These articles by Dr. Pappas have been published in newspapers and magazines
and are made available only for your information.
Mind Body Health Connection
Is Cholesterol a Serious Health Issue?
Yogurt - Or is it?
What is High Blood Pressure?
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Exercise, Nutrition and Your Child’s Health
How Safe are Supplements
Mind Body Health Connection
Philip A. Pappas, PhD
Copywrite 2008
Are you chronically ill by chance, or have you failed to do what is needed to get well? I often ask my clients this question because it gets them thinking about the part they play in their own care. I recently read a study done by Medco Health Solutions, Inc. The study suggested that 52 percent of all Americans are on one or more prescription drugs each and every month. Are more than half of all Americans sick
The physicians quoted in the study said that this information for the most part represents chronic health issues resulting most often from obesity and poor lifestyle choices. The physicians in this study point to the aggressive multiple drug regimens that have saved thousands of lives. Did they save lives and how do you measure that?
The average yearly death rate caused by prescription drug use is more than 225,000 per year and CNN reported that in 2006, more than 700,000 people visited ER’s across the US with drug reactions. What could 700,000 ER visit cost? If we assume a very low $500.00 for an ER visit, that totals three hundred and fifty million dollars. There are more than 1.5 million US medication injuries each year; (Johns Hopkins University 2006). “The chance of dying in an aviation accident is one in 2 million, while the risk of dying from a medical accident is one in 200!”––Dr. Leape of the Harvard Medical Schoolof Public Health. What is the yearly cost of drug deaths and injuries? Why are so many individuals willing to risk those injuries and deaths?
I asked my own physician why patients prefer medication over healthy lifestyle changes like exercise and weight lose. He said, “people eat too much junk, drink, and smoke because it makes them feel good.” He also explained that no matter how much he begs them to change their ways they usually don’t. The doctor is suggesting that stressed-out people use our abundance of foods to medicate themselves. They could jog, play tennis, or workout at the gym, but most just eat junk food until they develop illness and eventual early death.
Could the answer to the failing health of Americans be ever increasing prescription drug use? Joel Fuhrman, MD. in his book Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss, Little Brown and Company, says “For most people, illness means putting their fate in the hands of doctors and complying with their recommendations – recommendations that typically involve taking drugs for the rest of their lives while they watch their health gradually deteriorate. People are completely unaware that most illnesses are self-induced and can be reversed with aggressive nutritional methods.” Dr. Fuhrman may be correct but how can you affect change when half the population refuses to accept any responsibility for their own health care. Is it so hard to eat healthy, exercise, control your weight, and get some sleep.
In about 100 BC Cicero said “let the health of the people be the supreme law of the land.” He was suggesting that the Roman Republic, as part of its mandate to rule, was obliged to provide clean water, a healthy food supply and basic sanitation to its citizen. This would improve the citizen’s lot in life and strengthen the republic. Our republic has exposed us to thousands of toxins and actively participated in the pollution of air, water and the food chain. Our republic has also created a health care system largely dependent on synthetic drug chemistry.
If we choose to be sick because we refuse to live healthy, what chance does our nation have of surviving? Should the minority of Americans who take care of themselves have to pay for the majority who don’t? How hard would it be to care for your own health? Our grandparents did exactly that. They had less diabetes, less obesity, less mental illness and less heart disease.
People in third world countries are healthier than Americans. Virtually all countries of the European Union are healthier than us. The most expensive health system in the world is now ranked 37th in the world and unable to deliver good health to its people. Cicero would not have been pleased.
So what can you do right now to improve your health? Turn off your TV and your computer and get outside and start walking or running or rollerblading or anything involving vigorous activity. Next, start eating like an adult and not a spoiled child on a sugar binge. Visit a health food store or a personal trainer. Get into a stress management program. Stay away form negative and sick individuals as much as possible. Do something about your sleep problems besides drugging yourself unconscious. Get lots of bright light in the day time and sleep in a totally black room. If you are trying to stop smoking, stay away from smokers. Try losing weight by eating less and exercising more. Become the manager of your own health care. Forget about how sick you are and focus on how well you are becoming. If you find this to be just too challenging, get some help.
