New England Health Advisory

Do you have a healthy heart?

I ask myself that question all the time because heart attacks have killed the last three generations of men in my family. All died in their mid-50s when you would have thought life was just beginning.

But it’s just not my family, it’s many families. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cardiovascular disease kills 950,000 Americans every year. Millions more live disabled lifestyles caused by heart conditions—tired, out of breath and fearful of the slightest chest pain.

The question is, what can we do to avoid this fate?

You often hear that you should eat well and get plenty of exercise. But what does that really mean?

What foods should you stay away from and what should you eat? What type of exercise is best for heart health?

Our contributor Dr. Al Sears concisely answers these questions in his book “The Doctor’s Heart Cure.”  He discusses how dietary cholesterol is not our enemy—it’s the starches we eat that hurt us. Dr. Sears also discusses how long, low-intensity “cardio” exercise actually breaks down the reserve strength of our hearts. Instead, Dr. Sears advocates resistance training and interval training.

Dr. Sears describes all this in great detail, including sections on diabetes and on lowering high blood pressure, since those conditions are closely related to heart problems.

Please click here to learn how to build a disease-proof heart WITHOUT drugs, crazy diets or boring gym routines.

Yours for health and wellness,

Andrew Palmer
Publisher
New England Health Advisory

P.S. Personally, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to prevent a heart attack, so I live see my grandkids. How about you? Please click here to put an end to your worry … for good!

As I wheeled a shopping cart through my local supermarket last week, I rounded the corner and saw a giant display that featured a photograph of crisp, blue ocean waters, clean white beach and palm trees loaded with coconuts. Piled high in the center were small bottles of coconut water and narrow glass containers of coconut oil.

I stopped and looked for a moment. As a health writer, I’m always intrigued by new foods and drinks, and what wellness benefits they may offer. And as a person whose exposure to coconut has been pretty limited, I was quite curious. As a kid, I saw coconuts used in myriad wacky ways on Gilligan’s Island. And I’ve certainly enjoyed shredded coconut on many a cake over the years. But now my interest was piqued: Can coconut contribute to good health? Come along on my coconut caravan as I find out!

Coconut Oil

I started by learning about coconut oil, which comes from the meat of the coconut and contains about 92% saturated fat. This means that when it comes to caloric content, coconut oil is very similar to other fats that people use for cooking; saturated fat-wise, it’s actually close to butter. It’s where the calories come from that may make coconut oil a bit healthier.

The calories in coconut oil are derived from fatty acids called medium-chain triglycerides, or MCTs. MCTs are shorter than long-chain triglycerides, or LCTs. MCTs have a shorter chain of molecules, which allows them to be absorbed faster and easier than other fats and metabolized by the digestive system more quickly. MCTs may also have a protective effect on the heart, by raising HDL (sometimes known as “good cholesterol”).

Coconut oil devotees say that the MCTs in coconut oil can help people lose weight and manage many other health conditions and diseases, from heart disease to diabetes.

But what’s the truth?

Unfortunately, right now there isn’t substantial evidence that proves that coconut oil is healthier than other oils. MCTs may have a leg up on LCTs, but there haven’t been any large-scale studies that show that shorter MCTs ultimately lead to weight loss, better heart health or a lower risk of stroke. Some decades-old research on populations whose cuisines feature coconut oil shows low rates of heart disease, but there are too many variables to consider: People of East Asian nations or the Pacific Islands may eat more fruits and vegetables, and fewer donuts, or get more exercise, or have any number of other health behaviors that can skew the results.

But this doesn’t mean that modern-day researchers aren’t interested in learning more. For example, the August 2009 issue of Diabetes featured an animal study, “Enhancement of muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity and alterations in insulin action are lipid species-dependent: Potent tissue-specific effects of medium chain fatty acids,” which suggests that MCTs can help protect against insulin resistance, a precursor to Type 2 diabetes. In this study, mice were fed diets that contained either MCTs or LCTs; at the end of the five-week period, the mice that received the MCTs weighed less and had better glucose tolerance. The authors concluded that “ … dietary supplementation with MCFA [medium-chain fatty acids] may therefore be beneficial for preventing obesity and peripheral insulin resistance.”

This is promising and offers some proof that MCTs are beneficial and may help promote weight loss because of the way that mammalian bodies metabolize them. But it’s a long way from mice to men, and more research is needed on MCTs, as well as the role they play in foods.

If you want to add coconut oil to your diet, it’s certainly safe and easy enough to do: Simply replace the oils and fats you normally use with virgin coconut oil. Just remember that coconut oil is quite high in saturated fat, so be careful not to take in too many extra calories. At the end of the day, fat is fat. We know that olive, safflower and canola oils are healthier fats, so these are other good options for cutting calories when cooking.

