Over time, I will try to collect past posts on these topics and collect them here. I’ll try to get the original posters and dates, although some are missing in this first post.
JIN SHIN JYUTSU POSTS BY REBS (formerly Roger)
Roger – At 87 I do Qigong, 8 brocades, Yang 10, 24, 48, 42, and old frame Chen, 24 sword and a bit of others about every other day.Ā Also take walks (only about a mile per day).Ā I give and receive hands on hour sessions in Jin Shin Jyutsu, a hands-on therapy using Asian medical system on a daily basis.Ā Also do some breath work.
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In Jin Shin Jyutsu, a Japanese branch of traditional Chinese medicine, there is a simple way to alleviate migraines within minutes.
In JSJ migraines are recognized as being frontal headaches on one side of the head or the other.
For a right migraine, place a hand on the space between the outside right ankle and the Achillesā tendon. (Actually one slides a finger or thumb lateral side of the Achillesā tendon behind the external malleolus.) That place will be sore and painful when there is a migraine. The migraine will be relieved in a few minutes. I believe the theory is that the bladder and gall bladder energy flows go from the right side of the head to the space between the ankle and Achillesā tendon. It is thought that because these flows make a right angle, there can be an impeding of the energy, and dissipating the swelling with energy can restore the path and end the pressure on the head. This treatment can be applied by oneās self as well as by others.
I admit that this treatment may make no sense in Western medicine, but I have noted that you are open minded (for example your acknowledgment of Sister Kenny and the unexplained benefits of hands-on therapy.)
I have done this twice and rapidly ended migraines.
For a left migraine, the corresponding spot is held on the exterior left space between ankle and Achillesā tendon.
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I thought that when Nixon went to China we learned that Chinese Medicine could be useful. Chinese medicine attempts to get the body in harmony so that it can heal itself. I donāt personally like to be stuck with needles, but I have seen good results from acupuncture. Similarly, Jin Shin Jyutsu, that attempts similar treatment by moving energy past blocks seems effective. My wife was at a party when a cardiologist had a heart attack. As a Jin Shin Jyutsu teacher and practitioner, she grabbed the little and ring fingers in a scissor with her fingers. By the time the ambulance arrived, the Dr. was feeling well enough that he decided to stay at the party instead of going with the ambulance. It makes sense to me that since heart pain can travel through the left arm down to the little finger, that holding the little finger may send a message to the heart. Two major hospitals are now using Jin Shin Jyutsu to alleviate pain and find that patients who receive it after surgery are able to return home sooner.
Anyway, just as much of Western medicine relies on a placebo effect, Eastern medicine should be equally able to create a good placebo effect.
Please do not think I am suggesting that infants shouldnāt receive the normal vaccinations; I am not.
I do think it criminal when a child dies needing a transfusion, for example, because its parents prefer a religious alternative. Obviously, Western medicine is needful and nothing herein suggests that it be sidelined. Of course it is criminal to leave a child or dog in a car with windows closed in the heat of summer.
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There are pro and con research about whether religious prayers and secular wishes for healing are effective. Because of the Gummuneās, I hope they are but remain skeptical. I will tell you what I have learned as a layman about health over my 87 years.
This is not particularly a just world, and every day we hear of children, women, and men being killed, maimed, or subjected to slavery through war, collateral damage, left over mines and armament, and psychopaths. āNobody gets out of life aliveā (from Edna Ferberās So Big). If there is a glorious afterlife, so be it. If there is nothing, so be it also. I donāt subscribe to the idea of everlasting burning in hell for not following any particular beliefs; conversely, I donāt expect that Christian baptism or Islamic martyrdom of themselves will get me into heaven. I had a heart stoppage from an attack caused by atrial arrhythmia and was resuscitatedāunfortunately there was no bright light.
The most important thing is meeting whatever is happening with courage and humor. Besides the lives of Socrates, Jesus, Job, and various religious and medical martyrs, we have a couple modern writings: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom and When Bad Things happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner, Rabbi that are helpful.
The greatest source of spiritual strength comes from meditation, either religious or secular. By spiritual strength, I mean the ability to accept whatever fate brings. People close to the earth used drumming and dancing as meditation aids. Some orders of Sufis used the same as well as whirling to great effect to allow the mind and body to cure. Tai Chi, Qigong, and Yoga can also offer meditation. Repetition of sounds, such as OM or ONE or a mantra or a name of a god, or repeating prayers of mystical significance of every religion are popular effective meditative tools.
Hands on therapy, such as massage, Jin Shin Jyutsu, Reiki, acupressure and acupuncture can be wonderful healing aids and useful in pain relief, dealing with the aftermath of chemotherapy, giving comfort and shortening healing time. There are many wonderful, selfless, hardworking erudite physicians. But medicine is not pure science, it is an art, and medical judgments are made by human beings, who even with the best intentions, may be incorrect.
One must keep the faith and take responsibility for his own health and the health of his children, and meditate, exercise, maintain appropriate weight, fast some of the time, avoid sugar, and eat largely a vegetarian diet with probiotic food included, and enjoy meat as a condiment and take Vitamin D3 and magnesium. Remember, as Dr. KSS tells us, it wasnāt till recent times that Dr. Semmelweiss fought the medical profession in having Drs. wash their hands between surgeries and birthings. Early in American history doctors probably were responsible for the death of many who could ill afford to part with the blood from the common bloodletting treatment. Finally, it is really important to find a really good doctor.
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Dr., you probably are tired of my suggesting Asian medicinal techniques; however, I sit on my hands with little fingers on the ischial protuberances for 20 minutes a day and meditate by following my breathing or mentally chanting a mantra, prayer, or whatever. My weight at 87 is what it was in high school despite stresses in life and an enjoyment of good food with a glass of wine or beer. I have seen this technique work wonders with weight reduction groups who sit on their hands together, and I taught it to Tai Chi, Qigong groups on shipboard cruises (an avocation). It is a technique of Jin Shin Jyutsu, a hands-on Asian harmonizing art. In Asian therapy, one doesnāt heal, one sets the systems of the body in harmony so that the body can heal and regenerate itself.
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fenlin, Curcumin and cumin are not related; however, curcumin (tumeric) as well as cumin would go well in your chili.
After distressing muscle pains following the use of statins, I discontinued them and started using Costco curcumin. My cholesterol levels are maintained at a satisfactory level although the ratio between LDL and HDL is not as favorable. But, although it makes physicians pleased, it remains to be seen whether maintaining a substantial ratio between LDL and HDL improves longevity or the quality of life.
I mention Costco as my source because I read in a recent expose of bogus supplements that Costco was one of the few that came out as advertised rather than filled with garlic powder and other harmless ingredients.
I am 86 and had sextuple by-pass surgery about 25 years ago. I had both ventricular and atrial arrhythmia and elected not to use coumadin but use natto-kinase instead. I have had no arrhythmia episodes in the last year. My physician is not usually very happy with me, but I enjoy good health and mobility considering my age. I do take prescribed drugs to control blood pressure and maintain a good level. It probably helps that I am retired from a high pressure occupation and have a good caring wife.
I also do Tai Chi, Qigong, meditation, and self help Jin Shin Jyutsu (eastern hands on therapy somewhat related to acupuncture) daily.
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Since treatment of hemorrhoids has ben mentioned: InĀ Jin Shin Jyutsu, (Asian energy medicine) hemorrhoids are treated (successfully in my experience) by placing one hand halfway between the ischial tuberosity and the anus on the side where the hemorrhoid is, and placing the other hand on the external knee, or the junction of fibula and tibia. I have held hand position for 20 minutes at night and the hemorrhoid discomfort was relieved the next morning.
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In my 86th year, I find I am lonesome for all my contemporaries who smoked, since almost without exception they are dead. I smoked pipes in college and cigars until I was 30.
Smoking is like being in combat, everyone assumes that he will survive and only other guys will be dead.
I quit because I when I finally realized that it was a precursor to cancer, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, I wanted to be around to help my loved ones.
I did see a picture of a man smoking a pipe in China, who was purportedly over 100 years old. He did Tai Chi several times a day. I do Tai Chi, Qi Gong meditation, and self help Jin Shin Jyutsu, (Asian massage akin to acupuncture without needles) every day. I have natural hypertension and heart disease and a family of short livers. I lived a high stress life as a trial lawyer. I doubt I would be alive without my routine, and moderation in diet and alcohol consumption. I look younger than my age and am reasonably active and vigorous.
Alan, I wish only longevity, health, and good things for you.
Orpheusrog.
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I have heard of bone spurs dissolved. If the body can accumulate; it can also dissolve. I speak of Jin Shin Jyutsu a Japanese art based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. My wife is an RN and a JSJ practitioner and teacher, who has taught all over the world for over thirty years. Spurs in the back or knee can be dissolved by appropriate hands on therapy with greater success and a fraction of the cost of surgery. At any rate, there is very little to lose from giving JSJ a chance to dissolve bone spurs.
I suspect that the success of the surgeries is largely dependent on the efforts of the patient afterwards.
I would guess that there are Chinese therapies that work as well.
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Using Asian medicine,Ā Jin Shin Jyutsu, for acid reflux hold the right hand on the right side below the margin at the base of the skull and the left hand under the left mid clavicle. It takes about 3 minutes to clear the bile in the bronchial tube and settle the stomach. It works for me; besides what do you have to lose?
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The discussion of the approach to medicine of treating something with pills that give some benefits but create greater problems, which one then treat with other pills causing more problems āand so ad infinitumāis fascinating.
All of us are apt to reject great ideas because they are proposed by people who are uncredentialed. Sister Kenny is a great example of the rejection of a great approach by someone outside of the fraternity.
Some suggest that George Washington was bled to death by medical treatment. The difficulty that Semmelweiss had in trying to convince obstetricians to wash their hands before delivering babies stands out as an example of the arrogance of some physicians in the rejection of common sense. (Iām not suggesting that the fault is unique to doctors.)
I realize that this is not a column regarding personal experience, testimonials or heath anecdotes but I cannot resist mentioning that, while I like and respect my family doctor, at age 85, I am willing to take my chances with some alternate medicine. I quit using statin drugs after bad muscular problems and substituted curcumin, which seems as effective in keeping cholesterol in comparable reduction. I rejected the suggestion of using coumadin and aspirin following a few episodes of atrial arrhythmia and have been using nattokinase. Having suffered hormonal imbalance from the use of one diuretic and gout from another, I am cautious about prescribed medicines.
