Exciting advancements in medicine are happening and 2012
brought a host of good news in the healthcare.
Despite some depressing government statistics and politics of modern
medicine there are many positive signs out there, as more natural therapies are
being recognized for their value in disease treatment and prevention. Here are just a few that I find interesting.
Vitamins prevent
cancer
About one third of Americans take a daily multivitamin in
hopes of either preventing disease or improving health. We have endless data showing that a healthy
diet chocked full of vitamin and mineral containing fruits and vegetables correlates
with a lower risk of diseases such as cancer or heart disease. Yet, studies of vitamin supplements are difficult,
usually fraught with design errors and produce conflicting results.
However, a recent study showed vitamins prevent cancer. Compared with placebo, men taking a daily
multivitamin had a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of
total cancer, according to the Physicians Health Study II, a large-scale,
randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial of 14,641 male US physicians
initially aged 50 years or older, enrolled in a common multivitamin study that
began in 1997 with treatment and follow-up through 2011.
The small, but statistically significant 8% reduction in
total cancer incidence was seen in men taking “Centrum Silver”. This study is very interesting to me in that
Centrum is far from what I consider an ideal or complete multivitamin. The list of ingredients is small and the
specific mineral forms of vitamins synthetic and not identical to those found
in nature, in our food. Nevertheless, in
this study, the outcome was clearly beneficial for those taking Centrum.
There are multiple complexities in designing a study to
accurately determine if taking vitamin supplements is actually beneficial. Variables including the list of ingredients,
specific types and amounts of various vitamins and minerals, and compliance in
study participants, are just a few confounding issues to consider.
As an example, in recent years some poorly designed studies
have suggested that certain vitamins can actually increase the risk of
cancer. A more accurate statement would
be that isolating only one form of one particular vitamin and using that in a
study for health prevention is myopic and short sighted, underscoring the
misunderstanding of doctors and even researchers when it comes to vitamin actions
and thus vitamin research.
For example, the SELECT study done in 2008 showed that men
who take vitamin E have a higher rate of prostate cancer. Only one of the eight natural forms of
vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, was used in the study even though it is well known
this is not natural and causes a decline in one of the other cancer-fighting
forms of vitamin E called gamma-tocopherol.
Further analysis of the data in this study showed that
patients with the highest levels of gamma-tocopherol actually had a lower rate
of prostate cancer. It is well known
that alpha-tocopherol inhibits the production of free radicals, while it is the
gamma-tocopherol form of vitamin E that is required to trap and neutralize free
radicals.
There is usually “more to the story” in the interpretation
of vitamin research studies. The
pharmaceutical industry and the journals they fund are biased against vitamins
and it seems some studies are actually designed to fail. Most doctors have very little training in
nutrition or vitamins and as such their comments may simply parrot the
simplistic and hyped results of poorly designed studies. I encourage you to read deeper than the
typical media headlines. We should raise
the bar on the amount of information needed before starting a supplement study,
and in particular, we should have a better understanding of the biology of the
proposed vitamin in humans.
Chelation works to
lower risk of heart disease
Our office was a study site for the National Institute of
Health funded “Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT)” in which 1,708
patients with known heart disease were enrolled to receive a total of 30
intravenous chelation treatments to see if it would lower the rate of further
heart attacks, strokes, clogging of previously stented coronary arteries, or
hospitalization for angina.
Chelation is the process of pulling heavy metals such as
lead, arsenic or cadmium out from the body for excretion. It is well established that toxic
accumulation of heavy metals is quite damaging to our health, especially to
immune and neurologic systems. Heavy
metals are linked to high blood pressure and artery damage and as such
chelation has been used for about 50 years to treat and prevent artery diseases
such as heart disease and stroke.
The results of TACT showed a significant decrease in the chelation
treatment group with an 18% reduction in outcome events. Most of the benefit was seen in preventing
stents from clogging up again, and diabetics in the study had the greatest
benefit with a 39% reduction in outcome events.
I’d like to see the same study done in patients with much
earlier artery disease progression or absence of artery disease. This would make TACT more of a primary
prevention study instead of secondary as it was designed. This was a huge, landmark study, and seems to
have surprised the cardiology community which has remained skeptical of
chelation therapy, despite broad support of alternative practitioners and over
100,000 patients receiving chelation each year.
The Next Frontier
2012 showed considerable progress in areas I believe should
be revolutionary in future healthcare options.
We are learning more about the complex interactions and interdependency
on the fat-soluble vitamins K, A, D and E.
Genetic research continues to uncover absolutely fascinating information
such as the impact of “single nucleotide polymorphisms” on risks of disease and
previously unknown causes for defects in fundamental metabolic pathways.
Autoimmune disease may soon be a thing of the past as we
unravel how the connections between genetic predisposition, impaired gut
health, and environmental toxins “allow” the immune upset that permits
autoimmune disease to develop in the first place. Work with molecular genetics and the immune
system may lead to huge advancements in cancer treatments based on “smart
bombs” instead of the random killing effects of chemotherapy or radiation.
It’s also encouraging to see the growth of functional
medicine, which seeks to find and correct the “root cause” of disease rather
than simply chasing another symptom with another medication. The integration of natural, alternative and
complementary treatments continues to grow as patients find health success
outside the conventional pharmaceutical driven medical paradigm. 2013 has promise!
FREE
Seminars
“HCG
Weight Loss”
Wednesday,
January 16th, 6pm at the IMC
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Monday,
January 21st, 6pm at the IMC
RSVP at
245-6911
Bio
Scott Rollins, MD, is Board Certified with the American
Board of Family Practice and the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative
Medicine. He specializes in Bioidentical Hormone Replacement for men and
women, thyroid and adrenal disorders, fibromyalgia, weight loss and other
complex medical conditions. He is
founder and medical director of the Integrative Medicine Center of Western
Colorado (www.imcwc.com). Call 245-6911 for an appointment or more
information.
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