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Letter from Dr. Janson
Cholesterol Risks
Lifestyle and Pets for
Depression
Organic Standards
In the Health News
Recipe of the Month: Bean
Chili for Winter
Dear Friends,
I am glad I waited until after the holidays
to report to you about the relationship of large
meals to heart attacks! Recent reports confirm
what many have known for a long time–large meals
trigger heart attacks. In fact, people who eat
a large meal are four times more likely to have
a heart attack in the next two hours (and within
the first hour, the risk is increased 10-fold).
The researchers did not take into account whether
a large meal of vegetables, brown rice, and
tofu, with some garlic and onions would have
the same effect, but no matter what you choose
to eat it is best not to overdo it. Even healthy
foods, in large amounts,are stressful on your
arteries and digestion.
Now that the holidays are over, it is time
to take stock of your health habits if you want
to decrease your risks of developing chronic
degenerative diseases. Modifying those health
habits is also the best way to make yourself
feel good, look good, and have more energy,
and help yourself both physically and mentally.
On another note, while drug therapies
are often necessary and sometimes lifesaving,
we put far too much faith in their safety and
effectiveness. Depending on the FDA to protect
us from the risks is unreliable, and medicines
cause many side effects and deaths. Often, they
are pulled from the market after patients (guinea
pigs?) have unexpected side effects.
For example, calcium channel blockers are commonly
used to treat hypertension. They do lower blood
pressure, but do not reduce the risk of heart
attacks and heart failure compared to other
medications that are less expensive and more
effective.
Diuretics, beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors
help with both the blood pressure and heart
disease, but it is even better to try non-drug
therapies. Diet and weight loss can help many
people avoid drugs. Add stress management and
dietary supplements, such as vitamin C, magnesium,
coenzyme Q10, garlic, and hawthorn berry, and
you may be able to avoid drugs and the risk
of drug side effects.
The side effects of drugs, even when taken
correctly, cause over 100,000 deaths annually,
and if you add the dangers of errors in prescribing
and administering drugs, it is easy to see how
important it is to find alternatives whenever
possible. Even with serious diseases, it is
not always necessary to take drugs, yet many
physicians do not look for the non-drug treatments
that are available. Antibiotics are also greatly
overused for conditions that don’t warrant them.
Increasing public demand has led to greater
awareness in the medical community of alternatives–keep
up the good work. Taking charge of your lifestyle
choices is the real way to manage your health
and avoid the need for medical care.
A new study confirms the value of chromium in
managing diabetes (adult onset, now more properly
called Type II diabetes, as it is now common
at earlier ages due to overweight and poor diet).
Earlier studies reported that up to 90 percent
of diabetics could get off medication with chromium
supplements, if they took 1000 mcg of chromium
daily. Chromium enhances insulin sensitivity.
This report confirms the value of chromium in
an elderly population, using only 400 mcg daily.
Of course, chromium is only a part of the solution
to diabetes. A high fiber diet, weight loss,
and regular exercise are extremely effective
lifestyle changes that help control diabetes.
James Anderson, MD, at the University of Kentucky,
has shown that diabetics do better following
such a diet and exercise program.
In addition, other supplements help both to
control sugar levels and prevent the complications
of diabetes, related to circulatory disorders,
visual problems, and neurological symptoms.
Bioflavonoids, alpha-lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10,
bilberry, proanthocyanidins, magnesium, gamma-linolenic
acid, vitamins C and E, B complex, and others
are all beneficial for diabetics.
Recent research suggests that cholesterol is
not only a problem when it builds up as part
of the plaque inside the arteries. High blood
cholesterol levels may impede oxygen delivery
to all body tissues, and impair their function.
The cholesterol that you eat from animal products
should be limited, especially from flesh foods,
(I do recommend some organic eggs in the diet).
However, the cholesterol that you produce in
the liver is a greater contributor to blood
cholesterol levels than diet. You produce more
cholesterol when you are under oxidative stress
and free radical exposure, which may be why
antioxidants can lower cholesterol levels.
Although cholesterol is a component of all
cell membranes, when too much builds up in red
blood cell membranes, it blocks the transport
of oxygen, which is carried by the hemoglobin
in the red cells. This could starve tissues
of oxygen, and in heart muscles this could lead
to increased pain on exertion (angina).
In this study, patients with high cholesterol
had an 18 percent lower oxygen level in the
tissues than patients with low cholesterol.
Treatments that lower cholesterol include diet
and some drugs, but there are alternatives to
the drugs that are much safer. For example,
a form of vitamin B3 called inositol hexaniacinate
lowers cholesterol, but does not cause the flush
that is typical of plain niacin, and it does
not affect the liver, which can occasionally
happen with high doses of other niacin forms
(niacinamide does not cause a flush either,
but it does not lower cholesterol).
Other supplements that help include garlic,
chromium, vitamins C and E, gugulipids (an Indian
herb), and the red-yeast rice that I wrote about
in the last issue. Antioxidants also help because
oxidized cholesterol is the most dangerous form.
A healthy diet plays the greatest and most
comprehensive role in protecting you from heart
disease. As you know by now, my diet guidelines
include lots of fresh vegetables and fruits,
whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and small
amounts of fish and organic eggs and low-fat
yogurt. Medical literature consistently supports
this diet as the most healthful for most people,
including most diabetics.
