What's In Your Oil

Once again -

If you follow Natural Health News you know that I am against the use of canola oil in any way, shape or form. You know as well that I have written about the "plant sterol" fiasco that is sweeping the aisles of OTC products that include Centrum Cardio and Bayer's Heart Advantage.

You'll find canola oil in Promise and their "super shots" as well.

Canola is also generally GMO in the market place and it is toxic to your liver.

One expert on fats and oils classes canola oil as "too monounsaturated for health".

Here is a chart and some comments from another natural health advocate that might enlighten you.

7.4% Saturated - 61.6% Monounsaturated - 31.0% Polyunsaturated

Although Canola Oil contains a high percentage of relatively stable monounsaturated fatty acids, canola oil goes rancid quite easily, and relative to olive oil, forms high concentrations of trans fatty acids.

Canola oil consumption has also been linked to vitamin E deficiency and heart disease, especially when a person is not getting enough saturated fatty acids in his or her diet.

I recommend staying away from canola oil whenever possible.

Fertility Concerns

Several new reports show that the effect of supplements can be very helpful when conception and fertility are concerned.

Read the new news notes...

And do remember that your nutritional status has a great impact on your health, especially when planning for a baby.

Low Magnesium, High Blood Pressure

While the original purpose for ADVENTURX was to prevent arm pump in xtreme sports many other benefits have been found during the four years my formula has been available.

Most of us who study natural healing and nutrition already know how magnesium helps reduce blood pressure. Magnesium is nature's ACE inhibitor.

The added benefit of oxygen producing elements in ADVENTURX may be helpful to the process of lowering blood pressure as well.

Evidence that increased reactive oxygen species are link between magnesium deficiency and hypertension
The relationship between high blood pressure and magnesium deficiency has been explored in several studies, producing conflicting evidence. A study published in the November 2002 issue of the Journal of Hypertension submits the hypothesis that insufficient levels of magnesium may lead to hypertension by increasing the formation of reactive oxygen species, harmful molecules that cause oxidative damage.

The University of Montreal researchers divided stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats into three groups that received a control diet containing normal levels of magnesium, a magnesium-free diet and a high magnesium diet, and systolic blood pressure was measured each week for sixteen weeks. In a second experiment, stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats received a control diet, a magnesium-free diet and a magnesium-free diet combined with Tempol, a superoxide dismutase mimetic for seven weeks. Superoxide dismutase is one of the antioxidants naturally produced in the body.

Rats in the low magnesium group experienced an exacerbation in the development of hypertension after five weeks, accompanied by a reduction in oxidative stress markers which increased rapidly after two weeks. The ability of blood vessels to dilate in response to acetylcholine was decreased in the low magnesium group compared to controls. Vessel wall hypertrophy was greater and vascular superoxide higher in the rats who received the magnesium deficient diet compared to those on the high magnesium diet. However, rats on magnesium-free diets receiving Tempol did not experience a progression of hypertension or the vascular changes seen in magnesium deficient rats who did not receive the antioxidant.

In an accompanying editorial, Richard D Bukoski writes that the research provides, "the first link between an essential dietary nutrient and the key molecular pathways involved in regulating vascular smooth muscle growth and structure." (Journal of Hypertension 2002, 20:2141-2143)

Boosting Drug Sales with Studies

For quite a number of years many health professionals have been speaking out against the statin class of drugs.

Much of the concern is associated kidney failure secondary to muscle wasting. Other serious effects have been noted, yet the drug giants keep coming up with ways to try to convince absolutely everyone they need to be taking these drugs.

Now even the "healthy".

One of the key investigators busting this myth has been Uffe Ravnskov, MD

And what ever happened to improving health with foods and supplements to reduce or eliminate this problem.

Recall that the homogenization of milk (and lack of access to raw milk) really kicked off the march to atherosclerosis back in the 1950s.

And remember that lecithin or eating plain applesauce mixed in plain yoghurt aids healthy, clean and flexible arteries. And with major cost savings over these drugs.

Other issues are the fact that many of the statin drugs are fluoride based, such as Baychol - now off the market.

Even Red Rice Yeast can have the same side effects of the drugs.

Statins and the problems associated with their use is the result of marketing a class of drugs before it was fully investigated.

