Cranberry Juice vs. Antibiotics for UTI Prevention

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote when I was sending out newsletters a couple of years ago.  I thought it was worth re-visiting.

July 26, 2011 — Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX) is more effective than
cranberry capsules for prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) in
premenopausal women, according to the results of a double-blind trial reported in the July 25 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"I must admit that I was truly amazed that a medical study was even done
comparing cranberry juice capsules to a gut-tearing antibiotic and that the
drug supposedly helped to prevent these infections more effectively. I'm going
to let you mull over that idea for a few minutes. When, my readers, did we
decide to use medication as the gold standard for preventative medicine? Truly
amazing.

The primary reason that the drug companies have had to develop stronger and
stronger antibiotics is the result of over prescribing this group of drugs for
most every ailment under the sun...flu, other viruses, ear infections (when
European doctors had stopped using that for kids decades, yes, decades ago),
coughs and generalized infections. Now, they appear to want us women who have
chronic urinary tract infections to take antibiotics on a regular basis. Does
anyone see a problem with this?"

I have found, over the years, that prevention means balance.  If the body is balanced, it isn't susceptible to sickness and disease.  To a person, every woman who has come to me with symptoms of a UTI, has been helped by simply re-balancing the pH of her urine.  Keeping the body in balance will prevent future infections.  The thought of taking antibiotics as the recommended method of preventing infections is one approach.  In light of the information contained in my previous few blogs about the importance of intestinal health, I wonder how many of us think that approach to be a good idea?

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To Eat Soy or Not To Eat Soy? That is the question.

I frequently am asked about whether or not soy is a good replacement source of protein, or at least a good way to augment one's diet.  Many of you know that I am not a fan of soy, but I do understand that it is the essential ingredient in just about every vegan product offered, today.  I also like to think that I can keep an open mind when it comes to assessing any nutritional information.  To that end, I decided to do some "perusing" of the recent literature.  The author of the following excerpt is a vegetarian and has included soy as his primary source of protein.....

"Soy is controversial. Some say it is a healthy source of protein, nutrients, and fiber. Others think it can cause problems like hormonal imbalance, low thyroid output, and allergies, not even considering the new worry some have about how common genetically modified soy now is. I do think it may be a problem in some people, the most common problems being decreased metabolism and possible weight gain and lowering libido in men. If adequate iodine is taken in the diet or by supplement (2 kelp capsules per day, e.g.), thyroid function may not decrease so this problem could be easily circumvented.

Another problem may be, and certainly is according to Hulda Clark, the chemicals used in processing to create products like soy protein isolates and tofu. See Hulda Clark's Diet Suggestions for more information. My first surprise regarding soy, long before I knew about the estrogenic effects, was from reading Roger Cathey's articles on enzyme therapy for cancer. In them, he often mentioned dietary "trypsin inhibitors" as being counterproductive. I was amazed that he noted soy as a potent one. One website states: "While soybeans are relatively high in protein compared to other legumes, scientists have long recognized them as a poor source of protein because other proteins found in soybeans act as potent enzyme inhibitors. These "antinutrients" block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors depress growth and cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer."

A Testosterone magazine article had this to say: " We first published an article about how soy protein is estrogenic, can lower testosterone counts, and can even kill testicular cells in January of 2000. We then published new research on the matter in February of 2001. But you know something? The national media still won't touch the story. You can pick up the "Food" section of practically any local newspaper and see glowing reviews of the healthy attributes of soy protein, complete with yummy, testosterone-lowering recipes."

While I was aware of most of this information, I, too, was surprised to learn about how soy protein is a dietary trypsin inhibitor.  Basically, if you eat soy protein, your body cannot utilize it.  And, worse,it may even cause great harm to your body.  

Biochemistry is a science that can, and often does, change very frequently as technology changes.  I believe I have said before that much of what I learned over 25 years ago is no longer completely accurate.  As a result, I do my best to read as much new research as possible.  I hope this information is helpful for any of you who might be using soy as their dietary protein source.

