Participants: Don Mackintosh, Kevin Bryant
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000041
00:51 Hello and welcome to "Health for a Lifetime"
00:54 I'm Don Macintosh, your host, and today we're joined with 00:57 Dr. Kevin Bryant from Wichita, Kansas 01:00 He is a specialist in family practice, 01:02 and focuses on helping the older adult or geriatric concerns, 01:07 and one of his special things that he likes to study 01:10 are natural remedies for many different concerns... 01:14 and also with those who are 01:15 getting older, isn't that right, doctor? 01:16 That's right since my area of practice is for the elderly, 01:21 in the geriatric population, looking at something 01:26 in the area of natural remedies, 01:27 has always been an interest of mine. 01:30 Now, natural remedies, when we talk about natural remedies, 01:34 some people probably get a little frightened... 01:36 that sounds alternative, sounds kind of, 01:38 you know, maybe on the fringe. 01:40 You are a medical doctor, correct? 01:42 That's correct, and we do want to say right at the beginning, 01:48 that any of the things we're going to be talking about 01:51 ...if someone listening says, "That sounds like something 01:56 I'd like into further," it's important that they 01:59 do talk to their physician, 02:01 because some of the herbal preparations that we're 02:05 going to be talking about may interfere or interact 02:08 with medications they're on, and they need to 02:10 be sure that their physician is aware of that. 02:13 You literally see hundreds of 02:15 patients a year... isn't that right? 02:16 You have many nursing homes, 02:18 and many patients you see. Right 02:21 And many of them are on medications, 02:24 but what's the difference between pharmaceutical, 02:26 or a medication that's made and then sold in a pharmacy, 02:31 and a natural remedy? 02:34 Well, one thing that has been interesting to me 02:39 as I've looked at this area is looking at the difference 02:42 the way plants produce chemicals, 02:47 and the way they're produced in a chemistry lab. 02:51 When they're produced in a chemistry lab, 02:54 the chemical compounds that are made there, 02:58 the drugs, the pharmaceutical agents, 03:02 have what we call left and right-hand forms. 03:06 They're like our hands, and they can't be 03:10 superimposed on each other, but they're mirror images. 03:13 So, in any given drug, there's a right hand, 03:16 there's a left hand... 03:17 Right... left and right hand form of that drug. 03:21 So you have a right-handed aspirin, 03:23 and you have a left-handed aspirin... whatever 03:25 Now, the importance of that is that our bodies 03:30 ONLY interact with the left hand form. 03:34 And so, pharmaceuticals produced in the lab, 03:37 produced a mixture, a 50:50 mixture 03:39 of left and right hand, so half of the drug 03:44 is not interacting with the body and producing the effect 03:48 that it's designed to produce; only the left hand. 03:51 So what... I mean, to use a simple, you got this pill, 03:54 only half of it is working, is what you're saying, 03:56 and what's the other half doing then? 03:59 The left hand form is the one that's actually active 04:01 and producing the effect that the drug is designed to do. 04:07 In the plant kingdom, when plants produce compounds, 04:12 that are effective in our body, they only produce 04:17 the left hand side 100% 04:20 Some people think that may have something to do with 04:24 a difference that we see in the amount of side effects 04:28 that are evident. 04:30 You only have to pick up a Physicians' Desk Reference 04:33 which is the manual that goes over all the pharmaceutical 04:37 drugs and look through the section on adverse reactions, 04:42 or side effects to realize that they do cause side effects. 04:48 So that pill, whatever it is we take from the pharmacy, 04:51 half of it really works; the other half we're not sure 04:54 what it's doing, but it's that right hand versus left hand. 04:57 That doesn't mean you're saying to people... 04:59 Do away with your medicines, 05:01 or stop them, or anything like that. No 05:02 It's just kind of a way of thinking... Understanding 05:06 Understanding why it is that the herbal preparations, 05:09 by and large, seem to have a less number of side effects. 05:13 What are some of the things you're going to 05:15 talk to us about today? 05:16 We're going to talk about some of these natural remedies. 05:18 What are some of the things you're going to be covering? 05:19 Well, we want to look at some of the concerns that our 05:22 geriatric population are facing. 05:25 And, we've talked about the difference between 05:28 pharmaceutical agents, and herbal preparations. 05:31 We want to spend a few minutes looking at 05:33 some natural remedies for ophthalmology or eye concerns. 05:39 Many of the elderly population are facing cataracts, 05:43 or blindness due to macular degeneration. 