July 2007
Six simple solutions to ward off senility
Your allergy medicine is making you stupid. And not just the day after you take it, either.
You see, all those antihistamines you’ve been taking to cure your sneezing and sniffling also cause memory loss.
But antihistamines are just one of several things that cause memory loss as we age. Some, like those allergy medicines, we can control ––once we know about them. Others, you would never know are damaging your memory—until it’s too late!
Unfortunately memory loss is one of the most neglected medical issues among mainstream doctors. But don’t worry. The solutions I have for you are surprisingly easy for this very complex problem.
Memory loss does NOT have to be a part of aging
Beyond the usual aches and pains, one of the biggest concerns among my patients is the thought of losing their minds.
I’m constantly amazed when they tell me how mainstream doctors respond: “Well, if you’re lucky, you won’t,” they’re told. Luck? That’s the best mainstream medicine has to offer? If there’s no script to write, we’re supposed to just leave it up to luck? What a bunch of bull!
Luck has nothing to do with it. In fact, here’s a shocker: Memory loss does NOT have to be a normal part of aging. I’m astonished by how many doctors are letting their patients trudge out of their offices believing that memory loss is inevitable.
If you’re going to forget anything, promise me you’ll forget that ridiculous idea. And unless you’re on your way to having Alzheimer’s, you are keenly aware when your mental powers are just a bit “off”––and you want to get them back.
The trouble comes in with this elusive little specter we call “memory.” Your memory center is located in the hippocampus of your brain, which is your medial temporal lobe. In laymen’s terms, that means smack-dab in the middle—and it resembles two kidneys sitting in there.
The hippocampus is a vast repository, collecting all of your everyday experiences and then encoding and cataloguing them in its colossal filing system to be brought back up later as needed. Neurotransmitters have an important role here, creating new connections between brain cells so they can communicate with one another.
Memory loss begins with interference in the memory-retention process. The more interference you have when an initial registering imprint is collected, the less likely it will be captured adequately enough to store.
As your brain ages, fewer neurotransmitters are produced—leading to some deterioration in function. That’s normal. It’s no different than any other part of your body, with things just not working “like they used to.” Remembering directions, names of people, and appointment times grows more difficult as the years pass.
What isn’t normal is forgetting how to cook a meal for yourself or how to use the phone that’s been in your home for years, or getting lost in a once-familiar neighborhood. These are signs of dementia, which is a progressive brain disorder that erodes mental functioning. I went into much greater detail about Alzheimer’s—a form of dementia—in my April issue, available online at www.HealthRevelations.com.
Before you think I’m losing my memory, I did tell you earlier that memory loss does NOT have to be part of aging. I say that because I’ve got another shocker for you: Your brain power can actually improve with age.
Hey, we older folks didn’t get the reputation for being wise for nothing. You know all that learning from experience you’ve been doing all these years? Well, that creates more connections between your brain cells. That’s what makes you wiser and capable of more complex thought. Not to mention better judgment! (Just think back to some of your teenage antics that make you shudder now.)
The passing years also bring better coordination and greater connectivity—through time and experience—between the analytical left side and the creative right side of your brain, making you a better problem solver and storyteller.
But here’s the key: The brain needs support in order to function well. It’s no different than the rest of your body, relying on good nutrition and overall healthy habits in order to perform optimally. And without even knowing it, you could be working against yourself by introducing some of the most menacing memory killers into your life.
The one-two punch that could be knocking out your memory
One of the most overlooked causes of memory loss is disease.
Take diabetes, for instance. High glucose levels alter blood flow in the brain, which has been correlated with memory problems, impairing function in the blood-brain barrier ––a membrane that protects your brain from chemicals in the blood ––and the metabolism of brain energy. High blood pressure is another culprit. The pressure can become too strong, causing a constant stress that can damage your blood vessels and weaken them to the point of tearing.
Depression can also damage your memory. A chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitters in the brain leads to having difficulty in storing new memories.
