AGING GRACEFULLY
Terry Chappell, MD
Celebration of Health Association
Bluffton, Ohio
419-358-4627
www.healthcelebration.com
As women age, their foremost initial concerns other than weight and appearance are bones, breast and bio-identical hormones (the 3 B’s). Actually bone strength is a concern not only for women but also for men. If there is any risk at all, we need Calcium balanced by an appropriate amount of Magnesium (very important, otherwise, some of the calcium goes into the arteries) and much higher does of vitamin D3 than we previously thought necessary (usually in the neighborhood of 4000-5000iu per day!). We recommend breast screening (we usually prefer thermography, which is available on-site, to mammograms, but you can do both) and pap smears. Men need annual prostate exams and possibly PSA testing, although this test is becoming controversial. Synthetic hormones are toxic, and increase the risk of Cancer over time. Smaller studies indicate that bio-identical hormones are safer, and they are effective in controlling the symptoms of menopause. Natural progesterone is the safest of these hormones, and sometimes, that is all that is needed. For men, testosterone could be helpful for a lot more men, because it is under-utilized.
As always, diet, exercise and stress are the biggest factors for longevity. Memory exercises, such as cross word puzzles and card games, are important to do regularly to maintain mental acuity. We believe that EDTA chelation therapy can help prevent cardiac events. Since these are the major killers for older folks, chelation is at the top of our list for preventive medicine. There are a good number of antioxidants and especially some amino acids that might increase longevity as well as the quality of life. There is some indication that certain fats and methyl B12 injections can preserve memory and lesson neurologic symptoms as well. They are well worth a therapeutic trial, especially if you are beginning to feel some of the effects of aging. We have other popular techniques that in our experience are really helpful in lessoning the effects of aging. Some of them keep the immune system strong, improve digestion, and increase the effectiveness of exercise.
Archive for February, 2010
AGING GRACEFULLY
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
BRAIN FOG, FROM ALZHEIMER’S TO AUTISM
Saturday, February 27th, 2010BRAIN FOG, FROM ALZHEIMER’S TO AUTISM
Terry Chappell, MD
Celebration of Health Association
Bluffton, Ohio
419-358-4627
www.healthcelebration.com
Memory loss and inability to think clearly are common complaints, especially co-existing with fatigue. Usually they are associated with toxicity (especially lead, mercury and aluminum), yeast imbalance, or food and chemical sensitivities, These are all easily detected through testing, but frequently the tests are not performed and thus the patient’s complaint is inadequately treated. Proper treatment can be highly effective, if done comprehensively. Chelating agents, anti-fungals, probiotics, special diet and desensitization are common therapies that must be offered. After a few months of these therapies, plus good nutritional supplements, and sometimes much sooner, major changes might be detected by the patient.
Autism therapy is guided by the Defeat Autism Now protocol that is available on the internet. Some of the common additional treatments include methylcobalamin (B12 shots), a grain-free and milk-free diet, homeopathics, amino acids orally or by shot and hyperbaric oxygen.
Alzheimer’s, Parkinsonism, and Multiple Sclerosis can be treated effectively by balancing neurotransmitters and improving cell membrane receptor sites. Intravenous glutathione given in high doses at home can be helpful. Oxidative scavengers are useful. High doses of CoEnzyme Q10 and vitamin E might help, as can low doses of Naltrexone, which is a medicine that reverses narcotic overdoses. Intravenous phosphatidyl choline can be useful, as can very high doses of B12 intravenously and vitamin C. The latter formula is particularly helpful for various neuropathies, including diabetic neuropathy.
Helpful oral preparations include niacinamide, lipothiamin, CDP choline, neurotone, and various substances that enhance glutathione production in the body.
A brain that is not functioning well often needs a comprehenisve approach that is individualized. There are many potential causes and there are many solutions, some of which must be given together in order to get the best result.
HUMAN ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND TOXICITY FROM LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
Friday, February 26th, 2010HUMAN ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE AND TOXICITY FROM LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
By L. Terry Chappell, M.D.
Excessive use of antibiotics in clinical practice contributes to resistant strains of bacteria. Recent evidence links the massive use of antibiotics in animal food production to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic resistance is particularly relevant to vulnerable populations, such as the very young and very old and those with compromised immunity. In addition, increasing amounts of certain toxic metals have been accumulating in the environment. This a critically important issue for family physicians.
