This month, I was planning to tell you about a simple device you can use in the comfort of your home that helps detect tiny breast cancers. It’s an important and inexpensive method to add to your current breast screening regime. But that information will have to wait, because just days before this issue was due to the printer, I heard some news that was so important I had to drop everything and make sure you heard about it without delay. It can save both your life and your brain.

What I found is a newer, safer, more effective way to lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, and dementia. It sounded good when I first researched it, but the degree to which this therapy works is simply astounding. I’m telling everyone I know about it, and I wanted to share my findings with you immediately.

I knew that more women die of heart disease than any other disease, including cancer. And I knew that the reason was high blood pressure. But I had only recently become aware of the connection between high blood pressure and dementia.

The brain connection

About the time we reach our 50s and 60s we start to be hyper-alert to our “senior moments.” An occasional lapse in memory is common and nothing to worry about. The condition we fear the most is a progressive loss of memory like Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.

Two new studies concluded that high blood pressure is a serious risk factor for developing dementia because it increases white matter lesions in the brain. These lesions make up 60% of the brain and contain nerve fibers that are responsible for communication. These lesions were most common in the area of the brain that controls our emotions and personality.

According to an article in the British Medical Journal, there are three main risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. These are age, genetics, and heart disease. And while there isn’t much you can do to stop aging or swap your genetics with someone else, you can reduce your risk for heart disease by lowering your blood pressure.

Drugs can help, but...

Angiotensin is a natural chemical in your body that contracts the muscles around blood vessels and narrows them. This narrowing increases pressure inside these vessels, causing high blood pressure. But if you can keep angiotensin from getting into their receptors, these blood vessels will dilate and allow more blood to flow through them. The result is lower blood pressure.

Most doctors will encourage better diet and exercise to lower angiotensin before prescribing a drug for high blood pressure. They know you’ll be on the drug for the rest of your life. I agree with diet and exercise, but what about the drugs?

There are a number of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB). They include Avapro and Atacand. While most doctors consider ARBs to be relatively safe, their side effects include coughing, high potassium, headaches, a metallic taste, and dizziness. These drugs should not be given to pregnant women because they can cause birth defects. I question just how safe they are. The reason most doctors focus on diet and exercise first is that they know you’ll be on the blood pressure drugs for the rest of your life. Stopping them cold can cause serious problems, even death. So how safe can they be?

There also are possible drug interactions with ARBs and potassium supplements (this includes salt substitutes), as well as with a few other medications. Check any ARB with your pharmacist if you’re taking any drugs or supplements to make sure there are no potential interactions.

Whether you want to start early to prevent dementia or just want to lower your blood pressure, start with diet and exercise.

If that doesn’t work, you now have another choice — a natural one that just may outperform drug therapy.

The power of total heart health

Just a few days ago, I found that a heart tonic I wrote about four months ago dramatically lowers blood pressure. I knew it was good. But I didn’t know how good.

The supplement is Circutol, the formula of herbs and nutrients I spoke about last November. Isaac Eliaz, MD, my friend and colleague, designed Circutol to support various aspects of good heart health. I discuss the particular ingredients in Circutol in some detail in that article, which you can find on my website.

I always test new supplements on myself and on at least several patients before writing or endorsing them, so I began taking this formula months ago. And I gave a bottle of it to a doctor friend, who gave it to one of her patients. At the end of three months, my arrhythmias were almost completely gone.
But what amazed me was my blood pressure. It had been stuck at 132/90 — a marginally high level. I didn’t change anything else. So I knew it was Circutol that dropped my blood pressure to 110/70! A healthy level is 120/ 80 or lower.

My doctor friend had something significant to report as well. “I couldn’t get this woman’s blood pressure down without medications,” she told me. “But Circutol worked for her.”

I called Dr. Eliaz with these results. He was not surprised. “My own blood pressure dropped from the high 130s/90 to 112/74”, he said. An employee of his had the same experience. His blood pressure went from 138/90 to 117/78 in just three days!

One patient at Dr. Eliaz’s clinic was taking a blood pressure medication, Benazaprel (20 mg per day). At best, with her medication, her blood pressure was 134/70. After three days on Circutol, it had dropped to 98/62! Her cardiologist told her that if her blood pressure continued to remain low, he would decrease or eliminate her medication.

In total, seven out of seven people had significant drops in their blood pressure whether or not they were taking medication. The amount of Circutol needed to achieve these results was two capsules twice a day on an empty stomach. Lower amounts didn’t work. Higher amounts weren’t necessary.

If you, or anyone you know, have elevated blood pressure, please show them this article and urge them to give Circutol a try. You can order Circutol by calling 800-791-3395. Since it has a money-back guarantee, they have nothing to lose but their risk for a heart attack, stroke ... or dementia.

