What Is Health....Really?

I know I normally write about some aspect of sports medicine, rehab or related nutrition, but I wanted to start 2012 with a basic foundation. I simply want you to be on the same page with me when it comes to health.

Having done consultations on over 10,000 individual patients in my office since starting my practice, I've come across something I think is a bit hypocritical but are completely unaware of. Simply, it's what people define as "Health". Starting on the right foot for 2012 I wanted get a basic understanding of what health is and what health isn't. What better to do on the 1st day of the new year.

In doing a medical history on a patient, it is routine after the "history of present illness or injury" to ask about their personal past medical history, surgical history, allergies and social aspects of their life. Along with those it's critical to ask about their family's past medical history. As it may give you unique insight to why the patient consulted you in the first place.  In doing a family medical history, when asking about the health of their mom and dad, I routinely get the answer that "everyone is healthy". But being the curious person that I am, coupled with a sense that I wasn't getting the whole picture from a particular patient, I asked "are your parents taking any medications"??? The answer was yes.

Both parents were on blood pressure medications and the father was on Lipitor. His father's older brother was also on blood pressure meds, Lipitor and was on medication for non-insulin dependent diabetes.

So I quickly remarked - I thought you said your parents were healthy?

The patient said "the medications make them healthy"

To which I replied: No, the medications don't make them healthy, they just keep their disease under control. They have disease that is controlled by medication, if they were healthy, they wouldn't need the medication. The patient looked at me and (yes, you guessed it) agreed with me.

So now let me give you what I feel is one of the best definitions of health. I had to dig all the way back to 1946 to get it:

1946: The World Health Organization (WHO) "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.


(Notice the word - COMPLETE)



Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines health as "An optimal state 

of physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

To further emphasize my point, I would add: A state in which all the tissues, cells and physiologic functions are working at 100%  Why? Because as pointed out in the 2 definitions above, health isn't merely the absence of disease, health is when you have an optimal state where your body (systems) are working completely.

In order to be healthy, you have to know what health is. If your doctor has put you on medications, it means you have some type of condition or disease.  We are lucky we live in an age where we have the luxury of have a group of professionals that can prolong your life and improve the quality of your life with medications. However, don't confuse being medicated to control a condition with being healthy.  They are not on in the same. You may feel good, you may look good, you may not be in acute distress, but your medication is controlling your condition, not making you health. I refer you back to the 2 definitions above to emphasize my point.

In some cases, people just got a bad roll of the genetic dice and don't have much of a choice. But others, well, just remember the old and real definition of health: a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  Something that you have a lot more control over than you are led to believe.

Having said that, for those that did get a poorer roll of the genetic dice, you can certainly take control over the rest of your health and be as healthy as you are capable of. I have a good friend who is a type II diabetic and he could go to any doctors office (other than his own) today and if he didn't say anything, the doctor wouldn't even know.

Hear's to your health and a great 2012 and the power you have over your own health!

'nuff said

Dr. T

References:
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International 
Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the 
representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, 
no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.The Definition has not been 
amended since 1948. 

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine. Click here for Dr. Narson's Bio

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So Tell Me…What’s Wrong With High Fructose Corn Syrup?

Have you heard the phrase “a little knowledge is dangerous” ??? Well, that’s what the corn refiners association’s new T.V. commercials are banking on. Both a little of YOUR knowledge and a lot ofTHEIR knowledge. Why? Because their hoping that if you know very little about it, they can easily convince you (with a bit of "spin") that High Fructose Corn Syrup isn’t harmful to you.

You may have seen a seemingly innocent commercial. The last one was a young, probably mid 20-something couple on a picnic blanket. The woman offers the man a popsicle. The man refuses and says, no thanks, that has high fructose corn syrup. Then, the question……. So What’s Wrong With High Fructose Corn Syrup???, It’s made from corn. The man fumbles with his thoughts and can’t come up with an answer. Then he accepts the popsicle and you are now assured that high fructose corn syrup is, well, okay...if not, even good.

