Eating LESS Meat is the way to lose weight ? NOT!

When I saw this article circulating the airways and media venues, as well as the numerous tweets I received from the raw foodies and vegans I was laughing so hard my sides hurt.

Hard to say who paid for this room of alleged researchers to come up with the findings, but you really do have to question this.

When choosing your food plan there is quite a lot more that goes into selecting what is correct for you.  Relying on mass media isn't always the best place to start.

I use a specific test that helps you learn what type of metabolism you have, based on twelve types.  These types were developed 50 years ago based on solid nutrition research that preceded this method by another 30-40 years.  And at that time research had "meat". It was based on solid scientific guidelines and it wasn't usually tainted.

Another approach I use is an old and proven food program that will re-balance your biochemistry.

Then I look at your personal nutritional deficiencies, in an approach I developed over many years in this work and with many people of differing backgrounds.  I have a patent application pending.

Of course I defer to organic food, but I also provide information so you can select the healthiest food even when organic isn't available or you cannot afford it.

Some people can eat meat, some cannot.  The same follows for vegetarianism and veganism, raw or cooked fanciers.

I also into consideration the issues of feed lots and mass production of meat, hormones, and antibiotics, as well as the type of feeding used in this wing of the food industry. 

So you get a tailored plan, and you get educated.  You'll receive support and get some balanced exercise information too.

Because I charge for this service I know that not everyone will take advantage of it, or any of the parts of it. 

And ultimately because my work is based on education you might like to read the opinion of a trusted colleague on this latest babble.

TIP:  One serving of meat is about the size of a deck of cards, or as others may say, the size of the palm of your hand.

Sorry Dr Atkins

DANGERS OF SCREENING MAMMOGRAPHY

UPDATE: 18 March

Thermography
A new resource if you are in So. California -
IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT...
* Breast Cancer is the most common form of cancer among American women.
* Nearly 41,000 women die of Breast Cancer every year in the U.S. and and every year more and more young women are being diagnosed.
* Over 2,000 men are also affected by Breast Cancer.
* Out of some 800,000 biopsies that are done every year, over 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer... the rest are benign lumps.
* There is more than one type of breast cancer; you DO NOT need a lump to have breast cancer (IBC).
* Although rare, implants have been known to rupture during mammography.
* Women with dense breast tissue (usually younger women) is harder to detect breast cancers on mammograms.
* "...since mammographic screening was introduced in 1983, the incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which represents 12% of all breast cancer cases, has increased by 328%, and 200% of this increase is due to the use of mammography. This increase is for all women: Since the inception of widespread mammographic screening, the increase for women under the age of 40 has gone up over 3000%."
* Once a tumor has grown to a sufficient size, detectable by either a mammogram or physicial examination, it has been growing for several years and achieved more than 25 doubles of the malignant cell colony.
* You have the right to investigate other safe screening methods, such as Thermography.

-------------------------
According to the Cancer Prevention Coalition, since passage of the 1971 National Cancer Act, the overall incidence of cancer in the U.S. has escalated to epidemic proportions, now striking 1.3 million, and killing about 550,000 annually. The median age for the diagnosis of cancer is 67 in adults, and six in children.

Samuel Epstein, MD is a distinguished physician based in the Chicago area, who is a founder of the Cancer Prevention Coalition. Chicago is also the base of Harpo Studios, Oprah's production company.

Dr. Epstein is professor emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health, and Chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition. He is an internationally recognized authority on avoidable causes of cancer, particularly unknowing exposures to industrial carcinogens in air, water, the workplace, and consumer products--food, cosmetics and toiletries, and household products including pesticides--besides carcinogenic prescription drugs.

Dr. Epstein worked closely with a wonderful doctor and colleague of mine, John Gofman, PhD, MD, on the issues surrounding screening mammogram and the increase in the incidence of breast cancer related to this disease.

According to Dr. Epstein,

"no nation other than the United States routinely screens premenopausal women by mammography. In this context, it may be noted that the January 1997 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference recommended against premenopausal screening (24), a decision that the NCI, but not the ACS, accepted (4). However, under pressure from Congress and the ACS, the NCI reversed its decision some three months later in favor of premenopausal screening. The U.S. overkill extends to the standard practice of taking two or more mammograms per breast annually in postmenopausal women. This contrasts with the more restrained European practice of a single view every two to three years (4)."

