Pharmageddon: What You Should Know

Did you know that for 62% of men and 46% of women, the first sign of cardiovascular disease is a heart attack? I recently attended the International Symposium on Integrative Cardiology and was fascinated about new measures where one can evaluate cardiac risk more efficiently. A lab test called the LPP Profile, which is available through my office, tests new biomarkers that more accurately assess your risk. The more exciting news is there are several natural interventions that can greatly reduce these cardiac risks, such as adequate amounts of Omega 3s, specific forms of Vitamins E and K, ribose, magnesium, and carnitine, to name a few.

People think that having elevated cholesterol is the main way to get atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).  Dr. Mark Houston, a top integrative cardiologist, observes that antherosclerosis is a post prandial disease. This means if you eat unhealthy food (such as fast food), your body creates anthersclerotic plaques within the walls of the arteries immediately after eating. If you eat healthy foods such as veggies and clean lean protein, it directly counteracts this tendency to make plaques.

A recent study found unequivocally that taking statin medication commonly prescribed for high cholesterol dramatically increases the incidence of diabetes, more so in women. It is vital to manage your cholesterol naturally and not rely on statins. To paraphrase Dr. Mark Hyman, if we’re taking statins to prevent high cholesterol, but it causes diabetes, which causes cardiovascular disease, that’s ‘Pharmageddon!’               

I am available to create a protocol for you to help you manage cholesterol levels naturally and guard against diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Contact our office to set up an appointment.

Update on FDA Supplement Ban

Supplements are still under attack by the FDA, despite thousands of signatures on petitions and intervention by members of the US Senate. As I mentioned in a blog post last year, the FDA has drafted an approval process for New Dietary Ingredients (NDIs) that would virtually wipe out our access to all supplements currently on the market . Thanks in part to people who wrote to their senators and representatives (in my office, we printed and mailed over 50 letters from our concerned patients), Senators Orrin Hatch from Utah and Tom Harkin from Iowa arranged a meeting with the FDA in January. You can read their letter to the FDA commissioner here.

Senators Hatch and Harkin were the original authors of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which was designed to ensure “access to safe, affordable, dietary supplement products.” During their meeting they recommended that the FDA go back to the drawing board on NDI approval and write new guidelines that do not “undermine the balance Congress struck with DSHEA.” The FDA’s response was a resounding “no.”

Fortunately others in Congress are acting to stop the FDA. Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah is urging the FDA to draft new guidelines for NDI approval, and Representative Randy Hultgren of Illinois recently made a one-minute speech on the floor of the House that stated his opposition to the FDA’s supplement guidelines. You can ask your senator or representative to make a similar one-minute floor speech by sending this online letter via the Alliance for Natural Health. They also have a form you can fill out to ask your congresspeople to add their signatures to Rep. Chaffetz’s letter.

Please act now and let your voice be heard! Now that we have Congress listening, it’s time for all of us to work together to stop the FDA from barring our access to the supplements we depend on for our health.

Vitamin Use and Longevity

A study published in the October 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine claims that multivitamin use is associated with an increased risk of mortality in women in their 60s. There is no cause for alarm: this study is flawed. It was poorly done, with a small population, and with wildly broad variables, including lifestyle factors and the person’s overall toxicity burden to begin with. Around 39,000 women were surveyed in 1986, 1997, and 2004. The results were based on questionnaires these women filled out. There was no control study group; the results were just measured against statistics from the general population. Essentially, 39,000 women were measured against another 39,000 women, but where did those other 39,000 women come from? What slice of the population were they in? A response by Thorne Research points out “it must be emphasized that… the study is a retrospective study of already collected data. It is not a prospective, controlled intervention study, i.e., it is not a ‘clinical trial,’ in which participants would be given a specific dietary supplement or a placebo and then followed closely over time to observe not only the specific outcomes but also the factors possibly contributing to those outcomes.”

We need to take into consideration who funds multimillion dollar studies such as the one published in Archives of Internal Medicine:  the pharmacological companies who want exclusive rights to patent these ingredients. They are not a source to be trusted.

