It's sugar - NOT salt that is killing our generation!

For years we have been blaming salt for high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and even cancers - but we ignored SUGAR which is the real culprit.

In a paper delivered in Openheart journal they make this claim : 

"Evidence from epidemiological

studies and experimental trials in animals and humans

suggests that added sugars, particularly fructose, may

increase blood pressure and blood pressure variability,

increase heart rate and myocardial oxygen demand,

and contribute to inflammation, insulin resistance and

broader metabolic dysfunction."

Here is a link to the full article. http://www.nacion.com/vivir/medicina/azucar-enfermedades_del_corazon-nutricion_LNCFIL20141209_0002.pdf

But they still haven't realised just why this is happening - I'll, address this in a later blog post.   The real culprit is high fructose corn syrup that is being used to sweeten so many of our processed foods today - and a small change in our evolution tens of thousands of years ago.   WE ARE NOT DESIGNED TO EAT THIS STUFF  and we are suffering from its exploitation. 

Keep watching 

Prostate screening 

With prostate cancer as a major killer in men, screening does seem logical, yet health authorities round the world are discouraging screening - why?    I thought this brief 8 minute entertaining talk by Dr Mike Evans  gives many of the answers - worth a watch

How we will be able to replete our soil mineral deficiencies from the deep seas.  A fascinating glimpse into a positive and hopeful future 

A Hopeful New Solution for Dietary Mineral Deficiency

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Posted on: 

Wednesday, November 19th 2014 at 10:30 am

Written By: 

Kevin Hu and Anthony Jacobs

Most people don't think about the fact that humans need to consume minerals to stay healthy. These include such elements as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfur, sodium, potassium, and chloride. We just assume that we'll get these minerals from the foods we eat.
Unfortunately, it's increasingly hard to get enough minerals from fruits, vegetables, and grains. Even way back in 1992, scientists at the Rio Earth Summit wrote, "There is deep concern over continuing major declines in the mineral values in farm and range soils throughout the world." They shared data showing that average mineral levels in agricultural soils had fallen worldwide over the past 100 years - by 72 percent in Europe, 76 percent in Asia, and 85 percent in North America.

Magnesium - my favourite supplement!
Maybe it is because I have seen patients dying of cardiac arrest brought back to life, watched asthma patients getting better, seeing gynaecologists stop fitting women with eclampsia - cured, 
Maybe it is because it has cured my migraines, enabled me to help patients with asthma, sleeplessness, cramps, shakes, stress and epilepsy, plus it is my favourite heart rhythm treatment, my treatment of first choice for high blood pressure,
Why do doctors ignore this panacea? - For the same reason most don't use other complementary therapies - they don't know about them.

I suggest everyone (including myself) take at least 500mg of magnesium every day.
Watch this video by Dr Mark Hyndman - it is worth a look.

Yet another study shows the value of Turmeric - this time in osteoarthritis - where the trial shows it as as effective and a great deal safer than the NSAID - Brufen.

A much better alternative, especially for older people and those on steroids, when the stomach side effects ( indigestion, heart burn, bleeding) of NSAIDs  can be a real problem.

The multi-center trial was conducted with 109 patients with primary knee osteoarthritis who were randomized to receive either ibuprofen 800 mg day ibuprofen (55 patients) or 2,000 mg turmeric per day (52 patients), for 6 weeks.  The ibuprofen was divided into 2 doses of 400mg daily, and the turmeric into 4 doses of 500 mg daily.

The researchers measured pain on level walking, pain on stairs, and functions of knee assessed by time spent during 100-m walk and going up and down a flight of stairs, as the primary outcomes.

After six weeks, significant improvements were observed in both groups, with all primary outcomes similar, except the turmeric group showed slightly better performance on the 100-m walk and less self-reported pain going up and down a flight of stairs.  Also, the turmeric group showed less adverse events.  Also, the subjects rated themselves to have higher satisfaction with the treatment results in the turmeric group (91.1%) versus the ibuprofen group (80.4%).

 Efficacy and safety of Curcuma domestica extracts compared with ibuprofen in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a multicenter study. Clin Interv Aging. 2014 ;9:451-8. Epub 2014 Mar 20. PMID: 24672232

Cancer Related Fatigue

Fatigue and cancer

I thought this little 10 minute animated movie (above) on fatigue and cancer by Dr Mike Evans was both fun to watch and also very profound.  Worth showing to any friend you may have with cancer

Tumeric is a very powerful herb!

It has many uses which we will be discussing in thie blog, especially with immune diseases and possibly cancer.
Here is another paper showing its value in the treatment of Asthma, in patients already on full medical therapy  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190737/

Possible Diabetes danger from Artificial Sweeteners

Artificial Sweeteners Induce Glucose Intolerance Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota. Non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) are among the most widely used food additives worldwide, regularly consumed by lean and obese individuals alike. NAS consumption is considered safe and beneficial owing to their low caloric content, yet supporting scientific data remain sparse and controversial.  By changing the gut flora (the microbes of our intestines) artificial sweeteners can turn the body towards developing diabetes. An article from  Nature   514,   181–186   (09 October 2014)

What is Integrative Medicine?

Why we need to be looking outside the box.

After practising medicine for almost 40 years as a general physician, I have long realised the limitations of current conventional therapy. Despite enormous expense and research, most of our treatments aim at relieving symptoms and not treating the underlying cause. (Is it in the best interests of the pharmaceutical industry to cure diseases?)
I've also realised how many complimentary therapies there are which are also helping our patients, in most cases ignored by my conventional colleagues. While I am no expert in all of these, I have endeavoured to include those which I feel are helpful into my medical practice (integrative medicine). See my website (www.drgerald.co.nz).  The increased power this has not only on treating the disease, but giving the patient the hope and ability to look after their own disease (rather than "take this pill") can make a major difference.

However prevention is more important than early diagnosis and treatment, and this is something that we have done very poorly. If you look at the graphs, all of today's diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, strokes, neurological diseases are on the rise, some of them the increase is almost exponential. It almost seems the more money we throw at the problem the less successful you become. However there are answers out there, what we need to do is encourage not just laypeople, but doctors and health decision-makers to look outside as well as inside the box.