Vitamin D Testing & Pharmaceutical Grade D3

Vitamin D

Have you heard the latest buzz in the medical community? Vitamin D lowers cancer risk and prevents a multitude of other degenerative diseases.

People can get the vitamin D they need through sunlight exposure. It can also be obtained through the diet, but very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. These foods include fatty fish, fish liver oil, and eggs. Most dietary vitamin D comes from fortified foods, such as milk, juices, yogurt, bread and breakfast cereals. Vitamin D can also be obtained through supplements.

Unfortunately most people do not get adequate vitamin D from these sources and insufficiency is literally an epidemic. New statistics extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that more than 90% of the population with pigmented skin, and 75% of the white population, have insufficient levels of vitamin D.

Several studies have demonstrated that adequate levels of vitamin D can decrease the risk and improve survival rates for several types of cancers including breast, rectum, ovary, prostate, stomach, bladder, esophagus, kidney, lung, pancreas, uterus, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and multiple myeloma.

It is estimated that 85,000 cases of breast cancer and 60,000 cases of colorectal cancer could be prevented in North America alone with sufficient vitamin D levels. A recent study compiled data on breast and colon cancer and vitamin D levels and found that dosages of 3500 IU/day would reduce breast cancer and 2000 IU/day would reduce colon cancer by 50%. The current median adult intake of vitamin D in the US is 230 IU/day.

Other studies relating cancer to vitamin D have shown that people living at higher latitudes are at increased risk for Hodgkin lymphoma as well as colon, pancreatic, prostate, ovarian, breast and other cancers. In addition, people living at higher latitudes are more likely to die from these cancers compared with those living at lower latitudes.

The current recommended daily allowance of vitamin D in the United States is 200IU/day for children and adults up to 50 years of age, 400IU for 51-70 years, and 600 IU for those >70 years old. However, the emerging evidence on the non-skeletal benefits of vitamin D has made these recommendations obsolete. Doses as high as 10,000 IU/day have been shown to be safely tolerated.

People are more likely to not get enough vitamin D than to get too much. Monitoring therapy is important to ensure adequate, but not excessive dosage.

The Mac Protocol and our related clinics throughout Northern California are pleased to offer a vitamin D test at wholesale prices. This inexpensive, quick and easy to use test will enable you to test and monitor vitamin D levels without the inconvenience of venipuncture. Call us today to have your vitamin D levels checked. The total cost for the test is $99. We also provide our patients with compounded pharmaceutical Vitamin D supplementation. This means we call in the order and they make it today and send it to us today at our pharmacy. You will not be able to get a higher quality supplement than that, guaranteed! The cost for 250 tablets at 5000 IUs a tablet is $40.

Dr. & Vicky Mac

Heavy Metals an Introduction

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Many of you have attended regular lectures I gave about heavy metal toxicity in 2008. What many of you did not realize is that all my facts came from ATSDR a division of the Centers of Disease. These are government agencies. These are not anti-aging conference maybes. These are founded facts from our government about heavy metals. I will give a brief review of heavy metal toxicity here, but I want you to go to my blog and read cut and pasted excerpts from the ASTDR website. (Blog readers look below)

“The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), based in Atlanta, Georgia, is a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ATSDR serves the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and diseases related to toxic substances.”

Heavy metal toxicity is an excessive build-up of metals in the body. Oftentimes, the vague symptoms produced by heavy metal toxicity are mistakenly misdiagnosed as incurable chronic conditions. The most common heavy metals that humans are exposed to are aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.

Heavy metals are found in everyday existence and are frequently hard to avoid entirely. Most people can excrete toxic heavy metals from the body successfully. However, some people—especially those who suffer from chronic conditions—cannot excrete them efficiently enough and a build-up occurs. Recent research also reveals that those who cannot excrete heavy metals efficiently appear to be genetically predisposed to this condition.

When numerous metals are present in the body, they have a “synergistic toxicity.” Dr. Boyd Haley, professor and chair of the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky, performed a study on rats and found that the mortality rate of rats exposed to a small dose of mercury or aluminum killed only 1 rat in 100. However, when the rats were exposed to both mercury and aluminum at the same time, all 100 rats died—a 100% mortality rate.

Avoid heavy metal toxicity, first; by having a simple provocation test and finding out what heavy metals have accumulated in your body, second; by getting those metals out of your body through a process called chelation. The Mac Protocol practiced at The Ariba Healthcare Group, Inc. can provide both the provocation test (utilizing a provocation agent like EDTA, DMPS or DMSA along with a 24 hour urine test) and chelation using noninvasive oral and rectal chelators (IV’s are still in the near future). All we can say is that if you have heavy metal toxicity-GET THEM OUT NOW! Call 800-788-7454 and schedule for your provocation test at a 25% discount.

