Bill Maher is great. Recently in his “new rules” segment he decided to go off on the pharmaceutical industry and the manner in which people maintain their health in this country. This was so great that I decided to transcribe it for you all to enjoy.
 
If you believe you need to take all the pills the pharmaceutical industry says you do, then you’re already on drugs. It’s that time in the campaign where all the candidates are presenting their health care proposals. Hillary’s covers children’s teeth, Edwards has one that maintains gorgeous shiny hair and Barack Obama’s involves going on Oprah and everyone’s gets a gastric bypass. But none of them address the real problem. We won’t stop being sick until we stop making ourselves sick because there is a point where even the most universal government health program can’t help you. They can’t outlaw unhealthy food or alcohol or cigarettes, just pot sadly. Because you see the government isn’t your nanny, they’re your dealer. And they subsidize illness in America, they have too. There’s too much money in it. There’s no money in healthy or dead people. The money’s in the middle. People are alive, sort of, but with one or more chronic conditions that puts them in need of Celebrex or Nasonex or Valtrex or Lunestra.
 
Fifty years ago children’s didn’t even get type II diabetes. Now it’s an emerging epidemic, as are a long list of ailments which used to be rare and have now been “mainstreamed.” Things like asthma, autism, acid reflux, arthritis, allergies, adult acne, attention deficit disorder and that’s just the A’s. Doesn’t any body wonder why we live with all this illness? I’ll tell you why. At the LA County Fair last week they were serving something called fried coke. Now my first thought was, “Gosh, what a waste of a perfectly good 8 ball.” No but they actually pour coca cola syrup into a deep fryer then put it in a cup and top it with sugar, whipped cream and a cherry because you know fruit is good for you. But would it really be that much more unhealthy to get molested by one of the Carney’s?
 
In Hillary Clinton’s health plan, the work nutrition and exercise appear once. The word drugs, 14 times. Just as the pharmaceutical companies want. You know their ad people love to say when diet and exercise fail. Well diet and exercise don’t fail, a fact that was brought home last week by a new Duke University study showed that exercise, yes exercise, is just as effective a cure for depression as Paxil and Zoloft. So ask your doctor if getting off your ass is right for you. You know, if Republicans can sell the idea of preemptive war, Democrats have to at least get us interested in the idea of preventative medicine. Someone has to stand up and say that the answer isn’t another pill, the answer is spinach. Okay, not spinach because it turns out that crap will kill you but you know what I mean.

This is the latest in a series of studies on the embryotoxicity of one of the main ginseng extracts. It is important to note that even though the agent is an isolate of ginseng, other epidemiological data has also shown higher incidences of problems in humans using ginseng. Now, we have no controls for pesticides, etc., so it may not be the ginseng but just to be safe, we advise all pregnant patients to avoid ginseng.
 
Toxicol In Vitro. 2006 Mar;20(2):234-8.

OK for those of you who crave dim sum and other insane amounts of MSG in Asian food and things like campbells soup (see our website for details on where MSG is hidden)…Cinnamon bark can help attenuate the reaction and save some of your poor helpless brain cells.
 
Phytother Res. 2000 Sep;14(6):466-8.
 
Extract prepared from the bark of Cinnamomum cassia Blume prevents glutamate-induced neuronal death in cultured cerebellar granule cells.
Shimada Y, Goto H, Kogure T, Kohta K, Shintani T, Itoh T, Terasawa K.
 
Department of Japanese Oriental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan. shimada@ms.toyama-mpu.ac.jp
 
We studied the protective effect of a water extract from the bark of Cinnamomum cassia Blume on glutamate-induced neuronal death by MTT assay and its action on (45)Ca(2+) influx using cultured rat cerebellar granule cells. In a dose-dependent manner, this extract (10(-5)-10(-4) g/mL) significantly protected against glutamate-induced cell death and also inhibited glutamate-induced (45)Ca(2+) influx. These results suggest that the bark of Cinnamomum cassia has a protective effect on glutamate-induced neuronal death through the inhibition of Ca(2+) influx. Copyright 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PMID: 10960905 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Researchers found that the alcohol extract of American ginseng induced an approximate 2.5-fold increase in expression of the estrogen-responsive pS2 gene, as well as progesterone receptor gene expression. Therefore, American ginseng can potentially be used to improve progesterone response.
 
Integr Cancer Ther. 2006 Sep;5(3):236-43

Researchers in this investigation found that low doses of an Alcohol extraction (
but NOT a water extraction) of American ginseng increased human breast cancer cell proliferation in a breast cancer cell line. High doses inhibited breast cancer cell growth in both the alcohol and water extracts. Therefore, American ginseng should be safe to use with breast cancer patients if you make a tea from it, or if you use the alcohol extract in high doses.
 

Integr Cancer Ther. 2006 Sep;5(3):236-43.

Many people ask: can I just do acupuncture? or can I just do herbs? The answer we generally provide is “yes”, but the results are better when you combine both. In this study they found just that. There is a synergy between the two. When clincally depressed patients utilized both acupuncture and herbal medicine, their depression scores substantially improved over those that used herbal medicine alone.
 
The authors concluded that “Acupuncture plus TCM medication may show satisfactory results for mental depression, indicating that a synergic action may exist between acupuncture and TCM medication.”
 
J Tradit Chin Med. 2007 Sep;27(3):166-9.Links

A recent study demonstrates that acupuncture improves hot flushes and night sweats in breast cancer patients. According to the study

 

“The women, who had all been experiencing chronic multiple flushes and sweats, found the acupuncture helpful and relaxing. Many reported reductions in hot flush frequency, as well as improvements in overall emotional and physical well being. The group setting for treatment was regarded as supportive and encouraging.”
 
Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2007 Nov;13(4):250-7. Epub 2007 Aug 6.

We apologize profusely to our daytime patients who have to endure pounding, drilling and jackhammering during treatments. As much as we’d love to complain to our landlord, I suppose we can’t since the space next door is going to be ours. Hopefully all will be completed and ready to go by the lunar new year but you all know how contractors are. Eventually we’ll have double the space with more treatment rooms available as well as a little store for patients that will be the “real” herbalroom where we’ll bring you all of those hard-to-find supplements, household items and foodstuffs that we always talk about. Here’s how it’s been going so far.
 

If you’ve been told that you have intestinal dysbiosis, candidiasis or excessive amounts of yeast in your system, make some of this tasty pesto and eat a few tablespoons every day. It tastes great on top of steamed vegetables, poultry, etc. Do not cook this mixture!
 

At ECCM, we’re big fans of juicing. I know some of you are pretty good about getting your 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day but most of you aren’t. Juicing provides a highly concentrated form of vitamins and minerals that are easily absorbed and gives the gut a break from digesting solid food, which is extremely helpful for our overworked, inflammed digestive tracts. Here are some juicing pointers: