Author Topic: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)  (Read 17412 times)

Crafty_Dog

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Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« on: August 04, 2006, 07:10:22 AM »
Woof All:

Just surfed through the back pages of the forum and was unable to find a health thread, so I start this one here.

The Adventure continues,
CD
================

Cancer News From Johns Hopkins
.

Cancer update -- Johns Hopkins -- Cancer News from Johns
 Hopkins:

1. No plastic containers in micro.

2. No water bottles in freezer.

3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters.
 This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army
Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals causes cancer, especially breast cancer.
Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don't
freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this  releases dioxins
from the plastic.

 Recently, Dr.. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager
 at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain  this health hazard.
He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.

 He said that we should not be heating our food in the
microwave using plastic containers. This especially applies to foods  that
contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics
releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells  of thebody.
 Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware,
Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only
without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups,
etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else.
 Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper. He reminded us that
a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away
from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one  of the reasons.
 Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is justas dangerous when placed over! foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

C-Kumu Dog

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Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #1 on: August 04, 2006, 11:33:12 AM »
I found these at Jeff "Stickman" Finders Eskrima Blog

I remember the hot days when growing up in Illinois, somedays, I never went outside until 9 p.m.

http://escrima.blogspot.com/2006/06/hot-weather-tip-1.html

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Hot Weather Tip #1
I grew up in Sacramento, where summertime temperatures can often go over 100?. While air conditioning is common there, my mother came from a frugal depression-era background and so she wouldn?t use electricity for that unless absolutely necessary.

Now I live in the SF Bay Area, where few homes have air conditioning because of the naturally temperate climate. Consequently her tricks on how to keep a house cool have proven very useful for those spells where the temperature climbs uncomfortably high.

The basic idea is this: get up early in the morning and open all the doors and windows to let as much heat escape as possible. It?s best to do this while it is still dark outside. When possible, allow the house to ventilate through the night, without creating security risks like leaving the door to the street unsecured.

Buildings are good at trapping heat. Not only does the structure get warm, but also the insulation tends to keep internal temperatures steady. It takes some energy to move the mass of hot air out during the cooler hours of the night.

My house is two stories; since heat rises, this means leaving upper windows open. I?ll also crack the garage door (not enough for someone to crawl under) to draw cool air from near the ground, and I?ll also open the trapdoor to the attic. This creates a chimney effect so more heat flows out through the attic vents while cooler air is sucked in from the bottom of the house. Opening the chimney vent is another avenue for heat to escape.

I?ll also run fans to push air out open windows, and the ceiling fan to circulate air in the largest room of the house. Sometimes I?ll reverse that fan to disperse the hot air nearest the ceiling, as opposed to blowing down where only cooler air is moving. If there is a fan for central heating, I?ll run that all night to assist distributing cooler air from downstairs through the house, allowing hotter air to escape. This will also store more cool air in the vents for later in the day. If it?s really warm, I?ll use a plant spray bottle in front of the fans to cool the air with mist; this is not unlike the value of courtyard fountains in hot dry climates.

While I?m up in the dawn hours, I?ll open all doors and windows, including screens if possible, to ensure the greatest flow of air (to keep the dog from getting out on the street, I use a portable child gate to block the front door). The dog gets a special view while providing security at that entrance.

As soon as the sun hits the house, close everything up ? doors, windows, and drapes! Even if the air hasn?t really warmed much yet, that direct sunlight will quickly have an effect. Turn off the central fan, or set the temperature high (like 85?) so it won?t come on until sometime in the afternoon when that cooler night air will really be appreciated. By closing curtains, the house will stay dark, the interior shaded. This helps, and the heavier the curtains the better (we use pull-down blackout shades ? light weight, reflect lots of heat).

With the house dark and shaded, I make an effort to not disturb the cool air I?ve trapped. If I take the car out during the day, I?ll open and close the garage door as quickly as possible, and once the car is hot, I?ll leave it outside rather than put it back in the garage. Parking a hot car back inside can raise the whole house temperature noticeably.

I keep a lawn sprinkler on the roof of the house, one of those ones with a bar with holes that goes back and forth putting a wide spray into the air. A few times during day as it starts to warm up inside, I?ll run the water for 5-10 minutes, usually until I hear water running through the rain spouts. This is like a swamp cooler, using evaporation to draw heat from the roof and cool the attic air space.

Once temperatures start to fall in the late afternoon or early evening there is usually a breeze, at which point I?ll start to selectively open windows to get some ventilation. That?s also a good time to hose off the roof and exterior walls of the house, and especially the yard and driveway, reducing the air temperature around the building itself.

Using these methods, I can keep my house at or below the mid-80?s even if the temperature is much hotter outside. It?ll get warm, but not unbearably hot. If I forget to do these things, or miss the first day of a heat wave, I can certainly tell the difference
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://escrima.blogspot.com/2006/06/hot-weather-tip-2.html


Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Hot Weather Tip #2
This is something I first heard from Angel Cabales, which I?ve since confirmed in conversations with several doctors.

If it is a very hot day and you have been exerting yourself, especially if you?ve been exercising outdoors in the sun, DO NOT drink an icy cold drink; the shock to your system can be fatal!

If you think about it, your stomach is right next to your heart. The temperature difference of an ice-cold drink next to your heart, which is working hard to cool your body through circulation, can cause a heart attack.

Angel personally witnessed this several times, when a cooler of ice water would be brought to farm workers laboring in the hot summer sun.

Back around 1990 I was the last person to speak with local TV sportscaster Mark Gibson, moments before he dropped dead of a heart attack. On a hot day, he went directly from a long hard workout to get a big drink from an icy water fountain in the gym. He collapsed just moments later. As I helped paramedics wheel him to the ambulance they said that certainly could have been a contributing cause.

Some things seem counter-intuitive but make sense later. On a cold day, take a hot shower but finish it cold. That closes the pores of the skin to seal in the heat. On hot days, you might cool down with a cold shower, but if you finish with hot water it can help the body cool down faster by bringing more circulation to the surface.

If you drink a lot of water, you need to supplement minerals. Dr. Batamanghelidj came up with the protocol to divide your weight in half and drink that many ounces of water per day. He recommended taking about 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt (which contains trace minerals and is naturally produced, unlike table salt that is processed and baked at 1200?) to keep up magnesium and other vital trace elements. One method is to make sol?, which is a salt solution. Fill a jar with water and add sea salt until it is so saturated that some crystals remain unabsorbed on the bottom. Each morning add about 1 tablespoon to a glass of water (you probably won?t even taste it). This should supply sufficient minerals to balance drinking so much water.

Dr. Batamanghelidj?s theories are not without controversy (mostly, it seems, because water isn't a money-maker), but they make a lot of sense. When I was in graduate school, I kept reading articles about different illnesses that were caused by some ?unidentified underlying cause of inflammation.? As he points out, we put water on fire to put it out! He believed that most people are chronically dehydrated, especially if they only drink coffee, tea, sodas or alcohol, all of which are diuretics.

One hundred years ago, a French doctor argued that there are many symptoms of dehydration. On the other hand, a British doctor said only thirst was a valid indicator. Since England was the dominant world power at the time, that became the predominant view of physicians. It now appears the French doctor was correct.

Dr. Batamanghelidj wrote that there are two oceans of water in our bodies, what is in the cells and what is outside the cells. High blood pressure, for instance, was in his opinion created by the body trying to force more water into chronically dehydrated cells. Without proper hydration, cells cannot expel toxins, which in turn lead to degenerative illnesses. Dr. Batamanghelidj claimed to have helped people cure a wide range of illnesses just with his water protocol, from allergies and asthma to lupus, fibromyalgia and even cancer.