There has been a major debate about mercury in your teeth. Watch this video for entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ylnQ-T7oiA

The Macs


Here is a list of the worst of the worst directly from the United States Government Agency. Chelation works directly on arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium. Four of the top seven!


1 ARSENIC
2 LEAD
3 MERCURY
4 VINYL CHLORIDE
5 POLYCHLORINATED BIPHENYLS
6 BENZENE
7 CADMIUM

The statements below have been cut ans pasted with no editing from ATSDR

How can arsenic affect my health?

Breathing high levels of inorganic arsenic can give you a sore throat or irritated lungs.
Ingesting very high levels of arsenic can result in death. Exposure to lower levels can cause nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, damage to blood vessels, and a sensation of “pins and needles” in hands and feet.
Ingesting or breathing low levels of inorganic arsenic for a long time can cause a darkening of the skin and the appearance of small “corns” or “warts” on the palms, soles, and torso.
Skin contact with inorganic arsenic may cause redness and swelling.
Almost nothing is known regarding health effects of organic arsenic compounds in humans. Studies in animals show that some simple organic arsenic compounds are less toxic than inorganic forms. Ingestion of methyl and dimethyl compounds can cause diarrhea and damage to the kidneys.

How can lead affect my health?

The effects of lead are the same whether it enters the body through breathing or swallowing. Lead can affect almost every organ and system in your body. The main target for lead toxicity is the nervous system, both in adults and children. Long-term exposure of adults can result in decreased performance in some tests that measure functions of the nervous system. It may also cause weakness in fingers, wrists, or ankles. Lead exposure also causes small increases in blood pressure, particularly in middle-aged and older people and can cause anemia. Exposure to high lead levels can severely damage the brain and kidneys in adults or children and ultimately cause death. In pregnant women, high levels of exposure to lead may cause miscarriage. High level exposure in men can damage the organs responsible for sperm production.

How can mercury affect my health?

The nervous system is very sensitive to all forms of mercury. Methylmercury and metallic mercury vapors are more harmful than other forms, because more mercury in these forms reaches the brain. Exposure to high levels of metallic, inorganic, or organic mercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus. Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and memory problems.
Short-term exposure to high levels of metallic mercury vapors may cause effects including lung damage, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increases in blood pressure or heart rate, skin rashes, and eye irritation.

How can cadmium affect my health?

Breathing high levels of cadmium can severely damage the lungs. Eating food or drinking water with very high levels severely irritates the stomach, leading to vomiting and diarrhea.
Long-term exposure to lower levels of cadmium in air, food, or water leads to a buildup of cadmium in the kidneys and possible kidney disease. Other long-term effects are lung damage and fragile bones.

Agave is worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup

We’ve been duped again!

Agave is worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup

Did you (like us) switch your children to organic raw blue agave nectar to replace the worse food on the market, High Fructose Corn Syrup? It said right on the label “diabetic friendly” “raw” “100% natural sweetener” and we thought, wow, that has to be better for our children than anything else on the market.  With half of our chromosomes being from Mexico, we thought this product had probably been processed by our genes for a thousand years.  At least, that is what the label says about its origins and its relation to the natives of Mexico. But after some research I discovered that “Agave nectar is a newly created sweetener, having been developed during the 1990’s.”

The Big Dirty Secret about Agave

In spite of manufacturers’ claims, agave “nectar” is not made from the sap of the yucca or agave plant but from a giant pineapple-like, root bulb. The process by which agave is converted into “nectar” is similar to the process by which corn starch is converted into HFCS. Refined fructose in agave nectar is much more concentrated than the fructose in HFCS.  In comparison HFCS is 55% fructose, Agave nectar is 70% fructose!

Just Say No to Agave

New sweeteners like agave syrup were introduced into the market to make a profit, not to make consumers healthy. Clever marketing has led many consumers to believe that the high level of fructose in agave syrup makes it a safe and a natural sweetener. Agave syrup is a manmade sweetener. High fructose agave syrup causes mineral depletion, liver inflammation, hardening of the arteries, insulin resistance leading to diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

If you want something sweet, eat a piece of fruit!

