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Lifestyle diseases and nutritional supplements:

http://www.hindu.com/op/2009/05/31/stories/2009053150051400.htm

JACOB P. I.

The lifestyle of people these days is weird. In olden times, major illnesses were malaria, tuberculosis,
whooping cough, diphtheria, small pox, plague, etc. The good doctors in our society had remedies for all
these diseases. Vaccination still helps us fight microorganisms. Times have changed. Degenerative diseases
or lifestyle diseases — heart attacks, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, the Alzheimer’s disease, stroke,
asthma, obesity, arthritis, etc., are some examples.

These diseases have no age barrier and doctors have nothing to offer as preventive medicines. Our lifestyle
is to blame. We now grey at 25, have wrinkles at 30, menopause and hypertension at 35, heart attack at
40…

Faulty food habits

Our food habit is one reason for the malady. An adult needs 1gm/kg body weight/ day of protein; 250-700g
of carbohydrates, 20-60g of fats, nearly a dozen of vitamins and minerals and 2-3 litres of clean drinking
water. Lack of carbohydrates, fat and water are immediately felt as hunger, thirst and weariness.

But deficiency of proteins, vitamins and minerals is never felt immediately and has a degenerative effect.
Proteins are the building blocks of our body. Once in 720 days all the cells in our body die and are made
anew. The cells in the brain have a life span of one and half days. So if your protein intake is insufficient,
your dead brain cells may not get replaced. This slowly manifests as memory loss. Skin cells have a life of
28 days. If your intake of complete protein (protein with all nine amino acids are called complete proteins) is
insufficient, you won’t have that ‘zing-thing’ in you and won’t glow. In short, you will look older than you
are.

The mucous lining of our intestine has cells whose life span is only a few hours. Protein-deficient folks end
up with colon cancer. Degeneration is occurring daily. Persons with a deficiency of glucosamine (the
aminoacid that your cartilage is made of) have joint pains. It is known that after 40, our bodies don’t
produce glucosamine normally, hence the hip, knee and joint pain. Soy protein with its low fat and high
protein is the answer for most nutritional deficiencies.

The oxygen that we breathe has a darker side. The fresh air that we inhale reaches the airsacs (alveoli) of
our lungs. From the alveoli, the haemoglobin of our blood carries it to various cells of our body. In a cell the
mitochondria uses this oxygen to produce energy, water and free radicals. O-ions or free radicals are the
major cause of damage to our cells, just as a cut apple gets oxidised and turns brown, or iron gets rusted
and brass vessels get bad with verdigris.

Awareness helps

In all these cases, oxidation by free radical attack is happening. Internally, at various places in our body free
radical attack is rampant. Research has shown that free radical attack causes most of the present-day ills of
our society: cancer, macular degeneration of the eyes, rheumatoid and ortho arthritis, thickening of the
arterial walls due to bad cholesterol, etc. It’s about time all of us realised the dangers of our times and
invest in our well-being.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2003/11/20/stories/20031120000503
00.htm

A dietary supplement exists in the form of a capsule, tablet, liquid or powder having medicinal or health benefits,
which has to be taken orally. For example, vitamins, minerals, essential oils and herbal products.

The global market for dietary supplements was estimated at around $68 billion in 2006 by the Nutrition Business
Journal, US, a leading publication on this industry. The global per capita consumption of dietary supplements comes
to $11 per annum, while in Japan, Europe and US it is more than $75 per annum. In the next 10 years or so, the
global dietary supplement market has the potential to reach more than $200 billion.

Right now, the Indian market share in the global dietary supplement market is miniscule. Even if Indian companies
could garner a market share of 5 per cent in 10 years, the potential is tremendous!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has predicted that the dietary supplements market will reach $5 trillion or
$5,000 billion by 2050, if the market grows at 11 per cent every year.

Factors that are contributing to the high growth of the global dietary supplements market include an increased
awareness of the benefits of having these products, increasing focus on prevention of diseases and maintenance of
good health rather than on curing the diseases, modern lifestyles of high stress and reduced physical activity,
improper food habits, etc., which are leading to a deterioration of health and an increase in lifestyle diseases such as
diabetes and cardiovascular-related ailments. Also, higher disposable incomes, increasing urbanisation, globalisation
and awareness, changing demographics, awareness of limitations in pharma healthcare and the initiatives by
government bodies to increase dietary supplement consumption and thereby reduce healthcare costs, are all
resulting in a higher growth in this segment.

DR. Ray Strand


http://www.raystrand.com/nutritional-medicine.asp
You tube link...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=PZGJiclKn9I&feature=player_embedded#!

My Concept of Nutritional Medicine


Most people truly do not understand the concept of nutritional medicine and fewer yet
understand the concept of cellular nutrition. This article will give you a better
understanding of how I approach my patients as a specialist in Nutritional Medicine.
Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding of how and why you can better
protect your health or even regain your health by applying these concepts to your own
life.