Add to that the side effects of the drugs used to treat a lot of conditions I just mentioned, and you’re unintentionally giving your brain a vicious one-two punch. Cholesterol-lowering “statin” drugs like Lipitor, common “benzodiazepine” tranquilizers like Ativan, Valium and Klonopin, and common insomnia medications like Ambien and Sonata can all dull memory—and can even cause long-term memory damage. And as we get older there just isn’t much “cognitive reserve” (the brain’s resilience to damage) as there was even when we were 40!
Numerous drugs are associated with memory problems, and side effects are too often swept under the carpet—which is why so many people fail to connect the dots. Remember (pardon the pun) the antihistamines I mentioned? They not only act on the mucous membranes within your nasal passages, they also cross the blood-brain barrier. Studies show that antihistamines can have a significant adverse effect on your central nervous system, causing problems with divided attention and your memory.
Talk with your doctor about possible drug side effects. You’d be surprised by how many of them list “memory loss”! I can’t fathom how any doctor would skirt discussing such an incredibly destructive and risky side effect.
As I said in the beginning, prescription and over-the-counter drugs are just one of many factors that can cause memory loss. Here’s another: stress. As your stress level increases, your adrenal glands release cortisol (often referred to as the “stress hormone”) in higher levels in response to that stress. Releasing this hormone is like shooting a bullet into a barrel. It ricochets around, destroying as it goes. Cortisol has a knack for zeroing in on and then weakening the hippocampus.
Malnourishment is another overlooked trigger. Your brain requires a high intake of nutrients in order to fight damage from free radicals. They’re the byproduct of oxidative stress, which is the process of energy production in your cells. And many drugs create free radicals, which age you—and your brain.
But the situation is not hopeless. Some of your habits may just need a tune-up.
Adopt hippocampus-healthy habits
First, you may need to just slow down. All that multi-tasking may not be helping like you think.
I have patients who walk into my office trying to do five things at once. That’s what I call “make haste slowly.” All of those distractions to keep track of means you’re not giving your brain a chance to do its job—to latch on, encode, and catalogue. Otherwise, it’s just a whirring conveyor belt of information—and the machinery can’t keep up.
Don’t ignore your sleep habits, either. You’ve heard me tell you before that good sleep habits are a necessity for overall health. Sleep works hand-in-hand with your memory, and a recent study bears this out. Researchers tested two groups of people, having them memorize a list of 20-paired words.
One group got the list at 9 a.m. to be memorized and were then tested on it at 9 p.m. They were also given a second list to memorize—just before that 9 p.m. test. And you know what? They were only able to recall less than a third of the original paired-word list, thanks to that second list causing “interference” for their memory. And that was after having had all day to memorize it!
But for the second group, both lists of words were given to them at 9 p.m. to be memorized before bedtime and then tested on it at 9 the next morning. Without that 11th-hour distraction being thrown in, they were able to recall the words with an accuracy of 72 percent.
What does this mean to you? First of all, get at least seven hours of sleep every night. Your brain is using those hours to actively store all the information you collected during the day, and doing it quite efficiently while you’re in deep sleep.
Also, try meditation. Research shows that meditation is a memory-healthy habit to get into. This includes praying, too. It leads to a shift in how the brain handles attention through the practice of releasing extraneous thoughts and bringing your focus back to nothing more than your breath, or a single word or sound. A recent meditation study found that attention is a skill that you can train. It’s just a matter of getting started and then consistently doing it.
Placing the rug back under yourself—and your memory
When it comes to your memory, that old adage of “use it or lose it” applies.
You need a well-rounded action plan—incorporating such things as the good sleep habits and meditation or prayer practice we just talked about. Also, do a range of physical exercises to promote overall health–– and healthy brain function.
If you’re on any prescription medications, pull out the drug information sheets and read over the listed side effects. If it mentions the possibility of affecting your mental functioning, you’ve just hit on a possible perpetrator of memory larceny! Talk with your doctor about your concerns.
Remember the oxidative stress caused by free radicals that I mentioned? The best remedy is of course —antioxidants. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of eating a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, making it a practice to mix up those colors. They’re bursting with anti-oxidants—particularly berries, as well as red wine and dark chocolate (in moderation, of course!). In order to thrive, your neurotransmitters depend on good nutrition.
