I had a great off-the-cuff conversation with a patient Friday that I thought everyone should know.  As happens often, this patient was walking out the door and remembered she was going to ask me something about the health reports she keeps getting in the mail.  If you order any kind of natural health books, info, reports, or darn near anything your name ends up in a huge database.  In time you start getting lots of mail to buy this herb from the deepest recesses of the amazon jungle that only appears for one day, and that vitmain that no one has ever heard of because they just discovered it on the moon.

The hard part about these mailings is that they are written by professional copywriters  and they get a token M.D. to stand in and be the front man.  They look fabuluous and can part the seas.  I see the twinkle in every patients eyes when they have a chance to be pain free in 1 week and all their joint damage will be erased.  The written word is powerful when used by a professional.

These are tough calls to make as a doctor.

I can’t recommend these for various reasons and it isn’t because the herbs don’t work.  This is how I advised the patient.  In reality, the product won’t hurt the person and may even make them feel a little better.  They had 2 anti-inflammatory herbs and natural aspirin in there.  So sure, they will likely feel a little better.   To buy the product is clearly up to the patient, unless I see something dangerous in there.  Diet supplements are the ones you really need to watch closely.  They are often jacked up with adrenal stimulants.

Here is the problem that I pointed out to the patient that you can go and check yourself.

When perusing the literature the product was in a nutshell:

• For joint and pain relief
• $40
• Mixed with other herbs
• Main herb was Boswellia Serrata 150mg (no extract ratio)

I thought this was interesting because I just took 2 Boswellia Complex (from Mediherb) that morning.  It is a great anti-inflammatory.  The last 2 days I’ve been in snowball fights with my kids and my arm isn’t used to throwing that much yet.  To make life easy I grabbed my own bottle to use as an example.  You are never going to find 2 identical products from different companies, so I attempted to just explain quality differences in herbs

So here is my Boswellia complex in a nutshell:

• For joint and pain relief (anti-inflammatory)
• $20.50
• Mixed with other herbs
• Main herb was Boswellia Serrata 277mg (7:1 extract ratio)

This is where is gets interesting.  We have an herbalist on-call and believe me over the years I’ve called her a lot.  A really good herbal company always puts the EXTRACT ratio on the label.  It looks like this (7:1) or (4:1) or any variation of that.  That is the fastest and easiest way to tell if you even need to investigate any further.  What that means is if a label doesn’t contain an extract ratio I don’t buy it.

Why?

Because….

The one thing I’ve learned over the years about herbs, is that you need to be getting (on average) at least 2000mg of herb or the equivalent.  Some of our herbs have a dose of 6000mg.  Here is why most people are getting ripped off.  They look at the fancy label and a laundry list of ingredients and go “WOW” there is a lot in here, this is a much better supplement.  The problem is they only have 100-250mg of herb, with no extract ratio.  Go ahead look at your bottles.

So why does that EXTRACT ratio make such a difference?

Well grasshopper… this is where the rubber meets the road.  The extract ration tells you how concentrated the herbal preparation is, so you have to multiply the ratio number by the mg to get an equivalent dosage.  In our example above…

The Boswellia complex I as taking was 277mg with a (7:1 extract ratio)

we take 277 * 7= 1,939mg in one capsule.

Overall comparison:

Advertised supplement
150mg
$40

Boswellia Complex
1,939mg
$20.50

You’d have to spend $517.06 to get the same amount of herb from her flashy advertising supplement company.

Herbs aren’t made the same and many herbs can be switched out for others that look exactly identical to cheat the manufacturer.  Not all companies have the expensive chemistry equipment to analyze the potency. Quality matters!  An expensive herbal product doesn’t automatically make it better.

Basic rules to follow:

#1 Look for an extract ratio
#2 Avoid USA manufactured herbs.

There is only a food grade standard for quality.  Other countries have a pharmaceutical grade standard.  Which really improves quality and potency and label accuracy.  This is why we buy our herbs from Mediherb, an Australian company.  Their more potent than any other herb preps I’ve seen.  Mediherb is not available in stores so if your only access is a natural food store, at least look for an extract ratio.  It may seem expensive but compared to what you get it is often much cheaper for the potency.

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Here is the original article:

But what I find so alarming is the blatant disregard for secrecy the drug companies are so used to doing.

For starters it clearly implies the CDC bends over backwards to accommodate the governments recommendations.  So in reality , the advice all doctors get is coming from the government, nice.  The truth behind why they feel every person should get vaccinated is nicely stated.  “Yet every year we wasted millions and millions of doses,” said Dr. Gregory Poland, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases expert.