It would be very beneficial to women's health and "Best Life" if Oprah would move from the closed thinking on this issue and be more proactive in the effort to prevent and cure breast cancer by interviewing Dr. Epstein on her program. Inviting Dr. Sherry Tenpenny to join in the discussion would disseminate more information about the benefits of thermography over mammogram.

Allowing Dr. Oz to promote annual screening mammogram only brings more suffering to women, especially when there are much more effective screening methods available that do not promote the increased incidence of breast cancer and the associated risk of thyroid and heart problems, secondary to cumulative exposure to radiation.

In March we will be posting more information such as we posted last fall during the "Race for the Cure" frenzy.

In the interim, should you wish more information about the well known hazards of screening mammogram, please order the Creating Health Institute's Healthy Handout© on this topic.

Correcting One of Those Cholesterol Myths

I notice from time to time that people are searching for information about keeping arteries clean and healthy. This may be associated with the rash of anti-cholesterol drug-dosing-on-a-rampage panic, or earnest queries.

Order lecithin granules through simply4health.org to help us continue this work.

I am not a fan of soy. It might be said that if I suggest a soy based supplement that I am ignoring my own best advice. My greatest concern about soy today are the facts that it is generally a GMO crop and it does have many negative health effects.

On the up side, a long used supplement, especially for those who have been convinced that eggs are evil, you might find some salvation in lecithin.

Lecithin is good for you in that it contains phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidyl inositol and essential fatty acids as linoleic acid in a tablespoon of granules. It also contains fish-oil-like, omega-3 linolenic acid. Any one of these substances is not found in a standard daily diet.

Choline & Inositol are essential for the breakdown of fats and cholesterol. And lecithin helps prevent arterial congestion, helps distribute body weight, increases immunity to viral infections, cleans the liver and purifies the kidneys.

Dr. Michael Sharon suggests that it "improves the condition of patients with neurological disorders such as tardive dyskinesia (a side effect of anti-psychotic drugs), Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease or pre-senile dementia."

It may help with improving attention span which would certainly benefit ADD/ADHD issues.

Lecithin helps in maintaining the surface tension of cell wall membranes. Without enough lecithin, the cell wall hardens. This condition contributes to premature aging of the cells. The surface tension of the cell, maintained by lecithin is also responsible for transmitting nerve impulses and messages through or from the cell.

Udo Erasmus, PhD shares some lecithin function facts -

"Lecithin helps keep cholesterol soluble. In a food like eggs, which contain a large amount of cholesterol, it is especially important that lecithin be of high quality.

"Lecithin keeps cholesterol isolated from arterial linings, protects it from oxidation, and helps prevent and dissolve gall and kidney stones by its emulsifying action on fatty substances.

"Lecithin is necessary in our liver's detoxification functions, which keep us from slowly being poisoned by breakdown products of metabolic processes that take place in our body. Poor liver function is a common forerunner of cancer. According to some healers, cancer always involves the liver. Deficiency of either Choline or EFAs can induce cancer in experimental animals, and is likely involved in causing some human cancers.

"Lecithin increases resistance to disease by its role in our thymus gland. Here, EFAs are precursors of several prostaglandins, as well as being vital as part of the ammunition made by our immune cells to kill bacteria (fatty acid peroxides are used to produce bacteriocidal hydrogen peroxide).

"Lecithin is a phospholipid that makes up 22% of both the high density (HDL) and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol-carrying vehicles in our blood. These vehicles keep cholesterol and triglyceride fats in solution in our bloodstream and carry them to and from all parts of our body.

"Lecithin is an important part of membrane phospholipids that are involved in electric phenomena, membrane fluidity, and other functions for which EFAs are responsible.

"Finally, lecithin is an important component of bile. Its function in digestion is to break food fats into small droplets (emulsify them), to increase their surface area, speeding up the digestion of fats by enzymes."

