"There are no studies that prove the benefits of nutritional or integrative
therapies..."
It's a refrain that I hear time and time again.
And I hear it from my colleagues.
But they couldn't be more wrong!
They just have not done their homework -- or perhaps they are reading the
wrong medical journals.
One of my favorite medical journals is the "American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition," which every month publishes more than 300 pages of research with NO
ADVERTISING.
This is very unlike my other medical journals -- such as the "Journal of the
American Medical Association" or "The New England Journal of Medicine" -- which
have pages and pages of color glossy drug ads.
So today, I thought I would take you on a journey through just one issue of
the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" to see just how much research is
being done on how food and nutrients affect our health.
The sad thing is that it can take 20 years before this knowledge becomes
commonplace or used in medical practice.
Unfortunately, there is little money available for large-scale studies or to
publicize the findings of the role of nutrients and food in health and disease.
Unlike in the pharmaceutical industry, there are no "food reps" that drop off
food samples in doctor's offices.
Except perhaps in my case.
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To see the quick, 5-minute video version of this on my blog, go to:
==> http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog
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You see, I have been sent walnuts, whole-food bars, wild salmon, and even
whole-kernel rye bread from Germany -- all of which I like much better than the
pens and cups and Post-it notes with drug names all over them.
And I certainly like these better than the "free" drug samples I'm sent that
are meant to get my patients hooked on the latest and most expensive (though
not necessarily the best) medications.
Advertising medications directly to patients used to be illegal. They still
are in Canada and the European Union.
But, boy, have things changed!
Since "direct-to-consumer" advertising has been allowed in the United States,
we have seen dramatic increases in the use of those drugs.
In fact, when a person sees an ad for a drug on TV and then asks their doctor
for it, they are likely to get it about 50 percent of the time.
Just look at the numbers.
According to a recent article in "The New England Journal of Medicine,"
pharmaceutical advertising and promotion grew from $11.4 billion in 1996 to
$29.9 billion in 2005 -- and direct- to-consumer ads grew by 330 percent! (1)
I can assure you that NO ONE is spending $30 billion promoting the benefits
of food and
nutrients to support health and cure disease, even if they are more
effective.
You don't hear about the best or most effective treatments, just the ones
that are most heavily
promoted.
Now let's get back to the nutrition journal and a sampling of the types of
research out there that demonstrate the healing power of food.
These are all from the May 2007 issue (I am a little behind on my reading!).
The most important study in that journal was on nutrigenomics -- the
foundational concept of my book UltraMetabolism. The basic idea is that food
is information, not just calories.
In this study, researchers from Finland took two groups people with metabolic
syndrome (pre- diabetes) and gave each group a different diet.
Well, sort of. It was different ONLY in the type of carbohydrates they
consumed for 12 weeks. The rest of their diet was identical -- the same
calories and the same amount of fat, protein, carbohydrate, and fiber.
The first group had wheat, oats, and potatoes as the source of their carbs.
The second group ate rye as their source of carbohydrate. (As I mentioned in
my book, UltraMetabolism, rye has some very special properties because it is
slowly absorbed by the body and has phytonutrients that help you lose weight
and improve metabolism.)
After the 12 weeks, the researchers took a fat sample or biopsy and analyzed
it to find out which genes were turned on or off.
So what happened?
***********************************************
In the wheat, oat, and potato group, 62 genes were activated that increased
inflammation, oxidative stress, and the stress response, worsened blood sugar
balance, and generally amplified all of the forces in the body that lead to
obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease!
It was a 100 percent effect -- NO good genes were turned on.
In the rye group, 71 genes were turned on that prevent diabetes, lower
cholesterol, reduce inflammation, and improve blood sugar control.
This was a 100 percent GOOD gene effect. (2)
Now that should have been headline news -- but the rye lobby is just not that
powerful!
In fact, in an accompanying editorial called "Putting your genes on a diet:
the molecular effects of carbohydrate," Harvard researcher David Ludwig, MD,
PhD, wrote that "Molecular pathways involved in hormone action have been the
target of a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical research effort. However, many
of these pathways may normally be under dietary regulation." (3)
If there were a drug that could turn off all the disease-promoting genes and
could turn on all the health-promoting, anti-aging genes, it would be a
blockbuster.
