If you haven’t heard of type-3 diabetes yet, I predict you will. We’re just beginning to see studies that show an association with diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. And the result is that it’s being recognized as a new diabetic illness.

Type-1 and type-2 diabetes are diseases where the pancreas is unable to make sufficient insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Now, scientists have discovered that insulin isn’t just naturally produced in the pancreas. It’s also made in the brain, and it affects the whole body. This brain-insulin resistance is considered by many scientists to be directly linked to Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, it’s beginning to be called type-3 diabetes by some doctors and researchers.

You may not know this, but brain insulin resistance and diabetes are common in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s patients also tend to have reduced levels of insulin in their brains.

Neuropathologist Suzanne M de la Monte from Rhode Island Hospital, and professor of pathology at Brown Medical School, conducted the first study to show the connection between insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s disease. Her team found that when there was a drop in insulin production in the brain, brain cells began to deteriorate. This is an early sign of Alzheimer’s.

In addition, Australian researchers found that seniors with blood sugar fluctuations and type-2 diabetes lost more than twice the brain volume than those with normal blood sugar levels. The parts of the brain that were affected included the areas associated with decision-making and long-term memory.

De la Monte is confident that these two diseases are connected. She explains, “Alzheimer’s disease and type-2 diabetes affect different parts of the body, but they are manifestations of the same disease.” If she’s right, perhaps we should treat Alzheimer’s like diabetes.

This has already been done successfully using an anti-diabetic drug with an unusual origin. The drug is the synthetic form of a hormone, exendin-4, which is found in the saliva of the Gila monster lizard. In one study using this drug on mice with Alzheimer’s, their insulin signaling normalized and there was a marked improvement in their cognitive function. This synthetic form of exendin-4, which has FDA approval, is marketed under the names of Byetta and Bydureon. But don’t rush to your doctor and ask for a prescription for this drug. There’s another solution. One you can take without searching out an expensive prescription drug.

And one that has no side effects, like those found with pharmaceuticals.

Finding solutions

One suggestion some researchers have come up with to prevent and possibly treat type-3 diabetes is to take curcumin. Curcumin is the chemical in turmeric that has anti-inflammatory and blood sugar-regulating properties. The rationale is that it treats both Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

Since no one can patent curcumin, researchers are working on perfecting a synthetically modified form. If successful, they can sell it as a drug. But you can benefit from taking a curcumin supplement. Be sure to take it in its most potent form: Meriva. Meriva is more than 20 times as strong as ordinary curcumin. You can find it in the powerful anti-inflammatory formula, Reduloxin (800-791-3395).

You may also want to take additional supplements besides curcumin to help regulate your blood sugar. If you do, I suggest a formula like Metabolic Defense (800-791-3395). It contains chromium, both Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, and other nutrients which can help repair your blood-sugar regulating system.

De la Monte also suggests using regular exercise to increase blood flow to your brain and to increase insulin responsiveness both in your pancreas and brain.
Any and all forms of diabetes need to be controlled as much as possible by diet. A healthful diet high in whole grains, beans, vegetables, and protein, along with very low quantities of refined grains, sugars, and alcohol, is a must. You can find many of my suggestions in past issues of this newsletter and in my book, 456 Most Powerful Healing Secrets (800-610-2107).

Take action to prevent Alzheimer’s disease by recognizing its connection with diabetes. Then take a look at your blood sugar levels and begin today to take steps to lower your risk for both.

European Society of Endocrinology (2012, May 7). Diabetes shrinks elderly brain. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 8, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com- /releases/2012/05/120507102221.htm.

Journal of Clinical Investigation. “Alzheimer’s Disease And Diabetes Linked By New Evidence.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 21 March 2012. Web.

22 March 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243147.php
Manzella, D., RN, “Is there a Type 3 Diabetes?” About.com Guide, September 30, 2007.

