The Health Plus Letter
January 19, 2010 Vol. 8, No. 1
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher
Table Of Contents
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Stone-Free At Last
Your Thyroid Gland: The Often Overlooked Key To Optimal Health
How To Choose A Doctor
National Library of Medicine Censors Nutritional Research
Recommendations
Medical Freedom
Contact Information
As always, if you like what you read, please feel free to share this issue with others and invite them to join you as a subscriber to the Health Plus Letter. Thanks for reading!
Quote Of The Day
“The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.”
-- Martin Luther King Jr
Fast Fact
As of this month, Russia has banned all imports of chicken from the United States due to the fact that commercially raised chicken products are bathed in chlorine and other chemicals prior to be shipped to market. Yes, that’s right; Russia has higher health and safety standards than the major agricultural interests of the US.
Unabashed Plug
Protect Yourself From Energy Pollution With the BioElectric ShieldTM. Energy pollution is all around us in the form of harmful electromagnetic frequencies and radiation (EMFs and EMR) emitted by power lines, cells phones, computers, and many other so-called modern conveniences. By wearing the BioElectric Shield pendant, you can protect yourself from the harmful effects of EMFs and EMR. To obtain a BioElectricShield, visit http://www.mcssl.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=408491. To learn more about how and why the BioElectric Shield works, see my article about it at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol4no9.cfm.
Stone-Free At Last
It’s been a few months since I last updated you about my kidney stone experience. Since that time, I accrued a total of over $14,000 in medical bills due to my lacking health insurance when I admitted myself to the emergency rooms of my local hospitals. Phone calls to the various billing parties resulted in a reduction of all but one of those parties (the anesthesiologist) of between 30 and 50 percent and I’m grateful that I am in a position to have paid all of them off. I also now have health insurance. Like most individual policies, my policy has a pre-existing clause. Therefore, with my urologist’s approval, I elected to first try to shrink my kidney stone to a point where I could pass it on my own.
Long story short, despite a dramatic shift in my diet and water intake, plus the use of a variety of often useful nutrients and herbs, I did not succeed. This left me with two options: lithotripsy, a process whereby sonic waves are used to attempt to pulverize kidney stones, or ureteroscopy, a surgical procedure to remove the stone. My urologist initially wanted me to try lithotripsy. However, a follow up x-ray in late October showed that my stone had moved out of my kidney into the upper region of my ureter (two months earlier, my doctor had moved the stone back into my kidney and then placed a stent inside my urinary tract to keep it in place. This accomplished two things. First, once back in my kidney, the stone no longer caused me pain (pain only occurs when kidney stones starts move out of the kidney, into the urether). Second, the stent prevented my urinary tract from becoming blocked up. Discovering that my stone was once again in my ureter surprised me, and I took that as a sign that everything I was doing on my own was working.
My doctor was less sanguine, and still recommended I have lithotripsy. By then, I had researched both possible procedures and discovered that lithotripsy works best for stones that are still inside the kidneys (ideally in the mid- to upper kidney region). Moreover, a I discovered a study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic that found that lithotripsy increased the likelihood of the development of type 2 diabetes by as much as 400 percent, due to the fact that it can cause damage to the pancreas. Thus, even though it is the least invasive procedure for medically treating kidney stones, I decided I didn’t want it. Especially given the fact that there is no guarantee that lithotripsy will be successful.
I told my doctor I wanted to continue doing what I was doing, and if I still needed his help in getting rid of my stone, I preferred ureteroscopy. My doctor accepted my decision and then suggested that I speak with my health insurance company, pointing out that pre-existing clauses often have exemptions. So I did. I was told that, yes, exemptions did exist, but that I wouldn’t learn whether or not they applied in my case until after my doctor submitted his claim for payment. “It all depends on the billing code,” I was told, no matter how many times I tried to tell the representative what procedure I was considering. Hardly a helpful reply.
