As regular readers know, one of my biggest peeves is the media writing uninformed articles about nutrition without bothering to check the facts. It is hard to tell which nutrient draws the most misinformation from the media, but creatine ranks high on the list. Why do so many in the media confuse a healthy nutrient with an unhealthy drug. Why are so many in the media under the impression that eating creatine (which the body uses naturally) is akin to taking performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids that change body chemistry?
Last month, we began our conversation with Dr. Leon Schurgers about vitamin K2 with a discussion of the “calcium paradox,” in which so many people have harmful calcium deposits form in their arteries at the same time that the calcium content of their bones is decreasing. This calcium paradox is not a result of too little calcium in the diet, but of too little vitamin K2 that largely controls where the calcium goes. The objective is to keep calcium in our bones, not in our arteries. This is the role of vitamin K—putting calcium in its place!
Enough is enough! There was an onslaught of misinformation generated by the media when the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT), a study of the role of selenium in prostate cancer, was halted in October 2008. The media incorrectly reported the termination of the study as evidence that selenium does not reduce the risk of cancer. The fact is that a large body of scientific evidence shows that several selenium-containing nutrients do reduce the risk of many types of cancers.
I called upon vitamin K researcher, Dr. Leon Schurgers. Dr. Schurgers was kind enough to share his thoughts on the functions of vitamin K, discuss the significance of new research findings and comment on the potential implications for clinical practice for us. Since February is Heart Month, we will focus largely on the cardiovascular system, but also discuss skeletal health.
As we understand more about gluten intolerance (not an allergy) and its related problems including gluten-sensitive enteropathy, celiac sprue, nontropical sprue, Gee-Herter’s disease and others, we can help more of the thousands of affected people achieve better health. There are many more gluten-free products available to help. The most important thing to keep in mind is that if the problem is not corrected as soon as possible, damage to the intestinal tract worsens, suffering increases, and the absorption of vital nutrients suffers, compounding all health problems!
Perhaps you have read about the exciting results of still another clinical trial with Pycnogenol and arthritis (1). As the baby boomers age, more and more find themselves hampered by various aches and pains, especially knee pain. This month, I have called upon Frank Schönlau, Ph.D., to discuss this research with us and to get his recommendations for the best help for knee pain.
“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
—Thomas Jefferson, September 23, 1800
When Congress created the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1906, it was intended that this vital agency would operate under principles of our Constitution. It was not the intention of Congress to create an agency that would encumber the health of our nation.
Recently, we have been discussing the paradigm shift in nutritional science facilitated by nutrigenomics. The Rubicon has been crossed and there is good news. For decades, we have been learning that much of our health is influenced by our genes, but, more recently, we began to understand that good nutrition can often override bad genes.