Newsletter - January 17, 2005

January 17, 2005 - In this Issue

The Polymeal: Hoax or For Real?
by Oscar Franco et al
Congressman switches sides from drug industry overseer to lobbyist
New Study Links Lead Exposure with Increased Risk of Cataract
The effect of acupuncture on the symptoms of knee osteoarthritis--an open randomised controlled study.
by Tukmachi E, Jubb R, Dempsey E, Jones P.
How to Help Disaster Victims of the Recent Tsunami
More Evidence Against the Use of Conventional Estrogen Therapy in Menopause
by Anderson GL, Limacher M et al
Growing old in a wireless world will mean not just keeping your body healthy but keeping it online
by Philip E. Ross
Study: Fast Food Contributes to Obesity, Increases Chances of Developing Diabetes
African Plant May Help Fight Fat
Free Wireless Internet Service Now Available at FMI

The Polymeal: Hoax or For Real?
by Oscar Franco et al

The objective of this study was to identify a tastier and safer alternative to the Polypill: the Polymeal.

Data on the ingredients of the Polymeal were taken from the literature. The evidence based recipe included wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits, vegetables, garlic, and almonds. Data from the Framingham heart study and the Framingham offspring study were used to build life tables to model the benefits of the Polymeal in the general population from age 50, assuming multiplicative correlations.

Combining the ingredients of the Polymeal would reduce cardiovascular disease events by 76%. For men, taking the Polymeal daily represented an increase in total life expectancy of 6.6 years, an increase in life expectancy free from cardiovascular disease of 9.0 years, and a decrease in life expectancy with cardiovascular disease of 2.4 years. The corresponding differences for women were 4.8, 8.1, and 3.3 years.

Conclusion: The Polymeal promises to be an effective, non-pharmacological, safe, cheap, and tasty alternative to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and increase life expectancy in the general population.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: This article has generated a veritable storm of protests from within the medical community. Debate is raging as to whether the “polymeal” is “for real” or just a wry example of British humor (the original article was published in the British Medical Journal.) In any event, whether eating a diet which contains significant amounts of wine, fish, dark chocolate, fruits, vegetables, garlic, and almonds will produce such dramatic increases in human life expectancy or not remains to be seen. Certainly all of these foods are fundamental components of the Ray & Terry Food Pyramid (see Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, p. 106) with the possible exception of dark chocolate. Yet, dark chocolate is a rich source of powerful antioxidants; the only problem is that it is usually mixed with large amounts of sugar. By consuming it with a sweetener like stevia in a product such as the R&T Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake you can get the health benefits of the dark chocolate without any sugar at all.

Congressman switches sides from drug industry overseer to lobbyist

Retiring Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., who stepped down earlier this year as chairman of the House committee that regulates the pharmaceutical industry, will become the new president and CEO of the drug industry's top lobbying group.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: On January 3, 2005, Billy Tauzin, R-La will no longer work in Congress to regulate the pharmaceutical industry, but will instead step into a new job as a lobbyist, working on behalf of the same industry.

Tauzin will work as a lobbyist for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a powerful trade group. As congressman Tauzin helped this same group pass a bill establishing Medicare's first prescription drug benefit for seniors.

"It's a sad commentary on politics in Washington that a member of Congress who pushed through a major piece of legislation benefiting the drug industry gets the job leading that industry," acoording to Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a non-profit consumer advocacy group.

Tauzin says his decision to work for the pharmaceutical industry was based on feeling a divinely-inspired "mission" after being successfully treated for intestinal cancer with newly developed anti-cancer drugs. He will receive over $2 million a year in his new position.

More Evidence Against the Use of Conventional Estrogen Therapy in Menopause
by Anderson GL, Limacher M et al

Despite decades of use and considerable research, the role of estrogen alone in preventing chronic diseases in postmenopausal women remains uncertain ... The use of CEE (conjugated equine estrogen or Premarin) increases the risk of stroke, decreases the risk of hip fracture, and does not affect CHD (coronary heart disease) incidence in postmenopausal women with prior hysterectomy over an average of 6.8 years. A possible reduction in breast cancer risk requires further investigation. The burden of incident disease events was equivalent in the CEE and placebo groups, indicating no overall benefit. Thus, CEE should not be recommended for chronic disease prevention in postmenopausal women.

Growing old in a wireless world will mean not just keeping your body healthy but keeping it online
by Philip E. Ross

It might not be politic to compare people to cattle, but for the moment bovines are ahead of humans in the use of wireless technology for remote health monitoring. Cows in Britain, and now in the United States, are being equipped with wireless under-the-skin electronic sensor packages, costing about US $100, that monitor heartbeat, temperature, and other signs of impending mad cow disease. Sure, few people would want such an intrusive watch on their vitals, but that just might be what's needed to keep the next generation of older people living longer on their own.

Meeting the needs of those with the chronic diseases of aging—heart disease, Alzheimer's, and so forth—is a labor-intensive chore we increasingly cannot afford ... We will have to find clever ways to economize on labor, the most expensive element in health care. "General practitioners and other front-line health care people are overwhelmed; they haven't got time for patients, and the vast majority would welcome relief from some well-chosen, well-placed technology," says Philippe M. Fauchet, an electrical engineer and director of the Center for Future Health at the University of Rochester, in New York. He and others are betting that information gleaned from our increasingly networked world will be a big part of the solution.

Study: Fast Food Contributes to Obesity, Increases Chances of Developing Diabetes

LONDON Dec 30, 2004 — A new study gives scientific clout to a conclusion many already see as obvious: Eating lots of fast food makes you fat and increases the chance of developing diabetes.

A study published in the Lancet medical journal this week found those who frequently ate fast food gained 10 pounds more than those who did so less often, and were more than twice as likely to develop an insulin disorder linked to diabetes.

"Fast food is commonly recognized to have very poor nutritional quality," said Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston and the senior author of the study. "But there have been very few studies, essentially no long-term studies that have documented the effects of this dietary pattern on the key chronic diseases of Western civilization obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease."

"In the absence of such data, the fast-food industry continues to claim that fast food can be part of a healthful diet," he said.

African Plant May Help Fight Fat

Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.

Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it'll be tripping off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes your appetite away.

It's very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn't stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you’re full, even if you've eaten just a morsel.Hoodia, a plant that tricks the brain by making the stomach feel full, has been in the diet of South Africa's Bushmen for thousands of years.

Free Wireless Internet Service Now Available at FMI

We are pleased to announce that Frontier Medical Institute now has wireless Internet access. This service is free of charge and available throughout the clinic. So, when you are in our IV room receiving your therapy, feel free to log on and catch up on your email, "surf the net" or whatever else you wish. You can be as productive as you want during "IV time" or you can use the time to settle back and relax -- or do a little of each. Simply open your brower (typically Internet Explorer) and you're logged on.