Concept of Oxidative Stress

Even though oxygen is necessary for life itself, it is inherently dangerous for our
existence. In the process of utilizing oxygen within your cells to create energy, you also
create a by-product referred to as free radicals. Free radicals are charged oxygen
molecules that are missing at least one electron and desire to get an electron from the
surrounding area. If it is not readily neutralized by an antioxidant, which has the ability
to give this free radical the electron it desires, it can go on to create more volatile free
radicals, damage the cell wall, vessel wall, proteins, fats, and even the DNA nucleus of
the cell. So the same process that turns a cut apple brown or rusts metal is causing you
to rust inside. In fact, the medical literature now shows us that over 70 chronic
degenerative diseases are the result of this process. Diseases like coronary artery
disease, cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s, arthritis, macular degeneration, MS, lupus,
among others are the result of small oxidative changes that occur over a long period of
time.

It is all about Balance

The number of free radicals you produce is not steady. In other words, some days you
produce more than others. Because of our stressful lifestyles, polluted environment,
and over-medicated society, this generation must deal with more free radicals than any
previous generation that has ever walked the face of the earth. If you want to prevent
oxidative stress, you need to have more antioxidants available along with their
supporting nutrients than the number of free radicals you produce. You see, we are not
defenseless against this process. Antioxidants are the answer. The question is
whether or not we are able to get all the antioxidants we need from our food. This was
the question I had to answer for myself and the reason that I wrote my book What Your
Doctor Doesn’t Know about Nutritional Medicine. After spending over 2 years
reviewing the medical literature, I concluded that the only way you have a chance of
preventing oxidative stress is by taking high quality, complete and balanced nutritional
supplements that provide, what I refer to as, cellular nutrition. If you have not read my
book or listened to any of my CD’s on this subject, I would certainly encourage you to
do just that. The medical references are detailed in my books and provide the medical
evidence that demands a verdict—should you be taking nutritional supplements?

History of Nutritional Medicine

Over the past half century, nutritional medicine has been practiced with the
belief that you had to determine what nutrients in which you were deficient and then
supplement that particular nutrient. It became very obvious to me early on in my
research that the underlying problem most of us are facing is not a nutritional deficiency,
but instead, the result of oxidative stress. It was also apparent to me that medication,
which actually increases the production of free radicals, would never be the answer to
preventing any of these diseases. Also if this was the case, the goal had to be to
provide the nutrients that were necessary to build up our body’s natural antioxidant
defense system so that you did not develop oxidative stress. It became so apparent to
me that our bodies, not the drugs I could prescribe, were the best defense against
developing any of these diseases. The problem is NOT a nutritional deficiency. The
problem is oxidative stress.

Modern Nutritional Research

Today’s research is focused on trying to find the magic bullet in regards to a particular
disease. For example, there were many studies that showed that those smokers who
had the highest antioxidant levels in their blood stream had a significantly lower risk of
developing lung cancer than those smokers who had the lowest level of antioxidants.
Most of the researchers felt that it was primarily due to the high levels of beta carotene.
So they decided to do a study and supplement a large number of smokers with just beta
carotene. They were dismayed when they found that the group that received the beta
carotene alone actually had a higher incidence of lung cancer than the control group.
This led researchers and the media to actually claim that beta carotene was dangerous
and should not be taken in supplementation in smokers. A review of the same data
reported a couple of years later showed that those smokers who had the highest levels
of total antioxidants in their blood stream had a significantly decreased risk of
developing lung cancer compared to those who had the lowest levels of antioxidants.

Beta carotene is NOT a drug. It is merely a nutrient that we get from our food; however,
because of supplementation we are now able to get it at levels you cannot obtain from
your food. Beta carotene works in only certain parts of the body and against only
certain kinds of free radicals. Beta carotene needs the other antioxidants along with the
antioxidant minerals and B cofactors in order to do its job effectively. However,
researchers are focused on trying to find the magic bullet instead of stepping back and
understanding the basic principles and concepts of cellular nutrition. The amazing thing
is how so many of these studies that look at just one or possibly two nutrients actually
show a health benefit. What would the health benefit be if you would put all of these
nutrients together at these optimal levels? Enter in the concept of cellular nutrition.

Concept of Cellular Nutrition

There are over 180 epidemiologic studies (studies that involve a very large number of
people) that all show the very same thing. Those individuals who have the highest
levels of total antioxidants in their body compared with those who have the lowest levels
have a 2- to 3-fold decrease risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and even
Alzheimer’s dementia. Obviously, those individuals who consume more of the fresh
fruits and vegetables, which contain a large amount of these antioxidants, had the
highest levels of antioxidants in their body. This only makes logical sense when you
understand the concept of oxidative stress as being the root cause of over 70 of these
chronic degenerative diseases. Therefore, a physician would conclude the best thing
that they could advise their patients to do is to be consuming at least 8 to 12 servings of
fresh whole fruits and vegetables each and every day. The second best thing would be
to recommend high quality, complete and balanced nutritional supplements that
provided cellular nutrition.

