• Archives

  • Apr26

    The Sushi Diagnosis: Diet or Dementia?

    Posted in: Environmental Health, Food FAQ's, Wellness and Health

    The new reports on total body burden of mercury appearing to cause atopic dermatitis, or eczema, and of high mercury counts in Pacific seabirds reminds me of Matthew Davis, the previously healthy 6 year old whose daily tuna habit showed up as learning problems and disinterest in school.

    The Wall Street Journal reported it, and a whole generation of people happy to feast on yellow tail and unagi unhappy.

    Jeremy Piven’s recent mercury poisoning and exhaustion from twice daily sushi forced him to abandon “Speed-the-Plow” on Broadway.

    Last month, one of my new weight-loss program patients mentioned his fondness for sushi, not quite at Jeremy Piven levels. I suggested a blood mercury test, which identifies recent mercury intake not total body burden.

    It came back twice normal. Mercury is lipophilic, and is stored in your body fat…including your brain. And some people eliminate and detoxify it better than others.

    Now my patient is doing very well, motivated in part by the fact that he is accountable, he is working out and he is getting the right, individual foods for him, and not slowed down.  We’re off fish and will re-test in a few months.

    Fish are generally good food for people: the omega-3 story is powerful in reducing risk for heart attacks, lowering triglyceride levels, improving depression and mood and many more conditions.

    But please eat only low mercury sushi and sashimi.

     

  • Mar15

    Gluten Free Quiz and Sensitivity: March Results & Research

    Posted in: Environmental Health, Wellness and Health

    The Ides of March bring not just wind but winnowing.

    This month, a new gluten sensitivity (GS) study by celiac disease pioneer Dr Fasano shows that gluten sensitivity affects about 6% of U.S. adults.

    GS is a different form of immune dysfunction than celiac disease (CD), which affects about 1% of U.S. adults.

    The WSJ gluten piece notes that the higher gluten wheat in production now may trigger GS. There is 4x as much CD in the U.S as 50 years ago.

    GS is something patients have noticed, but clinicians have not had a way to pick up on.  Celiac testing can rule out CD, but can be expensive.

    Many readers are starting with the secure Gluten Free Quiz to identify their symptoms.

    They get their Should You Be Gluten Free Score, and then speak with their doctors and get tested. That’s progress.

    In the last 10 days, over 1800 people have taken Gluten Free Quiz: here are several results from that time:

    • 84% female
    • 68% with abdominal bloating
    • 65% with fatigue (the most common symptom of CD)
    • 20% with irritable bowel syndrome (may be GS in disguise)
    • 14% with a past or present diagnostic rash of CD, dermatitis herpetiformis: these are people who must get tested, now.
    • 8% with a first or second degree relative with CD
    • 26% with high scores, indicating the need for testing

    CD untreated can mean osteoporosis, infertility, neurological conditions, other autoimmune conditions and rarely, intestinal cancer.

    GS symptoms: abdominal pain similar to irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue, headaches, “foggy mind”. Here is a good explanation.

    

     

  • Feb8

    Your Weight, and “The Burger and Fries Recovery”

    Posted in: Aging and Costs of Aging, Child Obesity, Obesity and Weight Loss, Wellness and Health

    If it were true that “Americans are still better off spending an extra hour at work and letting someone else do the cooking,” then America’s obesity rate would be going down. But it’s not.Hamburger And Fries Recovery

    Home cooking is one of the few natural defenses Americans have against obesity.

    The usual complaints, including those in the Zagats’ “The Burger and Fries Recovery” (WSJ, 1. 24.11), are that it’s too expensive and takes too long.  But it’s not and it doesn’t.

    An average fast food meal has about 1000 calories, and according to a Tufts 2010 study, the menu underestimates those calories by 18%.

    Most take-out and quick restaurant meals are highly processed. Many contain starches and chemicals you’d never add at home, including “natural flavors”.  Calories are hidden.

    Home cooked meals, on the other hand, have fewer calories. They also pack the quality of life and kitchen-table wisdom that take-out and bargain restaurants just can’t match.

    From the University of Minnesota: five home cooked meals weekly cut the risk for anorexic and bulimic behaviors in teen girls by 75%.
    From the USDA: 35% of Americans who are not overweight or obese spend an average of just 6.8 minutes more shopping and cooking than the overweight and obese.

    It’s true that an average home cooked meal isn’t cheaper per calorie than a typical restaurant meal.

    But cheaper per calorie is not the proper standard. If it were, a 99-cent 2 liter soda (at over 800 calories) might be the standard bearer.

    Home-cooked meals are first in a series of small steps in the right weight loss direction: away from highly processed, fattening food, and towards healthier and better-tasting home-cooked food.

    What if restaurants were rated for a separate Zagat category? H, for Health. Your Health.

     

  • Sep14

    No Meds Rx III: Why Patients Stop: Communication

    Posted in: High Cholesterol, Uncategorized

    Why do patients stop taking their medication? 3 reasons: reminders, money and communication. 

    Nonadherence is costly, physically dangerous, unnecessary and important. One in four patients prescribed antihypertensives stop them within 6 months.  One in three patients are off their statins within 12 months.

    And not because they have lowered their cholesterol level with food (although they could learn how in the WSJ. Or by ChefMD video).

    To improve the chances that people will take their meds:
    *For clinicians: provide clear written instruction, anticipate side effects, and have another person available to answer questions within a few days of Rx.

    In the office, have patients repeat back to you how they will take the meds and for how long.

    *For patients: empowerment. Keep a daily log of blood pressures/sugars (here is one I use for weight control; adapt it). Is the medicine helping? You need to know.

    Bring it every visit and ask the doctor to review it.  Show how you were feeling when your blood pressure/sugar was high or low. Does the pharmacy’s have an automatic refill program? Use it.

    *Both: discuss pill splitting (which ones?). A larger quantity purchase (means lower co-pays). Look for duplicate medications to omit. That’s the first thing I do when I look at a list.

     

  • May24

    Personal Food Revolution #5: Eat Your Way to Lower Cholesterol

    Posted in: Common Conditions, High Cholesterol

    One of the best ways to help people transform their lives and create their own food revolution is to write my patients’ stories: this is #5 of 7.*

    Tom’s case was a quandary: a Pulitzer-winning health reporter, he already exercised diligently, running about four miles most days. He had long ago given up meat and most cheese. Yet his LDL (bad) cholesterol was 169, way above the recommended 130 and an optimal 100.

    A single Dad, Tom’s two teenagers had grown accustomed to a stick of butter in their weekend Slow Roasted Hen.

    So I worked with Tom to add multiple terrific dishes to their eating cycle. There was a Turkish eggplant recipe, and white beans with escarole and tomato.

    His internist was astonished. His LDL dropped 33% to an acceptable 114; his healthy HDL cholesterol was up to 75.

    Apart from not spending his own and his employer’s money on drugs, Tom found another benefit to this program.

    His daughter regularly makes steel cut oatmeal for breakfast and enjoys split pea/carrot soup with tarragon, nutmeg and barley. And his son’s special request for dinner this past Saturday was grilled salmon with honey-mustard marinade.

    You can’t get that with a pill.

    *adapted from ChefMD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine.
    **adapted from the Wall Street Journal report on lowering cholesterol, by Tom Burton.

    N.B. investigate top Amazon.com diet and nutrition alternatives to cholesterol medication

     
« PREV.POSTS