Ahh, I get it, nobody wants the poisonous, toxic soup we made, so lets get the government to mandate it.  I want you to realize that to the CDC and Big Pharma you are just a dollar bill, you aren’t a person.  So when you see ads on TV and pandemic hype in the paper about the impending viral apocalypse stop for a moment and remember they are just selling you their vaccines.  It is ALL marketing.  If the concept that vaccines of any kind are harmful take a quick look at www.mercola.com and search for “vaccine”, “flu”, “swine flu” and you’ll learn a lot.  They did a nice job digging through the facts.

I’ve been in practice for 12 years and after seeing thousands of patients I can definitely tell you that it is getting harder to help people.  If you wait to take care of your health you will become a victim.  Make 2010 the year you learn something new about health.  I can promise you there is something to learn or do to make yourself healthier.  The process never stops.

Some ideas to focus on:

Physical Health

-Get your aches and pains taken care of with a chiropractor.  If the Olympic athletes use them I think you’ll be fine.
-Start exercising either more or more intensely.
-Eat more REAL food (ie…fruits, veggies, meat)
-Switch to organic foods.
-Wear clothes that make you look and feel good.

Mental Health

-Make a vow to only say kind words to your family.
-Stop reading the newspaper or the watching the news.
-Read inspiring books.
-Eliminate the stresses in your life, relationships, financial, work, etc.  I realize that each person is different, but there are so many resources available at the library or on the internet that if you don’t know how, you can find the answers with some work.

Spiritual Health

-This is part of the triangle of health.  Find a deeper connection to God and you will be rewarded with amazing insight.  This isn’t about drinking the purple kool-aid.  Spirituality means different things to different people.
-Go to church
-Read a book
-Start praying or at least meditate every day.

These are just ideas.  Within each idea are many more things you can learn.  Health is the most important part of living.  I know that is bold, but without your health nothing else matters.  I see it in the office, week in and week out.  When you realize how easy it is to be healthy and put health on the high priority list you’ll never need to worry about drug ads again.

Your health is your responsibility, not your doctors, not the CDC, and definitely not the governments.

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Inside this issue:

1. Acid stopping drugs and how they are associated with broken bones.

2. The real cause of heartburn

3. Swine Flu News

4. Extreme dangers of taking estrogen drugs

5. 120 days to curing diabetes

6. Why “studies” can be dangerous

7. Good old water info.

“Well son, I think you should dig ditches because you don’t have the smarts to do….”

You can fill in the rest.

I think a guidance counselor should be renamed to a dream counselor.  I know that is a way too lame name, but I couldn’t come up with anything else.

I think we as adults could use a dream counselor visit every 6 months.  I know that sounds like a MLM training class, but it could be useful.  I need help calling it something else, but the idea is sound.  Dream just conotates  something that isn’t really possible.  My dreams of flying aren’t going to happen.

A goal is often too vague, ie…I want a new car.
Lame… For starters it is too general.  What kind of car, make, model, color, year, MPG, trim, and when do you want it by and how are you going to obtain it.  It has to have a deadline.  I think you can skip this as well.

You son- need a mission.   What are you willing to die for.  That may be extreme, but you get the idea.  You need something that will get you out of bed and ready to take off.  If someone beat you to a pulp, what would give you reason to get back up.  If you have that kind of mission and desire nothing else will matter.  You will make it happen.  I wish my guidance counselor would have helped me find my mission.

Hiking your way to the future.

I love to hike in the mountains with my family.  The mountains along with the ocean really give me the perspective of being insignificant and humble.  I think that is why some of the best CEO’s still backpack.  It keeps you in perspective.  Your mission is like a long trail through the woods.

Pick a path and stay on it until it is complete, or you realize that you want a different path with a better view.  If you read the Robert Frost poem “The road not taken”, yesterday, he made the clear observation that “way leads on to way”.  You will never go back to who you were and will likely never go back to where you started from.

If you don’t have a trail, map, compass, or GPS, and are just going out in the woods for a 8 hour hike.  There is a good chance most people will be hopelessly lost.  Even if you have a trail, the more you wander off, the more likely you are to get lost.  This is you life.  What path are you walking on?  The more you wander the less likely you will complete your mission.

What is your direction?____________________

Your path?___________________________
Why are you getting out of bed?________________________________

Is that a good enough reason?______________________________