Life styles of human being have changed hugely over the past two centuries. This started about two hundred years ago with industrial revolution. Use of oil and energy created another big change because these changed the pace of life fto very fast. These changes provided a lot of conveniences and luxuries but they have also changed our eating habits, which has adversely affected our health because our genes have been used to what our ancestors were used to for thousands of years. These conveniences have caused unintended consequences because of sedentary life style hence increasing risks to human health.

Let us see some of the changes that have damaged our health:

Over Abundance of Calories and Carbohydrates:

Few thousand years ago our ancestors lived on hunted food and gathered wild plants vegetables. This consisted mostly of protein and fat. Agricultural revolution brought us abundance of carbohydrate in our diet. High fructose corn syrup was added only 50 years ago. This is causing increased disease load in people with diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Lack of Exercises:

Cars and means of communications are added to our lives just about 100 years ago. Fastest means of transport was horse or camel until then. Now we have become sedentary and non-active with cars and airplanes. Remote-controls fax and internet has made us even worse. Our daily walking used lot of calories in past, which has disappeared and those who are conscious of it now need gyms to work out.

Lack of sunshine and Vitamin D:

With facilities of air conditioning and fast transport our exposure to sun has been severely curtailed. In developed world a substantial percentage of us are hence Vitamin D deficient. This is causing a number of illnesses like depression, Alzheimer’s and cancers. Pundits say that Vitamin D is not only a vitamin but an enzyme that works on every cell of the body.

Radiation:

Our experimentation with radiation is also only about a century old when we started finding the radioactive isotopes. Our experience of radiation started with bombing of Japan in WWII and then three accidents in nuclear reactors since then. With such minimal experience we are thinking to embark on having major part of our need of electricity with nuclear power plants, which is frightening.

Genetically Modified (GM) foods:

We have embarked on this without enough experience and we do not know how it may hurt us. We need to know its long term implications before it is allowed universally.

Hormone supported animal rearing:

Major part of our meat and chicken now comes from farms where hormones and unknown chemical feed stocks are used to fatten the birds and animals. These substances are consumed by us every day with our food.

Chemicals and fertilizers:

These are now major industries to provide us food. The chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides are ingested by us with our food on daily basis. Aside from that the chemicals produced in industries as by-products are disposed in water channels eventually consumed by humans through fish meals.

Possible ways to avoid damage to our health:

1. We should avoid excessive calories and carbohydrate to avoid diseases.
2. We all need to exercise regularly to keep fit, burn calories and avoid insulin resistance.
3. We need to make our own natural Vitamin D by exposing ourselves to sunlight for a few hours a day.
4. It is wrong to allow something in our food like GM foods, about which we do not know enough. We must discourage its use until we are sure.
5. Natural and synthetic chemicals are growing in number by millions. We should restrict use of unknown chemicals and of those known to hurt.
6. Radiation is a new issue from last century. We have accepted its use despite that we know it causes cancer. We need to have more information about it.
   

“Let Food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)

We must use logic, reasoning and common sense to stop hurting our health.

Let us look at a few facts: Mankind has been living on this planet for many millions of years if you believe in theory of evolution or about ten thousand years if you believe in religious scriptures, from Adam and Eve until now. Either way, we see first mention of sugar in history 500 AD and not before. People used to eat all that was available on daily basis, hunted animals and birds to berries, plant leaves and berries.

So it seems that for thousands of years our ancestors must have had a moderate amount of carbohydrates in vegetables and berries but sugar from sugar cane  started only about 1500 years ago and that from beet just over a hundred years ago. Separated fructose is yet more recent innovation of 1960s from Japan and very quickly picked up by beverage industries because it is sweeter than sugar and yet cheaper than that.

Beverage and fruit juice industries made fructose so prevalent that sweet taste has not become only human weakness but probably turned into an addiction also. Hence sugars, which was not part of our diet for most of our existence on this planet has relatively suddenly become the main component of our calorie consumption.

Yet another fact is lost in history is that in 1931 Otto Heinrich Warburg was awarded Nobel Prize for the discovery of the fact that cancer cells thrive on glucose. Since then a number of alternate therapies of cancer have been tested with this discovery in mind with some success. Using Laetrile (bitter almonds and apricot pits), which contains Nitriloside is one of them. It is claimed that Nitriloside combines with Beta-Glucosidase, an enzyme within cancer cells and create Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde, both of which are poisons. As these are released within the cancer, they kill the cancer cells. Nitriloside rich foods include apricot kernels, lima beans, sprouts, lentils, black-eyed peas, walnuts, brown rice, black berries etc. Another is Hydrazine Sulfate (HS) promoted by Dr Joseph Gold a research scientist of NASA. He promoted HS to stop glycogenesis (formation of glucose from protein) to starve cancer cells.