Silver Should Be the Gold Standard for Wound Care

Julia Shopick has an ax to grind. When her late husband was operated on for a brain tumor, surgery saved his life. Then he had a recurrence of his cancer, and when his suture line didn’t heal and his doctors suggested more surgeries, she agreed to them. Ten months, and numerous operations later, his wound still failed to heal.

Fortunately, Julia had a doctor friend who practiced internal medicine. He knew more than her husband’s surgeons about wound healing. He suggested she get a cloth patch impregnated with silver ions called Silverlon®, and apply it to her husband’s wound. His wound miraculously healed overnight, and he lived longer than his doctor had expected.

Julia thought his surgeons would want to know about Silverlon, but she was wrong. They weren’t interested at all, even though it was FDA-approved for all non-healing wounds. In fact, these doctors denied that it worked. So Julia wrote a book about Silverlon — and a few other effective, low-cost, little-known treatments.

Honest Medicine: Effective, time-tested, inexpensive treatments for life-threatening diseases (Innovative Health Publishing, 2011) discusses four inexpensive and innovative therapies most people have never heard about. Silverlon is the one therapy she wrote about that you can obtain and use without a doctor’s prescription. It’s available on the Internet in various sizes. Anyone with a compromised immune system would be wise to read Julia’s chapter on Silverlon and stock up on a few of its bandages before any surgery.

Using silver to stop infections is not a new idea. People have used it for centuries to treat bacteria, yeast, and viral-induced wounds. Still, doctors use gauze dressings, although there is no evidence to support their use. There is evidence to support the use of silver nylon dressings. In one study out of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, silver-impregnated dressings outperformed gauze dressings in a group of patients undergoing laminectomies. The Silverlon dressings reduced both postoperative deep and superficial infections.

In another study published in Ostomy Wound Management (2008), doctors looked at the infection rate of 1,600 cardiac patients. Those using the silver nylon dressing had a significantly lower infection rate than those in the gauze group.

The widespread use of silver dressings should be a no-brainer. But it's not. One reason may be that they are not all alike.

Silverlon appears to out-perform both gauze dressings and other silver-impregnated dressings. It does much more than provide a barrier to surgical wounds. It releases silver ions into the wound, destroying pathogens that are often present during surgery. This reduces harmful bacteria and promotes wound healing.

It’s important to understand why not all dressings made with silver are alike. Many contain only minute amounts of silver — not enough to be effective. And the silver, itself, doesn’t come into direct contact with the wound, which is necessary to get the desired protective results. The wound dressings with the most metallic silver, and the one you want to use, is Silverlon®, made by Cura Surgical (888-508-2872).

Just how effective is it? With Julia’s husband, it worked overnight. In one study, Silverlon dressings destroyed MRSA, the flesh-eating bacteria, in just 90 minutes!

So if you’re going to have any surgery, speak with your surgeon and ask him or her to use a Silverlon dressing in the operating room. It needs to be applied wet over the affected area and touch two centimeters beyond it on healthy tissues in order for it to work. If he or she won’t use it, you can buy the Silverlon dressings you need and use them yourself when you get home.

Silverlon dressings are available in a number of sizes and shapes including adhesive strips (like Band-Aids), wound pad dressings, and acute burn gloves. The products are very affordable and last about a week. To order Silverlon products, go to www.silverlon.com.

If your doctor is not aware of Silverlon products and is open to hearing more about them, you can contact the folks at Cura Surgical, its manufacturers. They’ll be happy to contact your surgeon and answer any of his or her questions or
concerns.

Epstein, N.E. “Do silver-impregnated dressings limit infections after lumbar laminectomy with instrumented fusion,” Surgical Neurology 68 (2007).

This Year I Made a Big Mistake ... Next Time I’ll Take My Own Advice

I knew better, so why didn’t I do better? After 10 years of being free from colds and the flu, this was the year I ignored all the early signals and paid the price. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicted a stronger, more virulent flu that was due to begin earlier than usual. And the holidays, with crowded shopping malls, airports, and family gatherings provided an ideal environment to spread viruses and bacteria.

