My Favorite
Five from Recent Medical Journals
Sex and Still
Aging
A Study of
Sexuality and Health among Older Adults in the
United States by Stacy Tessler Lindau,
reported in the August 23, 2007 New England
Journal of Medicine found, “Many older
adults are sexually active. Women are less
likely than men to have a spousal or other
intimate relationship and to be sexually active.1
Sexual problems are frequent among older adults,
but these problems are infrequently discussed
with physicians,” They report, “Sexual activity
is associated with health, and illness may
considerably interfere with sexual health.”
Sexual activity was reported by 73% of people
who were 57 to 64 years of age, 53% who were 65
to 74 years of age, and 26% who were 75 to 85
years of age.
Comment:
Between 1973 and 1976 I worked as a doctor on a
sugar plantation on the Big Island of Hawaii (I
was only 26 years old when I began). This is
where I learned the importance of a starch-based
diet. My first generation Japanese, Chinese,
and Filipino patients followed the diet of rice
and vegetables they had learned as children in
their native countries. They were always trim
and usually in excellent health. One
astonishing example of their vitality was
demonstrated by elderly Filipino men who would
work hard on the plantation, saving their money
for retirement. At that time they would visit
the Philippines to find a young bride to bring
back to Hawaii. Everyday a family consisting of
a seventy-year-old (plus) gentleman, his
twenty-year-old bride and their children would
come to my medical office. This man was
demonstrating a level of function that men in
their fifties only dreamed about. He was
sexually active, bearing children, and expecting
to watch them grow into adulthood. For these
men a diet of rice and vegetables meant a much
more interesting life than most men I meet ever
expect to have.
In the study
referred to, 37% of the men reported erectile
dysfunction. This common condition is
accelerated by the rich western diet which
speeds up aging and all the associated
deterioration seen as the years pass. To be
more specific, erectile dysfunction is from
compromised circulation to the penis, caused by
closure of the arteries used to fill this organ
with blood in order to make it erect.2
The disease that closes these and all other
arteries in the body is known as
atherosclerosis—caused by meat and dairy foods.
The disease is reversed by a diet of starch
(like rice) and vegetables.
Over my career, I
have seen many men and women regain activity in
their sex lives by changing their diet,
exercising and losing weight. Stopping
sexual-dysfunction-causing medications, such as
those used to treat high blood pressure, will
also be a major uplift. No surprise—healthy
people look more attractive, and feel and
function better. So add “an enjoyable sex life
into your old age” to the reasons you are
willing to eat well and exercise—I mean, good
grief, can steaks, pizzas, and ice cream taste
that good? Are they worth sexual disability?
1) Lindau S,
Schumm L, Laumann E, Levinson W,
O’Muircheartaigh C, Waite L. A Study of
Sexuality and Health among Older Adults in the
United States. N Engl J Med
2007;357:762-74.
2)
Park JW, Leithauser B, Mrowietz C, Jung F.
Cutaneous microcirculatory function predicts the
responsiveness to tadalafil in patients with
erectile dysfunction and coronary artery
disease. Int J Impot Res. 2007 Aug 16;
Colon Cancer
Patients Die Faster with Western Diet
Association of
dietary patterns with cancer recurrence and
survival in patients with stage III colon cancer
by Jeffery A. Meyerhardt, reported in the August
15, 2007 issue of the Journal of the American
Medical Association found, “Higher intake of
a Western dietary pattern may be associated with
a higher risk of recurrence and mortality among
patients with stage III colon cancer treated
with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy.”1
Thus, these patients all had late stage (with
positive lymph nodes) cancer and had been fully
treated when their diets were analyzed. Those
on a healthiest “prudent diet” lived, without
recurrence of their colon cancer, more than
three times longer than those eating the worst
Western diets. The Western pattern was
characterized by high intakes of meat, fat,
refined grains, French fries, and dessert; and
the prudent diet was characterized by high
intakes of fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole
grains, poultry, and fish.
Comment:
The Western diet, which flows through the colon
and bathes its inner surfaces, is believed to
cause colon cancer. Common sense says you
should not throw gasoline on a fire. In other
words, even after patients develop colon cancer
they should change their diets.
Based on this study, the result may be that they
will more than triple their chances of living
without cancer.
There are many
mechanisms that could influence the growth and
subsequent recurrence of a cancer.
Both insulin and
insulin-like growth factors enhance tumor
growth. Eating the Western diet increases both
of these hormones which may “facilitate an
environment that allows residual microscopic
disease to proliferate and spread.”
I believe that a
change in diet after the diagnosis of cancer
will cause patients to live much longer, and no
doubt healthier. Most doctors and patients
think of cancer as a “runaway
train—unstoppable.” This is simply not true.