It?s interesting that MSM, a popular supplement, is credited by many people with a similar range of effects. While MSM does not of itself cure anything, it aids transport across cell membranes. Could this be similar to the benefit of drinking sufficient water? I know the water cure has been a big help to me in fighting asthma.

Both Western and Oriental doctors with whom I?ve spoken about these theories agree that drinking water is good cheap medicine and unlikely to cause harm (again, the caveat is to keep up with minerals, particularly magnesium, a component of salt; too little can cause a heart attack!)

As with any health protocols, if you are under a doctor?s supervision, discuss any changes first!
"You see, it's not the blood you spill that gets you what you want, it's the blood you share. Your family, your friendships, your community, these are the most valuable things a man can have." Before Dishonor - Hatebreed

Crafty_Dog

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Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #2 on: August 04, 2006, 12:47:43 PM »
Regarding my previous post:

My apologies for the preceding which turns out to have been internet flotsam containing inaccuracies (Not from the source attributed and freezing water in plastic is NOT a problem).

These sources are far more precise:

http://www.bms.jhmi.edu/JHI/English/Media/Find_an_Expert/FE_RolfHaldenJuly05.asp

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cookplastic.asp

Speaking for myself, I will continue to avoid nuking with plastic.

===========

Concerning drink temperature, I first ran across this idea during my extensive travels in the interior of Mexico on my motorcycle back in the 1970s.  When out in the country, upon entering a local type restaurant (where many people worked in the fields during the day and where air conditioning was unheard of) and asking for something to drink the responding query would be "Cold or room temperature?"  This applied to mineral water, beer (Mexican beer can be quite good btw) and soda.  So when I ran across the same thing in the essay on Manong LaCoste in Guro Inosanto's book "The Filipino Martial Arts" I found it particularly interesting.  Since then I always seek my water at room temperature or at the very least without ice.

ch

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« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2006, 06:50:27 PM »
I FOUND THIS ON www.mikemahler.com. check it out.

A Conversation with Dr. William Wong on Training, Testosterone, Growth Hormone, Acting like A Man, and Rites Of Passage

I have been a fan of Dr. William Wong?s work for sometime. His advice has always proven to be useful and I send many of my clients his way. In an industry full of scammers, it is refreshing to come across an expert that cares more about disseminating beneficial information than making a quick buck.

In case you have not heard of Dr. Wong, he is a Texas State Naturopathic Medical Association professional member, World Sports Medicine Hall of Fame member, a Classical Naturopath, a Ph.D. Exercise Physiologist, a Certified Athletic Trainer (AATA), a Certified Sports Medicine Trainer (ASMA), and a Health/Fitness Consultant. Dr. Wong has more than 25 years of professional experience in natural health, as applied to sports medicine and rehabilitation, with the last 15 devoted almost exclusively to chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia,

Recently, I had a chance to talk to Dr Wong about a variety of topics including: what exercises to avoid, the dangers of doing too much cardio, why training to failure is flawed for athletes, why testosterone levels are lower than ever, the benefits of growth hormone and how to raise it naturally, how to lower blood pressure naturally, how much protein is necessary for athletes, and the benefits of systemic enzymes for a variety of conditions.

MM: Dr. Wong thanks for taking the time to do the interview.

DW: Thanks Mike and glad to do it.

MM:  Lets get started with physical training. What are the most common mistakes that people make with regards to working out?

DW:  By far the most common mistake for folks, especially the enthusiastic first timers is over exercising.  Everyone forgets that exercise is a stimulus response mechanism.  If all we do is feed a stimulus with out giving the body time to adapt in response to that stimulus, the muscles will get to the point where they will not only succumb to injury but will also fail to respond fully to the stimulus of training and this will slow development.

MM: What will happen if trainees continue to over train?

DW:  Eventually macro injury, in the form of muscle and tendon tears, increased joint wear, depressed immune function with susceptibility to infection, generalized fatigue, sloppy or degrading skills performance in sport, increased estrogen and cortisol levels which can lead to an increase in body fat from the waist to the knees.

MM: A common perception is athletes and very active people have strong immune systems and rarely get sick. Does not seem to be the case in the real world.

DW: There are now professional journals in sports medicine and exercise physiology dealing immune suppression issues in marathoners, triathletes and gym rats.   Also, it is an unsustainable myth that hard training increases testosterone levels.  In every credible study done on training and its effects on blood whether in college athletes, Olympians, or troops in training or in battle, the stress and physical fatigue of exercise, skill performance and physical activity decreases testosterone and increases estrogen.

MM: Does not sound good and we will talk more about testosterone and IGF-1 later in the interview. What exercises should trainees avoid?

DW: Here's the short list off the top of my head:

Wide grip pull downs or any pulldown with a pronated (palms away from you) grip.  These movements are not only bio mechanically inefficient they murder the rotator cuff killing mostly the supraspinatus and terres muscles.  Most folks quit the iron game when their shoulders get trashed out somewhere after 35.  On the improper biomechanics: The lats have 160 degrees of range of motion when worked in the sagittal (front to back plane), to do that your palms need to be facing you to properly position your elbows. Turn your palms away from you and all of a sudden you are working on the transverse plane where the lats have only 60 to 80 degrees of ROM.  Not only that but with out the bicep in the action your weak little elbow flexors will give out before the lats are saturated with exercise so the loss is doubled.  The old wives tale of the lats having to work harder to make up for the biceps not being in the work would be true if the lats were connected to the elbow but they are not, they attach at the shoulder so that often told exercise pointer is absolute biomechanical hogwash!

Next bad exercise: straight-legged deadlifts.  These shear the ligaments at the sacro iliac joints and provide a crushing shearing action on the L4/5 and L5 / S1 discs.

Finally, the full range of motion bench presses is bad news

MM: A lot of readers will not be happy to see the beloved bench press on this list.

DW: No doubt. Regardless, the bench press is the single greatest destroyer of the rotator cuff in lifting.  I can walk up to nearly any bench press lover and strum the long head of the bicipital tendon beneath the anterior deltoid and bring tears to their eyes.  Pavel and the Russians are right, the floor bench press or 1/2 ROM bench press guards against this insult while making folks just as strong as the full ROM benches.  No one over 35 should do full ROM bench presses!

MM: What is your view on running?

DW: There are better ways of conditioning the heart and lungs without pulverizing our joints, loosing muscle mass, destroying the immune system and giving oneself heart disease and vascular inflammation!  Yes, addicted runners die of heart disease as a result of the vascular and cardiac inflammation they give themselves.  Besides as Pavel says aerobics are not manly!

MM: What are the negatives of doing too much cardio and how much is too much?

Addicted distance runners told us boldly from the late 70's onward about how healthy they were (even though they looked as if they had just escaped from a concentration camp).  Then in the 80's their claims began to show some wear with running Guru Jim Fix dropping dead of a heart attack during a run.  "He had a congenital heart anomaly,? the runners said.  In the 90's when a slew of healthy strong runners in their late 30's to mid 40's dropped dead from strokes and heart attacks medicine began to look at what else beside arterial plaque could have killed these folks.  What they found was that these fellows all had great cholesterol, no arterial plaque, very strong heart muscles with no heart anomalies to speak of but they all had very high levels of vascular (blood vessel) and heart inflammation.  This inflammation closed down the blood vessels leading to the heart or in the brain better and tighter than any arterial plaque ever could. We know now that arterial plaque and cholesterol is a distant third among the causes of heart attacks and strokes after inflammation and excessive fibrin in the blood (which cause clots).

