NEW NUTRITIONAL DISCOVERIES
by Thomas L Stone, MD, Diplomate of the American Board of Environmental Medicine, Diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and Medical Director of the Center for Bioenergetic Medicine in Kempton, Illinois. [Bio]
Last year at a medical meeting, I was shocked to discover that an important
nutritional deficiency is being overlooked. We have been accustomed to associating
iodine deficiency with thyroid hormone dysfunction and goiter. Since potassium
iodide has been added to our commercial salt, it is very rare to see patients
with a goiter.
Iodine is found in each of the trillions of cells in our bodies. Adequate iodine
levels are necessary for proper immune system function. Iodine contains potent
antibacterial, antiparasitic, antiviral, and anticancer properties. While I
had used Lugol's Solution, which contains iodine, to effectively treat patients
with fibrocystic breasts and ovarian cysts, I was amazed to discover how important
iodine was as a nutrient that is deficient in a large part of the world's population.
At another medical meeting a study reported that nearly every case of breast
cancer tested as deficient in iodine! Iodine supplementation is now being used
in both the prevention and treatment of breast cancer by knowledgeable practitioners.
Iodine is found in each of the trillions of cells in our bodies. Adequate iodine levels are necessary for proper immune system function. Iodine contains potent antibacterial, antiparasitic, antiviral, and anticancer properties.
This researcher has published a book in which he claims that iodine supplementation (following an abnormal iodine loading test) can help "breast cancer, detoxification, fatigue, fibrocystic breast disease, Graves' Disease, Hashimoto's Disease, hypothyroidism, immune system functioning," etc. Health professionals and others interested in more details can either obtain the book at their library or order it directly from the publisher:
Title: Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It.
Author: David Brownstein, M.D.
Call: 1-888-647-5616 or send a check or money order in the amount of $18.00 ($15.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling) to:Medical Alternatives Press
4173 Fieldbrook
West Bloomfield, Michigan 48323
Those interested in achieving optimal
health may want to have their physician order a test kit for you by calling
FFP Laboratory. Phone 877-900-5556. Since this testing is relatively new and
FFP is a medical research lab, you can be very surprised if your insurance covers
the test! But there is some good news-your insurance will pay for any surgery,
radiation, and drugs should those be necessary. Nearly all policies exclude
preventive treatment.
Instructions are included with the kit that your physician must order for you.
Basically one takes a measured amount of iodine-iodide (50 mg Iodoral) and collects
his or her urine for 24 hours. If an individual is in an iodine-sufficient state,
normally 90% (45mg) of the loading dose of iodine ingested will be excreted,
while 10% (5mg.) will be retained.
Every one of our patients who have completed this test thus far has been iodine
deficient! When one is iodine deficient, it takes about three to six months
of supplementation before iodine saturation is reached. We will soon be retesting
some of our patients. It will take many months to evaluate the benefit(s) from
supplementing those who have tested in a low iodine state. Early reports are
encouraging, but can be misleading.
You may recall that years ago medical authorities considered tomatoes as being
poisonous! Since the vessels used at that time contained the heavy metal poison,
lead, the acidic tomatoes would leach out the lead and cause terrible sickness.
The tomatoes were considered the "poison" for many years.
. . . one takes a measured amount of iodine-iodide (50 mg Iodoral) and collects his or her urine for 24 hours. If an individual is in an iodine-sufficient state, normally 90% (45mg) of the loading dose of iodine ingested will be excreted. . . . Every one of our patients who have completed this test thus far has been iodine deficient!
Now we know that lycopene, a nutrient
found in cooked tomato products (and seasonally in watermelon) fights cancer
and is healthy for our heart. In January 2006 the American Heart Journal published
a study that lycopene may even lower your blood pressure up to 15%.
The study included 31 participants aged 30-70. They had no history of taking
blood pressure or lipid-lowering drugs. All had "stage 1" hypertension
with systolic blood pressure between 140 and 159 mm Hg. Diastolic pressures
were between 90 and 99 mm Hg. In a double blind placebo controlled study using
Lyc-O-Mato (a proprietary extract of non-GMO tomatoes made by Lycored Natural
Products of Israel) the groups systolic pressure on the active capsule dropped
down to between 134 and 144. Their average diastolic fell to between 83.4 and
87.4. The authors of the study considered both reductions significant.
If you are beginning to have trouble with your blood pressure, you may want
to have your physician monitor you while on a trial of Lyc-O-Mato. It costs
about $12 at a health food store for a months supply on a low dose. CAUTION:
If you are already taking high blood pressure drugs, you need to find a physician
who can advise you: Stopping blood pressure medication cold turkey can be disastrous,
or even fatal!
