We have our first and second laws of healing: the law of cure and the law of minimum dose. In simple cases, these are enough to guide you and it will be fairly obvious when treatment is successful. The example of sleeplessness reflects a simple case in which evaluation is straightforward. If you fall asleep quickly and remain asleep, treatment is successful. Similarly, our example of a rash being treated with poison ivy is also straightforward. If the rash resolves quickly, rapidly, permanently and without side effects, treatment can be said to be successful.
The third law regards more complex cases in which evaluating progress can be more complicated. Quite often patients have more than one health issue and quite often a health condition changes over time, becoming more severe, more complex or changing in nature. In these complicated cases, treatment is a process that takes time and perhaps several different remedies to resolve. After evaluating a patient’s health history and symptom picture, a single remedy is recommended, following the law of cure. After taking the remedy the patient experiences some changes and the question is: how do we know that these changes are positive, towards health and a resolution of their condition?
The third law of healing, often called Hering’s law, states that healing occurs from above downwards, from within outwards, from a more important organ to a lesser one, and that symptoms disappear in the reverse order of their appearance. This is a powerfully instructive statement and it indicates that cure moves in the opposite direction of chronic disease.
Quite often we see a progression upwards in patients who suffer from arthritis. The pain may begin in the knee, but as time goes on the hip begins to be affected and further along, the back begins to hurt. The natural progression of chronic disease is upward. Your body’s natural healing direction is downward. In measles, rubella or chickenpox, for instance, the rash (your body’s healing response) starts in the head and neck and spreads downward to the chest and then the limbs.
Rheumatic fever is a great example of the movement of disease internally. It begins as a sore throat or skin eruption, but if these are left untreated, these symptoms subside and can be replaced by joint pain. The term rheumatoid arthritis means arthritis resembling this rheumatic arthritis. This joint inflammation can move even further internally to the heart, with the result that many people who had suffered from rheumatic fever have rheumatic valve disease. Lyme disease can have a similar progression with symptoms moving from the skin to the joints to internal organs.
In treating patients we want to see symptoms disappear in the opposite direction that they occur in disease. So in our example of arthritis moving from knee to hip to back, the best outcome would be if the back pain resolved first, as it is higher up and was the last symptom to occur. This regularly happens in acupuncture treatment, even as the treatment is going on. A patient’s subjective experience of pain will move from the shoulder to the elbow to the wrist.
Filed under Homeopathy | Comment (0)In the last post I discussed the first law of healing, the law of cure, which states that a substance which causes certain symptoms in a healthy person will cure those symptoms in a sick person. We all know that a cup of coffee, especially if we aren’t accustomed to drinking it, will make our mind more active and keep us up at night. So, following the law of cure, we can deduce that coffee would be a great remedy for sleeplessness, especially if it is characterized by excessive activity of the mind. And it is a great insomnia remedy, as has been verified repeatedly in the practice of many homeopaths, myself included.
However, does this mean on a sleepless night you should brew yourself a big cup of coffee and expect to snooze away? Well, we all know the answer to that. A venti at bedtime is a sure recipe for even more insomnia. This brings us to the second law of healing: the law of the minimum dose. Healing that is effective, rapid and harmless requires not only the right remedy (we can use the law of cure to guide us here) but also the right dose of that remedy.
What is the right dose? The law of the minimum dose states that the correct dose should be the smallest dose possible that still has a healing effect. A cup of coffee may be too much but what about a drop of coffee? This small amount may surprise some people but I regularly recommend drop doses of herbal tincture or extract with great effect (and if you think about it coffee is an aqueous herbal extract). Homeopaths regularly make much more dilute preparations and often the more dilute the remedy, the more powerful the effect. Keep in mind that this works only if we follow the first law, the law of cure, and the symptoms caused by the remedy are very similar to the symptoms of the patient.