MM: Thus, on of the major negatives of excessive running is the high h level of inflammation that follows.

DW:  Yes, runners seldom give themselves a break.  It is part of the mindset of a manic compulsive to do the same thing every day regardless of the consequences. High mileage in aerobic activities causes: excessive wear on the joints, loss of muscle mass, depression or outright collapse of the immune system, inflammation of the blood vessels and heart.

MM: What is the ideal amount of cardio work?

DW: To know how much aerobic work to do to benefit the heart and lungs while avoiding overwork and damage here are the parameters: The Scandinavian exercise physiologist Carvonin found in the 1960's that the heart began to condition 5 min. after it got to a training heart rate.  He used 60% of max as his guide.  If it takes two minutes of work to get to a training heart rate and five minutes to gain a strengthening effect to the heart that makes seven minutes the minimum we need.

MM: The seven-minute cardio workout. Gotta love that. Seven minutes is the minimum required for a strengthening effect to the heart. What is the maximum?

DW:  Ken Cooper (who used to advocate marathons until his running patients began to die off) has found that the heart stops conditioning at around abut 24 to 26 min. of work!  Exercise beyond that point no longer strengthens the heart but contributes to the inflammatory process.  He now says that anything over 3 miles 3 times a week or it's equivalent is "done for reasons other than fitness".  So much for getting on a treadmill or stair climber for an hour!  One note: with seniors we now know that they will condition at only 50% of max h.r.

MM: Great news for trainees that hate cardio and bad news for all of the cardio addicts out there. Where do you stand on the training to failure philosophy?

DW: I will admit to being duped early in my professional career thirty years ago.  I was an advocate of training to failure even though all of the training I had done for the years prior to that were of the conventional power lifting / bodybuilding / Olympic lifting type.  The research looked great, the immediate effects of one set to failure on a machine was wonderful but what changed my mind after four years of believing in such training was the fact that: the strength of the training to failure machines did not seem to transfer well to sports activities.

MM: Thus, the strength from training to failure was only useful in the context of the workout.

DW: Yes, I had noticed it and so did others that it was not transferring to athletics.  Syracuse University did a study in the early 80's that showed this.  Then the question was what was at fault, the training principle or the gizmos used to train on?  Turned out it was the training to failure principle. When athletes did regular sets and reps on the gizmos there was a better strengthening effect and a stronger transferring of the acquired strength to sports activities.  

MM: Well, sounds like the training to failure concept is out for athletes.

DW: Yes and the long and the short of the debate is that training to failure was a technique invented to move people through commercial gyms faster with out taking too much time away from others by hogging a machine.  It was an expedient measure made to facilitate the use and sales of exercise machines, which proved ok for the causal fitness, buff but fell short of being what serious strength athletes needed.

MM: Is training to failure useful at all or should it be disregarded all together.

DW: It is useful when you are severely pressed for time yet needing to work out occasional use of the training to failure principle is ok but I would not recommend it be done frequently.

MM: Lets talk about protein. The common advice today for athletes is at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. What do you think is the ideal amount?

DW: Studies done at two separate Olympics ('72 and '76) showed that the hardest charging Olympian be they strength athletes or other wise did not need more than 1 gram of protein per 2.2 pounds (1 kilo) of body-weight per day. Bodybuilders were given the formula 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound by folks who wanted to sell them supplements.  There isn't a serious bodybuilder I've ever spoke about this to who does not have cloudy bubbly urine, a sign of protein being gotten rid of via the kidneys.  Taking in too much protein causes kidney stones, the increased ammonia load from excess protein causes kidney scaring and this leads to decreased kidney function, which may lead to kidney failure in certain circumstances and death.  The great killer of young strength athletes and runners is kidney failure.  High protein intake or muscle loss (as muscle catobolized during distance

running) = protein being excreted and an increased ammonia load.  This combined with dehydration and occasional use of aspirin ibuprofen or the other NSAID's meds has crashed many a set of kidneys and made a not a few athletes good looking corpses.

MM: Can you provide some examples?

DW: Of the 30+ kids who die playing football each year between jr. high and college most of those deaths happen during August two a day practices and are due to kidney failure and not to heat stroke or heart attacks.  When told these facts most body builders don't care.  Muscle heads can?t think beyond their next contest.   A bodybuilding doc I know gave a lecture to bodybuilders on the things they needed to avoid to not kill themselves.  In the middle of his bit on kidney failure a voice pipes up from the back of the room "Die Big, Die Big"!  When the entire rest of the audience took up the chant this doc gave up and went home.  Happy renal failure and rhabdomyosis to you guys!  Hope you like real pain.

MM: Does not paint a pretty picture for excessive protein intake. Lets move on and talk about your excellent systemic enzyme product. How did you come up with it?

DW: I can't take credit for developing the enzymes or the science behind them, greater minds than mine did that but in short Dr. Max Wolf, and Austrian MD with 7 other PhD's after his name developed a blend of enzymes to reduce inflammation, eat away at fibrosis, modulate immune function, clean the blood and act as a mild anti viral and anti bacterial agents.  Drug companies in the US were not interested.  He worked at Columbia Univ. for Pfizer and the company acknowledged the research and clinical work was valid but since you can't patent nature, they saw no income coming from it.  So Dr. Wolf took the blend to Germany where he established a company to make and promote the enzymes. So successful was he that the enzymes were accepted into general medicine and we see systemic enzymes being used by nearly every Olympic and pro team in Europe.

MM: How do enzymes work and wh at are the benefits?

DW: With out getting long winded the best explanation on how and what systemic enzymes do to greatly enhance both health and exercise recovery can be found in my article: ?What Are Systemic Enzymes? found in the archives of www.drwong.us also folks can listen to my lecture on Systemic Enzymes at www.drwongradio.com

In short systemic enzymes:

a) Reduce inflammation without the toxicity of the NSAID or cortisone drugs (enzymes have no LD-50).

b) Are the only things in conventional or natural medicine that can lyse (eat) away at scar tissue and fibrosis.  As to why this is important either listen to the lecture or read my article Fibrosis the Enemy of Life at www.drwong.us

Since most of what kills us is either an "it is" (an inflammation) or an "osis" (a fibrosis condition) the enzymes are a perfect healthy and non-toxic way of keeping those things at bay.  To see the science behind the enzymes please read the research abstracts at: www.enzymescience.com

MM: Testosterone is a big topic these days and low testosterone seems to be more and more prevalent in men. What are some of the common factors contributing to low Testosterone levels?

DW: The low testosterone levels we see in guys these days is due to a few overlapping factors all relating back to one thing - estrogen.  Many baby boys born since 1973 have had soy formula with it's phyto estrogen mucking up their works.  A boy age 6 months to 3 years has the testosterone level of an 18-year-old man!  A bottle of soy formula has the equivalent by weight of 5 to 8 estrogen birth control pills in it!  Multiply that by the number of bottles fed a day and the estrogen load is enormous!  What happens when all the E suppresses a boys T?  It is this T that tells the anterior pituitary to develops tiny part of itself and it is that part of the body that tells a boy that he's a guy!  In autopsies done on over 3000 gay men who died of HIV, I believe it was Dr. Lendon Smith the famous pediatrician who reported that homosexual men did not have this portion of the anterior pituitary!  Since that part develops in early childhood from the combination of testosterone, salt and calcium and since homosexual men are high in estrogen and DHT but low in testosterone and generally as a group have low serum calcium and low serum sodium we can see where the problem arises!  Trans-gender support groups have discovered where their dysfunction has arisen from and now they are in the lead in warning about the dangers of soy and environmental estrogens on the development of children.

