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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Glutathione! |
| Joseph Pizzorno, ND |
| My awareness of the importance of glutathione in health began with the brilliant commentary on oceanic disease (IMCJ 7.1) by associate editor Sid Baker, MD.1 Since then, as I have studied detoxification, mitochondrial function, and healthy aging, the critical role of adequate glutathione to health has become ever more apparent. I have now mentioned glutathione in several previous editorials: protection from oxidative stress (IMCJ 8.3),2 protection from mercury and other toxic metals (IMCJ 8.2, 9.3, 10.4),3-5 protection from alcohol (IMCJ 11.6),6 and protection from persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (IMCJ 12.2).7 This resulted in my creating a 60-slide lecture on glutathione, which I gave for the first time at the October 2013 Restorative Medicine Conference in San Diego, California. As several attendees told me it was one of the most important lectures they had ever heard, I decided to make glutathione the topic of this editorial. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| (Integrative) “Whole Health” Tops Interests for VA in the President’s Planning Budget … plus more |
| John Weeks |
| (Integrative) “Whole Health” Tops Interests for VA in the President’s Planning Budget
Tracy Gaudet, MD, publicly shared a remarkable advance for the values, practices, and disciplines associated with integrative health and medicine in a keynote at the October 2013 International Clinical Congress for Clinicians in Complementary and Integrative Medicine. The former director of the program in integrative at the University of Arizona and then at Duke Integrative Medicine is presently the director of the Office of Patient- Centered Care and Cultural Transformation for the Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA). She described an internal process of priority setting inside the agency—the nation’s largest system for delivering medicine and health. Gaudet described a concept of “whole health” that she has been advocating in the VA. She defined it as “A well developed national infrastructure for provision of a proactive integrative health approach for Veterans, which is inclusive of a relationship-based approach, self-care strategies, complementary and alternative approaches, and integrative health coaching.” Then the news: This concept emerged as top dog in a competition for the VHA’s chief focus through 2021.
Gaudet added that the VHA’s initiative will be backed by a system-wide practitioner education program developed by a University of Wisconsin integrative medicine team led by David Rakel, MD. She continued: “When implemented, Veterans will have the guidance to address the broad aspects of their life that affect their health, will have education and training to build new self-care skills, will have the opportunity to incorporate more holistic and integrative approaches into their health care, and will have ongoing support to help them make the changes they identify as priorities.” |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| The Case is Closed: Editorial Bias Prevents Reasonable Evaluation of Dietary Supplements |
| Thomas G. Guilliams, PhD |
| Being involved with dietary supplement research for almost 18 years, I have witnessed my share of hype for, and against, the use of dietary supplements. Few, however, have attempted such blatant finality to the subject as the recent editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine—titled “Enough is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements.”1 The editorial authors, acting as both judge and jury, declare in no uncertain terms that “we believe the case is closed—supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful. These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough.” The verdict, they tell us, was sealed by 3 papers published in the same Annals issue. Not surprisingly, the publication of the editorial was touted by many news outlets that quickly found the usual supplement bashers all too willing to add insult to injury by regurgitating decades-old sound bites.
Anybody who has spent even a brief amount of time evaluating medical research, especially as it pertains to the use of vitamins and minerals, knows that such a conclusion (“the case is closed”) is as arrogant as it is absurd. In fact, the editorial does not even do justice to the data presented in the 3 papers published within the same issue—let alone the broader evidence used to evaluate the use of vitamins and minerals for the prevention of chronic disease. In any system of justice, this would be declared a mistrial. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Presenters 2014: Patrick Hanaway, MD: Transforming Scientific Understanding of Nutrition to Clinical Understanding and Practice |
| Craig Gustafson |
| Patrick Hanaway, MD, is the director of medical education for the Institute for Functional Medicine and its 2014 conference, which will be held May 29-31, 2014, in San Francisco, California. Dr Hanaway is a board-certified family physician, holding a medical degree from Washington University with residency training at the University of New Mexico. He is a past president of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and is currently in practice with his wife at Family to Family in Asheville, North Carolina. As an initiated Marakame (Shaman) by the Huichol people in the Sierra Madres of central Mexico, he incorporates these healing approaches in his clinical practice. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Pranayam for Treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Results From a Randomized, Controlled Trial |
| Mohammad Arkham, BNYS; Anupama Gupta, MD; Rajesh Gupta, MD; Sushma Sood, MD |
| Context: Existing medications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) do not modify the long-term decline in lung functions. The increasing prevalence of COPD requires the development of interventions beyond the usual medical treatment, with a specific focus on rehabilitation. Controlled breathing (pranayam) is a specific set of respiratory exercises within yoga that has been shown to improve the resting respiratory rate, vital capacity, maximum voluntary ventilation, breath-holding time, and maximal inspiratory and expiratory pressures.
Objective: In this study, pranayam was analyzed as an adjunct treatment for medically stable individuals with moderate to severe COPD.
Design: The research team carried out a case control study.
Setting: This study took place at a tertiary care institution, with the participation of the departments of Physiology, Yoga and Naturopathy, and Pulmonary Medicine at Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Rohtak, Haryana, India.
Participants: Participants were 50 medically stable individuals with moderate to severe COPD.
Intervention: Twenty-five participants in the intervention arm (IA) were trained to practice pranayama for 30 min 2 ×/d and also received the usual medical treatment. The control group also included 25 participants, and they received the usual medical treatment only, without pranayam.
Outcome Measures: The COPD assessment test (CAT) score and the body-mass index, obstruction, dyspnea, exercise (BODE) capacity index were assessed at baseline and at 3 mo. The results were expressed using standard statistical methods.