Kuller, et al. “Relationship of Hypertension, Blood Pressure, and Blood Pressure Control With White Matter Abnormalities in the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) — MRI Trial.” Journal of Clinical Hypertension, 2009.

Nien-Chen Li, Austin Lee, Rachel A. Whitmer, Kivipelto, Elizabeth Lawler, Lewis E. Kazis, Benjamin Wolozin. “Use of angiotensin receptor blockers and risk of dementia in a predominantly male population: prospective cohort analysis,” BMJ, 2010; 340.

The Experts Are Wrong — You Don’t Need to Spring Clean Your Body

Every spring, magazines and newsletters are filled with articles about spring cleaning your body. This rationale comes from Chinese medicine, but it has its limitations. Spring is called “liver time.” Many consider it an ideal time to cleanse your liver after eating more fatty foods that kept us warm throughout the winter. So every spring we read articles that reinforce the importance of going on a detoxifying diet.

These articles are missing the boat.

Eating less fats and more green leafy vegetables in the spring makes sense. But you shouldn’t be detoxifying once a year. You should be cleansing your liver and tissues every single day of the year. Not from fatty foods, but from environmental pollutants. They’re causing more health problems than a congested liver.

I’m not minimizing the importance of eating seasonal foods, such as those used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine. I’m just saying that our environment is so polluted that you shouldn’t rely on a cleansing program one season a year to detoxify. You need to constantly detoxify all of your organs from the lead, arsenic, and cadmium that foul the air you breathe, the water you drink, the soil you grow your food in, and the dust none of us can escape. All of these contain contaminants that build up in our bodies where they can cause serious health problems.

How these toxins destroy your health

Let’s look at a few reasons to continuously detoxify pollutants.

Do you have chronic bronchitis? What about emphysema or other lung problems? The cause may be the cadmium found in first- or second-hand cigarette smoke. Cadmium is a heavy metal that’s particularly toxic to the lungs.

Perhaps you’re not a smoker. Well, if you garden, you may be exposed to cadmium in the non-organic fertilizers you use. Cadmium is both toxic and difficult to remove because your kidneys tend to retain it and recycle it throughout your body.

Arsenic is a toxic substance commonly found in water in various parts of the world, as well as in smoke from treated wood. It’s also in arsenic-containing herbicides and in crops like rice and wheat if the ground water in which they grow is contaminated.

Ordinary home water filters don’t remove arsenic, a poison known to be carcinogenic. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study in which researchers found that low levels of arsenic exposure can cause type-2 diabetes.

Many consider low levels of lead to be safe. But even low levels can cause major depression and panic attacks in healthy young adults according to a new study in JAMA. The problem is lead is everywhere: in the air, water, and soil. Like arsenic, it’s in contaminated water as well as in some pottery and paints.
A major concern of lead toxicity is its effect on the brain including impaired memory and mental illness. But this toxin affects much more, from blocking vitamin D to vision and hearing problems.

An effective detoxification program

If you’re not removing environmental pollutants that build up in tissues and organs throughout your body, you’re missing effective detoxification. The first step is to reduce your exposure to any toxins. It’s not easy, but here are a few tips.

Don’t burn any wood in your fireplace that may have been treated. And don’t allow anyone to smoke inside your home or car. Use the best water filter you can find that removes environmental toxins. Don’t assume that bottled water is purer than tap water un- less you see a lab report to back up any claims.
Next, use substances that bind to environmental toxins and have been proven to remove them from your body safely. There are two products I recommend and have used personally for years. They’re safe and they work. I’ve talked about them before, but it bears repeating.

First, remove any newly absorbed environmental toxins that are circulating throughout your bloodstream waiting to be absorbed into your organs. I use a combination of modified citrus pectin and sodium alginate (from seaweed) in a product called PectaSol Chelation Complex (PCC). Studies show that both of these substances attach themselves to toxic heavy metals and remove them in the urine. Better, they leave essential minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and zinc alone. I have found no chelation substance as safe and effective as PCC (three capsules twice a day on an empty stomach).

PCC is a good first step, but it’s not enough. PCC and other chelating agents remove toxins in the bloodstream and digestive tract, but they can’t bind to heavy metals stuck in organs and other tissues. So after using PCC for a month, add two capsules of PectaSol Detox Complete (PDC) twice a day with food. It contains herbs and nutrients that get into tissues and remove contaminants from environmental pollutants to the residues from pharmaceuticals.

In a small study, researchers found that the combination of PCC with PDC was much more effective than PCC alone in decreasing the toxic metal load in the participants. And there were no side effects.

