Ask Dr. Soram

Our whole country is moving in the direction of Integrative Medicine! CNN had a special this past weekend entitled Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Health Care. If you missed it on CNN you can see it on iTunes or Amazon.com.

Here’s a link to the trailer for the movie

In the movie they show the need to reorient ourselves towards preventive medicine and positive well-being, rather than being reactive and waiting for a disease to strike.
Andrew Weil states “We don’t have a healthcare system...we have a disease care system” and I could not agree more!

A direct quote from a corporate executive interviewed in the movie is “70% of health care costs are driven by people behaviors.” Our system will be bankrupt if we do not fix it and reorient to healthy lifestyles.

You can find out more about the movie here and here.

Keeping with the theme that everybody is focusing on staying or getting healthy, a new app for both the iPhone and android has come out. It is called Fooducate. With the App on your phone at the grocery store or health store you can scan a barcode and the App will give you information on how healthy that product is. If it is not healthy, it will make recommendations of similar products that are much healthier for you and your family.

Here is a link to the website where you can get the app.

Along the lines of my logo -Enlightened Medicine, and Conscious Living a new article has come out entitled “Ruminating about stressful events may increase inflammation in the body”:

This is really where the tire meets the road for many diseases. It is so good that it is finally being documented scientifically.

We all know that heart attacks are related to stress and studies are also showing now that cancers related to stress. How does the mind affect the body in these cases? This landmark study shows that just the act of worrying about something and ruminnating on it, can raise inflammation in the human body. Specifically a marker called HS – CRP gets elevated when a person dwells on negative and/or stressful events.

Previous studies have correlated stress with these health problems but this is the first study to prove that inflammation markers in the blood go up when a person ruminates on something negative. Integrative medicine doctors think that inflammation as represented by the HS – CRP is the primary cause of coronary artery disease, the major cause of death in the United States. Many integrative doctors feel that cholesterol is an innocent bystander.

Here’s a link to the article.

In other news about integrative medicine, a new study has just shown that acupuncture improves memory, test performance and reduces anxiety.

This too is a major study showing what many of us have observed for a long time. Dr. Jason Bucell, PhD did the research with 90 undergraduate students. Half the students received acupuncture and half did not, and the placebo effect was controlled for. Then the students took a computerized test of working memory. These tests are associated with predicting performance with such diverse abilities as reading comprehension, arithmetic calculation, notetaking, language comprehension, learning to spell, building vocabulary, writing and many other performance measurements.

Previous research has shown that a series of acupuncture treatments can help individuals with impaired memory. This research was unique in that it is the first study to show the just ONE acupuncture treatment can improve performance in healthy individuals.

It will be exciting to see if this has any benefit for patients with Alzheimer’s or other less severe memory problems that people over age 50 often complain of.

You can read the article here.

Another study, just recently been published, shows that mindfulness contributes to more stable emotions and people who perceive themselves to have better control over their mood and behavior throughout the day. Higher mindful people also described less cognitive and physiological activation before bedtime. This suggests a greater emotional stability during the day might even translate into better sleep.

These results will be presented later this month at the ann...

The cover story of time magazine this week is entitled Why Medical Bills are Killing Us by Steven Brill. I really encourage all of you to read this article because it shows what’s going on with our medical system.

The subtitle of the article is “One SN a minute then tablet cause 1.5 cents. Your hospital marks it up 10,000%.

For me this is just a further message that all of us need to be proactive about our health. It is not good enough to just sit around and wait for a disease to strike. Conscious living in the use of enlightened medicine can help us stay healthy.

And a video with the author is here

Before I start talking about my update for Integrative medicine, I want to share with all my listeners my wife and my recent discovery of guaranteed lead and cadmium free dishware! I talk about this on the podcast. It is called “Fiesta Dishes” and here is the link.

