“Catching Things Early” Supplementing Perfectly John Whitcomb, MD Green Bay Business Forum March 2nd, 2011
Jan 19, 2016
“Catching Things Early” Supplementing Perfectly
John Whitcomb, MDGreen Bay Business Forum
March 2nd, 2011
Objective
• Explain the 50,000 foot picture of what modern medicine does
• What we really want from health care
• How this “Changes Everything” in Primary Care
• A couple of practical tips for yourself
What We Really Want
• To never get sick
• To live to be a healthy hundred
• To operate at optimal levels of functioning
• To reduce the cost of health care to ourselves personally and corporately
• Gradual decline into senility is not acceptable
It’s the Journey
• Going back to the source of infectious disease
• We started living longer: 46 in 1900 to 78-87 in 2000
• Now we have chronic disease
• We’re still treating with the same paradigm of infectious disease: fix you when you get sick
• And do it in 10 days (that’s the core fallacy that modern medicine is now trying to do)
MODERN MEDICINE’S ADDICTION
• We get paid for procedures: appendicitis, open heart surgery
• We get rewarded for doing big dramatic things that fix you all in a hurry
• We come to believe that we can fix many things with a quick bullet
• Open heart surgery does not reverse vascular disease
• There is no surgery/pill for Alzheimer’s
But, we now have Chronic Disease as our Challenge
• Same journey
• Let’s get back to the source
• What’s the real cause of chronic disease
• Fact: the treatment of chronic illness, once it’s entrenched is expensive, toxic and debilitating
• Awareness: MUCH BETTER fend off early
• What causes Alzheimer’s (78% less on India)
Western Diseases
• Cancer, Heart Disease, Neurological Degenerative Diseases (50% of us will have Alzheimer’s by 90)
• Arthritis, Autoimmune (40% of American women carry an autoantibody)
• Save my eyes, my knees and my brain!
• Many parts of the less developed world have very rare cancer
• Districts in China go decades between heart attacks
Hypothesis
• Chronic diseases are caused by “long latency” conditions
• Underlying physiology is out of balance for years or decades prior to disease
• Autoimmune illnesses: typically have 20 years of antibody, 5 years of vague symptoms, then horrible disease
• We need to get to core imbalances
Our Big Goal
• Address the mechanisms of chronic long latency disease
• Maintain optimal health (not treat disease)
• Rectangularize optimal health – keep your healthy and vibrant the longest possible
• That means addressing inflammation
• Delay long latency disease
• Must address the Antecedents to Chronic Illness
2. What is Vitamin D? A Hormone
•Based on Cholesterol•Like a hormone, effects the expression of genes•Does not work like a vitamin as a cofactor in metabolism•Affects over 2000 genes in 1400 cell types•Comes from SUN: NOT from food•Evolution is frugal: uses cholesterol for other hormone functions: but Dwas likely the first
20:20:20:20 Rule• 20 year old with 50% of skin exposed
• 20 minutes of mid day sun: with skin type III (typical Caucasian-American)
• On JUNE 20th(height of summer)
• Not enough sun to tan
• Will make about 20,000 U over the next 24 hours: the 20:20:20 Rule on June 20
• Typical African-American: needs 4-5 times as much sun-light because of skin pigment
• Elderly: age 70 make only 25%
This means one glass of milk a day
Will raise your D level about 1 ng, or 2.5 nmoles.
This means one glass of milk a day
Will raise your D level about 1 ng, or 2.5 nmoles.
(Vieth, AJCN 1999:69, 842-56)
4. What’s Enough?
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10
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Puerto RicoNurses (26)
Puerto RicoFarmers (18)
St. LouisLifeguards (9)
Israeli Lifeguards(34)
Vitamin D Levels in Sun Rich Environments
Published Literature on Intentional UVB Treatment and D Levels
(Vieth AJCN 1999 : 69 p 842-56)
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Germ
an M
en (2
4) T
wo wee
ks
Med
ical S
tude
nts (6
) One
sess
ion
Psoria
sis (8
) Thr
ee wee
ks
Lond
oner
s (7)
Thr
ee w
eeks
New Yorke
rs (7
) 10
sess
ions
Kidney
Sto
ne (1
1) 1
0 se
ssion
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HBP (9) 3
times
a w
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Germ
an M
en (5
) 3 tim
es a w
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Before
After UVB