Health Gallery Nutrition Center

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Just How Unhealthy Is The U.S. Population?
By Walt "dr health" Edwards

Due to the great number of spam, we changed the E-mail address. Please contact me using this number: 1-541-247-7077 Past issues available on my web site: getwel-newsletter.

The facts are staggering. According to a 1999 study in Effective Clinical Practice, three out of four Americans have a diagnosable chronic condition. Over 30 percent of adults are affected by cancer, 15 million suffer from asthma, 65 percent are currently overweight or obese, and the Centers for Disease Control say that one out of every three children born in 2000 will become diabetic. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

What we have in this country is not a "health" care system, but a disease-care system which measures success by diagnosing the condition and suppressing the symptoms. The disease-treatment model is especially ineffective at treating the chronic conditions that plague 75 percent of the nation's population, not to mention the high costs that accompany such a philosophy. Medicare alone is projected to increase over the national debt burden by $40 billion over the next ten years.

The good news is over 158 million Americans, more than 50 percent of the population, access complementary and alternative approaches to health care and recognize the value of nutritional supplementation as a key to achieving and maintaining optimal health.

The best news is that every year thousands of concerned health care practitioners are beginning to implement wellness programs as the optimum defense against disease by developing comprehensive proactive programs that incorporate alternative and complementary medicine.

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D., states, "Modern medicine holds such a stranglehold on our medical system that those of us who know the power of natural healing are often left on our own to seek out information in order to fill in the gaps."

Udoh O. Obioha, M.D., one of the few board-certified bariatric physicians (Bariatric medicine is a specialty devoted to the treatment of overweight, obesity, and related co-morbid medical conditions), in the U.S., presents a sobering analysis in the article "Obesity and the Flu." He states. "Obesity is the primary cause of silent inflammation and excess body fat is causing today's epidemic rise in countless health threats." Abdominal fat is now understood to be a major endocrine organ, which secretes several hormones that are linked to silent inflammation. Excess body fat is causing today's epidemic rise in countless health threats.

Hyla Cass, M.D., in her article "Stress and the Immune System" explains, "There is the kind of sustained stress, called chronic or toxic stress, which overrides your body's natural ability to bounce back, causing an unhealthy rise in stress hormones, and negatively affecting our overall health. One of the most insidious results of chronic stress is its effect on our immune system, increasing susceptibility to everything from colds and flu to cancer. Itąs estimated that at least 75 percent of visits to doctors' offices are due to stress related illness."

Jacob E. Teitelhaum, M.D., cautions that "Our health care system is on the verge of a financial meltdown. Our approach to treating people is becoming more expensive and toxic - and, sadly, not always that much more effective. Adding natural options to the 'only use drugs and surgery' approach can save hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of dollars."

Our food supply is controlled by big business, not primarily in order to support wellness but to generate profit. BIG PROFIT! Similarly, the profit-driven health care industry mainly pushes drugs. Together, the bad qualities of our highly processed foods which carry synthetic additives, combine with the toxic aspects of most of our pharmaceuticals do undermine health and wellness.

The Cortisol Connection... When your body is in a constant state of silent inflammation, it reacts by having your adrenal glands pump out high amounts of cortisol, the primary anti-inflammatory hormone. Cortisol is fine over the short run when stress is temporary. But having a high level of constant silent inflammation means you are going to have high levels of cortisol on a permanent basis, causing a number of nasty complications on your organ systems, one being the craving of fat and sweet foods.

Hypothyroidism... A major cause of gaining and being unable to lose weight. it causes fatigue, dry hair, coarse skin, depression, and "brain fog" as well. Research indicates relying on inaccurate blood testing for diagnosis and treatment missing hypothyroidism, which many doctors treat with natural Armour Thyroid.

Thought For The Day: Thousands of lives and billion of dollars can be saved by adding Natural Options to the "only use drugs and surgery" approach to our health care system. Comprehensive Medicine can increase effectiveness and safety and lower health care costs dramatically. For readers who may be interested in learning more about a Comprehensive Medicine approach to over 30 common medical problems, go to www.Vitality101.com and click on "Useful Articles."

Discover Your Body Mind Spirit Connection Through Handwriting
By Walter J. Edwards, PH.D., Paperback - 122 pages, ISBN: 0914330306

Walt Edwards