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JULY 2024 TABLEHOPPING
TAKE 3 SHOTS
I’m going to make a recommendation about your health again. Of course you should never take any advice from anyone without extensive consultation with your own health care provider. Nonetheless, this article will at least prompt some conversation about your health and that’s probably a good thing. I have been a 2 shot a day man myself, but I’m going to step up to 3 shots based on my most recent readings. By 2 shots I mean a mixture of cod liver oil and olive oil. Recently I have added a shot of vinegar to the mix. I take the vinegar first then a combo of the cod liver oil and the olive oil. It’s a great idea to just mix them altogether and use the mix as a salad dressing. Ok, it’s not a full shot like in a bar but it’s more than 2 tablespoons of each.
Let’s have a little primer on the ingredients:
Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fats, which are known to support heart health in part by increasing good cholesterol (HDL) . It also contains powerful antioxidants like vitamin E and polyphenols, which combat oxidative stress and inflammation . Studies suggest that regular consumption of olive oil can lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Additionally, its anti-inflammatory properties can help manage conditions like arthritis . Unfortunately, there is a lot of adulterated olive oil so read the label carefully. Personally, I like the olive oil from the family farm in Turkey that’s available at the regional market ..It’s called AYVACO. I first ran into it at the State Fair. (And , no, I don’t get any kind of discount). Of course, any oil you intend to put in your mouth should be kept in a glass container and stored in a cool dark place. Don’t buy a year’s worth at a time as any oil starts to oxidize once it’s exposed to air.
Next let’s go over my favorite…Cod Liver OIl. You can use any fish oil capsules you like but you need to take 4 capsules a day to get any meaningful improvement and why not just slug down some Cod Liver OIl. I only use Carlson labs Cod Liver Oil with lemon in the green bottle. It really tastes nothing like what grandma used to give you.
The essential fatty acids , a vital part of your health , were never really covered in med school and still isn’t and the issue isn’t really discussed in nursing or the PA programs as well. The omega-3 fatty acids in cod liver oil are essential for brain health, reducing inflammation, and supporting cardiovascular health. These fatty acids are critical for proper brain and heart health and are a component of every cell membrane in the body. They can be easily measured by your doctor and you can see how far from optimal you really are and trust me you will often be surprised by the poor results. IIts like changing the oil in your car. You have to put the right oils in your body as well. Some critics say that fish oil increases risk of irregular heart rhythm and it did very minimally in one study. They also claim it raises bleeding risk. Dr William Harris is the best known Omega 3 researcher and he points out the fact that people with high levels of fish oil (EPA and DHA) in their blood lived an average 5 years longer than people with the lowest levels in their blood . This included death from any and all causes. This was shown in multiple large studies so the evidence is solid. What I really like about fish oil and cod liver oil etc is that you can easily and directly measure the levels in your blood to prove you are doing the right thing. QUEST the lab offers a very simple OMEGA 3/6 check.
Finally , the most recent addition to my morning routine is vinegar. Acetic acid. It’s fine as plain white vinegar but when you make it balsamic vinegar you get the polyphenols as well. Acetic acid is an essential food for the good bugs in your gut. Vinegar can help regulate blood sugar levels, making it beneficial for individuals with diabetes and prediabetes and that’s 80% of us. . It may also aid in weight loss by promoting satiety and reducing appetite .Acetic acid is much less acidic than the hydrochloric acid in your stomach and it is often used to help patients with indigestion. Read Dr Steven Gundry’s book Gut Check for more info on these postbiotics and the role of fiber and fermentation in your health. So maybe add some pickles to your dietary regimen as you have added pickleball to your exercise regimen.
Remember the blah blah blah check with your doctor. Until next time Get well and stay well.
JT BARRY MD
JUNE 2024 TABLEHOPPING
It’s getting closer to real summer and so I have a couple of reads for you. I have to watch a lot of videos and read many articles and lots of books as well. Some are written by the Doctors I follow like Dr Gundry, Dr Greger etc. Many articles are also suggested by my patients. Yes, I still get to read for pleasure so I sandwich in some Steven King etc between the study stuff. Recently I read two books that I thought were important so I wanted to share them with you. Both are about health but one is more about physical health and one is more about mental health.