Knowing what I know about high fructose corn syrup, seeing and hearing this TV commercial made my blood boil. They innocently try to convince you that it’s made from corn, therefore it’s natural and harmless. It’s an easy argument if you don’t know what high fructose corn syrup is. They bank on your naïveté in not being able to come up with a reasonable answer and therefore concluding it’s "fine". They bank on the fact that you don’t know enough to answer the question as to why high fructose corn syrup is bad for you.

So….. I feel compelled to day to give you the knowledge and tools to answer this questions.

Here’s the science. The next 5 paragraphs are more technical and the information is from Mark Hyman, MD's book Ultrametabolism, his blog at http://www.Ultrawellness.comas well as 2 articles published at http://www.westonaprice.org/ , but read through them and get a basic understanding…..I simplify it further down

1. Let’s start with the base product….Corn. The corn used in high fructose corn syrup is genetically modified(as nearly all corn is). It has 13 carbon molecules instead of 12(The original non GMO stuff had only 12). According to Dr. Mark Hyman, there are no good long term studies on the effects of eating genetically altered corn or corn products. So if you are concerned about eating genetically modified foods, you already have a problem with high fructose corn syrup.(1)

2. High fructose corn syrup is far from “a natural product made from corn” as the argument goes. High Fructose Corn Syrup (here after called HFCS) is produced by processing corn starch into glucose, using 3 different enzymes and at least 5 different steps(2). Therefore, High Fructose Corn Syrup is far from being “natural”. I mean...it's not like you can blend up a can of corn in your vita-mix and come up with HFCS. It's not quite as simple as making a fruit smoothie

3. The introduction of HFCS into the food supply in the USA is associated with the beginning of the obesity epidemic. Don't believe it says Dr. Hyman....who goes on to say: Even a slight difference of an extra 100 calories a day can add up to a 10-pound weight gain in just one year. And the average American drinks 440 12-ounce cans of HFCS-laced soda each year (1). Not to mention the HFCS in ketchup, yogurt, breakfast cereals, cookies, breads, ice creams, popsicles and hundreds of other products.

4. HCFS is bad news for your waistline and your health…It makes you eat MORE!!! Yes, you read that right. HFCS actually increases your appetite.

Here's how: Regular table sugar is 50 percent glucose and 50 percent fructose, while -- as its name implies -- HFCS is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it can have HUGE effects on your appetite.

When you eat fructose, it doesn't set into motion the chemical reactions and hormones that tell your brain you are full. For instance, high fructose corn syrup doesn't stimulate insulin secretion or the increase in leptin (the hormone that makes you feel full). While glucose is transported into the brain, affecting brain signals that control or limit appetite, fructose is not.

Plus, high fructose corn syrup doesn't reduce ghrelin, a stomach hormone that stimulates appetite. And high fructose corn syrup may also decrease adiponectin levels, which is a hormone made by fat cells that helps make you more sensitive to insulin and helps control your weight and appetite. What does all that mean? Simply put, when you eat more fructose you don't feel full -- so you keep eating!(1)

And if 1-4 aren’t convincing enough….read on:

5. Here's an undisputed medical fact: You can survive on an intravenous drip of glucose. But replace the glucose with fructose, and you'd get a fatty liver. That's because fructose is the source the chemical building blocks of cholesterol and triglyceride production. And fructose just isn't digested, absorbed, or metabolized in the same way as glucose. Instead, it goes right to your cells without the help of insulin(1).

The result? Fructose moves right into fat production -- so it spikes your triglycerides but lowers your HDL ("good") cholesterol. It also increases your levels of small, dense LDL (called LDL-B) cholesterol, which is much more dangerous than regular LDL ("bad") cholesterol. (1)

Let’s Bullet Point Your Answers clearly.

Here’s the Top Ten List of Why High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad for you:

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup is made from genetically modified (GMO) corn. Which you should know, most corn nowadays is GMO.

2. High Fructose Corn Syrup is far from being natural as it takes high heat, 3 different enzymes and 5 different processes to create it.

3. The introduction of High Fructose Corn Syrup into society coincides with the beginning of the obesity epidemic. As HFCS beame more widely used, the rate of obesity climbed as well, bringing with it all those obesity related problems like diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

4. Because High Fructose Corn Syrup is so far removed from a natural food, it fails to stimulate leptin, the hormone that makes you feel full.