The body is always trying to heal itself. A
microscopic study of 308 patients (311 breasts)
who had undergone breast conservation therapy
without chemotherapy showed areas of healing in
7% of the cases.2 (Healing is when
the intraductal component of breast cancer
disappears and is replaced by fibrous tissue.)
Of 17 studies published, 14 show a positive
relationship between more plant-foods and better
survival.3,4 People should never
give up—there have been reported in medical
journals 34 cases of women with breast cancer
spread all over their bodies who have completely
recovered, medically termed a “spontaneous
remission.”5 Undoubtedly, a person
with a body full of cancer is much more likely
to undergo a spontaneous remission when in good
health than poor health—and the most powerful
action a person can take to improve his or her
health is to change the diet. (There have been
many more cases, which have not been reported,
of spontaneous remissions of women with breast
cancer. There have also been many cases,
reported and unreported, of people with colon,
prostate, lymphomas and other cancers, who have
had similar spontaneous remissions.)
1)
Meyerhardt JA, Niedzwiecki D, Hollis D, Saltz
LB, Hu FB, Mayer RJ, Nelson H, Whittom R, Hantel
A, Thomas J, Fuchs CS. Association
of dietary patterns with cancer recurrence and
survival in patients with stage III colon
cancer. JAMA. 2007 Aug 15;298(7):754-64.
2)
Horii R, Akiyama F, Kasumi F, Koike M, Sakamoto
G. Spontaneous " healing" of breast
cancer. Breast Cancer. 2005;12(2):140-4.
3)
McEligot AJ, Largent J, Ziogas A, Peel D,
Anton-Culver H. Dietary fat, fiber,
vegetable, and micronutrients are associated
with overall survival in postmenopausal women
diagnosed with breast cancer. Nutr Cancer.
2006;55(2):132-40.
4)
Rock CL. Diet and breast cancer: can
dietary factors influence survival?
J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia. 2003
Jan;8(1):119-32.
5)
Larsen SU, Rose C. Spontaneous
remission of breast cancer. A literature review.
Ugeskr Laeger. 1999 Jun
28;161(26):4001-4.
Birth Defects
from Mother’s Western Diet
Maternal
Western dietary patterns and the risk of
developing a cleft lip with or without a cleft
palate by
Marijana Vujkovic in the August 2007
issue of the journal Obstetrics and
Gynecology found, “The use of the maternal
Western diet increases the risk of offspring
with a cleft lip or cleft palate approximately
two fold.”1 The Western dietary
pattern was high in meat, pizza, legumes, and
potatoes, and low in fruits. This dietary
pattern was also associated with lower red blood
cell folate, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and higher
homocysteine concentrations. The prudent diet
was high in fish, garlic, nuts, vegetables, and
the women showed increased vitamin B12 and serum
folate levels. This healthier diet was not
associated with cleft lip or cleft palate risk
compared with the Western diet.
Comment: Much attention has been given to
the role of folic acid in birth defects and the
response has been the addition of folic acid to
our food supply and encouragement of women of
all ages to take vitamin supplements. The
result has been a reduction in birth defects,
but this additional folic acid may increase the
risk of death, heart disease and cancer in
populations of people.2 The
correct way to reduce the risk of birth defects
is to feed women thoroughout life a diet high in
folic acid—a diet of foliage. Birth defects
begin during the first few days of pregnancy.
This is why any approach to preventing birth
defects must be instituted long before pregnancy
begins—preferably beginning in early childhood
and continued throughout all years of potential
reproduction.
The researchers in
this study corrected for the use of folic acid
supplements and multivitamins and still found
that diet played a significant role in producing
an infant with a cleft lip. This is major news
and should be information incorporated in the
practice of all doctors. Here is a very
important reason you must teach your daughters
and granddaughters to eat right now.
1)
Vujkovic M, Ocke MC, van der Spek PJ,
Yazdanpanah N, Steegers EA, Steegers-Theunissen
RP. Maternal Western dietary
patterns and the risk of developing a cleft lip
with or without a cleft palate. Obstet
Gynecol. 2007 Aug;110(2 Pt 1):378-84.
2) See the
October 2005 Newsletter: Folic Acid Supplements
are a Health Hazard
Antacids Cause
Dementia
The association
between cognition and histamine-2 receptor
antagonists in African americans by Malaz
Boustani, reported in the August 2007 issue of
the American Journal of Geriatrics found,
“H2As might be a risk factor for the development
of cognitive impairment in African Americans.”
