• The Biggest Healthcare Mistakes & Misdirections

    Posted January 22, 2019: by Bill Sardi

    What is the biggest healthcare mistake?    Taking calcium pills to ward off bone loss (osteoporosis) among females.

    A shortage of estrogen induces loss of bone, not a shortage of calcium; estrogen replacement or molecules that mimic estrogen (resveratrol) are appropriate.

    What is the biggest health misdirection?  Phobia over fat and cholesterol

    What is the most economical and safe way of lowering cholesterol if one cannot get over cholesterol phobia?  Vitamin C and apple pectin

    Vitamin C and later accompanying apple pectin were described by Slovakian researcher Emil Ginter in 1971 as cholesterol lowering agents that work by inducing cholesterol disposal via bile flow (bile is composed of cholesterol) years before the marketing of the first statin cholesterol lowering drug (Mevacor) that was ineffective at reducing coronary artery disease mortality rates but was allowed by the FDA to continue sale by prescription as more powerful statin drugs were later introduced.  Even though statin drugs only prevent non-mortal heart attacks in 3 in 100 statin users over a period of 5 years, doctors told patients they would die of a sudden heart attack if they didn’t take their statin drug.  Fear reigned and dietary fats that are needed to make cholesterol in the liver were avoided resulting in an explosion in the incidence of infertility, mental depression, memory loss, hormonal collapse (thyroid, adrenal) and muscle aches.  Statin drugs are liver toxins that require monitoring by a physician.

    What is best to take after a heart attack?   Aged red wine or red wine pill

    In wine-loving France, compared to teetotalers, patients who incurred a severe heart attack and drank 2 glasses of wine per day were 59% less likely to experience recurrence (2nd heart attack) or complications up to 4 years later.  Compare that to a 15% risk reduction for a 2nd heart attack using a statin drug + another powerful cholesterol-lowering agent.  A red wine pill sans alcohol may produce the same protective effect (only one red wine pill has been tested for this).  Studies show wine, dealcoholized wine or resveratrol by itself or combined with quercetin provide similar heart protection without the potential liver toxicity posed by statin drugs.  The alcohol component of wine does not appear to provide health benefits and only poses potential problems with overconsumption.

    What is the biggest overlooked negative health habit?  Not getting enough sleep

    Insomnia weakens the immune system, temporarily erases memories and impairs recall

    What is the biggest health fraud of all time?  Mass vaccination

    What are the worst and best diets?  Worst = low fat   Best: low-low carb/no added sugars

    No bread, no pasta, no cereal; Americans were lean when they ate butter, lard

    What is the most overlooked cure for cancer?  IP6 rice bran extract

    What is the greatest health threat to humans? Stress

    Climate change is not the biggest global health threat

    There is good and bad stress.

    Divorce is probably one of the greatest stresses in modern life.  Divorce related stress increases the risk for a severe heart attack.

    What health habit has robbed humans of the most years of life?  Smoking tobacco

    Tobacco smokers live 10 years less than non-smokers

    What are the five greatest nutritional deficiencies not correctable by the best diet?

    Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, Zinc, Vitamin B12, Vitamin D

    What is the worst health insurance plan one can buy?  Obamacare

    Obamacare only pays the bills, no one is any healthier; it forces the young to pay for insurance when they are healthy, thus producing pure profit for the insurance companies and robs the young of purchasing a car or a home

    What are the most feared words in healthcare?  Cancer, blindness, Alzheimer’s

    Three maladies modern medicine has no cures for; but since there is treatment, this fact does not dawn upon patients as they pray they will be the exception and be cured.  In the minds of patients, even if treatment is ineffective, it is better than doing nothing. On the day cancer is diagnosed, 50% of cases have already spread beyond the site of origin (metastasis, the mortal form of the disease) for which there is no effective treatment.

    How effective is cancer chemotherapy?   ~2%

    Chemotherapy does not penetrate solid tumors which comprise ~70% of detected cancers.  Chemotherapy shrinks tumors by 50% and then invariably induces tumor resistance.  Chemotherapy impairs the immune system and the cancer patient is then “sh_t out of luck.”

    It is said there are only three therapies that are scientifically validated.  What are they?

    • The treatment and repair of broken bones
    • The replacement of a cloudy crystalline lens (cataract) with a clear lens implant
    • The filling of dental cavities (aside from fluoridation to marginally harden tooth enamel, there is no real prevention of dental decay which emanates from a bacterial infection; acid-forming Streptococcus mutans infection induces cavities; refined sugar feeds the growth of the bacteria in the oral cavity).  Vitamin D hardens dental enamel but goes ignored by modern dentistry; cavities occur in winter when vitamin D levels are low.

    Is there a cure for the common cold?

