Tag Archives: wellness

Carvings April 1, 2025

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No April Fool: It’s time to put an end to nutritional pornography.

            In a few months we will reach the end of the first quarter of the 21st century with no end in sight of the three epidemics that threaten to overwhelm our health system and our economy: obesity, type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis. The first two were almost non-existent at the beginning of the preceding century. The obesity rate in 1900 was approximately 5 percent; it is now 42 percent. Diabetes was almost entirely type 1, the juvenile form, a totally different disease from type 2 diabetes. The latter now affects 12.2 percent of the general population, more than one-third of people over the age of 65 and increasing numbers of children below the age of 18, some as young as six years! Type 2 diabetes was so uncommon in the pre-World War One era that it wasn’t clearly distinguished from type 1 diabetes until the 1950s.

Osteoporosis, the Third Epidemic, is going to crash down on us with a vengeance in about 30 years, as today’s young people fail to build a strong skeleton during the bone-building window between ages five and twenty-five. They transport themselves on electric bikes, scooters and skateboards, and replace childhood sports and games with screen-watching, eliminating the muscle stresses that nature intended to form a strong skeleton.  

            Someone recently sent me an insightful post: “Ninety percent of today’s supermarket food didn’t exist a hundred years ago. Neither did ninety percent of today’s diseases. Think about that.”

            Government edicts will determine what supermarkets will offer us in the coming decade. Trans fats have already been outlawed. Food coloring restrictions are imminent; the sugar content of processed foods is probably next; saturated fat and salt mandates will reach us in a few short years. SNAP (welfare) recipients are not allowed to use those funds to purchase alcohol or tobacco. It’s likely that they will see junk food added to that list during the current administration. Legislation is pending now in Tennessee to disallow the purchase of candy and soft drinks with SNAP funds. Other states will follow suit, and so will the federal government.

Carvings March 1, 2025

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In the news

Measles redux

            Almost exactly one year ago (March 15th) I wrote about a measles outbreak in Florida. More than 90 percent of the victims had never received the measles vaccine. In the past few weeks we have seen an even larger outbreak involving nearly 150 children and adults – that number may have increased by the time this article has been posted – and one child has died. Again, 90 percent of the victims had not been vaccinated against measles, many of them belonging to a religious sect that eschews vaccines. What a terrible price to pay! The measles vaccine, part of the Measles-Mumps-Rubella triad, is effective in preventing the disease in 95 percent of recipients. Except for fever and sometimes a mild rash, the vaccine is almost entirely free of side effects, though there have been a few cases of severe complications.

            I’d like to repeat a comment that I have made before regarding those children who do have the aforementioned side effects. If a child experiences an illness from a severely weakened vaccine virus, he or she might well have been one of those unusually vulnerable children who died or suffered severe brain damage from the wild virus in the pre-vaccine era.

            Although measles has for decades been referred to as one of the “usual childhood diseases” it has other untoward effects. Besides causing mild inflammation of the brain in about one half of those who experience measles, thus impairing their school performance for months, nearly all victims will be found to have weakening of the immune system that lasts for two or three years. That means that they are more than ordinarily susceptible to other infections such as pneumonia.

            Measles is rampant in the developing world, where it is a major cause of blindness and death. It’s no coincidence that almost every outbreak in the United States has originated with someone who came from or recently traveled in another country.

Lifestyle

            It’s becoming evident that the Standard American Diet (SAD) is causing more damage to the nation’s health than just obesity, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. A few recent headlines make for interesting reading:

            Low vitamin D a contributor to mental disorders in children?

            Three vitamin deficiencies* linked to headaches.

            Vitamin B1 deficiency*: these are the symptoms.

            Dementia risk could increase with low levels of essential vitamin.

            Vitamin deficiencies* common among people with type 2 diabetes.

            16 signs you may have iron deficiency*

            This is only a small sample of the increasing number of reports in recent years that reveal the prevalence of vitamin “inadequacies” that lead to poor function without severe “deficiency” such as profound weakness and bleeding disorder of vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) or the debilitating (and permanent) brain and nerve damage of vitamin B12 deficiency known as pernicious anemia, or the tragic and irreversible mental deterioration that results from vitamin B1 deficiency. Pediatricians of a century ago dealt with rickets, the marked deficiency of vitamin D that produced not only weakened bones but brain damage and death. (* These are inadequacies, not deficiencies.)