Cellular nutrition would be defined as providing ALL of the micronutrients to the cell at
these optimal or advanced levels that have been shown to provide a health benefit in
our medical literature. In other words, you would want your supplementation to be
balanced and complete, much like a healthy diet is. The only difference is the fact that,
unlike today’s food supply, supplementation can provide all of these nutrients at optimal
levels. We all need to be supplementing a healthy diet; however, because of our
stressful lifestyles, polluted environment, and over-medicated society we do need to be
supplementing.

Cellular nutrition has been shown in our medical literature to build up our body’s natural
immune system, antioxidant system, and repair system. You not only replenish any
nutritional deficiency within 6 months of supplementation, but you also optimize all of
the body’s micronutrients. You are given the absolute best chance to reverse or
prevent any oxidative stress and protect your health. You see, nutritional
supplementation is really about health—not disease. Nutritional supplements are
natural to the body and the nutrients the body requires to function at its optimal level.

Every man, woman, and child needs to be supplementing a healthy diet and be involved
in a modest exercise program. This is the key to protecting and maintaining your
health. However, what if you have already lost your health and have developed one of
these chronic degenerative diseases? Does supplementation provide any hope? This
is the question that I had to answer for myself and for my patients. This has been the
focus of my practice for the past 11 years and why I have developed my online practice
located at www.raystrand.com.

The Concept of Synergy

The medical literature had showed me over and over again that those patients who
were already suffering from a chronic degenerative disease like rheumatoid arthritis,
MS, or diabetes actually had significantly more oxidative stress than the normal, healthy
patient. Cellular nutrition is generally adequate to help someone who is in excellent
health; however, it would not be enough supplementation to bring oxidative stress under
control in someone who is already suffering from a major disease.

It became very apparent to me early on that if you were going to be able to have any
effect on improving the health of someone who was already suffering from cancer, heart
disease, macular degeneration, diabetes, macular degeneration, and the like that you
would have to truly optimize every aspect of the body’s natural defense systems. I
quickly began to realize that by placing all of my patients on basic cellular nutrition, I
was able to create a synergistic effect. Vitamin E is a great antioxidant within the cell
membrane. Vitamin C is a great antioxidant within the plasma. Glutathione is the best
intracellular antioxidant. However, all of these antioxidants needed the antioxidant
minerals and B cofactors to do their job well. Also, vitamin C was able to replenish
vitamin E so it could be used over and over again. Alpha lipoic acid, another great
antioxidant, was able to regenerate both vitamin E and glutathione. I found that 1 plus 1
was no longer 2, but instead, 8 or 10. This powerful approach allowed me a much better
chance of bringing oxidative stress back under control.

Once my patients were consuming my recommendations of cellular nutrition, I simply


began adding enhancers to their nutritional supplement regime. I began looking for the
most potent antioxidants that were available. Grape seed extract was found to be 50
times more potent than vitamin E and 20 times more potent than vitamin C at handling
oxidative stress. CoQ10 was not only a very important antioxidant but has been found
to significantly boost our natural immune system and help provide increased energy for
the cell to function at its optimal level. Other nutrients like glucosamine sulfate, saw
palmetto, phytonutrients, additional vitamin E, calcium, magnesium in various illnesses
produced amazing results.

Over the past 12 years, I have learned how to best support my patients’ natural
defenses and allow them the best chance to take back control of their health. Again, it
is all about balance. I want my patients who are already suffering from an illness to also
bring oxidative stress back under control. This is my entire goal. Then and only then do
they have a chance to see their health improve. By combining cellular nutrition with
specific enhancers, I give all my patients the best chance of bringing oxidative stress
back under control. The results that I have seen in my medical practice using these
principles have been nothing short of amazing and something that I had never
witnessed in my first 20 plus years of medical practice.

Now, I want to share a couple of precautions that I have learned along the way. First,
nutritional medicine is not like taking drugs. It takes a minimum of 6 months to build up
the body’s natural defenses and many of my patients did not even begin to see any
improvements in their health until after 6 months. Not everyone responds to my
recommendations; however, I feel the majority of my patients have had significant
health improvements when they followed these recommendations. None of my patients
were cured of their underlying illness. Nutritional supplementation is not an alternative
or substitute for traditional medical care. You should never quit taking any medication
prescribed by your doctor without his or her consent and direction. Many of my patients
have been able to decrease their dependence of medication and in some cases even
discontinue some of their medication. However, this is always because of a significant
positive improvement in their health and under the direction of their personal physician.

It is my mission in life to spread these health concepts and help as many people as I
can. This is why I have developed my online medical practice at www.raystrand.com. I
would encourage you to take advantage of this website and share the potential health
benefits of following my recommendations either to protect your health or possibly even
to regain your health if you have already lost it.
Nutrilite blogs..

http://goodhealthforus.blogspot.com/2009/06/nutrilite-siberian-ginseng-with-
ginkgo.html

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