I also recommend the widely available Jarrow product Neuro Optimizer, a formula that includes Acetyl-l-carnitine and Alpha lipoic acid to improve brain cell energy and protect against harmful free radicals. It also contains phosphatidyl serine, which has been shown to improve memory in already healthy individuals.
I recommend supplementing too with vincopetine, 2.5 to 5.0 mg per day, although some studies have used up to 60 mg per day. It works like the common memory drug Aricept that’s used to treat Alzheimer’s—without the side effects. Work with an experienced practitioner when using vincopetine because it should be treated like a drug.
And please get a handle on your stress level, because it can quickly undermine your overall health—not to mention erode your memory.
Beyond exercise, sleep, and meditation—all of which alleviate stress—I recommend various forms of biofeedback. Sophisticated devices measure body temperature, muscle tension, and heart rate, bringing it to your conscious awareness and teaching you how to calm your body. For a program you can do on your own, check out Heartmath at www.heartmath.com. You can also check with your local hospital or go to www.bcia.org to locate a certified provider.
We call it “received wisdom”: A reliance in medicine on certain sacred cows that have been accepted as gospel, despite all evidence to the contrary.
It sounds vaguely religious–– and I assure you that much of what takes place in modern medicine is based on faith rather than hard-core science.
And you don’t have to look far to find the answer as to why. Medical knowledge has been taken over by the drug companies, which now play a major educational role not only in doctors’ offices but also in medical schools.
Exorbitant claims that wildly exceed any reasonable interpretation of the data are now par for the course—even in top, peer-reviewed medical journals. Doctors are being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by drug companies to uphold long-held beliefs like cholesterol drugs outperform diet and exercise, vitamins cause cancer (who could forget that one?!) and aspirin is good for you.
There may be over a hundred more sacred cows worth pointing out, but here are my top 10 that really get under my skin.
Water-worthy wonder drug
If you gave a drug to 250 people every day for a year at a total cost of nearly a quarter of a million dollars but only one of those people experienced a benefit, you’d say that drug doesn’t work. But that’s what the data show for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs like Lipitor that are being used for “primary prevention” in people whose cholesterol is high but who don’t yet have heart disease. Incredibly, there are some mainstream doctors who actually believe that statins are such a “wonder” drug, we should add them to the water! A ridiculous idea, considering that a study from Canada a few years ago showed that a combination of plant sterols, nuts, soluble fiber such as oatmeal, and a modest amount of soy such as tempeh can lower that “bad” LDL cholesterol level by 30 percent in just a matter of weeks. Drugs have their place, but it sure isn’t in the drinking water!
The better bones bandwagon
If you think the idea of statins in the water is ridiculous, here’s another in the same ballpark: Treat patients with osteoporosis by giving them a commonly used class of drugs known as bisphosphonates. In one large study these drugs made no difference in the rate of hip fracture and worse—actually resulted in more hip fractures! In another commonly cited study actually used to support their use, one hundred people with severe osteoporosis had to be treated for a full year to prevent just one hip fracture. That makes no medical sense––but it certainly makes good financial sense for the drug companies! A saner and more common sense approach would be to take all of that drug money and spend it on smart prevention programs, designed to get seniors up on their feet. By helping them get stronger and balanced, they’ll be a lot less likely to fall. And there’s no drug that can replace that!
Artery props are tops
In the U.S., highly paid interventional cardiologists place a million stents in patients every year. Stents are tiny tubes that hold blocked coronary arteries open after they’ve been cleared by an angioplasty procedure. In a recent study, 2,287 angina patients with at least a 70 percent artery blockage were divided into two groups: One was given stents and drugs as treatment, and the other group was given only drugs. The results showed that unless you’ve had a heart attack, the use of drug therapy alone is just as effective—if not moreso—in preventing heart attacks when compared to a treatment of stenting and drug therapy. But before you think I’ve suddenly become an advocate for the drug companies, consider too changes to your diet. One diet plan—the Mediterranean-style diet—was proven to be 35 to 45 percent more effective than stents. (See page 7 for my full article.) So it makes no sense to me that patients should endure the risks of a stent procedure —such as blood clotting—or the cost, for absolutely no benefit.