Let’s start with GUT CHECK by Dr Gundry. I have been a fan since the book the PLANT PARADOX and have read all of this stuff but this latest is another great look at what really controls so many aspects of your health…the care and feeding of our microbiome. I am firmly in the camp that most diseases are due to metabolic issues and mitochondrial issues and this book looks in detail at both. Almost all chronic diseases are diseases of metabolism and what you eat, when you eat, how you eat affects your health directly . This book has lots of insights and helpful hints but fiber and fermentation are big issues which are well covered. Personally , I am staying far away from Kimchi and Kambucha but I am a big fan of pickles and vinegar. Dr Gundry points out the math…fiber is important, fermented food is important and the two together are synergistic so 1 plus 1 = 5. Sure Dr Gundry sells lots of supplements on the internet but that doesn’t invalidate his 25 years of nutritional research. Change your diet , change your life and health destiny.
Moving on to mental health we have THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES by Gary Chapman. It’s easy to fall in love. It’s not so easy to stay in love. I am always amused by people who put zero energy and effort into maintaining relationships and wonder how it went bad. Love , like your mind and outlook, is a garden that needs constant attention if you want it to grow right. Now, I am no expert at marital things and I dont have the experience of those of you who have been married two or three times but I think anyone who is in a long term relationship can benefit from reading this book. The five love languages are;
- Words of affirmation.
- Quality time.
- Physical touch.
- Acts of service.
- Receiving gifts.
What I like about this book is the section at the end where you can find out for yourself what your love language is and what your partner is and you can do this in an interactive way that I think will tell you something about yourself and who you love.I found out my wife already knew my love language. I also found out that just because someone knows your love language doesn’t mean they will use it ! A patient suggested this book to me and it took forever for me to get around to it but I am glad I finally did.
So, one book on physical health and one book on mental health. Next month we will take on the topic of the sun. Life giver or death dealer. Stay tuned.
Until next month…get well and stay well.
JT BARRY MD
May 2024 Table Hopping
MAY 2024 TABLEHOPPING FIND A NEW EXCUSE
As you must know by now, I’m all about 4 basic foundations of your health. My mom used to say her 4 F’s for living were faith, family, finance, and fitness. She lasted into her 90”s so she must have known something. My 4 foundations for health are; diet, exercise, sleep and stress and today we tackle exercise.. Whether you are a couch potato or a fit person these exercises will challenge you in a short period of time. As I question my patients about their exercise habits I often hear that they don’t know what to do. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know how to get started. They don’t know what exercises are right for them and they’re afraid of getting hurt and mostly they don’t have the time.These exercises I’m going to recommend today can be done by pretty much anyone, can be done in your own home, and take a very short period of time. Of course, any physical activity outside of your normal present the opportunity to injure yourself. Do I really have to tell you not to go crazy and do things that you are obviously not ready for? Check with your people.
Do we really need to spend any time talking about why exercise is important? independent studies have shown that your VO2 max which is a measure of your cardiovascular fitness and your muscle strength and balance are all important indicators of Aging well. As a geriatric specialist I see a lot of people who make it to age 80 but some of them are playing golf and some of them are in a wheelchair in the nursing home and the data strongly supports that exercise is very important in which pathway you go down. It’s not all in your Genes.
The beautiful thing about getting the exercise part of your life right is it also helps with the sleep and stress aspects of your life as well. Some people equate exercise with hours on the Peloton or the rowing machine or pushing iron in the gym. My suggestion is that a simple exercise done for shorter periods of time may give more noticeable results. You can do what everyone else does and blow it off as the rantings of yet another fringy healthcare provider or try the exercises and see for yourself.
Let’s start with the plank. How To: Plank It’s basically assuming the position if you were going to do a push up but never going down. You simply maintain this position for as long as you can without letting your gut sag. You can do this on your hands or on your forearms and this is a great one because it involves so many muscle groups in the body and it’s intense and most people can’t do it for very long to begin with. Start with whatever you can do and time yourself and you will notice that you can improve over time. Once you get to doing it for a minute or two you’ll understand.
The second exercise is to hang by your hands from a bar above your head. The Benefits of Hanging from a Pull-Up Bar – Also for Beginners The longer you hang the better it is for your shoulders, your back, your abdominal muscles Etc . Again, this exercise takes a very short period of time before you fatigue. don’t let that bother you, just keep track and see that you’re getting better on a regular basis..This all ties in with grip strength which has been shown to be an independent predictor of your mortality. I measure grip strength with a device in the office with my patients but more important than measuring it is trying to improve it and that’s what the hanging exercise is all about.
As pointed out in an article recently published by Dr Mercola, research done in the Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle which showed that grip strength is a reliable marker of your biological age . Interestingly they were using DNA methylation tests to assess premature aging. There was another study in 2022 that concluded measuring hand strength allowed for preliminary predictions on the current level of immunity and inflammation in the body. Again you can use those tennis balls and squeeze them with those hand gripper things that were popular years ago but if you want to improve your grip strengths you hang from a bar from as long as you can.