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Coconut Water

Next I turned my attention to the other item in the beach-inspired product display: coconut water. Coconut water comes from young, green coconuts, and it tastes nutty and slightly sweet. It’s currently enjoying its moment in the proverbial sun, as industry giants Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have recently introduced their own lines of coconut waters.

Nutritionally, coconut water does boast special features and is in some ways deserving of its nickname, “Nature’s Gatorade.” It contains a good deal of potassium: almost 490 milligrams in an 8-ounce serving. (By way of comparison, a medium-sized banana contains about 450 milligrams.) An 8-ounce serving also contains 44 milligrams of sodium (salt), as well as 10 grams of carbohydrates.

When compared ounce-for-ounce to Gatorade (a longtime workout standby), coconut water has virtually the same number of calories and carbohydrates. The main differences are the amounts of potassium and sodium (Gatorade has 30 milligrams and 110 milligrams, respectively). The other big difference is price: You’ll pay roughly $2 for an 8-ounce container of coconut water, and $3 for a 32-ounce bottle of Gatorade.

If you are curious about coconut water and eager to sip a new drink after your next moderate-intensity workout, it may be worth a try. Some people love the taste and say it re-hydrates and rejuvenates them better than other sports drinks. Others say that the potassium boost is just what their muscles need after a run or trip to the gym.

Just be forewarned that if you’ve completed a hard workout that makes you very sweaty, you may need to drink a lot of coconut water to restore your electrolytes. Gatorade or similar sports drinks, with their higher sodium content that is calibrated specifically to replenish the body’s salts and minerals, may be a more effective choice. And for everyday light workouts or walks, don’t forget about plain old water! It’s free, easy to find, and calorie-free—and although it doesn’t have the cachet of coconut, it does the trick when it comes to keeping you hydrated.

Yours in health,

Eugénie Olson
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

As the incidence of Type 2 diabetes increases, more people are interested in learning about controlling blood sugar levels by changing their eating habits. To share an in-depth look at how blood sugar is affected by food, I first want to provide some background science on diabetes and blood sugar.

Diabetes 101: The Basics

The normal range for blood sugar is between 90 and 110. A person with a blood sugar reading of over 126 is said to be diabetic.

The key hormone responsible for regulating blood sugar levels in the body is insulin. Insulin is secreted in response to an influx of glucose into the blood stream following a meal. Type 2 diabetes develops when too much insulin is secreted because the glucose metabolism is not functioning optimally.

Insulin resistance occurs when the pancreas is required to produce more insulin to metabolize the same amount of glucose and keep the blood sugar level constant. The body’s cells are no longer able to utilize the glucose present because they are full, leading to excessive insulin and glucose in the blood stream and raising the blood sugar level.

One of the reasons diabetes is such a serious disease is the lack of early detection of insulin resistance. By the time the body has become insulin resistant and the blood sugar levels are elevated, the disease has already progressed. The blood sugar level of 126 is an arbitrary number assigned by conventional medicine to diagnose diabetes. The reality is that while blood sugar is climbing to that level, there are other warning signs that the glucose metabolism is not functioning properly and a person is on the way to becoming insulin resistant and diabetic.

These factors include: increased belly fat, sugar cravings, high triglyceride levels, low LDL levels, high blood pressure and increased inflammation. Conventional medicine using newer medication to treat diabetes now favors making the cells more insulin sensitive instead of adding insulin. Increased insulin causes you to have a raging appetite and to crave sugar. More insulin is needed to metabolize the same amount of glucose because your body is becoming insulin resistant.

The good news is that you can take charge of your health and regulate your blood sugar levels through a healthy diet and lifestyle by following the simple guidelines below. Insulin resistance can be prevented, and in some cases completely reversed, by making changes in diet and lifestyle. This is by no means a license to stop taking any of your prescribed medications, but rather to enhance your diabetes treatment and share the results of your lifestyle changes with your health care provider to see if the changes are significant enough to warrant a change in medication.

Regulating Blood Sugar Levels

The question I want to answer today is, “How does what I eat affect my blood sugar level?” Keeping a constant blood sugar level is important for everyone—people with diabetes and for those without. The more your blood sugar rises and falls, the harder your body has to work to maintain a balance. The consensus prescription for maintaining a constant blood sugar level includes regular exercise, eating small amounts of saturated fats and trans fats, and eating a high fiber diet to reduce the glycemic load on the body. So what does your body need? The three macronutrient groups the body needs to function properly are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Protein and high-fat foods do not cause a rise in blood sugar; whereas carbohydrates do.