I would like to thank research done by Sally Fallon Morell and Rami Nagel for the basis of this blog.  You can read the entire article and research articles at:

http://www.westonaprice.org/Agave-Nectar-Worse-Than-We-Thought.html

The first exercise of each day! Child's Pose

Begin every morning with this simple yoga stretch.  Begin on your knees.  Slowly sit back until you are sitting on your ankles.  Use your weight to stretch the ankles without pain. Slowly bend forward until your forehead touches the floor. Then slide your arms above your head as far as you can without causing pain.  Now be restful.  Pray or say affirmations.  Relax and feel the ankles, knees hips, spine, shoulders stretch. Be Calm. Hold this stretch for as long as you like.  Twenty seconds minimum. If you want to watch a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrA5mN-MW5U

Geneticlly Modified Foods

Today, we are talking about environmental toxins. Whenever we talk about this subject people get upset at us. We attend conferences nearly every month, be it live or by web, and it seems that conservative MD's have no problem talking about the environment and its toxicity. But we live in the Central Valley and this is where most of our toxins are produced. So, when we write about environmental toxins, we are talking about one of our friends careers and they quit being my friend, at least on facebook, lol. Today, we are going to talk about genetically modified food. Our advice is TO DO YOUR BEST TO KNOW WHEN YOU ARE EATING GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD AND TO REDUCE ITS INTAKE. Vicky and I know that we still eat it, but we try to limit it's intake. We are not experts on genetically modified food, so I will let the American Academy of Environmental Physicians talk their talk. Vicky and I are anti-aging practitioners, and we know that everything we read that is related to living a longer and higher quality of life has to do with eating as toxic free as possible, and as natural as possible. We know we are being wimps today, but just like our therapies we like to begin gently, be it weight loss, hormones, chelation or exercise.

Doctors Warn: Avoid Genetically Modified Food

By Jeffrey M. Smith

On May 19th, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) called on “Physicians to educate their patients, the medical community, and the public to avoid GM (genetically modified) foods when possible and provide educational materials concerning GM foods and health risks.”[1] They called for a moratorium on GM foods, long-term independent studies, and labeling. AAEM’s position paper stated, “Several animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with GM food,” including infertility, immune problems, accelerated aging, insulin regulation, and changes in major organs and the gastrointestinal system. They conclude, “There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation,” as defined by recognized scientific criteria. “The strength of association and consistency between GM foods and disease is confirmed in several animal studies.”

More and more doctors are already prescribing GM-free diets. Dr. Amy Dean, a Michigan internal medicine specialist, and board member of AAEM says, “I strongly recommend patients eat strictly non-genetically modified foods.” Ohio allergist Dr. John Boyles says “I used to test for soy allergies all the time, but now that soy is genetically engineered, it is so dangerous that I tell people never to eat it.”

Dr. Jennifer Armstrong, President of AAEM, says, “Physicians are probably seeing the effects in their patients, but need to know how to ask the right questions.” World renowned biologist Pushpa M. Bhargava goes one step further. After reviewing more than 600 scientific journals, he concludes that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are a major contributor to the sharply deteriorating health of Americans.

Pregnant women and babies at great risk

Among the population, biologist David Schubert of the Salk Institute warns that “children are the most likely to be adversely effected by toxins and other dietary problems” related to GM foods. He says without adequate studies, the children become “the experimental animals.”[2]

The experience of actual GM-fed experimental animals is scary. When GM soy was fed to female rats, most of their babies died within three weeks—compared to a 10% death rate among the control group fed natural soy.[3] The GM-fed babies were also smaller, and later had problems getting pregnant.[4]

When male rats were fed GM soy, their testicles actually changed color—from the normal pink to dark blue.[5] Mice fed GM soy had altered young sperm.[6] Even the embryos of GM fed parent mice had significant changes in their DNA.[7] Mice fed GM corn in an Austrian government study had fewer babies, which were also smaller than normal.[8]

Reproductive problems also plague livestock. Investigations in the state of Haryana, India revealed that most buffalo that ate GM cottonseed had complications such as premature deliveries, abortions, infertility, and prolapsed uteruses. Many calves died. In the US, about two dozen farmers reported thousands of pigs became sterile after consuming certain GM corn varieties. Some had false pregnancies; others gave birth to bags of water. Cows and bulls also became infertile when fed the same corn.[9]

In the US population, the incidence of low birth weight babies, infertility, and infant mortality are all escalating.

Food designed to produce toxin

GM corn and cotton are engineered to produce their own built-in pesticide in every cell. When bugs bite the plant, the poison splits open their stomach and kills them. Biotech companies claim that the pesticide, called Bt—produced from soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis—has a history of safe use, since organic farmers and others use Bt bacteria spray for natural insect control. Genetic engineers insert Bt genes into corn and cotton, so the plants do the killing.