Cabbage cure
Here’s one sacred cow I’d personally like to put out to pasture. Over 500,000 of these cardiac bypass surgeries (CABG—pronounced “cabbage,” or “garbage” as I like to pronounce it) are performed every year at the extravagant cost of many billions of dollars. That’s despite the best available evidence, which suggests that only about 20 percent of those folks (if that many!) enjoy any real survival benefit after five years. Even more disturbing? Forty percent of all those patients will experience irreversible damage to their mental function (see the page 1 article for other scourges of mental function), and 50 percent of all bypasses will develop new blockages within five to 10 years.
These procedures bring in big bucks for surgeons and hospitals, which is why I’m more than a little suspicious about the true reason for all of those bypass recommendations. If your doctor recommends one, I recommend you get a second opinion. Especially if medication and a healthy lifestyle will bring you the same, if not better, improvement!
Sluggish thyroid? Synthetic stimulant!
The thyroid is steeped in hot debate within the medical profession. Thyroid hormones initiate energy production. Hypothyroidism, which is a sluggish thyroid that is not producing enough of those hormones, leaves you feeling fatigued. Untreated, it can lead to other conditions such as increased levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. I’d say it probably goes undiagnosed in over half the people it should be. Why? Back to the hot debate: Disagreement over the meaning of common blood tests. When it is properly diagnosed, most doctors are quick on the draw to prescribe replacement thyroid hormones, such as Synthroid, and telling you that you’ll need it for the rest of your life.
That’s outrageous, considering that a healthy diet that includes raw cruciferous vegetables—such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli—can aid a sluggish thyroid, along with natural sources of iodine, such as seafood and seaweed. Also, adequate sleep, exercise—a stimulant to thyroid function, and stress management can correct many of these cases!
The diet “that worked”
“Hey Doc, I’ll go back on the so-and-so diet because I lost 20 pounds on it last year.” Really? Unfortunately, you probably found those lost pounds again, and are now back where you started. I hear this one often, and the reality is: As a general rule, diets don’t work. Period. In fact, they can do more harm than good—because they stress your body. That whole “putting it on, taking it off” cycle is what’s called “yo-yo” dieting, wreaking havoc on your system.
I’ll tell you what works: Making wise changes you can live with for the rest of your life and getting regular exercise—including muscle-building strength training.
Forgo fat
The idea of avoiding fats because they’re bad for you still lingers out there in the minds of the public. Don’t you fall for it. Yes, it may bring off the pounds quickly, and when closely supervised, is effective on a short-term basis for a select few who are in dire need of getting those pounds off. Does that mean you? More than likely, no. Let me break it to you gently: Your body needs fats, for energy, to synthesize hormones, even to regulate blood pressure. And I’m not talking about smearing a pound of butter on your toast. I’m referring to healthy fats, from foods such as fish, nuts, avocados, and unprocessed vegetable oils, such as olive oil.
OTC meds are a-ok!
Don’t be tricked into believing this one! Thousands of people die every year due to the toxic side effects of a medication they thought was “safe.” NSAIDs alone account for 15,000 deaths a year. OTCs are actually prescription medications that have come off of patent. When your doctor writes you a prescription, he is supposed to monitor you for any adverse effects. Once it becomes an OTC, you’re on your own. There’s a folded slip of paper in the box with warnings, but very few people sit down to read it over. Instead, they rely on the idea that because they can grab it from a shelf at their local drug store, everything will be perfectly fine. Think again, and consider acetaminophen. You may take it every time you get a pain or a headache and don’t think twice about it. But on your inside, it’s tearing up your liver and damaging your kidneys. If the cure is worse than the disease, forget about it.
The drug makers have lulled us into a false sense of complacency. If you feel you need any type of medication, treat it as a dangerous substance. It is, and I don’t want you becoming a statistic.