Is cholesterol a serious health issue?
By Philip A. Pappas, Ph.D.
Copywrite 2008
The medical community and drug makers are advising consumers of the importance of lowering cholesterol levels. The American Heart Journal (2006:785-92) announced that clinicians are "under-prescribing" statin drugs. They suggest a 60% increase in statin drugs.
However, do the facts actually support the ever increasing use of statin drugs and are they truly safe? A recent study found that statin treatment causes a deterioration of blood sugar control in diabetics (Atheroscler Thromb 2006 Apr; 13(2): 95-100). It was also reported that statin drugs caused muscular damage (rhabdomyolysis) even when the patient has no symptoms of pain or weakness (J Pathol 2006 210(1):94-102). All statin package circulars suggest discontinuation of statin treatment if muscle pain develops. The resulting muscular damage can be irreversible. One study found an elevated risk of lymphoid malignancy with statin use among Japanese patients (Cancer Sci 2006;97:133-138). The prestigious medical journal Lancet suggested that statins interfere with selenium pathways (Lancet 363:892-94, 2004), and this may to lead serious illness including cancer.
Is low cholesterol good? Many studies link cholesterol under 160 to decreased longevity, stroke, depression, aggressive behavior and cancer. The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. (Circulation 1992 86:3:1026-1029) “Bad news for drug makers includes a doubling of heart failure rates since statins were introduced” (Circulation, February 6, 2006). Very low cholesterol is associated with poor survival in heart failure patents (American Journal of Cardiology, September 2006). A recent study indicates that a decline in total cholesterol levels precedes the diagnosis of dementia by at least fifteen years (Archives of Neurology 2007; 64:103-107). Additional evidence suggests that low levels of LDL-cholesterol are associated with Parkinson's disease.
Researchers estimate that between 1% and 5% of statin users will experience muscle pain and weakness as a side effect. Rhabdomyolysis can be fatal and/or irreversible, and is grossly under-reported. A recent Washington Post investigation and article suggests that the side effect rate of statins is 30% (Is Your Doctor in Denial? By Ishani Ganguli, Aug, 28, 2007)
Is the cholesterol hypothesis valid? Many professionals suggest that inflammation is the cause of heart disease and treating inflammation, not lowering cholesterol, is the answer.
Tests already exist to measure inflammation such as homocystiene, and C-reactive protein, however many physicians fail to run these tests. Additionally, stress can elevate cholesterol resulting from excess cortisol levels. Statins are not approved nor are they logical treatment for stress and elevated cortisol levels.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”-- Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.). Cholesterol lowering diets are available. Cod liver oil or fish oil has always been an effective and a healthy way to lower cholesterol. Before statins, niacin was used to lower cholesterol and still works well. A tablespoon of olive oil daily, will raise your HDL’s (good cholesterol) better than any drug. There are many effective cholesterol lowering supplements available without any devastating side effects.
We need a certain level of cholesterol to stay healthy. So what is the urgency for increased use of statins? Statins sales for the current 26 million Americans taking them reached $15 billion this year. The new recommendations may increase the number of users to 36 million and increase sales to $20.8 billion. Those new recommendations are generated for the most part by drug company research. They contend that increased usage will save lives but they offer no significant proof. Will statin makers pay the cost for those injured by statins? Don’t hold your breath.What can you do to avoid taking statin drugs? Eat healthy, exercise regularly, lose 20 pounds, and lower your stress levels. Try super-sizing a healthy lifestyle.
Yogurt – Or is it?