The Bt-toxin produced in GM plants, however, is thousands of times more concentrated than natural Bt spray, is designed to be more toxic,[10] has properties of an allergen, and unlike the spray, cannot be washed off the plant.

Moreover, studies confirm that even the less toxic natural bacterial spray is harmful. When dispersed by plane to kill gypsy moths in the Pacific Northwest, about 500 people reported allergy or flu-like symptoms. Some had to go to the emergency room.[11],[12]

The exact same symptoms are now being reported by farm workers throughout India, from handling Bt cotton.[13] In 2008, based on medical records, the Sunday India reported, “Victims of itching have increased massively this year . . . related to BT cotton farming.”[14]

GMOs provoke immune reactions

AAEM states, “Multiple animal studies show significant immune dysregulation,” including increase in cytokines, which are “associated with asthma, allergy, and inflammation”—all on the rise in the US.

According to GM food safety expert Dr. Arpad Pusztai, changes in the immune status of GM animals are “a consistent feature of all the studies.”[15] Even Monsanto’s own research showed significant immune system changes in rats fed Bt corn.[16] A November 2008 by the Italian government also found that mice have an immune reaction to Bt corn.[17]

GM soy and corn each contain two new proteins with allergenic properties,[18] GM soy has up to seven times more trypsin inhibitor—a known soy allergen,[19] and skin prick tests show some people react to GM, but not to non-GM soy.[20] Soon after GM soy was introduced to the UK, soy allergies skyrocketed by 50%. Perhaps the US epidemic of food allergies and asthma is a casualty of genetic manipulation.



Animals dying in large numbers


In India, animals graze on cotton plants after harvest. But when shepherds let sheep graze on Bt cotton plants, thousands died. Post mortems showed severe irritation and black patches in both intestines and liver (as well as enlarged bile ducts). Investigators said preliminary evidence “strongly suggests that the sheep mortality was due to a toxin. . . . most probably Bt-toxin.”[21] In a small follow-up feeding study by the Deccan Development Society, all sheep fed Bt cotton plants died within 30 days; those that grazed on natural cotton plants remained healthy.

In a small village in Andhra Pradesh, buffalo grazed on cotton plants for eight years without incident. On January 3rd, 2008, the buffalo grazed on Bt cotton plants for the first time. All 13 were sick the next day; all died within 3 days.[22]

Bt corn was also implicated in the deaths of cows in Germany, and horses, water buffaloes, and chickens in The Philippines.[23]

In lab studies, twice the number of chickens fed Liberty Link corn died; 7 of 20 rats fed a GM tomato developed bleeding stomachs; another 7 of 40 died within two weeks.[24] Monsanto’s own study showed evidence of poisoning in major organs of rats fed Bt corn, according to top French toxicologist G. E. Seralini.[25]


Worst finding of all—GMOs remain inside of us

The only published human feeding study revealed what may be the most dangerous problem from GM foods. The gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of bacteria living inside our intestines and continues to function.[26] This means that long after we stop eating GMOs, we may still have potentially harmful GM proteins produced continuously inside of us. Put more plainly, eating a corn chip produced from Bt corn might transform our intestinal bacteria into living pesticide factories, possibly for the rest of our lives.

When evidence of gene transfer is reported at medical conferences around the US, doctors often respond by citing the huge increase of gastrointestinal problems among their patients over the last decade. GM foods might be colonizing the gut flora of North Americans.

Warnings by government scientists ignored and denied

Scientists at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had warned about all these problems even in the early 1990s. According to documents released from a lawsuit, the scientific consensus at the agency was that GM foods were inherently dangerous, and might create hard-to-detect allergies, poisons, gene transfer to gut bacteria, new diseases, and nutritional problems. They urged their superiors to require rigorous long-term tests.[27] But the White House had ordered the agency to promote biotechnology and the FDA responded by recruiting Michael Taylor, Monsanto’s former attorney, to head up the formation of GMO policy. That policy, which is in effect today, denies knowledge of scientists’ concerns and declares that no safety studies on GMOs are required. It is up to Monsanto and the other biotech companies to determine if their foods are safe. Mr. Taylor later became Monsanto’s vice president.