5. Because High Fructose Corn Syrup is so far removed from a natural food, it fails to reduce ghrelin, a stomach hormone that stimulates your appetite.

6. Because High Fructose Corn Syrup is so far removed from a natural food, it may also decrease adiponectin levels. Adiponectin is a hormone made by fat cells that helps make you more sensitive to insulin and helps control your weight and appetite

7. Because of #’s 4, 5 & 6, eating high fructose corn syrup fails to do 3 things your body needs to feel full and curb your apetite…..so you keep on eating and eating and eating...

8. High Fructose Corn Syrup spikes your triglyceride levels

9. High Fructose Corn Syrup lowers your levels of “good cholesterol” (HDL)

10. High Fructose Corn Syrup increases your levels of LDL-B cholesterol. LDL is your “bad cholesterol”, the LDL-B is the “bad of the bad cholesterol”.

The science is clear: HFCS/Fructose consumption in this mannor is associated with insulin resistance, increased calorie intake, impaired metabolism, weight gain, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.(1). All of which is associated with Diabetes, Heart Disease, Cancer and a hell of a lot more…

So the next time someone asks you what’s the big deal with HFCS….read them bullet points 1-10 and I’d just about guarantee ya they’ll soil their pants when you rattle-off that answer.

The information in this blog post is based on, and excerpts are taken from the references listed below. I strongly encourage you to go to the original source and read the info for yourself.

‘nuff said

DocT

PS... after further thought, I realized I should have made it a "Top 11" List. As I have said in prior blog posts, what we should and should not consume comes down to evolution. Corn itself is a newer evolutionary product. 99% of the corn available today has been genetically engineered and is far from it's original form. Then, it's refined, heated, treated with 3 different enzymes in 3 different processes, put through 2 more processes to come up with the HFCS. So number 11 is:

11. EVOLUTION. High Fructose Corn Syrup has not been part of the human evolutionary diet over the past 50,000-100,000+ years and our bodies don't have the physiological process to adapt to it. Therefore, we cannot properly process HFCS which is why it fails to stimulate the 3 hormones listed above, bypasses insulin to get into your tissues and causes weight gain, increased triglyceride and cholesterol levels, increased risk of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Now...'nuff said

T

References:

1. High Fructose Corn Syrup; How this liquid poison can make you fat, Mark Hyman, MD / www.Ultrawellness.com

2. The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup, Linda Joyce Forristal, CCP, MTA , http://www.westonaprice.org/motherlinda/cornsyrup.html

3. The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup, Bill Sanda, BS, MBA; http://www.westonaprice.org/modernfood/highfructose.html

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

HCFS Is Not Natural Says the FDA!!!

FINALLY more justice for my blog articles. For the past couple years I have been mouthing off about this horrible sweetener called High Fructose Corn Syrup and I featured 2 prior posts on this just this HFCS stuff(Drink Soda-Get Diabetes & Is Yogurt As Bad As Soda).

Put up as another form of a "natural type sugar", this crapola is used to sweeten everything from ketchup-to-Yogurt-to-Coke & Pepsi. And, in all those wonderful children's cereals and other foods. But finally, the FDA has take the double talking money mongering larger than life food industry corporations to task. High Fructose Corn Syrup, even though it is derived from corn, is not natural. Because, it takes a chemical process to create it. Read more on the FDA decision.
Hear me now food industry...JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING STARTS OFF AS A NATURAL OR WHOLE FOOD, WHEN YOU ARE DONE PROCESSING IT, IT IS NO LONGER NATURAL.

Valium once started out as Velerian Root. Does that make Valium natural? NOT!!!

The stuff this chemical process creates is something foreign to the human body. High Fructose Corn Syrup (here after known as HFCS) is as artificial as any other artificial sweetener and in my humble opinion, can have equally devastating effects. Basically, you are forcing your body to use a sweetener it was never made to use. Therefore, the digestive process must process something it hasn’t spent the last 100,000+ years evolving with. Corn itself, in its current form hasn't been in evolutionary food chain long enough for our physiology to adapt it as a healthful food for us, so HFCS a real no-no (read the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma for more info on that).

Now, any food, drink or other product to be consumed that contains HFCS can no longer advertise as “natural” or “all natural”.