I think the best health activities I do are aerobic exercises and daily Tai Chi the maintenance of moderate weight and some Asian hands-on therapy called Jin Shin Jyutsu, which is now being adopted in some hospitals where it is found effective in reducing pain and the time of hospital stay. I donāt know if the benefit is from the Traditional Chinese Medicine health approach or merely that humans thrive from personal touch, but anyway it seems to work well.
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On getting old. Am 85 with family of heart disease, diabetes and short lives. Do Tai Chi classes 3 xs per week and do a bit every day. Get hands-on therapy from Jin Shin Jyutsu daily. Take curcumin (tumeric) instead of statins, which caused muscle problems. Take natto-kinase instead of coumadin for avoiding strokes from very occasional atrial arrhythmia episodes. Take amiodarone. Retired lawyer who taught Tai Chi on shipboard in return for our traveling from age 70 to 81. Getting out of the high stress lawyering was best thing I ever did. Happy to have discovered Dr. KSS and the Dim Sum String comradery. Twice widowed and twice divorced. Happily married to someone I love and respect. Life is good, except for losing all of the people I grew up with. Have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, love them, but have emancipated myself from supporting people over 65.
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Author: Roger
Comment:
I would be happy to officiate or just participate in an over 70’s discussion group and offer self help hands on remedies using Jin Shin Jyutsu.Ā For example I have a quick and simple daily immune flow and as a result of using it have had no colds for 3 years.Ā Formerly I had frequent colds and even pneumonia.Ā If there is an interest, we could approach Lynn and Travis.
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Reposting club house to here because it didnāt come through there:
Health Note from an 87 lively octogenarian: Most of the ills in America come from overeating and bad diet. We are omnivores, and most of us can tolerate a broad range of food, but cannot tolerate too much meat or shellfish. Avoid sugar and pure starch. Itās not hard to get along without sugar or sugar substitutes, but xylitol (birch sugar) having only a 5-carbon ring can be used when some added sweetness is felt necessary. Keep regular; I find that a couple of cups of coffee, magnesium, and a stool softener are sufficient to insure daily evacuation. Regularly exercise the stomach (I do crunches and stomach muscle rolls) and avoid getting a prominent gut. Keep the belt length below 40ā³ at the waist and preferably at high school size. Try to maintain weight comparable to high school days. Avoid one sided exercises (i.e. tennis, fencing because they distort the body). Many illnesses and health problems can be helped by a water-fast for one to three days, and I fast when necessary. The trick is to do so joyously without dolor. Do push ups and cobras leaning from 45 degrees against a table or wall, and half squats holding onto something. Do raises on you toes. Avoid elective surgery, and if you have to have it, go to the best hospital you can find, get a second opinion, and get an experienced surgeon. Stay out of hospitals and emergency rooms in general. Get out of the hospital as soon as possible even if the medications per os are more expensive than per drips or shots. Learn to meditate; do consciousness breathing. Sit on your hands to regulate hunger craving (per one of my earlier letters). Learn simple self-help hands on techniques (I use Jin Shin Jyutsu) to avoid colds, evacuate kidney and gall stones, ameliorate headaches and migraines, emergency angina or heart attacks when digitalis or whiskey are unavailable (after calling 911 or whoever), alleviate morning back pain, stop superficial bleeding, burns, avoid stitches, alleviate or avoid paralysis after a stroke, retrain neural pathways, dissolve bone spurs and tissue accumulations, among other things. Do modest aerobic and strength exercises. Do TaiChi/Qigong, or Yoga regularly and take walks. Limit alcohol to 1 oz per day. No smoking! Love someone and be loved. Happy sexual activity is desirable. Use your mind as much as possible and if you find memory not as acute, thatās what computers are for. Read. Spend time doing real things and not being involved in spectator sports, television, etc. unless you are supporting athletes and actors whom you know. Accept challenge but avoid stress you canāt handle. For example, Lou Gehrig had an incredibly stressful life and challenge. That means donāt measure your success against your neighborsā, donāt try to impress anybody, have no serious regrets nor expectations, and donāt take risks that keep you awake at night. (I keep 15% to 40% of my brokerage account in cash and would never mortgage myself by margin.) Donāt buy on credit (except a home). Donāt borrow and worry about payments and margin calls. Pay at least enough income tax to keep from being audited if possible. Smell the roses. Make life beautiful! Itās all simple and common sense; but it takes knowledge and practice to do it all graciously, joyously and without any resentment, and unfortunately will power may not be enough. My kids always shrug it off with: Who wants to live so long? Some people may be born with such knowledge; whatever I have was dearly paid for after many mistakes and ills.
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Author: Roger
Comment:
A few have commented that you like Jin Shin Jyutsu hands-on tips.Ā If there is a demand, I would post one per day to the clubhouse.Ā For example, for angina or heart attack if one has forgotten his nitro and has no alcoholic drink to dilate blood vessels, after calling 911, if appropriate, hold the left little finger and ring finger with the right hand palms facing, by inserting right index finger between left little and ring finger and scissoring left little and ring fingers with right thumb and middle finger.Ā Hold till angina or heart attack stops.Ā Can be done for self or another.Ā ItĀ works. If there is someone else present, he can hold the victim’s big toes at the base.Ā At one party my wife attended, when the victim had a heart attack, this technique was used and by the time the ambulance arrived, the victim had recovered and decided to stay and enjoy the party.Ā Please use thumbs up or down to indicate whether these kind of tips would be interesting.Ā (Never had a thumbs down, but if I did, I would take it as a learning experience of what others wanted and harbor no animus nor sense of rejection.)
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Immune flow: Prevents and helps conditions like colds, sore throats and many more:
Hold each position for about 60 heart beats or a minute.
1. Rt. hand on L (shoulder next to neck and back) and Lft hand (same side) back above the hip bone and below the lowest rib.
2. Lft hand top of L thigh at origin of quadricepts muscle.
3. Rt hand on sole of left foot. (I usually sit up to do this flow and bend my left foot under my right leg so that it is possible to reach the sole of the left foot.
Do same for other shoulder and leg. Note that you are working with same side of body and leg in each of these flows.
Used to have colds and flu often, but do this little flow every day and have had none for about four years.
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JSJ Note: For sciatic discomfort there are various involved flows a practitioner may use, but there is a simple self-help remedy that can be effective. When people told me they would like to take my TaiChi class but had sciatic pain (used to be described as lumbago) I have suggested they take 10 minutes doing the self help and have then had people feeling good enough to take the class. I. For left side sciatic pain, 1) place the right hand on the inner part of the left knee at the place the femur and tibia meet. 2) Place the left hand over the hurting place at the sciatica. 3) After about five minutes, leaving the left hand on the sciatica, move the right hand to hold the left shoulder next to the neck as far down the back as possible. Repeat if necessary. In Jin Shin Jyutsu, the inner knee is called the Safety Energy Lock #1, the sciatic at the crest of the hip is called the Safety Energy Lock #2, and the place below the shoulder on the back is called the Safety Energy Lock #3. For right side sciatic discomfort reverse hands and side.
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The self help 1, 2, 3 might work at least temporarily to provide some relief if done on both sides. I donāt know where you live, but you can call Terry at the Jin Shin Jyutsu, Inc. office in Scottsdale at 480-998-9331 and get the names of any qualified practitioners in your area. You could write me through Lynn if I can be of any help. I donāt think anybody-even a fine physician-can diagnose and treat without a full history and without examining the client.
Dave, the only thing I charge for is legal advice, and I would feel that any commercial activity by anyone through discussions on the Gumshoe network would be a betrayal of Travis and Dr. KSS. Besides some things a man should do for money but the rest he should do for love and keep the difference between them straight.
I write of my experiences, but only a complete fool or charlatan would offer the little 1,2,3 self help as a panacea for all back pain. I have studied Jin Shin Jyutsu for many years now, but I have never been a professional practitioner, never wanted to be. Any hands on I do is without compensation.
I know all of us commiserate; back pain is no fun. Although I, like most of us, have had back pain with age, I have been lucky and mine responded to handās on treatment.
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Posted self help for sciatic pain on Clubhouse.Ā Ā TomorrowĀ andĀ MondayĀ I will give adventures with Fingers and Toes and helping someone with brain or neural damage and how it is done.Ā Thereafter I plan methods of avoiding jet lag, repeat of dealing quickly with migraines, dealing with other headaches, staunching bleeding in wounds, dealing with minor burns, weight management made easy, sore throats, dental pain, facilitating eliminationĀ and more so long as you like them.Ā If not, let me know, and my feelings can handle it.Ā It’s more wanting to give something back rather than generate accolades.
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Opposite fingers and toes are a simple technique that helps almost everything and can be done by friends and family members for daily maintenance, for helping with illness, and for helping neural pathways. During my later 70s, I was teaching Tai Chi and Qigong on shipboard in return for free passage for my wife and me. We went on a four month plus trip, circumnavigating South America, visiting Antarctica, South Georgia Island, the Falklands, a couple of islands in the Caribbean, and stopping at various Italian, Greek, Spanish, French ports on the Mediterranean and Aegean, and Turkish ports as well as some ports on the Black Sea. My wife and I both got nor virus or something comparable, and hers was bad enough so that the shipās physicians felt she needed to go off ship for management, especially since we were headed South along the South American coastal and then through the Straits of Magellanāwhere medical facilities would be more primitive. We went by ambulance to a clinic in Valparaiso, Chile, and I set up a bed in her room. The physician was good, some of the nurses were dedicated, and she got continuous IVs and antibiotics. I did nursing, encouraging, and being a patientās advocate. She was so sick that the only Jin Shin Jyutsu she could tolerate was opposite fingers and toes (full description about that in the next letter.) I got her out of the clinic as soon as she was able to walk, almost a week and a half later. We took a taxi to the Santiago Airport, and the next morning I half carried her to the weekly plane which flew to Punta Arenas at the most southern tip of Chile, where we waited a couple of days until our ship arrived. The passengers and staff hugged us almost to death. Later when I was a student in some of the 5 days Jin Shin Jyutsu classes my wife taught in Europe and the USA, she said that āopposite fingers and toesā was very powerful, and she believed that I had saved her life doing it.