Other helpful information about lecithin is that each serving (1 tbsp.) contains:
Choline 275 mg, Inositol 168 mg, Potassium 108 mg, Linoleic Acid (omega 6 EFA) 2,025 mg, Phosphatidylcholine 1,760 mg, Phosphatidylethanolamine 1,530 mg, Phosphatidylinositol 1,070 mg, Linolenic Acid (omega 3 EFA) 260 mg.

and Lecithin

Breaks up fats and cholesterol, Excellent for a healthy heart
Contains the Highest Phosphatide concentration available (98% or more!)
Is a Rich source of GLA (Gamma Linoleic Acid)
Helps the body utilize Vitamins A,D,E and K
Is Excellent for memory, concentration and recall
Cleanses liver and kidneys
Helps the body absorb nutrients

Lessen Chronic Inflammation
People whose diets supplied the highest average intake of choline (found in egg yolk and soybeans), and its metabolite betaine (found naturally in vegetables such as beets and spinach), have levels of inflammatory markers at least 20% lower than subjects with the lowest average intakes, report Greek researchers in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Detopoulou P, Panagiotakos DB, et al.)

Compared to those whose diets contained <250 mg/day of choline, subjects whose diets supplied >310 mg of choline daily had, on average:

* 22% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
* 26% lower concentrations of interleukin-6
* 6% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Compared to those consuming <260 mg/day of betaine, subjects whose diets provided >360 mg per day of betaine had, on average:

* 10% lower concentrations of homocysteine
* 19% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein
* 12% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor alpha

Each of these markers of chronic inflammation has been linked to a wide range of conditions including heart disease, osteoporosis, cognitive decline and Alzheimer's, and type-2 diabetes.

In an accompanying editorial in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition entitled, "Is there a new component of the Mediterranean diet that reduces inflammation?," Steven Zeisel from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill noted that choline and betaine work together in the cellular process of methylation, which is not only responsible for the removal of homocysteine, but is involved in turning off the promoter regions of genes involved in inflammation.

"Exposure to oxidative stress is a potent trigger for inflammation. Betaine is formed from choline within the mitochondria , and this oxidation contributes to mitochondrial redox status ," Zeisel continued.

"If the association between choline and betaine and inflammation can be confirmed in studies of other populations, an interesting new dietary approach may be available for reducing chronic diseases associated with inflammation," he concluded.

Recommended daily intakes of choline were set in 1998 at 550 milligrams per day for men and 425 milligrams a day for women. No RDI has been set for betaine, which, since it is a metabolite of choline, is not considered an essential nutrient.

Practical Tip: Egg yolks are the richest source of choline, followed by soybeans. Spinach, beets and whole wheat products are primary sources of betaine. (Olthof MR, van Vliet T, et al. J Nutr)

Doctors to Quit

To me this is no surprise. It is, in effect, a wake up call to everyone that the health care system in the US is in much worse shape than you've been told.

One problem is the shift that started back in the 1980s toward limits to exactly what is the definition of 'a doctor visit'.

When the managed care model came into vogue patient care really started a down hill slide. I notice things like this more easily than a person who hasn't been in the health care industry, perhaps more so because I've been both a provide and an administrator.

Today you can see your doctor for one issue only. That means if you happen to have a headache and a sore knee you have to make two appointments. This of course increases billable hours and the bottom line. It also fragments care.

If you are in an HMO or similar managed care you might not always get the same doctor so continuity of care is out the window.

Insurance regulations contribute to this. Pharmaceutical control and restrictive licensing issues are factors.

And then there is the factor relating to the inability to provide high quality care to people with chronic health problems, and a focus on prevention and cure.

Perhaps we need to get on a track to lead health care to a system as if people mattered.

Another way of looking at this is to get on a train to education so you can learn what measures you can take to improve your health and increase the use of natural care in your health maintenance options.

Certainly we need to overhaul USDA and FDA controls on health care options. We also need to have a level approach to health care where everyone gets the same basic coverage.

Now everyone in Congress, everyone employed or corporate fat cats will all get the same services.

In the mean time I am going to continue taking my vitamins and other herbs and supplements, in spite of news reports saying otherwise.

