Krill vs. Fish Oil

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

The headlines of the last week read, “Doctors now recommend against taking vitamin supplements.” Really? Our food and diet is that good? Of course, that is from the corporations and FDA that want to regulate vitamin and herb production in this country. They have as their goal to make vitamins and supplements prescription only! So, the same guys that poo-poo vitamins want to regulate and dispense them. C’mon man!
 

Now I can go on to this weeks article with that off my chest.

Most people have heard of supplementing with fish oil for various health deficiencies. It was reported to be good for heart health and help lower triglycerides and cholesterol. I am going to show you why you should kick the fish oil to the curb, and start taking krill oil instead. It’s not that fish oil is necessarily bad for you, but krill oil is much better for the job at hand.

Chicken or the Egg?

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? We now have an answer based on scientific facts. In February 2010, British scientists reported that a protein found only in a chickens ovary is necessary for the formation of the egg. According to scientists, the egg can only exist if it has been created inside a chicken! The protein is the basis for development of the shell. Those with inquiring minds are now asking, “well where did the chicken come from initially?” Hint: read your Bible.

Where am I going with this? Knowing where the chickens are raised, how the eggs are handled, and how they are transported and stored are very important when deciding where to purchase your eggs.

In 2007, it was found that 83% of fresh, whole broiler chickens bought nationwide contained campylobacter or salmonella, the leading causes of food borne disease. Prior studies have shown organic, pastured chickens are far less contaminated with the antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. In fact, conventional chicken products were found to be up to 460 times more likely to contain antibiotic resistant strains than antibiotic free chicken products.

This means the precautions on handling grocery store chicken products is wisely heeded.

New Statin Drug Guidelines

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the last few weeks the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have released new guidelines for who should be taking statin drugs. Their stated goal of this release is to address the surging rates of heart attacks and strokes. The real reason is that these two organizations are just pawns for the big pharmaceutical companies. They themselves admit that by using these new guidelines the number of people taking statin drugs will double. Currently there are about 35 million users and they expect another 35 million users will be added.

The way they do this is by broadening the definition of who is “at-risk.” The new rules include healthy people that do not currently have any markers for heart disease. They explain the thought is that these people could develop heart problems later in life, so including them in new recommendations now may help lower that risk.

Antibiotic Overuse

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In today’s world of medicine the use of antibiotics is as common as drinking water. Every cough, sniffle and earache elicits an antibiotic prescription from the doctor. If that isn’t enough, veterinarians treating animals are much the same. The meat you buy at the grocery is commonly loaded with antibiotics, given solely to keep the flock of hundreds and thousands of chickens well enough to kill them faster.  This abuse of antibiotics is causing irreparable harm.

There are many scientists sounding the warning that we are at the end of the age of antibiotics. More and more bugs are becoming resistant to the drugs we have been overusing, and drug companies are not searching for more. Drug companies are interested only in selling lots of people expensive drugs. Heart drugs, cancer drugs and psychotic drugs garner $10,000 to $80,000 per patient per year. Antibiotics only register in at a few hundred dollars per patient.

The threat of having no antibiotics available is very real! According to a report titled “Antibiotic Resistance Threat Report” published by the CDC this year, 2 million adults and children become infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria each year, and at least 23,000 of them die as a direct result of those infections. Even more die from complications. The death toll is just a best guess, and the real numbers are likely much higher.

Lyme Disease, Part 4

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Lyme disease is a difficult condition to diagnose. Testing is often ordered incorrectly, or the tests ordered are not the best available.

Most commercial tests designed to detect chronic infections are based on measuring your body’s immune reaction (the presence of antibodies) to the microbe. The problem with Lyme is that the primary cells it infects are white blood cells themselves. Why is this a problem? Because if white blood cells are infected, they lose the ability to produce antibodies, which is what the tests are looking for. This is a false negative test result.

