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A 60-year-old man recently came into my office, and happened to mention that he was about to begin dialysis. He had been on 9 different blood pressure medications, and now his kidneys were failing. I asked whether any of his doctors had ever spoken to him about diet and nutrition, and about making lifestyle changes. His answer was no. Why not? A 79-year-old lady who was an RN for more than 38 years, and had additional alternative therapy training beyond her RN requirements, recently confided in me that she had secretly suggested lifestyle changes, recommended natural foods and dietary changes, and used alternative therapy as a hospital nurse. She chuckled and said she wasn’t supposed to do that, but she always did whatever she thought was necessary to take care of her patients. Why did it have to be that way?
The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human body, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” …Thomas Edison, 1902
One of the reasons, but not the only reason, natural alternatives have a hard time getting a foothold in the marketplace is because physicians are generally slow to recommend them. (Find more on this subject in my Natural Alternative Medicine research report at rmbarry.com) Not one death was caused by vitamin supplements in 2005 (as reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers) (588 KB PDF)
It’s estimated that over 106,000 hospital deaths per year (one every 5 minutes) are caused by properly prescribed drugs. Journal of the American Medical Association.
So why are physicians slow to recommend natural alternatives? Five of the ten leading causes of death in the United States are directly related to lack of proper nutrition. Yet most physicians receive very little, if any, formal training in nutrition. During the 1970s and early 1980s, no medical school in the U.S. required students to take a nutrition class. As of 1985, only two medical schools taught 25 hours or more of courses in nutrition. * 1977 Survey: Physicians score 65% on nutrition test questions * 1989 Survey: Physicians score 69% on nutrition test questions * 1988 Tests: Medical school students rated as unsatisfactory in nutrition knowledge. Senior medical students scored an average of 69%. * 1995 Survey: Physicians correctly answer questions on drug-nutrient interaction 61% of the time.
You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that examination of the most commonly used biochemistry textbooks in medical schools during the 1920s and 1930s reveals that food and nutrition were emphasized. In fact, out of 16 chapters in Meyer Bodansky’s 1927 Introduction to Physiology Chemistry, three chapters described the chemistry of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Two described digestion and absorption, four described intermediary metabolism, one described animal calorimetry, and one described animal nutrition. In 1934, Bodansky expanded the textbook by 200 pages, and expanded the nutrition section to include a discussion of protein requirements, the indispensability of fat, and the role of vitamins. Since his first edition, ascorbic acid had been isolated and synthesized, linoleic acid was identified as an essential fatty acid, and other vitamins and trace elements were shown to be essential to the diet.
During the early 1900s, researchers discovered evidence for the importance of specific components of foods in maintaining health and in curing or preventing many recently identified deficiency diseases. For two decades, the pioneering work on vitamins and the discovery of essential nutrients and their relationship to the prevention of deficiency diseases led to a rapidly growing interest in experimental and clinical nutrition. Other important research during the first two decades of the 1900s included the now classic epidemiological studies of Goldberger, the determination of energy values for carbohydrates, fats, and proteins by Atwater, and Elmer McCollum’s early work with vitamins, and later, trace minerals.
Early in the 20th century, scientific principles of nutrition were widely taught in the medical schools of the United States. Later, as research in nutrition declined, there was a parallel decline of interest in nutrition education. Today, specific courses that teach the science of nutrition are found only in a few medical schools.
The Golden Age Of Nutrition. During the 1920s and 1930s, the biochemical and clinical aspects of nutrition was being widely taught in medical schools. New organizations were formed to foster nutrition education, and to encourage the application of nutrition principles in medical practice. The AMA reported that all medical schools except three taught biochemistry during the first year, and the remaining three taught it in the second year. Faculty in biochemistry, pediatrics, physiology, medicine, and pathology presented basic and applied concepts of nutrition to first and second-year medical students. That era became known as the “Golden Age of Nutrition.”
Decline of the Golden Age. Then, in 1948 a vitamin found to protect against pernicious anemia was simultaneously isolated in the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1949, the vitamin was identified and accepted as Vitamin B12, but about this time, concern for deficiency diseases diminished since they ceased to be a major problem in the U.S. With the advances in food technology and fortified foods, scientists shifted their focus away from nutrition. Nutritional problems no longer offered the same challenge, and biochemists, once deeply concerned with nutritional problems, shifted their focus to the molecular basis of gene structure and enzyme and endocrine function.
This was the end of the Golden Age Of Nutrition. During the 1950s and 1960s, nutrition became a low priority, and was no longer an important part of the medical curriculum. Although the political climate during the late 1960s and 1970s prompted a heightened awareness of existing malnutrition, hunger and chronic disease in the U.S., and advances have been made toward educating physicians in nutrition and the prevention of disease, most physicians are still inadequately trained in medical schools today. For decades, the role of nutritional alternatives in the treatment of disease was considered unscientific. It has been only in the past two decades that the medical community recognized that many of the diseases common in older people can be tied to nutritional deficiencies.
Medical professionals now accept that nutrition is a factor in the onset and the progression of hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, obesity-related disorders, type II diabetes, and some forms of cancer. But too many know only how to treat the symptoms of these degenerative diseases with conventional pharmaceutical drugs, and because of lack of training in nutritional science, do not have enough confidence to advise patients about natural alternatives.