In order to understand the differences between carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables versus those from processed foods, it is helpful to know a little background science on carbohydrates. When consumed, carbohydrates are ultimately broken down into glucose to be used as energy for your cells and for all of the biochemical processes in your body. As you’ve probably figured out by now, not all energy is created equally.

Carbohydrates are divided into monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides. Monosaccharides are the simplest sugars. They cannot be broken down further. They include glucose and fructose. The disaccharides are carbohydrates composed of two sugars that can be broken down into their individual components, including sucrose, lactose and maltose.

The polysaccharides are long chains of monosaccharides held together with glycosidic bonds. They include cellulose and starches found in potatoes, bread, legumes and whole grains. In order for your body to break a polysaccharide down into glucose, all of the glycosidic bonds need to be broken. The longer the chain, the more bonds need to be broken and the longer it takes for the glucose to enter into the blood stream and cause a rise in blood sugar levels. The body does not digest cellulose, the fiber in a food, and it simply passes through the digestive system.

The Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load

In order to identify how the body uses carbohydrates for energy, I want to introduce the concepts of the glycemic index and the glycemic load. The glycemic index was developed to show the effects of a particular food on blood sugar levels. Each food in the glycemic index (GI) is given a score from 1 to 100, with 100 being the value assigned to pure glucose. Foods are considered to be low GI if they are under 55, medium GI between 56 and 69, and high GI over 70. It’s important to keep in mind that the values assigned are laboratory-derived values and that each person’s unique genetic makeup will allow for variations in metabolism for the same foods.

The glycemic index also takes into account the amounts of fat, fiber, total carbohydrates in a food and method of food preparation. Raw carrots have a lower GI value than cooked carrots because the cooked version has less fiber. (Fiber is broken down by cooking.) Most fresh green vegetables have a very low GI value due to the high amount of fiber they contain. Fruits also fall under the low GI category even though they contain fructose mainly due to the amount of fiber contained in the specific fruits.

Whole-wheat foods and sweet potatoes fall under the medium GI group and sugary cereals, white bread and white potatoes fall under the high GI group. Just because a food has a higher GI value does not mean that it is off limits for diabetics or anyone looking to stabilize blood sugar levels. It does however mean that you will need to balance the food with lower GI choices and monitor portion sizes.

The foods with the highest GI values are the ones that will produce the greatest increase in blood sugar levels. The foods with lower GI values will have less of an effect on blood sugar levels because glucose enters the blood stream more gradually, thus allowing the body to secrete smaller amounts of insulin slowly over time and the cells to absorb what they need without becoming overloaded.

The other concept to become familiar with is the glycemic load (GL). The glycemic load takes into account not only the GI value of the food, but also the portion size of the food. As you increase the portion size the GI value of the food stays the same, however, the GL value increases. To calculate the GL value of a food you would multiple the GI value by the amount of carbohydrates in your serving and divide by 100.

You’re probably starting to think that you need to get out a calculator just to eat. I’m certainly not suggesting that, as it would surely take the pleasure out of eating. However, if you are diabetic and you have to be conscious of the total number of carbohydrates you consume, then you are probably already counting carbs in your meals. Using the GI and the GL values as a guide will allow you to estimate the fluctuations in blood sugar that a particular food will cause.

Many readers are likely looking for a definitive answer to the question of, “If I eat chocolate cake with frosting is my blood sugar going to go up to 400?” But the answer really depends on your unique reaction to each food and the combination of other foods eaten at the same time. The glycemic index and glycemic load can be useful tools to help with meal planning, but the actual change in blood sugar in response to a specific food is unique to the person. The more insulin resistant you are the more your blood sugar will fluctuate when you stray to sweets, sugary soft drinks or other refined carbohydrate foods.

The most important rule to remember when eating is to keep your blood sugar balanced. Studies have shown a greater incidence of heart attacks when blood sugar drops suddenly from high to low than when it was stabilized. Testing and trial and error will determine what works best for you because each person is unique in their ability to metabolize glucose and in their level of insulin resistance.

How to Stabilize Blood Sugar Levels

I know that this information may sound overwhelming, but it really is crucial to preventing a host of downstream problems that stem from insulin resistance and diabetes, including heart disease, chronic inflammation, kidney disease and even some cancers. You can allow your cells to recover from insulin resistance, and become more insulin sensitive, but it won’t happen overnight.