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Author: Roger
Comment:
This is the second promised letter about fingers and toes.Ā For about 40 years I represented a former successful mid-western farmer who had emigrated to my City, in business and property acquisition, estate planning, and even a successful criminal defense of a black sheep son..Ā He came to me as a friend advising that his childhood bride, who had borne him nine children, was about to be discharged from a rehabilitation center because the center felt there was no further progress going to happen.Ā She had been admitted after a stroke and hospitalization and was now about a year post stroke.Ā She was still bedridden.Ā Ā My wife and I went to see her in the rehabilitation center in City about an hour away.Ā Her daughters were present too.Ā My wife performed and showed the daughters how to do opposite fingers and toes.Ā Ā The daughters then arranged to do it twice a day. The client’s wife made health progress, lived another couple of years and was ambulatory and rational. when we visited both of them in a nursing home.Ā The client wanted to compensate us, but I pointed out that the only services for which I charged money was the practice of law, and my wife, who was volunteering at my request, felt she could not morally accept anything.
Holding opposite fingers and toes is performed as follows:Ā A friend or spouse holds simultaneously for about one minute each:Ā Left little toe and right thumb, left ring toe and right index finger, left middle toe and right middle finger, left index toe and right ring finger, left big toe and right little finger.Ā Then right little toe and left thumb, right ring toe and left index finger, right middle toe and left middle finger, right index toe and left ring finger, and finally right big toe and left little finger.Ā Altogether it takes about ten minutes.Ā There is no objection to holding each finger and toe for a couple of minutes for that matter and the order of hands and feet and is not important, so long as the correct finger and opposite toe on the opposite foot are held simultaneously.Ā I do it in the same order each time so that I will remember.
I leave to you physicians and neurologists the contemplation of why this practice may be effective.Ā I have various theories, but how it works is not as important as that it does frequently make a difference.
TomorrowĀ about sitting on hands.
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John I really am inadequate and have no special medical training, but I will change my planned post forĀ tomorrowĀ for a position of flow that is purported to prevent permanent injury if done immediately after a stroke and to ameliorate it otherwise.Ā Unfortunately when I was around those who had strokes, I did not know Jin Shin Jyutsu and the only help I could give was recognizing the problem and getting an immediate ambulance, and I felt so inadequate. There is one flow for each side, but more of that later.Ā I will pass the information on but do not want to give anyone any false hopes.Ā None the less, I think the hands on position is useful.Ā Opposite fingers and toes really is best done by another for you; the flow I will describe can be done for yourself when you are again in possession of your faculties. In any event, I cannot see how the flow can cause any damage.Ā I would be concerned that all JSJ is placebo except that I have seen big changes in babies and animals who probably don’t have any expectations of being helped.Ā By the way, if you are present when someone is getting a stroke the first thing to do is get an ambulance there immediately.
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For a possible stroke victim, call immediately for emergency help, usually an ambulance with a medical tech, and a race to the emergency room (911 in the United States).Ā It is important not to wait until you are sure the victim is having a stroke; if there is a possible stroke, call immediately because for blood clot stroke victims there is a short opportunity to administer medication to dissolve the clot and avoid greater permanent damage.Ā While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, you may do what is the first step of a Jin Shin Jyutsu flow.Ā Left hemispheric stroke is more common and perhaps more serious.
For left hemisphere brain injury or cerebral vascular accident, which will be generally accompanied by right side paralysis, you hold the victim’s Left Safety Energy Lock 16 and the Left little toe. A chart of the Safety Energy Locks was posted above by SoGiAm, copied from a good book”The Touch of Healing”, but if you go on line and ask for charts of Jin Shin Jyutsu Safety Energy Locks, you will find several larger good ones.Ā (I hesitate to print any because I do not want to create any risk of copyright violation for Stock Gumshoe.)Ā The left Safety Energy Lock 16 lies between the outer left ankle bone and the Achilles tendon.Ā For right hemisphere brain problems resulting in left side paralysis, do the same thing on the Rt. foot.Ā If possible, the technique should be continued as long as it does not interfere with medical care.
The opposite fingers and toes I posted yesterday are more commonly used for older stoke injuries.Ā The left 16 left little toe flow is more for immediate application after stroke.Ā These are adjuncts and not substitutes for appropriate immediate emergency medical care! At the risk of being repetitive: if a stroke is suspected, one should not wait to call for an ambulance.Ā It is many times worse not to get emergency help for a possible stroke immediately when it isĀ needed than to be mistaken and call for it when it turns out not to be needed.
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Sitting on the hands is done for weight harmonization and will help one achieve his ideal weight .Ā It also considered a rejuvenation flow in Jin Shin Jyutsu.Ā I find it has other mood benefits, but I do not want to make extravagant claims based on personal experience. It is usually done for weight reduction but I was taught that it could result in weight gain for those who needed it.
Ā Ā Ā Ā Several years ago my wife at the request of a corpulent lady discussed sitting on hands.Ā The lady established a group that would sit together on their hands regularly.
When my wife saw the same lady a year later, now svelte and attractive, she asked if she had been on a diet.Ā She said,Ā ”Are you kidding, I’m Italian.Ā We all had big meals on Christmas and New Years and for the holidays.Ā All I did was sit on my hands.”Ā In fact the whole club benefited.
Sitting on the hands for weight harmonization and regulation are done as follows simultaneously on both sides:Ā With palms up place the little finger on the ischium or sitzbone, the middle finger on the crease between the back of the thigh and rump, the second finger forward on the back of the thigh, and hold the thumb at right angles to the palm vertically on the thigh.Ā Sit for twenty minutes.Ā If someone cannot sit with palms up, sitting with palms down is the next best thing.
I personally do it when I wake up at night, as old men tend to do.Ā I sit on my hands in bed leaning against the backboard and do various forms of meditation .Ā I now wear size 36 pants.Ā My weight has over a few years come down to what it was during my high school and college years, although admittedly more of it was youthful muscle then.Ā Sitting on my hands worked for me.
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I haven’t offered more Jin Shin Jyutsu self help aids because I am getting the feeling that nobody really cares much about it.Ā However, I will offer one more.Ā To avoid jet-lag, hold each finger at the base for one minute as you go through each new time zone. I consider that each finger is composed of a tip, a middle, and a base (where it is attached to the hand).Ā My wife and I have gone half way around the world by flight and have avoided jet-lag by this technique.Ā Next tip will be what to do for acid reflux if there is no bicarb or other base medicine in the house.
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Not Jin Shin Jyutsu but Qigong:Ā To keep the typanic membranes soft, flexible, and responsive, insert forefingers in each ear and withdraw quickly (making a pressure change).
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Are you sitting on a soft surface when you sit on your hands.Ā Palms up and middle finger on the crease between the behind and thigh?Ā I suppose it could be painful if you do it on rocks or plywood, but if you are sitting in bed with your back against the backboard or upon an upholstered cushioned chair, I can’t imagine anything that can cause pain.Ā It’s so simple, I can’t imagine a diagram.Ā Sounds as if your weight is pretty harmonious.Ā It should also quietly rejuvenate.Ā If you advise what city you live in and what borough or county, I can give you the name of someone who could show you, if you still have difficulty.Ā We do have lots of friends in many places.
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Holding your high ones (inner thighs half way up leg) can be used in two ways and can be self administered or done by a third party:
1.Ā It will cause you to cough up anything stuck in the throat or breathing and can be used as an alternative to a Heimlich maneuver if there is no one to apply it or if subject has ribs that would be hurt.Ā Works well.
2.Ā It will help with stimulating elimination.Ā You may have to hold it for a few minutes.
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Author: REBS
Comment:
To stimulate thyroid and hyperthyroid, tap to each side of the adam’s apple 1en times per day.Ā Roger
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Author: REBS
Comment:
John, I too wear hearing aids.Ā I think that once the cilia are gone, they’re gone.Ā Keep the wax our with olive oil or hydrogen peroxide in appropriate strength.Ā Don’t injure the drums with q-tips or other objects.Ā So far all the cures I have read are scams.Ā Ā Of course, good nutrition and health may help prevent further damage.Ā Do balance exercises to retain inner ear balance. I use Hi Innovations from my medicare.Ā I have used expensive aids, and it didn’t seem to make much difference in so far as crowds and bumper noise loud music in restaurants were concerned.Ā Have you found any hearing aids that really are superior?
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Author: REBS
Comment:
Thanks John.Ā Ā I had heard about hopes to grow ciliae but had’n’t heard of much development.Ā I bought Hi Innovations, under $1000 through my Medicare.Ā I checked with Costco and the audiologist didn’t think the Costco hearing aids would do any better than the ones I had.Ā The Hi Innovations worked as well as my $6,000 Widex ones.Ā I will try to get Costco to let me try some out.Ā By the way, keeping the tympanic membrane flexible by suction is important and my Dr. of Audiology was impressed by mine or 87 years of age.Ā If you hear of something better let me know.Ā Sometimes people who love you are kind when you can’t understand, but sometimes not.Ā People don’t understand that it is not loudness that helps, just careful diction.Ā Companies keep bragging of special directional selection, but I have yet to notice anything that really cuts out loud restaurant acoustics.
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Jin Shin Jyutsu aid to passing kidney stones:Ā Place left hand on right shoulder between neck and shoulder point (in JSJ diagram on your Safety Energy Lock 11), and place your right hand on the line between rump and thigh (in JSJ diagram on your right Safety Energy Lock 25).Ā Hold until stone passes (I’ve heard that it sometimes takes 20 minutes or an hour).Ā Google for diagrams of JSJ safety energy locks.Ā In the anecdote I heard, a practitioner was holding client’s safety energy locks.Ā My sympathy, I’ve heard it’s very painful.Ā My doctor friend used demerol to help him.Ā If I’m being presumptuous in mentioning it, my apologies.
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Author: REBS
Comment:
I have tips here and in last few regular threads.Ā WhenĀ I had to put clients with emotional problems or personality disorders on the stand, I would run the stairs with them and then sit down and do deep breathing together before going to court.Ā More than once in domestic matters they were cross examined about whether they had taken any calming drugs before testimony.Ā If there are any particular projects you have, I will try to respond with any Jin Shin Jyutsu help I know of.Ā JSJ like most Asian medicine, seeks to establish harmony so that the body can heal itself.Ā I remember talking to a fine ER doctor who said that what he learned about skin in medical school was that if it protruded you cut it off, if it was indented you pulled it out, if it was wet, you dried it, and if was dry, you wet it.Ā JSJ would look to stomach flow primarily for skin problems and spleen flow for infection and bring appropriate energy
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SOME OTHER POSTS:
Author: ed_walker
Comment:
If your doctor agrees, try less invasive options first. A simple one that has helped some avoid knee replacement surgery is simply consuming gelatin. This was first mentioned to me by my friend, a neurosurgeon very familiar with joint issues. After researching I found some interesting info. Here’s a review from Amazon:
12/21/2010: Ken from Henderson, NV, Usa: ”My experience.. Back around
1985 my knees had to be replaced. The cartilage had worn away, and jagged bone was scraping on bone. Best known Dr. in Boston, MA took xrays. (BRUINS & CELTICS DR. ) both I and my wife saw the xrays. Got a 2nd opinion from specialist in Lowell, MA. Same diagnosis same xrays.