Finally we have the great doctor Zach Bush’s four minute exercise. ZACH BUSH MD | 4 Minute Workout. No getting down on the floor for this one. Everything is done standing up and it releases nitric oxide in that 4 minutes which has many robust beneficial health effects. It exercises 16 different muscle groups and as the name suggests only takes 4 minutes.
So now you have three different very short exercises almost anyone can do. You’ll have to find a new excuse as to why you are in the shape you’re in ! Until next month….get well and stay well…..JT BARRY MD
April 2024 Table Hopping
THE FDA IS OFF THE RAILS
Like everyone else I would love to believe that the government is in place to protect citizens and provide services but unfortunately as I get older and maybe a wee bit wiser I see the things are not as cut and dried as I’d hoped. This is ,unfortunately, especially true in medicine because the medical schools and the residency programs are not driven by science alone. You can no longer have full faith and trust in the federal government agency in charge of medications and treatments. I’m not writing about the incredibly incestious relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA. That’s about politics and this column is about facts. The FDA is approving drugs based on surrogate markers , not actually patient relevant results. This isn’t a one time thing…I will show multiple very recent examples. I don’t want to be the guy critical of big government and big pharma but this stuff could potentially affect a lot of patients and people aren’t getting this perspective readily elsewhere.
Here’s a great excerpt from an article published in one of the many JAMA variants entitled “Review Of Evidence Supporting US FDA Drug Approvals”. “Our results highlight a trend toward less rigorous standards for novel drug approvals that has evolved over the past few decades. In contrast to 2016, when 4 of 20 products (20%) were approved based on a single trial, single studies justified 65% of the 2022 approvals. In 2016, 55% of products were approved based on 3 or more studies, in comparison with 11% in 2022.1 “ The long and the short of this is that drugs are being approved with less and less rigor all the time. I’m going to give three examples from three different fields of medicine on how broken the system is. This review also pointed out that despite the regulatory requirements many drug trials do not get published so the real world efficacy of these drugs cannot really be easily ascertained.
One of my main complaints when reviewing these drug trials is all the fun and games they play with statistics …using composite and surrogate endpoints and misleading doctors with relative differences instead of absolute difference. For example if there is a drug trial with 1,000 people in each arm of the trial…test drug and placebo…Let’s say the test drug group had one heart attack and the placebo group had two heart attacks…Using relative risk you can say the drug cut the risk of heart attack by 50% but using absolute risk its one person in a thousand that benefits. What if the test drug group had more cancer diagnosis ..would they have to report that? Not really. I look for the ONE marker it’s hard to hide during anytrial…The number of deaths. The number of lives saved. Any important drug…a pill for heart disease, stroke , or diabetes should be measured not by how much lower your blood pressure is , how low the cholesterol number goes but by seeing that patients taking these drugs had less deaths. Lowering death rates , to me, is the most important marker of a drug’s effect.
Unfortunately , modern medicine has become so specialized that doctors lose focus on the big picture and just focus on their specialty. The neurologists don’t care if the drug they give you might increase heart attacks or increase cancer risk as long as it decreases stroke they are all for it. If you have a stroke the neurologist will want you on a statin because they have been shown to lower risk of recurrent stroke. The SPARCL study..High-Dose Atorvastatin after Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack | NEJM used the highest dose of lipitor to show that it reduced recurrent strokes in patients who had a stroke. Lipitor did indeed reduce strokes ..by 2.2 percent but it doubled the number of hemorrhagic strokes which are usually worse than the more common ischemic stroke. Also total deaths and cancer deaths were HIGHER in the statin treated group. So the drugmakes the neurologist happy but using the highest dose of the drug had ZERO effect on whether you lived or died.
Sticking with cholesterol for the moment , let’s look at another recently approved drug, Bemedoic acid marketed as Nexletol. This drug was approved after only one trial that involved 13,970 patients. The FDA likes this drug because it lowers cholesterol. This next quote comes directly from the published trial “Bempedoic acid had no significant effects on fatal or nonfatal stroke, death from cardiovascular causes, and death from any cause.” That’s right, no effect on stroke, heart attack or death from any cause. ! And yet the drug was approved !
The FDA also approved Repatha. Evolocumab and Clinical Outcomes inPatients with Cardiovascular Disease | NEJM
This is another class of drugs designed to lower cholesterol and thereby lower heart attack and death rates due to CAD. This is a very expensive class of meds ( monoclonal antibodies which need to be injected ) and lowers cholesterol dramatically. Despite lowering cholesterol by an average of 60% (which is a huge reduction) there was only a slight reduction in heart events from 11.3 % to 9.8 %
there were more deaths in the group given the drug. How can the FDA approve ANY drug or intervention if the treated group has more deaths?
