From the 1950s on, the American population has been culturally conditioned that a magic bullet exists for every symptom that afflicts the human condition. Every pharmaceutical firm dreams of a blockbuster medication—a Claritin, a Lipitor, a Viagra.
With more Americans than ever taking prescription drugs, more and more people are asking for natural alternatives. The average American under the age of 65 takes some twelve medications over the course of a year. For those over the age of 65 that increases to about forty-five medications in one year. But do supplemental nutrients function as “magic bullets’? Can you replace a drug like Neurontin for symptoms of neuropathy with alpha lipoic acid?
The National Cancer Institute has stopped the SELECT trial that studied whether synthetic vitamin E and selenium would prevent prostate cancer. They gave 35,000 men aged 50 and older one or both supplements or a placebo to test their power to prevent prostate cancer. The study was scheduled to conclude in 2011, but the conclusion was that these supplements don’t work and there may be a hint of a risk with their use.
While there are many nutrients with good news stories (backed by studies published and archived at PubMed), the results remain mixed in many circles. The studies are showing that replacing a prescription medication with a single nutrient, one natural magic bullet, often yields mixed results.
In biochemistry class, we learned about the Krebs cycle. It taught us that a complex milieu of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and cofactors work together in a delicate balance to maintain homeostasis. There is, therefore, no one magic nutrient that cures a disease, and there never will be. For many years antibiotics held the lure of a medical cure. Now, the increasing incidence of chronic diseases demands a multi-factorial approach that is frustrating for both clinicians and patients who are stuck in “magic bullet” mode.
What was the genetic profile of the 35,000 men in the SELECT study? Was their nutrition optimal, or were they the typical Americans—deficient in multiple nutrients as well as key macro nutrients like good fats? Up to 80% of Americans are fatty acid deficient, according to research quoted in Andrew Stoll’s The Omega Three Connection. And as many as 70% of Americans are magnesium deficient. We know from research done by Dr. Dean Ornish that the diet proven to regress atherosclerosis will also slow the growth of prostate cancer and lower the PSA.
That diet is rich in multiple vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and cofactors, and loaded with fiber, good fats, and other nutritional elements. Who is to say that one factor is better than another? Or which nutrients in what amounts are best suited to address their 35,000 individual genetic maps? We now see why many integrative physicians dedicated to the medical use of clinical nutrition realize that these studies are designed to fail.
The headlines that read “No Prostate Benefit from Vitamin E, Selenium” once again point out the many reasons to support the efforts of AAHF. Support physicians’ right to offer treatment that is individually tailored to each patient’s needs. Nutrition works, and well-done science backs that up.
2 comments
Comments are closed.
Is this a Democracy any more?
To prevent a physician from offering individualized care appropriate to each patient is irrational. Their training is that they are to “do no harm”. With some of the therapies that medical science has available today, they do a lot of harm to many really sick patients making them worse than they were before their “treatment”.
Treatment for problems must be individualized. True we are the same species BUT we are all different. We share similarities but our genetic make up is different. If it weren’t different, then we would all look the same, think the same and act the same, etc….very boring. These genetic differences are the reason why that organ transplants don’t work unless anti-rejection drugs are taken the rest of the transplant patient’s life. The body recognizes the new organ as being “foreign” to it’s genetic make up. True it is may be another human organ but the body still recognizes it as “foreign”. We do not have interchangeable parts.
Keeping this in mind, physicians MUST be able to treat their patients individually. Therapies that work for one patient may not work for another even though both patients have the same malady. If the same treatment worked for everybody, then pharmaceutical companies wouldn’t have much of a business making just one medication for each problem for everyone. It is well known that there are many different kinds of drugs for the same malady because they don’t all work the same on everyone. Again, the differences in us all. Today, medical science is studying more closely how our nutrition affects our ability to heal ourselves. Natural medicine was here long before pharmaceutical companies and these remedies worked with a lot less side effects or destruction to the patient. It is like this: “The operation was a success but the patient died”.
Modern medicine doesn’t have all the answers and is learning all the time. Western medicine is learning from Eastern medicine therapies that have been affective for thousands of years in treating maladies. Doctors that embrace alternative therapies or medicines are increasing their ability to treat their patients as individuals. Now isn’t that the whole reason these people became doctors in the first place?
To remove the physician’s ability to treat his patients individually, the patients may as well settle for OBAMA care…one size fits all….NOT!