Living Too Short Dying Too Long

As We Rounded The Corner Into The Twenty-First Century, physicians and medical researchers took special note of the state of health and medical care in the United States and the industrialized world.

Table of Contents

Looking back over a century gone by, the comparisons of diseases are remarkable. In the early 1900s, people primarily died of infectious diseases. The four leading causes of death in the U.S.
Back then were pneumonia, tuberculosis, diphtheria, and influenza, and people had a life expectancy of a little more than forty-three years. But thanks to the discovery of antibi.
optics and advances in their development during the second half of this century, deaths due to infectious diseases declined dramatically, even after the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

Read And Learn More: Nutrition Medicine Physicians Defense Notes

‘ As we move into the twenty-first century, we find people primarily suffering and dying from what is known as chronic degenerative diseases.
These include coronary artery disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, macular degeneration, cataracts, Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. The list goes on and on.
Even though the average life expectancy in the United States has increased dramatically during this past century, our quality of life due to these chronic degenerative diseases has taken a major hit.
We are essentially “living too short and dying too long,” as I heard expressed in a speech by Dr. Myron Wentz, a prominent immunologist and microbiologist.
Dr. Wentz also helped me understand the serious danger of oxidative stress to our health and the importance of cellular nutrition.

A Wake Up Call

A Wake Up Call Life Expectancy

How long do you expect to live? Let’s set aside the quality of life for a moment (as do many research studies on longevity) and consider how the U.S. compares with all the other industrialized nations in the world when it comes to life expectancy and health care.

One of the primary ways to evaluate a nation’s healthcare system is to look at the death rate of that country. In 1950 the United States ranked seventh among the top twenty-one industrialized nations in the world when it came to life expectancy.
As you might imagine, we have spent far more money on health care since that time than any other country in the world. In 1998 we spent more than $1 trillion on health care, averaging 13.6 percent of our gross national product.
That is more than twice as much as the next closest nation.’ We have our MRI and CT scanners, angioplasty, bypass surgery, total hip and knee replacement, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. antibiotics, advanced surgical techniques, advanced drugs, and intensive care units.
Did all our medical advances increase U.S. life expectancy? In 1990 our nation ranked eighteenth in life expectancy when compared to the same twenty-one industrialized nations forty years prior.
In spite of the billions of dollars Americans spend on health care, we are now considered one of the worst industrialized nations in the world when it comes to life expectancy.
The healthcare system we claim is the best in the world is actually near the worst when we look at how long Americans live or don’t live.
I asked how long you expect to live, but now envision what your last twenty years will look like. Are you getting your money’s worth? I don’t think so.

A Wake Up Call Quality of Life

I can assure you that my patients today are not as concerned with the number of years in their lives as they are with the quality of life in those years.

Are you? The number of years we live is not usually the most important consideration when it comes to evaluating our approach to health care.
Who wants to live to a ripe old age if he cannot even recognize his closest family member because he has Alzheimer’s dementia? Who looks forward to suffering severe joint or back pain because of degenerative arthritis?
Our nation is suffering from Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, cancer, strokes, and heart disease with unprecedented frequency. No one seems to die of old age anymore. More than 60 million Americans suffer from some form of cardiovascular

disease (disease of the heart and blood vessels); more than 13.6 million have coronary artery disease. Although a decrease has occurred in the number of cardiovascular deaths in the past twenty-five years, it still remains the number-one cause of death in the United States.

There are 1.5 million heart attacks each year and about one-half, or just over seven hundred thousand, are fatal. Sadly, about half of these deaths occur within the first hour of a heart attack and long before the individual can even make it to the hospital.
The first sign of heart disease in more than 30 percent of cases is sudden death. This does not give us much time to make lifestyle changes.
In spite of the tremendous amount of money spent on cancer research and treatment, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States.
There were 537,000 cancer deaths in 1995; there has been a steady increase in the number of deaths caused by cancer over the past thirty years.
The U.S. has spent more than $25 billion in cancer research over the past twenty-five years only to see absolutely no decrease in the relative number of people dying from cancer.
The greatest advancements in cancer treatment have developed because of earlier diagnoses of certain cancers not that our treatments for cancer have been pleasant or overly effective.’
My patients with macular degeneration, a chronic disease affecting eyesight, visit their ophthalmologist every six months only to have to make another appointment six months down the road.
They become frustrated knowing that the only thing their doctor is able to do is to document the progression of their disease. In some cases, laser treatment may have only minimal effects.
If you have a loved one who is suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia, you are acutely aware of the ineffectiveness of treatments. Watching a parent slowly lose any reasonable function of mind and become trapped in his or her own body is extremely painful.
It’s time to go back to the drawing board. If we physicians are truly honest with ourselves, we have to admit that the treatment options we offer many of these patients are poor at best.
We are not able to attack these ailments the way we did with infectious diseases. Doctors and patients alike must take a long, hard look at how they approach health care today.