05:46 We're going to spend a little bit of time on prostate problems 05:51 And then something that many of the older population fear 05:56 is the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease. 05:59 What can we do to maybe prevent or treat it 06:01 with natural remedies. 06:03 And then lastly, focus on osteoporosis. 06:07 Sounds very interesting. 06:11 I know my grandfather lived with me the last 06:13 3-1/2 years of his life. 06:15 I was able to... had the privilege of taking of him. 06:17 And he did have problems with cataracts and whatnot. 06:21 What can you tell us about natural remedies for cataracts, 06:24 and the other big word, I think you used, was 06:26 macular degeneration, right. 06:28 Let's talk about cataracts first... Okay 06:31 Some researchers in Baltimore did some interesting 06:36 studies on a geriatric population where they 06:40 did something simple as looking at the amount of 06:45 fruits and vegetables that were in their diet, 06:49 and then they followed them to see how many of them 06:52 developed cataracts. 06:54 And what they found was that if they divided the group 07:00 into 2 groups; one group eating 3.5 or more servings 07:06 a day of fruits and vegetables, versus the group that 07:09 ate less than 3.5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day. 07:13 The difference between those 2 groups in developing cataracts 07:17 was incredible! 07:19 In fact, the group that ate less than 3.5 servings a day 07:23 had 13 times the risk of developing cataracts. 07:29 So development of cataracts is not necessarily just 07:33 something that's in a person's fate. 07:35 Something as simple as eating more than 07:38 3.5 servings of fruit and vegetables a day can help 07:41 reduce that risk. 07:42 So if you don't have cataracts, and you're watching today... 07:45 Hey, start eating those fruits and vegetables, 07:48 and you're going to avoid those... Right! 07:51 That's good news... I mean, I thought you were going to say 07:55 that it was helpful, but I didn't know it was THAT helpful. 07:58 That was a phenomenal finding in that study. 08:01 Now the other aspect they looked at was 08:03 macular degeneration. 08:05 Which means... what does that mean? 08:06 That's a deterioration of the retina. 08:09 And they found, again... 08:10 Just a minute, what is the retina? 08:11 What does the retina do? 08:12 The light comes in the eye, and then what... 08:15 And it is focused on the back of the eye... 08:17 So these are the cells on the back of the eye that 08:19 the light is focused on. 08:22 And the area that's most important is called the "macula" 08:26 The macula is part of the retina 08:29 where the light focuses on. Right 08:31 And deterioration of that area causes a considerable 08:35 amount of the blindness in America. 08:37 They found a similar type of thing where those that were 08:42 low in the fruits and vegetables had twice the rate 08:48 of this disease process occurring. 08:51 So fruits and vegetables... 08:53 Was mother right? Eat your carrots? 08:55 They do help! They really do. 08:58 So maybe if you're watching, 08:59 you'll want to go and get a carrot, that would be great! 09:02 Let's go on and ask what kind of things can help in 09:08 these other areas you mentioned. 09:09 I think the other one you mentioned was prostate. 09:11 Yeah, for men, by the age of 75 in America today, 09:16 50% of men are having problems with their prostate, 09:21 and one of the newest herbal preparations that is 09:27 finding some real help in this area is one called... 09:31 "saw palmetto" 09:34 As the name might indicate, it's taken from an extract 09:38 from the berry of a palm tree... 09:41 And they found that in various studies where they compare it 09:49 against a drug, a pharmaceutical agent called "Proscar," 09:57 the studies looking at those 2, comparing them, 10:01 we find that it's just as effective. 10:04 Just as effective, but less side effects, 10:08 although it does have some small amount of side effects 10:12 with headaches, nausea, dizziness. 10:14 One other thing we have to mention about this 10:19 it does affect what we call "PSA" level. 10:23 What's that? A fancy name for... 10:26 "Prostatic assay" which is measuring for 10:31 the possibility of prostate cancer. 10:34 So if you take this, it could mask a problem? 10:38 It can mask a problem. Right 10:40 So that's again coming back to the reason why it's 10:43 important to let your physician know if 10:46 you are taking some of these herbal medications 10:49 because of the effect they can have on lab tests, 10:52 and it's also important to mention here that 10:56 saw palmetto is really only to be used for 10:59 prostate enlargement problems; 11:01 it's not really useful for prostate cancer. 11:06 All right, many of these things you can get over-the-counter, 11:10 in a health food store, or some place... 11:13 How do you now whether or not you're getting a good 11:16 source of palmetto. 11:19 And that's an important point. 