MM: Wow that is some pretty scary stuff. Where else are we being bombarded with estrogen?

DW: Next we have all the pesticides, fertilizers, soy in all food, flax etc.  One form of estrogen atop another acting as endocrine disruptors we now have two generations of men since the 70's with:  smaller penis size both flaccid and erect than previous generations, lower testosterone levels, higher estrogen levels, dreadfully lower sperm counts, higher incidences of sexual mental dimorphism (not being sure what sex they are), and I fear reaching andropause around 35 or 40 instead of 45 to 50 all because of the estrogen in their food and environment.

On sperm count, in the 1960's a man was considered fertile only if he had over 100,000 sperm per ml. of semen. Things have gotten so bad that now a guy is considered fertile if he can make a measly 20,000 sperm per ml!  Dr. Doris Rapp MD the worlds leading environmental doc and pediatric allergist has looked at the data and predicts that by 2045 only 21% of the men on the entire planet will be fertile.  In all of Africa, Europe, Japan and many other countries deaths exceed births.  This will have devastating effect on world economies as pensioners will drastically out number those paying into pension plans!   I call this the Zardoz effect after the old Sean Connery movie where he was the last fertile man on earth.

MM: I have observed a scary trend of men being more effeminate. I wonder how much attitude and confidence has to do with T levels? I often hear men talk about how they need permission from their wives or girlfriends just to spend money they have earned or go out. Would you say that men who are dominated by their wives or girlfriends have lower T levels?

DW: I'm going to out on a limb here and I'll likely get hate mail for what I'm about to say but here goes.  Guy - gal relationships and marriage are a 50 - 50 proposition.  When men are dominated by their wives they have allowed this to happen and it may show low T levels or they are just "pussy whipped".  If the gal is very beautiful and desirable, the type of goddess men would kill for, then being "pussy whipped" is understandable.  (I'm married to one of those type gals)!   Most women who denigrate their men are nowhere near that good looking!  Not even close!   There are very few of those women around to account for all the "nebbish" men on the planet!   Since T levels are going lower and lower at earlier ages I expect we'll see even more nebbish men on the planet soon.  Andropause (male menopause) is now hitting at 35!

MM: What are the reasons for women bossing their men around? Is it just due to the fact that these men have low T levels or are sim ply whipped?

DW: I have noticed that women boss their men around when they lose respect for them.  As providers, as pillars of strength, as builders, as the "Hunks" these gals first married; the gleam is gone, the warts are showing, the dreams have deflated and the reality of what ever failings and the guy has are apparent.  This is when the bitterness of a woman's disappointment shows in her attitude by taking on his role as head of household.   Having seen this many times over my 5 plus decades I can positively make that statement.

One thing that really gets to a woman is when she is not the center of her man's world.  Any guy who still prefers to hang out with his friends, go drinking, watch sports, or has not grown up is going to lose a woman's respect right quick.   In teaching martial arts, med school and exercise I've told many a "boy man" to grow the f--k up act responsibly.  To gals I offer this advice: marry an x service man or a fellow who's had a really hard life and has had to work to make it, as these guys are more in touch with being responsible, disciplined and productive than the "bad boys" who still act like they're in school.  Women unfortunately love and are highly attracted to the "bad boys" and their astonishment that the bad boys continue to be bad boys after the vows are said and the rings go on astonishes me.   What did they expect!

MM: Interesting points. A friend once noted that there is no rite of passage for boys into men in the modern world. How d oes that play into things?

DW: The poet Robert Bly pointed out in his book "Iron John", men change from boys to men by a process of initiation.  Hard experiences, long-sufferings, deep teaching from wise elders, military boot camp; if they have taught persistence, discipline and responsibility all qualify as an initiation.   American Indian boys went into the field to hunt, fend for themselves, gain deep understanding of what they could or must accomplish, survive and hopefully gain a spiritual insight.  This changed them deeply and made them men, worthy to stand with the warriors and builders.  We live in a matriarchal society where fathers and grand fathers no longer guide their sons down the path to manhood.  Men are no longer ritually initiated into manhood.  The harshness of survival, grand effort and spiritual awakening is looked down upon, as being primitive and so we have the world filled with irresponsible "boy men".

MM: What about women?

DW: We now have a generation of daughters of the "Liberated Women" of the 70's.  These gals don't have a clue of what it means to make a household, tend to a family, make a meal or raise children.  They know corporate politics, reservations for eating, and day care from birth.  These women have grown in dysfunctional families where mom was a dominating closet lesbian and their images of male / female relationships are extremely skewed.  These daughters have not been initiated into womanhood.

I don't have a clue as to how to fix that, except to tell men to find wives from women that have had good moms because even though most women hate hearing this fact it is very, very true:  by their late 30's and into their 40's all gals turn into their mothers!

But back to an earlier point:  Increasing a man's T level, increasing his affirmativeness, being the pillar of strength, being a good provider, noticing the gal, giving a gal better orgasms, can help improve a gals impression of her man in some relationships.  Other relationships, which are toxic, just need to be walked away from before it drives the guy crazy.   By the way Iron John is a MUST READ for every MAN.  Boy men need not read it.  Nuff said.

MM: Lets get into specifics. What can be done to increase T levels?

DW: Testosterone levels in men and women decline from 27 onward and seriously decline from 35 onward until by 40-45 most men are estrogen dominant and have more estrogen floating round their bodies than their wives do!  Since all of our drive both mental, physical and sexual is derived from testosterone, since the spark that keeps us interested in life and enjoying it is derived from testosterone it behooves us not to succumb to natures planned obsolesce and let ourselves get E dominant and T deficient!.

A few things can be done to naturally raise one's own testosterone levels are:

Libido Lift herbal capsules 4 caps 3 to 4 times daily.

Doctors Testosterone Gel (has no real testosterone but has herbs and homeopathics that stimulate out own production). Two to three applications of the gel daily.  Especially before bed and early afternoon (since we make T twice daily between 2 and 4 AM and 2 and 4 PM).  It can also be applied some 20 to 30 min. before training or sex.

Maca powder: This south American root is kin to a turnip but tastes like butterscotch, has plant sterols that are precursors to both testosterone and progesterone the good hormones and has Di Indole Methane (DIM) to block estrogen from tissues three to six teaspoons of the stuff a day should be minimum.  The capsules of this stuff won't work as they don't contain enough Maca to make a difference regardless of how "extracted and concentrated" they claim to be.

These three supplements in combination work very well to elevate T levels in those whose pituitaries and testicles still function to make hormones.  All of these supplements are available at www.docsprefer.com

MM: What about dietary advice for increasing testosterone levels?

DW: The only dietary advice I can think of off hand to increase T levels is: don't let your cholesterol get below 180.  The body stops making hormones then.  In India where most are vegetarian Hindus, milk and eggs are a dietary staple to increase the intake of animal fats, which are some of the best sources of cholesterol from which to make hormones.

Eat a lot of MACA.  This Andean butterscotch tasting turnip has the plant sterols that are immediate precursors to testosterone and progesterone and it also has Di Indole Methane to block estrogen use by the tissues.  In Peru it is used to increase fertility and libido, which are both functions of testosterone.  By the way men do need progesterone, it blocks the conversion of testosterone to estrogen and blocks both the T and E from becoming Di Hydro Testosterone the hair loss and swollen prostate hormone.   Consume at least three to six teaspoons of maca every day.  In South America maca is put into baked goods cookies breads and cakes, into stews and taken plain.  I drop a teaspoon of the powder in my mouth and drink water to chase it down.