This protects my health. It can protect yours too!

Many doctors plan to quit or cut back Tue Nov 18, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Primary care doctors in the United States feel overworked and nearly half plan to either cut back on how many patients they see or quit medicine entirely, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

And 60 percent of 12,000 general practice physicians found they would not recommend medicine as a career.

"The whole thing has spun out of control. I plan to retire early even though I still love seeing patients. The process has just become too burdensome," the Physicians' Foundation, which conducted the survey, quoted one of the doctors as saying.

The survey adds to building evidence that not enough internal medicine or family practice doctors are trained or practicing in the United States, although there are plenty of specialist physicians.

Health care reform is near the top of the list of priorities for both Congress and president-elect Barack Obama, and doctor's groups are lobbying for action to reduce their workload and hold the line on payments for treating Medicare, Medicaid and other patients with federal or state health insurance.

The Physicians' Foundation, founded in 2003 as part of a settlement in an anti-racketeering lawsuit among physicians, medical societies, and insurer Aetna, Inc., mailed surveys to 270,000 primary care doctors and 50,000 practicing specialists.

The 12,000 answers are considered representative of doctors as a whole, the group said, with a margin of error of about 1 percent. It found that 78 percent of those who answered believe there is a shortage of primary care doctors.

More than 90 percent said the time they devote to non-clinical paperwork has increased in the last three years and 63 percent said this has caused them to spend less time with each patient.

Eleven percent said they plan to retire and 13 percent said they plan to seek a job that removes them from active patient care. Twenty percent said they will cut back on patients seen and 10 percent plan to move to part-time work.

Seventy six percent of physicians said they are working at "full capacity" or "overextended and overworked".

Many of the health plans proposed by members of Congress, insurers and employers's groups, as well as Obama's, suggest that electronic medical records would go a long way to saving time and reducing costs.

(Reporting by Maggie Fox; editing by Chris Wilson)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited.

U.S. Trails Other Nations in Chronic Illness Care
By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Nov 13 - Chronically ill Americans are more likely to forgo medical care because of high costs or experience medical errors than patients in other affluent countries, according to a study released on Thursday.

The study comparing the experiences of patients in eight nations reflected poorly on the U.S. health care system as President-elect Barack Obama and his allies work on plans to rein in health costs and extend insurance to more people.

The researchers questioned 7,500 adults in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Britain and the United States. Each had at least one of seven chronic conditions: high blood pressure, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis and depression.

Dutch patients had the fewest complaints, while the Americans had plenty, according to the study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health policy research group.

Fifty-four percent of Americans surveyed said high costs prevented them at some point from getting recommended medical care, filling prescriptions or seeing a doctor when ill. Seven percent of the Dutch cited cost as a barrier to treatment.

In addition, 41 percent of the U.S. patients said they spent more than $1,000 over the past year on out-of-pocket medical costs. That compared to lows of 4 percent in Britain and 5 percent in France.

A third of U.S. patients said they were given the wrong medication or dosage, experienced a medical error, received incorrect test results or faced delays in hearing about test results, more than any of the other countries.

WASTED TIME

Almost half of the U.S. patients said their time had been wasted because of poorly organized care or had received care of little or no value during the past two years. These views were lowest in the Netherlands and Britain.

Only Canadians reported visiting an emergency room at higher rates in the past two years than the Americans.

The Commonwealth Fund's Cathy Schoen, who worked on the study, said the United States spends twice as much on health care as the others, with the current economic woes putting more people at risk of losing employer-provided health insurance.

"Overall, the United States stands out for chronically ill adults reporting the most negative experiences," Schoen said in a conference call with reporters.

"In short, the U.S. patients are telling us about inefficient, unsafe and often wasteful care. The lack of access, combined with poorly coordinated care, is putting these patients at very high health risk and driving up costs of care."

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported that 15 percent of Americans, 45.7 million people, had no public or private health insurance last year.

The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, was the latest to show the U.S. health care system is performing worse than those in comparable countries. Unlike many rich nations, the United States does not have universal health care.

(Editing by Maggie Fox)