Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Chinese Checkers
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
I’m really beginning to wonder if China is out to get us. Last year, they exported poison pet food and poison toothpaste, now we are getting computer chips with built-in viruses and dental crowns and bridges that contain lead. So who thought it was such a wonderful idea to trade freely with a country whose government is dedicated to destroying us? Not that this petty stuff is part of their master plot, but they just don’t care if these things happen.
Large labs in the U.S. farm a lot of work out to Asian countries because it can be done so cheaply there. Agencies are in place to check those products and the materials that go into them, but apparently they’re not infallible. The American National Standards Institute and the International Standards Organization coordinate in an effort to create international standards for the profession. But now, the ADA Standards Committee on Dental Products is all over their case to find out how to get the lead out. Experts believe the contaminants could be introduced in pigments, glazes, or solder used in the production of the dental work, or from other environmental influences. More stringent monitoring protocols are expected.
The best thing you can do right now to insure your safety is to ask your dentist to request that their labs not export your work, but have it done in the good old USA, and be very specific about types of materials used. All those restrictions and standards we have to meet are good for something I guess.
Dr. Moulton’s article was published in the Desert Valley Times,
March, 2008
Posted in Health | No Comments »
The Mystery of Life has Been Solved
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
I’m not talking about the afterlife or world hunger or Benihana’s secret sauce. I’m talking about the age-old mystery of why women live longer than men. The national average life expectancy for men is 75 years, but for women it’s five years longer at 80.
Many theories have been put forth to try to explain this difference, such as getting more exercise, being more protected, and crying more. Although I’ll concede that last one, I personally think that with the increased responsibilities, childbirth, worry, and constant hormonal upheaval, women are exposed to much more stress and abuse throughout their life than men. This stress is manifested in the higher incidence of degenerative diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis, but for some reason women are holding up much better than men in every other way.
So what is that reason? In two words, less iron. Every study known has shown that excess iron significantly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, infections, and other problems associated with aging. Every anti-aging practice either inadvertently or purposely reduces the excess iron in your body. But you’ll notice I said excess iron, because iron is a two-edged sword. Iron is necessary in red blood cells for the binding if oxygen to carry through your body. Iron deficiency anemia can cause weakness and loss of energy, but contrary to popular belief, this is a very rare disease because the dietary practices and lifestyles in this country inevitably lead to an iron excess, which is a much greater danger.
And why hasn’t some drug company noticed all this research and taken up the banner to aid mankind by reducing the ravages of excess iron? Money. You can’t make enough off the cure to justify the research and development, and more importantly, why would you want to actually prevent those other diseases and lose out on all the profits you could make from those more expensive drugs? That would be silly!
The people most affected are adult men, and women after menopause. Children are usually okay with iron. The increase in blood volume as they grow and develop requires more iron. But when they mature, that highly reactive iron that goes unused starts looking for trouble. Through oxidation, it destroys other compounds and cells. It collects in the liver causing life-threatening damage. It feeds new cancer cells which require up to a thousand times more iron than normal cells.
The reason adult women are at less risk is menstruation, which eliminates a lot of that excess iron. After menopause, however, they lose that protection. And women beware! Several pharmaceutical companies are starting to promote prescription hormones to eliminate menstrual cycles so you can “choose whether or not you want to have a period”. I can’t begin to express how dangerous this is. I promise you, this is one place you don’t want to mess with Mother Nature.
For you adult men and women over 60, since no one is likely to come up with a pill to make this iron problem go away, here are some very effective things you can do to take care of it yourself, as you should.
Avoid iron supplements. Unless you are diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia and a physician prescribes iron supplements, stay away from them because they can be extremely toxic. Before they blister packed them individually for safety, they were the number one cause of death in children under the age of 6. You should also avoid processed foods and those that are fortified with iron. Read the labels and look for iron or ‘ferric’ or ‘ferrous’.