MM: How important is growth hormone for health and well-being?

DW: Funny you bring that up. Just heard today about a study that showed that an increase of 12% in IGF 1 levels is equal to adding 10 years to your life!

MM: Wow! Besides decreasing life span, what else happens when IGF-1 gets low?

DW:  IGF 1 is a wonderful anti aging, muscle-sustaining hormone that gets low with high stress levels.  There is some controversy to using IGF-1 or HGH (which releases IGF-1).  The geriatric docs say the IGF-1 can cause cancer.  The anti-aging MD's say hogwash.  The final word comes from the oncologists who use IGF-1 to fight cancer.  Used to be we would expect to see lowered IGF-1 in a person 35 to 40 +.   These days there are 20 some things with very low IGF-1!    IGF-1 gives not only muscle and bone mass but also increased immunity, greater mental power and maintains brain and internal organ size (which shrinks and becomes fibrotic with age.   Read my article Fibrosis The Enemy Of Life at www.drwong.us to find out why and how).   Having IGF-1 levels go south in one's 20's is noting but bad and likely will take decades off the lives of the X'rs and Y generations unless changed.  Already I've seen my boomer generation come down with things like strokes and heart attacks in our 40's that should not have happened till  our 60's.  So what will happen to the X'ers and Y's in their 40?s if the trends for the good hormones (i.e. testosterone, progesterone, IGF 1, oxytocin) continue downward?

MM: Do you recommend GH injections?

DW: The much touted HGH injections so prized by anti aging docs are a way of causing the body to release IGF 1, but that's a long and expensive way round the barn.  $11,000 to 12,000 a year expensive to be precise.  IGF- 1 is abundant in the velvet that covers deer antlers.  The male deer shed their antlers every year, the velvet from these can be collected and the IGF-1 extracted.   There is a deer farm in New Zealand that has the largest herd of Chinese red deer in the world and this is where all of the IGF-1 sublingual spray products are made regardless of who puts their label on it.  It's all from the same source; www.nowfoods.com sublingual sells their IGF-1 sublingual spray for about $25, a full fifty to sixty dollars less than most of the other folks who carry the product do.

MM: Blood pressure seems to be on the rise at a rapid pace. What advice do you have for lowering blood pressure?

On lowering blood pressure I have a two prong approach:

a) taking systemic enzymes to lyse away the fibrin clogs that plus up the micro circulation and reduce full circulation to the extremities, (peripheral vascular resistance).  PVR is equal to having high pressure at the kitchen tap when all the other water taps in the house are closed.

b) Do strength training and build miles and miles of new blood vessels. This better feed tissue as well as reduces peripheral vascular resistance further.

Between the two it's like opening all the water taps in the house, pressure at the kitchen tap goes down. It must be said that there are 2 reasons for high blood pressure: Peripheral Vascular Resistance and Kidney Damage.  When this technique does not work then we know the patient has a good bit of kidney damage and that is the cause of their higher BP.

MM: What about taking CoQ10?

DW: Co Q 10 is an essential for heart health as is Vit. E.  On the Co Q 10 the dose should be equal to the persons age in decades or if there is heart pathology then 150 to 300 mg daily.  On the Vit. E there has been much junk medical science made by drug companies to disprove the effectiveness of vitamins so they can sell you their expensive drugs instead.  1200 to 1600 IU of E are needed daily as well and the hearts favorite mineral Magnesium.  With out you'll not only have constipation, night cramps, muscle spasms and a build up of calcium in arterial plaque but in the extreme of mag deficiency you'll get irregular heart beat (arrhythmia).  Of mag we need 1000 to 2000 mg daily. In some folks this can cause the runs so they can use magnesium glycinate the only form of the mineral that does not cause loose stools.

MM: Recently you came out with a book on sexual health. How is your book different from other books on the market?

DW: Most books on men?s sexual performance are written by non experts, guys like "Big Joe From Brooklyn" and the text covers nothing scientific or medical but reads like porn.  Other books on sexual performance are so full of fluff and needless, useless prattle, that out of 100+ pages the real advice or techniques come in the last 5 pages of the work.  My men?s pro-sexual book "The Care And Feeding Of A Penis"  has no porn or nude male pictures, is filled with immediately useful information in every chapter and from penis size, to sperm count from peyronies to erectile dysfunction there is something to benefit every man from 27 to 97!   It is the users manual we should have come with!  To make it accessible world wide with out having to pay the VAT (taxes) usually imposed on book imports we have offered the book as a downloadable E book.  It's available from www.drwongsbooks.com

MM: Well this is certainly going to be a controversial interview to say the least. Thank you for taking the time to do the interview and keep up the great work.

DW: You are very welcome and I look forward to talking to you again. I would like to invite your readers to check out my website: www.drwong.us.

dannyboy

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Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2006, 12:14:57 PM »
What a great read ^^^^^^^^^


I've always been a big fan of taking enzymes, and I also like Mike Mahler a lot, I'm curious if anybody has sampled the enzymes he mentions in this interview.  I will be looking in to them, and if they are in my price range, I will buy them and report back in regards to their quality.

C-Kumu Dog

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Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2006, 03:39:45 PM »
I thought this might be an interesting addition maybe some of you are more knowledgeable about the subject, my legs were sore from working out with Dogzilla and so I thought I would look up some articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/health/nutrition/16run.html?ex=1305432000&en=4ef1ab12beaa61a7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel
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By GINA KOLATA
Published: May 16, 2006
Everyone who has even thought about exercising has heard the warnings about lactic acid. It builds up in your muscles. It is what makes your muscles burn. Its buildup is what makes your muscles tire and give out.

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Ben Stansall/European Pressphoto Agency
Coaches and personal trainers tell athletes and exercisers that they have to learn to work out at just below their "lactic threshold," that point of diminishing returns when lactic acid starts to accumulate. Some athletes even have blood tests to find their personal lactic thresholds.

But that, it turns out, is all wrong. Lactic acid is actually a fuel, not a caustic waste product. Muscles make it deliberately, producing it from glucose, and they burn it to obtain energy. The reason trained athletes can perform so hard and so long is because their intense training causes their muscles to adapt so they more readily and efficiently absorb lactic acid.

The notion that lactic acid was bad took hold more than a century ago, said George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley. It stuck because it seemed to make so much sense.

"It's one of the classic mistakes in the history of science," Dr. Brooks said.

Its origins lie in a study by a Nobel laureate, Otto Meyerhof, who in the early years of the 20th century cut a frog in half and put its bottom half in a jar. The frog's muscles had no circulation ? no source of oxygen or energy.

Dr. Myerhoff gave the frog's leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Then, when Dr. Myerhoff examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid.

A theory was born. Lack of oxygen to muscles leads to lactic acid, leads to fatigue.

Athletes were told that they should spend most of their effort exercising aerobically, using glucose as a fuel. If they tried to spend too much time exercising harder, in the anaerobic zone, they were told, they would pay a price, that lactic acid would accumulate in the muscles, forcing them to stop.

Few scientists questioned this view, Dr. Brooks said. But, he said, he became interested in it in the 1960's, when he was running track at Queens College and his coach told him that his performance was limited by a buildup of lactic acid.

When he graduated and began working on a Ph.D. in exercise physiology, he decided to study the lactic acid hypothesis for his dissertation.

"I gave rats radioactive lactic acid, and I found that they burned it faster than anything else I could give them," Dr. Brooks said.