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The Importance of Pro-Biotics to Our Health

Yesterday, we talked about the relationship between intestinal health and mental health.  We know that how the digestive tract evolves in the first few years of life influences the health of the brain.  We know that maintaining a healthy intestinal bacterial environment is vital not only to bowel function, autoimmune balance and inflammation causing an antigen response (this mitigates allergic reactions), but to neural function and the normal growth of a child.  What is the best way to ensure intestinal health?

The other day, I was asked if giving a child yogurt would help balance the intestinal tract while taking anti-biotics.  Stonyfield Farms was mentioned.  Now, while this brand is probably the best of the yogurts, as it contains a few strains of bacteria, yogurt is of little help in this instance. Additionally, yogurt contains sugar...the medium in which yeast flourishes, so, that's simply counterproductive.  One needs to take a full spectrum probiotic in order to reestablish and maintain intestinal health.

Their are a few high  quality probiotics on the market that I have seen.  There are, also, a number of very, very expensive ones, too.  I have seen as much as $100.00 per bottle charged for some of these.  That cost is excessive and unnecessary.  We handle a whole food, organic,  full spectrum probiotic (meaning, it contains all 14 strains of normally occurring intestinal flora) for a very reasonable price.

We recommend that everyone take one capsule of a full spectrum probiotic everyday.  I was listening to an interview of a celebrity speaking about how he has never had a cold or flu since taking probiotics.  I was really pleasantly surprised to hear that.  It's a wonderful testament to the importance of good bacteria for overall health.  I have seen the health of so many patients improve dramatically after taking probiotics, regularly.  After reading the research that was the basis of yesterday's blog, I am, now, recommending that any children who have been on even one course of antibiotics, begin taking the i-Flora, as well as adding this to every child's daily supplementation.

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Intestinal Health and Depression: The Link Explained

I've just been reading some fascinating information about the very real connection between the health of the gut--brain function---and, mental health.  This research puts together some missing pieces as to why we have seen such a significant increase in mood disorders in both adults and children, the past 20 years, at least for me.

Most of us understand that stress causes many and varied symptoms--from inability to sleep to chronic intestinal problems.  What we haven't realized is how negatively prolonged stress impacts our nervous system.  I did explain some of this in my series about stress and how the sympathetic nervous system reacts when exposed to prolonged periods of emotional stress.  However, we now see that it's the inflammatory changes, affecting our neural circuitry, that affect behavior.  Where are the origins of this imbalance?  The Gut.

How the digestive tract develops in the first few years is vital to our physical and mental health.  A healthy GI population positively influences the neuron function involved in motor control and behavior.  Infants have a bacterium in their gut that mitigates the stress response: bifidobacterium infantis.  If this bacterium is destroyed, the child's stress response will be affected.  The hypothesis is that if the good bacteria in the gut are diminished, the child is set up for anxiety or depression as the years progress because the development of parts of the autonomic nervous system is impeded.  Did you know that the number of prescriptions for depression in children has skyrocketed?  How many children are suffering from hyperactivity and learning disorders?  It appears that the origins of anxiety and mood disorders are systemic inflammation and autoimmune imbalance.

Only in the United States are babies that have ear infections regularly given antibiotics.  European doctors don't prescribe antibiotics to children, as the first course of treatment, because their decades-old studies showed that these infections spontaneously resolved without any medication, just nutritional support.  Antibiotics destroy the good bacteria along with the bad.  We see that destroying the good bacteria in the gut of an infant or young child directly affects their stress response, neural circuitry, their levels of anxiety and even their immune system.  We had a little girl come into our office with the diagnosis of, "failure to thrive."  She had a systemic candida infection, the result of repeated courses of antibiotics for ear infections.  When the yeast infection was corrected, she immediately put on weight and resumed growing.

This research has serious and wide-ranging implications for the health and welfare of our children as well as adults.  There appears to be a correlation between the explosion of anti-depression medication prescriptions and
repeated antibiotic therapy. 

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Please, Don't Buy Any More Diet Books or "What was that doctor thinking when he wrote this book?"

