April 1, 2011 Dr. Len and Nurse Vicki said goodbye to KEST Radio in San Francisco and began posting their Prescriptions for Health show, and the Prescription For Health "Fastrack" show on DoctorSaputo.com. This page contains all the fastrack shows for April 2011.
Friday April 1, 2011
Load Up on Fiber Now and Avoid Heart Disease Later
Most of the time we associate fiber with bowel health, especially constipation. However, fiber has a prominent role in lowering hypertension, weight, and cholesterol and has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease later in life. We need between 25 and 40 grams a day of fiber and this can easily be achieved by filling two thirds of your plate with fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds and nuts. Fresh fiber is the best so fresh whole unrefined foods are what we should be consuming.
Load Up on Fiber Now and Avoid Heart Disease Later
Monday April 4, 2011
Time Lived with Obesity Linked to Mortality
The weight loss industry is $52 billion annually. Diets don't work, diet pills don't work, and weight loss programs don't work. Few people can sustain the weight they lose over the long term. New research now shows that how long you are obese is strongly linked to mortality. Results from the Framingham Heart Study over 48 years show that if you're obese for 5-15 years that mortality doubles, and if you're obese for more than 15 years that it triples!
Tuesday April 5, 2011
Actos: Can It Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Drugs that increase the sensitivity of insulin in theory should be effective in preventing and treating type 2 diabetes. However, the glitazone drugs have turned out to have serious side effects that limit their use in clinical practice. The drug, Actos, is the one glitazone that could possibly be safe and effective in both the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. On the basis of one small clinical trial of 300 patients, it appears that over 2.5 years it lowers the development of carotid artery plaque formation by 31% and of the development of pre-diabetics to outright diabetes by 70%.
The real question is, "can you believe the research from a drug company that has a clear conflict of interest and whose main responsibility is to its stock holders? Outcome studies of this type need to be done and in a comparative way with other drugs. No drug companies are game to do this type of research.
Wednesday April 6, 2011 The real intent is to promote these pills for the primary prevention of heart disease, hypertension, and of type 2 diabetes. However, the side effects of these concoctions is extensive and make little sense. Lifestyle is our best and most powerful treatment to prevent these diseases! 
The Polypill: Can It be Resurrected?
The polypill is a brainstorm of the pharmaceutical companies to create a combination of drugs to make it convenient to take multiple medications. However, their real motive is to sell as much drug as possible. Consequently, they have done research under the guise of convenience but with the hope that they can convince the public and the medical profession to go along with taking a pill that has as many as five pills in it! The "heart polypill" is a combination of a diuretic, statin, beta blocker, aspirin and folic acid. The "pre-diabetes polypill" is a combination of a statin, ACE inhibitor antihypertensive, aspirin and metformin.
Thursday April 7, 2011
Stress, GI Tract, and Immunity
The effects of stress on immunity, has been studied and shows that it even affects the number and types of microbes that can survive in the human GI tract. Probiotics have a lot to do with digestion, synthesis of vitamins such as vitamin K, B5, B6 and biotin, stimulation of immunity, regulation of immunity. Many people consider the stool in the gut an organ system because it has more metabolic activity than any organ system in the body. We have to be careful about what we do to this ecosystem because it can cause serious biochemical changes that can lead to the leaky gut syndrome, overgrowth of serious infections such as candida and C. diff that can be lethal.There are many causes for disordered microbial balances such as NSAIDs, antibiotics, steroids, chemotherapy, infections, inflammation, diet and much more.
Stress, The GI Tract, and Immunity
Friday April 8, 2011
Indications of Alzheimer's Disease is Evident 20 Years Before Dementia
Biochemical signs of Alzheimer's Disease are reflected by the brain's limited capacity to metabolize glucose occur 20 years prior to the memory and cognitive defects we associate with the clinical disease. A shortage of ATP (energy) in the brain eventually leads to an electrical brown out manifested by recent memory loss and cognitive defects . We can resuscitate this mitochondrial energy defect early in the course of the brown out by offering the brain another energy source in the form of medium chain triglycerides that are found in coconut oil. We can further support energy production by adding extra niacinamide, choline to support acetylcholine production, curcumin to reduce inflammation, and vitamin B12, which the body needs to make energy and is often low in the elderly.