By Dr. Phil Pappas
Copywrite 2009
I have many fond memories of my mother making fresh yogurt. She used whole milk and the all important yogurt culture she saved from the previous yogurt batch she made. Those cultures contain amazing bacteria and enzymes that provide yogurt’s unique health benefits. Yogurt is so healthy that the Mongol armies lived on mare’s milk yogurt, made in leather bags while riding their horses across Asia to invade Europe They often lived on just yogurt quiet successfully. Yogurt helps build a healthy immune system and aids digestion. The statistics show yogurt is one of the fastest growing products in most food stores. So I decided to visit my local market and check out yogurt. After reading the labels I was confused. Instead of whole milk and live cultures like mom used, I found cornstarch, powdered skim milk, and artificial sweeteners. I thought yogurt is a milk product that contains no vegetables or additives. When I was growing up I lived near a dairy farm and I helped out there in the summer. I never saw corn or artificial sweetener come out of a cow. So is this yogurt or just water with thickeners? In fact, the labels list no measurable bacteria or enzymes.
If you advertised gasoline, but substituted kerosene for the gas, that would be theft by deception and a felony. You might go to jail. Real yogurt is not made from powdered milk and cornstarch. So isn’t this a felony? I don’t see anyone getting arrested. And that is because the US Congress allows large food producers to deceive the public because they donate money for their elections and re-elections. If we can’t trust politicians with yogurt, how can we trust them with running the government?
What about Jamie Lee Curtis and “L. casei immunitus”? A total scam and nothing more than lab created bacteria added to the fake yogurt. This still is not even close to real yogurt.
So why is this important? If you were diabetic and you wanted the health benefits of naturally low glycemic yogurt, but ate a store yogurt made with cornstarch, an extremely high glycemic thickener, you would risk elevating your blood sugars. Many individuals are just not knowledgeable enough to understand the labeling. If you were avoiding sugar to lose weight you might also be confused by the “no sugar added” or the “low fat” labeling. Cornstarch converts to sugar and corn helps farmers fatten up their livestock. So fake yogurt might make you look like livestock.
So what can consumers do? Forget about the government, they will always be in bed with the food producers. You need to get educated about what you eat because it is important to your health. Don’t take labeling for granted, it is usually deliberately deceptive. The truth is often in the small print. Real yogurt is available if you are willing to read. Now you know so try enjoying some real yogurt, and not the artificial look alike.
What Is High Blood Pressure?
By Philip A. Pappas
It’s Heart Month and time to think about your blood pressure. High blood pressure (HBP) or hypertension is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems. “Blood pressure” (BP) is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over-time, damage to organs may result. About 1 in 3 adults in the United States has HBP. HBP itself usually has no symptoms. You can have it for years without knowing. This is why knowing your blood pressure numbers is important, even when you’re feeling fine.
There is no specific physiological cause for most cases of high blood pressure. Physicians from the time of Hippocrates have suggested that stress may be the aggravating factor. There are significant physiological reasons that point to stress. First, the physiological response to stress is elevation of BP. Second, stress disrupts normal hormone function causing changes in the kidneys and thyroid gland and other organs. This can lead to a rise in BP. Third, the lack of a good explanation other than stress, makes stress a likely reason for HBP. When stress is lowered using stress reduction therapies the BP generally goes down. Being overweight is a risk factor for HBP and it is also a form of damaging physiological stress. Obesity and weight gain are often a result of stress. Losing weight usually results in lower BP.
Most individuals have higher BP in the physician’s office and lower BP at home (white coat syndrome). This also supports the role of stress in HBP. It has been demonstrated that stress reduction often works as well as drugs in lowering HBP. So why isn’t this the treatment of choice? Stress reduction has no profit potential for corporations and most physicians aren’t up to speed with this type of therapy. It is not paid for by insurance so most individuals won’t consider it as treatment. Above all it means an active effort by the patient. Some individuals can’t be bothered with simple, healthy, lifesaving stress exercises and would rather risk serious and possibly fatal side effects of pharmaceuticals. Stress reduction therapy is easy and fun. The cost and effort are minimal. Attitude is everything and a bad attitude is a risk factor for HBP.
A new non-drug therapy, known as Heart Rate Variability Training (HRVT), is available for blood pressure control. The FDA approved this technique in 2001 for the treatment of HBP. It is safe and can even be done at home after in-office training. For questions and information about HBP and stress reduction contact Dr. Pappas at 215-794-5311 or earthfoods@gmail.com.
IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME
The poorly understood condition
By
Philip A. Pappas, Ph.D.
Published in Progressive Health Magazine Winter 2000
Katie is a sales representative for a large corporation and travels long distances to see her clients.About two years ago Katie starting having problems leaving the house in the morning because of bowel spasms and repeated bowel movements.She was having as many as eight to ten bowel movements before lunch.With each movement, she had more spasm and progressively loser stools.Katie was afraid to leave the house until this had past.She started losing more and more time from work and finally had to take a medical leave.During this time, her physician put her through a variety of test and blood work.After a colonoscopy, her physician told her she was fine, but she had Irritable Bowel Syndrome.He suggested using a prescription anti-spasmodic and Metamucil.She tried this for several weeks with no improvement.Several doctor visits later Katie was frustrated and gave up trying to get better.She resigned herself to a life centered on her bowel symptoms.Katie felt much like a captive; unable to leave her home and do the things others take for granted.
Another client referred Katie to me.She had not worked for several months and rarely felt well.Her symptoms had left her tired and depressed.Katie’s attitude was negative and she felt helpless.I suggested that her condition (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), was not hopeless and there was much that could be done to make her feel better.I developed an IBS program for Katie, using stress reduction, diet modification, exercise, and fiber supplementation.After an evaluation and IBS counseling, Katei regained her spirit and hope.Within two weeks, her symptoms were almost gone and she was starting to do things she had been avoiding.In about one month, she was symptom free and back to work.Although pleased, she wondered why no one had suggested an IBS program earlier.
Most people have never heard a story such as Katie’s, but it is much more common than you might think.It is estimated that 15-17 percent of the population suffers from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).Twice as many women suffer from IBS than do men.Half of all patients develop symptoms before age thirty.In America, IBS accounts for 3 million doctors visits each year.The AMA estimates that IBS accounts for 50% of all referrals to gastroenterologists.It has been ranked as the second leading cause of worker absenteeism in the United States, second only to the common cold.
The impact of IBS on our society is significant.Surveys of IBS patients point to a general dissatisfaction with medical care.Studies have shown that if patients were counseled and put on an appropriate IBS program, outcomes would be significantly better.Another reason that IBS patients do poorly is the embarrassing nature of the condition.Many patients are simply not comfortable talking about this very personal problem.IBS is not a high profile condition by its very nature.Who would want to be the poster child for IBS?
What is Irritable Bowel Syndrome?Defining or describing IBS is itself a problem.The literature usually defines IBS by symptoms such as, a cluster of symptoms, consisting mostly of abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea.Some IBS patients experience alternating constipation and diarrhea.IBS is not a disease and does not lead to illness that is more serious.It will not cause cancer or any other fatal condition.The confusion and lack of good information about IBS, cause patients to become weary and resign themselves to living with the condition.Many patients manage but many others suffer discomfort, pain, and disability.
Diagnosing IBS is very difficult because there is no known test or diagnostic marker for this condition.It is a diagnosis of elimination.Much more serious conditions such as cancer or Crohn’s Disease can be tested for and eliminated but IBS is still an educated guess.An incorrect diagnosis could be fatal.
What causes Irritable Bowel Syndrome?There are many theories but no one really knows.It has been associated with; stress, depression, chronic childhood constipation, anxiety, antibiotic use and food allergy.
Stress seems to be the most common issue for almost all IBS sufferers.Simple stress reduction training helps most sufferers feel better.The mind-gut connection involves a complex interaction of nerves that connect the brain and gut.Emotional stress starts the muscles of the colon into spasms that create the churning and discomfort.Until these emotions are addressed, little can be done to improve the condition.
The chronic nature of IBS and the impact it has on the patient, poses a challenge to all health care practitioners.The standard medical model has failed to produce any significant improvement for a majority of chronic IBS patients.Many alternative health practitioners can help IBS patients control and manage their symptoms.It is important to find practitioners with an interest and experience in IBS care. IBS is a condition of management that responds to stress reduction, biofeedback, and diet modifications.Counseling patients about these techniques of managing IBS is a more holistic approach.Patients want to get better, and alternative treatment options often help.