Speaking of more deaths in the treatment group. An independent analysis of Pfizer’s original covid vaccine trial showed also there were more deaths in the group of people who got the original vaccine than in the group who got placebo. Here’s a slide from the CDC itself showing this.
C4591001 COVID-19 BLA Safety and Efficacy Data For ACIP
How can you make it a mandatory vaccination if more people died in the treatment group than in the placebo group? I guess the infectious disease doctors would say..at least you didn’t die of covid.
Finally, and I could go on and on with examples , we have the new drugs for dementia. Now ,dementia is a real and growing problem in this country and elsewhere and we have had a real dismal track record of drug treatments for this with hundreds of trials not producing meaningful results. Big Pharma is focused on the plaques in the brain which can be seen on scans . We now know these plaques are a sign of the disease not the cause of the disease. Aducanaumab was the first approved drug in 2021 but is already being taken off the market by the manufacturer Biogen. Lilly has a drug, donanemab, which did not get approved inJanuary 2023. Finally there is Lecanamab made by Eisai which was approved July 2023. Like the other drugs , Lecanamab had very little clinical benefit, had significant side effects (i.e. bleeding in the brain) and made an important subset of demented patients worse! Somehow this doesn’t matter to the FDA but it does to me. I’m not sure what to do about all this except remain skeptical as always. Don’t be so quick to look for an answer to your health problems from a pill, look at your lifestyle. That’s where the real changes have to be made. Until next month…get well and stay well ….JT BARRY MD
CO Q 10 AND YOU
It’s time to focus once again on a supplement. When I first heard about CO Q 10 I thought it was a scam. After all, what happened to CO Q 1 through 9? However , as I did more reviews of the basic physiology of the cell, the cell membrane , and the electron transport chain responsible for creating energy in our cells , there it was ! CO Q 10 is a powerful fat soluble antioxidant that also has anti-inflammatory properties and plays a critical role in energy production . It’s found throughout your body in cell membranes but it’s most abundant in the heart, liver, lungs, kidney, spleen, pancreas and adrenal glands. Apparently production of CO Q 10 peaks around the age of 25 then begins to decline so that by the age of 65 your body makes only about half the amount. CO Q 10 exists in two forms ubiquinone and ubiquinol the latter is the reduced form that’s more easily absorbed but both forms are used by the body so don’t sweat that small stuff.
According to a review in the Journal of Pharmacy and Bioallied Science C0 Q10 is essential for the health of virtually all human tissue and organs. In some lists it is the third most consumed dietary supplement. Vitamin D usually tops these lists and for good reason but that’s another column. C0 Q10 protects the cellular membranes from oxidative stress induced by free radicals. Supplementation with 60 mg to 500 mg for 8 to 12 weeks can significantly reduce Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha, Interleukin 6 and C Reactive Protein, all important markers of inflammation.. CO Q 10 is involved with cholesterol metabolism, regeneration of vitamin C and E, maintaining liposomal pH , sulfur metabolism, gene expression and amino acid metabolism.
Cardiac muscle cells have about 5,000 mitochondria per cell. Mitochondria are where C0 Q 10 concentrates. For further comparison, mitochondria make up 35% of the volume of cardiac tissue and only 3% to 8% of the volume of skeletal muscle tissue. In one study, 102 patients with atrial fibrillation were divided into two groups; one was given CO Q10 supplementation while the other group was given a placebo, after a year 12 people in the placebo group had a fib compared with only 3 people in the COQ10 group. Furthermore, a systematic review and meta-analysis of cardiovascular risk factors spanning 884 randomized control trials with 883,627 participants showed decreased all cause mortality in those taking the supplement.
CO Q10 acts directly on the endothelium lining our blood vessels and can directly lower your blood pressure. CO Q10 also decreases aldosterone ,a hormone that makes you retain salt and water research thereby also lowering blood pressure so there is a direct and indirect effect on blood pressure. Studies suggest CO Q10 can reduce ischemic lesions and improve outcomes after stroke. Interestingly, if you suffer from migraine headaches, CO Q10 may play a preventable role in that condition. A meta-analysis of five studies found CO Q10 was more effective than placebo for migraines.
