Cholesterol Lowering Drugs are Worthless in Most Cases – Part Three
By Mark Schauss | February 25, 2008
Before I get into today’s discussion on inflammation, please go to this link put up by Chance News, a group dedicated to reviewing information about the use of statistics in the news. They review the cholesterol news and and the statistics behind it. Go down halfway down the page to see the report.
Inflammation. That is the key driver of many disease progressions. From arthritis to coronary heart disease and from cancer to many neurological disorders, if you control inflammation, you control the disease. Two things are important in determining what to do when it comes to your, or your patient’s inflammatory issues. First is proper laboratory testing is lifestyle changes.
The tenet of biochemical individuality is that each person must be dealt with as a unique being. By suggesting that everyone who has a risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) should take one drug or one supplement is an insult to Dr. Roger Williams concept. The only way to determine what is going on is to do the appropriate lab tests.
When looking for markers of inflammation as they relate to coronary heart disease, one jumps out as being a primary marker and that is C-Reactive Protein. CRP is a protein produced by the liver and is increased during inflammatory processes. People with elevated levels are more likely to have a coronary event than people with low levels. It is important to note that a single high reading is not a good marker for CHD, a number of elevations (>3.0 mg/L) would signify a problem. Crayhon Research, in conjunction with ZRT Laboratories is a place to get a simple, in-home test (Cardio/Hormone Risk Test) that uses blood spot and saliva to test not only for CRP, but a number of other coronary risk factors as well as hormone levels.
What would cause an elevation in inflammatory markers? Toxicity is one so testing for urinary markers of petrochemicals which is done only by US Biotek, is a good place to start. By seeing if you are excreting chemicals like benzene, styrene, xylene, toluene, phthalates or parabens, you can find out where your exposures might be coming from. Another good test to run is a Hair Elements test from Doctor’s Data to determine possible heavy metal exposure. To help you better understand the report, I suggest Dr. Andrew Cutler’s book – Hair Test Interpretation: Finding Hidden Toxicities.
Another source of inflammatory triggers is food and the best test I have ever found in determining which foods can cause inflammation is the LEAP MRT. Developed by Signet Diagnostics, it can pinpoint the foods that cause the body to release pro-inflammatory prostaglandins, leukotrienes and cytokines that drive the inflammation process. It was the one test that helped my daughter control her seizure activity as well as behavioral issues. It has a great track record in relieving irritable bowel syndrome as well as migraines, both driven by inflammatory triggers.
If you want to become heart healthy, you need to find out whether your body is inflammed and if so, what is causing it. Once you do that, you reduce your risk of developing not just heart disease, but a number of other health conditions.
Topics: Drugs, Health, Laboratory Tests, Neurological Disorders, Opinion, Research | No Comments »
What is the FDA Thinking?
By Mark Schauss | February 24, 2008
The drug Avastin, has just been approved by the Federal Drug Administration for the treatment of breast cancer despite it having shown no benefits over exisiting drugs in prolonging life or improving the quality of life of women taking the drug. What is the point of taking a drug that doesn’t benefit the patient aside from making money for the pharmaceutical company (Genentech in this case)? I thought the criteria for the approval of cancer drugs is that it shows benefits for the users not ones that have greater side-effects like this one.
While the drug has shown to help in the shrinking of tumors, I cannot for the life of me understand how you approve a drug which fails at improving life quality and longevity and even has been shown to increase the risk of death. This is a horrible failure of the FDA to uphold its agenda. The independent outside advisor committee voted 5-4 AGAINST the approval for the drug yet the FDA in its puzzling wisdom rejected that advise. One has to wonder what their thinking was if you can call it thought.
Another bad day for the agency that needs a major overhaul.
Topics: Drugs, Health, Research | 1 Comment »
Change the World, a Little Step at a Time – Part Five
By Mark Schauss | February 24, 2008
Last in a series of tips to help change the world. Remember, we do not need to do big things everyday, small ones done often will make as big of an affect than the occasional big change. The key is to do something.
