Monthly Archives: May 2007

Today’s Chiropractic Lifestyle

Today’s Chiropractic Lifestyle Magazine did a nice piece on the Slow Burn strength training system I developed.

I thought some of you might like to read it.

Myth Debunking

My co-author Dr. Mike Eades penned this blog a short time ago. It’s funny and in re-reading it I realized how important it is for everyone to read it too.

I’m so glad the good doc is my friend! My health has skyrocketed from his wisdom.

"A study appearing this week in the online journal PLoS One looked at the effects of six months of strength training in 25 elderly volunteers aged 65 and older (average age: 70). The researchers took small biopsies of thigh-muscle cells from the seniors before and after the six-month period, then compared them with muscle cells from 26 young volunteers (average age: 22). "To be honest, we were expecting some indication that the exercise program improved strength," says biologist Simon Melov, director of genomics at the Buck Institute in Novato, Calif., and coauthor of the study. What the scientists didn’t expect was what they actually found—that after six months of resistance training, there were dramatic changes at the genetic level. As Melov puts it, "The genetic fingerprint [of the elderly participants] was reversed to that of younger people—not entirely, but enough to say that their genetic profile was more like that of young people than old people."

So what are you waiting for? Don’t delay!

I was saddened…

…by a new client who came in the other day. She is and has been on statins for quite some time to try and get her cholesterol down.

At first she tried Pritikin (a VERY low-fat diet largely based on vegetables, grains and fruits. Fat in the diet accounts for a mere 10%!) This helped a smidge, but according to her doctor, not nearly enough.

Thus, she was statinated. (Note: I am VERY sympathetic to those who say "They put me on statins." I realize that the fear, however false, of death by arterial disease is a powerful motivator for taking these terrible potions. But the harsh, cold truth my dear friends is THEY don’t put you on statins -YOU put YOU on statins.)

In my previous post I mentioned the physical horrors statins cause. (You might want to revisit this post and re-read before continuing on.)

She told me that she always feels weak, has constant headaches and has zero energy. She was so wiped out just sitting at my conference table that, before I probed her health history, it seemed as if she was just being aloof and disinterested about the program.

But I had to press the cholesterol issue for two reasons.

For one, her body was getting little to know energy producing, life giving foods and being slowly eroded by the drugs. (Remember even though she WAS eating fruits and vegetables the body can’t do much with these gems if fat in the diet is low. And on Pritikin it’s practically non-existent.) How could she expect to get any of the benefits of resistance training if she wasn’t eating enough fat and protein for a puppy?

For two, if the statins are eroding her nerves and muscles (and they are) and strength training also breaks down proteins (for eventual rebuilding), I might be making the situation worse. I just don’t know but I suspect it’s possible.

So, I gave her the spiel. I suggested the books she should read, the websites to visit and answered all her questions as best I could.

Suddenly, she sat up tall and mustered up a surge of vitality and shot off this question:

"So I should not believe or follow the recommendations by Dr. Robert Jarvik?" (I don’t know if any of you have seen the creator of the artificial heart doctor’s shameless and cowardly Lipitor commercial – Pfizer must have plunked quite a pretty penny in his Swiss account for this one!)

"Correct." I shot back. She seemed shocked. But she also seemed even more interested. She said that taking the drug is stressful. Worrying about her liver, having to go for tests on a semi annual schedule and still not seeing the numbers go below 260 (which is actually perfectly healthy for a 60 year old woman) has got her all in a tizzy.

And to think that the current science on the subject actually says that she should just flush the drugs down the loo, start eating eggs, bacon and cream with zeal, and enjoy the rest of her life worry free from the cholesterol demon.

I think she’s owed some money. The drug companies have stolen a decade of her life as she’s been forced to live with and suffer from weakness, headaches, irritability, all of which has stressed her out and, more than likely, caused an HPA-axis dysfunction. This in turn allows far too much cortisol to be released into her bloodstream which Dr. Malcolm Kendrick believes (and makes a VERY strong case for in his book) causes damage to arterial walls leading her (and millions of others) far closer to arterial disease than she ever would have been.

But now she knows better.

You know who I think should combat this nonsense? Not the doctors (they haven’t got the cash) – the meat industry.

If people KNEW that eating meat (especially red meat) was not unhealthy, but in fact among the healthiest foods in the world containing anti-aging nutrients such as B-12, carnosine, carnitine, glutamine, etc.) profits would, well, you figure it out. They could enlist (not hire) the docs who know better and run a campaign that would put Pfizer and Merck on their deceiving keisters.

If they take my advice and do this, I can’t WAIT to see how much the drug companies will have to pay out to the folks who have been taking these horrific substances for decades. "Beelions and beelions…" Wee-doggy!

Irresponsibility

This article on statins is among the worst and most irresponsible I’ve ever read.

First of all, if LDL cholesterol is so deadly, why do more than half of all heart attacks occur in folks with LOW LDL levels?? Answer – because it’s not deadly. Not in the least.

How about this statement:

"If you didn’t have this fatty substance floating in your bloodstream, your cell membranes would quickly collapse, your testicles would stop pumping out testosterone, and your gray matter would grind to a halt."

WE DON’T HAVE ANY CHOLESTEROL FLOATING FREELY IN OUR BLOODSTREAM!

Where do these magazines find these brainiacs?

And, do you really think that most of the population requires medication to simply survive? Who do you think would want you to believe this idea, eh what?

I’m going to leave this article to the real experts on this subject to dissect and pulverize. If they do, I’ll place a link on this blog for easy access. I’ve sent it to several people I know who are far better at taking this one apart and beating it with a baseball bat.

Fact is, the experts who know better – doctors and scientists who have made this topic their life’s work do not have the funding to combat this nonsense. Merck alone spent, according to Malcom Kendrick M.D., one BILLION dollars advertising statins.

Here’s what we KNOW:

We know that statins cause memory loss
We know that statins cause depression, confusion and irritability
We know that statins cause major birth defects
We know that statins cause muscle weakness and wasting in 20% of users (this can be fatal)
We know statins cause polyneuropathy (nerve damage)
We know that statins cause liver damage
We know that statins can cause sudden cardiac death
We know that statins improve longevity in people with known coronary artery disease by – get ready – a whopping 2 months if you take them for 30 years.
We know that statins DO NOT improve longevity in people without heart disease.
We KNOW that high cholesterol levels to not cause heart disease

But c’mon! Let’s take ’em anyways! Why not?

If the drug companies were really smart they’d make a lemon flavored chewable version of statins and offer them in Flintstones and Scooby-Doo shapes for kids! How about statin ice cream or Italian Ices?! YEAH BABY!

(Dear lord – what have I done!?)