If we don’t follow the second law of healing, the law of the minimum dose, and we use too large a dose, then we risk exaggerating symptoms before relieving them. In other words, if you drink an entire cup of coffee you will be even more sleepless but as the effects of the coffee wear off you will, no doubt, become quite tired and sleepy (probably when it’s time to wake up, prompting another cup of coffee!).
The law of the minimum dose also helps explain the healing effects of many physical therapies and treatments. Acupuncture, for example, uses very thin needles that cause a very minimum of discomfort. The thinness of the needles is analogous to the minimization of a dose of medication. A much larger “needle” such as a nail or spike, would cause an exorbitant amount of pain in the spot it was inserted. It is no accident that acupuncture is such a superlative treatment for pain. It is a minimum dose of something that causes similar pain.
Similarly, chiropractic adjustments are minimized versions of maneuvers that would cause symptoms similar to what they treat. Chiropractic adjustments are referred to as high-velocity/ low-amplitude, meaning they move very quickly but use little force. If they were to move slower but use much more force, they would certainly cause neck pain or back pain. Instead they minimize the dose by reducing the force but increasing the speed, thereby creating an effective treatment for neck or back pain.
See my post on the treatment of burns for another example.
Natural medicine is not natural simply because it employs herbs or other healing agents from nature. A medical system or therapy is deemed natural when it follows the natural laws of healing.
Though it may surprise people that there are natural laws to healing, these laws are as constant as the law of gravity or the laws of thermodynamics. The law of cure states that a substance which causes symptoms in a healthy person will cure those symptoms in a sick person. This is the foundation of the alternative medical system called homeopathy.
To give an example, those of us who are unfortunate enough to be sensitive to poison ivy can attest to the kind of symptoms it causes: the rash is red, insanely itchy and looks like little bubbles on the skin. Now, should a person develop this kind of skin condition without being exposed to poison ivy, they can be quickly healed by actually taking a very dilute amount of poison ivy. This is true no matter what the diagnosis of the skin condition may be (contact dermatitis, eczema, etc.) as long as the symptoms agree. Other skin conditions may have different symptoms (perhaps dry and scaly, for instance) and in those cases poison ivy won’t help. But when the symptoms agree, it will always work. I have seen cases exactly like this several times.
This law is widely accepted amongst practitioners of homeopathy, but it is true in all cases and applicable in all situations. Regardless of which medical system or therapy you are using, if a condition is cured, it follows this rule. We know ipecac is useful to cause vomiting (if you’ve been poisoned) and as a result it is one of the best remedies for nausea and vomiting. A sore throat that is characterized by intense burning can be relieved by hot pepper which, as we all know, can cause great burning in the throat.
Cayenne pepper is often recommended as a home remedy for sore throat and the law of cure explains why. The important thing to keep in mind it will only relieve the kind of pain it causes, so it is not a remedy for all sore throats, but only for the kind of sore throat that is similar to the sore throat it causes.
Filed under Homeopathy | Comment (0)Aspirin is regularly recommended as a “blood thinner” to reduce the risk of a serious cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke. Aspirin prevents the formation of blood clots which block the blood vessels that supply the heart (in a heart attack) or brain (in ischemic stroke, the most common type). Aspirin therapy has been shown to be effective: studies evaluating its use in healthy individuals have shown a 32% reduction in first-time heart attacks.
Unfortunately, aspirin has some noteworthy side effects. To begin with, while it reduces the chance of ischemic stroke (the kind of stroke caused by a clot) it actually increases the chance of hemorrhagic stroke, another kind of stroke in which the blood vessels supplying the brain actually rupture. Another side effect of aspirin is an erosion of the surfaces of the digestive tract, which in extreme cases can lead to ulcers and bleeding in the stomach. Even if ulcers or bleeding do not occur, damage to the lining of the digestive system can have a profound negative influence on health. Naturopathic doctors generally place more importance on this than their medical counterparts. We stress the role that gut permeability plays in both autoimmune disease and chronic inflammation (which incidentally is a strong risk factor for heart disease).