Tip #21 – Buy organic whenever possible. In the ’60s, the world used 30 million tons of pesticides and fertilizers a year. In 2000, it went up to 140 million tons. Buying organic tells food producers that you don’t want that to continue. Organic foods are simply healthier than non-organic.
Tip #22 – Stop buying artificial air fresheners. They contain volitile chemicals like phthalates that are flat out bad for you and especially children. Use things like potpourri’s or the like. You can find lots of natural oils at the local health food store that work just as well as their chemical cousins.
Tip #23 – Lay off products made with palm oil. To make palm oil, vast areas of the rain forest are being cut down, especially in Indonesia for the palm plantations. Switch to better oils like olive, canola or sunflower instead.
Tip #24 – Switch to safe detergents – At the Schauss house, we use Ecos laundry detergent which we get at Costco. Many regular detergents contain environmentally unfriendly chemicals which ruin our waterways.
Tip #25 – Buy fish that are caught in environmentally safe ways. Overfishing is becoming a problem, farm bred fish contain lots of chemicals, and popular fish like tuna contains mercury. Buying sustainable and healthy fish is important. My favorites are Vital Choice out of Washington. Not only is their fish phenomenal, they are really nice people as well.
Topics: Environment, Toxicity | No Comments »
Change the World, a Little Step at a Time – Part Four
By Mark Schauss | February 22, 2008
More tips to make your world greener. And happier!
Tip #16- Dump the gas powered lawnmower. Gasoline powered mowers generate as much pollution per hour as 40 cars. Switch to an electric or better yet, get a manual reel mower. Xeriscape if you can. Smaller lawns equals less water use.
Tip #17- Plant a tree. Seems simple but we all need to do it. Even if you don’t have land to plant a tree there are a number of organizations that can do it for you. Dell Computers has a website that allows you to make a donation to help plants trees. Their program is called “Plant a Tree for Me” and it allows you to see how little you need to donate to offset things like computers, printers and other computer related products.
Tip #18- Turn off the heat when washing clothes. Did you know there is no reason to use hot or even warm water when washing your clothes? You use 30% less energy when you wash in warm rather than hot and even more when you wash in cold water. To top it off, your clothes will last longer which is also good for the environment. You save lots of money and make the world a better place. Not bad eh?
Tip #19- Donate your old cellphones. At my house, the kids love playing with our old cell phones but for those of you without kids, or those with different tastes in toys, donate your old cell phones to charity because if you throw them out, they will leach toxic chemicals into the environment.
Tip #20 – Drop the pesticides. One of the worst things you can do to the environment is the use of pesticides. There are so many natural alternatives like putting bay leaves into your flour and cereals will repel weevils, ants hate peppermint and cucumber peel, and if you have mice, soak cotton balls in citronella or oil of peppermint and leave them in areas you notice they like to congregate.
Topics: Environment, Toxicity | No Comments »
Change the World, a Little Step at a Time – Part Three
By Mark Schauss | February 21, 2008
Here are more of my favorite ways to change our world. Remember, pick one or two here and there and start the process.
Tip #11 – Invest in the rainforest. The United States is the richest country in the world and I am proud to say, the most giving. Still, every year we give gifts to our family members and friends and often times the gifts are used for a short time then either discarded or put away. Imagine a gift that will last a lifetime and make a difference. Go to the World Land Trust and buy an acre of the rainforest and you can do just that. Buy a half acre or an acre. Imagine 1/2 acre of land in lieu of 2 weeks worth of lattés.
Tip #12 – Don’t keep your cell phone charger plugged in. If you do, 95% of the energy it uses is wasted. Remember that what we want to do here is reduce waste first then consumption. I believe America can become energy self-sufficient if it cut back just one-quarter of its wasteful habits.
Tip #13 – Turn your office computer off each night. The amount of energy that a computer burns overnight when not being used is the equivalent of laser printing 800 pages of documents. This adds up in one year to 1.9 tons of CO2 (which would cost you $10.45 to offset [Carbon Fund Offset Calculator]).