In order to keep your blood sugar at an optimal stable level:

• Eat lean protein at each meal to help control appetite and stabilize blood sugar.
• Eat a meal or snack every four hours so that your blood sugar levels don’t drop too much and cause your body to become ravenous.
• Finish eating two to three hours before bed to allow for complete digestion so that your body can dedicate sleep time to rejuvenation and repair instead of digestion.
• Don’t eat a high glycemic index food alone. Consume it with a balanced meal to balance out the overall glycemic load. You can have dessert, but do so only after eating a protein and vegetable meal.
• Control your overall glycemic load by choosing lower GI food and watching portion sizes and total carbohydrates per serving. This will allow your blood sugar to stay more stable.
• Eat a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at every meal. They are low GI and full of fiber and antioxidants and vitamins to help you feel full and stay healthy.
• Aim to increase your fiber intake especially in the form of soluble fiber from beans, whole grains, legumes, fruits and veggies, and nuts and seeds.
• The fiber will slow the absorption of sugar into the blood stream

Whether or not you are diabetic, keeping your blood sugar level in the healthy range is important for optimal health. By incorporating these simple suggestions for low GI value foods into your diet, you can be on your way to taking control of your blood sugar levels. Think about enjoying the high GI value foods as an addition to your meal, not as the main course and you will always be able to incorporate your favorite foods into each meal.

Yours in health,

Juliette Shimkets
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

My husband’s family in Ireland is an adherent of the Irish temperance movement known as the Pioneers. So it was a surprise to find his Uncle Miah sipping an Irish whiskey after dinner at his house in County Cork. “Doctor’s orders,” he said with a sheepish shrug. Miah had suffered a heart attack a few months earlier, and his doctor suggested an after dinner dram of whiskey would be good medicine.

That’s not just Blarney. More than 60 separate studies find that drinking alcohol in moderation is good for your heart. And the good news doesn’t end there—moderate drinking is connected to lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and stroke, as well as weight loss. One Tuscan study even linked light to moderate red wine drinking to improved sexual function in women.

Scientists are still unraveling the reasons why drinking can be good for you—everything from the alcohol itself to its concentration of antioxidants may be the reason. Or it may even be some complex interaction of many different components. Some conflicting research says the same benefits can be had from grape juice, while other studies find that’s not the case. There is even some evidence to suggest that moderate drinking can slow declines in cognitive function brought on by old age. But on the other side of the coin, heavy drinking has been linked to a faster decline.

The Antioxidant Theory

A lot of research about alcohol’s benefits has focused on antioxidants, present in sizable amounts in certain kinds of alcohol, including whiskey, red wine and darker beers, and to a lesser amount in lagers and white wine. Antioxidants are thought to protect cells from free radicals—potentially harmful molecules your body produces when breaking down food or in reaction to environmental exposures like tobacco smoke and radiation. Scientists say free radicals can damage cells, and may play a role in heart disease and cancer, among other diseases.

Resveratrol, a particular type of antioxidant present in red wine, has been much discussed for its apparent ability to reduce inflammation in the arteries. It may have other important functions as well. New research on mice published in the July issue of the American Journal of Pathology links resveratrol to a shrinkage of abnormal blood vessels in the eye, yielding a promising breakthrough in dealing with leading causes of blindness. However, since the dose given to mice would be the equivalent of several bottles of wine, it would likely be given in pill form.

The Mediterranean Connection

While numerous studies, including a recent one done by French scientists at the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, point to better overall health among moderate drinkers, most researchers admit that the drinking may be a signifier of an overall healthier lifestyle, rather than a cause itself.

Much fuss was made, several years back, of the inclusion of wine in the so-called Mediterranean Diet, but it was important to note that the diet is low in saturated fat and high in whole grains and fruits and vegetables—all things that we know lead to better overall health.

The French study, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, questioned nearly 150,000 Parisians about their drinking habits, then subjected them to a battery of tests.

Moderate drinkers of both sexes were found to have low body mass index, heart rate, good blood sugar levels, lower “bad” cholesterol and higher “good” cholesterol. Men also showed lower stress and depression scores. Further, moderate and low drinkers displayed better health status than did the never-drinkers. Researchers concluded that “moderate alcohol consumption may represent a marker of higher social level, superior health status and lower cardiovascular risk.”

Moderation is Key

The key to realizing better health through drinking alcohol, as in so many things in life, is moderation. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine linked drinking as little as the equivalent of a half glass of wine, three to four days a week, to a sizable reduction in risk for heart attack. Drinking more didn’t improve health further, and it didn’t matter what type of alcohol (wine, beer, whiskey, etc.) was consumed.

Currently, the U.S. government defines moderate drinking as one 12-ounce beer, a five-ounce glass of wine or 1.5 ounces of liquor per day for a woman and up two drinks per day for a man. Each of these servings has about the same amount of alcohol and the same number of calories. The National Institutes of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism recently released new guidelines expected to be adopted by the U.S. government, defining low-risk drinking as no more than seven drinks a week for women and fourteen for men, with no more than three drinks in any one single day for women and four for men.