The best detox program I’ve found

Over the years, I’ve discovered that using PCC, then adding PDC until heavy metal loads have been reduced, is most effective. This can take from six months to several years, depending on your levels of toxic metals. You can evaluate your heavy metal load periodically through hair analysis or blood tests.

Once your levels are low, you can discontinue the PDC and take a maintenance dose of PCC (one capsule twice a day). This program should keep environmental pollutants from compromising your health. Both PCC and PDC are available individually or in a kit from Advanced Bionutritionals (800-791-3395).

If you have any chronic illness, or if you just want to be as healthy as possible, give these PectaSol products a one-year test. If for any reason you can’t get your toxic metal levels evaluated, don’t worry. We all have some toxic metals in our tissues. The best time to remove them is now, and the usual methods of spring cleaning simply don’t work as well, in my opinion.

Eliaz, I, et al. “Integrative medicine and the role of modified citrus pectin/alginates in heavy metal chelation and detoxification — five case reports,” Forch Komplementarmed 2007; 14.

Journal of the American Medical Association, August 10, 2008.

Never Worry About Melanoma Again

have a wonderful dermatologist who insists that her patients get a biopsy of any suspicious skin lesions. Each year she takes pictures of any spots on my skin. Then she measures them to make sure they haven’t grown. Occasionally, one does.

This year she was convinced that a spot on my back had changed. I agreed to have it removed even though I wasn’t worried that it was malignant. Why? Because I get enough of a particular protective nutrient and I don’t stay out in the sun long enough to burn on hot summer days. These are two risk factors for melanoma. It turns out I was right. The spot was just ... a spot. Still, I appreciate my dermatologist’s diligence.

You’ve probably heard that exposure to sunlight can cause malignant melanoma, a serious and potentially fatal form of skin cancer. And that we should all use sunscreen whenever we go outdoors, even in fall and winter. But there are more benefits than dangers in getting regular moderate exposure to sunlight. It produces vitamin D, which guards against all skin cancers.

Studies show that people who work indoors get three to nine times less exposure to ultraviolet light than people who work outdoors. Yet these indoor workers have more malignant melanomas than people exposed to sunlight.
Based on all the research and opinions I’ve read, I limit my use of sunscreen to those hot summer days when I’m outdoors for hours gardening or kayaking.

It’s extremely important to avoid getting burned. You see it’s sunburn, not every day exposure to the sun, that increases your risk for skin cancers. High exposure to ultraviolet rays, coupled with low levels of vitamin D, contribute to malignant melanomas. Not normal exposure to sunlight without burning in someone with enough vitamin D. This doesn’t mean you should ignore any spots — especially those with irregular margins or signs of change. Always have a dermatologist check them out — just to be on the safe side.

Sufficient vitamin D is vital. A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health found that patients with malignant melanomas with the lowest levels of vitamin D at time of diagnosis were 30% more likely to die from the disease than patients with the highest levels.

Still another study found that people who used sunscreen had triple the risk of melanomas than people who didn’t. That’s not all. People who sunbathed more than 30 times in a year were 10 times less likely to get melanomas than people who sunbathed less than 20 times a year.

We all need some time in the sun each day and we should aim for optimal levels of vitamin D (50-80 ng/ml). It’s rare that anyone can get enough vitamin D from spending time outdoors, especially in fall and winter. That’s where supplements come in.

If you have a lot of moles, fair skin, red hair, or a family history of skin cancer, you may want more supplemental vitamin D than exposure to sunlight. I take 5,000 IU of vitamin D a day, so I don’t worry about getting either skin cancer or enough D.

Your doctor can prescribe a vitamin D blood test to see whether or not you have enough of it to be protective. You can also contact ZRT Laboratory at 866-600-1636 directly for more information and a test kit. Mention the Vitamin D Council for a discounted price of $65.

Bottom Line: Sunburn combined with low levels of vitamin D puts you at risk for melanomas. High vitamin D protects against all skin cancers (and other cancers as well). Don’t burn, expose some skin to sunlight, and take 1,000-5,000 IU of vitamin D a day.

Godar, D.E., et al. “Increased UVA exposures and decreased cutaneous vitamin D(3) levels may be responsible for the increasing incidence of melanoma,” Med Hypotheses, April 2009.

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 levels are associated with Breslow thickness at presentation, and survival from melanoma by Julia Newton-Bishop. Journal of Clinical Oncology Published Monday 21 September 21.00hrs (BST), 2009.