Tip #14 – Say no to junk mail. Aside from being horribly annoying, junk mail is horrible for the environment. Go to the Direct Marketing Association to opt out of receiving junk mail. It won’t eliminate it but it will lower it substantially which will in turn save trees.
Tip #15 – Turn off your screen and forget about the “screen saver”. Screen savers use almost as much energy as when you are using the screen. Turn off your screen if you will be away from your desk more than 1/2 an hour.
Topics: Environment, Toxicity | No Comments »
Change the World, a Little Step at a Time – Part Two
By Mark Schauss | February 20, 2008
Here is part two of my multi-part series on changing the world by lowering your environmental footprint.
Tip #6 – Don’t shave on weekends. Doesn’t seem like much but if you think about it, all we need to do are a number of small things to make a big difference.
Tip #7 – Recycle newspaper. For every yard in height of newspaper you recycle, you save one tree from being cut down. Remember, trees help suck up the CO2 from the atmosphere.
Tip #8 – Unplug electronic devices. When you leave computers, TV’s and other household appliances plugged in and on standby when they won’t be used for a few hours, they are draining electricity anyway. Unplug your television if you won’t be around to watch it for 8 hours or so. Better yet, reduce your television viewing and not only will you be saving money and electricity, you’ll be finding lots of better things to do with your life. They didn’t call it the boob tube for nothing.
Tip #9 – Buy organic milk instead of regular. Not only will you reduce the use of environmentally unfriendly pesticides, insecticides and hormones, you will benefit from the ingestion of healthier milk, richer in omega-3 fatty acids than regular milk.
Tip #10 – Reuse cooking water. Why dump the water you cooked your pasta in down the drain? Save it, let it cool and water your plants. Same with the water used to cook your veggies. Think about reusing the water you use to cook with and you’ll not only be saving water and money, but you will be adding nutrients to your plants as well.
As I said yesterday, find a couple of things here and there to change your lifestyle and pretty soon, everything you do will be green.
Topics: Environment, Toxicity | No Comments »
Change the World, a Little Step at a Time
By Mark Schauss | February 19, 2008
Now with the release of my book “Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World”, I thought it’s time to start giving my readers tips on how you can make a difference when it comes to our environment. We tend to think that our footprint compared to big companies and governments are so small that any change we make is miniscule. Furthermore, so many of the books out there remind us that if ¼ of the population were to do something (like change from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs), the environment would improve greatly. This is nice in the abstract but how does this excite me to make a difference. My thought is that it doesn’t matter what everyone else does until you do it yourself.
If you can put your head on your pillow tonight knowing that you did something, even something very small, to lower your environmental footprint, then you will have helped save our planet.
No need to do all of my tips; pick a few that you feel you can accomplish and those that pertain to your life. I will be posting those things my family and I will be doing to change our habits to be better stewards of our environment. Together we can and will change this world.
Tip #1 – If you can’t lower your travel, offset your carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by going to the CarbonFund website and make a donation. They have calculators to show how much your travels generate greenhouse gases and what it would cost to offset them. An example is how much my car, a 2003 Saturn Vue would cost to offset for one year. I travel about 15,000 miles a year and to offset the 6.34 tons of CO2 it cost me $34.85 to offset that (My Prius only cost me $13.31). This money goes towards projects that will counter my polluting ways. My next car will be one that is about 20% more efficient than the Vue which is another way to lower my footprint.
Tip #2 – Automate your bill paying. Bills are never fun to pay but paying them online instead of via the mail reduces paper waste, lowers the gas needed to transport the payment and lowers postage costs. My family has been doing this for a few years now and it is much more efficient than the old paper way.
Tip #3 – Cook your meals from scratch. Stop buying pre-packaged foods that are a waste of material, energy hogs (creation of the product to the containers), and is infinitely healthier for you. My two daughters go to a Montessori school and they don’t allow pre-packaged foods to be used for their lunches which I believe is a great thing. The amount of time it takes to make a real meal versus a pre-packaged one is small. Make dinner creation a family event. It will bring you closer and will be good for your health and the health of our world.