Dangers of Heavy Drinking

For all the beneficial effects scientists have determined can be gained through moderate alcohol consumption, this is one area where you can definitely have too much of a good thing.

Many studies link excessive alcohol consumption to cancer—particularly breast, liver and colon cancer—and stroke, among other health problems. And for those who cannot restrict their consumption to moderate drinking, the dangers of excessive drinking far outweigh the possible benefits. Excessive drinking is also implicated in unintentional injury from car accidents, falls and drowning.

Experts advise enjoying your drinks with food—never on an empty stomach—and drinking slowly to avoid intoxication. Of course, you should never drink alcohol if you’ll be driving, and double check that any medication you are taking is safe to be consumed with alcohol.

Odds are prescribing a drink a day won’t be the first thing your doctor thinks of to combat heart disease. But if you’re like Uncle Miah, it might be worth exploring with your physician. If you already enjoy a few drinks a week, relax. And as they say in Ireland when posing a toast, Slainte, which means good health!

Yours in health,

Jeanne O’Brien Coffey
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

Is a pound of prevention worth an ounce of cure? Contributing Editor Nancy Witting believes there may be a link between the increase in childhood vaccinations and the rise in childhood health problems. Today she explores the possible link between kids’ health and the shots they receive as youngsters.

Alarming Numbers

U.S. children are the most highly vaccinated children in the world, yet the numbers of chronically ill and disabled kids are on the rise. The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), an independent clearinghouse for information on diseases and vaccines, cites these disturbing statistics:

•    In 1976, 796,000 children were learning disabled. Today, one child in six is learning disabled.
•    In 1979, there were two million asthmatic children. Today, one child in nine has asthma.
•    In 1970, one child in 2,500 developed autism. Today, one child in 150 develops autism.
•    In 1970, one child in 1,750 was diabetic. Today, one child in 450 becomes diabetic.

Look at those dates, and then consider these facts:

•    In the 1970s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advised that children get 23 doses of seven vaccines by the age of six. The first vaccinations were given to infants at two months old.

•    Today, the CDC and the AAP recommend that children get 49 doses of 14 vaccines by age six. The first vaccination is given to newborns when they are 12 hours old. When babies are two months old, they may be given as many as eight vaccines on a single day. When they are 15 to 18 months old, they may be given as many as 12 vaccines on a single day.

Could it be that early manipulation of the immune system with more and more vaccines is setting significant numbers of children up for chronic disease and disability? Would fewer immunizations be better?

There are no easy answers to these questions; there are far too many other variables involved, including diet, exercise, television viewing and radiation. But being better informed can help you protect your children.

Harmful Ingredients

The NVIC points with suspicion to a long list of potentially harmful ingredients that are present in trace or larger amounts, depending on the specific vaccine. The list includes lab-altered viruses and bacteria, aluminum (associated with asthma, seizure disorders and cognitive dysfunction), mercury, formaldehyde and 2-phenoxyethanol (both known carcinogens),  gluteraldehyde, sodium borate, sodium chloride, sodium acetate, monosodium glutamate (associated with neurological effects), hydrochloric acid, hydrogen peroxide, lactose, gelatin, yeast protein, egg albumin, bovine and human serum albumin, antibiotics and unidentified contaminants.

Thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, was removed from most childhood vaccines in 2001. For many years, parents of autistic children have believed that it was thimerosal in vaccines (particularly the MMR vaccine) that precipitated autism in their children. The CDC maintains that there is no convincing scientific evidence of harm caused by the low doses of thimerosal in vaccines, and it is still used in flu shots, tetanus boosters, the hepatitis B vaccine and the meningitis vaccine, to name a few.

Immunization Successes and Failures

There’s no question that vaccines have dramatically decreased the incidence of illness and death from certain infectious diseases. Smallpox has been virtually eliminated from the world and paralytic polio from the Western Hemisphere. Tetanus and diphtheria occur only rarely, and the incidence of mumps, pertussis and measles is steadily decreasing.

But vaccines provide only temporary immunity to a targeted disease, so boosters are often required to extend the immunity. And vaccines are not 100% effective—for some individuals, no immunity is conferred. The immunity produced after natural infection generally lasts longer, often for a lifetime.

And then there’s the problem of side effects. While the CDC and other public health officials in the U.S. acknowledge that reactions to vaccinations—even fatal ones—can and do occur, they nonetheless justify mass vaccination for the benefit of the nation’s health. They state that the small amounts of chemical and other additives in vaccines cause no harm in the absence of allergies, and that these additives are necessary to ensure the potency, sterility, and safety of vaccines.