            Nearly a quarter-century ago (!) the American Medical Association reversed its position and acknowledged that EVERYONE should take a multimineral/multivitamin every day. (Journal of the American Medical Association June 19, 2002, Vol. 287, No. 23, P. 3127) The national diet has only gotten worse since then.

            Eighty-two percent of Americans are obese or overweight; twelve percent have type 2 diabetes and twice that number have prediabetes; cancer and stroke are increasing dramatically in young adults.

            What will it take for all of us to take seriously Make America Healthy Again?

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The lesson: vitamin deficiencies are not common but vitamin inadequacies are. Even the American Medical Association, in a pair of landmark publications in 2002, (Journal of the American Medical Association June 19, 2002, Vol. 287, No. 23, P. 3127) urged that everyone should take a multivitamin/multimineral every day, a position completely opposite that of earlier recommendations and sadly still espoused by some physicians today.

Carvings  January 15, 2025

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In the news

Wine wars

            Recent headlines: Wine has health benefits. Red wine in moderation is good for the heart. Any amount of alcohol is unhealthy. Why I stopped drinking alcohol.

            There is overwhelming evidence that wine – and I’m excluding for this discussion beer and liquor, for several reasons that will be part of a future blog – has properties, mainly in the form of phytochemicals, that benefit the heart. First, it has anti-inflammatory properties. Because inflammation is a driver of heart disease, stroke, cancer, and osteoporosis, the thousands (yes thousands) of plant-based phytonutrients in every glass of wine could be expected to have health benefits. One of these phytochemicals is resveratrol, a chemical formed in the skin of red/purple grapes that protects the fruit against fungal growth and lowers the harmful form (LDL) of cholesterol in humans. Ingredients in wine also inhibit the blood clotting system, providing another mechanism for protecting the heart and the brain. Some phytochemicals also protect DNA from damage, thus limiting the development of cancers.  

            Several studies in recent years have denied the benefit of these effects, pointing out that even small amounts of alcohol, less than a glass of wine per day, are associated with a shortened lifespan. A drawback of some studies is that they rely on self-reporting, that is, the research subjects gave a falsely low estimate of their wine intake. Because having on average more than two drinks a day is associated with health problems that include high blood pressure and cancer, it thus may appear that even moderate drinking is harmful. The hazards of such studies are well-known, revealing the tendency of people to understate their wine or food intake, often by margins of fifty to one hundred percent. At least one recent positive study relied instead on the measurement of a chemical in the subjects’ urine that accurately provided data on actual wine intake and showed that in a particular population, those who drank about one glass of wine per day had a fifty percent lower risk of heart disease.

            One study showed that exercising several days a week actually offset the harmful effects of alcohol. As a daily exerciser and daily wine drinker I’d love to see that study confirmed!

            But is it the wine that leads to less heart disease and other conditions? Maybe not. Only occasionally mentioned in these studies is the fact that wine drinkers simply have a healthier lifestyle than persons who don’t drink at all, or who drink beer or spirits. Wine drinkers tend to exercise more, eat a healthier diet, visit their doctor more often, maintain normal weight and avoid junk food.

            Now that’s a real recipe for a long, healthy life.

Carvings November 1, 2024

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In the news

The resurgence of tuberculosis. Should we worry?

            During the 19th century tuberculosis (TB) was the leading cause of death throughout the world. Three of my own grandparents died of the disease and the fourth undoubtedly had it, as did many, if not most of the population of that era. 

            Although the bacterium responsible for TB can invade any part of the body, it usually affects the lungs, producing a chronic cough that allows it to spread continually to others, especially in crowded conditions. In healthy persons who become infected, only 5-10% will develop actual disease. Most infected persons recover naturally but the organism commonly finds sanctuary in the lungs, staying viable, and breaking free when the host’s immune system falters because of age, poor nutrition, HIV infection, chemotherapy or a variety of other factors.

Tuberculosis is a disease of the poor, as evidenced by the huge number of cases in Africa and Asia. Fewer than 20,000 cases occur annually in the United States and the majority of these victims were born outside of this country. Now that the COVID pandemic has subsided TB has regained its place as the leading infectious cause of death worldwide.