Exercise, Nutrition and Your Child’s Health
Dr. P.A. Pappas 2009
A new study by Ohio State University and Temple University, found that 1 in 5 four year olds is obese. This amounts to half a million 4 year olds in the United States, who may face serious health problems as adults. America needs the young to do the work of the nation. They are the future labor force and the tax payers of the next generation. We need the young to be the soldiers for the wars we fight. So what is a parent to do? A childs weight is most easily control with activity. Children need to be active to grow up healthy and strong and what they eat is extremely important.
Why is exercise and nutrition important for a child’s health and why should parents be concerned about their child’s weight?
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently stated that the number one health challenge in America is excess weight and obesity. Our children have the greatest increases in obesity and excess weight in the history of man. The CDC attributes this to a lack of activity and poor diet. This could easily be reversed by regular exercise and proper nutrition. An overweight child will often become a chronically ill adult.
In what way does excess weight affect children?
The National Institute of Health (NIH) suggests that today’s children face a five fold increase in Type II diabetes compared to their parents. They also suggest that in twenty-five years 50% of the adult population will develop heart disease. These increases will be due almost entirely to excess weight and obesity. Recent surveys have found that men and women today on average, weigh twenty-five pounds more than individuals in the 60’s. As terrible as heart disease and diabetes are, the news gets worse. Today’s overweight children will face an ever increasing number of chronic illnesses their ancestors avoided. As adults they may develop osteoarthritis of the knees, bad backs and degenerative disc disease, mood swings and depression, reflux disease, digestive problems, stroke, osteoporosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, high risk of infection, and many types of cancer.
What is the relationship between cancer and body fat?
The fat on our bodies produces the hormone estrogen. Cancer cells grow faster in the presence of estrogen. Excess body fat provides a constant supply of elevated estrogen increasing the risk of cancer for males and females. Males are at significant risk of prostate cancer from elevated estrogen and not surprisingly the average age of new prostate cancers has been decreasing. A twenty year old with prostate cancer was rare in the 60’s and now is not that uncommon. The increase in weight corresponds with the increased incedents of breast and other female cancers in the America.
What can a parent do?
Inactivity and poor nutrition are the norm for most children today. Children watch too much television. They play video games and eat snack foods. Our grandparents and great grandparents were more muscular, more fit, and weighed much less than we do. It was necessary for them to work hard every day. They ate fresh whole foods, not processed junk food, which helped to normalize their weight. Today we have power tools, home entertainment centers, and more junk food than we can eat. Today’s parents are the least knowledgeable generation about food in the past 100 years and the most out of shape. Most parents today do not know the difference between fat, protein, and carbohydrates, let alone the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates. This is why our children are at such high risk of debilitating illness. It would be extremely important to learn about good nutrition and increase your child’s activity level. Only exercise and proper nutrition can prevent the debilitating illnesses associated with obesity and excess body fat. Your child’s future may depend on it.
How Safe are Supplements?
by
Dr. Phil Pappas
Approximately, once a month someone will come to Earth Foods, my health food store, and ask this question. “How do I know if these supplements are safe”? They might repeat unfounded information from a friend or relative, with no expertise or training, about the hazards of supplements. They often have vague undocumented stories of individuals they may not even know who may have had side effects associated with supplements.
Generally, my customers are knowledgeable and their questions are specific. I don’t mind trying to educate and help if someone is truly interested. I always admit my lack of knowledge about a subject and let others educate me. You can learn a lot from a knowledgeable person. It really is important to help with questions about safety.
Now let us look at the question, “How do I know if these supplements are safe”? It is a fact that about 80% percent of supplements in the US market are made in America, with an additional 15% made in Japan, Canada, England, France and Germany. Some raw ingredients are grown successfully in only one location. An example would be “mastic gum”, the antimicrobial ulcer-healing supplement found only on one tiny island in the Mediterranean. We cannot produce and grow everything in America. Most Americans have no idea that 80% percent of US prescription drugs are produced oversees mostly in Asia, with minimal supervision and no FDA nearby. Very few Americans question that fact or worry about quality control, because we think the government is protecting us.