11:21 In Europe, herbal medications are used extensively. 11:30 In Germany, 90% of the prescriptions written by 11:33 physicians are for herbal medication. 11:36 Is that right, 90%! Of medical doctors! 11:40 Of medical doctors in Germany 11:41 are writing for herbal preparations, 11:43 and so they've developed a much better regulatory system 11:48 for making sure that it's standardized in quality control. 11:53 We don't have that yet here in America, 11:56 and so there is some concern that some preparations 12:00 may not be as quality controlled. 12:03 One important helpful point on that is if 12:07 on the bottle, and you're looking at the 12:11 active ingredient portion, 12:13 if it says "standardized" in the dosage area, 12:18 that this is standardized, then that is indicating 12:22 that they've had some quality control, 12:25 and that you can be a little more sure that 12:27 that's the amount that's in there. 12:30 Another question about that over-the-counter business... 12:33 You find out it's standardized and whatnot, 12:36 but REALLY, what you're saying is, you could help yourself, 12:40 but you could also endanger yourself if you're not 12:43 communicating with your physician. Correct 12:47 Well, we've talked about saw palmetto for prostate. 12:54 We've talked about fruits and vegetables 12:57 for cataracts and for macular degeneration. 13:02 We've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant, 13:04 he's a specialist in family practice from Wichita, Kansas 13:08 He has a real interest in using natural remedies 13:11 for the things that affect older Americans 13:14 and we hope that if you joined us, 13:17 you'll come back and listen after the break. 13:19 We're going to be talking about some other 13:20 fascinating discoveries, and things that we 13:23 think can be of help to you, and perhaps your physician 13:26 as you work together, and we hope that you join us! 13:44 Have you found yourself wishing 13:45 that you could shed a few pounds? 13:47 Have you been on a diet for most of your life, 13:49 but not found anything that will really keep the weight off? 13:52 If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, 13:55 then we have a solution for you that works! 13:58 Dr. Hans Diehl and Dr. Aileen Ludington 14:01 have written a marvelous booklet called... 14:03 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 14:05 and we'd like to send it to you Free of charge. 14:08 Here's a medically sound approach successfully used 14:10 by thousands who were able to eat more and lose weight 14:14 permanently without feeling guilty or hungry 14:17 through lifestyle medicine. 14:18 Dr. Diehl and Dr. Ludington have been featured on 3ABN 14:22 and in this booklet, they present a sensible approach 14:25 to eating, nutrition, and lifestyle changes 14:27 that can help you prevent heart disease, diabetes, 14:30 and EVEN cancer. 14:31 Call or write today for your free copy of... 14:33 "Reversing Obesity Naturally" 14:35 and you could be on your way to a healthier, happier YOU! 14:38 It's ABSOLUTELY free of charge, so call or write today. 14:55 Welcome back, we've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant 14:58 from Wichita, Kansas 15:00 He's a specialist in family practice, 15:02 and he focuses especially on the older adult, 15:05 and different health concerns... 15:07 And he's NOT telling you to go away from your 15:10 normal doctor in any way, but to work with your doctor 15:13 and to look at some natural remedies that can address 15:16 some of the problems that older Americans deal with. 15:18 Doctor, we've talked about cataracts... 15:20 We found out that if someone eats fruits and vegetables, 15:24 they can decrease their risk of having a cataract by 13%. 15:28 You've talked to us about macular... 15:31 Or 13 times the... that's amazing! 15:34 And then we talked about macular degeneration. 15:37 If you eat those same fruits and vegetables, 15:40 it's 2 times... 2 times, right, 15:43 and then we also talked about prostate enlargement; 15:46 not prostate cancer, but enlargement, 15:49 and we found out this herb called "saw palmetto" 15:54 can help us not have that enlargement, 15:56 and all the problems that come with this. 15:58 But you also said, "Hey, be careful it can throw off 16:01 your PSA test, and those of you that have experienced 16:04 or know someone that's had prostate cancer, 16:06 know what that's all about. 16:07 We've come back now, we're going to talk a little bit 16:11 about another problem that many older Americans face, 16:16 and that's Alzheimer's. 16:18 What is Alzheimer's, just to give us an idea of what it is, 16:21 and then what can you do to help us 16:22 from a natural remedy standpoint? 16:25 Okay, some interesting things here... 16:27 In Alzheimer disease, it's simply put as a 16:32 brain degenerative disease that affects one's memory, 16:37 and ability to make judgments and process information. 