Dr.Garber’s Blog

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The AMA is opposed to President Obama’s plan for a government sponsored health insurance plan. And so am I! Who Me? On the same side as the AMA? Well, in this instance, yes. The AMA is opposed to the creation of a government sponsored health insurance plan, and so am I. But for very different reasons. The AMA opposes it because it will cut into doctors fees, also that of hospitals. On the other hand, I am against it because it circumvents the real issue. What we don’t need is more or different health insurance plans, government sponsored or otherwise. What we do need is a government sponsored health plan, sans the insurance part. The former still leaves us with all the pitfalls of the corporate profit motive behind medical decision making. At least the current health insurance policies, those that are coupled with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs,) which I have been a proponent of and have for my own family as the best current option, take the “Is it covered?” part out of the equation. I still remember so vividly, many years ago, a patient of mine asking after I enumerated for him his options for the treatment of his condition, which included surgery as well as a very effective non-invasive technique, what was covered by his insurance policy. When I explained to him that the non-invasive alternative to surgery was not a covered procedure, he said he would opt for the surgery, despite the risks. This blew my mind but at the same time I understood. I understood on a personal level what it meant to him financially but I also understood just how completely out of control our health care delivery system was. This man was willing to undergo a high risk surgical procedure, with an uncertain outcome, rather than elect to have a well documented, effective and relatively risk free non-surgical procedure performed, because one was covered by his health insurance plan and the other was not. It was truly a sad state of affairs. So now our country is on the verge of making a great leap towards rectifying this situation - or a great mistake. Pandering to the guise of the powers that be, rather than shooting for true reform in how health care is delivered in this country, will set us back decades. I am thrilled with the current administration’s agenda in most every arena but I fear that it’s push towards health care reform is going in the wrong direction.

Anytime a patient comes to see me and gets the help they are looking for with their particular health challenges, I am pleased. What I find particularly rewarding, though, is when I get the chance to help a woman who is having trouble getting pregnant, or maintaining her pregnancy, finally have a baby, and to do so without the high costs, frustrations and, most of all, without the side effects of most fertility treatment.

I know this is a very emotional area for most women, and many men too. It’s certainly understandable that when such an important life event seems to be eluding you, you want to explore every option. When you read the comments on any fertility blog or website they run the gamut from those who say they experienced “some side effects” but felt they were worth it now that they had their baby, to those who experienced more severe side effects, or were bed-ridden for most of their pregnancies, or had multiple births, to those who’s use of fertility drugs may have been responsible for their cancer. [I say "may have been" because although there is a strong association between fertility drugs and various cancers, especially ovarian cancer, a definite causal relationship has not yet been demonstrated.]

There are different reasons why a woman may be unable to conceive, or to maintain a pregnancy, but for the majority it is because of hormonal imbalance. One of my stated purposes for this blog, in addition to providing you with my thoughts on issues of importance to you and your family’s health, is to provide information on treatment alternatives to dangerous pharmaceutical drugs. In this particular area, a homeopathic formula of my own design happens to be the best suggestion I can offer. Dr. Garber’s Natural Solutions FemCycle does just what the name implies - it helps to regulate the female cycle. As I mention in the video above, I originally created this formula for a patient of mine with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome,) which is a common cause of infertility, who had not been able to successfully conceive. After three months on FemCycle she was pregnant, carried the baby to term and subsequently had another child. FemCycle is not a  treatment just for infertility. It helps to balance the hormones by stimulating the body to produce the appropriate amounts for each woman, not by adding hormones from the outside. In doing so it works on problems that arise in every part of the reproductive years, from young girls having their first periods and experiencing physical discomfort or emotional ups and downs, to women experiencing menstrual irregularities, PMS, dysmenorrhea, painful ovulation and endometriosis, to perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms. I have even seen positive improvements in breast health as demonstrated with breast thermography (more on that in another post.)

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• Chemicals ‘may reduce fertility’ (news.bbc.co.uk)

Well, you’ve been asking and here it is - the third and final installment of my series on cholesterol. So far in this series I’ve discussed  the different types of cholesterol as well as some of the other fats that are found in the blood. I’ve also discussed the factors that cause inflammation in the blood vessels, the real culprit in this saga. In this post I will let you know what you can do about it all, also what I feel you should not do, and why.

I’ll get the “what I feel you should not do” part, the Ugly in the title, out of the way first so the remainder of the post can stay positive and proactive. But this area is no less important. If you’ve been reading my blog posts you probably already know that I’m referring here to the statin drugs - Lipitor, Mevacor, Zocor, Crestor, etc.

All drugs produce side effects. These side effects can be quite severe, sometimes fatal, and the statins are no exception. All doctors know this and the question always is, or should always be, what is the benefit of a given drug versus the harm. A big problem is that most doctors, whether they are conscious of it or not, tend to minimize the harm from the drugs they are prescribing because, for the most part, prescribing drugs is what they do to treat their patients. A very interesting Washington Post article clearly illustrates this curious phenomenon.