Results: For the IA, a significant improvement occurred in the CAT score (21.2 ± 2.6-17.4 ± 2.5, P < .001) and in the impact level, which moved from high (>20) to medium (10-20) after 3 mo of practicing pranayam. The control arm (CA) showed no significant improvement in the CAT score (21.6 ± 2.7-21.4 ± 2.7). Although the IA showed a significant improvement in a 6-min walk test (6MWT) when compared to the CA, (1) the IA’s forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), which is a measure of airflow that is commonly impaired in COPD patients and which is associated with poor functional status, showed no significant improvements, and (2) the IA’s BODE capacity index showed no significant improvements.
Conclusion: The current study shows that pranayam has been demonstrated as useful for individuals with moderate to severe COPD. Significant improvements in the IA’s CAT scores after 3 mo of practice suggests that pranayam can improve the subjective experience of health, disease severity, and functional status for COPD patients, without much improvement in FEV1 actually occurring and with airflow limitation not fully reversible but usually progressive. The research team concluded that pranayam is a useful adjunct treatment and can be an effective rehabilitation program for individuals with COPD. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Immune Modulation From Five Major Mushrooms: Application to Integrative Oncology |
| Alena G. Guggenheim, ND; Kirsten M. Wright, BS; Heather Zwickey, PhD |
| This review discusses the immunological roles of 5 major mushrooms in oncology: Agaricus blazei, Cordyceps sinensis, Grifola frondosa, Ganoderma lucidum, and Trametes versicolor. These mushrooms were selected based on the body of research performed on mushroom immunology in an oncology model. First, this article focuses on how mushrooms modify cytokines within specific cancer models and on how those cytokines affect the disease process. Second, this article examines the direct effect of mushrooms on cancer. Finally, this article presents an analysis of how mushrooms interact with chemotherapeutic agents, including their effects on its efficacy and on the myelosuppression that results from it. For these 5 mushrooms, an abundance of in vitro evidence exists that elucidates the anticancer immunological mechanisms. Preliminary research in humans is also available and is promising for treatment. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Medicinal Mushrooms: Ancient Remedies Meet Modern Science |
| Paul Stamets, DSc; Heather Zwickey, PhD |
| Our ancestors have used mushrooms as medicine for thousands of years. The Greek physician Hippocrates, circa 450 BCE, classified the amadou mushroom (Fomes fomentarius) as a potent anti-inflammatory and for cauterizing wounds. The alchemist Tao Hongjing, from the 5th century, described several medicinal mushrooms, including ling zhi (Ganoderma lucidum) and zhu ling (Dendropolyporus umbellatus), some in use reportedly by Shennong many centuries before. Ötzi, the Ice Man, who lived nearly 5300 years ago, carried amadou and a birch polypore tethered in a pouch to help him survive in the Alps of northern Italy. First peoples of North America used puffball mushrooms (Calvatia genus) as wound healers. Although mushrooms have long been used by various cultures, only recently has modern science rediscovered what the ancients knew long ago—that mushrooms can be deep reservoirs of powerful medicines.
Yet, mushrooms remain an enigma to many in the medical field, but this ignorance is rapidly changing. The surge in interest is not only related to the deep cultural history of their use, but it is also due to modern methods for tissue culture of mycelium and new methods for testing the activity of individual constituents and their synergies. We know that G lucidum has at least 16000 genes that code for more than 200 000 compounds, of which 400 are “active constituents.” More than 150 novel enzymes have been identified from mushroom species so far. Clearly, mushrooms manufacture many novel constituents worthy of medical investigations. Mushrooms are nature’s miniature pharmaceutical factories, rich in a vast array of novel constituents and wide open for exploration. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| Joan Grinzi, RN, and David Getoff, CCN: Preserving and Advancing the Nutrition Research of Weston A. Price, DDS, and Francis M. Pottenger, Jr, MD |
| Craig Gustafson |
| Joan Grinzi, RN, served on the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (PPNF) board of directors for over 18 years, and she was selected to become executive director in 2005. She became a registered nurse in 1974 and has received training and experience in other alternative medicine modalities, but her passion has always been in nutrition, believing that properly nourishing the body is the key to enhancing the body-mind-spirit connection.
David Getoff, CCN, is vice president of PPNF and is an elected member of both the American College of Nutrition and the International College of Integrative Medicine and has a private practice in El Cajon, California. He has presented at numerous scientific medical, nutritional, dental, and organic agriculture conferences in the United States. |
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February, 2014 - VOL. 13, NO. 1 | |
February, 2014 |
| BackTalk: Fire and Rain |
| Bill Benda, MD |
| This is not the editorial you were supposed to read in this issue of IMCJ. The original piece was about integrative medicine personalities and marketing and loss of soul—you know, pretty much the same opinionated meanderings you have come to expect in this column.
But something happened last night at about 1 o’clock in the morning: A wake-up call from a neighbor, and a glance out of my bedroom window revealing a very large, beautiful glow in the hills to the northwest. Beautiful and deadly, for if you live in Big Sur, California, you know such luminescence means only one thing: fire. And northwest means only one thing as well: Pfeiffer Ridge, the most populated and inaccessible region of this town of 2000 inhabitants. Given that the fire season was officially declared over last week, the air tankers and helicopters that are necessary to fight a mountain blaze have been mothballed for the winter, meaning a far too long response time ahead. As I finish this last sentence, the first little California Department of Forestry copter is finally hovering outside my window, lowering its slender hose into the Packard Ranch’s pond across Highway 1, 9 hours after the blaze began. Soon the air will be filled with aircraft of all kinds, flying into unstable superheated air masses to drop a ton of water from their bellies, only to be spit out, suddenly weightless, from the top of the inferno. But 20 homes have already been lost—homes of my friends, and neighbors, and patients. And more homes are now catching fire, even as I pen these words. |
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