(H2As are histamine-2 receptor antagonist,
common oral antacids—cimetidine (Tagamet),
ranitidine (Zantac), famotidine (Pepcid), and
nizatidine (Axid). After 5 years of
observational data this study showed that the
continuous use of H2As by African Americans aged
65 and older was associated with a two and a
half times greater risk of developing cognitive
impairment (dementia). The mechanisms behind
the loss of brain function are not clear.
Possibilities include vitamin B12 deficiency
associated with H2A use, and anticholinergic
effects, which can lead to the development of
delirium and other cognitive deficits.
Comment:
The connection
between the foods you put in your stomach and
the burning indigestion that follows is as clear
as the scalding your hand suffers when dunked
into boiling hot water. So why are antacids
among the top three selling drugs in the Western
world? Why don’t people simply change their
diet?
My experience has
been the majority of people who attend my clinic
report having frequent indigestion and about 25%
are taking antacids when they arrive. Within a
day of changing their diet almost all of them
have discarded their antacids pills and are free
of all stomach distress. If they are still
having trouble, I ask them to stop the raw
vegetables (especially the onions, green
peppers, radishes, and cucumbers), all fruit
juice (the whole fruit is fine), and hot
spices. I will also raise the head of their bed
by 4 to 6 inches.
These antacid
pills are powerful enough to stop the production
of acid by the stomach; to believe they have no
other effects on the body is naive. Common
long term side effects include: breast swelling
in males (gynecomasty), loss of libido,
impotence, mental confusion, and headache. You
should not be surprised they can affect your
brain and make you temporarily or permanently
dumber.
Boustani M, Hall KS, Lane KA, Aljadhey H, Gao S,
Unverzagt F, Murray MD, Ogunniyi A, Hendrie H.
The association between cognition and
histamine-2 receptor antagonists in african
americans. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007
Aug;55(8):1248-53.
Drug Companies
Rig Research—I Don’t Know How to Prescribe
Factors
associated with findings of published trials of
drug-drug comparisons: why some statins appear
more efficacious than others by Lisa Bero,
reported in the June 2007 issue of PLOS
Medicine found, “RCTs of head-to-head
comparisons of statins with other drugs are more
likely to report results and conclusions
favoring the sponsor's product compared to the
comparator drug. This bias in drug-drug
comparison trials should be considered when
making decisions regarding drug choice.” The
authors looked at 192 randomized controlled
trials published between 1999 and 2005 of one
brand of statin drug compared to another statin
or a non-statin drug. There was a 20 times
greater chance of positive results and a 35
times greater chance of positive conclusions
when the trial was sponsored by the
pharmaceutical company of the
cholesterol-lowering statin drug being tested.
Methods to
accomplish bias include:
Selecting nonequivalent doses of drugs for
testing.
Selective publication of favorable outcomes.
Multiple reports of studies with favorable
findings.
Lack of patient-related clinical outcome
measures.
Poor study design, implementation, and analysis.
Comment:
Doctors, like me, rely on the medical journal
research articles to guide us to properly
prescribe medications for our patients.
Unfortunately, most of this research is, pure
and simple, advertisements for the
pharmaceutical companies—the patient be damned.
In my younger years I was confused by looking
over medical publications, like the Journal
of the American Medical Association, and
finding pages of colorful expensive
advertisements clustered in the beginning and at
the end of the magazine, with the scientific
papers in the middle section. I thought, “How
stupid, who would waste their time looking at
these beginning and end advertisements.” I was
the dim-witted one. I failed to realize that the
real advertisements were in the middle—the
research papers paid for by the pharmaceutical
companies were the real advertisements.
Pharmaceutical
influence includes establishing official
sounding educational programs and guidelines for
doctors to follow. In this PLOS Medicine
article the authors discussed the National
Cholesterol Education Program, which published
the Adult Treatment Panel III guidelines. “To
achieve the goals in the guideline, millions of
Americans would need to be placed on
cholesterol-lowering medication in higher doses
and for a longer period, thereby increasing the
number of prescriptions for statin drugs. Eight
of the nine members of the National Cholesterol
Education Program panel had financial ties with
pharmaceutical companies that manufactured
statin drugs.”
Because the
research is so tainted, I do not feel confident
that what I am prescribing for my patients is
based on the truth—in fact, I am certain most is
distorted sufficiently to cause my patients
harm. So I take my best guess based on what I
know—and I always reserve the right to change my
mind about the drug prescriptions I write. This
kind of disclosure should encourage you to make
all strides to stay off of or discontinue
medications whenever possible. Sick people take
medications—change your diet and lifestyle to
become healthy and avoid the drug controversies.
Bero L, Oostvogel F, Bacchetti P, Lee K.
Factors associated with findings of published
trials of drug-drug comparisons: why some
statins appear more efficacious than others.
PLoS Med. 2007 Jun;4(6):e184. |
