Paulo Quadros

Healing and feeling better are two different things.

Many people focus on getting rid of symptoms (emotional or physical pain for instance), assuming that if they feel better, there are no problems. Mainstream, conventional medicine also tends to focus on this.

But, if you imagine that our bodies are like a car, when we feel ill, when we have some discomfort, it is equivalent to lamp bulbs lighting up in our dashboard. Wanting to just get rid of the symptom is like unscrewing the lit bulbs in our dashboard in the false assumption that if we do so, problems will be resolved.

Although the process of unscrewing the bulbs is the same, unscrewing different bulbs have more or less serious consequences.

In a car, if we unscrew the bulb telling us that we’re running out of petrol, the worst that can happen is that we might run out of petrol eventually.

If we unscrew the bulb that is telling us that the engine is running out of oil, we might eventually have to buy a new engine.

If we unscrew the bulb telling us that the breaks are failing, this could eventually lead to death.

The process of unscrewing a bulb is the same but the consequences are different.

We need the dashboard lights on until we can find out what is going wrong under the bonnet and, if we don’t know what the lit dashboard light means, we need to find out, even if we have to trace the path of the wires to find out from which part of the car they come from.

Our body’s dashboard has many more lights than a car’s and we only know very little about what they mean. Unscrewing any of those bulbs can lead to consequences many years later.

Medication can be important and necessary. Symptomatic relief can be useful in order to give us a ‘breathing space’ so that we can start the process of repairing whatever is responsible for our discomfort and restoring balance in our organism.

Your body continuously tries to maintain or restore balance and health and all it needs is to be given a chance. In order to do this it simply needs the appropriate environment and raw materials that only you can give it. Our bodies and minds just need good nourishment.

Only you can stop or reverse the process of illness, only you can avoid what is harmful to your body or mind. You are more powerful than any medicine and any intervention.

When you use your mind, your have powers only limited by your imagination.

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Giving drugs packed with unpleasant and dangerous side-effects to healthy people to prevent disease – just in case – apart from being completely illogical, has proven to be dangerous and not to work.

NICE is now recommending that aspirin should not be given as a preventive intervention for cardiovascular disease after years of guidelines advocating that healthy people should take it regularly – just in case! And it’s not as if the many serious side-effects of aspirin (which include stroke and stomach bleeding to mention just a few) weren’t known. The BMJ talked about it as far back as 2002 when they published ‘Effectiveness and safety of aspirin may be overrated’ (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7329/0/a). Reputable evidence based publications and research reviews have also shown for many years that aspirin doesn’t prevent anything.

In 2006 the BMJ published figures showing that a quarter of a million people are admitted to UK hospitals every year after suffering a serious reaction to a prescription drug – aspirin being one of the drugs that are most likely to cause a serious reaction. (British Medical Journal, 2006; 332)

So one would think that a lesson would be learned but apparently not!

You might have heard about the latest ‘just in case’ wonder drug known as the Polypill (or Polycap or ‘the Red Heart pill’). It has been hailed as the drug which will save thousands of people from dying of cardiovascular disease. All we have to do is take one pill a day while we are healthy (recommended age is 55 or over) and voilá – no worries about heart problems.

If only! Guess what one of the ingredients in the Polypill is? Our good old ASPIRIN (100 mg of it)! Plus (according to a BBC report and WebMD):

1. A statin drug (Simvastatin) to lower cholesterol. Possible side effects: kidney and liver damage, muscle pain, joint pain, weakness,; constipation; diarrhoea; flushing (eg, dizziness, itching, redness, tingling, warmth); headache; nausea; runny or stuffy nose; stomach upset plus possible severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); chest pain; dark urine; muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness (with or without fever and fatigue); pale stools; red, swollen, blistered, or peeling skin; severe or persistent stomach pain; yellowing of skin or eyes.

Three blood pressure-lowering drugs:

2. ACE inhibitor (Ramipril) Possible side effect: persistent cough, dizziness, skin rash, swelling of face and throat

3. Diuretic (Hydrochlorothiazide) Possible side effects: Weakness, dizziness, or a spinning sensation (vertigo), Low blood pressure (hypotension), Diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting, constipation, and stomach cramps, Increased blood sugar (hyperglycaemia), Electrolyte imbalances, including low blood sodium (hyponatremia), low blood potassium (hypokalemia), and low blood chloride (hypochloremia), Sensitivity to the sun, Muscle spasm, Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas), Hair loss (see Hydrochlorothiazide and Hair Loss), Erectile dysfunction, also referred to as ED or impotence

4. Beta-blocker (Atenolol) Possible side effects: Cold fingers and toes; diarrhoea; dizziness; drowsiness; nausea; tiredness or weakness, severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); blue fingernails, toenails, or palms; decreased sexual ability; fainting; mental or mood problems; persistent dizziness or light-headedness; shortness of breath; sudden, unusual weight gain; swelling of hands, ankles, or feet; unusual bruising or bleeding; unusually slow heartbeat

5. Folic acid (to reduce the level of homocysteine in the blood which is another risk factor for heart disease): completely safe and free from side effects. Easily obtained from spinach, avocado, lettuce, walnuts and many other types of food.