Despite that we know this relationship of cancer and glucose, our sugar consumption has grown four times per capita in the past one hundred years; some literature puts this increase to almost 400 times in last 200 years. Fructose syrup, which is recent innovation of 1960s, has taken up half of sugar’s place in our intake.

All the serious diseases like Diabetes, Obesity, Cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer, ADD and Cancers seem to be increasing in same proportion as the increase of sugar and Carbohydrate consumption. And increased sugar consumption is directly related to our new life style indulging in fast foods, processed grains, Vit D deficiency, increased exposure to various chemicals and man-made radiation.

We must plan seriously to prevent the increasing disease load. We may not have a direct proof but there are no doubts that all the circumstantial evidence points to the increased sugar consumption as primary reason for increasing diseases load along with other factors for our present dilemma.

I received an article circulated by email from an old friend Mr. Majyd aziz, who has remained President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries, largest organization representing the business community in Pakistan. Without any doubt his views are the views of the business community of Pakistan, which makes up majority of population of Pakistan.

No sane person in this world can condone that two neighbors like India and Pakistan should ever live in a strained relationship, let alone wage several wars more in the past 60 years, not counting many other serious interlocution between the armies on several more occasions. Both countries are nuclear power and a misunderstanding or accident can cause havoc not only for these two countries but for the region and even for the world. Both countries and particularly Pakistan has been spending a substantial part of its GDP on the defense for past many decades because India is considered to be the enemy on the border, thus robbing the poor public of the possible infrastructure, education and health facilities, electricity and even potable water.

Everything that Majyd Aziz has said in the article that is reproduced below, not only stands to reason, I feel it is the deep desire of every common man in Pakistan right from the time of partition despite he fact that many people lost their assets and some lost lives of their loved ones. He has eluded very rightly that emotionally charged attitudes because of personal losses suffered by some people of influence in Pakistan and not being able to see the reason and adopt a logical approach has caused  failure of creating a peace. Kashmir dispute has also remained an ongoing reason for the acrimony between the two countries to increase.

Well, as we write this, thank God we are witnessing the distance between two countries seem to be narrowing. Pakistan has decided to reciprocate the most favored nation status to India. This will help both countries and their citizenry. If anything, the implementation of these moves should be hastened to bring about peace and tranquility to both countries, region and the world. Let us hope that the ever present issue of Kashmir also gets resolved in this friendly atmosphere.

Here is the article of Mr. Majyd Aziz:

Lessons from Indian Army for Indo-Pak Businessmen

 By: Majyd Aziz

Former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry

I was attending a meeting as part of the 80-member Pakistan Business Delegation led by Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim in September 2011. During the visit I noticed strategically placed billboards by the Indian Army. Each billboard had one of the three touching and significant slogan as it depicted the vision of the Indian Army.

I wrote down these motivating slogans. I realized that though these slogans were about Indian Army, they were remarkably applicable to businessmen of India and Pakistan both, especially with the prevalent “feel good” environment.

Their first slogan is “Empower your dreams”. For so many decades, the Indo-Pak businessmen, as well as their business organizations, have been demanding the normalization of bilateral trade regime and increase in trade and, hopefully, in investment. The desire has always been unhindered movement of businessmen across the border as well as longer duration, multiple visas without any limitations and restrictions. They want to see the day when there would be substantial bilateral trade ensuing very soon into a favorable and mutually beneficial Free Trade Agreement. This has been the vision for many years and now the time has come for a formidable and sincere campaign to achieve this objective. The visit of the Pakistan Business Delegation in September and the expected 200-members Indian Business Delegation led by Indian Commerce Minister Shri Anand Sharma in February of 2012 would surely be the way in which the dreams would really be empowered.

The second slogan is “They march with melodious precision”. Businessmen and industrialists on both sides of Pakistan’s eastern borders have been on the same page and not only have the yearning to undertake extensive bilateral trade but are passionate about their patriotism and their demand for joint ventures, technical transfers, and a common approach to trading with third countries. They have unanimity of views and are willing to support each other on an individual level and even at international forums. This is imperative as the time has come for them to accept that lot of water has flowed under the bridge while the hardliners and negative forces in both the countries have created a state of despondency, misery, and hatred for far too long. That is one reason why it is important for entrepreneurs as well as workers and employees that the anti-business forces must be silenced and sidelined and that the advancement on the avenue of prosperity, progress and peace is largely dependent if they make headway with their own mind-set of trust, purpose, and strength. This would then truly be a harmonious march.