Why are so many health authorities concerned? A major source of anxiety is the fact that in developing countries the uncontrolled use of anti-tuberculosis drugs has led to strains that are resistant to nearly all currently available antibiotics. Millions of persons cross our borders each year as visitors, students, documented workers and those who arrive without permission, most of whom come from countries where tuberculosis is present in at least a quarter of the population.

Persons born in this country are at low risk of infection and even lower risk of illness. The classic hallmarks of the disease are persistent cough, fever, nightsweats, weight loss and bloody sputum. Disease can occur with milder symptoms, and all persons who work in the healthcare field, or with children or the elderly, should receive a tuberculosis skin test every year. 

Lifestyle

Cold season is here. Do supplements help you to avoid them or shorten them?

            It’s likely that you will endure one or two colds this winter. For those of you who are old enough to be on Medicare it should be a little consolation that your decades of encounters with a variety of cold viruses have left you with some degree of immunity, and if we take steps to maintain our immune system and overall health, we are far less likely to experience as many colds as our grand- and great-grandchildren.

            There are many supplements that have been touted over the years as cold preventatives or modifiers, including vitamin C, elderberry, zinc, garlic, echinacea, etc. That there are so many should be a clue that there is no magic bullet among them. Many studies have been poorly done but their “results” have found enthusiastic audiences notwithstanding. On the other hand, some quality studies have found value from certain supplements but none has been very significant. Shortening cold symptoms for half a day may be statistically accurate but practically useless. On the other hand real benefit has been found when persons are deficient in the supplement in question, e.g. zinc, vitamin C, vitamin D.

            The best cold preventative is a healthy diet, rich in antioxidants, plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains and omega-3 fish oil.

            And a little red wine, of course.

Carvings July 15, 2024

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In the news

Increasing rates of colon cancer in young persons

          In less than a generation – from the year 2000 to 2023 – the incidence of colon cancer in persons below the age of 40 has doubled or tripled in some parts of the world. Colon cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer, not far behind number one, lung cancer. Three main causes of this increase have been emerging in the past few years: increased sugar consumption, low intake of fiber, and taurine, an ingredient in energy drinks. All three are associated with disruption of the good germs that inhabit the large intestine, the site of colon cancer.

            A diet that is high in sugar and low in fiber tends to promote the growth of organisms that are linked to increased inflammation, a factor that increases the formation of cancer cells, and in addition increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and osteoporosis. Younger persons have a high intake of energy drinks that contain taurine, an ingredient that further promotes the growth of bacteria that promote inflammation. Young persons also have an abysmally low intake of fiber. Instead of the recommended 10 servings a day of fiber-rich plant foods, the average teenager gets less than ONE serving a day, most likely to be iceberg lettuce, a nearly worthless “vegetable.”

            About half of the adolescent population consumes one or more energy drinks every day. This does not bode well for the health of our population by mid-century.

Lifestyle

Are you a food label reader? Two reasons why you should be.

            Some food manufacturers deliberately mislead buyers and they have government’s permission to do so. Perhaps the most egregious example is the deceptive listing of “sugar” to make it look like there’s not as much of it in that product as you might think.

            Food manufacturers are required to list ingredients in order of weight and if they listed the amount of sugar in many foods you might put them back on the shelf. So if they are allowed to list every different type of sugar in pastry, for example, each ingredient would be farther down the list and thus appear to be less detrimental to your health. For example, the nutrient label on a popular supermarket’s almond bear claw coffee cake contains the following TEN different kinds of sugar, each listed separately: sugar, almond paste (which contains sugar), corn syrup, fructose, dextrose (also known as glucose), sucrose, invert sugar (a mixture of glucose and fructose), cornstarch (which breaks down into sugar), maltodextrin and high-fructose corn syrup. Some manufacturers even list glucose and dextrose as separate entities, even though they are one and the same. Except for the relatively small amounts of fructose and glucose found in fruit, none of the other forms were part of the human diet until a couple of hundred years ago. Today the average American takes in approximately one pound of sugar a week – 57 pounds a year. Is it any wonder that more than 80 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese?

            When you pick up a loaf of bread you might think that anything with a brown color is more healthy than white bread. Not necessarily, unless whole wheat or whole grain flour is the only ingredient. The term enriched flour means white flour and some breads have both, suggesting a healthy choice, and there might be much more white flour than brown. On the other hand, the brown color might be due to the addition of molasses, caramel, coffee or cocoa.

            Learn to read labels. It’s not rocket science!