Tip #4 – Don’t buy bottled water. Ugh, this one annoys me to no end. Fiji Water could be the worst. Imagine the amount of energy it takes to transport the bottling material from China to Fiji, then to pump the water up to the bottling plant and then shipping it to the US? Sound ridiculous to you? Does to me. I once wrote about this on my blog to show the insanity of buying bottled water. Get a glass or stainless steel container and bottle your own tap water (use a filter if you need to). It’s smart, environmentally right and you will save a bundle of money (remember, bottled water costs around $9.00 a gallon, tap is about .03¢).
Tip #5 – Stop using bleach. There are a number of alternatives and here is an easy one. Instead of using bleach tablets to keep your toilet clean, mix a cup of borax, mix in some vinegar (just a teaspoon should do) and leave overnight. Scrub in the morning and your porcelain is clean as can be and non-toxic. Guess what the Schauss family will be doing today?
The next few weeks I will be sharing lots more of these tips and then I will be uploading a tracker spreadsheet to help you see what kind of an impact you are having. It could become a fun, family affair or you can make it a neighborhood challenge to see who can make the biggest difference.
Topics: Environment, Toxicity | 1 Comment »
Cholesterol Lowering Drugs are Worthless in Most Cases – Part Two
By Mark Schauss | February 18, 2008
In one of my blogs last week, I talked about the issues with Lipitor® and the lack of the association between high cholesterol and coronary heart disease. Now let’s talk about real problems that come up by taking this drug.
Say the side-effect rate is 3-5% (which is the pharmaceutical industry line) which means that given one-percent of people get a benefit, five-percent get side-effects that can be rather serious. Guess what? That estimate is way under what practitioners in the field are seeing. Reports indicate that in the real world the side-effect rate is closer to 15%.
Obviously, this would mean that we need to move away from pharmaceutical intervention to lower cholesterol to alternative, “natural” ones right? Wrong. Turns out cholesterol levels in people with heart disease are not really much higher than people without heart disease. Also, low cholesterol (under 160mg/dl) may increase the risk of a number of health disorders like stroke, cancer, depression, and suicide. Lowering cholesterol is not the issue, in spite of what the nutraceutical industry would like you to believe. They are being no different in their claims than the pharmaceutical industry.
The real culprit in heart disease is inflammation. Lower inflammation and not only do you lower the real risk for heart disease , you lower the risks for a myriad of other diseases from diabetes to arthritis, from cancer to migraines, seizures and irritable bowel syndrome to name a few.
Topics: Drugs, Health, Opinion, Research | No Comments »
Mercury and CFLs – What is the Truth About This Issue?
By Mark Schauss | February 15, 2008
I have seen arguements on both sides of the issue when it comes to mercury and compact fluorescent light bulbs. CFLs contain about 5 milligrams of mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal whereas a incandescent bulb contains none. If you look at it that way, on face value, there is no way you should use a CFL. But that isn’t the whole story.
Yes, the bulbs when used up or broken, need to be disposed of differently than incandescents. You can go to Lamp Recycle which is a resource for any light bulb (“lamp”) user seeking details on recycling spent mercury-containing lamps. Still, there is a very good reason why using a CFL actually cuts down on the amount of mercury being dumped into the environment.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, here is the reason why CFLs lower mercury dumping into the environment:
“CFLs do contain a small amount of mercury, so they cannot be thrown out in the trash (see the related links for disposal information). However, the mercury in CFLs represents a much less significant environmental hazard than incandescent bulbs because CFLs require much less electricity, and more than half of our nation’s electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants-the largest U.S. source of mercury emissions.
In other words, the average coal-fired power plant emits only 3.2 milligrams of mercury for each CFL running six hours per day for five years, but emits nearly 15 milligrams of mercury for an incandescent bulb running the same amount of time, according to UCS research. The difference far exceeds the approximately five milligrams present inside a CFL. Properly disposing of CFLs ensures the mercury in them remains contained.”