So what did I do? As usual, I counseled my family and patients to support their immune systems early, get plenty of rest, and wash their hands frequently. Why in the world didn’t I take my own advice?

Like many people, one reason I ignored the information was that I felt fine. I slept well and avoided crowded stores and restaurants. But I wasn’t about to miss celebrating with my extended family, even though this meant being exposed to around a dozen children from three to 15 and their schoolteacher moms. You can’t possibly keep pathogenic bacteria and viruses off them.

At first, everything was fine. Thanksgiving came and went without any incidents of illness. Then came pre-Christmas and Christmas meals. With 20 to 30 people sharing food and breathing the same warm, dry indoor air, it was an ideal environment for the flu. Add more foods high in sugar into the mix of overflowing heated rooms, children, and exhausted adults, and the scene became ripe for getting a cold or flu.

I was aware of all of this, so what did I do? I limited the amount of sugar I ate, because sugar feeds bacteria and creates an acidic environment at a time when the body needs more alkalinity to fight pathogens.

But it wasn’t enough. Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, a bug, virus, or both found me. I had a week that was long, boring, and painful instead of enjoying time with friends and family. I was reminded that it’s quicker and easier to stay healthy than to get well once you’re sick.

As a child, I would get a mild cold two or three times every year that turned into bronchitis or pneumonia. Ten years ago, I changed this pattern by boosting my immunity. Now avoiding colds and the flu is not difficult, as long as I take three simple steps. The past 10 years have been almost completely free from illness.

Three steps to avoid the flu

Alkaline diet: You can more easily fight germs and infections if your diet is more alkaline than acidic. Fruits and non-starchy vegetables are alkaline, while grains, dairy, sugar, and meats leave an acidic residue and are considered to be acid. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies and lower your intake of acid-forming foods. If you have difficulty getting enough of them, consider drinking green tea or taking Advanced Greens Formula once or twice a day. They’re both highly alkaline.

Vitamin D3: Studies show that vitamin D from sunlight or supplements reduces your risk of getting the flu. In one randomized, controlled trial, women who took 2,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 reduced their risk by 90%. I suggest taking 5,000 IU daily to protect against colds, flu, and numerous other conditions.

MycoPhyto: My secret weapon against colds and flu is a unique formula consisting of six medicinal mushrooms grown on Chinese immune-enhancing herbs called MycoPhyto Complex. I’m convinced that this formula is responsible for my being illness-free for so long. It was the one step I ignored this time.

Next year, and each subsequent year, I’ll begin by taking two capsules morning and night for a week in September, then one capsule twice a day through the winter.

I have used MycoPhyto with family, friends, and patients with the same success. There simply is nothing like it. You can order these great supplements by calling 800-791-3395.

What You Can Do to Prevent Painful Kidney Stones

If you’ve ever had a kidney stone, you know that it causes a pain you don’t want to experience ever again. Recently, a neighbor asked me what a friend could do to avoid getting more kidney stones. I decided to take a close look at this painful condition and see what she could do besides drinking more water — her doctor’s only suggestion.

Kidney stones are crystals formed in the urinary tract that chemicals in the urine don’t dissolve as they should. They may be made from a variety of chemicals, but the most common kidney stones are made from calcium with either oxalate or phosphate.

Many kidney stones are tiny and easily pass through the body in urine. But some grow large enough to get stuck in the ureters, the tubes that go from the kidneys to the bladder.

If you’ve ever had kidney stones that were too large to pass out of your body in your urine, you know they can cause some of the most extreme pain you could ever imagine. And once you get one stone, you’re at risk for getting others. There’s a genetic component to the formation of kidney stones, but this doesn’t mean you’re doomed to get them if you have this gene. There are steps you can take to prevent them.

However, if anyone in your family has had kidney stones, I suggest you read this article carefully and make a few simple changes in your own lifestyle. You could be at risk.

