leading to increased inflammation and then increased cholesterol. As Dr. Rosedale so rightly points out:

"If excessive damage is occurring such that it is necessary to distribute extra cholesterol through the bloodstream, it would not seem very wise to merely lower the cholesterol and forget about why it is there in the first place. It would seem much smarter to reduce the extra need for the cholesterol -- the excessive damage that is occurring, the reason for the chronic inflammation."

I'll discuss how to do this later in the report, but first let's take a look at the dangers of low cholesterol -- and how it came to be that cholesterol levels needed to be so low in the first place.

If Your Cholesterol Is Too Low...

All kinds of nasty things can happen to your body. Remember, every single one of your cells needs cholesterol to thrive -- including those in your brain. Perhaps this is why low cholesterol wreaks havoc on your psyche. One large study conducted by Dutch researchers found that men with chronically low cholesterol levels showed a consistently higher risk of having depressive symptoms.^{4 [42]}This may be because cholesterol affects the metabolism of serotonin, a substance involved in the regulation of your mood. On a similar note, Canadian researchers found that those in the lowest quarter of total cholesterol concentration had more than six times the risk of committing suicide as did those in the highest quarter.^{5 [43]}

Dozens of studies also support a connection between low or lowered cholesterol levels and violent behavior, through this same pathway: lowered cholesterol levels may lead to lowered brain serotonin activity, which may, in turn, lead to increased violence and aggression.^{6 [44]}And one meta-analysis of over 41,000 patient records found that people who take statin drugs to lower their cholesterol as much as possible may have a higher risk of cancer,^{7 [45]} while other studies have linked low cholesterol to Parkinson's disease. What cholesterol level is too low? Brace yourself.

Probably any level much under 150 -- an optimum would be more like 200. Now I know what you are thinking: "But my doctor tells me my cholesterol needs to be under 200 to be healthy." Well let me enlighten you about how these cholesterol recommendations came to be. And I warn you, it is not a pretty story. This is a significant issue. I have seen large numbers of people who have their cholesterol lowered below 150, and there is little question in my mind that it is causing far more harm than any benefit they are receiving by lowering their cholesterol this low.

Who Decided What Cholesterol Levels Are Healthy or Harmful?

In 2004, the U.S. government's National Cholesterol Education Program panel advised those at risk for heart disease to attempt to reduce their LDL cholesterol to specific, very low, levels. Before 2004, a 130-milligram LDL cholesterol level was considered healthy. The updated guidelines, however, recommended levels of less than 100, or even less than 70 for patients at very high risk. Keep in mind that these extremely low targets often require multiple cholesterol-lowering drugs to achieve.

Fortunately, in 2006, a review in the Annals of Internal Medicine^{8 [46]} found that there is insufficient evidence to support the target numbers outlined by the panel. The authors of the review were unable to find research providing evidence that achieving a specific LDL target level was important in and of itself, and found that the studies attempting to do so suffered from major flaws. Several of the scientists who helped develop the guidelines even admitted that the scientific evidence supporting the less-than-70 recommendation was not very strong.

So how did these excessively low cholesterol guidelines come about? Eight of the nine doctors on the panel that developed the new cholesterol guidelines had been making money from the drug companies that manufacture statin cholesterol-lowering drugs.^{9 [47]}The same drugs that the new guidelines suddenly created a huge new market for in the United States. Coincidence? I think not. Now, despite the finding that there is absolutely NO evidence to show that lowering your LDL cholesterol to 100 or below is good for you, what do you think the American Heart Association STILL recommends? Lowering your LDL cholesterol levels to less than 100.^{10 [48]}And to make matters worse, the standard recommendation to get to that level almost always includes one or more cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The Dangers of Cholesterol-Lowering Medications

If you are concerned about your cholesterol levels, taking a drug should be your absolute last resort. And when I say last resort, I'm saying the odds are very high, greater than 100 to 1, that you don't need drugs to lower your cholesterol.

To put it another way, among the more than 20,000 patients who have come to my clinic, only four or five of them truly needed these drugs, as they had genetic challenges of familial hypercholesterolemia that required it.

Contrast this to what is going on in the general population. According to data from Medco Health Solutions Inc., more than half of insured Americans are taking drugs for chronic health conditions. And cholesterol-lowering medications are the second most common variety among this group, with nearly 15 percent of chronic medication users taking them (high blood pressure medications -- another vastly over-prescribed category -- were first).^{11 [49]}

Disturbingly, as written in BusinessWeek early in 2008, "Some researchers have even suggested -- half-jokingly -- that the medications should be put in the water supply."^{12 [50]}Count yourself lucky that you probably do NOT need to take cholesterol-lowering medications, because these are some nasty little pills. Statin drugs work by inhibiting an enzyme in your liver that's needed to manufacture cholesterol. What is so concerning about this is that when you go tinkering around with the delicate workings of the human body, you risk throwing everything off kilter.