These effects are related to how aspirin works. They are not incidental. Everyone who takes aspirin will have some degree of damage to their digestive lining, whether or not they manifest symptoms, and everyone who takes aspirin is at a greater risk of hemorrhagic stroke. So, wouldn’t it be nice if there were a natural substance that had similar benefits to aspirin but lacked the significant side effects?
Fortunately there is! It’s fish oil. One to two servings per week of oily fish or 250 milligrams per day (mixed EPA and DHA) has been shown to reduce death by cardiovascular disease by 36%. What’s more, this reduction applies both in healthy people as well as those with established heart disease. Fish oil reduces your risk of stroke due to clots (ischemic stroke) – up to 30% if you eat fish 5 times a week - but it doesn’t increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke like aspirin. And fish oil doesn’t erode your gut lining like aspirin.
Neither aspirin nor fish oil should be relied upon as the sole therapy in those with established heart disease or with substantial risk factors for heart disease. And you should always consult with a healthcare practitioner when making decisions about treating heart disease or managing risk factors.
In a side note, did you know that when aspirin was first invented by Felix Hoffman he worried that it would weaken the heart? So, he initially decided not to market aspirin but rather another famous painkiller he had also recently discovered – heroin. Those wacky drug companies! What will they think of next?
Filed under Conditions, Nutrition | Comment (0)I had the opportunity to observe prolotherapy for the first time this week. Prolotherapy, which stands for proliferative therapy, is a little known orthopedic technique for chronic pain conditions in which irritants are injected into connective tissue in an attempt to induce inflammation. Despite its negative reputation, inflammation is the body’s mechanism for healing. By inducing inflammation in ligaments or tendons, the body’s healing response actually strengthens them, thereby stabilizing the joint and reducing pain.
The treatment I observed was for arthritis of the knee and involved a series of small injections into the ligament and tendons surrounding the affected knee. The injections contained dextrose as the irritant as well as an anesthetic to relieve the local pain caused by the injection. However, as the anesthetic wore off the patient began to feel the pain of the irritant, which is actually part of the process.
What is striking about the process is that it is actually the exact opposite of the standard medical intervention for chronic pain which may include anti-inflammatories or cortisone injections (the body responds to cortisone by restricting inflammation). I wanted to talk about this therapy on my natural medicine blog for exactly this reason. Despite being somewhat invasive and despite injecting foreign chemicals into the body, prolotherapy can still be deemed natural medicine because it works by supporting the natural healing process (which, incidentally, is the only healing process) and not working against it, as does the vast majority of conventional interventions.
What does this mean? Well for starters, because it works with the (natural) healing process, prolotherapy can often actually cure chronic pain rather than manage it, as anti-inflammatories or painkillers do. And studies bear this out, 85-95% of patients treated with prolotherapy for low back pain with hypermobility “experienced remission” (i.e. are cured) compared to a 52% improvement when patients receive disc surgery.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)So let’s continue with our series of interviews:
Dr. George Russell D.C. is bodyworker, teacher and chiropractor in New York City with a focus on the mind-body connection in physical medicine. More information is available at www.georgerusselldc.com. He can be contacted at george@georgerusselldc.com or 646-654-9529.
Q: As both a chiropractor and bodyworker, what sort of information is most important when a patient first comes to see you?
Dr. George Russell: When I first meet a patient, my question is of course some version of “what is that brought you to my office today?”. Sometimes the client is not seeking a diagnosis, but rather wellness, connection to their body, or information about anatomy or activities. Sometimes they want higher function in a specific activity.
But no matter what the patient says, I am watching to see how it is that the client sees their own problem, what lens they are looking at it through. Some people are all bones and muscles and joints; others see their issues in behavioral terms; still others have a psychological or spiritual lens through which they see their problem.