Once my stone moved back into my ureter, the various discomforts I had initially experienced from having a stent inside me for the most part disappeared. Thus, with my quality of life restored, I decided to wait a few more months while I kept trying to shrink my stone. My doctor agreed to this, albeit reluctantly. Finally, just before Christmas, I had another x-ray, which showed that by now the stone had moved all the way down into my pelvic region, yet beyond that point it wasn’t likely to go, due to the narrowing of the ureter and the stone’s obstinate size. At which point I threw in the towel and scheduled my surgery.
It occurred earlier this month. If all went well, it would be an out-patient procedure that would last between 20 and 40 minutes, and then I could go home once the anesthesia wore off.
Other than having my tonsils taken out when I was four years old (much to my chagrin; when I woke up from that procedure I cried out, “I want my tonsils back,” and was inconsolable no matter how much my parents tried to soothe away my apprehension over my having had them removed – it was many years later that I learned the folly of most tonsillectomies), I had never had surgery before, and I was nervous about doing so now. But the die was cast and I went ahead with it. The last thing I recall prior to waking up in the recovery room is being wheeled into the operating room. I saw the doors open as we started to enter the OR and the next thing I knew I was in a mental fog of drowsiness as I vaguely watched and listened to various nurses discuss the movie Avatar. What a strange dream, I told myself, before it dawned on me that I was in fact awake. I drowsed for a bit, then my doctor appeared to tell me the operation had been a success. He was less than three feet away from me and the entire time that he spoke I felt as if I was watching him inside a semi-transparent bubble. I pretended I understood what he was saying and then he was gone. Next thing I knew, my girlfriend was smiling over me. I then realized that if I didn’t muster up enough energy to leave the hospital soon I would likely fall back asleep for hours, and since I was being billed by the hour for the room, I gathered myself, made my obligatory trip to the rest room to pee (lots of blood and stone debris, all to be expected), and then Marilu drove me home. I spent the rest of that day and night either sleeping or feeling incredibly nauseous and mentally hazy due to the anesthesia.
The following day I was in a lot of pain, still peeing blood and small stone fragments, and getting accustomed to the replacement stent inside me. But by day three, I was mostly myself again, except for the fact that, though now blood free, whenever I peed, my kidney hurt like hell. Fortunately, three days later I was able to have my stent out and now, five-plus months later, I’m finally stone- and stent-free. And my body has been sighing in relief ever since. Needless to say, I fully intend to do all that I can to prevent a recurrence of my ordeal.
In closing, I want to thank all of you who emailed me notes of sympathy and/or suggestions for me to try (I tried them all, believe me!). I also want to express my gratitude to my urologist, who is that rare and wonderful combination of compassion and skill. In lesser hands, I might not be writing this in such good spirits. Finally, my everlasting thanks to Marilu for being with me through all of this. I would have been in sad shape without her.
Your Thyroid Gland: The Often Overlooked Key To Optimal Health
It only weighs about an ounce, yet it’s one of your body’s most important organs. Meet your thyroid gland. Located at the base of your neck, just below your Adam’s apple, this tiny organ is responsible for the optimal functioning of a wide variety of body functions because it produces the hormones that regulate the metabolic activities of every cell in your body. It does this in two ways—first by stimulating the production of health-supporting proteins by nearly all of your body’s cells and tissues, and secondly by increasing the amount of life-giving oxygen that your cells can use. As a result of the way in which thyroid hormones regulate these two processes, healthy thyroid function is vital for a wide range of bodily activities, including your body’s growth, healthy heart and respiratory rates, proper digestion, heat production, healthy skin, heat production, and the efficient burning of calories. In women, healthy thyroid function is also required to support fertility.
Given how important the thyroid gland is, it’s surprising how often physicians fail to consider thyroid function when assessing their patient’s health. One of the main reasons for this oversight is because conventional blood tests used to measure thyroid hormone levels don’t always provide an accurate reading. The two most common tests measure levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and thyroxine (T4). Elevated TSH levels usually indicate underactive thyroid function, while low TSH levels indicate overactive thyroid activity. High T4 levels also indicate overactivity, while low T4 levels are sings of underactivity. However, both TSH and T4 levels can appear normal even when thyroid function is impaired. In the vast majority of cases, the impairment is low thyroid function. For this reason, doctors who do routinely screen for thyroid problems also recommend a T3 test, which measures levels of the hormone tri-iodothyronine.