However, I do recognize that some diabetics
and insulin resistant people might need modification
of this diet until they get their situation
under control. Health practices that reduce
insulin resistance are chromium, exercise and
weight loss.
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Although I write often about the benefits of
good nutrition and dietary supplements in the
treatment of depression, non-nutritional influences
can also make a big difference.
For example, having a pet may provide relief
from depression. Pets offer unconditional affection,
while the responsibility of caring for a pet,
can give a sense of purpose and joy in life.
Pets provide physical contact and emotional
comfort, which are frequently lacking in the
lives of people experiencing depression. Dogs
or cats can also be wonderful companions, and
thus reduce feelings of loneliness that often
accompany depression.
If you have to go out to walk a dog every day,
you will get more physical activity yourself,
and sustained exercise can produce endorphins,
brain chemicals that give a mild sense of euphoria
(the so-called “runner’s high,” though the exercise
does not have to be running).
Aerobic exercise (the level that you can do
without getting short of breath but works up
a sweat) is enough to release endorphins, if
you keep it up long enough. This is usually
30 to 40 minutes, but every individual is different,
and you have to find the level at which it happens
for you.
Having a dog that requires outdoor activity
or getting outdoors for exercise may provide
further relief because of increased light exposure.
The low level of natural light in winter is
one cause of a form of depression called Seasonal
Affective Disorder (SAD).
Light decreases the daytime production of melatonin,
a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that
influences the body clock. Exposure to powerful
light sources early in the morning (the timing
is important) will suppress melatonin production
at the right time, and can help reset the body
clock and reduce depression.
Special “light boxes” (small collections of
fluorescent bulbs) can provide adequate light
when it is needed. Light boxes are available
from a variety of sources at a range of prices.
You don’t have to spend a fortune to find one
that works for you.
Melatonin supplements at bedtime can also help
(well, I suppose I could not get away from supplements
altogether). Doses are usually in the range
of 1 to 3 mg of melatonin, but some people respond
to more or less. These doses usually help sleep
as well as helping depression. One study used
as much as 10 mg of melatonin to achieve results,
and after a time they were able to reduce the
dose and maintain the benefits.
You can take a sublingual melatonin dissolved
in the mouth if you have trouble falling asleep.
You can take a timed release tablet if your
habit is to fall asleep easily but wake up in
the middle of the night and find yourself unable
to go back to sleep.
The USDA, always more friendly to the
conventional food industry, has produced their
own version of national organic food standards.
Labels should appear next summer, but some questions
still remain about these standards.
After public outcry, they eliminated irradiated
foods, genetically modified foods, and those
fertilized with sewage sludge, but many in the
natural products industry worry that they will
not be as strict as current standards. We will
have to wait to see how this influences the
supply and purity of organic foods.
Industrial food producers want to claim that
“organic” is just a marketing gimmick, and they
want the public “informed” that organic foods
are not better than conventional foods. They’re
wrong. Organic foods are better for your health
and the environment. Pesticides are not healthy.
•We know that saw palmetto berry extract helps
benign prostate enlargement, but now there is
evidence from the laboratory that saw palmetto
also helps prevent and treat prostate cancer
(American Society for Cell Biology meeting,
Reuters Health, Dec 2000). Saw palmetto decreased
growth of cancer cells in culture. It killed
other cancer cells, but it was five times more
potent against prostate cancer cells. The researchers
noted that because it inhibited the inflammatory
substance known as COX-2, which is high in prostate
cancer cells, long-term usage of saw palmetto
could help to prevent prostate cancer as well
as treat it. The usual dose of saw palmetto
is 160 mg of standardized extract, 2 to 3 times
a day.
• While mentioning organic standards, we now
have even further evidence that pesticides are
detrimental to human health (as well as that
of the environment). Household pesticides are
increasingly implicated in cancer, especially
childhood cancers. A study at USC (Cancer 2000;89:2315-2321)
showed that household pesticide use before and
during pregnancy, or while nursing, significantly
increased the risk of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Choose organic foods to further reduce pesticide
exposure.
• Factory farming of animals increases
the risk of “mad-cow disease” or BSE (bovine
spongiform encephalopathy). This is another
reason not to eat beef–the scientists claim
that our testing is not accurate enough to detect
this disease in order to protect the consumer,
and they endorse organic farming. Even disposal
of infected animals could add to the environmental
contamination. (Reuters Medical News, Dec, 2000)
A hearty bean chili is just what you need to
keep you warm and well nourished in the winter.
I cook organic pinto beans in a pressure cooker
to save time–about 20 to 25 minutes at pressure,
and then I let it cool (or you can buy organic
ones in a jar). Add these to sauteed garlic,
onions, and mushrooms in olive oil (or dry in
a non-stick pan), and add tomato sauce, chili
powder to taste, oregano, cumin, and minced
spinach. Add chopped cilantro at the very end
to maintain its pungent flavor. I put this in
an organic whole wheat or corn tortilla with
some lettuce, fresh tomato, and avocado, and
I serve it with some steamed broccoli or a salad.
You can use another variety of bean, such as
kidney beans, black beans, navy beans, or aduki
beans. |