Antibiotic-resistant infections are a significant challenge to the medical community. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) now appears in outpatient populations. Multidrug resistant E. coli has increased tenfold in the last decade. Resistant strains of Campylobactor and Salmonella are not uncommon.
Both large and small farms that raise livestock often use antibiotics to prevent diseases and increase growth. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that more than 54% of livestock is now confined to 5% of farms. The Environmental Protection Agency defines CAFOs as farms with greater than 1000 beef cattle, 2500 hogs, or 100,000 broiler hens. Texas cattle feedlots can hold 50,000-100,000 head. In North Carolina, 10,000-head hog operations are not uncommon. Up to 400,000 chickens are gathered into bigger operations.
Not only do CAFOs use large amounts of antibiotics, but they also generate massive amounts of manure. Processing this amount of manure, which is estimated to be 575 billion pounds per year nationwide, is difficult. CAFOs collect waste from hogs and cows into large, open-air lagoons. These lagoons concentrate antibiotics, pathogenic bacteria, heavy metals (especially arsenic but also lead and mercury), endotoxins and other substances. CAFOs spray liquid from the lagoons over nearby crop-land as a fertilizer. Noxious gases are a byproduct, particularly methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. Run-off from the lagoons and the spray seeps into the water supply. Toxic metals contribute to chronic degenerative diseases, but they are often missed simply because they are not tested for. Treatment of chelating agents eliminates one of the major risk factors for degenerative diseases and make disease control more effective.
For references, contact the author. For additional information on antibiotic resistance, contact Ellen Mee, Director of Environmental Health Programs for the Ohio Environmental Council, ellen@theoec.org.
Disclosure—Dr. Chappell served as a paid medical consultant in a Paulding County lawsuit of residents vs. a CAFO in 2004. The lawsuit was settled with terms confidential.
Contact Info: L. Terry Chappell, M.D.
122 Thurman St. P.O. Box 248
Bluffton, Ohio 45817
419-358-4627
FAX 419-358-1855
ARSENIC IS IN CHICKEN FEED
Thursday, February 25th, 2010ARSENIC IS IN CHICKEN FEED
Terry Chappell, MD
Chickens are supposed to be a helathy food. Arsenic is found in roxarsone, a pesticide routinely added to chicken feed to combat parasites and increase weight gain in chickens. Arsenic dust is commonly found on farms, in the water and in the air. In 1999, the European Union outlawed the use of arsenic for this purpose, but it is still legal in the US. Chicken consumption has increased dramatically in the last 40 years, which in turn has increased the arsenic levels in our bodies.
Arsenic is a Class A toxic metal that increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and memory loss. Americans routinely get exposed to as much as 11 times the recommended upper limits of allowable exposure, according to the EPA. Other toxic metals, such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and aluminum are found in the environment as well. You can test for arsenic as well as most other metals with an intravenous EDTA challenge. Treatment of toxic levels usually requires a series of IVs, perhaps with oral medications or supplements in followup or for maintenance. However, most people do not know that they have been exposed, and they mysteriously suffer in silence and ignorance. They can develop chronic degenerative diseases without knowing one of the causes, or they might find their diseases much more difficult to control than if they did accumulate toxic metals.
Organic chickens are not contaminated with significant levels of arsenic.
Paradoxically, the material for this article came in large part from an organization that works with Medical Boards which have routinely charged doctors with inferior care when they test and treat their patients for arsenic poisoning.
Based on an article in the Washington Post by Douglas Gansler, co-chair of the environmental committee of the National Association of Attorneys General.
Scans no help in breast cancer care, study says
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010MRIs are expensive but don’t reduce need for further surgery
updated 1 hour, 42 minutes ago
LONDON – Expensive extra scans using MRI on breast cancer patients make no difference to the number of patients who have a repeat operation, scientists said on Friday, raising questions about whether the scans are worth it.
A study of 1,623 women with breast cancer found that those who have a conventional triple assessment of their cancer are no more likely to be told they need a repeat operation than those assessed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as well.