The imprecise use of statin medications is one big reason why side effects occur in more than 40 percent of patients and why 60-75 percent of statin users discontinue treatment.

Crestor averages about $2 a pill, with a range from $1.41 to $3.41 at a variety of pharmacies. The drug company profit for these drugs is in the 4000 percent range. If you get 10 mg of Crestor when you only need 1 mg, risks increase drastically. With each doubling of a statin dosage, the risk of liver injury also doubles.

Concerned about the renal effects of Crestor, some people have been openly weighing the options between taking a statin or accepting a higher cholesterol number. (For instance, is high cholesterol "normal"? Have we fallen victim to high-end marketing tactics?)

All the statin drugs can cause rhabdomyolysis and kidney failure. In most cases the kidney failure is secondary to blocking of the tiny kidney tubules by the breakdown fragments of muscle cells. The mechanism of action here is loss of cell wall integrity of the muscle cells due to interference of the statin drugs with the vital role of ubiquinone in our bodies.

Ubiquinone, known also as Co-enzyme Q10, is collaterally damaged during the statin drug effect on the so- called mevalonate pathway of cholesterol biosynthesis. Ubiquinone metabolism is a branch on the mevalonate "tree" inevitably damaged by these statin drug "reductase inhibitor" action and the stronger the statin, the more severe this effect.

Public Citizen filed a Citizen's Petition with the FDA suggesting that Crestor be removed from the market. Though the courts did not pass a judgement in favor of Public Citizen (thus allowing Crestor to remain a legally prescribed medication), the case brought to light the fact that statins like Crestor can and do cause serious problems in many patients who take them.

In May of 2005, a study published in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation, revealed that kidney problems and muscle weakness were two to eight times more frequent among Crestor users than those taking other cholesterol-lowering drugs.

Read more

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Study: Wider cholesterol drug use may save lives
By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione, Ap Medical Writer
Sun Nov 9, 9:44 am ET

NEW ORLEANS – People with low cholesterol and no big risk for heart disease dramatically lowered their chances of dying or having a heart attack if they took the cholesterol pill Crestor, a large study found.

The results, reported Sunday at an American Heart Association conference, were hailed as a watershed event in heart disease prevention. Doctors said the study might lead as many as 7 million more Americans to consider taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, sold as Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor or in generic form.

"This takes prevention to a whole new level, because it applies to patients who we now wouldn't have any evidence to treat," said Dr. W. Douglas Weaver, a Detroit cardiologist and president of the American College of Cardiology.

The study also gives the best evidence yet for using a new test to identify people who may need treatment, according to a statement from Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The new research will be considered by experts reviewing current guidelines.

However, some doctors urged caution. Crestor gave clear benefit in the study, but so few heart attacks and deaths occurred among these low-risk people that treating everyone like them in the United States could cost up to $9 billion a year — "a difficult sell," one expert said.

About 120 people would have to take Crestor for two years to prevent a single heart attack, stroke or death, said Stanford University cardiologist Dr. Mark Hlatky. He wrote an editorial accompanying the study published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Everybody likes the idea of prevention. We need to slow down and ask how many people are we going to be treating with drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent heart disease, versus a lot of other things we're not doing" to improve health, Hlatky said.

Statins are the world's top-selling drugs. Until this study, all but Crestor have already been shown to cut the risk of heart attacks and death in people with high LDL, or bad cholesterol.

But half of all heart attacks occur in people with normal or low cholesterol, so doctors have been testing other ways to predict who is at risk.

One is high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, or CRP for short. It is a measure of inflammation, which can mean clogged arteries as well as less serious problems, such as an infection or injury. Doctors check CRP with a blood test that costs about $80 to have done.

A co-inventor on a patent of the test, Dr. Paul Ridker of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, led the new study. It involved 17,802 people with high CRP and low LDL cholesterol (below 130) in the U.S. and 25 other countries.

One-fourth were black or Hispanic, and 40 percent were women — important because previous statin studies have included few women. Men had to be 50 or older; women, 60 or older. None had a history of heart problems or diabetes.

They were randomly assigned to take dummy pills or Crestor, the strongest statin on the market, made by British-based AstraZeneca PLC. Neither participants nor their doctors knew who was taking what.