Donate blood two to three times a year. Be a man and get in to the American Red Cross or the United Blood Services when they come through town. It’s a noble cause, but here’s a secret. It will do you more good than anyone else. It’s the best known way to eliminate that excess iron. One study showed that the incidence of cardiovascular disease was reduced by 30% among recent donors. If you don’t qualify, you could have your physician draw the blood. That’s called a phlebotomy.
Let me just touch on some dietary hints to help reduce the iron or its effects. First off, you guessed it, no alcohol. It triples your absorption of iron! Meats are important to your diet, but use small portions and not with every meal. Fruits and vitamin C are great but don’t combine them or juice with meat. Do eat plenty of colorful fruits and vegetables. The pigments reduce iron toxicity, and the iron in those natural foods is less absorbable. Very low calorie diets are helpful. There are very beneficial supplements you can find at your health food store. Chelating agents, such as tumeric and IP6 actually eliminate iron from your body. Foods that are high in antioxidants and antioxidant supplements such as resveratrol, vitamin C, and lipoic acid can combat the harmful effects of the iron. For resveratrol, you may have to order it from Resveratrol Partners on the internet or call 866-405-4000. If you need any other information on my sources or recommendations please call me at (702) 346-3371.
Dr. Moulton’s article was published in the Desert Valley Times, January 2008
Posted in Health | No Comments »
Don’t Swallow That Spider
Saturday, July 18th, 2009
Last week, we discussed the causes of osteoporosis, or low bone density, and mentioned how you can usually prevent it by eating whole natural foods, exercising, and avoiding drugs of any kind whenever possible. This week, we can focus on a special kind of bone in your jaws an around your teeth, called alveolar bone, and how bisphosphonates, a class of drugs used to treat osteoporosis, affects you.
In review, remember that bone is a living tissue which contains, among other things, osteoblasts, which are cells that deposit calcium from the blood into the bone structure, and osteoclasts, which are cells that remove the damaged structure and waste products and return them to the blood. In this way, the bone can be a vital tissue in your body that can stay healthy and respond to your environment. Constant exposure to things that increase blood acidity, such as drugs, sodas, and processed foods will induce excess osteoclastic activity in order to neutralize the blood. Over many years this results in a net deficit in bone density because more calcium is being removed than being restored by the osteoblasts. Unfortunately, life is never that simple. The process by which the osteoclasts and osteoblasts work is orchestrated by your endocrine (hormone) system in a way scientists don’t understand. Any condition or drug which affects your endocrine system will usually inhibit the osteoblastic activity, so that after the osteoclasts remove the unwanted tissue, little or no new bone is deposited in its place, resulting in a more rapid decrease in bone density and osteoporosis.
The most common condition that leads to hormone imbalance of course is menopause in women and impotency in men. After menopause, a decrease in blood estrogen is observed. In an attempt to restore the hormone balance and avert post-menopausal osteoporosis, doctors routinely prescribed artificial estrogen. Now, in spite of the fact that some research suggests it actually contributes to osteoporosis and estrogen therapy is proven to cause breast cancer, they stubbornly insist on continuing this practice.
The most common classification of drugs that affect the endocrine system is glucocorticoids, such as prednisone, prednisolone dexamethasone, and cortisone. These are usually used to control rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosis. These drugs have a devastating effect on your entire body because the endocrine system is so powerful yet fragile. But glucocorticoids affect bone density in several ways, so osteoporosis will follow swiftly and certainly. Because of that, physicians that prescribe these drugs routinely also prescribe bisphosphonates in hopes to counteract that inevitability.
That brings us to the focus of this article…finally. Different brands of bisphosphonate preparations constitute the hands down drug of choice for “treating” osteoporosis. The names you are most familiar with are Fosamax, Actonel, Boniva, Aredia, and Zometa. A drug called Forteo is occasionally used, but don’t go there. It is a synthetic parathyroid hormone which has among its nightmarish list of effects that it actually causes bone cancer.