Dangerously few studies, untraceable diseases

AAEM states, “GM foods have not been properly tested” and “pose a serious health risk.” Not a single human clinical trial on GMOs has been published. A 2007 review of published scientific literature on the “potential toxic effects/health risks of GM plants” revealed “that experimental data are very scarce.” The author concludes his review by asking, “Where is the scientific evidence showing that GM plants/food are toxicologically safe, as assumed by the biotechnology companies?”[28]

Famed Canadian geneticist David Suzuki answers, “The experiments simply haven’t been done and we now have become the guinea pigs.” He adds, “Anyone that says, ‘Oh, we know that this is perfectly safe,’ I say is either unbelievably stupid or deliberately lying.”[29]

Dr. Schubert points out, “If there are problems, we will probably never know because the cause will not be traceable and many diseases take a very long time to develop.” If GMOs happen to cause immediate and acute symptoms with a unique signature, perhaps then we might have a chance to trace the cause.

This is precisely what happened during a US epidemic in the late 1980s. The disease was fast acting, deadly, and caused a unique measurable change in the blood—but it still took more than four years to identify that an epidemic was even occurring. By then it had killed about 100 Americans and caused 5,000-10,000 people to fall sick or become permanently disabled. It was caused by a genetically engineered brand of a food supplement called L-tryptophan.

If other GM foods are contributing to the rise of autism, obesity, diabetes, asthma, cancer, heart disease, allergies, reproductive problems, or any other common health problem now plaguing Americans, we may never know. In fact, since animals fed GMOs had such a wide variety of problems, susceptible people may react to GM food with multiple symptoms. It is therefore telling that in the first nine years after the large scale introduction of GM crops in 1996, the incidence of people with three or more chronic diseases nearly doubled, from 7% to 13%.[30]

To help identify if GMOs are causing harm, the AAEM asks their “members, the medical community, and the independent scientific community to gather case studies potentially related to GM food consumption and health effects, begin epidemiological research to investigate the role of GM foods on human health, and conduct safe methods of determining the effect of GM foods on human health.”

Citizens need not wait for the results before taking the doctors advice to avoid GM foods. People can stay away from anything with soy or corn derivatives, cottonseed and canola oil, and sugar from GM sugar beets—unless it says organic or “non-GMO.” There is a pocket Non-GMO Shopping Guide, co-produced by the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Center for Food Safety, which is available as a download, as well as in natural food stores and in many doctors’ offices.

If even a small percentage of people choose non-GMO brands, the food industry will likely respond as they did in Europe—by removing all GM ingredients. Thus, AAEM’s non-GMO prescription may be a watershed for the US food supply.

International bestselling author and independent filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith is the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of GMOs. His first book, Seeds of Deception is the world’s bestselling book on the subject. His second, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, identifies 65 risks of GMOs and demonstrates how superficial government approvals are not competent to find most of them. He invited the biotech industry to respond in writing with evidence to counter each risk, but correctly predicted that they would refuse, since they don’t have the data to show that their products are safe.

JAMA--Women need hour workouts?

Today's article fascinates me on the obvious. The headline states that "WOMAN NEED HOUR WORKOUTS TO BEAT FAT." The article is written by Lindsey Tanner AP Medical writer. It was published in the Chicago Sun Times yesterday and The Modesto BEE today. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The newspaper article link is below.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/mindbody/2119531,CST-NWS-women24.article

What is fascinating is this statement at the end of the article. "Hormonal changes in menopause can make women prone to weight gain, especially around the belly."

The Mac's say:

"People think our hormones decrease because we age, but in reality, we age because our hormones decrease." Don't let your hormones decrease! Get on bioidentical hormone replacement today! Instead of working out for more than an hour every day optimize your hormones. You'll still need to exercise-BUT NOT FOR OVER AN HOUR EVERYDAY!

www.centralvalleyhormones.com
www.eastbayhormones.com

And feel great again!

I have been on Hormone therapy for several months and have found that I can go an go. When I first began hormone therapy, I realized that I had been very motivated about life. I asked Vicky, how long it had been since we had stayed home for a weekend. She looked at the calendar and told me 27 weeks. That's over six months! That wasn't me! I loved my soft cushy couch. Hormones got me out into the world and I haven't stopped. I work now more than I ever did. I do because it is fun! Work is fun! I recommend hormone therapy to everyone that is found deficient. Bioidentical Hormones, not synthetic if at all possible.

We're fat! And getting Fatter!

The maps below graphically depict this trend over a 16-year span. It is important to note that these figures are based on telephone interviews where weight and height are self-reported. Self reported data tend to underestimate weight and over-report height. Therefore, the prevalence rates are actually under-estimates compared to the NHANES data which originate from actual measurements.