Westerdahl, J., et al. “Sunscreen use and malignant melanoma,” Int J Cancer, July 1 2000.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

The Easiest Way to Avoid Dangerous Drug and Supplement Interactions

If you’re taking two or more medications, they may be causing undesirable interactions. This is true whether or not your medications are prescription or over-the-counter. Add to them your nutritional supplements and you increase your risk for dangerous interactions even more. The more medications and nutritional supplements you take, the more likely you are to take some that interact negatively with one another.

There are numerous possible drug/drug, drug/nutrient, and nutrient/nutrient interactions. So many, in fact, that I’ve been telling my patients and readers for years to ask their pharmacist to check everything they’re taking to make sure they’re safe to take.

Now there’s a very easy way for you to do this yourself from your home or library computer.

This method is very accurate. It’s the same one that many doctors and pharmacists use. And it’s simple to use. All you need to do is to use the drug interaction checker from the Medscape website. Medscape is a respected resource website for doctors and other health care professionals.

Just go to http://www.medscape.com/druginfo/druginterchecker. You’ll have to sign up for a free account. Once you've done this, it will take you to the drug interaction page. Type the name of your drug in the box where it says “Search for the drugs:” Then press the “Go” button next to the box. You'll see a list of possible matches in the left box marked "Results." Next, click once on the drug name that most closely matches your prescription and then click on the “Add” button. The name of your drug will appear in the right "Patient Regimen" box.
Repeat until you’ve entered all of your drugs and nutritional supplements. After you've added each drug or supplement, the website will search for any negative interactions. There’s room for you to search for interactions on 20 products or ingredients.

If you find any potentially dangerous interactions, print this page and show it to your doctor and pharmacist. If there are interactions among drugs and nutrients you need to take, you may simply need to take them away from one another. This could prevent one substance from binding to another, causing absorption problems.

One older patient I follow used this website and found out why he was so weak and fatigued. He was surprised to find that his magnesium supplement reacted with his thyroid medication, preventing Synthroid from being absorbed. Since he needs both, he started taking them at different times of the day and it solved his problem. Your doctor or pharmacist can help determine if a modification like this will work for you.

http://www.medscape.com/druginfo/druginterchecker.

LETTERS

Q: What is the best kind of calcium for osteoporosis? There are at least a dozen kinds, and I’m confused. — D.H., e-mail

A: If you’ve been reading my newsletter very long you have heard me say that magnesium is the best kind of calcium.

What I mean by this is that magnesium, which drives calcium into bone, is usually needed more than calcium itself. In fact, I’ve been saying for years that we should be taking 500 mg of a well-absorbed calcium supplement, such as calcium citrate or amino acid chelate, along with 500 mg or more of magnesium. Don’t take calcium carbonate. It is poorly absorbed and can contribute to calcium deposits in your arteries or arthritis.

Medical experts tell postmenopausal women that they need 1,500 mg of calcium a day. This is true. But we don’t need 1,500 mg of supplemental calcium. The best-absorbed calcium to prevent or stop osteoporosis is dietary calcium. If you’re eating a healthy diet, even if you don’t eat dairy, you should be getting enough calcium from dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and other calcium-rich foods.

It seems like questions about osteoporosis and calcium are those most frequently asked by readers. As a result, I’ve written many articles on this subject. All of them are available to subscribers at no cost on my website. If you’re still confused, I suggest you read some of them.

Q: I’ve been a diabetic for more than 40 of my 70 years and take a lot of medications. Insulin and other drugs, along with a careful diet, help me stay relatively healthy. But, like anyone, I sometimes get a cold or flu. Would it be safe for me to take Echinacea or other ordinary herbs to support my immune system? — S.P., Cotati, CA

A: What’s “ordinary” and safe for one person may have interactions with some of your medications. If you take them throughout the day, which most people do, the situation becomes more complicated. Medications work because they affect biochemical pathways, hormones, and neurotransmitters all over your body. Even common herbs like Echinacea could cause problems. We just don’t know enough for me to say they’re safe. This is because we’re lacking studies on safety and interactions.

However, I do have some suggestions. One nutrient that is safe to take with medications and could help you support your immune system is vitamin D. Taking 5,000 IU a day would be safe and protective. You can find it in health food stores or simply order it through Advanced Bionutritionals.

The vitamin C in citrus fruits is another option. Of course, the amount of fruits you can eat is limited by your blood sugar levels, but dietary vitamins do support a healthy immune system. That’s why I keep talking about the importance of eating a healthy diet.

And perhaps the greatest overlooked safe method of supporting your immune system is to get at least eight hours of sleep. The Archives of Internal Medicine published a study that said people who slept less than seven hours were nearly three times more likely to get a cold after exposure to a virus than longer sleepers.

Cohen, S, et al. Arch Intern Med, 2009 January 12; 169:62.