16:42 For many elderly in this country they would almost rather 16:47 hear the word "cancer" than Alzheimer disease. 16:51 I think for most people, that's true. 16:53 And so, a couple of things that we want to look at 16:56 that are very interesting, and in the area of 17:01 natural remedies; and in this area of 17:05 Alzheimer disease, there is mounting evidence that 17:09 what we call "free radicals" are causing some of the 17:13 damage to the brain cells leading to this disease 17:17 we call Alzheimer disease. 17:19 So, just a minute before you go... 17:22 to finish with that, when you say, "free radical" 17:25 I mean, that sounds like some weird person running around, 17:28 but what does that mean exactly, a free radical? 17:32 Well, in our body's metabolism, energy metabolism 17:38 ...sometimes oxygen is metabolized into free radicals 17:44 and our bodies generally, for the most part, 17:48 are able to correct any of the damage that occurs 17:51 from free radicals. 17:52 And a free radical, what does it do, just bounce off 17:54 everything and injure things, is that what you mean? Right 17:57 It's almost like a loose cannon firing away in our cells. 18:02 I didn't mean to get you off your point, 18:03 but what you were saying, I believe, 18:04 was Alzheimer's... they theorize that these 18:08 molecules that are banging off everything can lead to 18:12 actually Alzheimer's. 18:13 Okay, go ahead, what next... 18:15 one of the herbal preparations is ginkgo biloba. 18:21 Now this comes to us from China, the Orient Japan, 18:27 and, in fact, it's from a sacred tree in China and Japan. 18:32 It's been used medicinally there for centuries, 18:37 and the extract is actually a free radical scavenger. 18:41 Looks for the bad guys... Looks for those people 18:44 that are bouncing off the walls ... And neutralizes them. 18:47 Now there's some interesting studies that have been done 18:49 in the recent years in the "Archives of Neurology" 18:52 they reviewed all of these studies, 18:54 and they found 4 studies that met strict scientific 19:00 criteria that they could use. 19:03 And they found that using 120-240 mg a day of ginkgo 19:10 showed a very significant effect over 19:13 a 3-6 months' treatment period of actually 19:16 improving the person, or slowing 19:18 the progression of the disease. 19:22 Another research journal called, "Brain Research" 19:27 I found this very interesting... 19:29 They reported in March 1996... 19:32 These researchers were taking nerve cells and exposing them 19:39 to hydrogen peroxide which is a very 19:41 strong free radical producer that causes oxidation. 19:46 That's a good way to describe free radicals, isn't it? 19:48 If you've had hydrogen peroxide, you know what it does 19:52 ...that's a free radical! 19:53 To put and exposing normal nerve cells to that 19:57 causes a significant amount of damage. 20:00 When they pre-treat it with ginkgo, those nerve cells, 20:05 and then exposed them to the hydrogen peroxide, 20:08 found a marked decrease in the 20:10 damage that the hydrogen peroxide was causing; 20:13 another indication that the ginkgo was protecting 20:17 the nerve cells from that damage by these free radicals. 20:21 Again, probably this ginkgo, you said it in the first section 20:25 of our program today, maybe some people just joined us; 20:28 this needs to be that standardized ginkgo... 20:32 In other words, you know, the type that's really good. 20:34 Look for it to say "standardized" on there. 20:36 Right... finding the best brand out there that you can. 20:39 Another thing, I think that I don't want people to miss, 20:43 but I heard it... 20:44 You did a lot of research on this; 20:46 and you didn't just look at any study that was off the wall... 20:50 You said, "Hey, there's this group that looked at all... 20:52 and looked for those really 20:53 scientifically well-researched claims. Exactly, right. 20:57 What other good news do you 20:59 have for us concerning Alzheimer's? 21:01 Well, back to something we talked in previous programs is 21:06 vitamins... the vitamin C, and vitamin E 21:11 There are vitamins that we know have antioxidant effects 21:16 that are powerful antioxidants, 21:19 and they've looked at the Rush University in Chicago, 21:24 studied a group of patients, 633, 21:28 and they found that those that were using vitamin E supplements 21:33 and vitamin C supplements had a marked reduction 21:36 in the number of Alzheimer dementia or disease 21:42 development among those patients. 21:45 So in other words, they gave them these things, 21:47 they thought they were going to develop Alzheimer's, 21:49 and then they didn't because they got these things. 21:51 It seemed to protect these users. 21:55 When you say, "a marked," I mean what, they studied 20, 21:57 and only... What happened? 22:00 Well, in a group of 27 that were using vitamin C, 22:04 none of them developed it, as were it had been predicted 22:09 ...They use models to predict how many they would expect 22:13 to develop the disease... 