Looked very bad.
I COULD HARDLY WALK UP STAIRS AT all, Knees hurt so bad. No tennis, racketball, waterskiing, skating, no nothing. Bone against bone in both knees. Went home and on line found a study being done at Harvard Univ. They gave ground up chicken cartilage to patients about to get knee replacements. They reported amazing reversal of knee problems.
It took about 2 months for some pain to go away… I started taking 4 packets of KNOX GELATIN in orange juice every day. After 60 days I saw improvement starting. At six months I could climb stairs and run around with a frisbee with my kids. At one year I felt back to normal. About ten years ago I fell on my shoulder and it was xrayed in Winchester, MA. I told the doctor about my knee problem, he asked if he could xray my knees, and he did. HE POINTED OUT TO ME ALL THE WHITE CARTILEDGE IN MY KNEE JOINTS. He stated emphatically that I never had a knee problem in my knees.
I am now almost 70 and my knees are perfect. I know people who suffered with knee pain and Knox gelatin made their pain go away. I still take one packet every week or two. I actually told Knox about how it affected my knees, but they weren’t interested. (I know there is a lot of money made with knee surgery today. ) So basic it’s hard to believe. If I can help one person I’ll be very happy….. Please try it. It is practically free (the Knox is so cheap at the food store). I am no doctor, but I have great knees. Also if you have used Knox let me know how it worked for you. MAYBE WE CAN HELP SOME OTHERS……. KEN” I am now 71, and my knees are still perfect. many have done this world-wide .
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Author: boldlygo
Comment:
Tom: Had stem cell injection in right knee about 15 months ago. Am very pleased with result. I had tried cortisone, hyaluronic acid, acupuncture, then considered knee replacement. Researched and tried stem cell shot (am a gambler). Cartilage growth is about 1 mm at best, but some unknown mechanism is at play, it appears. I walk about 2 miles each day; if not,Ā I experience mild ”discomfort” in the knee.
My doc in SLC (am in CO) harvested stem cells from hip bone marrow and fat (had plenty enough), plus platelets. Insurance did not cover (experimental procedure), but Dr. KSS’s biotech $$ did.
My doc also advised using testosterone cream during recovery, and you being a young pup may find it stimulating as well.
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Author: arch1
Comment:
Joe I get mine at a farm supply store. You might check the horse/tack section.
Link shows the stuff i get from a different supplier. Very pure and has less undesirable taste and odor. I use very little after thorough skin rinse. If it works for you , more does not seem to make better.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dmso-16-fl-oz
Amazon has several options at higher priceĀ Ā Ā Google brings up lots for sale
I boil chicken bones or use pressure cooker to extract gelatin/collagen as it seems there is something else in that you don’t get with beef {Knox} gelatin. Always use in conjunction with citric acid/orange juice,calcium CitracalĀ has both citric and calcium, and magnesium for max effect. Gelatin by itself does not work for me.Ā Maybe Grandma was right about chicken soup.
🙂Ā Ā May all be placebo but horses heal faster from acute stage of injury when used
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Author: fstelson
Comment:
I first was exposed to the use of alpha hydroxyproline, a special amino acid found in gelatin, to help with osteoarthritis of the hip 30 years ago by the German orthopedist who first diagnosed this for me.Ā My left hip is extremely malformed, and likely has been so since early childhood, but did not give me much pain despite high activity levels and reallyĀ enormous burdens placed on it lifting weights.Ā The alpha hydroxy prolineĀ seemed helpful as did other cartilage derivatives.Ā WhenĀ I returned to the US I could not then find such products.Ā I came up with the idea of consumingĀ unnflavored gelatin in large amounts, usuall a package a day dissolved in coffee , which I have now done most of the time for 30 years.Ā I have recommended this toĀ some patients with osteoarthritis as an inexpensive and benign therapy and have had some good reports. I have developed the plausiblee hypothesis that somethIng in gelatine/cartilage, perhaps this amino acid unique to cartilage, inhibits chondroclasts, the cells which destroy cartilageĀ in cartilage remodeling.Ā This would be a kind of negative feedback control which normally would inhibit overactivity of these cells by giving the ”message” that too much cartilage had already been destroyed. The equilibrium would then favor the relativeĀ activity of chondroblasts, which form new cartillage.Ā Probably consuming gelatin also assures that the nutritive elements needed for new cartilage synthesis are also likely to be available. Anyway, if it is a placebo, it is usually harmless.
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This is a discussion topic or guest posting submitted by a Stock Gumshoe reader. The content has not been edited or reviewed by Stock Gumshoe, and any opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
8/18/16
Dr. KSS MD PhD
Dear fellow āMunesters: sorry Iāve missed a few questions of the day this weekā¦.itās been a trying one. OK, to get back on track:
Which of the following health behaviors advocated by health professionals is/are actually supported by solid clinical evidence? In other words, which ones are justified? There COULD be more than one correct answer.
(a) drinking 8 glasses of water per day
(b) eating a Mediterranean diet
(c) light to moderate regular exercise (15-20 minutes three times a week)
(d) keeping your indoor thermostat at 68 degrees during winter
(e) brushing and flossing your teeth
(f) taking a multi vitamin daily
(g) none of the above
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
OK, gather round all. Time for answers to Question of the Day. Todayās answers will, I think, incite controversy. But they also call into question how solidly, how unequivocally, we āknowā things to be trueā¦and in most cases in medicine, thatās actually pretty limited. I am basing my correct answers on careful and comprehensive reviews of literature, the views of colleagues who are data-driven experts, and the findings of the Cochrane Collaboration, the most respected body for evidence-based medicine.
Letās take the choices in order.
(a) Despite what youāve always been told, thereās not a single quantum of evidence to support drinking 8 glasses of water per day, and some physicians even view that as needlessly overworking the kidney. True, their may be exceptions: repeated kidney stone formers need to maintain dilute urine, and those in hot or equatorial climates, especially who work outdoors, may even need more than this to cope with sweat losses. But for ordinary people, the data say drink according to thirst, and nothing more.
(b) eating a Mediterranean diet? The grievance here with what data exist, and the data are ONLY associational, provided with a want-it-to-be-true attitude, and confounded by genetic, lifestyle and cultural variables, is that absolutely no one can concur on WHAT a Mediterranean diet is. By many definitions, the seafood and crab sub piled high with olives and tomatoes I eat at Subway is Mediterranean! Nuts, olives, wineā¦.or is a Mediterranean diet lots of feta cheese. A wag in the back of the room is giggling: āMy idea of a Mediterranean diet is a plate of baklava.ā And for others itās a weekend binging on taramosalata. Moussaka is a very Mediterranean dishā¦.but it aināt good for you!
The idea that some components of a Mediterranean may confer relative health may not be hogwash, but it has been in no way demonstrated by science. Which was the premise of the question.
(c) Light moderate exercise has utterly profound benefits in controlling weight, blood pressure and promoting glycemic control. Randomized controlled trials shout this from the hilltops.
(d) there is no data whatsoever to support keeping your thermostat at 68 degrees. This is nonsense. And it was an utterance by Richard Nixon the Ignoble in the seventies to goad Americans forward during an energy crisis. Total malarkey.
(e) here the fur will flyā¦.brushing and flossing. I brush and floss and I see a dentist. And I admit those seem like good ideas. And I know we have respectable dentist readers here who believe in what they do. But the weight of present scientific evidence suggests that brushing and flossing, while good for the oral cavity, has no general benefit for overall health. Sorry, folks, thatās what the literature saysā¦ā¦no evidence. I like the clean feeling of having gone to a dentist, but there is also no evidence that for overall health this is cost-effective in any way at all. If someone can present a published study to me to the contrary that is a GOOD study, I will rescind. But for now, nyet.
(f) as we have presented data for many times, taking a multivitamin provides only one benefit: expensive urine. The evidence pool grows that it may be harmful: vitamin A promotes lung cancer, B6 stomach cancer, B12 esophagus cancer. Vitamin C does nothing except maintain integument and has NO anti-cold or -flu activity. Unless youāre a menstruating woman, supplemental iron is dangerous. Zinc promotes diabetes. Vitamin E has been strongly shown to increase overall mortality. The vitamin industry is run by mullahcrackadullahs and is pure corporate hooliganism. God save us from vitamins and those who promote them. The whole spirit of a vitamin is its necessity in small amounts. In abundant amounts, they find trouble to stir up. The happiest body is one provided with minimal-necessary nutrients, which IS associated with longevity.
The correct answer was C. Other common medical advice: seat belts (supported by data), flu shots (absolutely NOT supported by any data and a vast scamā¦..but follow YOUR doctorās advice as your case may be unique). Other vaccines: Pneumovax has a strong role. HPV vaccine is of no proven value in preventing cervical cancer, and frankly should be given to males not females (where do the females get it from???). Everybody should be vaccinated against HBV and HAV.
Yoga Vs. Physical Therapy For Chronic Low Back Pain: Which Is More Effective? https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2017/06/20/yoga-vs-physical-therapy-for-chronic-low-back-pain-which-is-more-effective/4/#1b79c7845980
9/11/`15
jking1939
Comments re: CoQ-10 ā Shopping today at Amazon I found the following: Quinol Mega 100 mg ā 120 count, and the following in the description: āCoQ10 is a vitamin-like nutrient that plays a vital role in the energy production in every cell in our body. Our body naturally produces CoQ10 and converts ubiquinone to ubiquinol. However, our bodyās ability to produce CoQ10 and convert it into ubiquinol significantly decreases as we age. Ubiquinone CoQ10 is the active form of CoQ10 ā approximately 95% of the CoQ10 circulating in our body is in the form of ubiquinol. As we age, our bodyās ability to produce ubiquinone and convert it into its active form of ubiquinol diminishes significantly. Advanced ubiquinol is both water and fat soluble, unlike regular unsolubilized ubiquinone that dissolves in fats only and to a very limited degree.ā I believe this explanation (more detailed) is in a reply by Dr. KSS to a readers comment. Anyway, thought this might be helpful.
9/2/15
danmcco
$AIMT
The American Academy of Pediatrics now joins several other groups in recommending introduction of peanuts between ages 4 and 11 months to reduce the risk for allergy.
