Does the Medical Lunacy Ever End?

A few years back I remember a client coming in and discussing their heart disease with me. When I asked about what his cardiologist had recommended he proceeded to spurt off the standard, cookie-cutter prescription provided by most doctors…”a low fat diet and statin medication for cholesterol and an aspirin a day to prevent clots.” Before I could say anything he continued, “but I find myself doubting his recommendations because he has had 2 heart attacks himself already.”  Only in medicine can you call yourself a cardiologist, a doctor charged with protecting your heart, while suffering two heart attacks of your own. If I were a relationship counselor and was working on my third marriage would you trust that I could help you? If I were a personal trainer and weighted in at a lofty 330 pounds of pure lard, would you waste your time and money asking me for fitness advice? Of course not!

This week, a client contacted me to get clarification on a health situation that she had. While being treated for a bladder infection with Cipro, one of medicine’s most powerful and broad spectrum antibiotics, she developed a rather nasty infection in the intestines called C. Difficile (C.Dif for short). This infection causes severe diarrhea and requires rather aggressive antibiotic treatment. Even after treatment, once you have acquired this infection you are at a much higher likelihood of developing the infection again and let me tell you, it is a nasty bug. In situations like this antibiotic treatment is necessary, however, it is equally important to understand that during and after treatment you must recolonize the gut with the healthy flora, organisms which are charged with the task of defending the intestines from harmful organisms such as C. Dif. Scientific studies have shown that supplements of very specific strains of healthy yeast and bacteria can significantly decrease the likelihood of C. Dif returning after treatment. There are two supplements which seem to offer the most benefit in these situations, Florastor and Culturelle. The client who contacted me had been recommended the Florastor by her pharmacist and started taking the Florastor. However, when she visited the infectious disease specialist he suggested that yogurt would do the same as Florastor. So she switched and noticed that her symptoms were worsening! This was no surprise to me. If the doctor had done even the most rudimentary of literature searches he would have found that Florastor has been well researched and proven to be superior to many other intestinal flora in preventing the return of C. Dif. Suggesting that yogurt would counteract this powerful and hardy C. Dif infection is just pure lunacy!

Let’s rewind a bit to the bladder infection that started the problem. If she would have called me and told me the situation after the bladder infection had been diagnosed, I could have predicted with nearly 100% accuracy that she would come down with this nasty infection. In addition, I feel that I could have helped her to avoid this C. Dif infection with nearly 100% certainty. Let me explain. C. Dif is an organism that exists in most people’s intestinal systems and it does so without causing a problem, that is when you have enough of the “good guy bacteria” in your intestines to keep the peace. When she was placed on such a powerful antibiotic, the good bacteria were wiped out and C. Dif was able to grow unabated. Now, that is not rocket science but many people get placed on Cipro without developing C. Dif so how can I claim a 100% accuracy in my prediction? Well, her husband had been hospitalized for some time and she was visiting him regularly. Guess what he was suffering with? That’s right, C. Dif! Because C. Dif is so contagious, it is a certainty that someone who is exposed to C. Dif while taking a broad spectrum medication like Cipro will develop the infection. What makes this story so sad is that it is completely preventable with probiotic supplementation! If she would have started on a probiotic formula she could have avoided this altogether. It is medical lunacy for doctors not to recommend probiotics to every person who is prescribed antibiotics!

This example, although a true story, is a metaphor for all that medicine does not know. I always say that the number one killer of Americans is not heart disease or cancer but is, in fact, misinformation. It is the faulty beliefs such as heart disease is caused by elevated cholesterol, an aspirin a day decreases death rates, supplements are useless, and medications are cures; that cause more death and suffering. These faulty beliefs are a big part of the problem. Those who have spoken to me and heard our radio program know that we are not against conventional medicine, we admit that it does have its place! Where we part from conventional wisdom is in the place medicine holds in to treatment hierarchy. Medicine would suggest that drugs are the first line treatment for most diseases while we would ascertain that drugs should be near the end of the list. Other, less invasive treatments, should come closer to the top. These include supplements, lifestyle, activity and other complementary/alternative treatments.

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