I actually spend maybe a half hour a week on this website, plus I read every day the latest happenings in the health field. After working fifty years in the health field and having a healthy curiosity about how the world and our body works, I have accumulated some information that works for me. I believe this information has the potential to help you also. The information I tell you is not likely be told to you by your health providers. (I believe that is the wrong name to call them. They are not health providers; they treat disease)! For those who are very informed I send my congratulations. I wish I knew your name.
My objective is to minimize the causes (or prevention) of disease. The so called "diseases of civilization" are frequently the result of our diets and our life style. Lets face it, our ancestors lived in a wild environment. They ate what was available. So, when available they ate wild meat, roots and berries and fruit of various kinds. They did not eat grains except on a very rare basis. Probably grains only when nothing else was available or as supplement to their diet. There was no sugar! Their diet was not something that came out of a box or a fast food outlet, or fed in a feeding pen.
I believe our ancestors lived a more nutritionally healthy life style. What killed them was the environment or the hazards of living in a era where lack of treatment for very simple infections/illness would kill them. Presently, we have learned that we can take care of the simple illnesses and the more complicated diseases through medical treatment after the disease has manifested itself. However, as a general rule prevention of disease or illness is not taught by providers, or it is taught incorrectly.
As a example, did you know that a tooth ache can kill you? The complication to be feared is a tooth ache of the upper jaw that is left untreated. It can abscess to the brain. In recent history, I have actually heard a case of this happening . It also happened all the time in era's gone by before dental care and antibiotics. What information I am going to share with you now is (in my opinion) what you should be doing to have a healthy longer life. One with greatly reduced stress and more enjoyable because of that.
Your cost for this information from me is zero. For you to have this healthy style the actual cost most likely will be less than 30 or 40 dollars a month. It actually requires a little time in the kitchen preparing special food. Time in the kitchen could be best spent as a family project which would be educational, as well as a healthy en devour for your family. The total cost would be for your family and not a individual cost.
VITAMIN D
I will say it again, take 1,000 iu of vitamin D3 per 25 lbs of body weight. So, that would be 4,000 iu for 100 lb person and 8,000 iu for a 200 lb person. Purchase D3 from one supplier (Brand) of vitamin D and do not shop a different supplier once you decide on one source. The quality can vary and the dose in the pills varies depending on what kind of quality the manufacture decides to make the D3 with. You should Avoid D2 as it is a prescription drug and they tend to dose you once a week or month. There are down sides to this kind of dosing and D2 is inferior in many ways. Once a day dose is the best way. You should have your vitamin D level( blood test) checked at least once a year. You need to ask your MD to order this for you. Remember and record that number as I believe it is more important than any of your cholesterol numbers. I consider 70 to 100 ng/ml an optimum level for the lab result .
I must also say some of the recent information out there suggests that the best source of vitamin D is sunlight. Sunlight that occurs when your shadow is shorter than your height. Forget about getting sunlight if you are in NY state or similar as a year around source. We only get that kind of sun from May to September. So you are forced to take a supplement or get a sun lamp. If you go the sun lamp route get a low pressure one. Use the sun lamp 15 to 20 minutes a day if you are white and five times as long if your skin is very black. Do not cause reddening of the skin and resulting inflammation. As you tan you will require more time to get the same benefits. Just the way it works, so avoid tanning as it will increase the time you need to be in the sun or use a sunlamp.
There are studies out that support the hypothesis that sunlight reduces the incidence of MS attacks. Sunlight works better than the equivalent amount of vitamin D in a supplement. What is there about sunlight independent of vitamin D to cause this decrease in MS attack rate? No one knows. As a aside note, my wife loves the sun and light. She says she feels better. The first thing she does in the morning when arising from sleep is to open the shades and let the sun shine in. I can not argue that. Our ancestors where born and lived in the sun all day long and without clothes.
MAGNESIUM
Our average diet is absolutely terrible. Magnesium is not there in adequate amounts. Go to the doctor and he will test for magnesium and probably tell you it is with in normal limits. He or she maybe correct but there is a excellent chance they are wrong. The test is not a good one. The magnesium in the blood stream is represented by only one percent of total body magnesium. So, it is a poor reflection of what is actually going on with magnesium in the body.
