September 6, 2018 general

I am very fussy from whence I get my health news because there is a lot of nonsense floating around…too often even in medical journals. (You might want to read my post on Medicine’s Dirty Secrets  and/or Ron Hoffman, MD’s Why most health news is fake news.) I think it is important to know the source of the news and to see if the information makes sense in the context of what else we already know for sure.

• Atrial Fibrillation. Also known as “AFib”. This is a very common cardiac condition where there is a fluttering or irregular beat in a part of the heart. It can lead to serious complications. You might be surprised to hear that I got a good reminder about this on Facebook. Yes, Facebook. This was the post: “The more calcium, the more AFIB.” The reason I took notice was that the quote was from author Carolyn Dean, MD, ND. She is an expert on magnesium. She knows that we typically get too much calcium and not enough magnesium and that leads to heart trouble.
• Glutamine for Irritable Bowel. This tip came from my favorite and most prolific source, Bill Sardi. He passed along a study about subjects who had experienced a gut infection and were suffering leaky gut. The amino acid “L-glutamine supplements dramatically and safely reduced all major IBS-related endpoints.” Although the researchers were very enthusiastic, they, of course, didn’t say that anyone with IBS problems should give it a try. They just want another grant for a bigger study. And then another…
• Aspirin not so helpful for heart health. People’s Pharmacy radio shows and newspaper columns are usually good resources. Recently they reviewed a study that cast doubt on the value of a daily low dose aspirin for the prevention of heart attacks. Although there was a teeny weeny itsy bitsy reduction in heart attack risk, there was also a significant increase in intestinal bleeds.
• High fructose corn sugar / syrup. In Sherry Rogers, MD’s extremely well-researched and in-depth Total Wellness™ Newsletter,* she discusses that ever-present ingredient. Dr. Rogers notes that it is used by researchers doing animal studies to create the #1 liver disease (fatty liver) and leaky gut which leads to auto-immune diseases. A 12 ounce Dr. Pepper contains 10 teaspoons of the stuff. If you read labels carefully, you will find it in thousands of other products. Dr. Rogers has also recently discussed the alarming amount of mercury that is in this sweetener.
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