Preventive Medicine

I find disturbing the overwhelming attitude in patients today that accepts as inevitable the fact that they are going to develop one or several of these chronic degenerative diseases. They look to modern medicine as their savior and to medications as the cure.

Sadly, only after they become ill do patients realize how ineffective our treatments actually are. As the baby boomer generation enters their fifties, I believe more and more individuals are going to become proactive with their health.
One of my close friends told me last month that he simply wants to live until he dies. Is this your desire? It certainly is mine. After practicing medicine for more than three decades.
I find greatly disturbing the prospects of the pain and suffering that chronic degenerative diseases can bring to both myself and my patients.
That’s why I wrote this book; that’s why I recommend preventive rather than post-problem medicine. But I need to define what I mean by preventive.

Traditional Preventive Medicine (Early Detection)

The healthcare community prides itself on promoting preventive care. But have you ever given that approach much thought? Physicians certainly do encourage patients to have routine physicals in order to maintain their health.

But a closer look into doctors’ helpful recommendations quickly leads one to the conclusion that they are simply attempting to detect disease earlier. Think about it.
As I’ve mentioned physicians routinely perform pap smears, mammograms, blood work, and the physical exam primarily to see if any silent diseases already exist in their patients.
What has been prevented? Obviously, the earlier these diseases are detected, the better it is for the patient.
The point I want to stress here, however, is the minimal time and effort the physician or the healthcare community actually gives to teaching patients how they can protect their health.
In other words, physicians are simply too busy treating disease to worry about educating their patients about healthy lifestyles that help avoid developing degenerative diseases in the first place.

Preventive Medicine True Preventive Medicine

If we are going to label something preventive, then I believe it should actually prevent something.

I strongly suggest that true preventive medicine involves encouraging and supporting patients to take a threefold approach: eating healthily, practicing a consistent exercise program, and consuming high-quality nutritional supplements.
Empowering patients to avoid getting some of these major diseases in the first place is true prevention. Does it require patient motivation? Absolutely. But most people are very willing to make these lifestyle changes when they truly understand what is at stake.
This is where I feel the medical field has fallen short: in practicing true preventive medicine.

The Ingredients Of A Healthy Lifestyle

The Ingredients Of A Healthy Lifestyle Exercise

We have forgotten about the “host,” our bodies, being one of our greatest defenses against becoming ill. I find Dr. Kenneth Cooper to be one of the leading physicians in the field of preventive medicine.

He coined the term aerobics and began the exercise craze in the early 1970s. Today we all take as gospel truth a fact that had to be medically proven just three decades ago.
I remember physicians arguing in meetings back then about whether encouraging their patients to exercise was the right thing to do. Dr. Cooper was insistent and continued to share the health benefits that exercising could bring to the patient.
By the end of the seventies, most physicians agreed with Dr. Cooper and began recommending a modest exercise program. The surgeon general of the United States.

Issued a statement in the early 1980s listing all the major health benefits that result from a modest exercise program. The highlights of these benefits are:

weight loss
lower blood pressure
Stronger bones and a decreased risk of osteoporosis
elevated levels of “good” HDL cholesterol
decreased levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol
Decreased levels of triglycerides (fats)
Increased strength and coordination, which leads to a decrease in the risk of falls
Improved sensitivity to insulin
Enhancement of the immune system
The overall increase in one’s sense of well-being

One look at this list of health benefits is convincing: any individual who chooses to develop a consistent program of modest exercise is making an important choice to avoid developing many different diseases.

The Ingredients Of A Healthy Lifestyle Healthy Diet

What about eating habits? Physicians also realize that patients who eat a low-fat diet, which includes at least seven servings of fruits and vegetables daily, enjoy further health benefits. These include:

Weight loss
A decreased risk of diabetes
A decreased risk of heart disease
A decreased risk of almost all cancers
A decreased risk of high blood pressure a decreased risk of elevated cholesterol
An enhanced immune system
Increased sensitivity to insulin
Increased energy and ability to concentrate

Let’s face it: a healthy diet is a win-or-win situation!

The Ingredients Of A Healthy Lifestyle Nutritional Supplements

As I have researched the medical literature over the past seven years, I strongly believe that there are significant health benefits in taking high-quality nutritional supplements, even if you are in excellent health.

Put simply, the basic health benefits of nutritional supplements are:

An enhanced immune system
An enhanced antioxidant defense system
A decreased risk of coronary artery disease
A decreased risk of stroke
A decreased risk of cancer
A decreased risk of arthritis, macular degeneration, and cataracts
The potential for a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease, asthma, obstructive lung disease, and many other chronic degenerative diseases
The potential for improving the clinical course of several chronic degenerative diseases.

Could patients who begin a consistent exercise program and a healthy diet while taking supplements actually improve their high blood pressure, and diabetes?