The third slogan is “Poised for victory”. Fifteen years after India granted Most Favored Nation status to Pakistan, a decision has been taken in Islamabad to reciprocate. Thirty five years passed by before any Pakistani Commerce Minister took a trip to New Delhi. After initially erecting unnecessary roadblocks at WTO against the GSP+ incentives for 75 textile items announced by European Union to assist Pakistan, the Indian government unilaterally decided not only to withdraw objections but also to support Pakistan’s case. Recently, India wholeheartedly assisted Pakistan at the United Nations enabling Pakistan to obtain the mandatory two-third votes essential for becoming member of the Security Council. Inspite of its own infrastructure shortages, India proposed to sell 500 mw of electricity to meet shortages this side of the border. Moreover, Premier Dr Manmohan Singh categorically assured Pakistan’s Commerce Minister that India would honor the Indus Water Treaty. India also is spending billions to upgrade the infrastructure at the Wagah border and this would result in the movement of over 1000 trucks every day.

Pakistan too has moved forward. The frequent meetings of the two Prime Ministers at the sidelines of high profile global forums has thawed the ice and enabled the Ministers and officials to make positive moves for the better. Recently, when an Indian Air Force helicopter entered Pakistan’s territory, the military did not take action but honorably allowed them to return to their base in India. Pakistan needs cheaper oil and favorably priced raw material for domestic industries. Pakistan also requires comparably priced machinery for upgrading its local industries. All these are possible from India. Pakistan understands that India and China have done wonders in bilateral trade and are expected to cross $ 100 billion by 2013 and that the possibility of Pakistan taking advantage of trilateral trade and investment is apparent. Pakistan knows that in the global trade scenario, stagnation and isolation are not prudent because the water is rising and it has to be plugged otherwise there would be the threat of drowning in the global deluge. Thus the only way to plug it is to think global and trade openly.

Yes, businessmen of India and Pakistan must pay heed to the messages on the billboards in the cantonment area of New Delhi. The messages are loud and clear. There is no turning back. At the same time, governments of both the countries must shed their paranoia, at least with regards to facilitation of bilateral trade and investment. India must recognize that a stable Pakistan is also in her own interest. India must also take the lead in accepting that billions spent on defense and security matters means that millions of human beings are kept in perpetual poverty, suffering, and deprivation. Jobs and quality of life should be the paramount priority. And, for the Indian Army, a short and sweet advice, with truly a sincere hope. The next time I am in New Delhi, the third slogan would have been amended from “poised for victory” to “poised for peace” because the two business communities would, by that time, have ensured that for sure.

MAJYD AZIZ November 09, 2011

MHG GROUP OF COMPANIES

D/49, SITE, KARACHI-75700

Cell: (92-300) 826-1969 

Email:  majydaziz@gmail.com

I watch with stunned feelings the following issues faced by mankind on our planet earth:

a)     Increase of disease load in last century, like diabetes, obesity, heart problems, metabolic syndrome, depression, Alzheimer and cancers.

b)     Man made radiation has increased our exposure to it by almost 25% in the past century or so.

c)     Population explosion on this planet; from few millions about 2000 years ago, to about one billion 200 years ago, to just over 2 billion in 1950, to seven billion in 2011, projected to rise to ten billion in few decades.

Here are my suggestions of possible response to the above issues as follows:

1. We humans are most intelligent on this planet. We must try connecting the dots and start having some plans to intelligently face this and correct our course. I am convinced that the disease conditions are caused by our modern sedentary life style, excessive intake of calories with high intake of starch, sugars and fructose, Vit D deficiencies, genetically modified foods, artificially fattened animals and poultry with corn and bovine growth hormones, and intake of chemicals via excessive use of fertilizers, pesticides and preservatives and byproduct waste of industries reaching our drinking water.
2. Our experience with radiation is only about 100 years old. Yet we are dealing with ionizing radiation of nuclear energy so very casually despite the fact that we all know of proven association of radiation with cancers. We seem to disregard the disastrous outcome of nuclear exposures in wars and accidents compared with its limited use in energy generation, medical diagnostics and irradiation.
3. For population increase I do not have any specific answers because it is an emotive issue. However, we all know this is already causing stress on all our needs and resources aside from conflicts and wars due to that. This issue is differently perceived by nations. In Western world the population has either negative growth or is increasing very slowly. In developing world the increase is very fast. Some countries are taking measures to slow it by family planning but attitudes differ vastly. Best example is Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were one country only about 40 years ago. Pakistan is one of the fastest increasing populations, whereas Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) has slowed down their increase very successfully by inculcating right attitude particularly amongst women who practice family planning.

