INTEGRATIVE
HEALTH EDUCATION
A monthly
review of 100 medical journals
Volume 10
� Number 7
� July 2009
EDITOR’S
NOTE
Last month
I saw a patient who lost 200 lbs by simply (I
don’t say it lightly) coming to terms with his
refined sugar addiction. He is delighted and so am
I.
Let’s
compare him to the young woman I saw a few days ago: she
demanded that I refill her amphetamine-like prescription
(phentermine, which quits working after 3 months) and
her thyroid hormone, both of which were erroneously
prescribed by another provider. The fact that these two
drugs had not worked was not obvious to her. When I
said that I was not going to comply with her refill
request (which often earns me the reputation of “not
listening” with these type of patient) she became
angry and confrontational. Perhaps I was too direct, but
I doubt it, since I have been doing this type of
counseling for years now and I have a lot of gray hair
to show for it.
What is
really disturbing in her case was her statement that she
will never eat veggies. Why won’t she? In my opinion,
her addiction to sugar is so pronounced she is unable to
taste the natural sugars found in veggies or any other
natural food.
Such is
the power of the addiction our society suffers. I
compare it to an alcohol addiction. Before you say that
this is a tortured analogy, let me remind you that
alcohol is a fermented sugar. Alcohol and refined sugars
in our diet have an active neurological effect on our
neurotransmitter receptors, particularly in our brains’
thermostat. Also, these receptors are shared by opioids,
endorphins and valium-like drugs. Do you get the
picture?
Unfortunately, sexual/physical abuse in early childhood
contributes to our thermostat dysfunction. And, believe
it or not, toxins in the environment, including
artificial sweeteners in diet soda pop and toxic
microbes in our gut compound the addiction to sugar.
A final
word of advice: quit relying on sale pitches (herbs,
drugs, gadgets, fad diets, etc.) If you want to lose
weight, look in the mirror and say: I am a sugar-holic.
Also ask yourself if there is a history of childhood
emotional trauma and work out 60 minutes a day. I
sincerely wish you the success my first patient has
seen.
Hugo
Rodier, MD
“Doc, I can’t lose weight and
I am tired: I need thyroid”
If I had a dollar for
each time I have heard this I would have a small
fortune.
Many of these patients
come in, angry that other docs have not prescribed
thyroid “because the blood levels were normal.”
Most of them hope that I, as a bit of a maverick in the
medical field, will produce the coveted prescription,
only to be disappointed that I agree with the standard
of care in this field, and for that matter, with the
standards of prescribing practically all medications (I
do not agree with the standards of care when it comes to
non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as nutrition.)
We have known for a
while that people may develop “thyroid resistance,”
much like we may develop insulin resistance. In fact, “studies
of insulin resistance in patients with clinical and
subclinical hypothyroidism”
continue to appear, establishing the fact that most
thyroid problems are due to our diets and environmental
toxins;
the latter contribute to cell membrane toxicity and
hormonal dysfunction. It is not just refined sugars that
may trigger thyroid disease, but refined wheat.
(If you would like to study “resistance” at the
cellular level take a look at the articles I have posted
on my website.)
So, stop blaming your
thyroid and see if you might have a nutritional problem.
Remember that insulin resistance is linked to obesity.
The relationship between weight thyroid exists, but in
most cases obesity is the cause of thyroid
dysfunction, not the consequence: hyperinsulinemia
diminishes the rate of conversion or activation of T4 to
T3.
So, you may need to
look in the mirror, again…
[By the way, the “man in the mirror”
passed away last month…]
Exercise tip
Last month I stated
that sometimes exercise advice from docs may fall on
deaf ears, particularly if the patient is overworking
just to make ends meet. Hopefully that statement was not
interpreted as po-pooing exercise altogether. On the
contrary, exercise is very well documented activity; its
benefits are far reaching. It would be most beneficial
for your insulin resistance issues (diabesity) if you
could work out over 150 minutes a week and combine
aerobic (i.e. running) and resistance training
(weight-lifting.)
Eat fiber!
The epidemic of obesity
began when Americans decreased the amount of fiber they
consume. Most people now eat 5-10 grams a day, far below
the recommended amounts:
Men <50 38 grams
Men >50 31
Women <50 24
Women >50 21
How did this happen?
We turned to refined foods which are very low in fiber.
This causes many problems, like increasing the rapid
absorption of sugars from the gut. The result is a
negative metabolic reaction that increases the addiction
to sugar and the stress on the system that is then
required to produce more insulin, faster and faster.
Since the rising levels of insulin subsequently trigger
hypoglycemia, we rush to eat more or the sweets
that started the problem in the first place: we are then
caught in a vicious cycle.
Consuming fiber lowers
your risk of gaining weight
by avoiding that vicious cycle. Remember that most fiber
is in fruits and veggies, not grains. Also, remember
guar gum fiber, arguably the best fiber to
supplement for weight issues. I recommend 5 grams 1hour
before each meal: it helps you reduce the absorption of
sugars from the gut.