Now, a major problem with CO Q10 is that it is blocked by statins. These are cholesterol lowering drugs like lipitor , crestor, pravachol, etc which doctors give out like candy because a number on a sheet of paper is higher than they like. So you lower your cholesterol number ( which I assert has little or nothing to do with heart disease but that’s another column) but you also block the beneficial effects of CO Q 10. Statins lower CO Q10 because they block the HMG coenzyme reductase enzyme involved in cholesterol production. The problem with blocking this enzyme is that it also blocks production of other important compounds including CO Q10. So , patients taking statins, and that’s most of you, should be supplementing with C0 Q10. Of course , check with your doctor or cardiologist but be prepared for a blank look because they dont bring this up in med school.
The body makes its own CO Q10 but it goes down dramatically as you age. You can get some CO Q10 from food as well, especially wild caught salmon, mackerel, sardine, eggs and organ meat. Good luck with that …I will take a capsule thank you. Now if you’re going to take CO Q10 as a supplement you have to avoid any CO Q10 that has vegetable oil in it. The unsaturated fat will damage the CO Q10 and it will not work properly.
You can take your health for granted or you can work actively to maintain this incredibly complex bio-electrochemical system we call the body. If you are curious, why not try the supplement and see if it gives you more energy or more vitality. There seems to be no real toxicity at the recommended levels. Of course, check with your health care provider yada yada yada.
Until next month…get well and stay well……
JT BARRY MD
February 2024 Table Hopping
Well, it’s February so love should be in the air. Valentine’s day is coming up so what medical advice do I have for you on this occasion? First, if you are waiting around for one day a year to express your affection to someone you are missing the proverbial love boat. Increasingly , modern medicine is recognizing the critical role that stress and social isolation have on your mental and physical health. All those little pills in your cabinet may not actually do you as much good as a long walk with friends. Dr Malcom Kendrick in his book The Clot Thickens points out a study wherein they used advanced computing methods to really investigate the factors leading to heart disease. Of the top ten causes, six were related to social isolation and stress !
We in the medical profession put way too much emphasis on the pills because it’s easy for everyone. Easy for us and easy for you but wrong. Ask your doctor who put you on the statin drug for your cholesterol, instead of working on your diet, how much longer you will live if you take the statin. According to a study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal “ The median postponement of death for primary and secondary prevention trials were 3.2 and 4.1 days, respectively.” PMID: 26408281. That’s right , published studies show you will live 4 days longer taking a statin. Dr Micheal Gregor from NutritionFacts.org has a great video that shows that medication really only makes a 5% difference in health outcomes…95 % comes from lifestyle .
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/The-Actual-Benefit-of-Diet-vs-Drugs/ and here’s a great video by him specifically regarding statins.
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/are-doctors-misleading-patients-about-statin-risks-and-benefits/ Ok, to move away from the heart and back to love..don’t expect any love making tips from me but I can give you a few suggestions as to how to improve your sex life. First off, regular exercise makes sexual performance better. Second, there are safe supplements to help with your testosterone levels including DHEA, DIM , and fenugreek. Yes, women have testosterone as well so I am not just speaking to the male readers.
If your testosterone levels are low , make sure you get checked out for sleep apnea as it’s a well known cause of low testosterone, along with alcohol, obesity, diabetes and narcotic use. Third, if you need to use viagra or cialis you should understand that erectile dysfunction is your penis’s way of saying you are not living right. As an aside…using goodrx coupons which are free on the internet at their site will drastically reduce the cost of these pills.
My son recently got engaged and I was wondering if he was looking for any advice on marriage. So far he hasn’t asked but if he does I will relate the lyrics from the old Charlie Pride song…”Kiss an angel good morning and love her like the devil when you get back home.” Don’t be blase about the most important person in your life.
Maybe you don’t have a special person in your life. All the more reason to stay connected to others via some organization or club/ group. There’s the Optimists, the Kiwanis Club, the Rotary, and church groups galore. Be a part of something bigger than yourself.
Until next month..get well and stay well
JT BARRY MD
January 2024 Table Hopping
It’s the beginning of the year and there must be untold columns, blogs, and podcasts preaching some type of resolution. Not me. Not this column. Resolutions put too much pressure on you. Some people change by taking baby steps and some people change by taking giant leaps…which one are you? As someone more eloquent than I said … .change comes from desperation or inspiration which won will persuade you? Unfortunately it’s desperation for most people, a new cancer or heart disease diagnosis CAN be very motivating but even then most people don’t really change their underlying habits.
