MCVitamins News

Your Nutritional Education Site

 
New Phone Number for MCVitamins
Neuropathy Drugs Have a Greater Suicide Risk
Can Fungus Really Be Healthy for your Heart
Why You Don't Want Reduced Fat Milk in Your Diet



New Phone Number for MCVitamins

Our number is changed to 888 758-5590

 

Neuropathy Drugs Have a Greater Suicide Risk

If you know someone who is taking Neurontin or Lyrica, you should forward this email to them. You just might save a life!

The FDA recently released the analysis of 199 studies done on a total of 44,000 patients who were taking anti-epileptic drugs. The results showed there was twice the risk of suicidal behavior in using anti-epileptic drugs as compared with patients taking a placebo.

Two of the anti-epileptic drugs in these studies were Gabapentin (marketed as Neurontin) and Pregabalin (marketed as Lyrica). Both of these drugs are advertised for neuropathy and are made by the drug company Pfizer.

In 2004 Pfizer was fined by the FDA and paid over 430 million dollars for promoting Neurontin to doctors as a medication for neuropathy, a use for which it was never authorized!

So here we have a drug company making two drugs that are prescribed by doctors for neuropathy, one of which was never authorized by the FDA for that use, and both are associated with a greater risk of suicidal behavior. 

Drugs can never heal the body as they are an alien substance in the body. They cannot address the root of the problem, which for most people who have neuropathy, are very specific nutritional deficiencies.

For more information about Neuropathy 

Can Fungus Really be Health for your Heart?

The ability of a plant to take in minerals is determined by the plentiful presence of a "good" fungus called mycorrhiza. This fungus is plentiful in soils that have long been organic. The best fertilizers you can buy for your personal garden are rich in this fungus and it will say so on the bag.

Organically Bound Minerals is a product chiefly made with alfalfa. This product is made from dehydrated alfalfa whole plant juice and from sea lettuce (dulse). The alfalfa used is from certified organic fields. The irrigation comes from artesian wells beneath the farm. Alfalfa can put down roots over 100 feet in the ground. It is all minerals and mycorrhiza down there!

Lack of Minerals Affect the Heart 

We hear a lot about pesticides in our foods but not so much about lack of minerals. Organic vegetables have far more minerals than commercially grown vegetables, especially the more rare but important trace minerals. Rutgers University did a study proving this fact in the 1990s.

Organically Bound Minerals is a product that can be important in heart function though it sometimes needs to be balanced with certain other products. It is rich in organic potassium and this especially can lead to a happy heart. I think it goes down best with a good chardonnay. Ha, ha.

The sea lettuce in Organically Bound Minerals contains omega 3 fatty acids. There are many trace minerals in Organically Bound Minerals which are also in a metabolizable enzyme and vitamin matrix.

Minerals are essential in practically all functions of the body and its structure. Minerals have to be in a form that is metabolizable by the body. You often hear that a product is absorbable which means to take up and involve. What you want are products that are metabolizable. Carbon monoxide is absorbable but not really metabolizable. It blocks metabolism. Organic potassium is far more useful to the body than potasium tablets though these synthetic forms of potassium compounds can save you from heatstroke.

Studies done on organic versus commercial vegetables have shown unbelievable low levels of minerals in commercial vegetables compared to the organics. This is probably a far more important fact than the presence of pest killing chemicals on foods; though fungusides are key in preventing mineral uptake. Fungusides kill the beneficial fungus that take minerals from soil in through the roots to the plant. 

Organically Bound Minerals is probably my best selling supplement, especially in hot weather as one's body uses up more potassium. 

Sincerely,
Dr. Mike Spearman
Spearman Better Health Center
email: drmikess@yahoo.com  
www.spearmanbetterhealth.com  

For Organically Bound Minerals Standard Process Organically Bound Minerals 90 T

Why You Don't Want Reduced Fat Milk in Your Diet

If you were to visit a milk processing plant, you would see it is filled with all types of shiny steel equipment and machinery.

Inside that machinery, the milk shipped from farms around the processing plant is completely re-made, so that there is so much protein, so much butterfat, etc.

This is done so that the milk products produced are both uniform and meet the standards for milk products set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

First the milk is separated with special machinery into fat, protein and various other solids and liquids. Once separated, these are remixed to set levels for whole, low-fat and no-fat milks. The butterfat left over goes into butter, cream, cheese, toppings and ice cream.

