New England Health Advisory

We receive a lot of emails from our readers, but last week, we were honored to receive an actual paper letter! We thought it was so interesting and thought-provoking that we’re publishing it here for you to read. Please feel free to leave comments!

Good luck on your new Health Advisory.

There are few people that even know the definition of health. The only thing they teach in medical school is the treatment of symptoms of disease. Our bodies are the only things that don’t come with manuals. It’s a shame that they teach everyone algebra in school, yet very few ever use it. Don’t you think maybe they should teach nutrition?

I was born in 1928 and grew during the Depression, yet I never saw anyone die from appendicitis because they didn’t have any money. A never saw anyone walking around with a broken arm because they didn’t have any money.

Then came World War II. After the war, workers had medical insurance for the first time, and what was it? Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Patients paid 20% of doctor visits and 20% of hospital costs, and they were able to do it.

A patient would have to cash in his IRA, sell his house and car, and borrow a ton of money from the bank to pay 20% of a hospital bill today. What happened?

In the mid-1960s, JFK, then LBJ came up with “The Great Society,” which included free medical care. This is when the cost of medical care began to escalate. And now, the government is going to “reform healthcare”? They are the problem.

Isn’t it strange that our military is run by people who graduated from West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy, yet a lawyer President and a bunch of lay people n Congress think they can run a medical care system?

I was a basic science physician; that is what allowed me to practice preventive medicine. If you don’t know what causes health, how can you prevent disease?

Medical students today want their M.D. degrees so they can get into residency programs and learn how to put in stints, do bypass surgery and fix broken hips—because that’s where the money is.

I saw patients die in coronary care units because the cardiologists didn’t know basic freshman biochemistry.

I never met a physician who had the remotest idea how to manage menopause. Isn’t that sad?

Physicians don’t know how to prevent osteoporosis, which is a 100% preventable disease. They try to treat osteoporosis with drugs and injections instead of looking in a biochemistry or physiology textbook to see how bones are made and maintained.

Of course, drug companies love these doctors because their prescriptions bring in trillions of dollars.

Doctors lead people to believe that being overweight is what causes diabetes and high blood pressure. This, of course, is false.

Most high blood pressure is called essential hypertension because they don’t know what causes it. Diabetes is a genetic disease.

If you are overweight and have high blood pressure or diabetes, you can improve them by losing weight, but weight is not what causes either of them.

They also tell people to exercise to lose weight, but common sense tells you something else. If exercise caused weight loss, then professional football players would be skinny bean poles.

As for diabetes, no one knows the real cause, so the only way to prevent it is for diabetics not to have children.

Common sense is the most uncommon thing in this country.

Lots of luck on your program on health.

Thanks,
Roy W. Dowdell, D.C., N.M.D., M.D., F.A.A.F.P.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

If you ate chocolate on Valentine’s Day or Easter, I have some news for you. You don’t have to feel guilty.

In fact, I have evidence that you may have cut your risk from dying of a stroke nearly in half.

Two studies give us great news about chocolate.

The first study found that people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22% less likely to have a stroke.1

The second study found that people who ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week were 46% less likely to die following a stroke than those who didn’t eat chocolate.2

About 80% of strokes occur when there isn’t enough blood getting to the brain.3 Your brain is starved of oxygen and nutrients and begins to die immediately.

Chocolate helps to counteract that in two ways. It’s rich in antioxidants and helps to increase circulation.

You may get a rush of pleasure when you bite into a piece of chocolate. But chocolate gives you more than instant gratification. Chocolate is filled with antioxidants called flavonoids. Flavonoids protect the body.

Flavonoids fight silent inflammation, which is the leading cause of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and many others.4

You can find flavonoids in vegetables, tea, and red wine, but cocoa has more flavonoids.5 In fact, dark chocolate contains up to four times the antioxidants found in tea.6

But that’s not all this Valentine’s Day treat can do.

The flavonol-rich cocoa in chocolate is also a vasodilator.7 It widens blood vessels so circulation is improved. This brings an increased blood flow to the brain. It helps to lower blood pressure and improve heart function. Vasodilators like the cocoa in chocolate also help to increase circulation to sexual organs so they’re ready to respond when you are.

No wonder the scientific name for cocoa translates to “food of the gods.”

When you’re looking for a good source of chocolate, keep this in mind:

•    Look for chocolate that contains 70% or more cocoa. This is the ingredient that contains health benefits.