Case in point, "statin drugs inhibit not just the production of cholesterol, but a whole family of intermediary substances, many if not all of which have important biochemical functions in their own right," say Enig and Fallon. For starters, statin drugs deplete your body of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which is beneficial to heart health and muscle function. Because doctors rarely inform people of this risk and advise them to take a CoQ10 supplement, this depletion leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness, and eventually heart failure.

Muscle pain and weakness, a condition called rhabdomyolysis, is actually the most common side effect of statin drugs, which is thought to occur because statins activate the atrogin-1 gene, which plays a key role in muscle atrophy.^{13 [51]}By the way, muscle pain and weakness may be an indication that your body tissues are actually breaking down -- a condition that can cause kidney damage. Statin drugs have also been linked to:

An increased risk of polyneuropathy (nerve damage that causes pain in the hands and feet and trouble walking)

Dizziness

Cognitive impairment, including memory loss^{14 [52]}

A potential increased risk of cancer^{15 [53]}

Decreased function of the immune system^{16 [54]}

Depression

Liver problems, including a potential increase in liver enzymes (so people taking statins must be regularly monitored for normal liver function)

And recently a possible association was found between statins and an increased risk of Lou Gehrig's disease.^{17 [55]}Other cholesterol-lowering drugs besides statins also have side effects, most notably muscle pain and weakness.

Are Cholesterol Drugs Even Effective?

With all of these risks, the drugs had better be effective, right? Well, even this is questionable. At least, it depends on how you look at it. Most cholesterol-lowering drugs can effectively lower your cholesterol numbers, but are they actually making you any healthier, and do they help prevent heart disease? Have you ever heard of the statistic known as NNT, or number needed to treat? I didn't think so. In fact, most doctors haven't either. And herein lies the problem. NNT answers the question: How many people have to take a particular drug to avoid one incidence of a medical issue (such as a heart attack)? For example, if a drug had an NNT of 50 for heart attacks, then 50 people have to take the drug in order to prevent one heart attack.

Easy enough, right? Well, drug companies would rather that you not focus on NNT, because when you do, you get an entirely different picture of their "miracle" drugs. Take, for instance, Pfizer's Lipitor, which is the most prescribed cholesterol medication in the world and has been prescribed to more than 26 million Americans.^{18 [56]}According to Lipitor's own Web site, Lipitor is clinically proven to lower bad cholesterol 39-60 percent, depending on the dose. Sounds fairly effective, right? Well, BusinessWeek actually did an excellent story on this very topic earlier this year,^{19 [57]} and they found the REAL numbers right on Pfizer's own newspaper ad for Lipitor.

Upon first glance, the ad boasts that Lipitor reduces heart attacks by 36 percent. But there is an asterisk. And when you follow the asterisk, you find the following in much smaller type: "That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor."

What this means is that for every 100 people who took the drug over 3.3 years, three people on placebos, and two people on Lipitor, had heart attacks. That means that taking Lipitor resulted in just one fewer heart attack per 100 people. The NNT, in this case, is 100. One hundred people have to take Lipitor for more than three years to prevent one heart attack. And the other 99 people, well, they've just dished out hundreds of dollars and increased their risk of a multitude of side effects for nothing. So you can see how the true effectiveness of cholesterol drugs like Lipitor is hidden behind a smokescreen. Or in some cases, not hidden at all.

Zetia and Vytorin: No Medical Benefits

Early in 2008, it came out that Zetia, which works by inhibiting absorption of cholesterol from your intestines, and Vytorin, which is a combination of Zetia and Zocor (a statin drug), do not work. This was discovered AFTER the drugs acquired close to 20 percent of the U.S. market for cholesterol-lowering drugs. And also after close to 1 million prescriptions for the drugs were being written each week in the United States, bringing in close to $4 billion in 2007.^{20 [58]}

It was only after the results of a trial by the drugs' makers, Merck and Schering-Plough, were released that this was found out. Never mind that the trial was completed in April 2006, and results were not released until January 2008. And it's no wonder the drug companies wanted to hide these results. While Zetia does lower cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent, trials did not show that it reduces heart attacks or strokes, or that it reduces plaques in arteries that can lead to heart problems.

The trial by the drugs' makers, which studied whether Zetia could reduce the growth of plaques, found that plaques grew nearly twice as fast in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor (Vytorin) than in those taking Zocor alone.^{21 [59]}Of course, the answer is not to turn back to typical statin drugs to lower your cholesterol, as many of the so-called experts would have you believe. You see, statins are thought to have a beneficial effect on inflammation in your body, thereby lowering your risk of heart attack and stroke.

But you can lower inflammation in your body naturally, without risking any of the numerous side effects of statin drugs. This should also explain why my guidelines for lowering cholesterol are identical to those to lower inflammation.