Medscape Medical News
Polymorphisms in vitamin D-binding protein (DBP) appear to modify the relationship between serum vitamin D and food allergy in young children, investigators say.
Reuters Health Information
12/7/14
Dr. KSS, MD PhD, author of this article, says:
December 7, 2014 at 6:58 pm
Well, all the statins cause loss of CoQ10, and while there has never been a study that shows that CoQ repletion in statin takers helps them, it is reasonable to infer it may. CoQ10 really does optimize mitochondrial function, boost energy output from them. CoQ10 may also potentiate some of the statin benefits.
Occasionally people have tried to impugn Lipitor (atorvastatin) as likelier to cause myopathy/myositis, but I really feel thatās a class effect. There may be individual people who do badly with this or that particular statin, but I really find it tough to say that, across all classes of people, certain statins are worse.
Joseph Mercolaās notorious website charges tons more for a CoQ10 preparation about which it makes all manner of vaunted, non-provable claims. In fact, any form of CoQ10 that is in ubiquinol, rather that ubiquinone, form is fine. The best forms are probably the ones made by Pure Encapsulations or by Life Extension, in that those companies have good reputations and do not spike with anything. For some reason, Pure has stopped selling to non-physician customers, but you could ask a MDās office to order it and reimburse them. Pureās products are best in terms of being, at the same time, very high quality and very cheap. I order vitamin D3 from them. I wouldnāt trust anything from Mercola and anticipate he will be jailed soon for false claims and swindling.
Itās best to take CoQ10 in the am as many people find it impossible to sleep if they take it later in the day. It can occasionally cause irritability, and if that is thought to be going on, cut the dose.
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isabelle says:
December 7, 2014 at 7:55 pm
Dr. KSS,
Good news! Pure Encapsulations products are available on Amazon.com. They are also available on a site called Pure Formulas that has free shipping and discount codes. There are also two other high grade supplement companies, Thorne Research and Douglas Laboratories, formerly available only through physicians, that are available on Amazon.com and Pure Formulas.
P.S. I appreciate you so much. Thank you for all you do to help us in our investing endeavors, and in improving our, and our loved ones, health.
Like(3)
6/26/17
Cleveland
Itās anatabine that is present in tobacco that lowers. I have five friends with Parkinsons that never smoked a day in their life. FDA in their infinite wisdom banned anatabine and called it a Drug. I still take anatabine to this day as I purchased a huge supply before the ban. When someone says I need a cigarette to calm down they are speaking of anatabine even though they do not know it. It is an amazing nonaddictive compound.
They should have put anatabine in Ecigs. People would stop smoking cigarettes completely. Ecigs only have addictive nicotine and no anatabine. There is a synthetic version of anatabine.
Author: Cleveland
Comment:
Thanks Doc on point for me..
So as a result of not emptying my bladders completely when I urinated I developed not one but three bladder stones (very large) including one that became lodged in the prostate. Extremely Painful !!!!!
So surgery to remove three bladder stones AND then “Green Light Prostate Surgery” (removal of part of prostate with laser) to increase flow and the elimination of urine. The result is you become a twenty year old in the plumbing department again. Thank God !!
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Author: Dr. KSS MD PhD
Comment:
Cleveland: the green light approach is the bee’s knees. Glad to hear you can peel the bark off an oak tree at 20 feet again!
7/1/17 Author: MCGILTON98846
Comment:
I hope this is on subject ;Defeat cancer ,six mushrooms mix,Myco Phyto Compley.Get it@Eco Nugenics,Inc.,PH 1-800-308-5518 US$39.95 per 60 -count bottle of capsules. Groundhog
Dr. KSS MD PhD
I canāt recommend mushrooms for anything unless hallucinations, unspeakable toxicity and hepatocyte necrosis hold particular appeal for you. Have you tried magic pixie dust?
6/30/17
gumjax
Dr. KSS, Iāve been recently diagnosed with late stage prostate cancer with strong suspicions that it may have spread to or come from other areas including colo-rectal (still checking) and liver. Bone scan not great either. Very happy life and marriage with little to no stress, never hospitalized, never taken a pain pill, hardly ever sick in 70 years. Not much into medicines or being sliced and diced. Only went to emergency room because I needed a catheter which Iām still wearing 3 weeks later. Questionā¦ you never said where you stand with the 70% of oncologists who say theyād eschew treatment and go for comfort. From a medical standpoint (assuming the worst), what would you do if you were me? Iām in no real discomfort at present, other than the annoyance of the catheter. FYI, urologist has me on Bicalutamide daily and starting me on Lupon next week. Iāve had a great life and am OK with catching that last train, if necessary. My 50 year old wife feels much differently, of course, even though she is well set financially.
Love your communication skills!
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Gumjax: My heart goes out to you. I am saddened. But Iād like to see you get treated and that IS what Iād do. One of my closest friends of all time was a veterinarian named Roderick who was like a surrogate dad to me and steered me to medical school and gave me trenchant pieces of advice to live by. But I watched him die in nihilism and denialism from prostate cancer. He was virtually green from advanced jaundice, on high dose morphine from bony metastases with pain, was in agonizing itching from the jaundice. Roderick was an alcoholic, though probably nicer when on alcohol, but not an authentically mean person. He let me work for him for years and taught me advanced lessons about physiology and diagnosis when I was a teenager. Had he agreed to treatment heād still be alive but he refused any and all treatment.
I urge you to get to a sophisticated cancer center close to where you live. You need multidiscipinary evaluation. Please consider writing to me via lynn@stockgumshoe.com and letās discuss further. I want you to live and I feel you can. And you cannot go around long with that catheter inā¦.youāll get urosepsis. Please, letās get on top of this.
7/1/17
danmcco
$noticker Whatās happening in your body during acupuncture?
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/1/15901144/acupuncture-work-alternative-medicine-nitric-oxide
Thousands of years after acupuncture was invented, controversy remains over whether the Chinese traditional medicine technique works. While previous trials have shown mixed results, a new study shows that, at the very least, those needles really do cause something to happen in our bodies.
Scientists have long been skeptical about the value of acupuncture, though practitioners have questioned whether the acupuncture in many studies was done ācorrectly.ā Other trials suggest that acupuncture does āwork,ā but only as a placebo. In a study published this week in the journal Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, researchers measured the biological effect of the procedure. They found that if you do acupuncture correctly, your body releases more nitric oxide at the points where the needles are inserted. The nitric oxide increases blood flow and triggers your body to release natural anesthetics, which can create either warming or cooling sensations. (The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.)
The scientists inserted acupuncture needles into 25 people, ages 18 to 60 and both men and women. Then they tried two different methods. In one, they twisted the needles for two minutes every five minutes, for a total of 20 minutes. In the other, they applied electrical heat for 20 minutes.
Using a device that can measure the molecules in specific skin regions, researchers were able to detect the nitric oxide being released at these acupuncture sites for both methods.
There are caveats, as always. The sample size is small, and these results should be considered in light of more skeptical research as well. Next, the team wants to do further research to understand the underlying cellular mechanisms and the differences between the two techniques.
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danmcco
Petervr, Iāve been interested in acupuncture ever since I would get treatments for my psoriatic arthritis. I used to take the elevator up and was able to walk down. The effect lasted for about 1-2 days then the pain was back. Tried the electronic version to no effect. Only the needles.
It was temporarily effective on pain but not all on the disease ā I moved on to methotrexate and am now back golfing.
7/1/17
levbrans
Interesting article headlining WIRED for the last couple days. Thought some of you all might enjoy checking it out https://www.wired.com/story/this-pill-promises-to-extend-life-for-a-nickel-a-pop/
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mtpoulsen
$metformin
Also found this 2015 study that found metformin to influence gut bacteria in a positive way The study was published in Nature. https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/diabetes-medicine-metformin-improves-gut-bacteria/
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Probably after 40 we should all be taking it.
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rmwrip123
$metformin
Are you serious DR KSS? Do you take Metformin if I may ask? I flirted with a pre-diabetic FBS reading about four years ago. This motivated me to drop 10% of my body weight and be even more vigilant with eating habits and exercise. Iām still a couple of BMI points into the overweight range. Glucose parameters have been good since. The interesting thing about the WIRED article to me is the idea of living more years free of disability vs just adding years to ones life span. My main goal is to prevent disability-especially dementia.
Should I ask my PCP about metformin? If he is not able to prescribe due to lack of a clear indication should I get some through other channels?
Do you suggest any other supplements?
Rick
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7/1/17
Roger
Since so many of us have loved ones with serious heath labels, I thought to pass on my unsolicited observations. Loved ones with major health issues may like anyone else (or even more so) be unreasonable. It is important to remember that you love the person, can act maturely and rationally, and avoid being confrontive or taking issue. People in such situations need love and assurance and have very diminished defenses. I always had to keep in mind that I loved and would try to create an environment that would minimize all stress.
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
However, I would caution here that the best and healthiest thing we can have for each other is compassion, but not empathy. What, did Dr. KSS just really say that? I did. You serve the ill, including your own family better, by being compassionate but not by co-suffering in empathy. My best friend in the world recently gave me a book and insisted, mandated, that I read it. https://www.amazon.com/Against-Empathy-Case-Rational-Compassion/dp/0062339338 It is deeply moving, lucid, and transforming in a rational positive way. We DEFINITELY need to abide each other when sick, and I will always do that for all readers here and have their backs, but we need to learn to do this through healthy, robust, sincere compassion. Empathy can be very defeating for you and for the person who suffers. And I can bear witness to how time and again Iāve seen families commit utter atrocities in the name of helping someone and forget to wield the single most important strategy, which is genuine love. Why do we have such a hard time just showing love?
Dr. KSS MD PhD
Wow! Glad to hear it!
I strongly strongly recommend that you read Anne Fadimanās āThe Spirit Catches You, and You Fall Down.ā This book will change you forever, open your mind, give you peace, teach you acceptance and tolerance in the most frustrating medical circumstancesā¦.believe me, youāre about to encounter them.
Fadiman is a prose luminary who teaches at Ivy league schools and Iāve shared some nice correspondence with her over the years. I used to teach an introductory clinical medicine course, and made her book required reading. It stuns and dazzles. I wonāt go into here what itās about, but one chapter in and you realize you got a wallop of a page turner on your hands. Itās got to be the most interesting medical story ever told, I feel.
https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Catches-You-Fall-Down/dp/0895175312/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2968TTQJQVSSZ5ECYMYV
I had the privilege of caring for a large Hmong contingent on the east coast years ago, and Fadimanās insights into how they think are profound.