The focus of allopathic medicine has been on giving general advice about eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, reducing salt intake, increasing dietary fiber, lowering blood cholesterol and body fat, along with treating disease. Too few doctors were offered enough nutritional science training in medical school to understand the fundamental role that vitamins, minerals, and herbs play in the prevention of disease and maintaining good health.
Another reason doctors are hesitant about recommending supplements is their concern that patients will use them as a substitute for regular medical care (money out of their pockets) and good diet instead of as intended, to supplement the diet along with lifestyle changes.
Another common objection to natural medicine is the lack of long-term safety studies, even though natural herbal compounds have been safely used for centuries, and hundreds of studies are being done. Physicians have little to no support from policy makers and enforcers, and are discouraged from practicing any form of medicine perceived by medical boards as being unconventional.
For fear of losing their medical license after many years of specialized training, some simply choose not to make recommendations, even though they take supplements themselves. Some will give handouts about nutrition so the patient can draw their own conclusions, but will decline to make recommendations. Folic acid is a good example. Back in 1985, it was documented that folic acid seemed to prevent neural tube birth defects. Further documentation showed that folic acid at dosages needed to prevent neural tube defects had been used by pregnant women in the past without incident. Some physicians reasoned that if folic acid might prevent some birth defects, it had no risks at dosages needed to do so, and the cost was minimal, then why not recommend it. But according to Dr. Alan Christianson, other doctors stuck in the “reactionary new drug=side effects mode automatically rejected this stance.” 1 Some researchers estimate that over 200,000 cases of neural tube birth defects could have been prevented if doctors had not waited so long to recommend it. “When therapies offer no harm and much possible benefit, why not give them a chance before those with definite harm?” 1
Fast forward to 2004. A new survey published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition re-examined the state of nutrition education in 106 medical schools. The results: As of 2004, almost 60 percent of the US medical schools still do not meet recommendations for nutrition education for med students. March 2007. It’s been almost a century since the science of nutrition was heavily taught in medical schools. One hundred and six thousand (one every 5 minutes) are dying each year in the U.S. from properly prescribed drugs. That is twice as many deaths in a single year from properly prescribed drugs as the total number of U.S. deaths from the Vietnam War. Many of these were being treated for conditions that could have been prevented with proper nutrition and natural supplementation.
Dr. Carrie Carter, M.D. is an allopathic physician who does realize the need for supplementing our diet. What You Need to Know About Supplements, a selection from her book, Woman’s Guide To Good Health, gives some good advice on how to choose a supplement. Dr. Carter notes that it is a common practice to pick and choose single nutrients to supplement, but recommends not doing this because vitamins and minerals work together to maintain healthy function in your cells, and it’s important to maintain the proper balance of nutrients. Instead, she recommends taking a balanced vitamin and mineral supplement. 2
Dr. Carter says, “It is best to not only select a balanced vitamin and mineral supplement but ideally one that pays some attention to the plight of poor minerals and their poor absorption history. In some of the higher quality/higher priced combination supplements, this need is addressed by including minerals that have been changed to a state that is easier to absorb. One such product is the Vitality Pack by Melaleuca: The Wellness Company, which uses a patented process called ‘‘fructose compounding’’ to attach the minerals to fructose molecules, which helps the minerals to be absorbed inside the body.” She notes that it is wise to be cautious about overloading your body with nutrients, but says most vitamins and minerals are not harmful in amounts that far exceed the Daily Recommended Intake (DRI), and many studies show that many nutrients at higher than DRI levels may decrease the development of degenerative diseases. 2
ConsumerLabs.com tested many different supplements and listed those that met their criteria, but they tested only supplements that met the DRI. Dr. Carter explained that supplements exceeding the DRI level in amounts that may decrease the development of degenerative diseases were not tested, which explains why these supplements did not appear on their list. She also noted that Melaleuca’s Vitality Pack is one of two supplements she has personally had positive experience with. 2
As consumers, we need to educate ourselves about nutritional supplements for prevention of disease and maintaining health. When choosing a nutritional supplement, we need to make sure the company uses 100% pure standardized extracts of the highest quality available, and we need to be sure that the supplements are formulated to be bioactive so that our bodies can effectively recognize, absorb, and utilize the nutrients. We need to make sure that ingredients in the supplement are in proper proportions to work synergistically with the other ingredients.
Before taking FDA approved drugs, we need to educate ourselves about how the drugs affect our health beyond relieving the symptoms of disease, and we need to educate ourselves about non-toxic alternative therapies that treat the whole person and the disease…not just the symptoms. 1. Ask the Doctor Why and Which Vitamin & Herbal Supplements are Important Dr. Alan Christianson 2. What You Need to Know About Supplements CBN.com. A Woman’s Guide to Good Health. Dr. Carrie Carter, M.D.
This article is a portion of one of my research reports published at rmbarry.com. This entire report can be found at http://www.rmbarry.com/research/natural_medicine.html .
SEE ORIGiNAL ARTICLE AT http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977037531
Reproduced with permission.