    Zinc lozenges are probably the most effective at quelling a head cold or flu symptoms and can shorten the duration of a cold by up to 7 days. [Antimicrobial Agents Chemotherapy 1984]  Zinc acetate is the most effective.  [Medical Hypotheses 2010; Journal Antimicrobial Chemotherapy 1997] Zinc lozenges with sucrose (cane sugar) or fructose (corn syrup) are counterproductive and should be avoided.  Zinc oxide is insoluble and almost useless.

    The use of a teaspoon to tablespoon of elderberry syrup 4-5 times a day helps to soothe a sore throat and shortens a bout with a head cold by about 4 days. [Journal International Medical Research 2004]

    Anecdotal: 50,000 IU of vitamin D3 often stops a runny nose almost immediately

    What is missing in the discussion about health promotion?  Prevention

    Modern medicine considers screening for more disease to treat as prevention but does not put into practice measures that prevent disease from occurring in the first place.  I call this the “detect and collect” mentality.  An exception is folic acid food fortification that prevents against birth defects (spina bifida, anencephaly).

    What is the most hidden toxin in our modern environment?  Glyphosate pesticide

    Hidden arsenic in glyphosate depletes zinc and selenium, impairing immunity.

    What is the greatest advancement in public hygiene?  Chlorinated water

    True, chlorine is toxic but it eradicated typhoid, cholera and dysentery; chronic exposure to chlorinated water over a lifetime increases risk for gastric cancer.  While unchlorinated tap water increases the risk for gastric cancer, a lifetime of chlorinated water exposure also increases gastric cancer risk.

    What health practice has ensured the American population achieves minimal levels of health?  Food fortification

    Food fortification programs

    What single health practice would add the most healthy years to life?

    • Fasting (limits intake of iron and calcium that accelerate aging)
    • Vitamin C supplementation throughout the day would theoretically add over 100 years to the human lifespan.  See WHOLE FOODS MAGAZINE Nov. 2018.

    What causes healthcare consumers to make wrong choices?  Fear

    What is the phone number of the best doctor in the world?  Yours

    Not meaning your doctor’s #.  YOUR phone #.  Doctor Yourself.

    What is the most overlooked cure?   Myricetin for alcoholism

    This polyphenol derived and extracted from the raisin tree blocks the GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) receptor on the surface of brain cells, interfering with the somnolent effects of alcohol and retraining brain cells via epigenetic imprinting to break the addictive craving for alcohol.

    What foods would do the most to produce healthy gut bacteria?  Fermented foods

    Unsweetened pickles, sauerkraut, miso soup

    What about wine for health? 

    Wine, in particular aged red wine, is an important part of a healthy diet that must be consumed in moderate doses (1-3 glasses/day with food) for optimal health benefits and helps overcome a bad dietExcessive wine consumption lowers life expectancy but modest wine drinkers outlive teetotalers by at least 5 years.

    What is the best way to increase access to healthy living?  Increase incomes

    There is a 10-15 year difference in life expectancy between high and low income groups in the USA.  This is not due to greater health insurance coverage but rather affordability to purchase healthier foods.

    Of interest, wine consumption increases life expectancy independent of economic status.  People with high incomes drink more wine than beer.  Wine could be equalizer in differences in health status and life expectancy observed between rich and poor.

    What is the greatest discovery in the history of modern medicine?  Vitamins

    In 1912 Casimir Funk coined the term vitamin to describe nutrients that are required for human life and health.  Vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs, can replicate the same biological action as most prescription drugs without all the cost or side effects.

    What would be the best way to lower healthcare costs in America?

    Allow dietary supplements to claim they remedy diseases, at least dietary deficiency diseases such as scurvy (vitamin C); rickets/winter depression (vitamin D); beriberi / heart failure/ irregular heart rhythm (thiamin vitamin B1); pellagra (niacin); pernicious anemia/ fatigue, short-term memory loss (vitamin B12); weak immunity (zinc for T cells); hypothyroidism-conversion of T4 to T3 (selenium); anti-clotting properties of garlic, fish oil, resveratrol.

    What is the best health insurance one can buy?  A multivitamin

    Carl F. Rehnborg developed the first multivitamin in the 1930s and began selling MVs as the California Vitamin Co. that was later renamed Nutrilite.  His experiences in China where he observed massive nutrient deficiencies led him to develop a vitamin business.

    What is the most costly mistake health-minded Americans make?  Buying multivitamins that don’t work

    Pharmaceutical companies own the two best-selling economical multivitamins that ensure the public never gets the nutrients they need to maintain health.  The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA), Reference Daily Intake (RDI) and Daily Value were established for healthy individuals, not people experience physical or emotional stress, drug depletion of vitamins, diminished secretion of stomach acid with advancing age (poor absorption), diabetes, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption; 100% of the Daily Value gives a false sense of security that consumers are getting all the nutrients they need to maintain health.  Most multivitamins on store shelves have not been scientifically updated in years.

    Looking toward the future, what would be the single most important advancement in the expansion of human healthspan and lifespan?   Restoration of the human body’s ability to internally synthesize vitamin C.  This idea is now being commercialized.

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