Indications of Alzheimers Disease
Moday April 11, 2011
Physical Exercise and Sex Can Be Associated with a Heart Attack
Regular physical activity has been identified as strongly associated with a decreased risk for cardiovascular disease and related mortality. However, episodic exercise such as sex, emotional stress, or intense physical exertion carries as much as a 3.5 times additional risk as a trigger for adverse cardiac events. Research documents that the risk of an adverse cardiac event is decreased by 45% for each additional time per week a person exercises to get back into good physical condition.
Tuesday April 12, 2011
Working Long Hours Can Lead to a Heart Attack
A longterm study showed that working more than 11 hours a day increased the risk for heart disease by 67%. It was not determined if it was the long hours themselves or the unhealthy habits associated such as diet, exercise, sleep and stress that was the underlying mechanism. What we should be striving for is balance in life in our work, exercise, diet, stress, enjoyment, and sleep. Our work should be our avocation rather than just a means to earn income.
Wednesday April 13, 2011
Antidepressants Linked to Thicker Arteries
Antidepressants have now been linked to arteriosclerosis. Studies on the thickness of the carotid artery show that there is a progression of arteriosclerosis that is four times more than normal if someone is on an SSRI antidepressant in identical twins when one is on an SSRI antidepressant the other is not. This adds to the welln known dangers of using these drugs that include possible osteoporosis, increased suicidal ideation, and increased suicide. This, of course, is over and above side effects such as insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and weight gain! Perhaps we should reconsider using a class of drugs that has been shown to be no more effective than placebo and that never deals with the underlying cause for depression
Antidepressants Linked to Thicker Arteries
Thursday April 14, 2011
Digitalis May be a Treatment for Cancer
Recent studies on prostate cancer show that digoxin may not only slow cancer growth but also induce apoptosis. Studies in the early 1900s on breast cancer showed that people on digitalis rarely have cancer progress or lead to death. This rather startling information has not made it into mainstream medicine and for the most part digitalis is not used to treat cancer.
Digitalis May be a Treatment for Cancer
Friday April 15, 2011
Screening Does Not Reduce Prostate Cancer Deaths
Screening does not significantly reduce prostate cancer deaths but it does lead to overdetection and overtreatment. The cancer detection rate is 40% higher with testing, but to prevent one death from prostate cancer more than 1400 men would need screening and 48 would be unnecessarily treated. The era of the PSA is over.
Screening Does Not Reduce Prostate Cancer Deaths
Monday April 18, 2011
Mistakes are Common in US Hospitals
About one in three people in the US will encounter some kind of medical mistake during a hospitalization. The number of mistakes has been seriously underestimated as new studies show that there are about 10 times more errors than previously believed. We cannot depend on health care practitioners to admit their errors unless there's no other option. A tool from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement documents that there are about 90 times more errors than are admitted by practitioners. This comes at a cost of about $17 billion per year!
Mistakes are Common in US Hospitals
Tuesday April 19, 2011
New Guidelines for Treatment of Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
The American Academy of Neurology has issued new guidelines for effective treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy. It involves the use of multiple drugs that include anti-seizure medications, antidepressants, and narcotics. While it is sometimes necessary to use this toxic polypharmaceutical approach, there are newer highly effective, safe, and affordable options that have all but been ignored. The use of near infrared light therapy is discussed at length and the reasons why it is not yet mainstream discussed.
Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy
Wednesday April 20, 2011
Doctors Do Not Always Take Their Own Advice
When doctors step into their patient's shoes their treatment decisions are often different. Treatment protocols are often followed because they are the standard of care and not following them is plagued with potential law suits and disciplinary action from their medical boards. Medical practice is very complex and making decisions out of the mainstream is often frowned upon. Some physicians are able to individualize treatments to patients based on their preferences, but it can be risky when they are different from mainstream thinking. Healing practitioners are more apt to spend more time with their patients and listen deeply to their patient's preferences and also become personally involved because they care.
Doctors Do Not Always Take Their Own Advice
Thursday April 21, 2011
Genital Herpes Spreads Without Lesions
People who have herpes 2 can spread the virus to their sexual partner even if they do not have a clinical outbreak. Most cases of genital herpes are acquired from people without a clinical history of genital herpes! Transmission likely correlates with the activity of viral shedding from the skin or mucosal surface where it resides. Studies on patients who were seropositive for herpes 2 self-collected swabs from genital secretions for 30 consequetive days and showed that viral shedding occurred in the absence of lesions.