Bisphosphonates work by suppressing osteoclastic activity, so that the damaged bone and debris remains there, as new bone continues to be deposited. The result is that the bone becomes denser and less likely to fracture, for now. I’m reminded of Sally Field’s line in a Boniva commercial saying that it “makes your bones stronger and healthier.” Well, that’s a lie. Bisphosphonates also suppress the production of blood vessels, so that no nutrition is received, the cells all die, and the bone becomes dead – petrified. That doesn’t sound too healthy. If it stopped there, it wouldn’t be so bad, but eventually a process called necrosis occurs. The bone putrefies and turns to mush. I can just see all the lawyers licking their lips.
I know this because in the dental field we are seeing the tip of the iceberg. There’s even a name for it, Bisphosphonate-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaw (BRONJ). This is becoming more prevalent each year and it is surfacing because this special kind if bone I’ve been talking about, alveolar bone, is a much more active bone because of the constant changes associated with the development, growth, infection, and loss of teeth. Because it is so active, the problems caused from bisphosphonate use are showing up earlier than in other bones, and it’s not pretty. Horrendous infections that are virtually untreatable because of the lack of circulation are destroying jaws. Drastic surgeries and drugs are used to counteract the effects of other drugs. It is like swallowing the cat to catch the bird that ate the spider. Just don’t swallow that first pill.
But before you jump out a window, let me tell you that it’s just a fraction of one percent of bisphosphonate users that are showing these signs in the jaws, although that fraction is increasing each year. And, admittedly, much suffering has been averted by the decrease in bone fractures from the use of bisphosphonates. The medical profession is playing a numbers game, betting that more people will benefit than suffer from these drugs. The drug industry is trying to sell more of them, and you’re caught in the middle. Just be sure you know the odds, and before you take bisphosphonates, make sure you correct and maintain your dental health. Also, remember what my mother told me as I went off to college, “Drugs are not the answer.” There are many alternative, natural methods of correcting and preventing osteoporosis that are just as effective, so take control of your own health and research and study these things so you can make the choice that is best for you.
Dr. Moulton’s article was published in the Desert Valley Times, December 2007
Tags: Actonel, Aredia, bisphosphonates, blood acidity, bone cancer, Boniva, cortisone, decreased bone density, estrogen therapy, Forteo, Fosamax, glucocorticoids, hormone imbalance, low bone density, necrosis, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, prednisolone dexamethesone, prednisone, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosis, Zometa
Posted in Health, Osteoporosis | 1 Comment »
A Hard Subject
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Did you know that bone is considered an organ? I don’t know if each individual bone is an organ or the skeletal system as a whole, but it is an interesting and complex tissue that plays an important role to your teeth as well as the rest of your body. It might seem like a hard, inert substance, but it is actually a live and vital tissue. It houses many types of cells, a blood supply and nerves, and it is in a constant state of flux and regeneration. There are basically four types of bone tissue in the body: 1) compact or cortical bone which comprises the thick outer covering, 2) trabecular bone which is the honeycomb inner bone, 3) marrow, which is the soft middle that produces blood cells, and 4) a specialized type of bone tissue called alveolar bone which supports the teeth. We will cover alveolar bone next time.
As a tissue, bone is subject to disease and should receive the proper care and maintenance. To appreciate this, it might help to understand what goes on in there. Your bone is constantly being remodeled in response to its environmental conditions. Cells called osteoclasts dissolve the calcium phosphate structure of the bone and return it to the blood. Osteoblasts are cells which deposit the calcium back into the bone. In this way, the shape and density of the bone can be altered as the body’s demands vary. For instance, if you do a lot of weight-bearing exercise, as well as your muscle mass increasing, your bone density will also increase to meet the requirement for more strength.
This touches on the subject of the most common disease of the bone, low bone density, or osteoporosis. The cause is simple chemistry. If the blood becomes too acidic, it will dissolve the minerals out of your tissues, the most common one being the calcium phosphate in your bones. The reason for acid blood is another easy one to figure out; it’s just what goes into your body. Different things have been shown to have an effect on the blood pH, or acid level.