Speaking of being sure to find dishes without lead I open this podcast within article that just appeared showing that decreasingly small amounts of lead can affect children’s IQ performance. This study was done in the Detroit Public Schools System. Levels as low as 2 mcg/dL in the blood affected children’s educational performance.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130225/NEWS06/302250140/High-lead-poisoning-linked-to-lower-test-scores-in-DPS?odyssey=nav|head

One of the biggest pieces of news this week is that the incidence of metastatic breast cancer is increased in women at the young age of 25 to 39. I’ve begun to see this in my own practice, and now this article from the JAMA confirms it.

and also the New York Times covered this with this article.

I’ve talked to my podcast before and all of you have heard of the increasing amount of phthalates that women are being exposed to and the increasing problem with vitamin D deficiency. Both of these predisposed to – note I’m not saying cause – breast cancer.

We then go on to talk about BPA exposure and childhood asthma. The study tested 568 children and their mothers in New York City. It is the first to link early childhood exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) where the asthma. However studies with lab mice have found a similar link.

One out of every 10 children in our country has been diagnosed with asthma. In my opinion between the study that shows BPA exposure in the known low levels of vitamin D in newborns, we are building a perfect storm towards the development of more asthma in our children.

In this article the author , Kathleen Donohue, is quoted as saying “We saw increase risk of asthma at fairly routine, low doses of BPA”.

Links for these two articles are here:

http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2013/asthma-and-bpa

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257110.php

And here is one from Time Magazine

The New England Journal of Medicine had a lead article this week showing the benefits of the Mediterranean diet in protecting against heart disease. Although this diet is significantly better than the traditional American diet, I still think studies will show that a Vegan diet is even better at protecting against heart disease.

The next article I discuss shows that C-section babies are five times more likely to develop allergies. This finding goes along with previous research that showed the babies born by C-section are more likely to have asthma then babies who were delivered naturally.

The most likely mechanism of this is that the baby is not being exposed to friendly bacteria in the birth canal and this is a...

I am so gratified and indeed humbled by your overwhelming response to my recent appearance on Dr Oz.

Because I see patients every day I do recognize the tremendous need that so many people in America have for Integrative Medicine. By using natural types of medicines along with lifestyle changes so many health conditions in America can be very much helped. In addition, with this approach, very often medications can be reduced.

With all the hundreds of questions I’ve received from you, I’m trying to create a way to help you with answers to your questions. Please understand I’m a single physician in practice and I need some type of organized system to give you answers, without being your doctor.

I have created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) to answer the main categories of questions that you have asked. You can find it here.

I’ve created a quick questionnaire online to see if you would be interested in attending webinars that I would hold. In addition it asked if you would be willing to pay small fee to help cover the overhead of running these webinars? I would appreciate your letting me know by filling out this questionnaire which will only take less than a minute. You can find it here.

For those of you who did not get to see my appearance on Dr. Oz you can watch 2 of the 3 segments RIGHT HERE.

Unfortunately the third part is not yet online and I’m asking the producers if they can add it as it was my favorite part! On this segment I was introduced to Kathy Smart and Cynthia Besson, who have been fans of mine from my blog and podcast. We met for the first time in person on the show! Then, along with two ladies I taught Dr.’s some Kundalini Yoga on camera!

Also you can read my article for Dr Oz’s site here

I look forward to staying in touch with you. You may leave me comments below this article.

Let’s transition now to my interview for this podcast.

This is the final segment of my interview with Dr. Michael Gregor.

In this segment I start out by asking him about exercise. He reminds us that the most important muscle in the body is the cardiac muscle. He recommends walking four miles per hour per day he reminds us that we can make it fun, and he does remind us that there are other exercises that we can do instead. Exercise helps us with insulin sensitivity and other biochemical processes that keep us healthy.

We then talk about natural treatment for high blood pressure. Even independent of obesity, a plant based diet can bring blood pressure down. Dr. Gregor talks about the use of drugs for blood pressure as well and he says it is controversial whether or not drugs for high blood pressure actually reduce mortality rates.

