Healthy by Nature radio show this week

Since I’m just getting back tonight from Boston (where I’ve been attending a 2-day postgraduate seminar at Harvard), I might well have skipped the newsletter. However, I’m just too excited about this week’s show which is a panel discussion about vaccines. We will not have to devote much time to the pro-vaccine side of the debate since that is continually crammed down our throats by the media and the medical establishment. In fact, any opposing views are usually shouted down and persons with concerns are publicly shamed.

It is the mission of HBN to responsibly examine minority views because so often in the long run those turn out to be the better path than where the mainstream parade is marching. We will discuss some of the downsides of the current vaccine plans; more conservative approaches to regular immunizations and intriguing homeopathic alternatives. We will focus on children, but the same principles apply to adults being sold a variety of immunizations.

My guests include:
•    Michelle Rowton MSN,RNC- NIC, C-NPT, NNP-BC, a Functional Medicine Specialist at Healthy Kids Pediatrics in Frisco, TX.
•    Cilla Whatcott, HD RHom, CCH of Family Homeopathy Care in Chaska, MN. She is a spokesperson for Homeoprophylaxisand Homeoprophylaxis Worldwide Choice. Cilla also teaches homeopathy at Normandale Community College.
•    Cathy Lemmon, BA, CHP, a practitioner at Healthy Healing Arts in the DFW, TX area.

Studies cast doubt on common advice

As a follow-up to the discussion in last week’s program about supplement basics, I started out to just give one of the following tidbits. However, I found that the same researcher had reported several studies which were interesting and relevant.

• Vitamin D deficiency predicts cognitive decline in older men and women. And here is the Vitamin D for memory–test results shocker: a study found that in mentally normal elderly subjects, vitamin D blood levels (25OHD) below 75 nmol/L were already predictive of global cognitive dysfunction after 4.4 years. STUDY  So much for the blood test forms that show anything over 30 as “normal”. This doesn’t prove that supplements will help, but there are only two ways to raise blood levels and the other is sunbathing.
• Daily magnesium oxide supplementation (not even the best source) for 12 wks seemed to improve physical performance in healthy elderly women and suggest a role for magnesium supplementation in preventing or delaying the age-related decline in physical performance. STUDY  Given that magnesium is important for heart health, brain function, energy, regularity, immune function, bone health and many other aspects of health, the case is strong for supplementing this mineral.
• A study of 286 healthy women older than 65 years of age concluded that the current RDAs are adequate for older women’s intake of B-2, vitamin B-6, and folic acid, but should be raised for vitamin B-12 and for vitamin C. STUDY  Moreover, studies like these are typically looking at adequate, not optimum levels which become apparent over time.
• A 10-year follow-up of successfully aging elderly people found that multivitamin supplementation may be necessary, even in healthy individuals, to avoid subclinical malnutrition. STUDY “Subclinical” means that it doesn’t show up in a visit to the doctor’s office, but then the vast majority of physicians are not trained to look for subtle signs of nutrient insufficiency.

I think it is clear that we are better off to just ignore the naysayers who claim that we get everything we need from food and that supplements are wasted money.

Last Week Follow-up

LISTEN to that show in the archives.

We had some LIVE call-in fun. I invited Andy Hopkins of HealthWorksMart.com and Deanna Naylor of Young Health to join me in the studio to kick off the holiday weekend with some free-flowing give and take. We started with a question I often hear—how to prioritize supplements when every product we hear about sounds important. In the final segment our engineer/professional musician, Ed Vargas treated us to his rendition of a George Strait song, The Cowboy Rides Away.