The study was supposed to last five years but was stopped in March, after about two years, when independent monitors saw that those taking Crestor were faring better than the others.

Full results were announced Sunday. Crestor reduced a combined measure — heart attacks, strokes, heart-related deaths or hospitalizations, or the need for an artery-opening procedure — by 44 percent.

"We reduced the risk of a heart attack by 54 percent, the risk of a stroke by 48 percent and the chance of needing bypass surgery or angioplasty by 46 percent," Ridker said.

Looked at another way, there were 136 heart-related problems per year for every 10,000 people taking dummy pills versus 77 for those on Crestor.

Remarkably, every single subgroup benefited from the drug.

"If you're skinny it worked, if you're heavy it worked. If you lived here or there, if you smoked, it worked," Ridker said.

AstraZeneca paid for the study, and Ridker and other authors have consulted for the company and other statin makers.

One concern: More people in the Crestor group saw blood-sugar levels rise or were newly diagnosed with diabetes.

Crestor also has the highest rate among statins of a rare but serious muscle problem, so there are probably safer and cheaper ways to get the same benefits, said Dr. Sidney Wolfe of the consumer group Public Citizen.

"It is highly unlikely that (the benefits are) specific to Crestor," said Wolfe, who has campaigned against the drug in the past.

Crestor costs $3.45 a day versus less than a dollar for generic drugs.

Drs. James Stein and Jon Keevil of the University of Wisconsin-Madison used federal health statistics to project that 7.4 million Americans, or more than 4 percent of the adult population, are like the people in this study.

Treating them all with Crestor would cost $9 billion a year and prevent about 30,000 heart attacks, strokes or deaths, they calculate.

"That's pretty costly. This would be a very difficult sell" unless a person also had family history or other heart disease risk factors, said Dr. Thomas Pearson of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Pearson was co-chairman of a joint government-heart association panel that wrote current guidelines for using CRP tests to guide treatment.

Researchers do not know whether the benefits seen in the study were due to reducing CRP or cholesterol, since Crestor did both.

This study and two other government-sponsored ones reported on Sunday "provide the strongest evidence to date" for testing C-reactive protein, and adding it to traditional risk measures could identify millions more people who would benefit from treatment, Nabel's statement says.

U.S. Crestor prescriptions totaled $420 million in the third quarter of this year, up 23 percent from a year earlier. In the rest of the world, third quarter sales were $520 million, up 33 percent.

Sales have been rising even though two statins — Zocor and Pravachol — are now available in generic form.

On the Net:
New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org
Heart conference: http://www.americanheart.org
Government: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/Cad/CAD_WhatIs.html

Stopping Pneumonia

High quality probiotics do help many health issues, preventing secondary infection related to antibiotic use and ploy-antibiotic use of fluroquinolones, by maintaining health gut bacteria necessary for immune function. Other methods must be relied on when overuse of acid blockers reduces gastric HCl (hydrochloric acid). The acid acts to fight bacteria and help in protein digestion to give you the necessary nutrition to support your body while you're fighting off infection.

Another excellent way to fight pneumonia is the use of vitamin A. This can be by oral administration or in IVs for critically ill persons. The dose is very high for a short duration, either three days or seven days, with dose adjustment based on time used.

Vitamin A acts to protect the mucous membrane lining of the respiratory tract.

Probiotics 'may stop pneumonia'
Probiotics could be used to protect critically ill patients from developing pneumonia, according to scientists.

The friendly bacteria can block the colonisation by dangerous bugs of the airways of ventilated patients, the Swedish study concluded.

The probiotic solution performed just as well as normal antiseptics used to keep pneumonia-causing bacteria at bay, the journal Critical Care reported.

Being more natural it could pose fewer side effects, the authors said.

Friendly bugs

The probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus plantarum 299 is normally present in saliva and is also commonly found in fermented products like pickles and sauerkraut.

Although rare, some patients are allergic to the antiseptics normally used to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, namely chlorhexidine.

There is also a very small risk of the pneumonia-causing bacteria developing chlorhexidine resistance.

Pneumonia is a common complication in patients on breathing machines and occurs when harmful bacteria from the mouth, throat or breathing tube are inhaled into the lungs.