Do calcium and vitamin D supplements cause stones?

Some people believe that long-term use of these two nutrients increases a person’s risk for kidney stones. But in several studies, this increase was not related to vitamin D at all. Calcium appears to be the culprit. High calcium intake from supplements has been linked to kidney stones, as well as arthritis and heart disease — conditions of unabsorbed calcium. But not calcium-rich foods. For some reason, they reduce the absorption of oxalate. So don’t avoid dairy and other high-calcium foods, and limit your calcium supplements to 500 mg per day, the amount found in a multivitamin like Healthy Resolve (800-791-3395).

Whether or not the combination of calcium and vitamin D contributes to kidney stones may depend on your diet. In the largest study of kidney stones and vitamin D, conducted at Harvard University, three dietary factors protected against kidney stones: high potassium, high magnesium, and lots of fluids.

Potassium is high in fruits and vegetables. Magnesium, low in most people, is found in whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Both are low in the standard American diet (SAD) where foods high in refined carbohydrates and sodas, cause the blood to be too acidic. It should be alkaline to prevent the formation of kidney stones. So take another look at your diet and make sure you’re eating plenty of whole foods.

A low-grade SAD diet leaches calcium from your bones and increases calcium in your urine. This can cause kidney stones to form. It can also contribute to high blood pressure and stroke.

Avoid antacids

I’ve said it before. Calcium-based antacids like TUMS™ increase the amount of calcium in your urine, putting you at risk for kidney stones. If you have heartburn, taking an antacid will only treat your symptom. It won’t eradicate the source of your problem, which is a malfunctioning valve called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). If you have a lax LES, you’ll respond best to an increase of hydrochloric acid (HCl), rather than neutralizing it with an antacid. You can find more information about this on my website, and in Dr. Jonathan Wright’s book Why Stomach Acid Is Good For You (M. Evans and Co., 2001).

The drink that may cause kidney stones

Oxalate is a key chemical that can cause kidney stones in susceptible people, and a common beverage is particularly high in oxalate: black tea. You have to drink a lot of hot black tea or iced tea to increase your risk for kidney stones, but if you drink a lot of iced tea during the hot summer months, you could suffer from this consequence. One solution would be to add a lot of lemon juice to your tea. Lemons are high in citrates, which prevent stones from forming. Another would be to limit your intake of tea to one or two glasses.

Reduce your consumption of foods high in oxalate like chocolate, spinach, nuts, beets, and Swiss chard — and add lemon juice to the vegetables.

What about drinking more water? That’s a must. But it’s not the only way
to reduce your risk for painful kidney stones.

Cannell, John, MD, August 2010, Vitamin D Council.

Gallagher, J Christopher, “Long-term calcium and vitamin D supplement use may be linked to increase risk of kidney stones,” ScienceDaily, June 26, 2012.

Loyola University Health System (2012, August 2). “Iced tea can contribute to painful kidney stones.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 3, 2012.

NUTRITION DETECTIVE

The Link Between High Blood Pressure and Digestive Problems

I’ve written a lot about gluten sensitivity and celiac disease. These conditions often cause severe stomach cramps, gas, bloating, and chronic severe diarrhea. Most of the time, avoiding grains with this protein (wheat, barley, and rye) will solve the problem. If it doesn’t, it’s possible gluten isn’t causing your problems.

The Mayo Clinic recently found out that how you treat your high blood pressure might be causing your symptoms.

The doctors at the Mayo Clinic looked at 22 patients who had gluten sensitivity symptoms. But antibody blood tests did not support that diagnosis. And when they put them on a gluten-free diet, they didn’t improve at all. So the doctors began looking for other common factors in these 22 patients.

Over the next three years, the doctors found that all 22 had high blood pressure. And all 22 of them were taking the angiotensin receptor blocker olmesartan (Benicar). Olmesartan is a popular drug (with over $500 million in annual sales) doctors prescribe to lower blood pressure because it doesn’t carry as many side effects as other antihypertensives. However, it takes only one side effect to ruin your life.

