Health Advocate for Nutritional Supplements
”Preventative healthcare” initially was a term used by alternative medicine practitioners. As alternative medicine grew in popularity, the term preventative healthcare was adopted by insurance companies to mean scheduled health screenings, including osteoporosis, routine laboratory tests and vaccinations. Almost everyone is familiar with the requirement for babies to get vaccinated, and the recent questions surrounding the increasing recommendations for more seemingly every year as well as the associated controversy related to the rise of autism in this country. While some vaccinations may find merit, many are seen as a way to make money. It is true that a doctor can make $100,000 a year just on markup on drugs in the office - it’s a legal practice and gives incentive to use drugs. Is it efficient? It’s believed chemotherapy doesn’t work for most cancers.
Complaints abound how natural medicine, and especially targeted are nutritional supplements, is expensive and there is no scientific proof that it improves health or meets the community standard of “medically necessity” . The accusation is often heard that one is throwing good money after bad. Yet anyone who has studied nutrition knows the soils in the United States are so depleted, micro-nutrients cannot be derived from foods in sufficient quantities as well as depleted sources of vitamins and minerals. How much better can it be for all the imported foods from other countries?
Regardless of your personal belief, conventional medicine or alternative medicine, one must realize that economy and politics are at the core of the dilemma. The fact is observation in nature is how scientific studies begin, not a clinical trial. For some, nothing is more frightening than a new scientific idea. For others, sticking to the basics of nutrition and supporting detoxification is how they plan to take the issue of aging head-on.
Given the current economic crisis, healthcare has become more expensive and all economist and politicians agree, help will not be coming soon in a national health care policy. Prevention is your best bet at redistribution of wealth. Pay now or pay later.
Health information, fortunately, is no longer limited to drugs and that bothers many traditional doctors even when they cannot provide answers or help. Others see alternative medicine as a wave of the future and are striving to take advantage of opportunities to meet their patient’s needs. While antidotal use of drugs don’t always work and usually present with side effects, antidotal use of nutritional supplements won’t hurt you even if you don’t need them. Some combinations with drugs can be harmful, so if you use drugs, you need a doctor who specializes in nutrition to help you sort it out.
Scientific testing tells us basic reliable information based on years of research. For example, DHEA and CoQ10 decrease with age. CoQ-10 raises good cholesterol HDL, and lowers bad cholesterol LDL. Its level is reduced in the heart wall and muscle tissue from 58 to 70% with aging. DHEA lowers at an age when cancer is seen to be on the rise. DHEA lowers liprotein (a) when taken with amino acids proline and lysine. However, one should not use DHEA indiscriminately because too much will lower HDL.
According to research literature DHEA was tested in lupus patients with good benefit at dosages of up to 200mg. At these levels, one should be monitored by a doctor who understands how DHEA should be used. Rheumatologist aside, the unlikely person to monitor DHEA would be the conventional doctor who believes it could cause cancer because it can raise testosterone and estradiol levels. That concern is based on a concern and not scientific facts. The levels accomplished with supplementation are of no concern in more youthful ages.
Health Watch Central promotes the idea that each field of medicine has its place and in some clinics, nutritional testing is available at a reasonable charge. The clinic we are associated with provides a test for $149 guaranteed with a value of $1,500, regardless of insurance status. The patient can be tested by a quality laboratory for amino acids, fatty acids, vitamin and mineral deficiency, and organic testing. The results provide knowledge to the patient regarding what they are truly deficient in and may indicate other imbalances in the system. One patient’s results demonstrated very deficient essential fatty acids. Essential means the body must consume it and essential fat is necessary for good health. With appropriate nutrition, nerve pain as well as irritable bowel symptoms subsided. What would you do? Thanks, I would take the inexpensive fix of adding some oils verses the several drugs offered for the same condition.