The most common side effects of statins are muscle pain and muscle weakness. The muscle symptoms are a result of the drug causing a breakdown of muscle fibers, called  rhabdomyolysis, which the body must then eliminate. In excess, this can overload the kidneys, resulting in kidney failure. One cholesterol lowering drug, Baycol, has already been taken off the market because so many people taking it died as a result. Other side effects produced by statins are liver damage, digestive problems (nausea, diarrhea, constipation,) neurological problems such as peripheral neuropathy and even memory loss.

Since these drugs are the top selling pharmaceuticals (Lipitor has been the #1 selling drug in the world for the last five or six years) you may be wondering how is that possible if they’re so bad. What does Garber know that all these doctors who are prescribing statins don’t know? The sad but true answer to this question is that ad campaigns that extol the benefits of drugs are, unfortunately, more powerful than education about side effects. Early on in their history, studies were done done that showed the cholesterol lowering effect of statins reduced the risk of heart attack and stroke. Many of the studies were sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies that made the drugs, others weren’t, but no expense was spared on the part of the makers to capitalize on those positive findings. The result of that effort has been clearly evidenced by statin’s wild popularity. However, more recent studies involving much larger patient populations over a much longer time period have shown that this is not necessarily the case. There are some benefits provided by statins, this is not in dispute. But as the benefit to risk ratio continues to decrease one must really consider the alternatives, especially when there are so many that work so well. I urge you to click on the above links and see these studies for yourselves.

Before I start discussing what you should take instead of statins I want to discuss lifestyle changes, as these are without a doubt the most important actions you can take to improve your cardiovascular health. First and foremost, if you smoke - STOP! I know it’s not easy (yes, I am an ex-smoker) and I’m not going to try to make any of you feel guilty. It’s just a fact that the single most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease is cigarette smoke.

Next comes diet and exercise - but you already knew that, didn’t you? Taking a pill may be easier, another reason pharmaceuticals have taken such a hold over us, but making lifestyle changes is so much more empowering. Of course there’s no one diet that is right for everyone but when it comes to cardiovascular health there are certain rules of thumb that do apply to everyone and have a positive effect on almost all the different blood fats. These include increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables and reducing the amount of animal protein in your diet, much along the lines of what is known as the Mediterranean Diet, and eliminate, as much as possible, trans fats from your diet. Trans fats are fats that are created by the addition of hydrogen to liquid fats (look for ‘partially hydrogenated’ on the label) to make them solid. They behave much like saturated fats in that they tend to increase the bad (LDL) cholesterol and decrease the good (HDL) cholesterol. Fortunately they are fairly easy to eliminate from the diet because they are mainly used in foods you already know to be unhealthy: cakes, cookies, crackers, margarine and other shortenings, potato chips, in fact, most packaged foods. As for exercise, it depends on where you’re starting from. The important thing is to do more today than you did yesterday, and do some sort of exercise every day. If you’re leading a basically sedentary lifestyle, as most people do, don’t decide that you need to start training for a triathlon. There’s a wonderful movement afoot (pun intended) called the 10,000 Steps. This program is very easy to incorporate and will improve not only the cardiovascular system but also conditions like type-2 diabetes.

If your blood fat picture is such that following all the above is just not enough to do the trick, or needs more of a boost while you are starting to make these lifestyle changes, there are nutritional supplements that are readily available that can help. As I said in earlier posts, it’s not so much to the total amount of cholesterol but it is the ratio of the good to the bad. The omega-3 fatty acids, as are found in fish oil, will increase HDL and also decrease triglycerides. Fish oil supplements have so many other beneficial properties that I recommend them to just about all my patients. Remember from part 2 of this series that I said that the real culprits in this blood fat story are the factors in the blood that produce inflammation in the blood vessels. Fish oil has an anti-inflammatory effect, reversing some of the effect of c-reactive protein and decreases the levels of homocysteine in the blood, both leading causes of blood vessel inflammation. Homocysteine levels are also modulated by Vitamin B-6, B-12 and Folic Acid. Adding soluble fiber to the diet, as food (preferably) or as a supplement, will also help decrease triglyceride levels and LDL cholesterol levels. Certain constituents found in red wine, called phenolic antioxidants, have been found to increase HDL cholesterol, keep LDL cholesterol from forming and reduce blood clot formation. If you don’t drink alcohol, these are also available in supplement form.

I hope this three part series on cholesterol has given you some helpful information on a complex subject and some useful tools to help you improve your health without the dangerous side effects of pharmaceuticals.

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• Saturated fat (news.bbc.co.uk)
• How to Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes (dietriffic.com)
• 10 best foods for your heart (indenialhealth.com)

Hello To All My Online Friends and Followers.

Welcome to my blog!

It is truly my passion to empower people with the knowledge of holistic health and homeopathy. Thank you for taking a stand.

When you subscribe to my bi-monthly newsletter, Natural Solutions News (sign up box to the right,) you will receive my e-book, Five Homeopathy Myths Dispelled, free. And if you’d like discounts on my products, each edition of the newsletter will have a coupon code only available to newsletter subscribers.

Yours in good health,

Dr. Stuart Garber