Healthy by Nature radio show this week: We’ll have a crowd in the studio: a veterinarian, a physical therapist and a chiropractor to talk about how they use micro-current devices in their various practices. Energy medicine is a safe, effective and low cost tool for healing and for reducing pain. It should have a much bigger role in health care. Don’t let me ask all the questions, call the show at 1-800-281-8255. Click here to find podcasts, show archives and ways to listen nationwide.
 
Almonds catch a break
New research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals that almonds may contain 20% fewer calories than previously thought. LINK. Given that we’ve been measuring calories since the late 1800’s, does it seem odd that they just now came to that conclusion? Calories are measured more or less by setting the food on fire and seeing how much heat it gives off. As you might imagine, that is not exactly how our bodies utilize food. As just one example, fiber may pass through us undigested even though it will burn in the laboratory and give off heat. This unusual study measured the actual effect on human beings. Their results demonstrate yet another reason to eat whole natural foods instead processed foods (where every empty calorie goes to work building fat).

Should supplements be treated like drugs?
Last week we talked a bit about the government’s regulation of nutritional supplements. One underlying reason for conflict is that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) seems inclined to regulate supplement companies as rigidly as they supposedly control drug companies. That can’t and shouldn’t happen. Here are a few reasons:

First, there is a massive difference in safety between the two. For example, consider the drug Coumadin (Warfarin, which is also is used as a rat poison). Even an slight accidental increase in its dosage could cause you to soon die from a stroke. In contrast, a little extra B-vitamin might actually make you healthier. There have been a few cases of supplement manufacturing errors that resulted in overdose and unpleasant effects. However, the symptoms were reversed when they stopped taking the pills. Prescription drugs are responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths a year. Of course, unattended children can die after eating a whole bottle of mom’s prenatal vitamins (too much iron), but otherwise, supplement deaths are virtually unheard of. There are reports of people having health problems at the same time they are taking supplements, but the FDA does not have the staff to see what was in fact the real cause of the problem. (E.g. medications, smoking, obesity, viruses, etc.)

Nutrients can’t be patented and therefore no company will invest the hundreds of millions of dollars it costs to conduct the type of clinical studies required for drug approval.

The FDA and critics of supplements love synthetic chemicals because they are simple and exactly the same from batch to batch. Obviously, plants are not as predictable. For instance, if you make green tea, the result will be ever so slightly different from cup to cup because nature does not make plants with the exact same proportions from plant to plant, season to season or from one growing area to another.  I think the complexity of herbs is the very thing that gives them each a greater variety of benefits and buffers them for greater safer. Our bodies know what to do with plants but not necessarily a new-to-the-planet chemical.

The FDA rightly expects proper sanitation in all the industries it regulates, but I’m not aware of any health problems resulting from contamination in US made supplements. You are actually much more likely to get sick from eating organic spinach.

Maybe the agency would have more time to check on the safety of produce (and learn the benefits of supplements) if it spent less time spying on its own potential whistle blowers. LINK.

Remember that all medications interfere with your nutrients, and so, if you take drugs, consider also taking nutritional supplements.

 
Andy Hopkins getting his vitamin D the fun way.(He is show producer, President of HealthWorks and something else…oh that’s right, he is my son)
 
  LAST WEEK
LINK to Archive. John Woodward, MD and Hugh Woodward discuss the battle constantly going on inside us between the forces that build us up (anabolic) and those that tear us down (catabolic) and how DHEA helps us win. Give the coupon code martie to save. We also had open lines with show favorite, Rich Snyder, DO, author of What You Must Know about Kidney Disease: A Practical Guide to Using Conventional and Complementary Treatments.

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My first book : Natural Alternatives to Nexium, Maalox, Tagamet, Prilosec & Other Acid Blockers. Subtitle: What to Use to Relieve Acid Reflux, Heartburn, and Gastric Ailments.

My latest book: Aloe Vera-Modern Science Sheds Light on an Ancient Herbal Remedy

The information contained in this newsletter has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The contents are for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice.

Copyright 2012 Martie Whittekin, CCN