“Our results have important implications in routine clinical practice for the appropriate use of health-service resources and patient burden on health services,” said Lindsay Turnbull of Britain’s Hull University and Hull Royal Infirmary, who led the study. “MRI is an expensive procedure.” (more…)
Doctors Being Mentally Poisoned by Medical Media Monopoly
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/authored_newsitem.cws_home/companynews05_00963
WellPoint Takes Heat Over Rates
Monday, February 22nd, 2010By LAURA MECKLER
WASHINGTON—The Obama administration is seizing on a big health-insurance rate increase by WellPoint Inc. in California as fresh evidence of the need for action as it tries to resuscitate its health-care legislation.
WellPoint, the country’s largest insurer by number of members, responded Thursday to repeated criticism with a letter blaming the 39% increase in the individual market on the economy and rising health costs. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hit back with a statement saying she wasn’t satisfied.
All week, Democrats from President Barack Obama on down have cited the company’s rate plans as a justification for a health-care overhaul that would remake the individual market, where people who don’t get insurance through their jobs shop for coverage.
They have made a twofold case: that the Democratic legislation would prevent this sort of price increase, and that insurance companies cannot be trusted and must be controlled with new rules.
Republicans weren’t jumping to defend WellPoint, but they disagreed on the solution.
Republican lawmakers have called for a more step-by-step approach, including high-risk pools for some people with medical conditions who couldn’t otherwise afford insurance. (more…)
Health experts urge Americans to hold the salt
Sunday, February 21st, 2010Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, February 15, 2010
Before surging obesity rates made villains of trans fats and sugars, salt was the big nutritional bad guy in the American diet, linked to hypertension, heart disease and stroke.
Then waistlines expanded and expanded some more, and the focus shifted.
Now, aware that Americans’ salt consumption has risen by 50 percent over the past 40 years largely because of an increased reliance on a diet of processed and restaurant foods, public health experts and politicians are attempting to put the spotlight back on salt and its harmful health effects.
Last month, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked restaurants and foodmakers to consider voluntarily reducing the salt content in their foods by 25 percent over five years. A few days later, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who suggested last fall that the city find a way to scale back sugar consumption, said he was looking into Bloomberg’s proposal, too.
Meanwhile, a UCSF doctor released a study suggesting that regulating the salt content in foods could save up to $24 billion a year in health care costs.
“We’re living in such a high-salt environment now. It requires a public health approach to reducing salt rather than an individual approach,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins- Domingo, co-director of UCSF’s Center for Vulnerable Populations at San Francisco General Hospital and lead author of the salt study.
“Salt was one of those things we put on the back burner and ignored for a while,” she said. “But we’re recognizing that reducing salt by even a small amount will have a widespread beneficial effect.”
Good and bad of salt
Salt is a dietary mineral made up mostly of sodium, which the body needs in small amounts. It maintains the proper balance of fluids in the body, for one thing. But it’s easy to get too much sodium, especially for people who already have high blood pressure.
Black people and people older than 50 tend to be particularly sensitive to too much sodium. Public health experts say 50 to 70 percent of Americans should be controlling their sodium intake and keeping it below 2,300 milligrams, or about a teaspoon of salt, a day. (more…)
Report details poisonings from supplements
Saturday, February 20th, 2010Study: Toxic selenium overdoses point holes in government oversight
A new report on people sickened by a liquid dietary supplement illustrates the real — if rare — risks associated with using these products.
In 2008, users of “Total Body Formula” and “Total Body Mega Formula” started losing their hair and began suffering from fatigue, diarrhea, nausea and other symptoms; some doubled their dose of the liquid supplement in response.
But the symptoms, first reported by patients of a Florida chiropractor who was selling the products in his office, were subsequently traced to a batch of the supplements carrying up to 200 times the amount of selenium stated on the label. Further investigation found 201 people in ten states who had been sickened by the supplement. (more…)
WHAT ABOUT THE H1N1 (SWINE FLU) VACCINE?
Friday, February 19th, 2010WHAT ABOUT THE H1N1 (SWINE FLU) VACCINE?
Terry Chappell, MD
The swine flu vaccine has been rushed into production without adequate safety studies. On 9/10/09 a research report indicated that the vaccine might be more effective than previously thought so that only one shot might be required (in addition to the regular flu vaccine, of course). Safety issues have not yet become apparent.
The National Vaccine Advisory Committee is recommending the vaccine for virtually everyone, but they also caution that we need to monitor adverse effects very carefully and transparently, which has not always happened in the past. Potential side effects include paralysis and death. (more…)