I’m looking to cast the net wide in terms of information, because a couple of minutes of open-ended talking usually reveals to me the terms in which the patient him or herself experiences the problem. Often she or he knows what those terms are. Interestingly, the client’s language and choice of details often reveal deeper connections to their set of symptoms. A person who described her speed skating work in detail unwittingly made it clear that she was extremely unhappy in her marriage; that fact ended up playing a big role in her neck pain. Another patient said “I know I created this problem through my traumatic experiences after 9/11″; while that information was crucial to my assessment of her, her consistent slumping in her chair and extreme pelvis-forward gait as she walked into and sat in my office revealed a more immediate — and immediately treatable — aspect to her pain which probably helped her the most to come back into physical comfort.
Q: So how does the way a patient sees their own problem change the way you treat them? Do you modify the physical techniques you use based on a patients’s underlying emotional issues?
Dr. George Russell: This is complicated, I guess. I don’t think about it rationally, and yet I’m aware of doing it every time I see a patient. I guess I’d say that I listen to what they say to get an idea of their way into the issue; I observe them to see what underlying assumptions, feelings, attitudes are contributing to the problem or available to help empower them; and I’m looking on the physical/anatomical/behavioral level for concrete referents to what’s going on.
If a patient, for example, is terrified of losing physical function, I keep that in mind and I will use different rhetoric to talk with them. I may not, for example, mention arthritis, but instead talk in terms of joint stiffness and restriction, inflammation, etc. These are things that may be present in arthritis; but unless I’m required by their insurance company to list arthritis, it’s not helpful to make that diagnosis. Luckily for me, my treatment per se isn’t changed. I’d do the same stuff whether or not there is an objective finding of arthritis on, say, an X-ray. But in characterizing the situation to the client, I’d speak more in terms of what may be possible for them.
With another person, they may be have an attitude/intention to use “mind over matter” no matter what the diagnosis. In that case, I might put on the “patriarchal doctor” hat, and seriously describe to them that i believe they have, say, arthritis and that it’s important for them to keep the awareness of their limitation in mind so that they can support their movement, keep their joints within a normal range of motion, and prevent excessive pressure. Because the worst place this patient is going to go is into denial and willfulness, and they may actually can use the information to modify their behavior. In contrast, the earlier-described patient is most likely to be terrified and to limit movement and activity where that may actually be the most helpful thing for them.
So awareness of personality type and attitude/feelings actually changes my diagnosis in some cases. Diagnosis is nothing more than a hunch based upon which a particular treatment will be attempted or proposed. It’s not reality; and it’s never fixed. It can change, just as patients can change, which is what makes treatment worthwhile and practice interesting.
Q: That’s interesting, that a diagnosis isn’t fixed. Do you find that the opposite is true, that a treatment for, say a knee problem, can change a patient’s mental outlook?
Dr. George Russell: Absolutely. Knee suppleness, freedom and ease can mean any number of things to a patient, from the ability to enjoy a beloved annual family ski trip to the symbolic issue of support for the self at all levels, not to mention the ability to move freely through life. There is no way to change the body without changing numerous relationships in the body — one joint affects all the others, and the leg joints are more influential because they support all the ones above. And there’s no way to change the body without having different feelings. Emotions and thoughts are grounded in physical experience… that’s why the word “feelings” is a term that describes physical sensation.
I think we all know this implicitly and intuitively. There’s an awful lot of talk in our language that creates the illusion that the mental field and the physical body’s experience are separate side-by-side processes. But honestly, how could that possibly be true?
Q: So to support that, do you think psychological work is necessary when a patient is trying to heal a muscular or skeletal condition? Are there any particular approaches that you prefer or recommend to patients you are working with?
Dr. George Russell: Really, it’s an issue of what facet of experience is most applicable to the client’s issue. Since all the facets (including psychological, neuromusculoskeletal, etc. etc.) are ways of approaching the same phenomenon, it follows that you can get to anything through any approach. Finding the quickest and most effective approach is always a part of diagnosis and treatment.