Treat prostate cancer pronto
Masquerading as good medicine, the reality is that prostate cancer is being treated unnecessarily in many cases. You’re more likely to die from something else well before you die from this slow-growing cancer. Sure, some men have been spared death by this cancer—but only as little as 3 percent die of it! But when prostate cancer is treated unnecessarily, the quality of these men’s lives actually decreases, as they suffer incontinence, impotence, and emotional stress. I recommend you take a watch and wait approach rather than go through that! And what works for some most assuredly doesn’t work for all, so we need to toss that conveyor-belt mentality once and for all. Consider a second opinion, especially if you’re over 70 or your cancer is a less aggressive form that has not yet spread outside the prostate gland.
Immunity, immediately
Remember my advice: A vaccine—just like any drug—needs to be time-tested for at least 7 years before I would consider it acceptable for you to consider getting. Of course, time is money, and though the drug companies have mountains of it, they’re short on patience for the common good. But you wait and see what those long-term results are. That’s because the effectiveness and long-term side effects are not known until the vaccine has been on the market for a while. It’s really an experiment in progress, and you don’t want to be the guinea pig.
Vaccines always come out with too much hoopla and fanfare, but ignore the hype. Some vaccines, such as the widely touted shingles vaccine—are being found to wear off after a few years. And the group it was intended for—people over the age of 70—saw only a 38 percent rate of success. That hardly qualifies as a success in my book. And flu vaccines aren’t much better, only preventing the flu in 40 percent of people aged 65 and over. I recommend you focus instead on keeping your immune system strong. You can start by avoiding sugar, which numerous studies have shown suppresses the immune system, making it a challenge to fight off infection.
You’ve had a heart attack, but don’t lose heart
Before heart disease was ever, well, a disease, many people enjoyed arterial plaque-free lives. It wasn’t until the start of the 20th century—when we saw the dawning of the technological revolution, processed food and modern medicine—that doctors and resear-chers began to see an increase in clogged blood vessels, heart attacks, and strokes.
Today, it’s the second-leading killer in the U.S. and continues to be a leading cause of death around the world—despite all the advances in modern medicine.
Except in one region, where people still enjoy a much lower risk of heart disease simply by following a timeless, natural solution––and more powerful than statins!
Before I go any further, please understand that if you have already suffered a heart attack, I am not telling you to get off the statins, beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors —or even to put away the aspirin. These have been shown to improve survival after a heart attack. (However, I most emphatically do NOT recommend them as preventives.) With heart disease, I say pull out all the stops and use whatever has been proven to work. But, and this is important, don’t neglect what has proven to work naturally, either.
One of the most overlooked approaches to preventing another heart attack is simply—diet. Let me explain. The oft-cited Lyons Heart Study was a well-designed, long-term, multi-center, randomized, controlled trial—in short, it was a remarkably great study. The resear-chers took folks who had experienced a heart attack and put them on a Mediterranean-style diet, which is anti-inflammatory, to see how they would fare.
Why would the research team want to test a specific diet, when every conventional cardiologist recommends a low-fat one? Well, it was a look at something that doesn’t lie: numbers. The researchers saw that people in the Mediterranean region had a lower incidence of heart disease than what we have here in the U.S. Also, there is the correlation between inflammation in the body and a substance called C-reactive protein (CRP)—which is now used as a marker of inflammation and the best predictor of heart disease. Studies link the Mediterranean-style diet with lower levels of CRP.
After these heart patients were placed on a Mediterranean-style eating plan, imagine the researchers’ surprise when they discovered that the patients’ risk of further cardiac events was reduced by 70 percent! (Statins typically reduce risk by only 25 to 35 percent for the same people.) And here’s more: The cholesterol numbers stayed the same, with the diet working at least twice as well as cholesterol-lowering drugs. Also, it reduced CRP levels.
Food is more powerful than lab-created pharmaceuticals!
Revitalize a wounded heart
Another largely overlooked alternative for heart support is supplements. I want to tell you about one of the most exciting nutraceuticals to come along this decade—D-ribose, which is made in every cell of your body. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the main energy compound that gives your body the power it needs, and for it to be created, your body depends on ribose. Without it, energy won’t be made.
And chronic conditions like heart disease can drain your ATP reserves, leaving you with less energy than ever. This becomes a vicious cycle. Oxygen deprivation causes the heart to use energy faster than it can be replaced, depleting those reserves, which means further loss of heart function. I recommend you take 5 to 10 grams of D-ribose a day.