The whole food plant-based diet he reminds us not only lowers blood pressure, but the same diet lowers heart disease and the same diet reverses diabetes. He says “It’s kind of like mother nature has been trying to tell us something... But nobody has been listening.”.

We then go on to talk about diabetes and how 10-year-olds are now getting Type II diabetes. He reminds us that this is an emerging epidemic even people at the exact same weight who eat more plants have a lower diabetes risk. This is analogous to the people that have stomachs – stapling surgery which will improve their diabetes even before they lose weight just by having the surgery.

Next we talk about fibromyalgia and how many people with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia actually have a vitamin D deficiency. Of course I wholeheartedly agree with this. In addition Dr. Gregor always puts his patients on a whole food plant-based diet for fibromyalgia.

I then go on to ask the question that’s been burning on my mind for a while. Tthat is whether a whole food plant-based diet protects us from environmental toxins effects? He reminds us that many of our farm animals are fed the remains of other farm animals. So when we eat animals, we are eating higher on the food chain, which is more likely to have pesticides. Dr. Gregor recommends that we eat low on the food chain and purely organic to minimize our exposure to environmental toxins.

We then go on to talk about cholesterol. Dr. Gregor definitely feels it is best to keep our LDL or bad cholesterol at 60 to 70 g with a total cholesterol of 150. He points out that the average cholesterol of people eating a vegan diet is 150. He reminds us that doctors should give their patients the opportunity to try to change and not work under the assumpt...

I am so happy to announce that this Friday December 21, 2012 I will appear on the Dr Oz Show! You can click here to find your local station and time for the show. Most of my patients and I myself will be at work during this daytime show, so we are going to “Tivo” -record the show to watch when we get home.

I recorded the show in New York in September. It was really a fun thing to do and I was delighted that they gave me three segments with Dr. Oz.

In the first segment we talk about Integrative Medicine. In the second segment we talk about vitamin D and my book on vitamin D. In the third segment, the producers of the show had flown in two of my “Fans” from my website and my podcast site and we met for the first time live on stage in front of the audience! This was truly a thrilling moment to know that I have “Fans” out there, like you who are benefiting from my writing and my podcasts.

After we meet each other, I then teach the two ladies and Dr. Oz a few exercises of Kundalini Yoga. As most of you know I’ve been doing Kundalini Yoga for over 40 years. I still practice it every morning when I get up.

Let me know what you think when you watch the show! I’m excited to see it myself! I hope to hear from you.

My Interview For This Show

I hope you are enjoying my interview of Michael Gregor M.D. as much as I am.

This is part two of my interview and we start out with my asking Dr. Gregor about calcium. He gives the recommendations for calcium of 1000 mg per day.. He does encourage all of us to get our calcium from food however rather than pills.

I then go on to ask Dr.Gregor about the use of the very popular Human Growth Hormone shots. Some of my patients get the shots from other colleagues in town and I do not feel that they are safe. Dr. Krieger gives a very clear explanation on why Human Growth hormone shots are not good for you. Growth hormone not only helps transform the abnormal cells and cancer cells in the first place, it also helps them survive and increases their growth, migration and invasion.

We talk about the difference in growth hormone levels in vegetarians who eat dairy and in vegans who do not. This makes for a very interesting conversation.

We then go on to talk about Premenstrual Syndrome which is so common in our society. Dr. Gregor estimated that one in three women have this condition. Dr. Gregor talks about the amazing research with the spice saffron. Not only did swallowing pills of saffron help women with PMS, but even smelling saffron was helpful! This is amazing! The oral dose of saffron that was used is 30 mg. He encourages you to buy it in the spice aisle rather than in the drugstore aisle. This way you can just add it to your food.

Dr. Gregor laments that there are not more people like him who “troll” through the medical literature finding things to bring out to the world that are not in the major medical journals but which are solidly researched. Dr. Gregor tells me that he has had 5 million hits on his website to watch his videos.