It looked as if lactic acid was there for a reason. It was a source of energy.

Dr. Brooks said he published the finding in the late 70's. Other researchers challenged him at meetings and in print.

"I had huge fights, I had terrible trouble getting my grants funded, I had my papers rejected," Dr. Brooks recalled. But he soldiered on, conducting more elaborate studies with rats and, years later, moving on to humans. Every time, with every study, his results were consistent with his radical idea.

Eventually, other researchers confirmed the work. And gradually, the thinking among exercise physiologists began to change.

"The evidence has continued to mount," said L. Bruce Gladden, a professor of health and human performance at Auburn University. "It became clear that it is not so simple as to say, Lactic acid is a bad thing and it causes fatigue."

As for the idea that lactic acid causes muscle soreness, Dr. Gladden said, that never made sense.

"Lactic acid will be gone from your muscles within an hour of exercise," he said. "You get sore one to three days later. The time frame is not consistent, and the mechanisms have not been found."

The understanding now is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid. The lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.

Mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the substance into them, Dr. Brooks found. Intense training makes a difference, he said, because it can make double the mitochondrial mass.

It is clear that the old lactic acid theory cannot explain what is happening to muscles, Dr. Brooks and others said.

Yet, Dr. Brooks said, even though coaches often believed in the myth of the lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way possible to increase their mitochondria. "Coaches have understood things the scientists didn't," he said.

Through trial and error, coaches learned that athletic performance improved when athletes worked on endurance, running longer and longer distances, for example.

That, it turns out, increased the mass of their muscle mitochondria, letting them burn more lactic acid and allowing the muscles to work harder and longer.

Just before a race, coaches often tell athletes to train very hard in brief spurts.

That extra stress increases the mitochondria mass even more, Dr. Brooks said, and is the reason for improved performance.

And the scientists?

They took much longer to figure it out.

"They said, 'You're anaerobic, you need more oxygen,' " Dr. Brooks said. "The scientists were stuck in 1920."

More Articles in Health ?
"You see, it's not the blood you spill that gets you what you want, it's the blood you share. Your family, your friendships, your community, these are the most valuable things a man can have." Before Dishonor - Hatebreed

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2006, 05:22:00 PM »
Very interesting Robert.

Dannyboy et al, I too am very interested in enzymes. 

TomFurman

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #7 on: August 15, 2006, 06:07:52 PM »
Yes, they are good.(Vitalzyme). They are expensive. I used them after working with Mike and Pavel in May. My wife and I tried them. I stick to Fish Oil and a bucket of Life Extension Foundations stuff. They are near me in Ft. Lauderdale.

Lee Labrada has a brand as well. Don't know how they match up.

--Tom Furman
www.physicalstrategies.blogspot.com

ch

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2006, 03:55:37 PM »

C-Kumu Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #9 on: August 25, 2006, 03:45:33 PM »
Im not sure this story belongs in this thread but does somewhat have to to with Health but specifically any training tips I found it at www.onzuka.com

Strongest Dad in the WorldThank you to Sheldon "The Sarg" for forwarding this to us. This really puts all of life's problems in perspective. Give your kids a hug and a kiss every single day.I try to be a good father.

 Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to the swimming pool.But compared with Dick Hoyt, I'm nothing.Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S.on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.This love story began inWinchester,Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts Universityand asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!''

And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''And that sentence changed Dick's life.

He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time forBostonthe following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans inHawaii. It must be a real downer to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''And Dick got something else out of all this too.

 Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works inBoston, and Dick, retired from the military and living inHolland,Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''Here's the video... you must watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ
"You see, it's not the blood you spill that gets you what you want, it's the blood you share. Your family, your friendships, your community, these are the most valuable things a man can have." Before Dishonor - Hatebreed

migo

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2006, 12:21:58 AM »
I have found CureZone and ScienceDaily to be interesting sources of information. Obviously everything has to be taken with a grain of salt, and CureZone seems to be an eclectic mix of alternative health methods, I've found it to be a good starting point on a few areas. ScienceDaily just has tidbits of news pieces, but they've given me some ideas to play with, so I still figure it's useful.

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #11 on: November 10, 2007, 06:38:10 PM »
Confusion reigns over U.S. rules on growth hormone even as crackdown is increased
By DAVID B. CARUSO (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
November 10, 2007 8:35 PM EST
NEW YORK - Jeffrey George had no background in health care when he founded his business to sell human growth hormone on the Internet.

But even though most uses of the drug are illegal, he is absolutely certain that selling HGH is not against the law, as long as customers have a prescription.

"It's the same thing as getting antibiotics," the 26-year-old bodybuilder said in a recent interview.

His confidence is understandable. Seventeen years after Congress made it a felony to distribute synthetic HGH improperly, there is still confusion about who may legally get the drug.

Doctors, pharmacists and even law enforcement agents disagree about the meaning of the law that, at least on paper, appears to ban prescriptions for HGH for anything other than a handful of rare illnesses.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned that anyone who distributes HGH for athletic enhancement or as an anti-aging remedy faces up to five years in prison, but that threat is rarely enforced.

Web sites frequented by bodybuilders brazenly hawk mail-order growth hormone as a way of increasing strength and stamina.

George's company, South Beach Rejuvenation and Health, touts the drug as a "fountain of youth," capable of removing wrinkles and boosting sex drive.

"Rejuvenation" centers catering to aging Baby Boomers offer HGH injections as a remedy for everything from low energy to expanding waistlines.

Distributors, according to a recent FDA alert, have increasingly offered to fulfill demand by importing unapproved versions of the drug from China, even though all such shipments are flatly illegal.

After years of treating it as a minor problem, some law enforcement agencies have recently turned more attention to HGH.

In September, the founder of one of China's largest drug manufacturers, the GeneScience Pharmaceuticals Company, was indicted on federal charges that he smuggled huge amounts of HGH into the U.S.

Last month, state officials seized $7.5 million (euro5.1 million) in Chinese-made growth hormone from a New York City pharmacy that had been supplying anti-aging clinics in New York and Florida.

A St. Louis pharmacy company, Specialty Distribution Systems Inc., agreed to pay a $10.5 million (euro7.2 million) fine for distributing HGH to athletes, entertainers and others who did not qualify for treatment.

And since the spring, a long list of doctors, clinic owners and pharmacy operators from several states have faced charges in Albany, the New York state capital, that they distributed HGH and steroids to patients who had no medical need for the drugs.

However, authorities acknowledge that the crackdown has been limited.

Prosecutors have been especially reluctant to take on one of the largest sources of HGH: Doctors who prescribe the drug as part of an anti-aging regimen.

Under the law, physicians are allowed to prescribe HGH when a patient's pituitary gland stops producing normal amounts of hormone, usually because it has been damaged by a tumor or a cancer treatment like surgery or radiation therapy.

Since the early 1990s, however, a minority of doctors have claimed that millions of other adults also can be legitimately said to have a hormone deficiency because the pituitary gland naturally tapers off HGH production after a person reaches middle age.

The growth of that approach infuriates doctors like Thomas Perls, an aging expert at Boston University Medical School, who said that while HGH has legitimate benefits there is little evidence to back claims it can slow aging.

"It's the worst kind of quackery," he said.

It also may not be safe, he said. Some studies have suggested that people who take HGH supplements run a greater risk of getting cancer. HGH treatment can also have side effects like joint pain and diabetes.

Prosecuting doctors, however, is not easy. Just last week, one of the FDA's few efforts to crack down on a doctor ended in failure. A federal jury acquitted Reno, Nevada, physician James Forsythe, who was charged in 2005 with prescribing HGH to middle-aged patients who wanted to get into better shape. Forsythe denied doing anything wrong.