Then there are other issues that have been identified of late. They are:

• Global warming and green house gases causing wild climate changes. This issue needs to have a global consensus, as to how do we address this. Every country has to agree to the right methods practiced together to succeed.
• Industrial waste being discharged into rives causing chemicals and mercury build-up in sea foods making them unfit for human consumption. Many pundits are predicting the wars for drinking water. Despite the fact that two thirds of planet surface is water, the potable water is scarce and we need to find ways to make more available to us.
• Monarchies and dictatorships disappearing giving way to democracies, hence liberating populations with or without experience of governance and economy like in China and former USSR. Again the UNO needs to have a plan to train the new nations on how to govern themselves equitably to avoid further wars and destruction.
• US bill of rights is the hall mark of aspiration for all suppressed people in the world. But it also being misused in the shape of too much freedom with very little responsibility. Unless the freedom is exercised with responsibility and moderation it will go awry and become the enemy of itself.

These topics need to be discussed by all concerned and intelligentsias; and a definition of moderation in all respect ought to be spelt out.

We all need to think through and definitely change our life styles to avoid diseases and cancers. First step would be to eat right, raw and natural as our ancestors did. Personally cancers weigh heavy on my mind because of personal losses in family. I also suggest we reconsider our relationship with nuclear energy. Going through the medical literature and history, I am convinced that most of these diseases are preventable and even reversible.

It is important to preserve and promote health and well being of mankind and our progeny. This may allow us to enjoy blessings of benefits of recent innovations of past two centuries and affluence that we enjoy because of it. I believe if we did not act wisely now, we may endanger the life on this planet by ongoing deterioration of health, invitation to diseases, scarcity of resources, wars due to it and /or a nuclear accident. This sounds apocalyptic but we all know that this is not only a distinct possibility but some of this is already happening. With possibility of such disastrous outcome, we need to approach all this with comprehensive strategy to avoid reaching a point of no return.

At a central level like that United Nations, all countries need to practice its charter and assist each other to avoid mutual suspicion and problems arising from that.

Even after practicing modern scientific medicine and surgery for over 30 years I found a large number of facts about systems of medicine not quite clear to me. Hence I started digging and found a wealth of information as to how modern medicine developed and how recent it is. I am recounting my new knowledge here, which may also be useful to you.

Origin of Allopathy: Traditional medicine practiced in Europe in early 1800s was named Allopathic medicine by a German homeopathic physician , Dr Samuel Hahnemann in 1807 AD. He saw that  traditional medicine included practice of bloodletting, leeching, purging, and other similar procedures. Hahnemann was distressed about such practices that was neither doing much good to patients nor had they a lot of basis. Aside from that the principle of traditiona medicine is and was diagonally opposite to his homeopathy. Allopathic means treating symptoms and Hahnemann called it so because his homeopathy system did just the opposite and treated patients by prescribing remedies, which will create in the patient the symptoms of disease by giving him very small ultra diluted ingredient to cause disease itself.

Origin of Conventional Modern Medicine: Many practitioners of Modern system does not like the name “Allopathic” because it does not give true picture of what it represents these days. Hence the allopathic system is now called Conventional, Modern, Scientific or Evidence Based Medicine. It does many more things than just treating symptoms, as it did in Hahnemann’s days two hundred years ago; it has added prevention, vaccination, use of antibiotics and employing surgery. It is the scientific basis of conventional or modern medicine that allows replicating the results in different patients with similar conditions when treated with same medicines.

Are other systems Quackery? Not really: In late 1950s when we were medical students (of today’s conventional medicine, which is still loosely referred to as allopathic medicine), if someone talked about acupuncture,  yoga or manipulation of back, some of us will outright ridicule it when others would laugh at such procedures. That was because we were biased with the scientific or conventional medicine and were indoctrinated to think that only the evidence based system is correct and that every other system are quackery. This was despite the fact that until 200 years ago this conventional medicine did not even exist and most of the cultures in different countries had adopted their own systems of medicines and remedies, mostly herbal and empirical.

United Nation’s Guidelines: The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – article 34 on The right to the highest attainable standard of health E/C.12/2000/4 of 11 August 2000 states that  “Furthermore, obligations to respect include a State’s obligation to refrain from prohibiting or impeding traditional preventive care, healing practices and medicines, from marketing unsafe drugs and from applying coercive medical treatments, unless on an exceptional basis for the treatment of mental illness or the prevention and control of communicable diseases.”

What is Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM): In the last century Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has found a place in the holistic treatment of many patients. In the USA the National Institute of Health, which is the umbrella organization for all health and medical issues, has The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) as its integral entity. The term Complementary and Alternative Medicine is generally used to describe practices used independently. When these are used in conjunction with Conventional or Modern medical system, it is called ‘Integrative’ or ‘Integrated Medicine’. It also includes preventive medicine and patient centered medicine. It may also include practices not normally referred to as medicine, such as using prayer, meditation, socializing, and recreation as therapies.

Classification of CAM: National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) classifies CAM therapies into five major groups:

1. Whole medical systems: These include Traditional Chinese medicine, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Ayurveda

2. Mind-body medicine: This is a holistic approach to health that explores the interconnection between the mind, body, and spirit. It works under the premise that the mind can affect bodily functions and symptoms.