However, our government may not be doing its job as well as we think. Children in Asia, often in hamlets without electric, water or sewage, fill many US mail order prescriptions everyday. America has not had that low level of quality control since the early 1900’s, not to mention child labor. Most individuals are not aware of the many recalls of fresh and processed foods contaminated with toxins, pesticides, bacteria, and dangerous preservative chemicals. We generally give little thought to our drinking water contaminated with deadly chemicals, mercury, and the metabolites of all pharmaceutical products ever made. Very few Americans have read the 2010 report from the President’s Cancer Panel (Bush error), which suggests that the approximately 80,000 untested chemicals in our environment poses dangerous health consequences for the unborn.
In fact, most carcinogens we consume, inhale, or touch on a daily basis are unregulated and under no government oversight. The reason for this is that corporations pay for key senator’s and congressional representative’s re-elections. These elected officials help block and interfere with costly safety regulations, corporations try to avoid. The conservative majority members of the US Supreme Court in 2010 found, that corporations and labor unions, have a right to influence elected officials with money for their election and re-elections. This makes every individual’s vote and status that of a second-class citizen. In the name of free speech, the court ignored the conflict of interest created by the election money and corporate profits. This leaves the safety of adults and children to the mercy of CEO’s, who do not represent Americans and often produce their products in other countries.
When you look at safety, it helps to compare the existing standards. There should not be significant differences in safety among products when it comes to human life. So let us look at health care as the safety model. The US averages 225,000 iatrogenic(doctor or hospital caused) deaths annually, including 106,000 from prescription medications, done under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation. There are 1.5 million US medication injuries requiring emergency room care each year, (Johns Hopkins University 2006), andmore than 5,000 US deaths from food borne illness each year. The FDA claims (but did not medically prove) that on average each year possibly five individuals die from supplement use. No one has ever died from vitamin C, E, folic acid or any B Vitamins. The FDA has always regulated supplements as food (they are not drugs) and supplements are a lot safer than food or drugs according to the government’s own statistics. Of course, some athletes for example, have abused substances they obtained illegally. However, that has nothing to do with the products sold in the health food store. Those products were illegally manufactured and distributed in a similar way to street drugs. We all know the government’s success or lack of success, in controlling street drugs. Dealing street drugs is the most lucrative tax-free business in America. Illegal drug sale run far ahead of prescription sales every year.
Another interesting statistic of note can be found in "Is US Health Really the Best in the World?", published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and written by Barbara Starfield, MD, MPH. In this paper Dr. Starfield gives the following statistics:
7,000 deaths occur each year due to medication errors in hospitals
12,000 deaths occur each year due to unnecessary surgery
20,000 deaths occur each year due to other hospital errors
80,000 deaths occur each year due to nosocomial infections in hospitals
106,000 deaths occur each year due to adverse effects to properly prescribed medications
This equals 225,000 deaths due to iatrogenic causes. This would be the third leading cause of death in America - just above cerebrovascular diseases at 162,672 deaths. Dr. Leape of the Harvard School of Medicine said, “Medicine is now a high risk industry, like aviation. But, the chance of dying in an aviation accident is one in 2 million, while the risk of dying from a medical accident is one in 200!”- Dr. Leape of the Harvard Medical School of Public Health If this many people died in a third world country we would call it a holocaust. Here we call it our medical system, ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization.
Do we ask our doctors, hospitals and pharmacists if what they do is safe? Do we ask to see the infection rate of the hospital when we are admitted? Do we ask for the health department’s report before we dine at a restaurant? Of course, we don’t and if we did, the doctor might refuse to treat us, the restaurant would call the police, and the hospital would charge us for a psychiatric consult. However, there are always questions about the safety of herbs and supplements, made in America by Americans under the safest and cleanest conditions anywhere in the world with a record of safety second to no other industry in the America. It might make more sense to question the safety of industries that actually injure and kill individuals. Maybe those dangerous industries need more regulation to protect Americans.