Types of Thyroid Conditions
Impaired thyroid function can lead to a number of thyroid conditions. These include hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid function), goiter (characterized by an enlarged thyroid, caused primarily by iodine deficiency and often part of hyperthyroidism), hypothyroidism (low thyroid function), thyroiditis (inflammation of the thyroid gland), and thyroid cancer.
By far the most common type of thyroid disorder in the United States is low thyroid function, or hypothyroidism. According to the American Thyroid Association, hypothyroidism affects about 10 percent of all Americans, compared to hyperthyroidism, which affects about one percent of the population. The other types of thyroid disorders are far less common.
Both hyper- and hypothyroidism can be caused by a variety of factors. For the most part, hyperthyroidism is due to overstimulation of thyroid gland by an overactive pituitary gland, inflammation of the thyroid, exposure to radiation, abnormal growth of thyroid tissues, and Graves disease, an autoimmune condition that stimulates overproduction of thyroid hormones.
Hypothyroidism is primarily caused by poor diet, iodine deficiency, lack of exercise, chronic stress, hormonal imbalances, or Hashimoto’s disease, another type of autoimmune disorder. Radiation exposure can also cause hypothyroidism, as can certain drugs, especially lithium and synthetic estrogen. In women, pregnancy can also be a factor.
Symptoms of Thyroid Problems
Since thyroid problems, especially those of hypothyroidism, can often be overlooked by doctors, being aware of thyroid symptoms can help alert you to potential problems.
Common symptoms of hyperthyroidism include thyroid gland enlargement, thyroid pain or tenderness, bulging eyes, increased or irregular heart rate, excessive perspiration, hand tremors, anxiety and nervousness, insomnia, unexplained weight loss, more frequent than normal bowel movements, and diarrhea. In older people, symptoms can also include sleepiness, mental confusion, weakness, and feelings of depression and apathy.
Symptoms of hypothyroidism are more wide ranging. They include anemia and fatigue, anxiety, apathy, blurred vision, brittle or peeling fingernails, carpal tunnel syndrome, cold hands and feet, constipation, depression and irritability, digestion problems, dry eyes, dry skin and hair, edema (water retention), hair and eyebrow loss, headaches, high cholesterol, hoarseness, impaired immune function and/or recurring infections, insomnia, low libido, memory and concentration problems, muscle aches and pains, sensitivity to cold and heat, slow bruise and wound healing, tingling in the extremities, and unexplained weight gain. Women with low thyroid function can also be more prone to infertility, PMS, and irregular menstruation.
If you suffer with any of the above symptoms, ask your doctor to check your thyroid function, especially if your symptoms have not responded to previous treatments recommended by your doctor. Also ask your doctor what steps you can take on your own to maintain or improve the health of your thyroid gland. Because the healthier your thyroid is, the healthier you will be too.