3. Biology-based practices: These use substances found in nature such as herbs, foods, vitamins, and other natural substances.

4. Manipulative and body-based practices: These feature manipulation or movement of body parts, such as is done in chiropractic and osteopathic manipulation

5. Energy medicine: This is a domain that deals with verifiable energy fields like

a)      Biofield therapies that influence energy fields that surround and penetrate the body.

b)     Bioelectromagnetic-based therapies use verifiable electromagnetic fields.

CAM SUPPORTERS: There are many supporters of the CAM within modern medicine practitioners. They think that the Modern medicine has a space for CAM to be integrated in the treatment plan of many conditions. For example:

Cochrane Collaboration is a group of volunteers in many countries who review the effects of health care interventions tests and their biomedical randomized controlled trials.

Dr. Andrew T. Weil is a leading proponent of CAM. He even goes further and says that “integrative medicine” is not synonymous with complementary and alternative medicine. It has a far larger meaning and mission in that it calls for restoration of the focus of medicine on health and healing and emphasizes the centrality of the patient-physician relationship. He also believes that appropriate use of conventional and CAM methods allow patient participation, promotion of health as well as treatment of disease by natural, minimally-invasive methods.

CAM OPPONENTS:  Those who oppose CAM, calls it to be fake or quackery. For example;

The United States’ National Science Foundation has defined alternative medicine as “all treatments that have not been proven effective using scientific methods.”

Institute of Medicine (IOM): In a consensus report released in 2005, entitled Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States, IOM defined CAM as the non-dominant approach to medicine in a given culture and historical period.

UK Department of Health Has also adopted a similar definition for CAM^.

Wallace Sampson, an editor of “Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine” and a Stanford University professor of medicine write that CAM is the “propagation of the absurd” based on the example that alternative and complementary have been substituted for quackery, dubious and implausible and concerns that CAM tolerates contradiction without thorough reason and experiment.

Homeopathy seems to draw most negative comments on CAM. It is because the Homeopathy principles in which the ultra diluted remedy may not contain any active ingredient at all and for such remedies to have pharmacological effect  would violate fundamental principles of science.

Integrative, Complementary and Fringe Medicine: Integrative Medicine is the combination of the practices and methods of alternative/complementary medicine with conventional medicine. Its academic proponents sometimes recommend misleading patients by using known placebo treatments in order to achieve a placebo effect. However, a 2010 survey of family physicians found that 56% of respondents said they had used a placebo in clinical practice as well. Eighty-five percent of respondents believed placebos can have both psychological and physical benefits. A number of universities and hospitals have departments of integrative medicine. The opponents of CAM also call the traditional Chinese medicine like acupuncture as pseudoscience. And despite of such views, the Chinese traditional medicine is still flourishing as can be viewed from in this UTube video; Hongchi Xiao Beyond 2012 UTube, Tao Medicine, traditional Chinese medicine.

However, because of such doubts, the modern homeopaths have proposed that water has a memory that allows homeopathic preparations to work without any of the original substance; however, there are neither verified observations nor scientifically plausible physical mechanisms for such a phenomenon.

My take on CAM and my comments:

• I have done a small poll of my own and found that as many as 90% of people in the poll had used CAM by itself or along with modern medicine.
• Recent study in US amongst doctors and nurses shows as much as 66% of them uses CAM.
• No one should underrate the importance and efficacy of evidence based medicine.
• Proponents of CAM are also strong and many positive results are obtained by its use.
•  Infections, conditions that may benefit from surgery, for proper diagnosis and getting to the root of the condition scientific medicine must be used.
• Life style conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and life threatening conditions must be seen and diagnosed by scientific medical doctor.
• Patient may eventually choose the form of treatment method for themselves.
• CAM definitely has a place in the treatment of humans; after all many scientific medicines are the result of research of the other systems and then including the same in modern medicine.
• I wonder if water itself has some “magical” attributes, which does something that we need to understand by research to understand the benefit from the homeopathic remedies, since they all contain no active ingredient but only water or alcohol.
• It is apparent that people use CAM in all sorts of diseases from Diabetes, Heart diseases, Depression and even into cancer treatment.

Should you allow your children to have silver amalgam?

Decide it yourselves, here are some pertinent facts.

In this article:

•  Why is this discussion important?
•  Why the controversy?
•  Who is right?
•  My take on this subject

Introduction:

Filling started by some French, who brought it to the USA in 1930s. The filling, which has been named “silver filling”, has almost always been more than half mercury alloy. As per Wikipedia  article within the first decade it was deprecated by the American society of dental Surgeons (ASDS) and was declared malpractice because of its mercury content, which was known to be harmful. In the past 30 years or so the controversy is because there are some resin composites are available to replace the old mercury filling but Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and American Dental Association (ADA) are not budging from their position of supporting silver mercury filling and not recommending the new resin compound. The controversy continues after 150 years, when many patients remains either ignorant or confused.