ACE inhibitors can also deplete our bodies’ stores of zinc (”Popular Drugs that Steal Nutrients,” Frederic Vagnini, M.D., of Weill Cornell Medical College). Zinc is an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory (helping prevent heart related diseases) and inhibits abnormal blood clotting that contributes to heart disease

So, the way it works is as follows: if you are healthy, free of any cardiovascular complaints, have a good diet and are over 55, you are advised to take one polypill a day, deplete your body of useful minerals, and risk one or many of the known side effects above.

Then they want to make us accept that the same Randomised Controlled Trials that allow such incoherence should be 100% relied upon to make decisions affecting public health! That may be so – through the looking glass with Alice.

Great news.

During an event organised by the Cross-Party Group for Chronic Pain last night, the Scottish Government announced  that  Dr Pete McKenzie - a member of the Group - will be the Lead Clinician for Chronic Pain.

This appointment truly reflects this government’s commitment to enhance its services for pain sufferers and act on the many recommendations published in reports throughout a period of many years.

Dr McKenzie will spearhead efforts to develop services for the estimated 800,000 adults who suffer from chronic pain in Scotland.

Now that main stream pain management is being taken care of, we need to accelerate Intlife’s campaign to provide all pain sufferers with equal choice and access to drug-free pain management and treatment.

To support this cause, visit www.intlife.org and Intlife’s ‘Cause’ on Facebook on http://apps.facebook.com/causes/273352?m=3124eff7  (the name of the cause is ‘Equal access to drug-free pain management and treatment (Intlife)’

Links:

• ‘Taking the lead in chronic pain‘ (Scottish Parliament’s website)
• Cross-Party Group on Chronic Pain (Scottish Parliament)

Did you know that some of the things we eat or drink can make pain and inflammation better or worse? This is because they have a direct effect on the pH (acid-alkaline balance) of our blood. This means that some foods make our bodies more acid or alkaline.Our bodies have mechanisms to keep some functions just at the right level (this is called homoeostasis) and when those go wrong we can become quite sick. For instance, there is an optimum level for blood sugar and, when there is too much sugar, the body releases insulin to bring the sugar down to normal levels. The same happens with salt, fluids, and many other substances – our bodies will strive to bring things back to normal levels whenever there is too much or too little of anything.

In general, our bodies need to be slightly alkaline (pH of 7.4) in order to be able to keep healthy and fight diseases. The more acid it is, the more prone to inflammation it will be. Different types of food make the body more alkaline or acid. However it has nothing to do with how the food tastes – for example lemons, vinegar and oranges are actually alkaline. Imagine that it is the ‘ashes’ left after the body ‘burns’ the food we eat that are acid or alkaline.

If there is too much acidity and we don’t eat food rich in certain minerals that can buffer the acid (calcium, magnesium, potassium, etc), our bodies need to use those minerals stored in the liver, the gall bladder, muscle tissue and bone to balance its pH. This is a natural and normal process but, if this continues for a long time, our store of buffers start running low leading to a weakening of the ‘storage organs’. For instance, our bones will become weaker (as calcium is leached from them) and muscles can become ‘stiffer’ and sore (common in fibromyalgia). Some types of food have been shown to produce arachidonic acid promoting the release of prostaglandins and other inflammation markers. Any conditions involving inflammation can be helped by an alkaline diet.

Alkaline forming foods should make about 70% of our diet for health maintenance and more to restore health – somewhere around 80% - this varies from person to person according to their metabolism.

In general, the best alkalising diet would consist of

I say ‘in general’ because, for instance, some people are sensitive to plants of the nightshade family (such as potatoes, tomatoes and aubergines) as they contain a chemical called solanine, which can trigger inflammation in those people. Some sources advise that citrus fruits should not be consumed at the same time as any other food. Drinking enough water (especially if it is alkaline) and fluid is also important.

Acid forming foods to be avoided include

Many people are intolerant of certain foods such as wheat and cow’s milk. Buttermilk, whey, yoghurt and goat’s milk are usually acceptable. When food intolerance is present, those foods will also have an acidic effect.

If you want to be sure which is the best anti-inflammatory food for you personally, a good nutritionist or naturopath should be able to help.

For further information:

1. Interview David Seaman, author of Clinical Nutrition for Pain, Inflammation, and Tissue Healing

2. NutritionData

3. The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan by Monica Reinagel published by McGraw-Hill

4. www.inflammationfactor.com

5. “Anti-Inflammatory” Diet May Improve Postprandial Glucose, Cardiovascular Health (Medscape)

6. Dietary suggestions for chronic pain

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