BUT….WATCH OUT!!!! I “guaran-damn-tee” you that you’ll find products on the market, such as breads, advertising “100% whole wheat”, which in the mind of the consumer, will imply it’s a natural product. Flip the package over and I’m sure you fill find my sugar-wannabe arch nemesis high fructose corn syrup. Read the food label, not the packaging. They'll find a way to fool you on the packaging, but the food label is closer to the truth.

Why is this HFCS so bad? Well, I’ll have to refer you to an early blog post. The explanation has more to do with the history of our evolution as humans over the past hundreds of thousands and even millions of years. If you are a Discovery Channel or Science Channel buff, you’ll find it very interesting. If not, then, well, it may put you to sleep.

So, chalk one up for the consumer. We finally get a little closer to the truth in labeling we all deserve. Now, if a company wants to increase its profits by using a cheap artificial version of sugar in the form of HFCS, go right ahead. I'm all for making a profit. After all, why else are you in business? But, just label your products as such so we as consumers can make the right choice for ourselves and our families based on truthful information.

I for one don’t mind paying a bit more for something that I know is good for me, rather than getting fooled into the belief that something good for me is basically a Trojan horse for a company trying to hide the truth. Let's be honest capitalists, okay big food corps? This way we let the consumers drive the markets based on the truth.

As a doctor though, my advice is to cut out all HFCS and hydrogenated oils, add whole grains, fresh fruit and veggies and you’ll have a much better life. Remember, HFCS is one of the main culprits in childhood obesity, diabetes and weight gain. 3 more great reasons to cut it out of your life.

For those who read my blog and ask what the heck does this have to do with sports medicine….well, if you put good high quality food into your body, you’ll get better performance out of it.

‘nuff said.

DocT

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.

Drink Soda - Get Diabetes! Recent Study Shows the Relationship Between High Fructose Corn Syrup & Diabetes

Forget the fact that it has been written about in various health and diet books for the last several years, but a recent study find a link between the consumption of high fructose corn syrup and diabetes.

The study was done linking the high fructose corn syrup (aka: HFCS) in common everyday sodas. But here's the problem with the stinking thinking of the day. You'll read or hear about excerpts of this study and stop your children, your spouse and yourself from drinking soda. But, over the past 30 years, HFCS has become the sweetener of choice FOR EVERYTHING!

Don't believe me? Go back my December of 2006 blog post Is Yogurt As Bad As Soda? Do you think it ends there? Nope! Go to your local grocery store and start reading the labels of:

1) The juice boxes & juice bags you buy your kids for their school lunch.
2) Most cranberry juice & other juices
3) Yogurt
4) For you Soy addicts - Tofutti Ice Cream
5) Most grocery store breads, yes, even including "whole wheat" breads
6) Most candies, cookies and sweet snacks (which also contain hydrogenated oils)
7) Most alcoholic drink mixers (check that bottle of sweet stuff mix with your alcohol)
8) Salad dressings
9) Most Ketchup
10) Most children's breakfast cereals
12) Hot Cocoa Mixes & Chocolate Milk Mixes
13) Gatoraide & Poweraide
14) and much much more...

The reason many of you are diabetic and pre-diabetic is because you can't get away from this un-natural man-made horrible crappy cheap as hell artificial sweetener. It should NEVER be consumed by humans (the same as hydrogenated oils should never be consumed). The only reason they put it in our food (well, in your foods because I don't eat anything with HFCS) is because it is very inexpensive to produce as compared to real sugar and therefore it makes for bigger corporate profits. Big business makes more money, we get sick and die.

Our bodies were never meant to consume it, therefore it will harm you, and eventually it will kill you. And....it will kill you ever so slowly. Apparently, diabetes is its murder weapon.

I love when science proves me right.

Again.

So, Here's To Your Health (Raising a glass of pure water)

DocT

Dr. Narson is a 2-term past president of the Florida Chiropractic Association’s Council on Sports Injuries, Physical Fitness & Rehabilitation and was honored as the recipient of the coveted Chiropractic Sports Physician of the Year Award in 1999-2000. He practices in Miami Beach, Florida at the Miami Beach Family & Sports Chiropractic Center; A Facility for Natural Sports Medicine.



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