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Hypochondriasis, Vitamin D and More on Skin

Worrying about your health is absurd. Take it from one hypochondriac who knows. I think one of the reasons I became a natural doc is because I worried so much about every little symptom (after having had cancer at age 42) and wanted more control which I thought I could get through more knowledge. But that more knowledge thing? It often backfires, because now I know too much and through my training in differential diagnosis, my over-active imagination can come up with the most bizarre and awful diseases for myself when presented with the most mundane symptoms.

I've just tripped up the stairs? I must have beginning ALS! (not that I am in a momentary clumsy phase since Mercury is retrograde). I am burping and have heartburn? I must have esophageal cancer! (not that I ate some hot peppers which are nightshades and I am allergic to them) I'm really tired? I must have leukemia! (not that maybe my TSH is low and I need to amp up my thyroid meds). Headache? Brain tumor. Forget a familiar phone number? This is the older hypochondriac's ace-in-the-hole: I go right to senile dementia then to the "Home" where I drool and soil myself. I could go on and on.

I remind myself often of the old adage we learned in school: "When you hear hoof beats, think of horses first, not zebras."

Another version of this would be over-anxious preventive self-care. "Did I get my 10 fruits and vegetables today?" Oh, no, I didn't! I'm sure to get sick with something horrible, because everyone says you should eat this way to stay healthy. I just know I will get the flu. Or cancer. I'm going to get out of bed right now and eat some baby carrots. And an apple. But then I won't sleep well and that's bad, too! I read somewhere that I need 8 full hours. Or, else."

This kind of self-talk is not only a masochistic form of cruelty-to-self, but it's just plain ridiculous as well. I know many of you will fall prey to this kind of thinking because of the over-abundance of the "shoulds" out there - on the web (googling your health is a titillating albeit very bad idea ) and the glut of information from places with no credentials like the Oprah magazine or the Whole Foods monthly magazine - one is a talk show host and the other is a grocery oligarchy and both want to sell you stuff.

Even in this very newsletter I tend to put some fairly strong suggestions out to you. But I want you to be clear that I expect you to just enjoy what I have to say, take to heart whatever appeals to you and do what you can with whatever speaks to you.

Dr. Susan Love, the breast cancer doc, has suggested just this in her new book - Live a Little! Breaking the Rules Won't Break Your Health. She has given us all permission to just take a deep breath, do the best we can and . . . relax. She posits that the middle road is the best (I agree) and that "failing to live by the various health rules is a major source of stress and guilt, particularly for women. For most of us 'pretty healthy' is healthy enough." (NY Times, 1/5/10) It's really easier to be healthy than you think.

Here is a reality check from both me and Susan: If you feel pretty good, you probably are. If you sleep pretty well, ditto. However, if you are consistently lethargic and lack energy for your day after a night's sleep you prob. need some help. If you are not obese, you are fine. In fact, some overweight is not bad and thin is not necessarily healthy. Try to get your 30 minutes of walking or exercise in every day, but if you aren't regular for awhile, "don't vorry about a ting", as an old boyfriend's mother used to tell me. Just start up again. Stress over what you're not doing is far worse than the not doing.

The point here is this and why Dr. Love decided to write the book: "People seem to have lost sight of what it means to be healthy. It is to use your common sense, and if you feel good, you are fine. The goal is not to go to heaven and say "I'm perfect". It's to use your body, have some fun and live a little."

By now we all know how wonderful vitamin D is. And you all know how I nag you mercilessly to get your D levels tested. I have been studying D for years now and am clear that it prevents most everything - heart disease, all cancer, flu's and colds and pretty much most everything you can think of that's bad. It also prevents depression especially if you are overweight. In a recent study, researchers did the usual double-blind, placebo-controlled study on 441 overweight people. They pre-tested all the participants and discovered that those with D levels of 40 and under were most likely to be depressed They were divided into three groups: One group took 20,000 iu's of D per day, the second took 40,000 iu's of D and the third took a placebo. At the end of one year, the ones on placebo fared the worst and the ones taking enough D to raise their D levels to 50-60 fared the best on depression testing. (J Intern Med, 9/08, Int J Cancer, 10/06)

Many of you balk when I recommend that you take large doses of D. Please don't be nervous. I routinely give 10,000 IU's just to raise very low levels (anything under 40) to between 50-60. But here's the caveat. You can't just take large doses forever without testing your levels. That is irresponsible. On the high doses, you must recheck your D levels every 3 months until we find that you are where you want to be, then you start taking smaller doses, checking the levels in another 6 months to see if you can maintain that healthy level of D. It's a balancing act and a very important one.

A couple more pointers about healthy youthful skin: Two newsletters ago - the pathetic Dorian Gray issue - I mentioned taking r-lipoic acid. I have been taking a couple a day for years now and think it does wonders for my skin. It's a wonderful antioxidant, both water and fat soluble, so it covers all bases.

The other product I want to mention is hyaluronic acid which is reportedly a collagen promoter and joint lubricator. I started taking it because I thought it would help my arthritic right hip, by adding a bit of padding to the bone on bone. It didn't help the hip, but in the course of taking it for a couple of months, I noticed my facial skin was smoother, probably due to replacing some of the lost collagen just under the surface. I have a product called Synovaderm which is straight hyaluronic acid from a very good company. Secondly, the more alkaline you are, the better your skin is. I noticed that when I gave up coffee a few months ago, the texture of my skin started looking finer. When I have an occasional cup of coffee - whether it's organic or not - my complexion takes on a rougher look. So, more vegetables and fruits, please, and less acid-y foods.

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