Co-founders of the NVIC worked with Congress on the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, a law that acknowledges the suffering of the vaccine-injured and their families and the need for vaccine-safety protections in the mass vaccination system. As of 2008, $1.8 billion dollars had been awarded to more than 2,200 vaccine victims for their catastrophic vaccine injuries, out of some 12,000 applicants.

The 1986 law also requires that vaccine providers report serious health problems following vaccination to the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). Since the government inaugurated this system in 1990, the number of entries has steadily climbed: from fewer than 2,000 in 1990 to over 30,000 in 2009.

Precautions You Can Take

You can minimize the risk of adverse vaccine reactions in your children by finding a sympathetic doctor and following some simple guidelines. If at all possible, delay vaccinations until your child is six months old. Request single rather than combination shots, and allow two months between each shot. Never vaccinate a sick child. If your child has an adverse reaction to a shot, wait at least one year to vaccinate again.

Some vaccinations on the CDC immunization schedule might be skipped altogether. For example, chickenpox is usually a mild disease in young children, and lasts only about seven days. It might be preferable for your child to be exposed to another child with chickenpox and contract it, rather than get the shot. Hepatitis B is a disease spread through sex and drug use, so it is reasonable not to give the vaccination to infants and young children.

Be alert for signs and symptoms of vaccine reactions in your child:

•    High fever (over 103° F)
•    Skin reactions (hives, rashes, swelling)
•    High-pitched screaming
•    Collapse/shock
•    Excessive sleepiness
•    Convulsion
•    Brain inflammation (loss of consciousness)
•    Behavior changes
•    Mental/physical regression

Vaccine reactions should be reported to VAERS by calling 800-822-7967 and to NVIC’s Vaccine Reaction Registry at www.NVIC.org.

Know Your Rights

Informed consent is the central ethical principle of the practice of modern medicine. Enlightened medical professionals protect the right of patients and their guardians to voluntarily accept or decline medical interventions that involve a risk of injury or death. Vaccination is a medical intervention that carries a risk of injury or death, which is greater for some than others.

Depending on the state you live in, you may be able to seek particular exemptions from vaccination. All 50 states allow medical exemption to vaccination, which requires a signed statement by a medical doctor or osteopath that certain vaccines would be detrimental to your child’s health. All states except Mississippi and West Virginia allow a religious exemption to vaccination. And some states grant an exemption if you can prove the child’s physical immunity through a simple blood test.

While all immunization laws have exceptions you can use, the wording in each state differs. You can obtain this information through your local library or state representative.

Yours in health,

Nancy Witting
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

In the 20 years that I’ve been practicing medicine, diagnoses of diabetes have gone up every year.

It looks like it will keep getting worse, because medicine is still not focusing on the real solution.

Diabetes is a problem of diet, and the solution must come from food, not drugs.

Yet new drugs are used in ever-greater numbers.

And some of these drugs cause real problems!

The new diabetic drugs Avandia and Actos, for example increase a woman’s chance of breaking a bone by 50%. If you’re over 65 years old, your chances jump to 70%.

And broken bones aren’t the only problem.

Avandia is linked to over 83,000 heart attacks between 1999 and 2007. If you take Avandia, you have a 43% greater chance of having a heart attack. And your risk of dying from a heart attack increases by 65%.

In 2009, Avandia caused 304 deaths in three months. It was the highest death rate of any prescription drug during that period.

Before you think you can just switch to Actos:

Actos does seem to lower the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death. But when it was tested, researchers found Actos actually increased the chance of serious heart failure.

Thousands of people are still on these drugs. If you’re one of them, I suggest you talk to your doctor about the risks, your options, and what it means to you.

A better way to manage your blood sugar is to pay close attention to what you eat and supplement with the nutrients we are lacking in modern times:

• Avoid starches: Stay away from bread, bagels, muffins, cookies and cake, as well as grains like corn, potatoes, and rice.
• Choose good-quality protein: Grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, cage-free eggs and wild salmon are all good choices.
• Choose low-glycemic vegetables: Above-ground veggies are best. They don’t spike your blood sugar. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and leafy green vegetables are good examples.
• Eat low-glycemic, whole fruit: Such as berries and those you eat with the skin on. Skip dried fruit and fruit juices, and avoid high fructose corn syrup, as it contributes to insulin resistance.
• Avoid processed foods: They’re loaded with bad fats and carbs, artificial sweeteners and preservatives.

The main nutrient deficiency causing blood sugar problems in modern America is chromium:

• Chromium: Chromium makes your insulin work better. It moves your blood glucose from the bloodstream into your cells for energy. Ninety percent of American adults have a chromium-deficient diet even though chromium is in foods like meat, cheese, fruits, and vegetables. Chromium isn’t absorbed when you take it by itself. Take 400 mcg in a form called “chromium polynicotinate.” This form contains a carrier molecule to help it get into your blood and tissues.