Coyote
$Supplements
I am flying under the moderatorās radar here in my Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk to deliver you a 2(!) interesting articles (one from our very own Doc Gumshoe) regarding Metformin and its apparent anti-aging properties. Quite compelling; so much so that I am honestly tempted to start and ideally boost its benefits with my young, ignorant and impressionable mind to boot. Yay for the placebo effect!
https://www.wired.com/story/this-pill-promises-to-extend-life-for-a-nickel-a-pop/
https://www.stockgumshoe.com/2015/08/microblog-aging-whats-all-this-about-preventing-or-slowing-it-down/
If I were a betting man Iād say Barzilaiās billionaire donor is Peter Thiel the Silicon Valley vampire.
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Coyote
Doing a second pass in my F-117 to drop this leaflet about the promised land and the Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) trial mentioned in the wired article:
Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) is a novel clinical trial, that will test whether the drug metformin, a widely-used treatment for type 2 diabetes, can delay the onset of age-related diseases and conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimerās disease.
https://www.afar.org/natgeo/
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redsox47
dr kss-do you take metformin? if so, what is an appropriate starting dosage to test whether one can tolerate it and what would be the dosage to maintain? I have read far more than the wired study that Coyote provided above and it appears that at least for pre diabetics like me with high insulin levels, it might be helpful-would love to hear your far more informed take on it I generally avoid supplements because of the lack of empirical research supporting their benefits and have never trusted word of mouth/personal stories about great benefits but i am curious about this drug peter
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
I donāt personally, but Iāve considered it many times. In my view, the disease is insulin resistance, and diabetes is its endstage. Rick, another physician here, posted a similar question today. If you had cellulitis, would an MD wait until skin is sloughing to begin antibiotics? If you go blind in one eye, do you wait til the second eye goes blind to seek eyedocās help? No, no, of course you donāt, and yet this is precisely what physicians do with type II diabetesā¦.they declare hyperglycemia the enemy, but that is NOT what the evidence says. The evidence is that insulin resistance, driving weight gain, dyslipidemia, hypertension and NASH, is the true disease entity. Some of the worst cases of NASH youāll ever see, for example, are in the āmerelyā insulin resistant who are not yet diabetic, and you fix them by fixing their insulin resistanceā¦.with metformin, which decreases hepatic glucose output especially in the am and promotes better insulin utilization, and with pioglitazone, which does NOT carry cardiovascular risks and whose claimed risk of bladder cancer is specious. Metformin, of course, will not cause hypoglycemia (neither will pioglitazone).
The problem one runs into here is finding a physician progressive enough to treat you. Most are set in their ways and practice according to rules they were taught (most of which are wrong) and not on the basis of new data and real insight into physiology. I have routinely in my practiced screened for insulin resistance and treated accordingly. My practice is a special case, because I am dealing with liver patients who may have NASH alone or NASH alongside things like HCV, HBV, PBC, PSC, hemochromatosis and whatnot. You have to treat all the liver diseases present, and not just your favorite one.
Iāve presented in these threads before a simple formula. Have an MD draw a simultaneous fasting glucose and fasting insulin level first thing in the morning. Insulin resistance is based on the idea that it takes MORE insulin to keep your glucose at any given level, and therefore it is mathematically proportionate to your insulin level for a given glucose, or your glucose level for a given insulin level. You therefore take the product of the insulin and glucose (multiply them). If it is 700 or above, you are by definition insulin-resistant. If you are already diabetic your insulin glucose product will be at least about 3000, just as a guideline. I wouldnāt necessarily track the product, but would begin metformin for a product of 700 or above. Most doctors will say theyāve never heard of this, or that theyāve heard single data point HOMA testing, which this is, means little. And thatās just pure nonsense. I donāt know if insulin resistance codes in ICD-10 but it should, but you could merely be coded as āhyperglycemia not otherwise specified.ā
What is the main reason cholesterol rises as we age? Think about it. Is it from chronic overeating? No of course not. You could eliminate ALL cholesterol from your diet and your serum cholesterol will fall by at most 15 percent. Is it from underexercise? Well, partlyā¦.because exercise influences insulin sensitivity too. Target heart rate in exercise should be 220 minus age. If you exercise 20 minutes three times weekly AT a heart rate of 70-90 percent of target HR, you will strongly improve your insulin sensitivity.
Canāt you see itās kind of stupid to have all these people walking around with high lipids, and youāre
them metformin (which WILL lower cholesterol)?!
I have treated hundreds of people for insulin resistance with metformin and most lose some weight and feel better somehow. Livers clean up. LDL falls. But the true benefits probably are seen from doing this over a span of years. Oh, and no one was ever harmed in the slightest from doing this.
There IS scientific literature to support what Iāve doneā¦.too bad most primary care physicians donāt know about it. But ignorance is no excuse, is it?
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linling88
Doc and Peter, I would like to add a little color to the legend of metformin with my personal experience.
A few years ago I had an episode of steroid-induced hyperglycemia, brief but very severe, which landed me in the hospital for a couple of days. I was given escalating doses of metformin (1000 mg and 2000mg) plus insulin pump just in case. Fortunately I never needed the insulin and the hyperglycemia condition resolved as soon as I stopped the steroid medication.
At the time I was under the care of an endocrinologist in addition to my internist. After a low maintenance dose of 500mg metformin per day for 3 months, my Ha1c dropped to 5.6%-5.8% with or without metformin. My endo doc then suggested I could stop it altogether with perhaps finger stick tracking once a week, but my internist insisted that I continued with 1000mg daily, quoting newest literature evidence that the drug had shown significant āanti-agingā and āanti-cancerā effect in the prophylactical sense. And I had strong reasons to believe that my internist had access to such studies before their final publication.
Soā¦Iāve been taking a daily dose of 1000mg of metformin for 2 years now without feeling any untoward side-effects. BTW both of my doctors were affiliated with one of NYCās major medical centers. Their decisions, without a doubt, were carefully measured and weighed.
Good night all!
/Helen
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rmwrip123
$DR KSS
Great discussion. I think that my insulin resistance situation is fairly well managed at this time. I exceed weekly exercise suggestions. I still think Iāll have a talk with my internist when I see him next week about metformin. With alzheimerās type dementia, type 2 diabetes, and CV disease in general running in my family I just canāt see much downside in taking it and a fair amount of potential benefit.
I have been on simvastatin now for 25 years. It was started when I was 40 lbs heavier then I am now. I finally have my HDL just above 40. I think this is also mostly due to exercise. What are your thoughts on long term statin use?
I am wondering if I should try stopping simvastatin, start metformin,and check lipids in like 6 months.
Rick
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
My perennial grievance with statins is that they intensify insulin resistance in both genders, albeit it to a greater degree in women, likely because of muscle mass differences. To me, this is a big deal. Statins are less effective than they could be because of it, and statin use may thereby be promoting other harms. Good epidemiologic data are that statin use clearly pushes a significant number of women using them long-term into diabetes, such is the promotion of insulin resistance.
Personally, Iām not a fan of primary prevention with statins, and there because so little data supports. Large RCTās struggle to show ANY benefit in preventing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality from their primary use. Secondary use is a no-brainer, however. The fact is, itās 2017 and we still have far to go explaining what drives atherosis and what leads to events. LDL is far from being the whole story, and hsCRP is part of it, as is LDL particle size and distribution. But there are other factorsā¦.weāre just not there yet.
$ESPRās bempedoic acid trounces statins. To a mild degree it actually promotes insulin sensitivity. And has equal efficacy in controlling LDL and hsCRP. And drug detail reps plan to drive this point home when they market bempedoic acid. Statins are mere gaslight.
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jking1939
Dr. KSS ā I have been taking metformin for over a decade and the dosage is 1000 mg twice daily. No side effects of which Iām aware and it has managed my diabetes well. I have embarked on a long overdue self-dieting program and have lost 27 pounds over the past four months, I plan to lose additional pounds and exercise more, but speculation is never precise at my age (77). Lastly, I very much appreciate the comments and replies on this subject!
jokin
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Glad to hear it and thanks for your comments. The key thing here is just not to give yourself gallstones from losing weight too rapidly. Be sure you eat breakfast everyday, preferably something with a little fat in it to really dump out the gallbladder contents that have been lingering overnight. Exercising is keyā-donāt forfeit muscle mass in your attempts at losing weight.
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Road Dog
#KSS
Doc, Iām pre-diabetic and emailed my MD re metformin and my Crestor rx. Hereās his reply:
I am not strongly opposed to using metformin in a person who has pre-diabetes, especially if there are no side effects. Generally because of the side effects that many people experience (GI side effects), it is not a strong recommendation for prediabetics (aka glucose intolerance, impaired fasting glucose).
May start Rx metformin 500 mg BID,#180, 3RF-sent to Meijer on Harvey
Would not think about stopping Crestor (or any statin for that matter) unless he is having side effects
Any other questions or concerns just call or e-mail.
Thanks for all you do! Iām hooked on your articles and comments to the point of checking for new comments several times a day.
Bruce
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mvssysprog
Hi Dr. KSS. Iād like to add my experiences with Metf0rmin. Iāve been taking metformin since 2007 at the urging of my physician ā a really great gentleman who really works at finding the cause versus treating the symptoms (my wife almost suffered a lifetime of statins from her original physician until I brought her to my doctor who discovered very quickly that she had hypothyroidism. Treating that caused her cholesterol levels to drop to normal).
I have been plagued with polyps since they started testing me when I turned 40 (Iām 67 now). Every couple of years they would do a colonoscopy and remove several polpys ā always small). When I started with my current physician, he noticed that I always had polyps and asked me if any of my previous physicians had offered to put me on Metformin. I had told him no, and he suggested that there have been studies where taking Metformin has a positive effect on polyp formation, and colon health (both of my parents had significant issues with their colons). I started taking 1500 mg/day. I had a colonoscopy the following year and had two polyps. Three years later, none, and my last colonoscope showed none as well. The gastroenterologist told me he didnāt want to see me for 10 more years.
The only side effect from taking Metformin, is trying to explain to the nurses (when I do outpatient surgery) and my insurance company when they ask how I am handling my diabetesā¦ When I explain to them itās not for diabetes (my fasting glucose level runs between 86 and 90), they are unaware of the other benefits of Metformin.
This past year, there have been articles in LifeExtension.org about the possible positive effect of Metformin on the aging process.