We doctors suck at motivating people. Even though focusing on diet and exercise, sleep and stress should be the fundamental issues you deal with when you go to the doctor, we usually focus not on the underlying problem but on a medication to treat your symptoms. Watch the great video by Dr Michael Gregor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0y-lO2YpuQ It’s entitled “the actual benefit of diet versus drugs”. It will be an eye opener for you. I shared this video at a Monday meeting we have at the office to review issues with the staff and I hope it will persuade some of my providers to look at your health differently. Sure, it’s very easy for doctors and very easy for patients to just take a pill to cover up the symptoms but the pills usually have very little impact on your health and underlying condition whereas changing your lifestyle can have a very very dramatic effect not only on symptoms but on the underlying disease process. You can take a pill to treat your indigestion or you can embark on the often frustrating mission of figuring out what’s causing the indigestion. Same thing for blood pressure, diabetes, headaches, etc.
So, trying to get you to change via inspiration rather than desperation seems like the better choice. As I said, doctors are not trained to motivate people so you are on your own in this regard but you are not without resources. My most successful patients ( and by success I mean in terms of health improvement) motivate themselves DAILY with something they read, or watch. Maybe it’s something inspirational, something informative or something challenging. All these options are available one click away on that device of yours. Of course, you know me, I think the cellphone has been transformative in the way we live and learn and its capacity to help you improve your health is only equaled by the damage it’s doing to us culturally.
Dr Robert Lustig addresses this beautifully in his book The Hacking of the American Mind which he summarizes in this lecture. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4sRsb0a30Y. For something more local try Tim Smith of smiletherapy.com based right here in Camillus He will send you daily emails that inspire, amuse and get you thinking. It makes a great gift for that certain someone in your life….you never know what to get your grandkids anyway …why not try this?
Personally, I like watching short motivational videos like Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448. If that doesn’t get you thinking and moving maybe nothing will.
I hope this year you will find some way to improve your health and I hope it doesn’t stem from desperation. Focus on improving your health day by day now or focus on your illness and disabilities down the road.
Until next month…get well and stay well……JT BARRY MD
DECEMBER 2023 TABLEHOPPING
Well, it’s that time of the year to dispense with strict medical advice and lean into the holiday. SInce I’m an old heterosexual white male I am sure I am completely out of touch. I am happy to have new holiday experiences but I am drawn to my traditional favorites. My wife and I watch the same holiday movies, listen to the same holiday music etc. We have done the Lights on the Lake a bunch of times and often take in the Syracuse Stage show that’s holiday themed. One year we saw a play at Syracuse Stage one week and listened to a lecture by the original author of the same play a week later. We never miss the Solstice Celebration whenever someone produces that. We are down for seeing live Xmas shows of all kinds and we also never miss the DeSantis Christmas Show. Previously at the Palace but now ensconced for the second year at the Landmark Theater. The show is Sunday Night December 11th. It’s live holiday music from one of the last big bands in the area with great vocalists who really bring the holidays home. . What’s not to like? Don’t get your Mom another sweater, get her the gift of a night out together. Doesn’t have to be this show…there’s lots of shows now and throughout the year. As I have mentioned on the radio show I read a study recently that looked at what really made people happy and it wasn’t money it was time together with others in conversation especially over meals. Give someone a gift certificate to a restaurant you want to support or you know they like. Better yet, go out to dinner with them. Avoid the french fries of course.
Holidays are stressful and you better believe stress kills. So why not try to reduce your stress by expanding your social network. Some of you may be spread too thin already but most of my patients as they get older have a smaller and smaller social network and that’s not a good thing. Use the holidays as an excuse to get together and go from there. Is there a Christmas gift better than seeing a smile on someone’s face?
Speaking of happiness …Do you know there is a real difference , a biochemical difference between pleasure and happiness? Pleasure involves the dopaminergic parts of the brain and happiness involves the serotonergic parts of the brain. There is a great video by Dr Robert Lustig entitled “The Hacking of the American Mind” which you can find on Youtube.
Get outside, enjoy the cold while we have it because it will warm up in 7-9 months. Go for a walk ,safely , with someone and get some time outside. It’s very good for your immune system, your hormonal system, the cardiovascular system etc. Check out the sleigh rides at Highland Forest for that unique experience or try the ice at the rink downtown. If you want to be a force for good in the Universe, leave a note in someone’s mailbox if you like their Christmas decorations.
