Archive for July, 2010

We need to rethink how we use medical testing. Sometimes, when the medical doctor says we got you covered, he means he is protecting himself from a medical-malpractice lawsuit. It isn’t just enough to offer you his guidance without all suitable and not so suitable tests. To be more specific doctors think healthcare means access to more and more tests.

We have taken healthcare to a new level.  We are being bombarded with a continuous stream of radiation through CT scans, and other powerful x-ray machines. The quest for better health through more scanning devises has been a disaster. It is a risky decision to subject patients to immeasurable amounts of radiation.

This is a perilous exercise in overcautious use of imaging testing. Americans should be prepared for higher frequency of radiation caused cancers, if this trend continues in the years to come.

Americans Get Radiated.  It can be titled:

The Dangers of Medical Radiation Exposure

CT Scans Dangers

Overuse of Medical Imaging         

Radiation Impacts Cancer Rate

Americans Get Radiated

Americans are the Winner and Loser at the same time in the radiation department.

Americans Get the Most Medical Radiation

Americans get the most medical radiation in the world, more than citizens in other rich countries. We finally win at something. The U.S. accounts for half of the most advanced procedures that use radiation and the average American’s dose had grown six fold over the last couple of decades.

This is not looking at anything but medical tests. What’s amazing is not looking at airport scanners, power lines, cell phones, or microwaves.

Americans get the most medical radiation and still have lousy health. So the biggest myth buster is more radiation is going to ensure better health. In fact it raises the cancer risk and medical costs.

Reality Check

Using technologically advanced medical imaging hasn’t changed how allopathic medicine conducts business. Americans are over tested and over treated, and yet are still unhealthy. Now, we have another source of danger acquiring too much radiation from all the testing.

Radiation accumulates over time. Doctors don’t keep track of radiation given to their patients. Also, there are no federal rules on radiation dose. Children are going to have a lifetime to accumulate more radiation exposure than any previous generation.

Sometimes machines aren’t adjusted for the patient’s size. This isn’t non-toxic and it makes plain sense to realize this generation of super X-rays that give fast, detailed images should be used very selectively. At this point in time it is used selectively, to avoid a lawsuit by misdiagnosis of a patient.

Danger

Too much radiation raises the risk of cancer. That risk is growing because people in everyday situations are getting imaging tests far too often. Like the New Hampshire teen who was about to get a CT scan to check for kidney stones until a radiologist, Dr. Steven Birnbaum, discovered he’d already had 14 of these powerful X-rays for previous episodes. Adding up the total dose, “I was horrified” at the cancer risk it posed, Birnbaum said.

When other radiologists tell him they’ve never found such a case, Birnbaum replies: “That tells me you haven’t looked.”

Another study by Columbia University researchers, published in 2007, estimated that in a few decades, as many as 2 percent of all cancers in the U.S. might be due to radiation from CT scans given now. Since previous studies suggest that a third of all tests are unnecessary, 20 million adults and more than 1 million children are needlessly being put at risk, they concluded.

Business as Usual

At this time this is how allopathic medicine conducts business. Yes, these are business decisions as well as dumb choices for safeguarding the American consumer’s health.

Spotting health problems by using ultra sophisticated scanning machines is one thing, trying to avoid a malpractice and lawsuit shouldn’t be at the expense of the patient.

Welcome to America’s defensive healthcare, with you getting bombarded with radiation so doctor’s can play it safe. Imaging that shows a problem doesn’t always mean that it will lead to effective treatment.

Vaccine response research is now taking a look at dose related differences between men and women. Vaccine dose based on biological differences, could be a significant predictor of both reaction, and response.

Vaccines Capabilities  

Vaccines capabilities are limited by many things. Vaccines don’t have  go-anywhere do- anything versatility and quality. The devil is in the details. Vaccines haven’t progressed to the point where they do anything more than bombard a person with a standard dosage. They are not precision dosages that depend on the size, sex, and condition of the recipient.

Should you care? Absolutely, we depend on both the reliability and the safety of the dosage. Technicalities matter from your view point. You don’t want to be flying  blindly, you can’t retract a shot, once it is given.

Vaccine Gender Problems

If you don’t see the problem, that’s a problem in itself. According to research at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health responses to vaccines vary according to sex.