There are direct blood tests for the co-infections associated with Lyme, such as Babesia. But, the blood tests have difficulties too. For example, the FISH test for Babesia is done on blood, but it lives primarily in the central nervous system, joints and connective tissue. It doesn’t live in the blood stream, at least in significant amounts, so it is easily missed when looking in the blood.

Lyme Disease, Part 3

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the third article of this series, we will look at the common presentations of Lyme disease.

Unfortunately, Lyme disease is a very difficult to diagnose using conventional tests. There is great variation in the presentation of the disease. Your particular symptoms will vary greatly depending on where you have contracted it (joints, muscles, nervous tissue, etc.) and whether or not you have coexisting infections, which most do.

Dr. Klinghardt, well known for his successful treatment of neurological illness and chronic pain with Integrative Medicine, says, “underneath that (Lyme infection), there’s often an infection with Mycoplasma. We still don’t know if it’s really transferred with the same bite or if people had it all along and become symptomatic when the immune system is suppressed by the spirochetes.”

Lyme Disease, Part 2

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Lyme disease is escalating to epidemic proportions here in the United States. There is much controversy surrounding it. Too many people are still being told it is all in their head. Each year thousands of people go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. There are many establishment doctors that still do not believe chronic Lyme exists. There are those who still believe that only ticks can infect a person, and those who do not believe you can get the disease, even if you actually see an imbedded tick and get it out, within 24-36 hours.

So where does the truth lie? Well, here are some of the things the experts on Lyme are putting forth.

Lyme can be contracted from many sources: ticks, mosquitos, spiders, fleas, and mites, to name a few. This is probably why so few people with Lyme recall a tick bite. There is also increasing evidence that Lyme disease may be transmitted sexually and congenitally. That is somewhat controversial at this point, but the evidence is mounting.

Lyme Disease, Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

This week, we will start a series of articles on Lyme disease. Much of this information was compiled by Dr. Mercola in a recent article he penned for his email newsletter. In my research, the data I’ve found on many internet sites points to Lyme disease as an epidemic just now being recognized for the horror it has become.

Lyme disease was named after the town of Lyme, Connecticut, where it was first identified in 1975. (Yes, it is Lyme, not Lyme’s disease.) Initially, it was named “Lyme arthritis” due to the presentation of atypical arthritis in children of that town. It took until 1977 to discover the “deer tick” was linked to the transmission of the disease.

It wasn’t until 1082 that the bacteria responsible for the disease were discovered by Dr. Willy Burgdorfer. The Spirochete, Borrelia Burgdorferi, named after him, and a cousin to the bacteria which causes syphilis, was the culprit in this disease.

Medical Tourism

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

The costs of medical care in the United States are spiraling upward at unsustainable rates. The monstrosity of regulations forced upon us in the legislation labeled Obamacare is making things much worse. There is no chance it will do an ounce of good.

Why are prices of medical services here in the US so high? Well, some say, we have the best care on earth, right? Our doctors are better trained, we have better facilities and therefore we have better outcomes, right? Actually, not right! We do not have better care for the money we spend. The US spends more on health care than the next 10 biggest spenders combined! AND, we rank last in terms of quality of care among those leading industrialized countries.

Slow Down & CHEW!

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

You’ve probably heard many a parent telling their children to stop eating so fast, slow down and chew your food. I used to hear it all the time growing up. I think I could have been done with my plate of food before Mom and Dad even started! I was in a hurry to get back outside and play.

Have you ever noted how people around you eat when you are at a restaurant?  Some eat slow and talk their way through a meal, while others are all business, get it in and get it down! I’ve often heard it said you should chew each bite 25 times. Whoever came up with that, I have no idea, but it sounds a bit like over kill to me. At that point why not just puree it?