Most of the time, when people come to me, they’ve self-selected my approach. And I believe that all health care professionals (really, all humans) are counselors if they’re doing it right. Because you can’t separate thinking and feeling from any other aspect of human experience. If a doctor is not addressing that level of experience, there’s a gap. Overtly or implicitly, I am always attending to the psychological, spiritual, energetic and emotional states of my patients.
Having said that, I do refer patients for psychological and spiritual work when that seems relevant, from 12 step groups, to Rosen Work (a psychological and spiritual form of bodywork that incorporates talk and touch together), to psychotherapy, and sometimes back to a religion or spiritual practice that’s been abandoned due to the demands of life, trauma, or other influences.
Generally this kind of recommendation has to be done with a light touch, since people personalize their emotional and thought patterns more than their physical ones. People feel less shame about how they stand and walk than how they think and feel, even though the two are directly and indirectly related, and even though changes in one effect changes in the other.
Speaking of trauma: trauma occurs at many levels, from what we categorize as physical to what we categorize as emotional. But the ramifications of trauma are always present on all levels: physical, neurological, emotional, cognitive, energetic, conscious as well as unconscious, etc. Also, trauma can be big or small, but it’s present in every life, and addressing its manifestations is part of any healing process, no matter what angle the practitioner or affected person chooses.
Filed under Interviews | Comment (0)Well, you knew fruit was good for you, but you probably didn’t know how good. Berries in particular have been shown to have far-reaching benefits and, of the berries, blueberries have perhaps the most profound health benefits. They are very high in anti-oxidants, it’s true. Many fruits are even higher, pomegranate and acai come to mind, but blueberries have well-researched health effects that go beyond their anti-oxidant status, particularly in the realm of anti-aging.
The most notable research is rat studies in which researchers took aging rats and had them run mazes. The group given blueberries not only had improved memory but also improved balance and coordination. The improvement in balance and coordination was unique to the blueberry group, though improved memory was also noticed in rats fed other high-antioxidant foods. In fact, it’s been shown that blueberries can actually help you grow brain cells (neurogenesis), something that scientists used to think was impossible.
Now what do you worry most about losing as you age? For most people it’s memory, mobility and vision. And, because they’ve been shown to improve vision as well, blueberries cover all these bases. So in short, blueberries are one of our best anti-aging foods. And if that wasn’t enough, regular consumption of blueberries has been shown to improve athletic performance, encourage weight loss, reduce your risk of a heart attack or stroke, and inhibit certain forms of cancer. Eat up.
Filed under Nutrition, Prevention | Comment (0)This is the first of what I hope will be many in a series of interviews with experts in natural or alternative medicine. So we’ll start with a bang: Dr. Jenna Henderson N.D. is a naturopathic physician and an expert in the holistic approach to kidney health. Information on natural approaches to kidney disease is incredibly valuable and unfortunately it can be hard to find. Dr. Henderson can be reached at holistickidney@gmail.com
Q: What role do you think natural medicine should play in the treatment of kidney disease?
Dr. Jenna C. Henderson: Having seen natural medicine and mainstream medicine close up in dealing with kidney disease, I think there is a lot the natural medicine can offer patients that they can’t find anywhere else. For those in an early stage of kidney disease we can bring their bodies back into balance and for those in a later stage with severely compromised kidneys, we can keep their kidney function going with a maintenance regimen. Natural medicine has the tools to control blood pressure, inflammation and cholesterol and improve kidney function– and all of it without the dangerous side effects of prescription drugs.
Q: So let’s look at someone in an early stage, if they’ve just been diagnosed with kidney disease. Are there specific steps that you would recommend?
Dr. Jenna C. Henderson: In the early stage of kidney disease there is some damage to the nephrons or filtering units, but the kidneys are still able to clean the blood thoroughly. As long as the creatinine is under 1.3 your function is still pretty good.
First get to the bottom of what’s causing the kidney damage. If it’s diabetes, get it under control. If it’s hypertension, control that. If it is one of the inflammatory kidney diseases such as IgA nephropathy, Focal sclerosis or Minimal change– bring down the inflammation.