State medical boards also appear loath to discipline physicians.

New York's Board for Professional Medical Conduct has taken action against only a handful of doctors in the past two decades for writing unwarranted HGH prescriptions.

After Albany Country District Attorney P. David Soares complained last spring that legal loopholes had made it more difficult to target doctors selling the drug to bodybuilders, Sen. Charles Schumer proposed a bill that would put HGH in the same regulatory category as narcotics and steroids.

At least some people in the business agree that changes are needed.

"The industry is polluted with the wrong types of people," said Brian Cotugno, a Floridian who worked as a consultant to several hormone replacement clinics.

Like George, Cotugno's original background was not in medicine. As a young man, he served a 10-year prison sentence for cocaine trafficking.

After his release, he said, he became a consultant, telling clinics how to satisfy government regulations. But he said many of his clients ignored advice that might cut into their profits.

Cotugno said he recently stopped advising the clinics, and abandoned a small HGH marketing business of his own.

"It always ended with some sort of disastrous scenario," he said.

Crafty_Dog

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POTH: Rubbing chicken bones together as effective as antibiotics
« Reply #12 on: November 06, 2010, 06:59:39 AM »



Worried about an impending public health crisis, government officials are considering offering financial incentives to the pharmaceutical industry, like tax breaks and patent extensions, to spur the development of vitally needed antibiotics.

While the proposals are still nascent, they have taken on more urgency as bacteria steadily become resistant to virtually all existing drugs at the same time that a considerable number of pharmaceutical giants have abandoned this field in search of more lucrative medicines. The number of new antibiotics in development is “distressingly low,” Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said at a news conference last month. The world’s weakening arsenal against “superbugs” has prompted scientists to warn that everyday infections could again become a major cause of death just as they were before the advent of penicillin around 1940.

“For these infections, we’re back to dancing around a bubbling cauldron while rubbing two chicken bones together,” said Dr. Brad Spellberg, an infectious disease specialist at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center in Torrance, Calif.

For example, scientists have become alarmed by the spread from India of a newly discovered mutation called NDM-1, which renders certain germs like E. coli invulnerable to nearly all modern antibiotics. About 100,000 Americans a year are killed by infections acquired in hospitals, many resistant to multiple antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the best known superbug, now kills more Americans each year than AIDS.

While the notion of directly subsidizing drug companies may be politically unpopular in many quarters, proponents say it is necessary to bridge the gap between the high value that new antibiotics have for society and the low returns they provide to drug companies.

“There is a market failure,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, a California Democrat and the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who said he was considering introducing legislation. “We need to look at ways to spur development of this market.”

Mr. Waxman will lose his committee chairmanship with the Republicans having won control of the House this week. But the idea of spurring antibiotic development appears to have some bipartisan support. Representative Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican and a physician, recently introduced the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now bill, which would provide certain antibiotics with five extra years of protection from generic competition and speed the reviews of new antibiotics by the Food and Drug Administration.

Besides tax breaks and extra protection from competition, other ideas policy makers are considering include additional federal funding of research and guaranteed purchases by the government of new antibiotics. Measures like these are already used to encourage the development of drugs for rare diseases, through the Orphan Drug Act, and for illnesses like malaria that primarily afflict poor countries.

The Obama administration is also taking some steps. The federal agency that oversees development of treatments for bioterrorism agents like anthrax is broadening its scope to encompass more common infections. In August, the agency, known as the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, awarded its first such “multi-use” contract, giving an initial $27 million to a company called Achaogen to develop an antibiotic that could be used for plague and tularemia as well as antibiotic-resistant infections.

The Department of Health and Human Services is considering creating an independent fund that would invest in small bio-defense companies. Antibiotic-resistant germs would be one priority, according to a report that the department issued in August.

The European Union is also working on a plan, based on proposals from the London School of Economics. A year ago, the United States and the European Union formed a task force on antibiotic resistance.

Despite the activity, there is no consensus on what would work best and little discussion of how much such measures would cost.

A paper issued last month by the Office of Health Economics, a consulting firm owned by the British pharmaceutical industry’s trade group, suggested that incentives exceeding $1 billion per drug would be required.

Some critics say the case for incentives is not yet persuasive. There are signs that the drug industry is picking up its efforts on its own, in response to perceived need. The number of antibiotics in clinical trials has climbed sharply in the last three years, reversing a steady decline that began in the 1980s, according to figures from the F.D.A. The efforts are being led by small companies, which can be satisfied with smaller sales.

Ramanan Laxminarayan, who directs the Extending the Cure project on antibiotic resistance at Resources for the Future, a policy organization, said the government should focus on conserving the effectiveness of existing antibiotics. That could be done by preventing unnecessary use in people and farm animals and requiring better infection control measures in hospitals.

“There’s not a recognition yet that we should think about antibiotics as a natural resource and we should conserve them like we do fish,” Mr. Laxminarayan, an economist, said. Kevin Outterson, an associate professor of law at Boston University, said one way to encourage both new development and conservation would be to pay drug companies to develop new antibiotics but not to aggressively market them. Incentives, he said, “must be conditioned on the companies’ changing their behavior.”

Only five new antibiotics were approved by the F.D.A. from 2003 through 2007, down from 16 in the period from 1983 to 1987. A survey last year by European health authorities found only 15 antibiotics in clinical trials that offered some promise of going beyond what is available today.

Only five of the 13 biggest pharmaceutical companies still try to discover new antibiotics, said Dr. David M. Shlaes, a consultant to the industry and the author of a new book “Antibiotics: The Perfect Storm.”

One reason is that antibiotics are typically taken for a week or two and usually cure the patient. While that makes them cost-effective for the health system, it also makes them less lucrative to drug companies than medicines for diseases like cancer or diabetes, which might be taken for months, or even for life, because they do not cure the patient.

“There’s this perverse disincentive against antibiotics because they work so well,” said J. Kevin Judice, chief executive of Achaogen.

Another factor is that new antibiotics are likely to be used only sparingly at first, to stave off the emergence of resistance. While that might be medically appropriate, it reduces the ability of a drug company to recoup its investment, said Dr. Barry I. Eisenstein, a senior vice president at the antibiotic maker Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Another factor discouraging investment, some experts say, is that the F.D.A. recently made it harder for new antibacterial drugs to win approval.

Leading the call for incentives has been the Infectious Diseases Society of America, whose members are infectious disease specialists. It is calling for a “10 by ‘20” initiative to develop 10 new antibiotics by 2020. The initiative, which is more an aspiration than a plan, has been endorsed by numerous other medical societies.

But so far there is little consumer support. “We don’t have any patient groups for Acinetobacter,” said Robert J. Guidos, the society’s vice president for public policy and government relations, referring to a drug-resistant bacterium. Patient groups concerned about superbugs tend to focus on reducing the spread of infections in hospitals.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main trade group for big drug companies, has not taken a position on incentives because not all members are in the antibiotic business, said David R. Brennan, the chief executive of AstraZeneca and former chairman of the trade group.

Mr. Brennan, whose company is still in the antibiotic business, said that at a minimum, new antibiotics should be given longer protection from generic competition to make up for the fact that they are used sparingly when they go on sale. “Give us more time at the back end,” he said.


ccp

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #13 on: November 06, 2010, 11:55:14 AM »
***One reason is that antibiotics are typically taken for a week or two and usually cure the patient. While that makes them cost-effective for the health system, it also makes them less lucrative to drug companies than medicines for diseases like cancer or diabetes, which might be taken for months, or even for life, because they do not cure the patient.