Believe it or not, there really are physiological and psychological reasons to chew your food properly. What is properly chewing a bite of food? Well, I haven’t found anything to be too dogmatic about, and the amount each food needs masticated (chewed) obviously depends on what it is. It is not necessarily how many times you chew each bite, but how each morsel taken in ends up before you swallow it. Eating on the run or in front of the TV is not conducive to good food processing. Unfortunately, short school lunch periods and half hour lunches at work tend to force us into fast eating and a bad habit. You should eat purposefully, taking smaller bites, chewing slow and steady, and fully breaking down each bite until it has lost its basic texture. You need to finish chewing and swallow completely, prior to taking another bite. Do not wash your food down with liquid. That is not to say don’t drink with your meal, just don’t chew half way and wash it down with drink.

Fish Oil & Prostate Cancer

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

On July 10^th, the headline read, “Men Might Want to Shun Fish oils, Study Shows.” This new study from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center supposedly shows a link between increased EPA/DHA levels in the blood and prostate cancer risk. Given all the positive health effects linked to fish oil intake, this study definitely seems out of step with previously shown benefits.

As I have said before, always try to find out more about who did the study, how it was performed and if it has been repeated by others. I am no expert in these activities, but I have found a great article written by an expert, Dr. Michael Murray. He is a leading authority on natural medicine, and has written over 30 books on health and nutrition. Much of the following information is attributed to this article: “How a SELECTed Bad Study Became Big News,” written on July 12, 2013, and published online at GreenMedinfo.com.

Dr. Murray says the pedigree of this study is impressive. It was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and was conducted by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, WA. Yet, the data used is from the much maligned Selenium and Vitamin # Cancer Prevention Trial, or SELECT. That is the problem.

Colloidal Silver

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

For thousands of years health care practitioners and health minded people have been using the health benefits of silver to treat a myriad of human ailments. The ancient Phoenicians understood that keeping water, wine and vinegar in silver lined vessels maintained the freshness of each. Silver is a germicide and a disinfectant. It is a natural antibiotic, anti-viral and anti-fungal agent. The only problem is that our wonderful government agency, the FDA, does not agree. They decided in 1999 that all colloidal silver products sold over the counter are unsafe and mislabeled. They state they are unaware of any evidence to support its use for any serious disease. [www.FDA.gov/ohrms/dockets/98f/081799a.txt]

Recent research out of Boston University shows silver may be even more powerful than ever thought. They did studies which added silver to current antibiotics for the recent onset of resistant super bugs. What they found was that silver boosted the effectiveness of these antibiotics against super bugs by up to 1000 percent! This study was published in the “Science Translational Medicine Journal” in June 2013. Silver laced antibiotics proved particularly effective against those bugs that caused urinary tract and stomach conditions. Wow, this is great news, right? It would seem so, but when I think about it, I have just one more question. If silver is the reason these antibiotics work again, why not just use silver in the first place? Why do we need to add silver to some manmade chemical as a conduit,  just so big Pharma can patent it and make billions?

Genetically Modified Organisms

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) food is a hot topic in today’s world. GMO refers to any food product that has been altered at the gene level. GMO foods are often described with terms such as “genetically engineered”, “genetically altered”, or “genetically manipulated.”

The big corporate giants who engineer these seeds and foods say they are exactly like regular seeds and food. Nothing could be farther from the truth. They rationalize that hybridization of plants has been going on for centuries. They say they are just using higher technology to achieve the same thing faster. That argument is completely flawed, as the two techniques are vastly different and do not produce the same results.

Supplements - Part 2

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the last article, we saw that our food supply just isn’t what it used to be. Our soils are depleted of vital nutrients, and so is our food. We concluded that proper supplementation is necessary, even vital, to our good health.

Let’s start by looking at the major categories of supplements: synthetic, natural inorganic, natural organic and natural carbon based organic.

Synthetic vitamins: This type is manufactured in the laboratory and appears the same as natural vitamins in their atomic structure. However, they can be differentiated in the laboratory. Most Americans are taking this type of vitamin. Go to Wal-Mart and CVS, they are cheap! But, they are less bioavailable and the synthetic elements can actually end up being deposited and stored in extra cellular spaces, fatty tissue and interstitial fluids; where they reside, potentially causing toxicity and chronic disease.

Supplements - Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

If you think there is no difference between one vitamin supplement and the next, think again.

