August 2011 Classical Medicine Newsletter

 

  

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This is a particularly long hot summer no matter where you live. Why not catch up on some Classical Medicine Journal highlights with a tall glass of something good, sweating from ice cubes? But think twice before pouring diet soda over that ice -- you just might be making your waistline larger instead of smaller. Seems the aspartame may be to blame. Then check out an op-ed from New York Times columnist Mark Bittman who advocates using tax incentives to encourage healthy dietary choices and imposing penalties for those who chose to eat or drink otherwise. Some will rightly argue that people should opt for what's best without "government intrusion," a perfectly valid position. But junk food and junk drinks are a staple of the so-called Standard American Diet (with the delicious acronym, SAD) and consumption is not likely to decrease without some motivation, be that philosophical or economic or perhaps both.

 

Last month, this newsletter called attention to research that begins to quantify the physiological benefits of acupuncture, findings deemed revolutionary by those who disregard thousands of years of experiential data. More troubling might be one of this month's hot topics: Is Science Catching Up With Homeopathy? Gracious. What will we have to accept -- rather than reject -- next?

 

Speaking of new medical frontiers and not-so-new prejudices, a story about one man's choice to use SonoPhoto Dynamic Therapy to treat his kidney cancer generated attention. SonoPhoto uses chlorophyll which all cells absorb but which, for reasons unknown, cancer cells alone cannot expel. Sound and light frequencies are used to identify the chlorophyll-filled cancer cells. Creating photosynthesis causes an explosion of free radical oxygen in the cancer cells which kills them (no surprise there). Not yet recognized in the United States, the therapy is used in Mexico, China, England, Australia and the EU. Don't miss the reaction of the man's oncologist.

 

Some findings must annoy Big Pharma like gnats or mosquitoes in the summer twilight. In a story first published in the New York Times in late June, you can almost hear the frustrated media consultants spinning their best to discount the results of a massive study on statin drugs that clearly show many questions remain about the long-term impact of the long-term use of these drugs. Another surprise comes from a European study on breast cancer mortality which found that early detection (mammograms) cannot explain the decline in deaths from breast cancer in three pairs of European countries. Not the result anyone was expecting, obviously.

 

Perhaps the middle way, the way between the extremes of nothing alternative and nothing conventional bears the greatest hope for future healthcare options and protocols. An article reprinted from Acupuncture Today serves up a double-dose of optimism with its report on new drugs that employ the ancient wisdom of Chinese herbology with the testing and precision of modern pharmacology. Each system is enhanced by collaboration with the other. Recalls an old Egyptian proverb: "One foot isn't enough to walk with."

 

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