Genital Herpes Spreads Without Lesions
Friday April 22, 2011
Coenzyme Q10 Improves Hypertension and Can Prevent Congestive Heart Failure
Recent data has documented once again that coenzyme Q10 improves hypertension and can prevent congestive heart failure. It can improve cardiac output by as much as 39% and significantly increases exercise capacity of patients with all levels of congestive heart failure. It has many other functions such as increasing HDL cholesterol, immunity, and arterial elasticity and has powerful effects on cancer cells. Coenzyme Q10 is essential in the production of ATP and is a potent antioxidant. The role of statins in blocking the production of coenzyme Q10 is also discussed.
Monday April 25, 2011
More Problems with Antidepressants: Do They Cause Cancer?
A meta-analysis of 61 studies that was published in the prestigious Public Library of Science looked at the relationship between antidepressant usage and breast and ovarian cancer. There was a statistically significant increase in risk for both these cancers in women on SSRI antidepressants. The findings remain controversial because women with breast cancer who are depressed have twice the rate of death that is a much bigger effect than the small increase in breast and ovarian cancer noted in this study. Nonetheless, because it has been shown that the effects of SSRI antidepressants are no greater than placebo, this is another nail in the coffin for SSRI antidepressants.
More Problems with Antidepressants
Tuesday April 26, 2011
Probiotics For Urinary Tract Infections
Recent studies document that depletion of vaginal lactobacilli is associated with recurrent urinary tract infections. It was also shown that replenishing these bacteria via vaginal suppositories halved the recurrence rate for infection. We should be turning to the use of vaginal suppositories to treat women with recurrent urinary tract infections rather than relying on long term antibiotic therapy because this approach worsens the imbalance of the microflora (dysbiosis) in both the vagina and the intestinal tract. The use of d-mannose and vitamin C is also discussed as a treatment for urinary tract infections.
Probiotics For Urinary Tract Infections
Wednesday April 27, 2011
Are Preventive Drugs Cost Effective?
Experts published in the British Medical Journal that there's serious doubt that the use of drugs to prevent diseases such as high cholesterol, osteoporosis and osteopenia, and hypertension are cost effective. In the case of Lipitor, it costs approximately $600,000 to prevent a single heart attack and still not save a single life when used for primary prevention. In the case of bisphosphonate usage, it costs $6 million to prevent a single fracture! While this is good for the pharmaceutical companies, it is hardly cost effective for insurance companies and for people paying for health insurance!
Using data from a Finnish study on 2003, data on more than 7400 hip fractures showed that giving bisphosphonates to 1.86 million people aged 50 or more would only guarantee the prevention of 343 fractures. This would generate $1.86 billion dollars of income and at the same time cost $6 million per fracture!
Are Preventive Drugs Cost Effective?
Thursday April 28, 2011
Does Calcium Supplementation Increase Risk for Heart Attack and Stroke?
A meta-analysis of 29,000 people showed that calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attack by 30% and stroke by 20% in older women. On the other hand, calcium from food does not increase these risks. It would be necessary for 1000 women to take calcium supplementation with or without vitamin D to prevent 3 fractures and at the same time cause 6 additional heart attacks or strokes.
Frday April 29, 2011
Link Between Mother's Diet and Childhood Obesity
Medical researchers have discovered that a mother's nutrition during pregnancy can affect a child's risk for obesity many years later. They show that diet can change how DNA expresses itself with regard to appetite regulation. These epigenetic changes suggest that measures to prevent childhood obesity should also target on improving the mother's nutrition during pregnancy.
Link Between Mother's Diet and Childhood Obesity
Prescriptions for Health Radio Show: Fastrack Archives
This archive is a work in progress. At the end of every week, the most recent editions of Prescriptions for Health, Fastrack edition, will be posted on the DoctorSaputo.com Radio page. Shows from the previous week are then archived. There can be as many as 40 shows archived for a month.
All "Fastrack" Archives starting in June are in video!
Fastrack Archive September 2011
Dr. Len's health clinic
Immune system boosting meditations and Qigong exercises