Why is it important to common citizens?

Population of the world is coming to nearly seven billion humans. Everyone has 32 teeth. Many of them get affected by caries. Many need root canals and dental filling. Depending upon available facilities to treat the patients there are an awful lot of people who will have filling in their lives. The filling normally stays in the tooth for the rest of the life. Mercury is known to emit vapors in people using chewing tobacco or gums or suffering from teeth grinding. The vapors are inhaled and are toxic to brain and kidney. Its placement in teeth is too close to brain and nerves for comfort to many and hence raising an outcry. It is also important to some extent that silver amalgam is durable, cheaper and easy and hence perhaps has FDA and ADA support.

Yet another issue is the disposal of mercury amalgam at its removal or death of person, which adds mercury load of sewerages and environment, which is a concern. Additionally there may be some other issues due to filling in patients, including allergies and immunotoxicity.

Who is right?

As per another Wikipedia article, there has been much review of literatures without any definitive conclusion, though it seems perhaps slightly leaning against the filling. The WHO reports  that mercury from amalgam accounts for 5% of total mercury emissions and that when combined with waste mercury from laboratory and medical devices represents 53% of total mercury emissions. Use of mercury dental amalgam has been banned in Scandinavian countries. Other countries are looking into restricting its use.  Many health problems are alleged to be caused by amalgam are chronic illnesses, oral lesions, birth defects, mental disorders, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and multiple sclerosis.  Some dentists feel so strongly that they advise removal of mercury filling, which is advised to be done as per protocol, which is elaborate and expensive.

Some people feeling strongly about the mercury amalgam have sued FDA. In response in 2009 the FDA’s Ass. Comm. Randall Lutter and Charlie Brown negotiated and, for the first time, the FDA issued this frank and serious warning about amalgam on their website: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses.”

Dr Mercola is strong proponent of Consumers for Dental Choice founded by Charlie Brown, which are striving hard to take on FDA to ban mercury amalgam.

MY Take and Comments on the issue:

1. Despite the fact that silver mercury amalgam is used for over 150 years, there has not been any definitive study and adverse outcome. This does not mean though that three are not any risks.
2. I would personally not accept mercury amalgam to be used in my children or grand children because elf a long time that they have to live with it.
3. Almost a third to half of dental surgeons in USA has already stopped using mercury amalgam. But you need to ask to confirm. My Dental surgeon Dr Ayeez Lalji of Royal Dental   and of Anderson Dental Group  tells me that he has not been using mercury amalgam since 1992.
4. New composite resins are yet to be studies and its untoward effect, if any, needs to be brought to light.
5. I would not have my mercury filling removed and changed to new resins for myself because I feel I am past that age to have its benefits and that I have had its adverse effects by now, which has not been overtly many.
6. If there is any definitive indication of adverse effects of mercury amalgam, yes, I would have it removed or changed to resin.

Five lifestyle factors linked to lower Diabetes risk.

United States National Institute of Health (NIH) press release September 5, 2011; here is the summary:

A new analysis of data collected from more than 200,000 adults for 11 years has found that a combination of five healthy lifestyle factors is associated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The research team, led by Jared Reis, Ph.D., of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, found that

Each factor people incorporate into their lives may lower their diabetes risk by about 31 percent for men and 39 percent for women, while all five factors together may lower risk by about 80 percent.

The lifestyle factors the team examined were following:

Healthy diet,

Maintaining an optimal body weight,

Engaging in recommended amounts of physical activity,

Minimal alcohol use and

Not smoking.

The study suggests that being overweight or obese is the strongest lifestyle determinant for whether a person develops diabetes, but that those who are already overweight or obese may still be able to reduce their risk by adopting other healthy lifestyle factors.

The study also found that while family history of diabetes is strongly linked to the disease, people may be able to largely prevent or delay diabetes by leading a healthy lifestyle. In other words, said Reis, their risk may not be “predetermined” by genetics.

The study will be published in the September 6 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Dr. Reis, contact the NHLBI Office of Communications at 301-496-4236 or nhlbi_news@nhlbi.nih.gov.

My comments:

Well, the truth about Diabetes has been spoken by the ultimate authority of the US, the NIH. Happily though, all that has been identified and suggested by NIH is easy, simple, logical and appealing to common sense. Now the onus is on us to follow such a simple guide line and reduce the prevalence of diabetes to a large extent and/or delay it. Let me also add that if we can prevent or delay diabetes, a large portion of our disease load and its complications will also be reduced. This will also reduce incidences of heart diseases, strokes, depression, Alzheimer’s and even cancers, since without much doubt they all seem to be interconnected with diabetes.