This is a plausible idea. But we need much larger trials that focus on clinical outcomes to prove it is an effective and affordable treatment
Bob Marsterton of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Swabbing the mouth with chlorhexidine is widely recommended to reduce the risk ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

Bengt Klarin and colleagues at the University Hospital in Lund, Sweden, compared the probiotic treatment with chlorhexidine in 50 critically ill patients.

Microbiological testing revealed both treatments appeared to be equally effective at preventing potentially harmful bacteria from flourishing in the mouth and throat.

In addition, a probiotic that adheres to mouth lining will be able to work around the clock, unlike antiseptics which wear off after a few hours, say the authors.

The scientists said bigger studies were now needed to investigate the feasibility of using probiotics in this setting.

Bob Marsterton, chair of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy's working party on hospital acquired pneumonia, said: "This is a plausible idea. But we need much larger trials that focus on clinical outcomes to prove it is an effective and affordable treatment."

He said chlorhexidine highly effective, affordable and readily available.

Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/7708895.stm

Published: 2008/11/06 © BBC MMVIII

Excerpt: Other Than Antibiotics

I have studied and used the method of essential oils with tinctures for many years, based on my studies of the European medical model as exemplified by the work of Drs. Duraffourd and Lapraz.

My method for H. pylori is one based on the use of Taoist herbal formulas fully evaluated at Dana Farber / Harvard.

There is great value in this work.

Treatment Of Infections Without Antibiotics By Dan Kenner, PhD, LAc.
Alternatives to Antibiotics

There are numerous alternative ways of treatment including ultraviolet light, Rife frequency generators, Chinese herbs, homeopathic medications, and more; but there are three methods that are in use in Europe among physicians practicing alternative medicine: isopathic immune modulators, essential oils with tinctures, and metallic colloids. They are used by a growing number of primary care practitioners in most countries in Western Europe. The approach to using these alternatives addresses the problem of infection as a problem of the whole system. The medications are considered to alter the internal condition in some way so that it is no longer hospitable to pathogenic microbes. To illustrate this point, it is well known that the streptococcus bacterium is a normal inhabitant of the throat mucosa as well as the gall bladder and colon. If a person’s internal condition is such that an internal toxic condition causes overgrowth of streptococcus in the throat, it is not enough to simply kill the germ. The fundamental toxic condition must also be treated. Streptococcus is a saprophyte, a bacterium that feeds on dead or decaying organic matter. Killing the streptococcus will prevent it from doing its job and simply result in another overgrowth, perhaps with renewed force or a more resistant strain. Another example is Helicobacter pylori, which is thought to be responsible for gastric ulcers; and, according to some researchers, overgrowth may even be implicated as a causal factor in stomach cancer. But while many individuals, perhaps most people, carry H. pylori, most of them never become symptomatic. These are two examples of how the primary cause of a disease is the creation of internal conditions in the body that cause certain microbes, even normally occurring ones like streptococcus and Helicobacter, to proliferate and overgrow.

Health Care and Elections

With the US election only days away this topic is certainly one you need to consider before placing your votes.

"Medical Bills, Drug Prices and Access to Health Care -- Election Guide"
Health care proposals are on most voter's minds and whether or not I like either candidate's proposals (and I don't - speaking from my years as a health planner).

A major oversight is one that would include access to care of choice, including natural care (not exclusive to licensed hybrid natural medicine providers) and supplement parity.

In my estimation the insurance industry still has too great a hold through its lobbyists on the DNC and RNC campaigns.

Less you forget, it is insurance (and their many levels of middlemen) that is the greatest source of increase in health care costs. It isn't the tort lawyer scam that the industry and media want you to believe.

Insurers actually control what service a health care provider can offer and what they will get paid for it. Insurers do control what drugs they will pay for and how much so both these issues directly impact your employer plan, your access and your out of pocket costs.

And don't think for a minute Big Pharma isn't twisting the arm of Big Insurance to put pressure on limits to coverage.

Sorry all you R's, you are the ones who have the biggest push to put $$$ in the pocket of your cronies in the insurance industry. Maybe this is one reason why you moved to bail them out while you forgot that tax proposals can't be in legislation originating in the Senate.