For the Type 2 diabetic change their lifestyle and lose weight. The addition of some supplements for glycemic control can help too.
With high blood pressure it is important to take medications on a regular basis. Even one skipped dose can be damaging. Of course I prefer a natural approach with stress management and botanicals. The prescription drugs can cause erectile dysfunction in males and a loss of desire in females. Many of them will weaken the heart over time.
When the kidneys are inflamed there is a loss of protein in the urine. The urine looks foamy when this happens. It is easy to know if what you’re doing to reduce inflammation is working because the urine will be less visibly foamy. Adopt a diet that has many fresh fruits and vegetables and avoid saturated fat and fried foods. Natural anti-inflammatories will make a world of difference– quercetin, bromelain and fish oil will make the urine visibly less foamy.
And from the Eastern perspective do the things that preserve kidney chi and bring you into balance. Get plenty of sleep– at night. This is especially important but hard as many kidney patients deal with insomnia and they are awake all night and sleep during the day. Acupuncture can help and sunlight during the morning hours can reset the body’s internal time clock.
Q: How do the recommendations change for those with more advanced disease, such as patients who are already on dialysis?
Dr. Jenna C. Henderson: Well it’s my hope to prevent their going on dialysis. With advanced disease I would add on to their protocol high dose coenzyme Q10 and l-carnitine. When the kidneys have sustained damage there is a loss of functioning nephrons to filter the blood. That means that the remaining nephrons have to work harder to keep up with the body’s demands. That is called a state of hyperfiltration, when the kidneys are overworked. That is when they are most vulnerable to fail. The purpose of the coenzyme Q10 and l-carnitine is to supply energy on the cellular level to the nephrons. This will support the remaining nephrons in keeping up with the body’s demands. This approach can keep dialysis at bay for a long time, sometimes indefinitely.
If you have had diabetes, high blood pressure or nephritis for any length of time, you can bet there has been damage and your kidneys are in a state of hyperfiltration. Even if your creatinine is normal. Your kidneys are working harder and harder to keep the blood clean. When the creatinine jumps up in happens suddenly. It’s like your gas tank going from full to zero all at once, but that is how chronic kidney failure happens. It is a chronic situation that all of a sudden becomes a crisis.
When you’re on dialysis it seems like the end of the world but there are many things you can do to keep your body in optimum shape. Keep up the coenzyme Q10 and add solid hawthorne extract to protect the heart. People don’t die from uremic poisoning in this day and age but they do die from heart failure as a complication of the kidney disease process. Also green tea to lower the BUN and bioflavonoids to strengthen the blood vessels. If you do hemodialysis it is very hard on the blood vessels. The bioflavonoids are very important. Also eat lots of berries– safe for the dialysis diet and rich in bioflavonoids.
The dialysis diet is very restrictive but it is important to stick with it. That means that there are a lot of nutrients in fresh fruits and vegetables that are off limits to a dialysis patient because they are high in potassium When the kidneys fail they no longer filter out potassium and elevated levels could stop the heart. Don’t cheat on this diet, but try to make up the nutrients you are missing with supplements.
Q: When you say dialysis can be kept at bay, do you feel that there are people who are put on dialysis too early when a natural approach would be more appropriate? In your opinion, is there a possibility to come off dialysis in certain patients?
Dr. Jenna C. Henderson: No. When it’s time to go on dialysis, don’t fight it. There are some people who will use extreme protein deprivation and can delay it to some extent, but when it’s time to get on the machine, do it. There are no natural approaches that I’m aware of, and I’ve been looking at this for 15 years, that can help at that point. When the kidney function is gone or you’re left with residual function which is not enough to sustain life, it is time to get on the machine. At that point we look at natural remedies for maintaining optimum wellness.
Q: Do you have any preventative advice for the general public for protecting their kidney function? Are there any hidden threats to kidney function that you think people need to be more aware of?