22:14 They were expecting approximately 4 to develop it 22:17 out of 27, but NONE developed it during the study. 22:22 So their conclusion was that vitamin C and E 22:25 appears to be able to lower the risk of development 22:28 of Alzheimer disease... 22:32 Another researcher, called Dr. Sano, looked at vitamin E 22:40 in a study where they were looking at patients that 22:44 already had Alzheimer disease, were in the early stages, 22:47 and they were wanting to look to see if they could 22:50 slow the progression of the disease down. 22:54 And what they found it was using 400 IU a day, 22:59 of vitamin E, slowed the progress of the disease 23:04 by nearly two-thirds. Wow 23:07 Now you might say, two-thirds of a year... 23:10 But that's still probably significant. 23:12 It was a significant difference between that, and a placebo pill 23:17 Dummy pill, sugar pill or something. Right. 23:20 So in other words, what you are saying with that is... 23:23 Any time is valuable time if someone is losing 23:25 their ability to remember something. 23:26 Right, because the things they were looking at was 23:29 the progression of the disease was someone that 23:33 could do all of their activities of daily living, 23:36 now lose that ability, or have to be moved into a nursing home. 23:41 So these were looking at significant events 23:44 in the progress of the disease, 23:46 and those things were pushed off down in the road. 23:53 One question for you... 23:54 When you talk about vitamin C and vitamin E, 23:57 does this mean the actual supplements in this case... 24:01 it sounds like you're talking about taking supplements 24:02 in this case, or is it fruits again, that you're talking about 24:07 Well in this study, they studied the supplement itself, 24:11 vitamin E, 400 IU. 24:14 Well let's move on... 24:16 We have one other thing you wanted to talk to us about, 24:18 and you've dealt with several different things here, 24:21 but another big thing is brittle bones, "osteoporosis" 24:25 Osteoporosis, and we'll just focus briefly on that. 24:29 The first concept to recognize with osteoporosis, brittle bones 24:37 is that our bones are like calcium banks, 24:44 and from birth until about the age of in the 30s 24:49 we're putting calcium into our bones; 24:52 99% of the calcium in our body resides in our bones, 24:57 1% is dissolved in the bloodstream. 25:02 So they just keep packing it away until you're in your 30s. 25:05 Right. At that point, it's a process of withdrawing calcium 25:10 from those bones... 25:11 And in America, we withdraw too much, 25:14 and by the time someone is in their 50s, 60s and 70s, 25:18 the calcium has been withdrawn 25:21 from the bones too rapidly, and they're brittle. 25:24 So our goal is to slow that process of withdrawal 25:29 or stop it completely. What draws it out? 25:33 Just sitting around, could that be one thing? 25:36 Sedentary lifestyle, a good example are the astronauts; 25:41 when they're in a weightless state, 25:43 they lose calcium rapidly from their bones. 25:47 So sedentary lifestyle, not enough weightbearing 25:51 exercise is important. 25:53 Another one that is little known is the area of 25:57 protein in the diet. 25:59 If we take in more protein than our body needs, 26:04 then the body has to eliminate that protein 26:10 from the body and it eliminates it through the kidneys. 26:14 As they're eliminating it, it takes calcium with the 26:18 protein molecules with the amino acids 26:21 and it actually takes that calcium out of the bank... 26:25 draws it out of the bank from the bones. 26:28 Any other things we should avoid? 26:29 Some of the other things are phosphates. 26:32 Phosphates are found in soda drinks; 26:36 the animal products' meats are high in phosphates 26:39 and they tend to rob calcium from the bones... 26:43 As well as things like cigarette smoking. 26:47 We know that that doubles the rate of someone having 26:51 a hip fracture from osteoporosis. 26:55 Alcohol intake leads to calcium loss from the bones. 27:01 And so, in the area of getting calcium, 27:05 the goal is to get as much calcium as you can, 27:09 but without the protein. 27:11 And there are calcium-rich foods that are high in calcium; 27:16 a lot of green leafy vegetables. 27:19 Green leafy vegetables, broccoli kale, string beans, tofu... 27:26 High in calcium but low in protein. 27:30 We've been talking with Dr. Kevin Bryant, 27:32 from Wichita, Kansas 27:33 We've looked at some health concerns for older Americans. 27:36 We've looked at natural remedies for those. 27:40 We've looked at how we can avoid these things through 27:43 proper medical care... 27:45 Also through proper lifestyle choices, 27:47 but then in addition, looking at natural remedies to 27:51 stop these things from happening or reverse them. 27:54 We hope that today's program has been a blessing to you, 27:57 and that you have health that lasts for a lifetime! |
Revised 2014-12-17