There are many other
benefits to fiber consumption. Let me tell you a story:
Dr. Burkitt (a
fearsome childhood cancer bears his name) did a lot of
work in Africa, where he noted that the people with the
biggest, bulkiest stools had less cancer. When he
presented his observations he was not well received by
his fellow physicians in the USA. However, time
vindicated his astuteness; now we know that fiber does
decrease the risk of many cancers. Remember the Nobel
Prize winning research of Metchnikoff: 60% of our immune
system is in the intestinal tract. A lot of it is the
friendly bacteria that live therein, which needs good “prebiotics,”
or fiber to thrive.
Low blood sugar
When I first started
practicing in SLC I had several patients tell me that
the diagnosis of “hypoglycemia” was not
well accepted elsewhere, despite their obvious
improvement with dietary changes. It is not hard to
understand that high sugar diets will trigger the
release of a lot of insulin, which sticks around to
lower sugar rather precipitously. This causes the
release of several hormones, particularly epinephrine,
which makes people shake, feel dizzy and speed up their
hearts.
This is why now we see
that hypoglycemia increases mortality in hospitalized
patients who have had a heart attack.
It may drive you crazy to read that hypoglycemia in type
II diabetics also increases the risk of dementia.
Confused about Homocysteine?
Homocysteine goes up
when we don’t have enough B vitamins in our diets.
Initially, we saw a
flurry of articles saying that this toxin is associated
with heart disease and several other conditions, like
strokes and dementia. Subsequent research cooled down
the early enthusiasm. Some docs are now downright
hostile if the “H” word comes up, fueling their dim
views of anything non-pharmaceutical/nutritional.
But, like we often see
in nutritional research, negative studies about food are
to be taken with a grain of salt. A significant
proportion of these studies fail to take into account
individual differences on how people process nutrients.
Just like we see with “pharmacogenetics,”
some of us do not process certain nutrients like the
majority of people.
Interestingly, the very
principle that some are willing to concede to drug
research (pharmacogenetics) is not easily applied to
food science, despite the well documented fields of “nutrigenomics
and nutrigenetics.”
So, I was happy to see
yet another article saying that the reason some studies
on homocysteine no longer show an association with heart
disease is because researchers are not looking into
5-methyltetrahydrofolate genetic variances.
This simply means that some people cannot process B
vitamins once ingested; they are the ones who will have
more oxidation of the lining of their blood vessels. In
other words, homocysteine is indeed toxic in those who
have the mutation in the MTHF gene. If a study does not
consider this genetic mutation, the toxic effect of
homocysteine may not be apparent.
And, wouldn’t you know
it. The pharmaceutical industry has known about this for
some time; they have marketed 5-mehtytetrahydrofolate
(found OTC) as a drug, Deplin, to treat
inflammation/oxidation of the brain: depression.
Remember that we also need B vitamins to turn amino
acids in our diet to neurotransmitters. For example,
tryptophan is the substrate from which our body
makes serotonin.
All this may be
a bit complicated, even unnecessary: just quit eating
processed food! It is too low in B vitamins…
Telegraphed articles
Soy reduces the risk of colon cancer
J. Nutrition 2009;139:474
Soy lowers the risk of gastric cancer
J. Nutrition 2009;139:1008
Soy does not increase breast density in
menopausal women
J. Nutrition 2009;139:981
[Are you still a soy-hater?]
Stress is the biggest factor in graying of hair
J. Cell, June 2009
A stay in the slammer raises the risk of
high blood pressure
J. Archives of Internal Medicine
2009;169:687
Teen night owls have higher rates of depression
NIH/Columbia University, June 2009
Seaweed improves sexual/hormonal balance in
menopause
J. Nutrition 2009;139:939
Pre pregnancy obesity linked to postpartum
depression
J. Family Practice news, March 2009, page 19
Probiotics reduce liver inflammation seen with
high fat diets
J. Nutrition 2009;139:905
Cinnamon extract protects the liver against
alcohol induced injury
J. Nutrition 2009;139:5482
Moderate alcohol intake reduces insulin
resistance
J. Metabolism Clinical & Experimental
2009;58:387
The purple pill increases risk of hospital
acquired pneumonia
JAMA 2009;301:2120
Carotenoids in our diet lower risk of metabolic
syndrome
J. Nutrition 2009;139:987
CoQ10 improves arterial lining in diabetic
patients on cholesterol drugs
J. Diabetes Care 2009;32:810
Quercetin helps leaky gut symptoms
J. Nutrition 2009;139:965
Green and Black tea lower the risk of strokes
J. Stroke 2009 Feb 19: Epub
Higher overall adiposity, especially the beer-belly, is
associated with more Restless Legs
J. Neurology April 2009
J.
Annals of Internal Medicine 1995;123:572
“Environmental chemicals and thyroid function,”
European J. Endocrinology 2006;154:599
“Thyroid related antibodies in celiac disease,”
J. Clinical Gastroenterology 2002;35:245
J. Metabolism Clinical and Experimental
2005;54:1524
“Nutrigenomics
and Nutrigenetics: the emerging faces of
nutrition,”
J. FASEB 2005;19:1602