How To Choose A Doctor
One of our underlying philosophies of holistic medicine is that health is an individual responsibility. Taking responsibility for your health involves living a healthy lifestyle that includes a healthy diet and regular exercise. It also involves working with a physician or other health practitioner who can guide you in achieving and maintaining your health care goals. Ideally, the doctor and health practitioners you choose to work with will take an integrative and holistic approach to health, meaning that they will be versed in the best that both conventional and alternative or complementary medicine has to offer. (The exception to this is choosing a surgeon or other type of specialist. Then your primary concern should be choosing a doctor with the most experience and expertise.) Selecting such a holistic practitioner is an important consideration. Just because a person bills him- or herself as an alternative or integrative physician does not necessarily mean he or she is any more competent than a conventional physician might be. Moreover, many alternative physicians do not practice integrative medicine, nor to they follow a holistic approach that treats the “whole person.” Instead, while they may substitute safer substances such as nutrients or herbal remedies in place of prescription drugs, their focus remains allopathic, meaning, like conventional MDs, they are doing little more than treating symptoms. As a health care consumer, you need to determine if that is all you are looking for. If not, you will want to work with a practitioner who takes a more “whole person” approach and, ideally, is skilled in a variety of therapies. What follow are some more guidelines for choosing wisely:
Educate yourself about the general principles and philosophies of holistic and integrative medicine. You can do this by reading books on the subject, such as Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, The American Holistic Medical Association Guide to Holistic Health, or any of the many other books now available on this topic. You can also contact various health organizations, such as the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA), the American College for Advancement of Medicine (ACAM), or the American Naturopathic Association. (You can find the websites of these and other health organizations by entering their names on Google, Yahoo, or other search engines.) Once you’ve selected a practitioner to work with, don’t be shy about asking him or her questions. The best physicians also tend to be excellent educators who willing to take time to address their patients concerns and questions. This is as it should be, since the root word for “doctor” is docere, which is Latin for “to teach.”
Select a practitioner with a diverse background and expertise in a wide variety of healing disciplines, or who is part of a holistic clinic that offers such services. Ideally you’ll want to work with someone who combines the best of both conventional and alternative medicine, who also has a lot of experience in the therapies offered. To find out, simply ask how long a practitioner has practiced the therapies he or she employs. Generally, the longer they have done so, the better. In many cases, such physicians will also be happy to refer you to other types of health practitioners, such as nutritionists, herbalists, homeopaths, and massage therapists, all of whom can further assist you in achieving optimal health.
Choose a practitioner with whom you feel comfortable and have a good rapport. This is very important. Your physician can be brilliant, but if you don’t feel comfortable around him or her, you will likely experience stress and anxiety during your office visits, which can impede the healing process. When that is the case, no matter what the physician does, usually the benefits for the patient will be less than ideal. So “trust your gut” and if you feel uncomfortable, find someone else to work with.
Choose to explore therapies in which you have confidence. It is vital that you believe in the healing approaches you choose to explore. Having faith in your whatever approach you choose, whether it is conventional or alternative, can make a big difference in how well and how quickly you respond to it.
Lastly, use your common sense. If a practitioner is making claims that sound too good to be true, then most likely they are. Don’t allow yourself to be persuaded by hype. Insist on the facts and, if in doubt, ask if you can speak with other patients who might recommend the practitioner you’re considering. The time and energy you invest in these guidelines can make a big difference in your health.
National Library of Medicine Censors Nutritional Research
Medline is Biased, and Taxpayers Pay for It
Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
(OMNS, January 15, 2010) Did you know that there are "good" medical journals, and that there are "naughty" medical journals?
No kidding. The good journals are easy to access on the internet through a huge electronic database called Medline ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed ) This wonderful, free service is brought to you by the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. In other words, by you. By your tax dollars. Generally it is money well spent, until you go searching for megavitamin therapy research papers. Then you will find that you can't find all of them. That is because of selective indexing.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) proudly describes itself as "the largest medical library in the world. The goal of the NLM is to collect, organize and make available biomedical literature to advance medical science and improve public health."
Hmm. Collect. Organize. Make available. Improve public health.
So, after over 40 continuous years of publication, why is the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine NOT indexed by Medline?
And what are the consequences of such exclusion? In a nutshell, it stops the public from using their computers to learn about all of the scientific research and clinical reports demonstrating the effectiveness of megavitamin (orthomolecular) therapy. It also greatly hampers professionals from seeing pro-vitamin studies. Have you ever wondered why your doctor simply does not know about vitamin therapy? Well, wonder no longer. He or she can't read what isn't "collected," electronically indexed, or otherwise "made available" to them. If the vast majority of journals indexed by Medline are pharmaceutical-friendly, and yet nutritional research is censored, what can you expect?
Your taxes should not be used to fund censorship in a public library, especially the largest medical library on the planet. It is un-American.
