Reduction of carbohydrates is the most important treatment of diabetes, whether during pregnancy or not. The amount of insulin resistance you have is determined by a fasting insulin level. If it is less than 6, there is no insulin resistance and the eating goal is to only eat complex carbohydrates, legumes, vegetables and limited fruits and whole grains.

If the insulin level is above 5, there is insulin resistance, and the higher numbers above 10 mean that it is worse. I recommend a reduction of carbohydrate intake, to be between 60 to 100 grams per day if you are insulin resistant.

There are additional minerals that assist in reducing insulin resistance—chromium, vanadium, and biotin. These minerals are often low in the body; our food is often devoid of these micro-nutrients. My product, Gluca Primivia, was specifically formulated for your condition—insulin resistance. This product has a potent multi-vitamin, essential fatty acids and the minerals to help reduce insulin resistance. Gluca Primivia Forte is designed for those with more serious insulin resistance and diabetes. These supplements are safe to take during pregnancy. If you take 6 per day, they will supply the needed 800 micrograms of folic acid. However, none of my multi-vitamin products have iron in them, as high iron levels are a catalyst for free radical damage. If your ferritin level (your level of the iron storage form of iron) is less than 15 during pregnancy, you should take additional iron, as the baby will draw your excess iron stores out of you.

Oxidation is the core cause of cataracts, and anti-oxidants are the treatment. This includes the commonly known vitamins C, E and beta-carotene. Lutein, zeaxanthine and other carotenoids may also prove even more useful, since they are found in the lens of the eye to provide anti-oxidant protection.

Dr. Jonathon Wright sells a glutathione ophthalmic solution that may be the most effective anti-oxidant for the eye that I have seen. After surgical repair of the cataract, which means the lens of the eye has been replaced, thickening of the capsule around the lens is a common complication. I can only assume that taking anti-oxidants to reduce inflammation after surgery will give you the best chance of avoiding this complication.

Is Plavix required to prevent the body from rejecting the two stints (each side) placed in the patient’schest?

Plavix interferes with the aggregation of platelets, which is one of the pathways to initiate clotting inside the body and blood stream.  It is used after stent placement to decrease the likelihood of clotting near the stents, because a foreign object in the blood stream has a greater chance of initiating inflammation and the clotting mechanism.

I personally like Nattokinase, which interferes with the clotting mechanism through the inhibition of the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, another part of the clotting mechanism.  Low-dose aspirin, 81 mg every other day, also interferes with aggregation or stickiness of platelets, but it carries a low risk of stomach upset and GI bleed. I have not seen a lot of bad side effects from Plavix.

Coumadin is another blood thinner that is frequently prescribed; however, I do not recommend it.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

U.S. Neglects High Blood Pressure

The Institute of Medicine said that nearly one in three adults have hypertension recently, and feels that doctors are not treating it aggressively.  “If you live long enough, you’re almost guaranteed to get hypertension,” said Dr. Corinne Husten of Partnership for Prevention, a co-author of this report.  Normal blood pressure is now defined as below 120 over 80, with pre-hypertension up to 140 over 90, and various levels of hypertension above that.  Treatment is simple-cut the salt, eat more potassium, get some exercise, lose 10 pounds.  Anti-hypertensive medications could have the co-payments eliminated and simplify patient-assistance programs for the poor, declares the article.

Dr. Gardner’s comments: When I went to medical school, the cardiovascular disease and heart attack rates were lower, and hypertension was defined as a blood pressure above 160 over 95.

In the 1950s, a study was released about a town named Framingham in Massachusetts. The results of this study, demonstrated on a graph, showed the medical and scientific communities that there was a direct correlation between higher blood pressure levels and higher risk of mortality (death).   Unfortunately, this graph did not show patient data points, but spurious boxes drawn in the computer to make a straight line on the graph. When the correct patient data was inserted into the graph, there was no correlation between blood pressure levels and higher risk of mortality.  In fact, the study demonstrated no increase in mortality until the blood pressure levels were greater than 165 to 185 over 95 to 100.

Based on many subsequent randomized studies, mortality does go up when blood pressures below that level are treated with medications.  You have healthy alternatives to drugs for blood pressure support:

• 1. Good diet, no sugar or processed food
• 2. Basic potent multi-vitamin and essential fatty acids
• 3. Relaxation, yoga, energy work, meditation
• 4.  Specific supplements-magnesium 600 to 1,000 mg per day, CoQ10 100 mg per day, Hawthorne (or the berry), L-arginine
• 5. Life-style changes-reduce salt (if you are in the 20% that is salt-sensitive), lose weight if overweight, stop smoking, increase potassium intake, exercise.

I have greater concern over the apparent U.S. neglect over alerting the public to, and protecting us from, the potential side effects of medications, than I do over the constantly changing criteria for high blood pressure.  The blood pressure meds have no long-term (30-year) studies to assure their safety, or the safety in using more than one medication at a time.

A few people have trouble swallowing large tablets, but have less difficulty swallowing capsules of the same size.  The laboratory that produces my unique vitamin, Vital Primivia, can only put ½ the contents in a capsule that they can put into a tablet, and some people already think they are taking too many ‘pills’ as supplements.  So I have elected to go with tablets.  Because of the high calcium and magnesium content, they will be very difficult to crush.  You might try blending them in a high powered blender, such as a Blendtec or a VitaMix, along with fruit juices or sauces to disguise the flavor.  Because of the high B vitamin content, the taste will not be good.  But crushing the tablets will not change the potency or be a problem at all from a potency standpoint, so go ahead and try it.  If you and others are interested in making the capsule form available, recognizing that it will take more capsules to get the same potency, let me know and I will look seriously at the options.