•    Check how much sugar is added to the chocolate you choose. Keep it as low as possible. But choose sugar over artificial sweeteners or chocolate labeled “sugar free.”

•    Beware of other chemicals in the chocolate. Choose a brand that has pure ingredients and no chemical additives.

•    Make chocolate your special treat of choice once a week.

•    You can find good quality chocolate at a health-food store. More and more it’s finding its way into grocery and drug stores. Read the label to be sure of the quality and content.

To your good health,

Al Sears, M.D.

Contributor to New England Health Advisory

1.    “Can Chocolate Lower Your Risk of Stroke?” American Academy of Neurology. www.aan.com. Accessed 02 2010.
2.    Ibid.
3.    “Causes of Strokes.” http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stroke/DS00150/DSECTION=causes.
4.    Wang, J.F., Schramm, D. D., et al. “A Dose-Response Effect from Chocolate Consumption on Plasma Epicatechin and Oxidative Damage,” Journal of Nutrition. 2000;130:2115S-2119S.
5.    Ki Won Lee, KW., Kim, YJ., et al. “Cocoa Has More Phenolic Phytochemicals and a Higher Antioxidant Capacity than Teas and Red Wine” J. Agric. Food Chem. 2003; 51(25):7292–7295.
6.    I.Arts, P.Hollman, D.Kromhout “Chocolate as a source of tea flavonoids,” The Lancet. 354; (9177): 488-488.
7.    Fisher, N., Hughes, M., et al. “Flavanol-rich cocoa induces nitric-oxide-dependent vasodilation in healthy humans,” Journal of Hypertension: 2003. 21; (12):2281-2286.

You sit down to a fine meal. A couple hours later you develop heartburn, and you reach for an antacid. One doesn’t work. So you take another. You’re bloated, gassy, and miserable. Nothing helps, so you try to go to sleep. Then at 3 a.m., you wake up with the worst burning pain you can imagine.

Clearly, antacids are not the answer.

Here’s some good news… sometimes heartburn and other digestive problems are solved by digestive enzymes.

Digestive enzymes speed up your digestion so food moves quickly through the stomach to avoid indigestion. When you don’t have enough digestive enzymes, food stays in your stomach, and acid pushes up through the esophagus and burns. That’s why they call it acid reflux.

You get enzymes two ways. Your body makes them, and they’re in the food you eat.

Your pancreas and other organs make about 22 digestive enzymes. Each one has a specific role in the digestion of protein, carbohydrate, sugar, and fat. For example:

• Protease digests protein.
• Amylase digests carbohydrates.
• Lipase digests fat.
• Cellulase digests fiber.

When we’re born, we have more than we need. But once we’re in our 20s, our ability to produce enzymes drops off about 13% every 10 years.₁ This means you need to find another way to get them if you want to maintain good digestion.

Lucky for us, you can also get enzymes from food. Raw foods contain millions of enzymes. Plant enzymes strengthen your digestion by taking the place of those you lose as you age.

Nature is designed to give you all the enzymes you need, simply by eating food. Our ancestors ate meat within minutes of hunting, and it was rarely cooked. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, and berries were plucked from the trees and ground and devoured on the spot. Food was so chock full of enzymes that ancient man more than likely never suffered from heartburn.

Unfortunately today, we rarely pull an apple from the tree and munch on it. Instead, food is commercially farmed on enzyme-depleted soils. Then we process, cook, and microwave food, which destroys enzymes even more.

To help your digestion, try to increase the amount of enzymes every chance you get:

1. Eat a variety of raw fruits and vegetables every day. If an organic farmer’s market is available, visit it once a week so your food is as fresh as possible.
2. Make sure you don’t overcook foods, and eat raw vegetables and fruits with each meal.
3. Try to eliminate freezing and reheating. Make just enough for the meal.

If you’re not able to get enough fresh, raw food with nature’s enzymes into your diet, the next best option is to get some digestive help from supplements. They’re available at your local vitamin store. Make sure you ask for “plant enzymes.” They’re well worth it.

For most people, I recommend looking for a supplement that contains protease for protein, amylase for carbohydrates, and lipase for fats. If you have a problem with dairy, you may also want to add lactase. You should take any enzyme supplement with a meal.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, M.D., Contributor to New England Health Advisory

Bibliography

1. M., Kanbak, G., Sunal, E. “Antioxidant enzyme activities and malondialdehyde levels related to aging.” Clinica Chimica Acta. 2001; 305(1-2):75-80.