Point two: If you take vitamin D your magnesium level is lower than what it was before you started taking vitamin D. Vitamin D uses magnesium to make the hormone it is turned into. This is not a good place to be. Low magnesium has many bad effects and I will list only a few. Low magnesium is associated with irregular heart rate ( including atrial fibrillation), sudden cardiac arrest and restless leg.
A caveat or two. If you have poor kidneys do not take magnesium. Magnesium is very well tolerated in people with healthy kidneys, but it will accumulate in those who are kidney deficient. Bladder infections have nothing to do with kidney malfunction so it is tolerated well in those subject to bladder infections. IF YOU ARE BEING TREATED FOR ATRIAL FIBRILLATION, DO NOT TAKE MAGNESIUM. IT HAS BEEN NOTED TO STOP THE ATRIAL FIBRILLATION, SOMETIMES, AND IF YOU ARE NOT PROPERLY ANTI COAGULATED, IT MAY CAUSE A CLOT TO COME LOSE.
Do you have bladder infections? Stick with me and I will tell you something that will greatly reduce that problem and perhaps eliminate it.
FEEL BETTER BRAIN-GUT
What!
As fetuses In the womb, we started out with just a couple of cells and they divided. One particular group of cells is called the the ectoderm. This is a very early group of cells that divide and give rise to quite a few different organs. What is of interest here to me, is that this one group of cells are the same ones that caused the brain and guts to form. , They maintain a connection by way of the vagus nerve. They talk to each other via this route. Interestingly, the word vagus means to wander and the vagus nerve does indeed wander. It goes all the way from the brain to the gut. It is a two way street. Now what I am going to say is backed up by all kinds of research. I will not attempt to document this research here, but you can. It is at your fingertips....just use your search engine.
There are good bacteria and bad bacteria. Some are helpful guys and the others ( bad guys) try to make you sick. Our American diet supports the bad guys. Sugars and carbohydrates feed the bad guys. They feed on sugar and carbs. They cause swelling of the gut and are opportunistic to make you sicker if some kind of opening occurs such as in appendicitis or diverticulitis. They also tend to make you feel poor with anxiety and stress. Maybe even depression. As a aside, do you recall people saying, "I got a feeling in my gut it was wrong". Is the gut talking to the brain?
It is also a fact that 80 to 85% percent of your immune function is located in the gut. Poor immune function and you are subject to a increase in every disease which is associated with swelling, and that is all diseases. All diseases result in inflammation in the body. Your ability to fight a disease is decreased with poor immune function. Having a poor immune function contributes to more illnesses.
I just report the facts here. I have heard many times you start messing and talking with people about religion, politics, and sex you are asking for problems. A person's diet is right in there too. Research also tells us that sugar and carbs are addicting, Just like cigarettes, cocaine, and alcohol. I am just the messenger here. So give me a break, and I will give you the good news.
The good guys ( healthy germs/bacteria, how can that be possible) make you healthier. These healthy germs reduce swelling, anxiety, stress and bring your immune function up to full potential. They also talk to your brain with chemical messengers! You have eaten these good bacterias in your diets many times, but did not recognize them. I am taking about yogurt, cheeses of all kinds, and sauer brauten ( fermented meat) and sauer kraut ( fermented cabbage). Our grand parents fermented a lot of food, as it was a way of preserving food because refrigeration was non existent. So they where doing all these good things for themselves out of necessity to survive. They did not realize it was so good for them. One more thing.... sauer kraut bought in a store is not fermented. It is made from vinegar and cabbage.
K2
A vitamin in fermented foods. You can buy it as a supplement and it will be helpful, but it will not do what the previous paragraph states. The K2 is in fermented foods and it will be produced in your gut ( sort of a gut factory for K2) when you eat sufficient amounts of fermented foods. What is sufficient? Two to three ounces of sauer kraut will have ten TRILLION colonies. Yogurt, if not pasteurized, can contain 70 BILLION colonies. How about a probiotic pill?
With one exception that I know of, pro biotic pills contain one to one half billion colonies. You need a high count because stomach acid and bile tend to kill the bacteria and of them few survive the transition to the small intestine from the stomach.
So; lets say you eat your very good fermented food and then for lunch you have a soda and bread and some sort of pasta...All this sugar and carbs break down in to SUGAR. You just killed off a whole bunch of those good bacteria. The point is if you want this good bacteria to help you you must have it every day to refresh the source.