My apologies for the length of the post.. The difference pre and post metformin on polyp formation cannot be a coincidenceā¦..Regards, Dave
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danmcco
There maybe a functionally equivalent/superior and cheaper alternative available OTC.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2410097/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4114874/
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Berberine is good for the liver as well. For example, http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=ijp.2014.451.460
and many corroborating clinical studies.
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arch1
Doc In re berberine et al Huang Lian ,gold thread. In early Oregon people would travel 100ās of miles by horse to seek treatment from Ing Hay for Chinese medicine for cures no one else could provide. Although he made his own alcohol he preferred the best Kentucky & Tennessee Bourbon
in making tinctures of herbs,,, some local, some from
china.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/kam-wah-chung-co-museum
French folk medicine used European barberry, fruit to make a meat sauce like catsup and root bark tea to treat what must have been diabetes and cancers, or to ward them off. Also berberine source.
Mahonia Aquifolium or Oregon Grape is a native barberry used by Indians as an antibiotic and early settlers did likewise. Also source of berberine.
https://www.thepracticalherbalist.com/holistic-medicine-library/oregon-grape-gentle-protector/
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Eph97
I would err on the side of caution and not take metformin unless absolutely necessary, i.e, you are actually prediabetic or worse. Diarrhea is a common side effect of metformin and it can effect renal clearance (hence why oneās creatinine levels have to be checked first). I would rather take a safe herbal supplement like moringa or berberine, both of which lower blood sugar levels without adverse side effects. There are negative studies out there about metformin. Here is a recent Chinese study that shows that long term metformin use increases the risk of neurodegenerative disease:
http://www.biotecheast.com/2017/03/31/new-taiwan-research-contradicts-earlier-findings-on-metformins-neurodegenerative-disease-protective-effects/
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Coyote
Thanks Eph97! On the weight of current evidence Berberine does seem to have the best of Metforminās benefits, with practically none of the downsides.
https://nootropix.com/berberine-extraordinary-compound/#anti-aging-anti-cancer (Very well sourced)
http://understandingtype2diabetes.com/dr-jonathan-wright-on-berberine-vs-metformin/
One important and potentially dangerous interaction to mention is Berberine with macrolide antibiotics. There is evidence that Berberine can interact with macrolide antibiotics. Berberine may also interact with blood pressure lowering medicine. Please consult your physician if you are on any medication and would like to use Berberine.
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
And if your physician is any good, he will ask why in blue blazes do you want to risk your life with an unproven supplement with an unknown preparation process from an occult manufacturer.
Time to get real, people. You must not be placing a high value on life or safety. Everything out there as regards claims for berberine has NOT been adequately evaluated, and frankly after all my teaching in this blog over the years about the despicable horrors of the supplement industry I cannot believe I am waking up to this.
Oh, and if you are my patient and I learn that you ARE taking a supplement that you HAVENāT told me about, I fire you on the spot. Itās utterly unacceptableā¦.you prepared to blame me for anything that goes wrong with you while taking absolutely heinous risks beyond reason.
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mvssysprog
I really appreciate your attitude about supplements. Since going to my current physician (since 2007) and my prior one (from 1983-2005) it has been a routine that I provide a list of every supplement I take and why. Where I provide something new, I also provide NIH, WebMD or other reputable sources to explain why I take it. It has proven to work very well in maintaining the relationship between me and my physician. It has also helped me to say reasonably healthyā¦.Dave
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Sorry, but as a gastroenterologist, hepatologist, internist and heavy prescriber of metformin I cannot agree. Diarrhea is an uncommon side effectā¦.happens once in a while, but hardly ācommon.ā Metformin is dodgy to initiate in renal insufficiency, but that is NOT the same thing as saying it is harmful to kidneysānot once have I witnessed nephrotoxicity from metformin. Meanwhile, I would never never never never never advocate taking an herbal supplement to ANYONE. Any manufacturer can put anything he wants into a gel cap and market it as XYZ, such is the inane state of our system and our FDA. You literally have no idea what you are taking when you take a supplement and the only thing you ARE taking is your life into your own hands! Perhaps I should say, THANK GOD for supplements and the fools who take them: they sure do keep hepatologists in business! So many liver tests off charts! So many consults! So many biopsies! It is ridiculous to go praising berberine when nothing has been confirmed in a high profile Western clinical trial, and where there is no agreed upon CMC process. WAKE UP!
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arch1
I never take herbal concoctions as I know they range from doing nothing to lethal. i have always had desire to try various berries trying a scant bit on the tip of the tongue. If extremely bitter or made a tingle I would spit it out and rinse with water thoroughly. Pacific yew has a small red berry with a single seed and reacts in that fashion. The bark yields taxol for cancer and the tree is toxic although the berries do not seem to affect birds. Mahonia has small blue berries and is used to make jams and jellies and i suppose has some berberine in the juice. I never knew of anyone suffering any ill effect from eating.
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denton
Dr. KSS ā No Ticker. Perhaps I am misunderstanding your position on supplements, as it would seem there are natural occurring herbs that in fact do provide benefits. I believe there are benefits from garlic, oregano, ginger, beet root, cinnamon and tumeric, for example, and I might add D-limonene for limited use. My beef with many doctors and patients alike is the belief that there is an answer to every illness in a pill. I know many relatives and friends that take upwards of 15 -20 different medications every day. How is Godās name can this plethora of pills and interactions ever be considered safe. Tis only one simple manās opinionā¦
v/r
jdd
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
I see a difference between foods and supplements. Supplements are manufactured, processed, prepared, and your taking them is based on mere faith that the capsules contain what the label says they do. All you have to do is subscribe to the FDAās blog of actions against supplement makers to realize this is NOT the case. This āindustryā is rife with fraud.
Meanwhile, I am data-driven. And the data are that any relationship between health and specific nutrients is tenuous at best, dubious on a good dayā¦.this because so many factors pertaining to genetic health and self-care are in play. Aside from a general theme of dietary balance and caloric restriction, thereās just no science backing nutrient claims. Spend a day perusing Examine.com, an earnest database of scientific studies pertaining to nutrients, and look at how horrid, how lackluster, how disappointing the science really is. Virtually no claim is provable. When I say this, many lapse into pure magical thinking: that science is evil, that science contrives to disprove the supplements, that medicine is a malicious cohort, that science is just incapable of demonstrating the benefits. NONE of these are true. If you feel better, thatās likely placebo effect.
People have to fish or cut bait. You either traffic in belief, which for me is the realm not only of mysticism and religion (which has its place), or you traffic in what data shows. Data, dataā¦there is only data. This blog and our endeavors are about data. You can make yourself healthy by what you AVOID eating, but the data do not support the obverse: aside from their necessity in minor quantities, nutrients and diet do not confer longevity or health. To think otherwise is to set great store also by amulets, astral projection, and magic crystals.
I take vitamin D3 and magnesium chelates, because thatās what data support
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mvssysprog
Hi Drā¦ I agree with you that there have been numerous actions against supplement makers, and that fraud is rife. But there are supplement manufacturers that generate quality supplements. I realize that my saying that without proof is somewhat anecdotal, but I would refer you to Consumerlab.com website. They have been around for 18 years and take supplements off the shelf and test them for purity, adherence to what is stated as the ingredients and amounts. I have used them as a confirmation when I have purchased supplements. They take no advertising and charge for access. I have found it a very informative site on supplements.
Just my opinionā¦.Dave
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rmwrip123
I absolutely agree. I tell patients that many ānatural supplementsā are also drugs processed and sold by companies that are not subject to much oversight. You can never be sure what you are getting.
I need to remember to ask patients about any supplements they are taking. Just one example that many people suffering from depression try is St Johnās wort. This ānatural substanceā can have serious drug interactions with commonly used drugs and also has a list of side effects in itās own right.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1874438/
Do not be seduced by the idea that ānaturalā treatments are safer then standard ones.
Rick
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rsmattis
#noticker, #supplements #KSS
denton, you seem to taking Dr. KSSās opinion on supplements and generalizing to broader meaning. I agree there are many people taking way too many medications with significant interactions and many with marginal benefits or conflicting studies. That is certainly a separate argument. However the initial argument on this thread was regarding metformin. It does have good evidence of benefit, and I agree with the good Dr. in that it has minimal side effects. Diarrhea is totally manageable or absent if the medication is started slowly. Also, it was initially noted that we as physicians are remiss in our duties particularly with diabetes. We treat the elevated blood sugars and the complications and completely miss the point of trying to catch and stop the insulin resistance problem. Metformin helps with this greatly. I would say, in fact, that it is one of a handful of medications and use that are truly providing a life benefit rather than fixing a number on a piece of paper.
The āanswer to every illnesses in a pillā argue is truly prevalent in medicine. But other side of the equation is that most of my patients want a pill as the answer. They have an ache, and wanted it fixed now. They have a diagnosis, and want the pill now. It is an easy slide down the slippery slope to start more medications and hve difficulties in removing them, especially when patients have been started on these medications by multiple other providers and not myself.
I completely agree with Dr. KSS in his take on supplements. mostly unknown or minimal benefits with no quality control and no oversight whatsoever. And yet patientās take them by the handfuls. Late-night commercials wants to blame every medication out for something and please call your lawyer to get in on the claim. But no mention of the huge problem with supplement industry. So I would turn your question around and say āhow in gods name can a plethora of supplements possibly be safe, cost-effective, or beneficial other than the possible placebo effect or marginal benefitā. Far too big of downside. And yet the patients are duped into buying them and taking them by the droves. And well there may be some limited benefit with some of the supplements you mentioned, it is frequently entirely dependent upon what company, what process, what day of the week out of the factory, and other issues far beyond the quality control of the people taking them. Again with no oversight.
Just my $.02, and worth every penny and no moreā¦
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7.3.17
Author: Dr. KSS MD PhD
Comment:
Yes, and not to be contrapuntal, but there is not one single person within the specialty of GI, aside from people at Mayo Clinic, that regard Mayo as the best at anything, including GI. I regard it as a howler that Cleveland Clinic is ranked as high as it is. How US News and other organizations bestow these designations is total voodoo, and may reflect not reflect at all grant dollars, peer reviewed publications, and how difficult it is for a fellow to win admission to the program. The best GI programs in my view are Mass General, UCSF, Johns Hopkins, Brigham and Women’s, Duke,UT Southwestern and UNC Chapel Hill. These are the programs that have an iron fist of editorial control over the journals that count in GI. Mayo is not in the league of any of these. Duke is perennially regarded as the program where fellows do the most procedures during their training, and it is a boot camp program, though fellows finish with absolutely immense clinical experience. People in American academic medicine have at best mixed feelings about Mayo, from which data has long been regarded as so dubious, so perfect, so “amazingly” revelatory that Mayo has to put out its own journal, a throwaway that anyone can get for free (Mayo Clinic Proceedings) to contain it. Most American internal medicine subspecialty programs are reluctant to accept residents who trained in internal medicine at Mayo because the training is so weak, the residents so coddled. Hopkins, Mass General and Duke will always be regarded as the toughest internal medicine residencies in the US…..there is NO situation clinically, no matter how desperate or catastrophic that a second-year resident at any of these three programs cannot manage with confidence and Olympian calm.