I seldom comment on specific diet books as they all have their bad and good points.  I'm not a fan of specific ways of eating, except that the diet be 75% carbohydrates ( 55-60% complex carbohydrates, 5% simple carbs, 10-15% anti-oxidant rich fruits) and 25% protein (about 50% of which should be non-animal protein, also making certain that 30% of the protein contains or is accompanied by cis- essential fatty acids).  Also, I have always stressed that eating organic, as much as possible, is vital to our health.  However, I just had to comment on the latest "craze."

I don't know the MD's name, but one has written a diet book entitled, "The Caveman Diet."  Really.  We should all eat the way the Neanderthals ate:  raw vegetables and grains and red meat.  Does anyone else see the pitfalls, here?  The vegetables and fruits are super, but I wouldn't recommend raw vegetables (except juiced, and, we have learned,  kale) to many modern people because of the intestinal inflammation that many people have, most without knowing it.  But, the most ridiculous part of this diet recommendation is the eating of red meat because ancient man ate red meat.

All animals thousands of years ago were wild and never subjected to the ravages that mass production causes, both upon the animals and us.  It is true that wild animal muscle contains high amounts of fatty acids that are protective to our cardiovascular system....farm raised animals do not.  Those of you who have been my patient know that I only recommend eating wild caught salmon for this very reason.  Farm raised salmon contain very little of the omega fatty acids that their wild counterparts contain and, as such, should not be eaten with the expectation of those health benefits.  What was the average life expectancy of ancient man?  If you were lucky, about 30-35 years.  Death by wild animal,  savage environment or disease took these people well before atherosclerosis, heart attack or stroke had the time to develop.

 If you'd like to read, what I consider to be, the definitive book about diet and health, that would be:  Health at Every Size, by Linda Bacon, PhD.  This is a remarkable book, written by a renowned scientist, containing over 400 references substantiating her research and conclusions.

In my opinion, the caveman and his diet need to be allowed to, "rest in peace," not emulated.

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Are You Drinking Enough Water, or Are You Dehydrated?

The past few weeks, I have read a number of articles concerning just how much water one needs to drink to stay hydrated.  These articles contained conflicting opinions.  When one gets right down to it, I think it's more important to see if we are drinking a sufficient amount of water each day by, "reading our body."  Here are some things you can check to see if your body is actually "thirsty."

1.  Are you thirsty?
     If you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated....your body is crying for water!

2.  Do you awaken each morning with a dry or sticky mouth?

3.  Is your skin cracked or dry? (That can also indicate insufficient oil in the diet)

4.  Is your urine a dark yellow color?  (It should be very light yellow)
     Dark urine indicates concentrated urine.  That means that the kidneys are working overtime as well as being potentially problematic for the blood.  Stickiness or clumping of the red blood cells can occur with dehydration and can lead to some very serious illnesses.

5.  When you make a fist and pick up the skin around your knuckles, does the skin bounce right back?

6.  Do you snore?
     I know this sounds odd, but, if there are no other physical problems, frequently, we snore because our mouths are dry from dehydration and not the other way around.

If you have any of these symptoms, especially if you have more than one, you are dehydrated.  How much water one needs to drink may vary, somewhat, but a good rule of thumb is to drink 1/2 your weight in ounces.  120 pounds=60 ounces of water per day.  (If you are very active, you will most likely need more water than that.)  If you are following that rule and are still noticing some of the above mentioned symptoms, you may need more water OR you may be drinking too much water at one time.  We should be drinking small amounts of water throughout the day, totaling the optimum amount of ounces at day's end.

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If You're Taking Statin Medication, Please, Read This!

For some twenty years I have been telling patients (and, anyone who would actually listen) about the potential dangers of cholesterol-lowering drugs, the primary group being Statins.  Over thirty years ago a cardiologist told me that it was not the cholesterol in foods that was dangerous, but cholesterol that was produced in response to stress that we had to worry about.  Now, we also know that it's sugar, not cholesterol, that is the primary culprit that causes inflammation, which, we know leads to vascular damage,  (We talked about that in my blog about depression and inflammation.) or atherosclerosis.