I have been strong proponent of life style correction to prevent diseases. I am fairly certain after reading a lot of medical literature, that we invite many diseases by adopting wrong and faulty life styles, or accepting modern amenities and affluence in large doses. Examples of these, aside from those studied by NIH are:

Excessive calories intake,

High carbohydrate diet,

Additional fructose addition in our diet,

Avoidance of sun light causing Vit D deficiency,

Excessive radiation exposure,

Excessive chemicals around us and in our food,

Artificially fattened animal meat and poultry,

Sedentary life style

Inactivity promoting devices like motorized and electronic communication etc.

I would agree that we all would like to enjoy the fruits of our successes and adopt modern amenities. However, we must think twice before accepting almost anything that lead us to artificial and unnatural life style since these are bound to increase disease load in human beings in this and next generations.

WE NEED SIMPLE USE OF OUR COMMON SENSE TO PROMOTE HEALTH & PROTECTION FROM DISEASES

Today everyone in their middle age and keeping up to date with recent trends would know that our life styles have changed from hard working and rural to sedentary and urban, almost all over the world in the past century. This has become a source of worry and a reason to think ahead to find some amicable way for our survival with good health and good quality of life.

Let us see some facts as we know:

1. From the medical literature and general observation we all know that prevalence of conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, Alzheimer’s depression and cancer are on rise.
2. Of these, obesity, diabetes and heart diseases are so prevalent that they are reaching almost epidemic proportions.
3. All literature points to the fact that these diseases are increasing more and more as we change our life styles from rural to urban and from hard working to sedentary.
4. We know that these changes have started to occur with industrial revolution about 150 years ago. We have seen the disease load to follow after 20 to 30 years of our each change in life styles.
5. Fast food, excessive calorie diet, high fructose intake, low fat or no fat craze causing high Carb intake, which started middle of 1900s also was followed by increased Diabetes and obesity in 20 years or so.
6. Sedentary life style has been followed by all diseases mentioned above roughly similar 20 to 30 years lag period.
7. Less exposure to sun due to our new habit of staying in air conditioned spaces and working indoors causes Vit D deficiency; a high percentage of population of Western world suffers from this.Vit D deficiency is now touted to be the cause of almost all the diseases mentioned above.
8. We have allowed our poultry and meat to be mass produced by bovine growth hormones, antibiotic and genetically modified corn fed animals to fatten them up quickly.
9. We are deficient in essential fatty acids like omega 3 because of low quality fat produced in such animals and poultry.
10. Our agricultural products are now laden with chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides.
11. In our daily lives we use petrochemicals in massive quantities; these are all new to our human genes since they all came into existence sometime in 1900s.
12. Our factories are discharging toxic waste in rivers polluting fish with high PCBs and mercury contents, Talking about mercury, half our dentists are still using amalgams, called “silver” fillings, which contains toxic  mercury, which stays only a few inches from brain all our life. This is despite the fact that the FDA has banned use of mercury in animals; it is not banned for use humans in amalgams.
13. If we plot a graph, the prevalence of diseases is directly correlated with usage of all these unnatural food or chemical.
14. We have started using genetically modified foods during past century with little or no effort to find out its untoward effects on our health and life.
15. Add to this the impact of radiation, our new love to rule the world with. We seem to be heading towards a catastrophe to human lives and perhaps for planet also. Until about 1900 the radiation load on planet was all natural from cosmic rays and boron gas from radium. Presently the natural radiation is same, but we have some 19% additional “man made radiation” to deal with, used in medical field and nuclear reactors.

We need to use our natural common sense to recognize as to which of the modern facility and affluence we need. We also need to understand much is it hurting us and how can we keep on using the modernity, while at the same time we do not harm ourselves, and other lives on the planet. If we did not think about this proactively, it is quite possible that we are crossing the tipping point and a line of no return and that we might be endangering all the lives on the planet bringing them to extinction with some unforeseen accident.

We have several examples of such civilizations disappearing and we do not have any way of finding their accomplishments and why they got extinct. I intend to write on each of these 15 subjects in due course, though some of them are overlapping. These are being researched and will be presented to you soon.

ALL ABOUT EXERCISES AND THEIR BENEFITS

Consult your doctor before embarking on any exercise program

Modern Life Style:

One of the prices that we are paying for the modern life style is “profound inactivity” in our daily life. Industrial revolution brought in the system wherein people work for large industries and their corporate offices. Those who worked for themselves or in industries preserved the manual activities to some extent. But those people working in offices and shops gradually have gotten used to sedentary life styles. Other facilities like remote controls, garage door openers, and pilot lights in stoves etc went further in people taking to chairs and becoming couch potatoes.