“Sex can affect the frequency and severity of adverse effects of vaccination including fever, pain and inflammation,” said Sabra Klein PhD, lead author of the review and an assistant professor at the Bloomberg School’s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. This is likely due to fact that women typically mount stronger immune responses to vaccinations compared to men. In some cases, women need substantially less of a vaccine to mount the same response as men. Pregnancy is also a factor that can alter immune responses to vaccines.”

Biological differences between the sexes could be a significant predictor of responses to vaccines, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They examined published data from numerous adult and child vaccine trials and found that sex is a fundamental, but often overlooked predictor of vaccine response. The review is featured in the May 2010 issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Vaccine Age Related Issues

Vaccine age related issues are usually not understood by seniors. Studies have shown that flu shots are usually ineffective for the elderly population. Vaccines are introduced with all sorts of claims and no real studies to back them up.

In a review article in Lancet Infectious Diseases, research by Dr. Lisa Jackson, a senior investigator at the Group Health Center for Health Studies, says evidence that all older people should get flu vaccines in weak.

If the flu shot doesn’t boosts immunity in the elderly it isn’t a solution, or a breakthrough in flu protection.The shots are not free of preservatives, solvents and reflect a challenge to an impaired immune system.

Experts

If the experts you depend on don’t have a clue, the ultimate choice to get vaccinated or not is yours. There are many reasons for questioning vaccines efficiency and safety record. Mass media campaigns may not tell the whole story. The claims are many times outright false.

All things related to health are related to nutrition. Any eye health guide has to emphasize this connection.

Vision 

Your eyes may the window to your soul; they are also a reflection of your health. Many eye problems are a refection of your nutritional status. As people age they may experience vision loss due to cataracts, macular degeneration (AMD) and other sight problems.

Eye Health Study   

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) – funded scientists at the Laboratory for Nutrition and Vision Research are finding that healthy eating can reduce health costs by protecting the vision and the quality of life. The laboratory study directed by Allen Taylor is part of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutritional Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. Mass.

One study indicated that regularly consuming a combination of protective nutrients and a low-glycemic-index, or “slow carb,” diet provided an AMD protective effect. A food’s glycemic index is an indicator of how fast the carbohydrate it contains will spike blood sugar levels. The macula is a 3-millimeter-wide yellow spot near the center of the retina responsible for the central field of vision.

For the study, the researchers analyzed dietary intake and other data from more than 4,000 men and women, aged 55 to 80, who had participated in the long-term Age-Related Eye Disease Study, or AREDS. Led by Chung-Jung Chiu, the researchers ranked intake of each of several nutrients consumed during the AREDS study, then calculated a compound score to gauge their combined dietary effect on the risk of AMD. The scoring system allowed them to evaluate associations between individual – and combined – dietary nutrients.

The nutrients that were found to be most protective in combination with the low-glycemic-index diet were vitamins C and E, zinc, lutein, zeaxanthin, and the omega-3 fatty acids known as DHA and EPA. The 2009 study was published in Ophthalmology

No Surprise

It’s no surprise that every cell, function, and organ is dependent on the nutrition that you supply them with. It is simply, disease can’t take root as easily in a healthy body. The way to good vision is by consuming a nutrient rich diet.

Most fruits and vegetables supply vitamin C in ample amounts. This list includes oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, papaya, green peppers, and tomatoes. Vitamin E is found in nuts, seeds, and wheat germ. Lutein and Zeaxanthin are found together in many foods. Dark green leafy vegetables are a good source. It is also found in smaller amounts in broccoli, orange peppers, corn, peas, persimmons, and tangerines.

These are delicious ways to both general health and vision health.  Achieving the benefits of good eyesight supports vascular health within the eye and improves visual acuity. It has been found than carotenoids protect against free-radical induced DNA damage. The density of your macular pigments composed (composed of Lutein, Zeaxanthin, meso-zeaxanthin) is essential to proper vision.

These may be big words, but all one has to know is eating lots lutein and zeaxanthin containing vegetables can help maintain the structural integrity of the macula.

As We See It

Plant compounds halt the progression of both macular degeneration, and cataracts. These are a significant cause of decreased vision. To halt vision loss with nutritional interventions is a very attractive solution.