Sorry , none of my suggestions involve an app or swiping left or right…You don’t need the internet for any of the events I suggested. .I did tell you I was a traditionalist. Merry CHristmas and don’t forget the reason for the season. Until next month…get well and stay well……
JT BARRY MD
OCTOBER 2023 TABLE HOPPING
IVERMECTIN WINS AGAIN
Covid is still with us because it’s a corona virus and these viruses have been around longer than we have . Just look at the label of the Lysol can. They are bringing back the mask mandates without any metrics at all . The Governor is recommending vaccinations even when the Cleveland Clinic has shown that the more vaccinations you get against Covid the MORE likely you are to get the infection. What’s next ? Recently the FDA was forced to admit that it was not inappropriate for physicians to prescribe Ivermectin to prevent or treat covid. Of course they have spent the last few years vilifying doctors who were using it off label and convinced ( with financial incentives ! ) the major medical organizations like the AMA to condemn its use. Now that yet another publication has shown the dramatic benefits of ivermectin it should be clear that THESE GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATION POLICIES RESULTED IN MORE DEATHS than if prescribing Ivermectin had been allowed. If we had just trusted the doctors on the front lines of fighting this outbreak we would have saved more lives than all the other therapeutics combined. That’s a national tragedy.
The latest study is a report from Peru from October of 2020 showed a 74% reduction in excess deaths in the 10 Peruvian states where Ivermectin was used most extensively .Adidttionally there was a 14-fold reduction in nationwide excess deaths when Ivermectin was readily available and the 13- fold increase in excess deaths in the two months after Ivermectin use was restricted..
And it wasn’t just Peru, the largest state in India, Uttar Pradesh ,with a population of 229 million showed the cumulative total of covid-19 deaths per million in population from July 7th 2021 to April 1st 2023 was 4.3 in Utah Pradesh as compared to 70 in all of India and 1,596 in the United States. Those are astonishingly different numbers.
A similar series of events occurred in the Brazilian city of Itajai which has 220,000 people. Dr Peter Kory and 8 co-authors published a paper on the results of using Ivermectin prophylactically . 113,000 residents elected to take Ivermectin. Those who used Ivermectin had a 44% reduction in covid infection , a 68% reduction in mortality and a 56% reduction in hospitalization compared to those who did not. Meanwhile, a study from Japan demonstrated that just 12 Days After doctors were allowed to legally prescribe Ivermectin to their patients, cases dropped traumatically.
Let’s remember this drug is on the World Health Organization’s “essential medication” list ,in fact, according to the literature , since 1987 3.7 billion doses of ivermectin have been used among humans worldwide
So, it’s been proven to be helpful in India, Brazil, Peru , and Japan amongst others and what did we do in America? We vilified doctors who tried to prescribe It off label. The USDA tweeted “ You’re not a horse you’re not a cow seriously you’all .. stop it”. On August 16th 2023 the FDA was forced to tweet “Healthcare professionals generally may choose to prescribe any approved human drug for an unapproved use when they determine that unapproved use is medically appropriate for an individual patient. “ That’s a win for the doctors.
Of course ,you can trust the American Society of Health System Pharmacists, the American Pharmacist Association and the American Medical Association as well as almost every other Medical Society warned that these drugs should not be used. What would the difference in death and hospitalization be in America had physicians who had the interest and courage to do so been allowed to routinely prescribe Ivermectin off label. It’s been estimated that 40% of all drugs dispensed in America are used off label. Off label doesn’t mean wrong.
Fundamentally , Ivermectin works by binding to the SARS Co V-2 Spike protein, limiting the virus’s mobility and infectivity. It’s best known for its antiparasitic effects but it’s also demonstrated antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties and an in vitro study demonstrated that a single treatment with Ivermectin effectively reduced viral load 5,000 times in 48 hours in cell culture. Also, a meta-analysis in the American Journal of Therapeutics showed the drug reduced infection by an average of 86% when used preventively
Disturbing it is that Merck ,who is a major manufacturer of ivermectin , was downplaying its effectiveness at the same time that it was developing its own patented ( and much more lucrative) covid-19 therapeutics.
As always , even in medicine , follow the money. Had there been any evidence that these repurposed drugs worked there would be no way to authorize the experimental treatments including the vaccines . Will we ever get the people in power to admit they were wrong and their decisions cost American lives. I’m not holding my breath but I am holding my prescription pad and look forward to the next pharmacist calling with a problem with my prescribing off label.
Any and all of the references below will show you the evidence.
Chamie J J, Hibberd J A, Scheim D E (August 08, 2023) COVID-19 Excess Deaths in Peru’s 25 States in 2020: Nationwide Trends, Confounding Factors, and Correlations With the Extent of Ivermectin Treatment by State. Cureus 15(8): e43168. doi:10.7759/cureus.43168
https://swprs.org/who-preliminary-review-confirms-Ivermectin-effectiveness/
Do your own research. Its your body and it should be your choice. Until next month…get well and stay well
JT BARRY MD
SEPTEMBER 2023 TABLE HOPPING
IGF1
I’m an advocate of trying to use blood work to find out as much as possible about a person . You cannot judge a book by its cover. You can look healthy but be metabolically inflexible. Most healthcare providers are still using blood tests that are 30 years old i.e. total cholesterol and hemoglobin A1c. Measuring insulin and insulin resistance, measuring the ratio of the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your system, routinely measuring markers of inflammation like CRP and Homocysteine ,I think, are a more modern approach to assessing your health. Both Dr Gundry and Dr Furhman use this test on a regular basis.