The latest information that cardiology studies, published in peer review journals, show is that just having your LDL levels tested is not enough.  Total cholesterol levels should never be used as the reason for prescribing medication.  Cholesterol is comprised of three different types of lipids:  HDL, LDL and VLDL.  If you have an unusually high level of HDL-2 lipids, that can skew the total cholesterol level results.  HDL-2 lipids are protective of the entire cardiovascular system and, the higher, the better. A new cholesterol test, now, appears to show how likely you are to develop heart and vascular problems.  It's called, "LDL particle size test."  Simply put, the smaller the LDL particles and the greater the number of these small particles, the greater the chance that these will burrow into the vessels and cause clot formation and atherosclerosis.

We know that some of the side effects of Statin drugs may be heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and increased blood clot formation (that will eventually cause strokes).  This is especially true in women, who appear more susceptible than men to develop those disease states.  We also know that we need to strengthen the heart and its vasculature as our primary goal instead of just prescribing medications that have not been shown to prevent cardiovascular disease.  Just read the disclaimers about the effects of Statin drugs on the inserts and on the TV advertisements.

The idea that fat in the diet causes fat deposits in our body as well as cholesterol in the diet causes high cholesterol levels may be intuitive, but it is, in fact, just plain wrong. Truly, you don't have to believe me, but I would recommend you believe the cardiologists who have found this to be true.  Go onto Dr. Oz's website and read about what he learned from fellow doctors about this subject.  He's a pretty famous cardiologist and he didn't know about these problems with the Statin drugs.  That's why we doctors all need to keep abreast about the latest valid, peer reviewed research.  I know that's why I do so much reading.  I want to keep people informed about the facts.  I want people to question and read and learn so they can be in charge of their health.  Insist that your doctor run the LDL particle size test.  It's fairly inexpensive and just might save your life.

Did you know that vegetables and fruits contain over 4,000 phytochemicals that are known to protect your heart, decrease inflammation and protect you from the ravages of aging?
That's what I encourage people to think about.  We have been scared into "needing" drugs to prevent heart attacks or strokes, although there are no studies that show that these medications prevent anything. The most that can be said about some of these drugs is that they lower cholesterol levels to a certain degree.  The problem is that it's not cholesterol that is causing the vascular disease, it's a particular lipid constituent that is causing it.  And, the Statin drugs do not affect the small LDL particles...diet does.  I believe it's time to be proactive about your health and learn how to heal your way into wellness.

There's a book called, "Heart 411," written by two cardiologists who say that most of the medications that doctors are prescribing that claim to prevent heart attacks, have no basis in scientific fact.  They do not recommend Statin drugs and do not recommend the taking of an aspirin a day. 


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We Have an "Internal" Pharmacy that is far superior to the "External" One

I like the following quote from Michael Stanclift, N.D.

"Many of us don't realize it, but our bodies are constantly organizing and carrying out complex operations to maintain our health. Nearly all our internal functions occur outside our awareness. For instance, we don't put in much effort to digest our food, or filter our blood. And under most circumstances our bodies easily manage blood clots, fight infections, repair organs and kill cancer cells using their own natural chemicals. In fact, the world's best 'pharmacy' exists inside each and every one of us. Taking full advantage of this internal 'pharmacy' is the most effective way to care for our health."

In order to take advantage of the hard work that our body undergoes on our behalf, each day, we need to help it out.  Eating healthy foods, drinking adequate water for our body size and activity levels, performing daily de-stressing exercise (including meditation) and getting adequate sleep, are all vital to our well being or "wellness" and have been subjects of earlier blogs.  Without doing all of these things on a daily basis, we cannot expect our bodies to continue to regenerate and rebalance themselves to help us remain healthy and avoid illness and disease.

I had an out-of-state patient contact me about some health concerns she had.  I recommended that she have blood work done that her medical doctor didn't normally order for a woman her age.  "You look healthy, why do you want these tests done?" she was asked. The patient insisted and the tests were run. The results confirmed my suspicions; her body was not functioning, optimally, at all.  