Before considering medications, I usually try a combination of herbs to lower blood sugar:

• Gymnema Sylvestre: This herb may reduce your cravings for sugary snacks. Patients who took 400 mg of this extract daily for 18 to 20 months along with their oral medications showed a significant drop in their fasting blood sugar levels.
• Cinnamon: The same spice you use in apple pie contains a compound that works with insulin to increase glucose metabolism by roughly 20 times. Take 1-6 grams per day for best results.
• Fenugreek: Fenugreek is one of the herbs used in curry. Fenugreek stimulates insulin release. Many studies confirm the seed and herb help stabilize blood sugar in patients with insulin problems.8 Start with 100 mg of powdered seed. You can find it in capsules, or you can soak powdered seed in water or juice and drink it. You can increase the dose to as much as 10 grams.

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD
For New England Health Advisory

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By Inger Pols

Research increasingly shows that energy and electricity can interfere with our body’s normal functioning. Cell phones, cordless phones, cell phone towers and WiFi can affect us all at a cellular level and those who are more sensitive may experience a significant disruption in cellular function and communication. I’m going to write more about electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and their effect on our bodies in coming weeks, including why microwaves are not allowed in Russia. But today I want to share some new information about how EMFs may affect blood sugar levels and lead to—or exacerbate—diabetes.

One leading researcher argues that there are three forms of diabetes, not two. Type 1, which is genetic, is generally diagnosed at a young age and requires insulin injections for effective management. Type 2, which used to be called adult onset, is brought on by diet and lifestyle choices and can be prevented or managed through diet changes and exercise. (It no longer takes an adult lifetime to damage cell signaling, as you learned in the sugar report. Today, more and more children are being diagnosed with this preventable form of diabetes.)

Now Dr. Magda Havas of the University of Trent in Canada has shown that there is a third condition that is caused by the environment, not genes or diet. She calls it Type 3 diabetes and her research shows that “dirty” electricity and electromagnetic fields can alter blood sugar levels both in previously diagnosed Type 1 and 2 diabetics, as well as in people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes.

Her research, published in Electromagnetic Medicine and Biology, presents four case studies of patients affected by “dirty” energy. This is emerging research, so the numbers haven’t been quantified yet, but Dr. Havas estimates between five and 60 million diabetics are affected by this energy.

So what exactly is “dirty” energy?

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Dirty Electricity and Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs)

According to Dr. Havas, “dirty electricity” describes “electric power that has become corrupted by our use of modern appliances. Items such as CFL bulbs, cell phone transmission antennas, power supplies for portable computers, cell phone chargers, dimmer switches, variable speed fans and many other electronic devises that require a transformer to convert the voltage will “dirty” the electricity that enters your home. This form of dirty electro-magnetic fields (EMF) is invisible to the eye, but has a biological effect on the human body and has been associated with a wide variety of illnesses.”

While Dr. Havas’ research is new, she is not the only one to write about EMFs. Many physicians and scientists, including Dr. Thomas Rau of the world-renowned Paracelsus Clinic in Switzerland, and others such as Dr. Weill, Dr. Mercola, Dr. David Carpenter and even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been warning about these concerns since the 1980s.

Dr. Rau is convinced that “electromagnetic loads” can lead to cancer, ADD, migraines, insomnia, arrhythmia, Parkinson’s disease, back pain and difficulty concentrating. People who are super-sensitive to EMFs can get headaches, nausea, muscle aches, fatigue or skin irritations just from being around WiFi or cell phone towers.

Dr. David Carpenter, Dean of the School of Public Health at State University of New York at Albany has attributed up to 30% of childhood cancers to EMFs. Martin Halper, the Director of Analysis and Support for the EPA says, “I have never seen a set of epidemiological studies that remotely approached the weight of evidence we are seeing with EMFs. Clearly there is something here.”

In 1989, the Department of Energy reported that, “It has now become generally accepted that there are, indeed, biological effects due to field exposure.” And Dr. Andrew Weill, natural health expert, has said, “Electromagnetic (EMF) pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced in this century, all the more dangerous because it is an invisible, insensible ‘toxin.’ ”

Scientists and the government have known about these dangers for decades now, but the proliferation of wireless technology since then makes the risks greater than ever before, especially those who are more sensitive.

So what exactly does “dirty” electricity do?

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The Effect of “Dirty” Electricity

Dr. Havas looked at the effect of dirty electricity on blood sugar levels in four different scenarios. In the first, the patient was a 54-year-old man who had not yet been diagnosed with diabetes, but was considered to be “pre-diabetic.” In this case, the man’s blood sugar levels were found to be normal when he was outside fishing and camping and he had no blood sugar concerns. But when he measured his blood sugar inside his house, especially after working on a computer, he experienced blood sugar spikes.