But you don't see ads on TV telling you to eat more whole-kernel rye bread!
Findings from a few other key studies from just that one issue are worth
noting:
-- Supplementing with conjugated linoleic acid (a special fat from meat and
dairy fats) caused a modest loss in body fat. It also may prevent cancer, heart
disease, and inflammation.
-- Long-term fish consumption protects against arrhythmia or irregular heart
beats.
-- Eating a diet high in monounsaturated fats from olive oil can help reduce
blood pressure while a high refined-carbohydrate diet can increase blood
pressure.
-- Combining fish oil supplements with regular aerobic exercise helps improve
body composition
and reduce heart disease risk factors (lower triglycerides, higher HDL).
-- Women need more choline (a nutrient that is needed for cell membrane
formation and to make the neurotransmitter acetylcholine necessary for brain
function) after menopause or are at risk of liver and muscle damage.
-- If women with HIV are given a multivitamin, they have less anemia and
their children also have less anemia. Anemia in HIV is associated with a much
faster rate of disease progression and death.
-- In Bangladesh, where arsenic poisoning is common, giving folate, vitamins
B12 and B6, choline, and niacin reduced the toxic effects of arsenic.
-- People who eat more meat and saturated fat have a higher risk of skin
cancer.
And those are just from May!
The June 2007 issue, which I am just getting through, has a fantastic
randomized controlled study of calcium and vitamin D, which shows that those
nutrients substantially reduce risk for all cancers and that the blood level of
vitamin D is the most important predictor of decreased risk.
So what are we to learn from all these studies?
This is just a smattering of the research out there -- only a few out of the
many in that one issue alone.
And it is stuff you are not hearing about.
So if you hear from your doctor that eating better and taking supplements has
no "real" scientific evidence to support it, ask them if they have read the
"American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" lately.
It is also interesting to note that the main medical journals publish mostly
positive studies on drugs and mostly negative studies on nutrients, foods, and
herbs.
And the findings correlate 4 to 1 for a positive outcome for a drug if the
study was funded by the drug company.
The same is true for nutrients.
Dr. David Ludwig published a study that showed that if a food company or
industry, like dairy, for example, funded a study, there was a zero percent
chance that the outcome was unfavorable for the funder. But if it was
independently funded, the negative outcomes were about 40 percent. (4)
That is exactly what happened in another study I saw on the effects of high
fructose corn syrup.
It showed no adverse effects -- and was funded by the American Beverage
Association.
Surprise!
So I encourage you all to beware when someone tells you there is no research
to back up the use of food or nutrients as the primary mode of treatment of
disease and prevention of chronic illness.
The evidence is overwhelming -- just ignored.
Now I'd like to hear from you...
How often do you hear about positive studies of food and nutrients? Of drugs?
Have you ever asked your doctor for a drug based on an ad? What happened?
Has your doctor -- or someone else -- told you that there's no research to
back up natural treatments like these?
Please let me know your thoughts by posting a comment on my blog at:
==> http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog
Just look for the post at the top titled:
"The overwhelming evidence of the healing power of food..."
To your good health,
Mark Hyman, M.D.
PS - For more information on this and other blogs, please go to:
===> http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog
(1) Donohue JM, Cevasco M, Rosenthal MB.
A decade of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
(2) Kallio P, Kolehmainen M, Laaksonen DE, Kekalainen J, Salopuro T, Sivenius
K, Pulkkinen
L, Mykkanen HM, Niskanen L, Uusitupa M, Poutanen KS.
Dietary carbohydrate modification induces alterations in gene expression in
abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue in persons with the metabolic syndrome:
the FUNGENUT Study.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1417-27.
(3) Salsberg SL, Ludwig DS.
Putting your genes on a diet: the molecular effects of carbohydrate.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 May;85(5):1169-70.
(4) Lesser LI, Ebbeling CB, Goozner M, Wypij D, Ludwig DS.
Relationship between funding source and conclusion among nutrition-related
scientific articles.
PLoS Med. 2007 Jan;4(1):e5
UltraWellness LLC
45 Walker Street
Lenox, MA 01240
http://www.ultrawellness.com
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