Another reason to use CFLs is that by using less energy, if everyone in America were to swap one bulb, it would be the equivalent of removing 800,000 cars from the roads. Less, benzene, toluene, and other greenhouse gases would be lowered significantly. At the Schauss House, we have already replaced about a dozen incandescents with CFLs. Also, my Rotary club has committed $1,000 to helping charter schools, non-profits and other deserving community based organizations switch as well.
Topics: Environment, heavy metals, Mercury, Toxicity | 1 Comment »
Cholesterol Lowering Drugs are Worthless in Most Cases – Part One
By Mark Schauss | February 15, 2008
While walking through the SeaTac Airport a few weeks ago, I saw an article in Business Week magazine that made me smile as it was saying what I have been saying for years, which is, statin drugs really don’t prevent heart disease.
Aside from the Vytorin®/Zetia® debacle, the whole idea of lowering cholesterol (LDL especially) to prevent heart disease is nothing less than a scam. In my book, Achieving Victory Over a Toxic World, I devote a few pages on the medical communities fascination with LDL and heart disease and how bogus the idea is. Well, the evidence is coming in that I was indeed right, as were a number of researchers I mentioned like Dr. Ufe Ravnskov and Dr. John Abramson.
When I make my comments at lectures around the world about the lack of a real link between LDL cholesterol and heart disease I get mixed reactions. Knowledgeable health care practitioners nod in agreement with big smiles; others grimace with a backdrop of anger and disbelief. Individuals look mystified, bewildered and highly skeptical. How can a guy with a doctorate in business be right when so many physicians who have studied heart disease be wrong? If you stay on the side that thinks statin drugs and lowering cholesterol are proven preventive treatments for coronary heart disease after reading this three-part blog, either you are in a major state of denial or you are on the payroll of a pharmaceutical company that is benefiting from the sale of these ill-conceived toxins.
An important concept to understand is a number called the NNT (Number Needed to Treat). This number tells us the number of people that must take a drug for one person to benefit. If a drug is perfect, than that number should be one, which means for every one person who takes the drug, one person will benefit from it and prevent or successfully treat the disease or syndrome.
For people taking an antibiotic cocktail to kill off the bacterium (H pylorii) that causes ulcers, the NNT is 1.1, which is pretty darn good. For Lipitor®, whose sales last year for Pfizer was about 13 billion dollars, the NNT is between 16-23 for people who have had a heart attack or have definitive signs of heart disease. Not horrible, but an ok number.
So what does that number mean? To prevent one person having a heart event 16-23 people need to be taking the drug. To prevent a death, 48 people would have to take the drug for 5 years to save one life. But we are saving lives would (and is) the industry answer. Guess what? Change your lifestyle just a little bit (eat better, exercise more, stop smoking, etc) and you’ll do much better than that and you won’t have any nasty side effects.
For those of you with a risk factor like high blood pressure and no existing heart disease or heart attack history, the NNT goes to 75-200. If you have no risk factor except what the medical community would deem “high” cholesterol (over 220 mg/dl) the NNT is a ridiculous 500+ as there is no measurable reduction in deaths or serious events. Very little potential benefit, lots of profits for the pharmaceutical industry.
What about Zetia®? The NNT is an astounding 1000+. It is basically worthless. No benefits seen at all. The same can be said for the diabetes drug Avandia® which does lower blood glucose, but does not prevent any disease caused by diabetes.
“Lipitor® reduces the risk of heart attack by 36%… in patients with multiple risk factors for heart disease.” This is what Dr. Jarvik claims (as does Pfizer) in that insipid ad he appears on TV. Now let’s talk about the real numbers. In the clinical trial he mentions, three percent (3%) of the people taking placebo had a heart attack while two percent (2%) of the people taking Lipitor® had a heart attack. So, 99 people had to take Lipitor® for five years with no benefit for one person to gain a benefit over placebo to prevent a heart attack. I don’t know about you, but that isn’t a 36% improvement. Statistics lie when put into the hands of people with an agenda, especially a multi-billion dollar one.
Topics: Drugs, Health, Opinion, Research | 2 Comments »