Dr. Jenna C. Henderson: The most common reason people experience kidney failure is diabetes and second is high blood pressure. Early screening and consistent care can be helpful in most situations.
As far as kidney diseases that involve the immune system I believe that sunlight and Vitamin D are very important. Vitamin D plays a critical role in the function of the immune system. And these diseases are more prevalent in places with less sunlight exposure.
African Americans have these kidney problems frequently but Africans generally do not. In Northern Europe these conditions are relatively common but in Australia it is much less so. It is a similar worldwide distribution to Multiple sclerosis– another autoimmune disease, being common where there is less sunlight. Since people in the last century have moved indoors and no longer work outside we have seen an explosion of autoimmune diseases.
So one of the best things you can do is get your kids away from the computer and doing something physical outside.
Filed under Interviews | Comment (1)
To determine the nutritional supplementation program that would be right for you, it is important to consult with a healthcare professional who is trained in clinical nutrition (a holistic doctor like me, for instance). But there are some classic signs of functional deficiency for certain nutrients.
White spots on your fingernails, for instance, are usually a sign of zinc deficiency. Another fairly common sign of zinc deficiency is a diminished sense of smell. Hangnails and inflamed cuticles can also indicate a need for zinc.
If you have a lot of earwax, particularly if it is dark orange or brown, that usually indicates and essential fatty acid deficiency. You should consider supplementing with fish oil or flax seed oil.
Many people have small red bumps on the back of their arms and the front of their thighs, somewhat like goosebumps. This is called keratosis pilaris or follicular hyperkeratosis, and it is a classic sign of vitamin A deficiency.
Now, interestingly enough, both vitamin A and Zinc are important nutrients for your immune system and its ability to fight infection. If you have these signs of deficiency, you may also have trouble with chronic infections or frequent colds and flus.
Similarly, dark earwax is not much of a hassle and maybe easy to ignore. But essential fatty acids are, well, essential. If you’re not getting enough of these, you are at a greater risk of cardiovascular problems, which are the number one killer in America. Learn more about how to evaluate evaluate cardiovascular risk here.
Filed under Nutrition | Comment (0)The New York Times ran a piece last Tuesday about resveratrol, a compound found in red wine. It interested me for a couple of reasons. First of all, you occasionally still hear the dismissive comment about natural medicines — that there isn’t any research or studies on them. While that clearly isn’t true (and in fact never was true - scientific research started when all medicines were “natural medicine”), it’s always nice to see a major news provider reporting on the science behind effective. I know it’s increasingly common, but it still makes me happy.
But if you look at the article closely, it reveals a totally different motivation than interest in natural medicines and how they can benefit us. In fact, the article almost dismisses the idea of actually taking resveratrol in order to enjoy the health benefits of resveratrol. The research isn’t funded and designed to discover how resveratrol can help us. The ultimate goal is to develop drugs that look and act like resveratrol - the article specifically mentions a compound called SRT501 – but that themselves aren’t natural at all.
The natural substance resveratrol is easy to obtain from foods and because of this has a long history of exposure that demonstrates its safety. But because it’s natural, it’s inexpensive to produce and no one company can manufacture it exclusively. Therefore, it isn’t worth the millions of dollars of advertising it takes to market a major pharmaceutical.
An unnatural substance is patentable, therefore the patenting company can produce it exclusively and charge a lot of money for it, making it worth the expense of research and marketing.
So what’s the problem? Because these substances haven’t been consumed before, how do we know they are safe? Studies are certainly required before they can be legally distributed, but if recent history has taught us anything about pharmaceutical drugs, it’s that FDA approval does not guarantee safety. Remember Zelnorm? How about Vioxx?
Resveratrol however has been around for as long as people have been drinking wine, and been consumed in the doses mentioned in the article. So of course the question is, do we need these drugs? Why not just take resveratrol?
Filed under Prevention | Comment (0)