With the article below I am introducing a new element to the website: on occasion I will publish articles submitted by like-minded health care providers who can give you their perspectives on healthy alternatives to drugs and surgery.  There has been a great deal of news lately about the recommended decrease in mammograms.  Dr. Moshe Dekel of New York has graciously provided the following excellent article on thermography.  Dr. Stan

What “They” Won’t Tell You About Breast Cancer.
with Moshe Dekel, MD

By: Moshe Dekel, MD

Breast cancer rates on Long Island, New York, are among the highest in the nation.  Although theories abound, no one is really sure why this is the case.  Facing this elevated risk, Long Island women are well-advised to focus on what we do know about fighting breast cancer: aside from prevention, early detection is most critical. Traditionally, for most women breast cancer detection has meant only one thing: mammograms.

But even women who diligently get mammograms are sometimes let down by the modality’s limitations: Mammography gives no advance notice of breast cancer.  Since it takes 10 years for a breast cancer cell to grow large enough to be detected by an ultrasound, mammogram or MRI, at best these procedures can only verify an existing problem. Additional questions about how mammography’s trauma, radiation, and compression might affect breast cancer cells remain unanswered.

Because of these uncertainties, a large number of women have searched for an alternative screening method . . . and discovered an effective, pain-free option: thermography. Approved by the FDA as an adjunct to mammography in 1982, thermography uses an infrared camera to examine the breast from a temperature perspective. This temperature-based screening is remarkably sensitive: Where mammography fails to give any advance notice, thermography can provide a six to seven year advance warning of a risk for breast cancer.

The significance of this advantage motivated Dr. Moshe Dekel, a board certified OB-GYN and thermography expert, to make this modality his mission. “When I learned about thermography, after 25 years of practice as an OB/GYN, I vowed that this was something that I needed to offer to my patients,” explains Dr. Dekel.  “I’ve now done thousands of thermography procedures; colleagues also ask me to analyze their thermography test results.”

This thermography analysis is the secret to the test’s success, yielding valuable, multi-layered clues that transcend mammography’s “positive or negative” results.  Instead, thermography’s image analysis provides an in-depth rating of a patient’s results in terms of normal, low risk, moderate risk, higher risk, or somewhere in between. Combined with its six-to-seven-year advance warning, thermography’s precise risk assessment gives women a deeper understanding of exactly where they are in terms of breast health.

“I don’t just give a piece of paper and say ‘Here’s the result,’” Dr. Dekel continues. “My patients get intimately involved with the process. The bottom line is that by the time patients have the thermography examination, they will have an idea of what kind of risk factors they have and what they need to do to reduce that risk.”

As for the examination itself, women are astounded by thermography’s ease and convenience-especially when compared to the pain, radiation, and intimidation of mammograms. Thermography is performed with the patient in a sitting position, naked from the waist up, while the infrared camera takes nine digital images in nine different positions. There is no physical contact from the infrared camera and the entire imaging test only takes 10 minutes.  The rest of the time is spent on consulting about the risk level and how to reduce it.

Results are practically instantaneous. “Once the images are taken, I will read the results in front of the patient, explain what I am seeing, and answer any questions,” Dr. Dekel says. “When women see those thermography images on the computer screen, it is very personal; it’s powerful; they are ready to make the necessary life style changes to reduce their risk. . . it is so different from a mammogram.”

“We need to bring thermography to the attention of women everywhere,” concludes Dr. Dekel. “We must base health decisions on knowledge and not fear. People thank me for opening this window, and I am happy to do so . . . I do thermography for very deep personal and medical reasons.”

Yes, I see patients at my office at Preventive Medicine Group in Westlake (Cleveland), Ohio.

Graves Disease is an autoimmune disease; that is, the body has decided to attack itself (the thyroid gland).  Initially, the gland gets over-stimulated and is no longer under control of the pituitary gland.  Hence, you have a hyperthyroid state with fast heart rate, finger/hand tremors, anxiety, and, if severe, swelling behind the eyes which pushes the eye balls forward.  If the symptoms are not too severe and you have time, then our approach may work.  If there is medical risk to you by waiting, which only your local physician will know, then you need to get it taken care of quickly.  This includes radiation therapy or radio-active iodine, neither of which has control over how much of the thyroid gland tissue is destroyed in the process.

If time is on your side, the following need to be done, some of which you are most likely already doing:

• 1. The diet needs to be good, including no sugar and processed food.
• 2. A potent multi-vitamin and essential fatty acids and possibly extra anti-oxidants-C, E, selenium.
• 3. If any of the following are present, they need to be addressed-toxin removal with far-infra sauna and liver support with milk thistle, allergies or sensitivities.  There are things we can do in the office beyond what can be done at home.  These include, if indicated:
• 1. A toxic metal assessment and removal
• 2. A metal sensitivity assessment and avoidance or desensitization
• 3. A viral assessment and treatment.  It usually takes 3 to 12 months for the immune system to stabilize, but we generally see the thyroid antibodies become negative, hopefully before too much thyroid tissue is destroyed and you are left with a hypothyroid (low thyroid) condition.