The man’s blood sugar and the level of “dirty” electricity in his home were measured in the morning for nine days. The higher the level of dirty electricity, the higher his recorded blood sugar levels. On one day, he forgot to measure his blood sugar first thing and instead measured it later while working at his computer. It was shown to be higher than normal. He stepped away from his computer and measured it again 10 minutes later, and it had dropped 20 mg/dL or milligrams per deciliter.

The second case was a 57-year-old woman with Type 2 diabetes who uses exercise to control her blood sugar levels. In the study, she walked inside a mall (after hours when everything was shut down) for 20 minutes and her plasma glucose was shown to drop significantly after her exercise from above acceptable levels down to acceptable levels. When she used a treadmill inside her home for 20 minutes instead and conducted the same blood sugar measurements, her blood sugar was shown to increase after exercise!

In the third case, an 80-year-old woman with Type 1 diabetes who was taking insulin measured her blood sugar every morning for a week. Then she had energy filters installed in her house to remove the “dirty” electricity and she measured her blood sugar every morning for the subsequent week. The filters removed 98% of the “dirty” electricity in her home and her blood sugar dropped 33%; the amount of insulin she required to manage her condition was reduced by 75% as a result.

The final case study involved a 12-year-old boy with Type 1 diabetes who was sent to the hospital with very high blood sugar levels.  He was given increased insulin until his blood sugar began to decrease and he was allowed to go home. Then, filters were installed in his home and his blood sugar dropped significantly as did the amount of insulin he required (to about half his former level). His younger sister, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of three months, also saw her insulin levels significantly reduced after the filters were installed.

In another part of the study, Dr. Havas put patients on beds with cordless phones two feet away from their heads. The phone was plugged into the wall, and either turned on or off for each session, though neither the patient nor the doctor administering the test knew whether the phone was on or off.

Patients who were sensitive to EMFs experienced significant increases in their heart rates when the phone was powered on, and their normal heart rates returned almost instantly once the phone was turned off again.

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How do You Know if You Have Type 3 Diabetes?

If you experience unexplained blood sugar spikes, you may want to look into whether you are sensitive to “dirty” energy. If your blood sugar levels change based on your environment (test levels when you are outside in nature and at the same time when you are inside your home) or you have difficulty regulating your blood sugar levels for reasons you cannot identify, it’s worth exploring this further. One simple and easy way to test is to measure your blood sugar before and after exercising on electronic exercise equipment. After exercise, your blood sugar levels should be reduced; if they increase, you are energy sensitive.

While we are all vulnerable to “dirty” energy exposure, it is unknown how many of us are sensitive enough to experience such measurable disruptions. The case studies Dr. Havas presents are just a small sample, but knowing you are sensitive to “dirty” electricity may be critical for improving your health and wellness. Because many doctors remain unaware, you may need to be proactive in exploring the reasons behind your blood sugar variations and the appropriate actions you can take to help restore balance.

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How to Reduce Exposure to Electropollution

Even if you are not sensitive enough to “dirty” electricity to see a physiological manifestation like heart rate increases or blood sugar level spikes, we are all bombarded with electropollution on a daily basis and many experts agree that minimizing our exposure makes good health sense for us all.

The first step you can take is to test your home. The website EMF Safety Store identifies and summarizes various meters you can use to measure EMFs and offers filters to mitigate “dirty” electricity. Filters will capture the electrical noise from things like televisions, computers and phones and filter it out of your house and back into the line or the ground.

Whether you test or not, try to reduce exposure to cell phones, cordless phones, WiFi, microwaves, electric blankets and heating pads. Keep wireless routers and cell phones away from your body and be sure your router is removed from any area where people sleep or spend a lot of time. (Sometimes even a few feet can make a difference, but the further away, the better. I keep mine in my office at the opposite end of the house from the bedrooms and family living area.)

At night, turn off phones, your router or any other electricity emitting devices. And never walk around with a headset on your head. Headsets deliver a steady stream of radiation, even when you are not speaking: They serve as a tractor beam of sorts for EMFs. If you must use a headset, take it off when you are not speaking.

Spending more time outside and away from all our gadgets, appliances and technology is a great way to recharge, reconnect and to reduce our exposure to “dirty” energy. And while you are outside, you can get some vitamin D and increase your health benefits at the same time!

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

P.S. If you want to learn more about EMFs, you can explore the website Electromagnetic Health. If you want to learn more about Dr. Havas’ research, you can visit her site here.

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