Additionally, there is no mention of the quality of the brand of multivitamin used. Commonplace multivitamins like Centrum always show up as toxic when I test them on my patients. In this way, the findings of this study are accurate: they prove that taking a toxic supplement will shorten your life span.

The supplements I recommend for my patients are purity-certified with consistent third party testing to confirm that purity. They’re made under the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) seal, which means that they’re high quality, pure, and that their ingredients contain exactly what is listed on the label. Countless studies prove that quality micronutrients signal to your DNA to express health and promote efficient detoxification.

Avoiding toxic supplements is just as important as avoiding toxic household products and cosmetics. Check the Environmental Working Group’s Cosmetic Safety Database to find out what’s in the cosmetic products you are exposing your body to every day.  I am happy to test you on all supplements, medications, and cosmetics you use to ensure that you are not putting toxins into your body. Together we will put you on the path to well-being and longevity.

FDA Trying to Ban Supplements

On July 1, 2011, the FDA proposed new guidelines for food and drug manufacturers to follow to get approval for New Dietary Ingredients, or NDIs.  Bill S.1310, the "Dietary Supplement Labeling Act," would require supplement companies  to adhere to these guidelines, which state that any supplement currently sold that was not sold prior to 1994 must go through the same approval process that medication does.

In theory, this is a great idea: the government wants to make sure that substances people are consuming are safe. In reality, this could spell the end of the supplement industry, because the red tape is extensive. According to the FDA, a product would be classified as an NDI if any aspect of it is changed: if a capsule that was approved at 50 mg is now manufactured in 100 mg capsules, for example. If a supplement that was sold prior to 1994 has been chemically altered in any way, it would now be considered an NDI – and “chemically altered” includes baking, cooking, or using a botanical ingredient at a different life stage, such as using a bud instead of a flower. Supplements that contain several different ingredients would go through a separate approval process for every single one of those ingredients, making it cost prohibitive to bring them to market.

Additionally, each supplement company would have to seek approval for every single NDI they sell. If one company gets Vitamin B12 approved, that doesn’t mean that Vitamin B12 is approved for all companies. This is akin to every bread, cereal, and cookie company in the country being forced to seek approval for flour.

And here’s the tricky part:  if a drug company conducts research on a dietary ingredient as a medication and publishes its findings, that dietary ingredient can be patented by Big Pharma and supplement companies will no longer be able to use it. In 2009, this happened with a form of Vitamin B6 used in treating kidney disease.

Because the substances found in supplements occur naturally in nature, they cannot be patented. Big Pharmaceutical companies want to make it so the natural ingredients are able to be patented.  That way, they can have exclusive rights to the ingredients in order to make them prescription only, which means 3000% mark up or more.

We must act now and let the FDA and our Congresspeople know about our concerns. We must convince them that the FDA's new definition of NDI is too broad and that the approval process is so burdensome as to threaten the entire supplement industry – an industry we and our families depend upon for our health. The Alliance for Natural Health has an online petition you can send directly to the FDA, your Senators, and your Representative. I urge you to speak up, and to encourage your friends to speak up as well.  Don’t let the corruption in Washington take away your right to affordable supplements that nourish your health.

Staying well this flu season

Hello! So far this winter, almost NO ONE amongst my patients became sick with the flu. What's the secret? In addition to adequate rest and regular exercise, my patients are mostly gluten-free, and I recommend supplementing with garlic tablets and Vitamin D. A good dose is 2 tablets of garlic every morning, and 2000 - 5000 IU of Vitamin D. So simple, yet so effective! Spread the word and rest easy that you won't get the flu either.

If anyone HAS succumbed to the flu and I didn't know about it, keep in mind, I'm happy to help you especially when you're sick. Please don't stay away to protect me. After you leave, we clean all surfaces in order to protect everyone who comes into the office.

Did you know about the new restaurant in Santa Monica at 2901 Ocean Park Blvd? It's called Pizza Fusion and you can order fresh gluten free pizzas, hot out of the oven. I've eaten there twice and it has been delightful!

I'm just learning this new forum, so it will look prettier soon. Meanwhile, let me know your thoughts!

Dr. Jeanette Ryan