Let’s start with the things that make your blood too acidic. At the very top of the list are drugs. I’m not just talking methamphetamines, but over-the-counter and prescription drugs also. The mechanism by which drugs enter your muscles, nervous system and brain is called a pH gradient. The blood must become more acidic than those other tissues in order to ‘download’ the drug. To be very effective, every drug must cause the blood to become acidic, and the more acidic, the faster and more potent the drug’s effects will be. Obviously, psychotropic drugs like meth and LSD are quite destructive. The constant and prolonged use by the meth addict leaves him emaciated, literally dissolving him from the inside. But caffeine, tobacco, and alcohol are also very potent drugs associated with constant and prolonged use. They all cause the blood to become very acidic. I might be sounding a little picky, but remember where we’re going with this. That acidity in your blood must be neutralized, and your body does it with the calcium from your bones!
A close second on the list of things that make your blood acidic is soda pop. The carbonation, caffeine, sugar, and phosphoric acid drive your blood acidity through the roof. Diet soda is every bit as bad, and energy drinks like Red Bull and Rock Star are the absolute worst in that category. So called “soft” drinks are so harmful that they should only be available by prescription, and then no doctor in his right mind would prescribe it for you. So you need to be your own doctor and don’t give yourself permission to buy soda for you or your children.
Constant exposure to fluoride replaces the calcium in your bones making them more brittle. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, there is an increase in hip fractures in areas with water fluoridation.
Food wise, you can pretty much guess how they affect your blood pH. Sugar, artificial sweeteners, additives, and processed foods will make your blood more acid. Conversely, natural raw fruits, vegetables, whole milk, and eggs will not only reduce the acidity, but provide a natural source of minerals that will replenish your body.
Who gets osteoporosis and what do you do about it? You don’t wake up one day and BAM, you have osteoporosis. That last Coke didn’t just push you over the edge. It’s a disease of the elderly because it takes a lifetime of sodas, coffee, cigarettes, martinis, and finally, that shopping list of prescription medications. Of course, the sooner in life you break the pattern, the better chance you have to preserve the integrity and health of your bones. But it is never too late to take charge. Take responsibility for your health! Eat properly and exercise. Look up your prescriptions on the internet and see if they interact with each other, and you decide if you want to gamble on the side effects. It’s appalling to see drug companies try to induce people to use drugs they don’t even need on TV and tragically comical to listen to the required disclaimers. “You might turn blue and burst into flames, but go ahead and try it. It may be just what you need!” Most of my patients that take aspirin are self-medicating because of a TV ad. Don’t do that!
Many physicians have gone drugless and have written books to expose the drug companies’ control of American health care. In Dr. Jerry Avorn’s book, ‘Selling Sickness’, he talks about how drug companies invent diseases so they can sell more drugs. In his book, ‘Taking Control of Your Health’, Dr. Joseph Mercola says, “the most common cause of death in America is the fatally flawed medical system that focuses on using toxic and expensive pharmaceutical band-aids that in no way, shape, or form treat the underlying cause of the disease.”
I believe there certainly is a place for drugs such as medical emergencies, serious infections and high blood pressure, but not as a way of life. The price tag is too high. They are poisonous to your body. Their side effects are usually much worse than any benefit or relief they claim to give. They are pulling the calcium out of your bones and redistributing it into your kidneys, gall bladder, and joints, leaving your bones weak and crippling your body.
Next week we will talk about what drugs are being peddled for osteoporosis and their alarming effects.
Dr. Moulton’s article was published in the Desert Valley Times, December 2007
Tags: acid level, alcohol, alveolar bone, artificial sweeteners, blood acidity, blood pH, bone tissue, caffeine, calcium, calcium phosphate, carbonation, compact bone, cortical bone, Dr. Joseph Mercola, eggs, fluoride, hposphoric acid, Jerry Avorn, Journal of the American Medical Association, low bone density, LSD, marrow, methamphetamines, milk, natural raw fruits, osteoblasts, osteoclasts, Osteoporosis, pH gradient, prescription drugs, processed foods, psychotropic drugs, Red Bull, Rock Star, soda pop, tobacco, trabecular bone, vegetables
Posted in Health | No Comments »