Fish oil is also highly beneficial, which is well supported by multiple scientific studies. Yet, many cardiologists in this country continue to ignore it. I recommend you take a fish oil supplement for a maximum of 2 grams of total EPA—the key omega-3 when it comes to heart health.
I’m also a big fan of magnesium. If you’re on any type of cardiovascular drug, you can guarantee this mineral is being leached from your body—actually causing electrical changes in your heart muscle. To beat properly, the heart muscle requires magnesium in order to manufacture the energy needed. I recommend you get a supplement of magnesium in citrate, orotate, glycinate malate or fumarate form, 400 to 800 mg a day.
Consider a sweet solution to avoid the knife
Q.I’ve had lower back pain on and off for over two years, due to a work injury in which I took a spill on some stairs. I’m in my late 50s, maintain my weight, and am usually very active. That’s until the pain flared up a couple of weeks ago. Now I can barely move. My doctor prescribed rest, ibuprofen, and a narcotic pain pill. He also recomm-ended that I see a local neurosurgeon. A friend mentioned to me something about trying “prolotherapy,” but I don’t know anything about it. What is it, and could it help with this pain I’m having?
––Phillip S., Springfield, VT
A.I’m sorry to hear about your back pain, because I know how difficult a time you must be having.
However, the person who mentioned prolotherapy to you may have done you a big favor, because it just may be the answer to your problem. No one wants to have surgery, especially if there’s a far less invasive measure to take care of back pain—without the risk of complications.
First, a little background on prolotherapy. It’s a simple, safe technique that stimulates the body’s very own natural healing ability—lending it a helping hand. It also promotes the growth of new tendon and ligament connective tissue in the joints.
A nontoxic substance—often just plain old sugar water—is injected with a thin needle into the joint near the injured tendon or ligament. This causes a local inflammatory reaction around the injury, which is a normal and desirable response in an injury such as this. The inflammatory response speeds up the normal tissue-healing process, helping to stabilize the injured joint by thickening and strengthening the tissue over time.
Ah, but the side effects. How about pain relief? That’s what you get in return for the natural healing process and improved functioning. I can’t argue with that.
And you should know that anti-inflammatories and narcotics can actually inhibit the normal healing process, so if possible put them away during prolotherapy.
In your case, it sounds as if the tiny ligaments that hold the small bones together in your lower back are injured—resulting in an unstable situation. Your brain would respond to this injury by making your muscles tighten up in order to guard against that instability and the chance of any further injury.
Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop had a similar injury many years ago that failed to respond to conventional treatments, but he didn’t opt for surgery (ironic, considering he was the “surgeon” general!). It’s a good thing he avoided the more invasive measure, because this simple remedy worked successfully for him. After receiving several prolotherapy injections, he was cured. As a result, he learned how to do prolotherapy himself, and for the rest of his career he treated friends, family members, and patients.
Prolotherapy can be an effective option for many musculoskeletal injuries: Neck, elbows, knees, backs —even headaches—all respond well. And, it has saved many folks from the surgeon’s knife.
A common course of treatment would be 4 to 6 injections, at the rate of one injection every three to four weeks. It can only be administered by a doctor who has received extensive training. Go to www.aaomed.org to locate a practitioner near you.
Prolotherapy has been practiced for decades in this country, mainly by medical doctors who are open to the idea of a treatment that doesn’t squeeze onto a prescription pad. Prolotherapy is done by a variety of specialists, such as orthopedists, anesthesiologists, internists, and neurosurgeons. They receive special training, with their primary training provided by the Osteopath School located in Maine. Remember that this therapy is basically sugar water, so it’s not something a drug company can market. Osteopath physicians with the special training can also do it. If you decide to try prolotherapy, make sure it’s a regular part of his practice and that he’s giving injections on a daily basis. That just means he has more practice in doing injections!
The text contained herein does not constitute medical advice. Health Revelations advises that you consult your own physician before acting on any recommendations contained within this publication.
Posted in Newsletter.
