Welcome To the Fifth Edition of the Health and Happiness Podcast

Welcome to 5th edition of the health and happiness PODCAST. In this PODCAST I will cover vitamin D, the poor quality of the American health care system, cholesterol-lowering drugs and diuretics which are used to low blood pressure.

Vitamin D and calcium are very important for the body, not only to build strong bones but also to prevent disease. So important that vitamin D is added milk. The medical literature now has new recommended levels for vitamin D. The new recommendations are 800 international units (IU) of vitamin D for the average person. Postmenopausal women should be getting a thousand IU of vitamin D.

Normally we get 400 IU of vitamin D from our multivitamin and 400 to 600 IU more should be taken from an additional source.

In a very large study of 110,000 men and women ages 38 to 75, those who consumed more than 600 IU of vitamin D daily reduced their risk of pancreatic cancer by 41%. Pancreatic cancer is a killer, not too many people get it. Those who do get it the symptoms come late and by the time it’s diagnosed the recovery rate is very small.

Vitamin D when added to calcium increases the absorption of calcium and makes stronger bones. So it decreases bone fractures. The combination of calcium with vitamin D also decreases colorectal cancer.

John Abramson M.D. a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School wrote a book called Overdosed America; in it he says that America does not have the best medical system but one of the worst. He quotes WHO, the World Health Organization which says the life expectancy of a
healthy American ranks 22nd out of 23, of the industrialized countries. The only country that we have a better life expectancy than, is the Czech Republic, that’s pretty sad.

For medical care the U.S. spends $6,000 for every man woman and child. This is twice the amount spent by other developed countries WHO said that we ranked 37th among the nations in the efficiency in improving citizen health. In improving citizen health we ranked 72nd.

Today’s drug companies are part of the problem. The drug companies are more interested in making huge profits then in helping people. The drug companies say they need this huge amount of money for research. It is not true, the drug companies spend more money for advertising then they do for research.

Last year’s figures show for older drugs and generic drugs according to the book Overdosed America are as good as the newer advertised drugs and often safer. They are safer because they have been on the market longer and anything harmful about them comes out sooner. It takes two or more years to report the harmful effects of new drugs. As we found recently with Celebrex and other anti-inflammatories. Of the 560 new drugs approved from 1995 to the year 2000 only 13% were new drugs and were sufficiently better than the older drugs. Originally medical research was university based it was not done by for-profit organizations now they’re funded by the drug companies now you can either prevent and cure disease or you can maximize your profits. You can’t do both. The position that we’re in now, the drug companies are maximizing their profits

Now for information about cholesterol. We are told that cholesterol is a good indicator for heart attacks, yet 50% of the people that get heart attacks have normal cholesterol. A better indicator for heart attacks is high C reactive protein (H-CRP). It is an indicator of the inflammation in the body and this seems to be a better indicator for heart attacks. The more inflammation the better the chance of a heart attack.

Cholesterol lowering Staten drugs are recommended for more than 40 million Americans. Medical literature backs up their use in only a small subgroup of patients and then the benefits are small. As I mentioned in previous podcasts. Statins can have harmful side effects. Why are we using so many statin drugs because of drug company advertising.

A few years ago a large study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute compared four different drugs to lower high blood pressure. It showed inexpensive diuretics as effective or more effective than the newer expensive drugs for high blood pressure. The study revealed the drug Cardura significantly increased the risk of congestive heart failure. Many millions of drug company dollars later Cardura is still on the market.

That’s all for podcast number five I hope you found it interesting and informative. The next podcast, will be number six on November 1

If you would like your questions answered on the health and happiness podcast our e-mail address is health@lencolabs.com.

For more information on this subject and other subjects go to www.lencolabs.com Thank you for listening to the health and happiness podcast with Leonard Austin