In most American internal medicine (and its subspecialties) programs, if you are presenting a case conference, a grand rounds, or a CPC and you cite data “from Mayo Clinic,” eyes will en masse across the audience.
I could actually go on about this for three days….I know some absolutely sordid things about Mayo I won’t go into here, as I don’t want to offend anyone. It’s all about putting on a show for patients and running up as big a bill as possible
Acid – alkaline balance in fighting cancer.
james
Sure making it seem not to difficult here to fight cancer. http://www.cancerfightingstrategies.com/ph-and-cancer.html
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Frightening. This one may take the cake as the most unmitigated poppycock Iāve ever seen in one link. Iām not sure thereās even one true sentence there. What is advocated here is beyond madnessā¦.it is importunate delusional nonsense. Whatās advocated here WILL kill your cancerā¦.but I THINK you are interested in what solves cancer without offing the patient. Am I right?
Holy frijole where does this crackhead nonsense come from?
āElizabeth!!!!ā https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stdi-1tIUhM
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eyedoc
People really believe in purveyors of products like these.
A good friendsā mother in law came down with cancer of the colon that showed up as mets to the liver. Her doc at the John Wayne Cancer Center in Santa Monica wanted to treat her with surgery and chemo. Meanwhile the patientās sister, was a prominent producer of B movies with offices in Century City who was friendly with Jon Voight, who also had an office in the same building. Jon, who I met briefly at this office, said that a country singer he knew well, was ācuredā of pancreatic cancer by a naturalist with a clinic in Reno, Nevada. Well, the movie producer then spirits her sister out to this clinic and helps the patient to spend her life savings getting IVs of secret sauce. The ādoctorsā at the clinic refused to talk with me. The treatment was a failure and she returned home to her apartment in Beverly Hills. I made a house call on her and certified her blind in both eyes, from severe papilledema due to untreated brain mets. She died, refusing conventional care, and neither my friend or his wife ever spoke to the Auntie and her show biz buds again.
And everyone with knowledge of the affair sat back in bewilderment and said āwaaaaaaaā? It is now 37 years later and the bitterness lives on.
7.3.17
JohnM
$ALKS Alkermesā anti-addiction drug naltrexone was prescribed for years to help alcoholics kick the bottle. The company said it worked by killing the pleasurable effects of drinking alcohol. Despite general acceptance, it just didnāt work particularly well. As far as treating opiate addiction, the prospects seemed even slimmer: To get the benefits, addicts would be forced to go through withdrawal first, and then commit to taking one pill every day to no discernible effect.
Then came extended-release naltrexone, which could block drug-related pleasure for almost a month. With that, it was renamed Vivitrol and marketed at $1,000 per monthly shot in the buttocks. Despite all that, methadone still seemed to work better. So Alkermes focused on selling it to the criminal justice system, and its enormous ācaptive marketā of addicted prisoners.
https://www.propublica.org/article/vivitrol-opiate-crisis-and-criminal-justice
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
Iām curious what Rick, MD, thinks about this. Iāve prescribed this agent many times and do have an opinion, a rather strong one, about itā¦.I think itās total caca. But I wonder what others think. āDidnāt work particularly wellā¦ā: Youāre a master of understatement there, John.
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rmwrip123
This issue with ALKS came up a couple of weeks ago in the previous thread with a link to a similar article. Is there a way to search past posts by author? I think that the way Alkermes is pushing vivitrol is criminal.
Naltrexone has been used to treat opioid use disorders (addiction) for decades. The main target population was health care professionals who had their license on the line and were in early treatment/recovery. Treatment programs/state boards would look for the presence of naltrexone/metabolites in bodily fluids. Physicians in particular have excellent recovery rates in general so it is difficult to say how much naltrexone helps. Now the protocol would be to use vivitrol (long acting monthly injections of naltrexone). It does seem to help in this population of highly motivated folks. I think vivitrol does have a place in treating opiod use disorders in the general population in certain special situations. Labeling it as an equal or better option then buprenorphine or methadone is ridiculous and dangerous. The majority of addiction docs working on the front lines would agree with this.
Buprenorphine and methadone are both excellent,evidence based treatments with proven results when combined with evidence based psychosocial treatments. They improve outcomes tremendously.
In looking at treating alcohol use disorders ā medication assisted recovery (as it is referred to) is becoming the standard of care. The main medications we use are naltrexone/vivitrol, acamprosate (Campral), and gabapentin (Neurontin). While some may use these as ways to help people slow down drinking there is little evidence that they help in this way. When used as a part of a comprehensive treatment program they do add a meaningful percent to outcomes. They will take a programs 50 % recovery rate (say over a 6 month period) and increase it to 60%. People will definitely report a reduction in cravings with all of these. A combination of naltrexone and gabapentin has been shown to work better then either one separately. Almost all of my patients do well with oral naltrexone vs vivitrol but I mostly see a fairly motivated population.
Rick
7/5/17
Author: Coyote
Comment:
$Supplements
Doc, if I may, could I squeeze you for your opinion on one last supplement question? I understand people will want to return to familiar climes after the recent venture, and so I will keep it brief. The supplement is Vitamin K2, and the question is whether or not there is reason enough to include this in my now daily routine of taking 3000 IU of Vitamin D3 and 200mg Magnesium glycinate.
Though I am quite young, I do live in Scotland, and so recently came to the lightbulb-esque conclusion that supplementing with Vitamin D3 for the rest of my sun-free life would be a sensible decision per your many posts on the benefits. I have included Magnesium glycinate in that regime to avoid the potential deficiency consistent Vitamin D supplementation can cause, also lifted from your advice. However, pertaining to your own commentary regarding Vitamin D’s potential to cause kidney stones without adequate hydration, and in trawling through a couple of sites talking about Vitamin D’s enhancing of calcium absorption into the body, I was wondering if there is a good case in your opinion to supplement with K2 also. From what I have read, Vitamin K2 turns on specific proteins in the body which shephard calcium into our bones and teeth, instead of soft tissue. If so, would maintenance dose would you recommend?
7/7/17
Cleveland
$BSTG
http://www.abc2news.com/news/health/acid-reflux-is-the-greatest-risk-factor-for-esophageal-cancer
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jabberwocky
$noticker
Thanks for the link Cleveland. I have been beset by heartburn for years now, and neither OTC nor prescription PPIs keep it at bay for very much at all. A reminder that I need to get into action and consult a professional locally.
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Roger
May have written it before, but the Jin Shin Jyutsu solution to acid reflux is placing right hand on right side base of skull and left hand below and adjacent to left collar bone. Hold until acid in throat is neutralized and any reflux stops (usually takes about 3 to 10 minutes.) Works well for me.
astrolabe
Hi Roger, might there be a Jin Shin Jyutsu technique to alleviate pancreatitis? My husband has recurrent bouts of it and just came down with one last night. Deborah
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Author: Roger
Comment:
Astrolabe, Our sympathies. I assume your husband has had a medical diagnosis of pancreatitis. Yes there are flows which often alleviate discomfort and may help otherwise. First there are some questions: How often do the attacks reoccur? What is his age? Is the discomfort more on the right or left side? Is he overweight, and, if so, does he carry the weight in his stomach? Let me know if you wish to take the discussion to the Blog on Alternative Health or privately through Lynn@stockgumshoe.com, who will give you my private email address if you wish. I have no objection to continuing on this thread but do not want to burden it with non biotech stock issues.
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Author: astrolabe
Comment:
#pancreatitis
You’re so kind to get back to me Roger. My husband Fred is 69, not overweight, has a bout maybe every 2-4 months. He’s been hospitalized for it a couple of times but now just stops eating for a few days and that usually takes care of it. Pain on right side. He’s had his gallbladder removed.
My nonmedical take is that the pancreatitis is a result of having his organs sloshed around during several surgeries when his duodenal ulcer burst 8 years ago. It started after that anyway. His incompetent gastroenterologist had treated his pain as a quest for drugs and did not happen to notice that ulcer when he did the endoscopy. He collapsed a few days later while in the hospital for anemia.
Fred had polio when he was a little boy and relapsed into post-polio in 1984, one of the first diagnosed cases. He took extra-strength Exedrin or its equivalent for many years, hence the ulcer. Many of his bones are distorted, which probably also contributes to some displacement of his organs.
We can move it to the alternative health blog – maybe someone else can benefit too. I only saw John and you posting there so I put the question here. Or email is fine with me too.
Dr. KSS MD PhD
Has he been screened for cationic trypsinogen? Has he been screened for lithogenic bile? Has he had an MRCP or good filling endoscopic cholangiogram? Does he take HCTZ? Has he had a trial of ursodeoxycholic acid orally for at least a month?
Gee, a free GI consult! See what a nice thing we have here? And yet certain people hate me and want more from me at the same time and just arenāt happy with what we have.
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astrolabe
#pancreatitis
Yikes, none of the above as far as I know. In fact he has not seen a gastroenterologist for a few years now because he is mostly bedridden and has enough difficulty dealing with more immediate issues as they arise. So, I guess we should make arrangements for all of these?
Thank you so much Dr. KSS! I am beyond words at your generosity
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Roger
You are fortunate to have Dr. KSSās observations. No question that competent medical diagnosis and treatment when available should precede ventures into alternative medicine
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astrolabe
For sure, but if there are non-harmful procedures that might alleviate his discomfort in the meantime weāre all for that. Iāll email you, thanks Roger!
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Dr. KSS MD PhD
I would try it yes. Some people who have recurring pancreatitis have stone-forming bile, bile that is liquid but apt to form crystals and gunk at the wrong moment. Ursodeoxycholic acid is a bile thinner and solubilizer, a pill with no side effects, and I have seen it fix such people. People with recurring pancreatitis need recurring imaging to rule out complications like phlegmon and pseudocysts, and they often do better receiving oral pancreas enzyme replacement therapy to rest the pancreas. I would be sure his care is current with a good area GI MD with some biliary expertise.
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