Dr. Gregor and and I then discuss Hormone Replacement Therapy for menopausal women and andropausal men. He is not a big fan of bioidentical hormones. I point out to him an article which has recently looked at a 10 year study of hormone replacement on women that started hormones at menopause. The study showed that using hormones from the beginning of menopause did not increase the incidence of cancer at all,and indeed decreased heart disease by 50%.

That concludes the second part of our interview in the next and final part of the interview will open with my questions to Dr. Gregor about exercise.

Please send in your questions or leave comments on my site so that I know you’re out there listening! Also please RATE me on iTunes so we can spread the word on the importance of Integrative Medicine for our health. Also you can follow me on Twitter and on Facebook. Now that I’ve gotten my Facebook fan page set up it is so much easier.

The post 043-Ask Dr Soram Watch Me on Dr Oz This Friday December 21! And Part 2 of My Interview with Michael Gregor, M.D. first appeared on Dr. Soram's Integrative Medicine.

My New Healthy Living Shop

I start out this podcast reminding all my listeners that my new online Healthy Living Shop is open. For the time being, all new customers will receive a 10% discount if they use the code VPP10FT.

I am so happy that I am able to provide to all my readers and listeners the same physician – quality supplements that I have used for so many years in my practice. These supplements are much higher quality than is what available in health food stores and drugstores.

To make things easy I have started out making available several “ESSENTIALS Kits”. There is an Essentials Kit for men, women and for children. In addition I have several kits for specific health problems and also seasonal problems.

Please check out my new shop at:

Dr Soram’s Complementrix Healthy Living Shop

Breast Cancer

In this show, I start out talking about the new article in the New York Times Magazine entitled Our Feel – Good War on Breast Cancer, written by Peggy Orenstein. This article is a very comprehensive look at our current state of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. She discusses the very hot topic on just how many mammograms does a woman need? And just how young of age should girls be encouraged to do self-examination of their breasts?

This article is an excellent review of the pros and cons of our current system for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

Of course as I point out on the podcast I believe much more money should be focused on PREVENTION of breast cancer, not just treatment. After all, after a woman has been diagnosed with breast cancer and has surgery and if necessary chemotherapy and radiation, she is back in prevention mode. We must look at some of the underlying contributors to this breast cancer epidemic.

Many of you know I’ve spoken of some of these in previous podcasts. This includes keeping women’s vitamin D level up and having women avoid exposure to phthalates, in their cosmetics.

Integrative Medicine Update

1. In the first article, I talk about how experiments are showing that the nutrients in berries are protective to the brain. Specifically most of my patients are worried about Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. These diseases have shown an increased amount of toxic protein. Berries are able to promote the brain’s natural housekeeping mechanism thereby reducing the toxic accumulation.

2. One soda a day can increase diabetes risk by 22%. This study was done in Europe and it confirms what has been found in America. The authors found that just consuming one 12 ounce serving of sugar sweetened soft drink each day raise the likelihood of developing type II diabetes by 22%.

3. A new study has shown that alternative therapies may help lower blood pressure. This is exciting news because it was published in the journal Hypertension, which is published by the American Heart Association. They looked at three types of exercise – aerobic, resistance or weight training, and isometric exercises most commonly handgrip devices.

They found that all three types of exercise reduce blood pressure. Four weeks of isometric handgrip exercises resulted in the most impressive improvements – a 10% drop in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

They did not look at herbs or supplements. In my own practice, I find herbs and supplements can be very helpful in dropping people’s blood pressure to normal.

4. Another study has confirmed what environmental doctors have been quite concerned about and that is the effects of pesticide exposure on reproduction and how this exposure can span generations. This study supported the theory that exposure to some environmental chemicals during sensitive periods of development can cause significant health problems for those organisms later in life – and affect their offspring and possibly their offspring’s offspring.

This is just another reason for women to go on a cleansing program before they conceive and to stay clean while they are carrying their new fetus.

5. Does cracking knuckles or joints cause arthritis? This is ...