And high cholesterol to the point of being able to avoid taking some medications? The medical literature certainly supports this approach.
Almost all physicians agree that patients deserve a fair trial of healthy lifestyle changes before beginning medication for such chronic conditions.
In reality, however, most physicians merely give lip service to lifestyle changes in their offices even as they are writing out prescriptions.
You see, doctors usually assume that most patients will never change their lifestyles and the only realistic salvation is the drugs they can prescribe.
When a physician first diagnoses a patient with high blood pressure, diabetes, or elevated cholesterol, he simply begins writing a prescription.

Giving Patients A Choice

Over the past seven or eight years, I have taken a different attitude: I use medication as a last resort-not as my first choice. I have been amazed at how many of my patients are actually willing to become more proactive with their health if even a slight chance exists that they could avoid taking any medication.

Oh, sure, I still have those patients who do not consider changing. For them, I still have the drugs. There are also those patients whose condition is serious enough that I have to start them on medication right away.
But I also offer those individuals a chance to improve their condition over time with healthy lifestyle changes in the hopes that they may someday be able to decrease or discontinue their medication.
Everyone knows about the health benefits of a good exercise program and a healthy diet. Few, however (especially physicians), have any knowledge of the health benefits of taking high-quality nutritional supplements.
I’ve mentioned that I was one of those uninformed doctors. But countless studies prove that this triad of a healthy diet, a good exercise program, and high-quality nutritional supplements is the absolute best way you can protect your health.
It is also the best way to try to regain your health after you have lost it.

Davids Story

Let’s see the theory at work. “David” had spent most of his life as a driver’s license examiner in the state of Utah, where he lived with his wife and children. David had always enjoyed excellent health and wasn’t on any medication. Early in 1990, however, he began noting weakness in his legs associated with unusual fatigue.

By the spring of 1990, he was dragging his legs and actually falling from time to time. He had been seeing several different doctors and a neurologist finally diagnosed him as having a rare disease called leukoencephalopathy.
I am sure David responded to the name of his disease much the way you are: What is that? The neurologist informed him that it was a progressive, degenerative, demyelinating disease of the brain.
Quite similar to multiple sclerosis, for which no real treatment is available. The physician told David there was very little hope for him-this disease usually pursued a relentless downhill course to death.
The news devastated David. He returned home despondent and shocked. He had never heard of this disease, and now it was going to take his life. True to the doctor’s words, David became weaker started developing vertigo, and began to lose control of his bowels and bladder.
By the spring of 1993, David was wheelchair-bound. By June of 1995, the pain in his legs was so extreme that his doctors put him on an oral form of morphine. He was now totally dependent on his wife and kids for everything. Life as he had known it was gone.
In November of 1995, David came down with a serious case of influenza. David became even weaker and his legs and arms grew cold, as if they had no circulation.
His doctors informed David and his family that he would not likely recover. Because of the underlying leukoencephalopathy, they expected him to live only a week or two.
David had been under the care of the Hospice Program, which allowed him to stay home where he wanted to be. He and his family began making funeral plans. David grieved the loss of all that he loved while saying goodbye to family and friends.

Though he had accepted his death a couple of years before, the time had finally come, just as the doctors predicted. But somehow David lived through Christmas. Although he was not able to get out of bed, he didn’t die either.

A couple of months later David decided to try some nutritional supplements. He started on an antioxidant tablet, a mineral tablet, and some grape-seed extract. Within five days he was sleeping less and noted that he had a little more energy.
After several weeks of taking the supplements, he was able to get out of bed for short intervals. In fact on Mother’s Day, his children pushed him down to the flower shop so he could do his traditional shopping for his wife and mother.
Week after week, David regained hope as he grew stronger and stronger. David remembers watching the movie Lorenzo’s Oil in the summer of 1996. The little boy in the movie, Lorenzo, had a brain disease similar to David’s.
While watching the movie, David was astounded to discover that the most important part of Lorenzo’s treatment, the one that actually seemed to hinder his decline, was grape-seed oil.
David realized that his own use of grape-seed extract could be a major factor in his marked improvement. He decided at that moment to start taking more of it. He soon learned that the extract is a very potent antioxidant, which the fluid around the brain can easily absorb.
David’s improvement after increasing the amount of grape-seed extract, while continuing with the other antioxidants and minerals, was amazing. The pain in his legs began to subside, and he actually began to walk again.
The strength in his legs increased consistently week after week. About two months later, David was able to walk into church on his own for the first time in three years. He still had a significant shuffle to his walk, but he was walking!

David’s physician stopped the morphine prescription and documented his patient’s improvement. While he couldn’t believe it, the doctor couldn’t deny it either.

David’s greatest thrill was when he was able to go back and take his driver’s license exam and actually pass. After all those years of testing others, he was able to drive by himself again.
David still has his disease. He is not cured. But he, rather than the disease, is in control of his life. He still has a funny walk, but he doesn’t mind. Every time I see David I have to smile. It has been a delight watching his progress.
He is one of the many reasons I am positive the use of nutritional medicine holds so much promise for patients in all types of health.

Living Too Short Dying Too Long