Our Genetics:

Our bodies are used to and made to have regular activities. In olden days there were no gyms and they were not necessary either, because people would do enough activities during the day. People used all body muscles to do hard work almost all day. They walked long distances because the fastest ride used to be a horse or camel. As the sedentary life set in late 1800s, people got used to inactivity. This probably has become the cause of many diseases like cardio vascular diseases, diabetes, obesity etc. We need to correct our life styles and get back to activities through sports or exercises to maintain our health.

Popularity of Fitness clubs:

It seems that the fitness gyms started sometime around 1950s. By that time the sedentary life styles started creating adverse effects on the health. Public awareness increased with the medical advice. Those who were used to doing a lot of manual work did not need this. But those who were working in offices needed such facilities.

Benefits of any exercises;

Exercise of any kind will help circulation of blood in the body and will generally make you feel good. If nothing else a stroll or a walk in the neighborhood for about half an hour a day will help. If you are overweight or have tendency to be obese, or have diseases like coronary artery, blood pressure, diabetes, burning calories by cardio exercises and resistance exercises are important and makes your muscle better tuned for insulin by reducing insulin resistance.

Objectives of work out and fitness activities:

To keep body active

To lose weight

To increase heart rate to a maximal level

To replace fat in muscles with more and larger muscle fibers containing protein

To reduce insulin resistance in muscle for better utilization of glucose

To meet above objectives usually two different types of workouts are suggested; Let us try and understand the details of such exercises.

Cardio exercises

Objective of cardio exercise is twofold,

a)      To burn calories: You need to have some goal of burning calories every day. I burn about 150 calories in about 20 to 30 minutes on a trade mill.

b)      To increase heart rate within a safe range: This is important to understand thoroughly, because otherwise, you may do more harm than good. You must have a pulse meter on the machine and keep the heart rate checked. Some people use old method of counting pulse in neck artery during exercise for ten seconds and multiply by six to get heart rate per minute. There is a generic formula that can be used by almost all. However, those with heart conditions must check with their doctors for their ideal maximum heart rate. Formula is 220 – (minus) your age = Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) that you should ever reach. If you have heart conditions you must get advice of your doctor. To start with you may reach upto 80% of MHR and gradually over few weeks reach upto to 90% of the MHR. For example I am 70, so 220 minus 70 = 150 may be my MHR. I stay between 120 and 135. 120 is 80% and 135 is 90% of 220, which is MY MHR. You must calculate yours.

In my personal case, while doing cardio exercise, after a little warm up, I start on the tread mill with maximum incline (which is usually 15) and a slow speed of 3 miles per hour. As my heart rate rises to my MHR of 120 to 135, I reduce the speed to 2.5 miles and then if necessary also reduce incline to keep the heart rate within my predetermined range.

I see many persons running at 5 or 6 miles an hour with zero incline. They may be training for marathon run or championships. I do not intend to run any marathon do not wish to damage my joints at high speeds of running. So, if 2.5 miles raises my heart rate to my MHR range with proper incline, I do not see any reason to run faster.

Resistance exercises or weight training exercises:

Purpose of such exercises is to build muscle by replacing fat with muscle that contains protein. It is claimed that protein keeps on burning calories even when at rest. Whether that is true or not, good muscles surely make you look good and make you feel nice. More important though is the fact that the muscle fibers subjected to resistance exercises somehow become more sensitive to insulin and hence help you control your blood sugar and diabetes.

Objective: Build and Develop Muscles, Push weights, Pull weights, Lift weights; any activity that you normally do for a little while, if it is prolonged over a period of time is generally the resistance or muscle building exercise. This is perhaps simpler way of explaining the resistance exercise, but I believe in simplistic definition and it is generally true.

PRECAUTIONS:

1. You must ensure that you do the activity only long enough to make your muscle ache or burn and no more. If it is prolonged it may cause tear of muscle fiber and hurt you.

2. You must also not to exercise the same group of muscles for about 48 hours, so that they have enough time to repair and regenerate the injury of stress from exercises.

To achieve this you need to use maximum weight and do 10 to 15 repetitions in each set and do 3 to 6 sets depending on your fitness.

Do you need to join the fitness clubs? ;

To accomplish your objective of becoming active, burn calories and have muscle training you do not need to join the fitness club, unless you are planning to be an athlete and compete in championships. However, it is true that if you go to gym, people working out there will motivate you to do your exercises daily. Same or similar beneficial exercise can be done at home with stretch rubber bands, dumbbells, weights, pushups and similar exercises.

Bottom line is that we all must get out of inactivity and sedentary life style imposed on us by the modern life style. I wish you success to protect yourselves from many unwanted diseases.