These drugs consistently caused severe intestinal damage in the patients who experienced this side effect. Patients with celiac can experience mild to severe damage. It appears the patients had an allergy to this drug that was more severe than celiacs.

What’s scary about this side effect is that 12 of the patients experienced a bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine that antibiotics could not resolve. I’ve shown you how a bacterial overgrowth can lead to other health problems, including hypothyroidism and breast cancer. Are drugs causing the huge rise in occurrence with these conditions? It’s something we need to consider.

Doctors are quick to prescribe medications to lower high blood pressure, but we don’t know all the trouble they can cause. Instead of jumping on the medication bandwagon, treat your high blood pressure the natural way first. Look at your diet and make sure you’re eating plenty of fruits and veggies. Also make sure you’re getting plenty of exercise. Diet and exercise will fix most cases of mild high blood pressure.

If these don’t do the trick, I’ve found a natural formula that is safe and effective. It normalizes blood pressure and supports good heart health. Circutol has nattokinase, which helps balance your blood pressure. You won’t experience low blood pressure (a common problem with the medications), as it keeps your blood pressure in a very healthy range. And it won’t cause any of these celiac-like symptoms.

Kaiser, Chris. “BP Drug Linked to ‘Gluten Sensitivity,’” MedPage Today, June 22, 2012.

LETTERS

Q: I have a friend with breast cancer that has spread. She’s under the care of an oncologist she likes who has her on some standard chemotherapy drugs, but she’d like to do more. The problem is she doesn’t want to interfere with her doctor’s program. Is there anything she can take safely to feel even a little better? — B.R., e-mail

A: Your friend is smart to be asking this question, because there are drug/nutrient interactions that can interfere with various cancer therapies. But a new study published in Oncology Nursing Forum found that reflexology and foot massage can be beneficial – although in unexpected ways – without any interactions.

Researchers expected to find that stimulating specific points on the feet that allegedly corresponds to organs and glands would improve their moods. It didn’t. The results were more dramatic than this. When certified reflexologists massaged their feet, the study participants had much less shortness of breath — a symptom that’s common in breast cancer patients. They were also able to perform daily tasks more easily.

When friends and family gave these patients a foot massage without an emphasis on reflexology points, they had a different reaction: less fatigue. So you could give your friend a gentle foot massage and suggest she ask other friends to do the same. It may give her more energy without interfering with her doctor’s program.

Michigan State University. “Cancer Symptoms May Be Eased By Ancient Foot Massage Technique.” Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 16 Nov. 2012.

Q: I read your information on soy protein. You only mentioned soy’s value for women as a good source of protein. What about men? — W.P., e-mail

A: Most men and all boys should avoid large quantities of soy because it is high in plant estrogens (phytoestrogens), which can feminize males. One exception is for men with prostate cancer. In some cases, estrogen is indicated to fight this cancer, and soy could be helpful. But in the majority of cases, including young boys, I’d limit their soy intake to one serving a few times a week. And I wouldn’t give soy milk to infants.

Another problem is that so many soy products are genetically modified and we don’t know enough about how they affect our health. More studies will give us this information. Meanwhile, it’s safest to eat soy products that are organic. They’re not genetically modified. But the problem is that the majority of soy products are not organic.

Most corn is not organic either. This poses a problem. If you eliminate all non-organic products containing soy and corn, you’re left with few foods to choose from. And if you happen to be gluten-intolerant — a condition that’s a serious problem for thousands of people — you have even fewer foods to choose from.
We should never have gotten to this stage in our food supply. Now the horse is out of the barn and we need to fight for legislation to bring back healthier foods.

My recommendation is to eat organic foods as much as possible and avoid foods that are likely to have a negative impact on your health whenever you can. The more we eat organic foods, the more we’ll have to choose from.