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Staying Healthy Today With Kirk Hamilton
September 19, 2009
"NEW"... Staying Healthy Today Interview...How To Become "Heart Attack Proof" (posted 09-16-09)
Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., former Army surgeon in Vietnam and Bronze Star recipient; Gold Medal winner in rowing in the 1956 Olympics; internationally recognized breast and endocrine surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic; and for the last two decades has shown you can prevent and reverse heart disease by an aggressive, low-fat plant-based diet. He is the author of the ground breaking book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease.
One of the most remarkable points of Dr. Caldwell's interview is why he took on the heart disease issue in the first place. Being a world renown surgeon he states, "I was chairman of our breast cancer task force and we were very, very active but I became really quite disheartened and disillusioned with the fact that no matter how many women I was operating on for breast cancer I truly was not doing one single thing for the next unsuspecting victim." He then went on a world-wide literature search and discovered there were cultures that had very minimal rates of breast cancer, prostate cancer and heart disease. And the probable cause of this significant reduction in these diseases was the whole food, plant-based diet of these cultures compared to the atherosclerosis producing, high meat and dairy based, high calorie, high fat Western diet. He notes these reductions in chronic diseases weren't do to genetics since within a generation or two of migrating to this country Asian and other cultures get Western diseases like everyone else. Dr. Caldwell by his four food group dietary approach of fruit, vegetables, beans and whole grains obtains a fat intake of 10-12% and has shown reversal of very severe atherosclerosis in patients who were so sick they couldn't tolerate any conventional treatments. He is not a big advocate of nut or seed consumption, or added oils or fatty plant food such as avocados. Another major point emphasized by Dr. Esselstyn is that if we treat heart disease and "annihilate it" as he suggests, we will also reduce cancer rates and get rid of obesity, diabetes, other vascular disease, arthritis, and the host of other chronic diseases all related to excess inflammation and weight. This interview is a must listen to (or transcript) for yourself or love ones, especially those who have heart disease. I highly recommend his book, Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease.
Upcoming Interviews... In Late September and October of 2009 our interivews will be on the topic "Prostate Cancer as a Chronic Condition" emphasizing less invasive ways to assess and follow prostate cancer and aggressive lifestyle management involving diet, exercise and mind - body approaches.
Our guests will be Peter Starr director, producer and film maker sharing his personal experiences with prostate cancer, his investigations into alternative approaches and his upcoming documentary, "Restore Prostate Health". The trailer for the documentary can been seen now at www.healingartsmedia.net. In early October we will interview Mark C. Scholz, M.D. a board-certified internist and oncologist who serves as medical director of Prostate Oncology Specialists Inc. in Marina del Rey, California who specializes in "active surveillance" of prostate cancer and places a strong emphasis on diet, lifestyle, dietary supplements and when appropriate traditional therapies to maintain a high quality of life while still controlling the individuals prostate condition. Dr. Scholz also specializes in 3-D doppler ultrasound assessment of the prostate. Dr. Scholz is co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of the excellent non-profit Prostate Cancer Research Institute (PCRI). I highly recommend making a donation and requesting the DVDs of their excellent conference which I went to and was very impressed by the educational forum and access to these health professionals by the public (2009 Prostate Cancer Conference, September 12-13). This conference and the resources at PCRI are a must for anyone who has prostate cancer.
Restless Leg Syndrome - '12' Things You Can Do!
I was sitting with a patient last week and she has had this frustrating restless leg syndrome (RLS). We have tried several things and had minimal results. So I got on the computer and did some searches to see if we could come up with something I hadn't tried. Here is what we found.
This may be of help to you...
- Iron: The best way to check for iron deficiency is to do an iron panel that contains a complete blood count, iron, total iron binding capacity, %transferrin and serum ferritin. If appropriate supplement with iron accordingly. Many alternative people ‘bash' ferrous sulphate, a simple and cheap form of iron, because it supposedly has a lot of side effects and isn't absorbed. I am not so sure. I have used it. But you can use other chelated forms that are supposed to be "gentler" on the stomach like ferrous gluconate, fumarate, glycinate or some other chelate. I am not convinced it makes that much difference. I always start off with one tablet of iron with the biggest meal. See how the patient tolerates it (constipation, pain, etc.). If tolerated then divide it into 2 or 3 more doses as tolerated with the other meals. Then take it until the serum ferritin comes up to the mid-normal range. Usually take a month or two.
- Drug - Induced: Phenytoin, neuroleptics, antidepressants.
- Magnesium: Assess by red blood cell magnesium or just give 300-500 milligrams of chelate, or to bowel tolerance. Magnesium can cause diarrhea in excess.
- Folic Acid: Very high doses from 2.5 to 20 mg of folic acid have been used. Doses above 5 milligrams need to be compounded usually. You might try these high doses for a month or two. If no benefit I would reduce your dose to 400-800 mcg/d.
- Vitamin E as mixed tocopherols 400-800 IU per day for 1-2 months.
- 5HTP 100-300 mg at night or L-tryptophan 1-2 grams at night for a 1 to 2 month trial.
- Melatonin 1-3 mg at bedtime.
- Biotin 3-5 mg for 1-2 months.
- Check for diabetes or high blood sugar and insulin resistance. If you are overweight and have a high fasting blood sugar lower it by going on a whole food, predominantly plant-based diet. The goal is a fasting blood sugar below 90 and to be lean. Re-listen to or print out the transcripts of the Staying Healthy Today Interviews by Barnard, Anderson, Jenkins, McDougall or Fuhrman. All show that type II diabetes is usually reversible.
- Stop smoking.
- Avoid caffeine and stimulants.
- Eat off the Basic Elimination Diet (BED) or eliminate dairy products totally for 1 month.
Until next time Stay and Be Well
Kirk
kirkhamilton@prescription2000.com
www.prescription2000.com
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