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The Latest on Organics, Fish Oil and Rice Plus Statins and Frailty

Let's get this over with, although it deserves zero time from either you or me: I'm talking about that junk science report from Stanford on how organic food is basically a rip-off and that conventional is just as good. Let me tell you how this report stinks: First and most of all, it was a meta-analysis which means it was a summary of 17 human and 230 field studies of the nutrient and contaminant levels in unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, meats etc. Any "meta-analysis" is like taking all the information from the 247 studies and throwing it against the nearest wall, seeing what sticks then writing about what hasn't slid onto the floor. There is no real science to it.

Ditto with the latest fish oil expose which said that fish oil has nothing to do with heart health. Another sloppy meta-analysis with no real controls i.e. not everyone took the same fish oil at the same dosage and same purity. Plus they studied the group for less than a year. Really? And this was published in the Journal of the American Medical Society? And now, arsenic and rice? As babies, I fed my kids "arsenic" cereal and then we ate the 70's versions of vegetarianism much of the time (stir-fry or vegetables with rice). To my knowledge, there's scarcely an idiot in the bunch.

Back to Organics: Here is how the Stanford study was wrong: 1) It's been proven in previous studies that organic foods have 30% less pesticide residue. 2) It's been proven that conventional foods have a 33% higher amount of antibiotic resistant bacteria especially in chicken and pork. These are super-bugs, folks - the kind that antibiotics can't kill. 3) It's been proven that organics (by virtue of the term) cannot contain GMO's. GMO's are increasingly thought to be very dangerous in both the short and long term. 4) It's been proven that organics contain 16% more nutrients than conventional - this from the landmark study done in 2010 in the UK.

5) And most, of all, at least to me, there are no long term studies of the health effects on humans of consuming organics vs. conventional produce and meats. (The longest duration of human studies in the Stanford project was 2 years.) For example, we do know that pesticides are cumulative in the body, so what's that going to look like in 30 years? Mutations? More Cancer? More miscarriages? Problems with fertility? A Thalidomide-like tragedy? What about the GMO's? They are scary. (Click here to read about GMO's.)

Then we get into the dark, dank albeit titillating land of conspiracy theory: It has been alleged that one of the co-authors of the Stanford study has strong ties to Big Tobacco with their anti-science propaganda and has been hired previously by them to twist statistics on smoking (easy to twist statistics, by the way) to down play the risk to smokers. Also, for what it's worth, Stanford has a huge base of secret donations (in 2009, over ½ billion dollars [LA Times, 2/10]) and allegedly has financial ties to Cargill and Monsanto, both of whom make a ton of money on GMO crops.

Monsanto alone has given 4.2 million to defeat California's prop 37, a bill that orders mandatory labeling of GMO foods. The total given by Monsanto plus DuPont, Dow, Agro and PepsiCo to defeat Prop 37 is 25 million. These companies have their dirty little hands into the genetic modification of most all crops now. They euphemistically and misleadingly call the genetic modification of seeds "food safety", so organics certainly aren't part of their party line. There you have it. I, for one, will happily and contentedly and with great assurance continue to buy organically.

New Risk for Statin Drugs: We already know about the digestive disturbances, the rashes and the increased muscle aches and pains, but there are more side-effects emerging from that deep dark closet where Big Pharma stores the nasty little secrets they don't want you to know about. But the truth will always come out, won't it? Now they have recognized, first of all, that statins can cause cognitive problems, memory loss and confusion. I could have told you that with my one horrible experience about 7 years ago with trying to treat my familial high cholesterol with a statin. I finally, against my better judgment, caved to the MD's horrified looks on their face when they saw that my cholesterol values were over 250. But, within three days on Zocor, I had severe short term memory loss and how scary is that? Kaiser has now added to my medical chart, in addition to penicillin, "an allergy to statin drugs." There is also a rarer cognitive disorder, called Global Transient Amnesia (GTA) which can occur on statins. GTA acts like a TIA/stroke, but isn't. But scary, nonetheless.

Secondly, it is now known that statins can increase blood sugar, increasing your risk for diabetes and third, there is an increased risk for irreversible muscle damage when statins interact with certain other drugs, including the antibiotic erythromycin. Who is saying all this trashy stuff about the hallowed money makers like Vytorin, Mevacor, Crestor, Lipitor and Zocor? None other than Dr. Amy Egan, M.D., the Deputy Director for Safety of, yes the FDA. (July, 2012)

Vitamin D and frailty: Low vitamin D levels raise the mortality levels by 30% in the elderly. Researchers studied 4,300 adults over age 60 and adjusted their D levels by giving them vitamin D supplements ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 iu's daily. They found that the best D values that positively affected frailty and disease most rapidly and most efficaciously were levels of Vitamin D between 50 and 70 ng/ml (European J of Clin Nut, 7/26/12.) This is what I keep telling you. I want your levels at 70, a nice even, round number and easy to remember. That way you will be protected from heart disease, cancer and for the elderly, frailty.

What is the definition of frailty? Short and sweet, there are five criteria and when a person has three or more, they are considered frail: 1) Unintentional weight loss of 10 pounds or more in the past year 2) Self-reported exhaustion 3) Weakness as measured by grip strength 4) Slow walking speed and 5) Low physical activity. The presence of one or more is called "pre-frail." As I am wont to say at this point "Keep moving, death is very still."

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