There is nothing more valuable than your health, just ask a sick person. No matter how much you love your house, your car or your hobbies, you won’t enjoy any of it without your health.

So, why do so many people simply buy whatever vitamin is the cheapest, easiest or fastest to get a hold of? If your health is a top priority, why would you settle for that? Do you buy the cheapest oil and old gas for a beautiful new car, just because you can save a buck? Then why buy a multivitamin with unknown effectiveness and inert ingredients?

Simply eating right isn’t enough anymore. Even the best diet falls short of adequate nutrition. Minerals are responsible for over 300 biochemical, life-sustaining reactions in the human body. The problem is, minerals are not found in the same abundance today as they used to be.

Back Pain

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

It is estimated that 80% of Americans will have chronic back pain (BP) at some point in their lives. At any point in time, over 30% of the population of adults will have back pain. Then why is it that only 7 to 10% of the population goes to the chiropractor?

People struggling with BP take many different paths to find relief, many of which have been proven ineffective. Debilitating symptoms cause some to resign themselves to a lifetime of prescription pain killers, steroid shots and even multiple surgeries. All of these have been proven less effective than alternative treatments such as spinal manipulation, exercises and massage.

In days of old, osteopathic doctors actually performed some spinal manipulation with adequate results. Today, there are very few osteopaths who even choose to learn it. Most have chosen the allopathic model of conventional medicine, and couldn’t care less about the roots of their profession. They have been absorbed by medicine.

Organic Sulfur - Part 2

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

In the last article, we started to look at a few of the many benefits of organic sulfur. Today, we will finish this topic with even more benefits of OS, and how and when to take it.

Hesh Goldstein says OS may help with emphysema by providing the body with the material needed to manufacture new healthy cells on the lung walls. There is also good evidence to suggest help with asthmatic cases, even proven to reverse countless cases.

OS makes cell walls more permeable, thereby flushing out toxins more easily and introducing nutrients to the cells more quickly. There are two practical problems this benefit can help overcome, one is hypoglycemia and the other is an alcohol hangover. First, hypoglycemic people can get blood sugar into cells more easily. Less insulin is then necessary for this process, resulting in less overuse of the pancreas. Within several months of using OS, hypoglycemia may be eliminated entirely. Secondly, for all you heathens who drink to excess, using OS causes the body to rapidly reduce and release alcohol toxins, removing them as waste: the process quickens recovery time from a ‘hangover’ to as little as twenty minutes.

Organic Sulfur - Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

I am always on the lookout for interesting health information. A few months back, I started reading articles on organic sulfur, aka methylsulfonylmethane or MSM. I’ve used MSM with many patients over the years. It helps with relief of pain from arthritis. What I didn’t know were the details of this crucial compound.

Every day the body needs about 750 mg of sulfur. Small amounts are found in water, fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products. Unless you consume mostly organic, raw foods, you are likely deficient in organic sulfur (OS). Anytime food is cooked, dehydrated, stored during shipping or refrigerated a length of time, it is depleted of most sulfur. This means pasteurized milk and any frozen veggies have no significant supply of sulfur. This is because OS bands with moisture and is carried away when dehydration occurs.

Dynamic Stretching

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

The calendar says spring is here. The weather channel begs to differ. As I write this, more snow is forecast, and spring seems a long way off! Thanks for nothing, Phil.

For now, thinking about spring and outdoor activities is all we can do. We look forward to getting back to our outdoor exercise regimen, whether it’s running, biking, softball or any other physical activity. How we ease into these activities has a big role in how long we will actually perform them before an injury occurs. Preventing injury is much preferred to recovering from an injury.

Warm-up activities are a must if you want to continue to be active, and minimize your risk of injury. You can’t stay healthy if you can’t perform your favorite activities.