When the fat is taken out to make reduced fat milks, they replace the fat with powdered milk concentrate. All reduced-fat milks have dried skim milk added to give them body, although this ingredient is not usually on the labels.

The powdered skim milk concentrate is created by high temperature spray drying. The result is a very high-protein, low-fat product.

The milk is forced through a tiny hole at high pressure, and then blown out into the air. This causes the cholesterol in the milk to oxidize (chemically changed).

NOTE: The normal cholesterol found in food contributes to health and is a vital part of every cell membrane in your body.

However, you do not want to eat oxidized cholesterol. Oxidized cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque inside the arteries), which causes high blood pressure that eventually leads to heart attacks and strokes.

So when you drink any kind of reduced-fat milk thinking that it will help you avoid heart disease, you are actually consuming oxidized cholesterol, which contributes to the process of heart disease as it builds up on the inside walls of your arteries.

The moral to this story is stay away from any kind of reduced fat milk. If you are going to use milk use only whole milk!

If you are lucky enough to live where it is available, get raw unpasteurized milk, one of nature's finest foods.



Neuropathy, why the pain, the tingling and the numbness?

What causes this debilitating pain, burning,  painful touch, lack of coordination and balance, and cramps?

Neuropathy has many symptoms.   It may start with a tingling feeling and end up with numbness.   It can be a pricking, or burning sensation, loss of reflexes and muscle shrinkage, abnormal sensations, or sensitivity to touch.  Its worse symptom is pain, sometimes so excruciating that a person would amputate rather then continue the pain.  

It is called many names such as paresthesia, neuritis, neuralgia, dysesthensia, hypoesthesia, hypesthesia, hypalgesia, hypealgesia and hyperesthesia due to its many different kinds of symptoms. 

But, what underlies all these symptoms?

They are created by a specific type of nerve damage. This nerve damage can come from too much sugar in the blood (the reason it is a side effect of diabetes). It can be caused by exposure to chemicals such as cancer treatments, poisons, alcoholism, or a side effect of some medications.   It can be the result of kidney or liver failure, infectious disease or nutritional deficiencies especially B vitamins.   The reasons are many; the damage they produce is the same.

What creates the problem is damage done to the outer lining of the nerve cell.   Cells have coverings much like an electrical wire has an insulation of plastic.  Have you ever seen a wire whose insulation is damaged – the electrical current doesn’t flow correctly. It can send electricity out from the area where it is damaged, it can stop the flow of electricity or it can damage what its supposed to be supplying electricity to.

A damaged nerve covering does the same thing.  It can send out “sparks” that cause tingling, it can stop the flow resulting in numbness.  It can create feelings of hot or cold or a sensitivity due to crossed signals.  It can definitely cause pain especially as the damage gets worse.

The idea is to fix this outer covering.  This is called the myelin sheath.  What is needed is specific B vitamins.  The only question is how to get these B vitamins in sufficient amounts so that the body can actually repair the damage.   Isolated B vitamins that are sold at the health food stores or local drug stores get washed out of the system too quickly to fix the damage.  It would be hard to take enough of this type of nutrients to make a difference.  You can’t get it from vitamins made in a laboratory.

What is needed is a whole food supplement with methylcobalamine and benfotiamine and other B vitamins that the body can use to repair the cells.  That is one of the functions of the body, to repair cells.  But it does need specific nutrients to do its job.  

Nutrients are what a body runs on.   A car runs on gas.  If you drive the car down the road, it uses up a steady amount of that gas.  If you take that same car and speed down the freeway, you will use up a lot of gas.   When you take a body “out on the freeway”, or put it under physical stress, it uses up a lot more nutrients.  Thus, getting the right supplements in the right amount is important.

Just as a car won’t drive without giving it gas.  A body can’t repair itself (or function correctly) without the proper nutrients it needs to “drive”. In the case of neuropathy, it needs these B vitamins.

Neuropathy can be a side effect of many things.   Although most often it is caused by too much sugar in the blood - Diabetes - there are many factors.

Chemoitherapy and some drugs have neuropathy as a side effect and it can be caused by surgery damaging the nerves - there are others.

 

Read: Neuropathy for more information

 

To Your Health,
MCVitamins