Of course, Medline doesn't censor everything nutritional. Here is a current example of some research that Medline does in fact choose to index:
Pizza Prevents Heart Attacks
Gallus S, Tavani A, La Vecchia C. Pizza and risk of acute myocardial infarction. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2004 Nov;58(11):1543-6.
"Some of the ingredients of pizza have been shown to have a favourable influence on the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, there is no single explanation for the present findings."
Pizza Prevents Cancer
Gallus S, Bosetti C, Negri E, Talamini R, Montella M, Conti E, Franceschi S, La Vecchia C. Does pizza protect against cancer? Int J Cancer. 2003 Nov 1;107(2):283-4.
"We analyzed the potential role of pizza on cancer risk, using data from an integrated network of case-control studies. . . Pizza appears therefore to be a favorable indicator of risk for digestive tract neoplasms in this population."
But be careful of that olive oil:
Wong GA, King CM. Occupational allergic contact dermatitis from olive oil in pizza making. Contact Dermatitis. 2004 Feb;50(2):102-3.
More Pizza
Here is my all-time favorite: yet another article that Medline actually is indexing. It is not even from a medical journal. I am not making its mile-long title up, either. It is there at Medline, right now, just a few clicks away from you:
Simon HB. "My husband subscribes to Harvard Men's Health Watch, but I read it even more than he does. I hope you can help us resolve a disagreement. He wants to have pizza two to three times a week for his prostate, but I don't think it's a healthy food. Who is right?" (Harvard Men's Health Watch. 2003 Jun;7(11):8.)
Evidently the very name "Harvard" is enough to get your foot inside the Medline door. That, or "everything but anchovies."
Oddly enough, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has not published a single article on pizza. At least not so far. Maybe if it did, it would make the cut at Medline.
On the other hand, the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine has a review board including medical doctors, university faculty, and hospital-based researchers. Since 1967, it has published over 600 papers by renowned authors including Roger J. Williams, Emanuel Cheraskin, Carl C. Pfeiffer, Bernard Rimland, Abram Hoffer, and Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. You should be able to access abstracts (concise summaries) of these papers, instantly and for free, via Medline.
Well, you can't.
To contact the US National Library of Medicine/Medline and tell them what you think: custserv@nlm.nih.gov
"The National Library of Medicine refuses to index the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, though it is peer-reviewed and seems to meet their criteria." (Psychology Today, Nov-Dec 2006)
NOTE: Four decades of papers from the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine are now online for you to read, Medline or no Medline, at http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/
The JOM Archive is a free service with no advertising.
(Andrew W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level. He is the author of Doctor Yourself and Fire Your Doctor! and, with Dr. Abram Hoffer, co-author of Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone and The Vitamin Cure for Alcoholism. Saul is featured in the documentary film Food Matters. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.)
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Copyright © 2010 by Andrew W. Saul and Orthomolecular News Service. All rights reserved.
Recommendations
Websites
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com - If enough people began to adopt the ideas you will find at this site, we would very soon have a much different world in which to live. A lot of fascinating information to be had here.
http://www.glcoherence.org - The same thing can be said about this organization. Learn about the positive benefits that can be achieved personally and globally by intentional heart-centered coherence fields. This is not New Age pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking, but something that mainstream science is proving to be true.
Medical Freedom
Please contact and support the following organizations dedicated to protecting our health freedoms.
Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org
American Association for Health Freedom – http://www.healthfreedom.net
Alliance for Natural Health – http://www.alliance-natural-health.org (The leading organization fighting to preserve health freedom in England and the EU.)
Institute for Health Freedom – http://www.ForHealthFreedom.org
International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com
And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.
That’s all for this week.
Health and Blessings!
Larry Trivieri, Jr.
Contact Information: Due to the inordinate amount of spam my email account receives, I no longer use it to receive emails. To contact me, please visit www.1healthyworld.com/contactus
Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 3 Greenwood Court, Utica, NY 13501. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.
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Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, January 19, 2009, Vol. 8, No. 1. Copyright © 2010 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.
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