Diatomaceous Earth

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Since we are (hopefully) coming into spring soon, my thoughts are turned to starting the garden. Over the last several years, I’ve tripled the size of my garden to grow a sizeable portion of our fresh produce. One of the challenges of every gardener is pest control. The big pests, like groundhogs, are easy to take care of – just shoot ‘em. It's the little munchers that are the problem. I really don't like using pesticides and chemicals at all, so I don't. I have found one chemical-free, nontoxic, edible product to use in controlling most insects, bugs, and worms. It is called Diatomaceous Earth, or DE.

Aspirin Therapy

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

For many years, doctors have been prescribing aspirin therapy as a cheap, effective way to reduce cardiovascular events and improve survival after a heart attack. Neither of these is true.

Even low dose aspirin therapy has serious side effects that, just like statin drugs for cholesterol, overshadow any supposed benefit. The evidence in support of aspirin has always been weak, and over the last decade it has become even weaker.

The benefit purported by medicine for taking aspirin is that of its antiplatelet activity. They say that it helps save lives by reducing deaths from heart attacks.

Alkalinity, Part 2

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Last week we learned that there is only one state of pH that our bodies can be in…and that is in the alkaline range of 7.35 to 7.45. There is no such thing as acid/alkaline balance, because acid destroys alkali and vice versa; pH is a number, not a ratio.

Now, we will see why the theory of getting your body more alkaline is one, not possible, and two, even if possible, would not rid you of disease as is claimed.

The body’s own immune system kills pathogens with an oxidation process using hypochlorous acid. Here’s how it works:

When a pathogen enters the body, and all systems respond properly, white blood cells, called neutrophils, attack the invader by engulfing it. Next, it produces an oxidant called hypochlorous acid, which is bioselective of certain organic materials, not all, and kills the pathogen immediately.

Alkalinity, Part 1

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

I want to touch on a trending ‘holistic’ fad that seems to be gaining a foot hold locally. It purports to offer positive, healthful, healing benefits; yet defies known, unalterable facts. This is a lesson in human anatomy and physiology facts. I am not talking right vs. wrong or truth vs. lies, just facts.

Today, I will try to explain this notion of body alkalinity vs. acidity. We have such things as alkaline water and alkaline diets being held up as the next great healers of disease. The problem is, there has never been one study done in 30 years of this claim, to show any benefit, or if it can be accomplished at all. I submit, it can not.

It is not my agenda to push a belief. A belief is defined as "a state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.” I believe Jesus walked on this earth. That is statement of belief. I didn't see Him, talk to Him or touch Him. I simply choose to believe others accounts that did. Statements of fact sound like these: The earth has gravitational pull; a loss of oxygen to the brain for mere seconds will kill you; the ph of the body is 7.4, and never varies more than 1% either way, or you will die. Don’t just believe me, check the facts for yourself.

Flu - Here We Go Again!

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Here we go again, the ‘flu season’ is here. These articles on the flu are a broken record. Every year we hear the same misinformation from our wonderful government agencies, and it’s reported like gospel in the media. The USA is officially in a flu panic right now. The CDC (again) reports the worst flu pandemic in a decade. Didn’t we just hear that about the avian flu a few years ago? They urge any and all living beings to be vaccinated yet again.

How many years of hearing this baloney will it take for people to realize the flu vaccine is becoming quite the laughing stock. The most recent article on Saturday, January 12, 2013, in The Daily Item, says this season’s vaccine is “well matched… and still available.” Jump for joy? The next line says, “It is 62% effective… which is pretty good for a flu vaccine.” What? The gospel message is that if you get the shot, you won’t get the disease, right? So, if 62% is a good year, what is a bad year? In school, that’s a failing grade.

Genetically Modified Foods

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

This week we are going to discuss a relatively hot topic in health conscious circles. The debate over genetically modified foods (GMO’s) is contentious, to say the least.

Here in the good old USA, there are no standards by which companies must adhere when it comes to informing the consumer what a specific product actually contains. In California, Proposition 37 was defeated by big corporations. It would have required truth in labeling, ensuring that consumers were told of any genetically engineered ingredients contained in a product. General Mills donated over 1.1 million dollars to help defeat this common sense requirement.