We need to work at becoming healthy and maintaining that state, each day.  We need to stop relying upon appearance to determine our state of health.  Health is not predicated upon how we look; it is not the absence of sickness, disease or death; it is the presence of vitality and vigor and balance, which is "wellness."   My job is to help people like this patient to return to the state of wellness.

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Does Anyone You Know Have These Symptoms? It May be a Matter of Life or Death

The following symptoms may indicate a hidden heart problem that can lead to stroke and death:

shortness of breath
fatigue with minimal exertion
racing heart or chest pains

These symptoms can be associated with a heart condition known as, atrial fibrillation.  This is an irregular heart beat that results in only partial blood emptying from the atrium into the ventrical.  When this continues to occur, a  blood clot or clots will eventually form and move with the flow of blood, circulating in the body until it reaches a vessel that it cannot pass through.  The blood flow to the area that the clogged vessel supplies is then cut off and ischemia results.  All too frequently, the vessels that the clot forms in supply the brain, resulting in a stroke.  We have personal experience with this condition in my family as the atrial fibrillation was diagnosed too late.

According to Dr. Benjamin Steinberg at Duke University Medical Center, the problems associated with irregular heart rhythm occur all too frequently because people with this condition do not receive adequate therapy.  Even though "a-fib,"(the abbreviated name for atrial fibrillation in the health care community) affects an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S., Dr. Steinberg says that a good number of physicians treat an irregular heart rate more frequently than an irregular heart beat.

Steinberg's team used a registry of 10,061 patients treated for a-fib between 2010 and 2011 and concluded that patients were being under-treated for heart rhythm and stroke. Only one in three patients reveived treatments meant to control their arrhythmia. Controlling a patient's heart rate is fairly simple, but controlling heart rhythm is more difficult as it requires more sophisticated heart monitoring and drugs that can cause severe side effects.

The only symptom that my family member ever showed was shortness of breath when climbing stairs.  She died very suddenly of a massive stroke not long after stating that she had this problem.  I tell you about this to encourage anyone you know who exhibits any of the above mentioned symptoms to insist their doctor check for irregular heart beat and treat them for this condition and not just for irregular heart rate.

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Should You Avoid Certain Vegetables if You Have Thyroid Dysfunction?

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article written by a naturopathic doctor stating that individuals with a low functioning or dysfunctional thyroid should avoid cruciferous and dark green leafy vegetables.  I had to admit that I just couldn't understand that and needed more facts before making a judgement about that statement.

We all know that broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, as well as kale and other dark green leafy vegetables are a fabulous source of phytonutrients that are anti-carginogens and anti-oxidants.  Therefore, this doctor's caution simply didn't make sense.  As biochemistry is a science that can, literally, change overnight, I decided to see if there were, indeed, studies supporting this idea.  Much to my relief, this is what I found:

Broccoli does not contain the harmful substance once thought to affect thyroid function. The substance is progoitrin and is abundant only in raw kale. Cooking destroys the enzyme that produces progoitrin.  So, be certain never to juice kale. 

The harmful affect on thyroid function only occurs when the individual does not have adequate iodine in their body. Iodine is found mostly in seafood, including seaweed, and in alfalfa and sun chlorella.  Ironically, an imbalance of iodine in the body appears to be a contributing factor to thyroid dysfunction, in the first place. 

I hope this information is helpful.  I think this situation illustrates just how important it is to dig deeper when any doctor tells us something that gives us reason to pause.

Another study I was reading claims that a substance in broccoli, called sulforaphane, kills cancer cells without killing healthy cells.  Unfortunately, this study is an example of how bias causes misleading conclusions.  Pure sulforaphane was injected into cancer cells in a petri dish...not exactly something that doctors are able to do for us.  Additionally, there is no amount of broccoli or supplement containing sulforaphane that one can consume that would even begin to approximate the amount the lab people introduced to the cancer cells.  I think the message, here, is what we can eat to help us avoid getting cancer, in the first place.

Just another bit of information.  I like to watch cooking shows.  I have been noticing a number of them including the use of raw kale as a "new" salad ingredient.  In light of the above information about raw kale, I wouldn't recommend it raw, but I do love it, cooked, in soups.

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