One new metric is insulin like growth factor number one…aka IGF1. As the name States it’s like insulin but its level in your body doesn’t just reflect the carbohydrates in your diet like insulin does . Instead it reflects a variety of measures including carbs but is thought to be affected by protein intake. So insulin measures carbs and IGF1 measures your protein intake. There is debate in the medical /nutrition world between those who think we need more protein to prevent the sarcopenia of aging and those who feel proteins are inflammatory and need to be restricted. It turns out that not all proteins are equal in their effects on the body. Animal protein i.e. meat and dairy appear to raise the IGF1 level more than plant derived protein. There is a metabolic pathway called mTor that is activated by animal protein and adults do not want this pathway stimulated. The low protein group says you don’t need more than about 30 grams of protein a day and the high protein group says you should have 1 mg per pound ie a 170 pound person should take in 70 grams of protein.
Insulin-like growth factor is produced in the liver and is triggered as a result of growth hormone stimulation. You want to actively grow when you’re younger but when you achieve adulthood further growth becomes undesirable. Imagine if we all just kept getting taller and taller and bigger and bigger as we got older it would make for interesting nursing homes. So, growth hormone is a youth hormone. In the sense that it’s highest when you’re young like testosterone. Unlike testosterone, supplementing growth hormone can be a dangerous undertaking because it may stimulate the growth of cancer. Likewise, higher LGF1 levels have been linked to increased risk of certain cancers.
In the past , measuring IGF1 levels were used primarily in pediatrics to assess the growth rate of children but a growing number of people looking at inflammatory processes in the body are using it as a marker for adult health as well. Lower is generally better but there is a U shaped curve ….very low and very high numbers are both bad for different reasons. Too low and you’re not making enough protein and building enough to be healthy. Too high and you’re promoting cancer. Overall, it’s better to have as low a level as possible until you et over the age of 70. After that you want it to be a little higher so you don’t have muscle wasting. The medical literature is full of references to insulin-like growth factors promoting multiple different types of cancer. it may be in fact the link between high sugar diets and accelerating cancer growth. We know that cancer cells need sugar to make energy and grow. At the same time the high sugar levels may elevate IGF1 which acts directly on the tumors. Here’s the appropriate reference ..PMID: 16087968 Here’s another reference to the link between milk intake and prostate cancer…the link is ..IGF1 .PMID: 28361446 In the Nurses’ Health Study, premenopausal women with IGF-1 levels higher than 207 had a substantially higher risk of breast cancer. Likewise, In the Physicians’ Health Study, there was an increase in prostate cancer risk once IGF-1 increased above 185 ng/ml.
A high IGF level is linked to accelerated aging , premature aging and to an increased risk of multiple cancer. .Obviously , IGF1 levels are affected by your age as well as your carbohydrate intake , protein intake ,BMI, liver disease ,and diabetes .Protein intake is well known to be a stimulant for IGF1 but the type of protein matters. Meat and dairy have more concentrated and complex proteins than plants do and it appears that IGF1 is higher in people who have more meat and dairy in their diet. So, if you want to keep your IGF1 low you may want to vary/shift your protein intake.
Luckily, just like with Vitamin D., you can easily and fairly cheaply have your levels of IGF1 measured. The sweet spot is about 150 but is age normalized and you can use the lab value as a reference point and change your diet and see if this marker changes as well. Maybe animal proteins and dairy inflame you in some way and raise your IGF1 levels , maybe they dont….This is another metric you can reference as you change your diet and see your numbers change. Your health care provider is not familiar with this test and will discourage you from ordering it. It’s your health and your health care dollar….just tell the doctor you are trying to measure your health with different metrics like Insulin levels , Omega 3/6 levels and IGF1 levels and to humor you. Tell him to use Metabolic Syndrome or Insulin Resistance as a diagnosis since 80-85% of Americans have these conditions and it’s likely you do as well. Even if you have to pay directly for the test , my lab people tell me it’s a cheap test and I intend to use this test repeatedly on my patients along with the Omega 3/6 test and fasting Insulin to assess their diet and their health. You can too !
Until next month….get well and stay well. JT BARRY MD