How to Lower Inflammation, and Thereby Your Risk of Heart Disease, Naturally

There is a major misconception that you must avoid foods like eggs and saturated fat to protect your heart. While it's true that fats from animal sources contain cholesterol, I've explained earlier in this article why this should not scare you -- but I'll explain even further here. This misguided principle is based on the "lipid hypothesis" -- developed in the 1950s by nutrition pioneer Ancel Keys -- that linked dietary fat to coronary heart disease. The nutrition community of that time completely accepted the hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other "artery-clogging" fats from their diets -- a radical change at that time.

What you may not know is that when Keys published his analysis that claimed to prove the link between dietary fats and coronary heart disease, he selectively analyzed information from only six countries to prove his correlation, rather than comparing all the data available at the time -- from 22 countries. As a result of this "cherry-picked" data, government health organizations began bombarding the public with advice that has contributed to the diabetes and obesity epidemics going on today: eat a low-fat diet. Not surprisingly, numerous studies have actually shown that Keys' theory was wrong and saturated fats are healthy, including these studies from Fallon and Enig's classic article The Skinny on Fats:^{22 [60]}

A survey of South Carolina adults found no correlation of blood cholesterol levels with "bad" dietary habits, such as use of red meat, animal fats, fried foods, butter, eggs, whole milk, bacon, sausage and cheese.^{23 [61]}

A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.^{24 [62]}

Of course, as Americans cut out nutritious animal fats from their diets, they were left hungry. So they began eating more processed grains, more vegetable oils, and more high-fructose corn syrup, all of which are nutritional disasters. It is this latter type of diet that will eventually lead to increased inflammation, and therefore cholesterol, in your body. So don't let anyone scare you away from saturated fat anymore. Chronic inflammation is actually caused by a laundry list of items such as:

Oxidized cholesterol (cholesterol that has gone rancid, such as that from overcooked, scrambled eggs)

Eating lots of sugar and grains

Eating foods cooked at high temperatures

Eating trans fats

A sedentary lifestyle

Smoking

Emotional stress

So to sum it all up, in order to lower your inflammation and cholesterol levels naturally, you must address the items on this list.

How to Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally...

Make sure you're getting plenty of high-quality, animal-based omega3-fats. I prefer those from krill oil. New research suggests that as little as 500 mg may lower your total cholesterol and triglycerides and will likely increase your HDL cholesterol.

Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars in your daily diet. It is especially important to eliminate dangerous sugars such as fructose. [63] If your HDL/Cholesterol ratio is abnormal and needs to be improved it would also serve you well to virtually eliminate fruits from your diet, as that it also a source of fructose. Once your cholesterol improves you can gradually reintroduce it to levels that don't raise your cholesterol.

Eat the right foods for your nutritional type [64]. You can learn your nutritional type by taking our FREE test.

Eat a good portion of your food raw.

Eat healthy, preferably raw, fats that correspond to your nutritional type. This includes:

Olive and olive oil

Coconut and coconut oil

Organic raw dairy products (including butter, cream, sour cream, cheese, etc.)

Avocados

Raw nuts

Seeds

Eggs (lightly cooked with yolks intact or raw)

Organic, grass-fed meats

Get the right amount of exercise, especially Peak Fitness type of exercise [65]. When you exercise you increase your circulation and the blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of fighting an illness before it has the opportunity to spread.

Avoid smoking and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.

Address your emotional challenges. I particularly love the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) for stress management.

So there you have it; the reasons why high cholesterol is a worry that many of you simply do not need to have, along with a simple plan to optimize yours. If someone you love is currently taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, I urge you to share this information with them as well, and take advantage of the thousands of free pages of information on www.Mercola.com [66]. For the majority of you reading this right now, there's no reason to risk your health with cholesterol-lowering drugs. With the plan I've just outlined, you'll achieve the cholesterol levels you were meant to have, along with the very welcome "side effects" of increased energy, mood and mental clarity.

Too good to be true? Hardly. For the vast majority of people, making a few lifestyle changes causes healthy cholesterol levels to naturally occur. As always, your health really is in your hands. Now it's up to you to take control -- and shape it into something great.

__________________

Nutrition and Chronic Disease - Presentation by Jimmy Thompson, MD

Here is what he presented:

Comments

The Cholesterol Myth That Is Harming

By Dr. Mercola

What Is Cholesterol, and Why Do You Need It?

Your Total Cholesterol Level Is NOT a Great Indicator of Your Heart Disease Risk

Cholesterol Is Neither 'Good' Nor 'Bad'

Cholesterol Is Your Friend, Not Your Enemy

Vitamin D and Your Cholesterol

Cholesterol and Inflammation - What's the Connection?

The Insanity of Lowering Cholesterol

If Your Cholesterol Is Too Low...

Who Decided What Cholesterol Levels Are Healthy or Harmful?

The Dangers of Cholesterol-Lowering Medications

Are Cholesterol Drugs Even Effective?

Zetia and Vytorin: No Medical Benefits

How to Lower Inflammation, and Thereby Your Risk of Heart Disease, Naturally

How to Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally...