Health Nugget - Heart Disease-an Inflammatory Disease

Dr. R. Ross wrote a review article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999 titled "Atherosclerosis: An Inflammatory Disease." Atherosclerosis is simply hardening of the arteries. This leads to heart attacks and strokes. He states in this article that heart disease is not caused by too much cholesterol in your blood stream, but, instead, is the result of a prolonged, low-grade inflammation of your arteries. In fact, over 50% of the patients suffering from a heart attack actually have normal cholesterol levels. We have been told for nearly a generation that the problem is really just cholesterol. Certainly, this is what the pharmaceutical industry hopes you believe. The medical literature clearly indicates that heart disease is NOT a disease of cholesterol.

There are over 1.5 million heart attacks and over 750,000 deaths due to heart attacks in the US each year. Heart disease remains the number one killer in the US and the industrialized world, even though we are spending billions of dollars each year on cholesterol-lowering drugs. While there are several studies that prove taking statin drugs can lower your risk of having a heart attack, researchers are not sure whether this is the result of lower cholesterol levels or the anti-inflammatory properties of the statin.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

Higher antioxidant intakes reduce risk of lung cancer in male smokers

In contrast to previous studies concluding that high-dose beta-carotene supplementation may increase lung cancer risk in male smokers, findings from a Yale study support the hypothesis that a combination of dietary antioxidants reduces lung cancer risk in men who smoke.

In some observational studies, a high intake of individual antioxidants was related to increased lung cancer risk in male smokers. However, data from many experiments suggest that there are interactions among antioxidant nutrients; therefore, consideration of multiple antioxidants simultaneously may be important in terms of assessing risk.

Yale University researchers evaluated dietary records of participants in the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study (ATBC), a group of over 27,000 Finnish male smokers aged 50-69 years. Based on food records, intakes of carotenoids, flavonoids, vitamin E, selenium, and vitamin C were analyzed. After evaluating the overall intake of antioxidants in this group, the conclusion differs somewhat from the original study.

According to this new analysis, men with higher overall intakes of antioxidants had lower relative risks of lung cancer regardless of their assigned study group (beta-carotene or placebo). While researchers of the ATBC study concluded that high-dose beta-carotene supplementation may increase lung cancer risk in male smokers, these findings support the hypothesis that a combination of dietary antioxidants reduces lung cancer risk in men who smoke.

Source: Development of a comprehensive dietary antioxidant index and application to lung cancer risk in a cohort of male smokers, Wright et al, Am J Epidemiol 2004 Jul 1;160(1):68-76

Health Nugget - Wayne's Story‏

Wayne was a classmate of mine in both high school and college. We ran track and spent a lot of time together when we were young. About 10 years ago, Wayne came into my office and complained of just not feeling well. He said his heart felt like it was jumping out of his chest. I put him in the hospital and consulted a cardiologist. Wayne had developed cardiomyopathy (severely enlarged heart) due to a viral infection he had suffered a month or two before. His heart was very weak and his ejection fraction (measurement of the heart's ability to contract) was only 17% (normal is 50 to 70). He was placed on the heart transplant list because his ejection fraction improved by only 4 or 5 points even with all the medication he took.

I placed Wayne on the aggressive nutritional supplement program I recommend for this disease, which includes high doses of a nutrient called Coenzyme Q10. CoQ10 is essential for the creation of energy within the cell, especially the heart muscle. Clinical research has shown that patients with heart failure and cardiomyopathy quickly become depleted in CoQ10 within their heart muscle because of their weakened state. Dr. Peter Langsjoen, a biochemist and cardiologist, had shown in several clinical trials that when patients supplement with CoQ10, nearly 85% of them have a significant positive clinical response. Wayne's ejection fraction went back to 58% within 4 months, and he was taken off the heart transplant list and returned to work. I have personally been involved with over a dozen patients with cardiomyopathy who have now been removed from the heart transplant list. They are not cured. However, as long as they take their aggressive nutritional supplement program and CoQ10, they are able to provide the fuel source their heart requires to compensate for its weakened state.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

Health Nugget - Multiple Sclerosis - an Amazing Story‏

During the first year I began studying nutritional medicine, I met a wonderful young woman who had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for nearly 5 years. Evelyn received appropriate medical treatment for her MS; however, her disease quickly progressed, and she could only get around with the help of a walker. Within 6 months after taking the nutritional supplementation I now recommend to my patients, she was able to walk again by herself. The feeling came back into her legs and feet. Of course, she still had her MS, but I had never seen such a dramatic improvement before in any of my MS patients.

Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease that destroys the myelin sheath of your nerves. The medical literature shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the root or underlying cause of this disease is oxidative stress. By building up my MS patients' natural defenses, I have witnessed some amazing improvements. Not everyone responds to the aggressive nutritional supplement program I recommend; however, I have seen at least a dozen MS patients go from wheelchair-bound to walking again. There were also cases like Scott who was unable to feel anything below his waist because of his MS and within just a few months was able to regain his feeling again. Being involved with these patients has certainly shown me the healing potential of providing the body with optimal levels of nutrients.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

Health Nugget - Living Too Short and Dying Too Long‏

I attended a lecture given by Dr. Myron Wentz, an immunologist, virologist, and biochemist. He made an amazing statement when he said that most of us are living too short and dying too long. We are primarily suffering and dying from chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, macular degeneration, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, MS, and the list goes on and on. These diseases seem to be developing in my patients at younger ages. Even though we place them on a tremendous amount of medication, we do not seem to change the course of their disease. What good does it do to live to a ripe old age of 93 if you haven't been able to recognize your family or spouse for the last 10 years because of Alzheimer's dementia, as was the case of former President Ronald Reagan? Look at Mohamed Ali or Michael J. Fox. Have we been able to effectively help them with their Parkinson's disease?

My patients are no longer as concerned about the years in their lives as they are about the quality of life in those years. Quality of life is the issue. Because of our stressful lifestyles and poor lifestyle habits, we are suffering earlier from these degenerative diseases. Michael J. Fox developed Parkinson's disease at 32 years of age. Nearly 45% of our children who develop diabetes have the adult onset or type 2 diabetes. We are certainly living too short and dying too long.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

True Health Care Provider‏

When I received my M.D. degree from the University of Colorado Medical School, I believed I had become that true health care provider I always dreamed I would be. This is certainly how my patients viewed me. They would ask me any question about their health and how to protect it, and I would quickly answer them with the authority my M.D. degree gave me. However, if I were honest with myself, I really did not know much about how to protect their health. However, after researching the medical literature about the health benefits of taking high-quality nutritional supplements during the past 13 years, I realized that I had really just been a "Disease-Care Expert." I understood disease, how to diagnose it, and how to best and most effectively treat it.

When I understood the consequences of oxidative stress and that it was the root cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases, I realized that our bodies give us the best chance of avoiding and preventing these diseases instead of the drugs I can prescribe. When you consume high-quality, complete and balanced nutritional supplements, you build your body's natural immune system, natural antioxidant defense system, and natural repair system. This gives you the best chance to protect or even regain your health. I am now that "True Health Care Expert" I have always desired to become. These "Health Nuggets" are designed to share the simple, but effective lifestyles that can best protect your health.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

Physicians are Disease-Oriented‏

Physicians are basically disease-oriented and drug-oriented. After all, this is how we are trained. In medical school, we spend all of our time learning how to diagnose and treat disease. Even what we call preventive medicine is really just about early detection of disease. When I did a wellness physical on any of my patients, I was really looking for those silent diseases like elevated blood pressure, early diabetes, or elevated cholesterol. Pap smears, mammograms, and PSA's were done to detect early cancer. If I didn't find any disease, I would simply tell my patients that they were fine and that I did not need to see them for a couple of years.

As I began to research the medical literature about nutritional medicine, I realized that I was really doing nothing to actually prevent disease. I was merely just diagnosing and treating disease. Certainly, I was able to help most of my patients improve the quality of their life; however, with many of the degenerative diseases, I was merely treating symptoms and not changing the course of the disease. Could there be something that I was not aware of or did not learn in medical school that could be beneficial to my patients? After seeing some amazing health improvements in my patients who began taking high-quality nutritional supplements, I began to research the medical literature with a newly found zeal.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

My Personal Clinical Trial‏

After I had seen my wife’s miraculous recovery, I contacted my five worst fibromyalgia patients and asked them to take the same supplements my wife took. They all agreed because they were not only miserable, but they also realized that all traditional medicine had to offer was symptomatic medicine and encouragement to find a support group to learn to live with it.

They did not respond as quickly as my wife had. However, within 6 months they all thanked me for allowing them to get their life back. My wife and these patients still have chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia; however, they have regained control of their lives. They all had noted gradual improvement in their fatigue levels, sleep patterns, and pain symptoms. I have now been able to help literally thousands who are suffering from this disease by sharing my specific recommendations through my online medical practice located at www.drraystrand.com.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

My Conversion‏

People always ask me why I changed my mind about recommending nutritional supplements. I simply tell them that it was my wife’s fault. My wife has suffered from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia for over 25 years. She thought when she married a physician that her health would improve. She was totally wrong. No matter what I did or prescribed, her condition became worse year after year. In 1995, she came down with a serious pneumonia. Even though this eventually cleared, she was left with a serious fatigue. She was only able to get out of bed one or two hours a day and this condition lasted several months, in spite of seeing 4 different specialists and taking nine prescription medications.

It was at this time, my wife began taking some nutritional supplements that were given to her. Within days, she felt better and within a couple of months she was off all of her medication. She began doing better than she had done in years. It was truly amazing to me. There is nothing harder as a physician than to see your wife suffer and not be able to do anything for her. Now this fear was replaced with the fear that she had improved because of some vitamins. This condradicted everything that I had believed and taught my patients for the first 23 years of my practice. It is also what launched me into this intensive research about the health benefits of nutritional supplements. If something existed that could help my patients, I certainly wanted to know more about it.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)

It is just a Matter of Time‏

There is a major misconception about supplementation. In this era of medication, people believe that they should notice differences within a few days to a week or two. However, nutritional medicine is totally different from allopathic or traditional Western medicine. Nutritional supplements are simply nutrients the body uses in its normal enzymatic reactions. They are not medicines. They are nutrients from our foods, but supplementation allows us to get them at optimal levels that diet alone cannot provide.

It takes between 6 to 12 months to replenish any nutritional deficiency and optimize the body’s natural immune system, antioxidant defense system, and repair system. If you are over 30 years of age or already have a chronic degenerative disease, it may even take longer. This is why I stress over and over that you need to give nutritional supplementation a minimum of 6 months, or even better a year, before you evaluate the benefits. When my patients tell me that they will try using my recommended supplements for a month, I tell them not to even start. If you are not willing to try my recommendations for at least 6 months, you should not even begin.

Source: Dr. Strand Health Nuggets (newsletter@Bionutrition.org)