So when you buy something at a health food store, what is your risk? According to the government and private statistics, virtually none. You stand a significantly greater chance of being hit by lightening. So what is the concern with safety? People are human and they believe what they are told and parrot that information to others. The very essence of commercial marketing is that if you say something often enough, it becomes a fact. It does not need to be true or accurate to become a fact. When the Catholic Church said the world was flat, Western Europe
believed it even though the Greeks and Arabs had calculated the circumference of the earth centuries earlier. Bertrand Russell expressed this best when he said, “Men are born ignorant, not stupid, they are made stupid by education.” We are told what someone needs us to believe and what benefits them. Questioning what we are told, however often puts us at risk.
What about all of the press coverage on PCB contamination found in fish oil supplements? Fish oil supplements are allowed one part per trillion of PCB. For baby formula, that standard is nine parts per billion. I guess since babies don’t talk they cannot complain. Fresh fish allows 200 parts per billion. Fish oil supplements are one of the safest products on earth. In fact, most US states don’t have the equipment necessary to measure that standard of safety.
So what about herbs, herbal medicine, and all the dangers they present? I’m tired of hearing individuals, broadcasters, doctors, nurses and teachers calling herbal medicine “alternative”. Alternative means, “outside the establishment or mainstream, rarely used, undocumented or untested, and often presented as being less effective.” In fact, herbs are used in medicine worldwide; at a rate six times that of prescription drugs daily. The US which is 5% of the world’s population, uses 60% of the world production of pharmaceuticals each year. This means that most drug production is for American consumption. Americans then suffer most of the side effects complications and deaths. Oddly, countries that have free access to prescription drugs use much less of them. Herbs hurt and kill no one, while medications injure and kill thousand of people daily. Chemical medicine is only sixty or seventy years old. Herbs have been around for over 10,000 years. Herbal medicine therefore is not the alternative, but pharmaceuticals are by definition.
Now I would like to mention toxicity. Toxicity, is defined as; 1. degree of poisonousness, or 2. capability to poison somebody. In medicine, toxic is a good replacement word for poison because it is less scary. More than ninety-nine percent of all drugs have a measurable toxic level. The FDA requires pharmaceutical companies to test and report that level. You can find that level in the package information for each drug. In most cases, the toxic level for most supplements would be impossible to measure using existing techniques because of the volume of product necessary. In other words, it is next to impossible to hurt yourself with supplements because they are only toxic at outrageous volume or not at all. In addition, supplements generally cause diarrhea or vomiting long before any harmful level can be reached. However, every time you ingest a drug you are being poisoned in micro levels. Many drugs require periodic blood work to avoid toxicity because the toxins build up to dangerous levels with time. This is why supplements are extremely safe and drugs are inherently dangerous.
How good are drug store or big box store supplements? Quality supplements at health food stores are manufactured and shipped quickly to fill the orders. They cannot sit on loading docks or in hot warehouses. Supplements are often fragile and become useless or possibly harmful when not handled correctly. Fish oil and probiotics are two examples of supplements that require special handling. Drug store chains and big box stores contract with the cheapest large volume generic manufacturers, not necessarily American, to produce significant profit margins on cheap supplements. The large volume production requires possibly months of warehousing and often long travel time in hot trucks. Fish and flax seed oil are worthless and even dangerous when handled this way. If you were trying to improve your health, why would you buy poor quality products? Health food stores receive shipments directly and quickly from manufactures with proper handling. Probiotics for example are shipped cold and in insulated packaging when necessary. Many other products need special handling.
So, are the supplements at your independent health food store safe? Are the supplements I give my clients safe? The answer is yes. Supplements are an important tool for those who care about their health. Well, I got a lot off my chest. Sure, someone is going to ask me that “safety” question again very soon. Now I can smile and refer them my article.
Philip A. Pappas, Ph.D.
Certified Weight Management Practitioner
Certified Personal Trainer AFAA
Director, Institute of Weight Management and Health