Lyc-O-Mato is not only useful in possibly lowering blood pressure. Numerous
studies have shown that it protects against prostate cancer, breast cancer,
heart disease, etc. It may be a supplement that is helpful to many people. Since
it is relatively new, I am not able to describe my patients' experience with
it.
One might think that it was certainly dumb of the medical authorities to consider
tomatoes as poisonous based only on the observations of people getting sick
and not doing a more careful investigation. Then how will medical history view
us for extolling the virtues of low fat diets for so many years?
The theory — called the Lipid Hypothesis — that there is a direct relationship
between the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet and the incidence
of coronary heart disease was proposed by a researcher named Ancel Keys in the
late 1950's. Numerous subsequent studies have questioned his data and conclusions.
Nevertheless, Keys' articles received far more publicity than those presenting
alternative views. The expert opinions of Mary Enig, PhD, Sally Fallon, and
NOHA Professional Advisory Board Member Dr. Joseph Mercola were rarely given
any notice by the media.
If you are beginning to have trouble with your blood pressure, you may want to have your physician monitor you while on a trial of Lyc-O-Mato.
The vegetable oil and food processing
industries, the main beneficiaries of any research that found fault with competing
traditional foods, began promoting and funding further research designed to
support the lipid hypothesis.
Older members of NOHA may recall that before 1920 coronary heart disease was
rare in America. During the next forty years, however, the incidence of coronary
heart disease rose dramatically, so much so that by the mid-fifties heart disease
was the leading cause of death among Americans. Today, heart disease causes
at least 40% of all US deaths.
If, as we have been told, heart disease results from the consumption of saturated
fats, one would expect to find a corresponding increase in animal fat in the
American diet. Actually, the reverse is true! During the sixty year period from
1910 to 1970, the proportion of traditional animal fat in the American diet
declined from 83% to 62%, and butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds
per person per year to four.
During the past eighty years, dietary cholesterol intake has increased only
1%. During the same period the percentage of dietary vegetable oils in the form
of margarine, shortening, and refined oils increased about 400% while the consumption
of sugar and processed foods increased about 60%.
The Lipid Hypothesis is rapidly becoming today's "tomatoes are poisonous"
fallacy. Why have scores of studies found a complete lack of correlation between
serum low density lipoprotein (LDL) and also total cholesterol levels and the
extent of atherosclerosis? Why have numerous tightly controlled clinical dietary
cholesterol-lowering trials failed to produce any reduction in coronary heart
disease (CHD), despite the fact that cholesterol levels were indeed lowered
in the treatment groups?
Why have controlled clinical studies observed more atherosclerotic regression,
less decrease in minimal luminal (blood channel) diameter, fewer cardiovascular
events, and significant declines in mortality among patients taking fish oil,
despite the fact that it RAISED serum LDL cholesterol levels?
Statin drugs exert anti-inflammatory, anti-atherogenic effects even when their
cholesterol-lowering capabilities are disabled. To claim that elevated LDL or
total cholesterol promotes atherosclerosis in the face of such observations
defies logic.
Lipid-lowering drugs may indeed impede and possibly even reverse atherosclerosis,
but there is a paucity of evidence for the claim that lipid-lowering is the
responsible factor. Rather, it is most likely the pleiotropic (multiple) effects
of statin drugs that explain any beneficial cardiovascular effects.
It is most likely that atherosclerosis is not the product of simple blood cholesterol
elevation, but an inflammatory immune response to arterial injury.
Rather than focusing on the current dogma about LDL cholesterol or total cholesterol
in CHD, wouldn't we be healthier and safer by emphasizing the significant, clinically
proven benefits of such interventions as omega-3 supplementation, antioxidant-rich
diets based on unrefined foods, and exercise?
Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, Spring 2006, pages 5-6