“There’s this perverse disincentive against antibiotics because they work so well,” said J. Kevin Judice, chief executive of Achaogen.***

Well the other half is that the cost of getting a drug to market is enormous.  Around a billion dollars.  If we want perfectly safe and effective drugs then that is the cost.
Yet if we find some side effect of a drug not first known years later we get reams of law firms looking to protect our legal rights advertising all over the TV to call them.

****But so far there is little consumer support. “We don’t have any patient groups for Acinetobacter,” said Robert J. Guidos, the society’s vice president for public policy and government relations, referring to a drug-resistant bacterium. Patient groups concerned about superbugs tend to focus on reducing the spread of infections in hospitals. ***

Can't sue a bacterium like one can sue a hospital.  Yet I do agree we in the health field did need to do more to prevent spread and stop over use of antibiotics.

***Mr. Brennan, whose company is still in the antibiotic business, said that at a minimum, new antibiotics should be given longer protection from generic competition to make up for the fact that they are used sparingly when they go on sale. “Give us more time at the back end,” he said.****

I couldn't agree more.
Time is not on our side. It could take a decade to get a drug through the morass of the regulatory process.  In the 90's we made the process for drug approval faster.  Then we had a few issues with bextra, and a fenfluramine and some others drug side effects and the pundits then screamed the gov is not doing enough to protect us so now it is back the other way.  (The fenflurimne mess was a sickening case in point.  Every single heart valve for everyone who ever took the drug was checked and any abnormality at all was grounds to get money from the settlement. Lawyers, cardiologists, patients were all literally making things up, lying and defrauding and everything else to get to the cash.  Cardiologist were reading echo reports claiming it was abnormal when it wasn't.  There wre mills  It was sickening.  A joke.  Sad. I don't know why these people cannot get thrown in jail for insurance fraud)

We could easily have another bacteria that could be resistant to everything and  the potential to spread like wild fire.

And on one hand while the world is obviously far "smaller" than it was in the 1300s and the potential for spread much easier and far faster (minutes, and not weeks or months or years) we also undertand far more about how to prevent spread, quarantine, hygiene, etc so I doubt we would see another "Black Death". But could I or anyone guarantee it - no - of course not.

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #14 on: November 06, 2010, 06:43:04 PM »
CCP:  Of course the grasp of the economic and legal issues of the article were what they are-- that's what Pravda On The Hudson (POTH) does.

An additional variable on which I would like to ask for your opinion.  As best as I can tell the use of massive and rampant antibiotics by the cattle and poultry industries contributes mightily to the evolution of resistant bacteria. 

5RingsFitness

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2010, 01:23:40 PM »
Yes, they are good.(Vitalzyme). They are expensive. I used them after working with Mike and Pavel in May. My wife and I tried them. I stick to Fish Oil and a bucket of Life Extension Foundations stuff. They are near me in Ft. Lauderdale.

Lee Labrada has a brand as well. Don't know how they match up.

--Tom Furman
www.physicalstrategies.blogspot.com

funny thing about enzymes, simce they all come from a central source(a chemical. supply warehouse) after the supplier ships them the issue becomes one of quality control at the production facility of the end wholesaler

weird right?

I found that to be particularly helpful in evaluating claims made by different suppliers

"Nations have passed away and left no traces, And history gives the naked cause of it - One single simple reason in all cases; They fell because their peoples were not fit."-Rudyard Kipling

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #16 on: November 07, 2010, 09:04:09 PM »
That would apply to these?

http://www.rgarden.com/enzymes.html


ccp

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #17 on: November 08, 2010, 01:23:24 PM »
"As best as I can tell the use of massive and rampant antibiotics by the cattle and poultry industries contributes mightily to the evolution of resistant bacteria."

Crafty,
I wasn't sure of the answer as what little I have read was somewhat conflicting (I guess who you believe - industry vs. health? perhaps).  so I looked up what the Infectious Disease experts think and found this interesting piece from just a couple of months ago.  Apparently the Infectious Disease Society agree that this IS a major challenge:

http://74.6.238.254/search/srpcache?ei=UTF-8&p=infectious+disease+society+and+anitibiotics+in+animal+feed&fr=yfp-t-892&u=http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=infectious+disease+society+and+anitibiotics+in+animal+feed&d=4619121507896288&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=45a244dc,b5e12604&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=YhkxtDuX1nqnjxJJgS1HQg--

Two good things to this topic.  It is much easier for me to tell a patient I don't think an antibiotic will help them and not have to be pressured into prescribing it - then it used to be.  It appears patients are becoming much more atuned to overuse of antibiotics. 

Another is that doctors and nurses are doing better at reducing hospital infections.  At least where I am.
A relative asked me if I wear a lab coat and I said no but I wear a tie.  She then fired back that either is shown to increase spread of infections.  Shortly afterwards in the local newspaper there was an article pointing out the same thing.  So I figured you know what?  The hell with the tie!  If everyone is pissed that I am spreading germs that are killing people I won't wear a tie.  I hated it anyway.  It was obviously invented by a man hating woman.  Just like a woman hating man must have invented the high heel.

G M

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Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds
« Reply #18 on: November 08, 2010, 01:32:39 PM »
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html

(CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.

For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

5RingsFitness

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #19 on: November 08, 2010, 08:47:55 PM »
That would apply to these?

http://www.rgarden.com/enzymes.html




http://www.nutriteck.com/bulk/

odds are high
most of the supplements on the market are repackaged private label gigs

you could has Guru Crafty's dog-zymes on sale and flying off the shelves ;)

most of what I have been able to learn leads toward enzymes being good for lactose digestion inflammation and assisting in lipolysis
other than that....it would seem another bottle of magic beans
happy to be proven wrong though
all I need is a few peer reviewed 3rd party double blind studies without confirmation bias and I will happily concede :)
"Nations have passed away and left no traces, And history gives the naked cause of it - One single simple reason in all cases; They fell because their peoples were not fit."-Rudyard Kipling

Crafty_Dog

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #20 on: November 09, 2010, 04:39:36 AM »
Uhhh , , , what's "lipolysis"?  :oops:

DougMacG

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Re: Health Thread (nutrition, medical, longevity, etc)
« Reply #21 on: November 09, 2010, 09:40:43 AM »
Break down of fats (lipids)
Lipolysis
the breakdown, splitting up or decomposition of fat.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/lipolysis


ccp

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hi Doug
« Reply #23 on: July 22, 2020, 08:00:16 AM »
my former brother in law was a general dentist who later became orthodondist

he told me something that surprised me back in the 80s I think.

he said the medical literature is not good science
like the "MD" journals

so I read your post with interest.
My brother in law passed away 3 yrs ago

I recall your Dad was a dentist
I remember m y dentist growing up .  He was a good dentist and took good care of my family .  I was extremely lucky and had very good teeth

DougMacG

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Re: hi Doug
« Reply #24 on: July 22, 2020, 08:45:26 AM »
Thanks ccp.  Yes both my Dad and his Dad were dentists and professors of dentistry at the U of M.  Regarding most orthodontia he used to say (paraphrasing), the teeth have already found their equilibrium.  Braces move teeth away from where all the forces in your mouth were in balance.  After braces the teeth try to move back, hence the 'retainer'.  In most cases it is done for looks.  Strange that the 'profession' doesn't fully admit that.

Yet the 'looks' argument is compelling in our prosperous society with nothing better to worry about - except climate change, world ending in 9 years etc.  My daughter had a gap and now has a 'perfect smile'.