But why worry about k2. What does it do. It tells calcium where to go. Preferentially, you want calcium in the bones and not in the coronary arteries. Did you know that the leading indicator of a heart attack is calcium in the coronary arteries. Impotency is caused too, as blood flow is interrupted. Need a pill to aid with impotency and you are very likely a good candidate for a heart attack. Small blood vessels plug easier than larger ones. The good news is that a study recently out shows that 50% of the calcium in the arteries is removed in six months by k2 and therefore blood flow improved A caveat. K2 WILL REDUCE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF BLOOD THINNERS. DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE BEING TREATED FOR BLOOD THINNERS WITHOUT A DOCTORS SUPERVISION. For people not on anti coagulants there will be no effect on your ability to coagulate.
BLADDER INFECTIONS
A bladder infection is caused by e coli bacteria from the gut getting into the bladder with resulting extreme pain and bleeding. If your gut bacteria is predominantly the good guys, who do not cause infection, it will be very difficult to get a infection of the bladder. The causative agent is not there...or minimal.
TURMERICr
A yellow spice and is frequently seen all curries and rice in Indian restaurants. Mustard too. Testing shows that a cup of turmeric is not toxic, so it is very safe. Put it in your food when cooking and/or take a pill a day. It is almost tasteless in food, but will give your food a nice yellow color.
The benefits are many. It is a non steroidal anti inflammatory. Sort of like Advil, but without the side effects of non steroidal over the counter pain killers. For pain it may be necessary to take as much as 2.5 gms of it. Something to think about if you do not tolerate Advil, Aleve, Mobic and Celbrix, these kind of medications. Your favorite vitamin store has it but can get pricey. I make my own capsules with a capsule machine.
A additional advantage. It has been shown that turmeric shuts down cancer cells. It causes them to die, or apoptosis as they say. I think of it as a preventive of cancer. Done it for years and years and so far so good. I will be 73 next month.
STATINS
I don't like them. For every benefit there is a down side and side effects run up to fifteen percent for those taking them. Statins are based on a theory that is unproven and is very profitable for the drug companies. Did you know that over two thirds of the people who are on the FDA board to approved drugs are connected to drug companies. You might check out web site: www.Mercola.com. He has a blog that goes into the research on statins. You can decide for yourself.
FLU SHOTS
I don't like them. Again, I think about the relationship of government with the drug companies above. Many times they do not work because they guess which virus will be the one to come in the coming season, and it is a wrong guess. There is one side effect that is truly scary. It is called Gillian-Barré and causes a kind of paralysis. Rare but it happens. There is a law if you suffer side effects of the flu vaccine you can not sue. Who are they protecting here? It is a fact that 60 % of all flu infections are prevented by optimized vitamin D. Does fermented foods reduce that more? Don't know about that, but if your immune system fights off infection ( it does) and you improve your immune function with fermented foods, it seems to me that would be the case.
B12
A lack of B12 can cause symptoms of back pain, numbness of feet and hands and a condition resembling Alzheimer disease. Treatment with one mg of B12 a day will make all these things go away, if that is the causative problem. Who is at risk? Anyone over the age of fifty because as you age, the acid content of your stomach reduces and you can not absorb the proper amount of B12 from meat unless the acid content is normal. Anyone who takes a anti acid product or is treated for acid reflux is at great risk. If there is minimal acid there the B12 will be very poorly absorbed . One caveat. Normals on the test for B12 are not the most enlightening. A test that says normal for young person is fine, but you need a higher than normal test if you are older. There is no overdose of B12. So no worries there. I take 2.5 mg every other day....
YOUR JOB
So it is up to you. Does your medical provider tell you this stuff.? They are not taught it, this information is frequently new information and they don't as a rule read up on prevention. They treat disease! This is not to say there are not very good Doctors, Nurse practitioners and Physician Assistants out there who know this stuff. If they do, it is because they have as much curiosity about this prevention as I do, or they have read my blog. They are not taught this information and if they were (extremely unlikely) it is dated information.
One last caveat. If you have a illness it is up to you to ask questions and understand what is going on with you. Read everything you can on the subject and ask your Medical person his opinion on the fine points of the disease and treatment. Finally, do not go to a medical person you do not like or trust. Liking him or her is part of the treatment. After all you are paying him.
If any one wants to comment on this information, I would like to hear from you. I appreciate any and all feedback received.
Keep Yourselves Healthy!
BB --