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.