November 1, 2018 PDI Newsletter
Greetings to all PDI and DCI Warriors,
Welcome to this November 2018 Peyronie’s Disease Institute newsletter. I trust all my friends are doing well. I suppose it is not too early to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.
The topic of this month’s newsletter is an explanation of why it is essential, even if you eat very well, to also take vitamin and mineral supplements to satisfy your nutritional needs. This doubly applies to those who use supplements for the treatment of Peyronie’s disease and Dupuytren’s contracture. This subject arose from a question from someone new to PD treatment. He asked why it would be necessary to take all the vitamins, minerals and enzymes in a large plan, since he ate an exceptionally good diet. He explained, “You often read that it is not necessary to take supplements if you eat well – everything we need is in our food. Are all these extra vitamins and minerals necessary?”
We all have heard representatives from the drug and healthcare industries warn that taking vitamin supplements is unnecessary and ineffective. We are told that a balanced diet will supply all the nutrients needed for good health. If so, I ask why do drug companies manufacture such a wide and expanding variety of synthetic vitamin supplements, why do all the drug stores sell them, and why does a recent survey find that 60% of doctors talk to their patients about taking vitamin supplementation? The answer is that even though there is controversy and different opinions about nutrition and supplementation, evidence suggests the tide is turning in favor of the need for supplementation. However, there are still different authorities who have different opinions about the need for additional nutritional supplementation, leaving the average person unsure what to do.
Perhaps the answer is not really all that complicated, based on what we see going on around us and a little common sense. As the population expands, smaller land areas must produce more food. Agribusiness sees the opportunity to solve this problem by using a greater array of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and additives to the food chain to feed the world. I will be the first to say that we probably will have to settle for a certain amount of foreign chemicals in our food if the 7.7 billion people on this planet are going to be fed. Some agricultural and farming chemicalization will is necessary if such an extraordinary amount of food production must be done in the future to keep us all alive, but a lot of it is unnecessary, dangerous and not worth the risk. The problem is that we are still learning about safe chemicalization of land and livestock, and what are safe levels of chemical residues. While science and industry are evaluating the effects of all these chemicals, many of us get sick during this learning process. Over time we will figure this out, but before that happens some of us will suffer from the unwise chemicalization of our food supply.
We do not know how we are being impacted by this food; the scientists say they know, but most people are not sure they know what they are doing sometimes. We have no idea how healthy we can be, or how sick we can get, after eating food that is chemicalized the way it is today. Our cancer rates, degenerative disease rates, obesity and exotic health conditions all increase; life spans increase as the quality of life decreases; we are here longer but sicker and enjoying it less. It is not easy to get dependable and accurate information about how agribusiness affects health. So we look around and see for ourselves to determine what makes sense; how the current use of chemicals affects the little things so that we can judge for ourselves how it might affect the big things. The following information shows how our food has been impacted for the last few generations.
Common sense tells me that food that contains chemicals that are not naturally present in that food will not deliver nutrition as good as food that does not contain these chemicals; the foreign chemicals will interfere with the various nutrients getting into and normally working with the body as they should. Putting a few drops of water in your gasoline will foul up the engine of your car, right?
Various studies from the most recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NAHANES) reveals that only 40% of Americans eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables, or eat the 56 grams of protein per day needed for an average sedentary person (0.36 grams of protein per pound). This same study shows the average American diet to be higher than necessary in saturated fat, red meat, refined grains and sugar, and lower in foods containing calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamins C, E, K and folate.
The modern American lifestyle that is pushed on and advertised to us does not promote eating simply and well; our culture promotes eating for convenience, speed and taste, not wellness. The kind of food, the kind of eating, that is made to look so desirable is often not beneficial to health.
Even when a person eats a balanced diet the nutritional intake can be low because of drastic changes in our food supply during the last few decades. The nutrient content of 43 frequently consumed fruits and vegetables was recently assessed to show: 6% protein decrease, 16% calcium decrease, 9% phosphorus decrease, 15% iron decrease, 38% riboflavin decrease, 20% ascorbic acid decrease compared to a just one generation ago.
There are many reasons modern food does not provide the same nutrients our grandparents enjoyed:
Storage time and maturity at harvest – harvesting crops before maturity to make transportation easier; transportation of fruits and vegetables thousands of miles reduces nutrients. Today we eat food from around the world; our grandparents ate more plainly and it was local food. An apple that has been stored for 10 months before you eat it does not look or taste the same because it has suffered from the delay. Many of our foods are reduced in quality by long delays.
Genetic selection – Modern foods are genetically selected and even modified for increased shelf life, higher yield or improved appearance to make them more profitable, and not necessarily more nutritious. Modern plants are higher in sugar and lower in protein, vitamins, fiber, essential fatty acids and minerals than the wild form of the same plant. This explains the recent craze for heirloom variety of so many plants – they taste better because they are different inside where it counts.
Atmosphere pollution – Pollutants and elevated CO2 in the atmosphere limit a plant’s ability to perform photosynthesis and overwhelm its ability to detoxify cells, leading to higher sugar and starch and lower protein levels. Atmospheric pollution also causes the soil to be less acidic, resulting in less calcium, magnesium and zinc being taken into the plants.
Soil nutrients and fertilizers – Modern farms force growth with limited fertilizers that only supply nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. This limited fertilization supplies only the major part of chemical reactions inside the plant, but not all. Organic fertilizers are not used in commercial farming which is the primary source of food we eat. They supply micronutrients in abundance resulting in crops that return those same micronutrients when eaten.
Environmental conditions – Forcing plants to grow outside their normal habitat in soil that is not ideal. Using irrigation and heavy fertilization with just a few isolated minerals and not the full spectrum of micronutrients that are found in nature, under the protection of insecticides and herbicides, often produces stressed crops that are less than ideal in many ways – especially nutritionally.
Farming techniques – Free-range animals produce meat with significantly higher omega-3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acids compared to feed-lot and caged animals. Dairy products from grass-fed animals supply higher levels of vitamins A and E and beta-carotene. Heavy antibiotic use alters intestinal bacteria content, resulting in reduced health and reduced nutrient profiles.
Industrial waste and contamination – A 2004 analysis of 2,644 people found that “most people in the U.S. carry a significant body burden of pesticides and pesticide metabolites” with the average person testing positive for 13 out of the 23 different toxins evaluated. Processing, neutralizing and eliminating these toxin from the body require increased levels of vitamins, minerals, enzymes and amino acids.
The drug and health industry are not controlled by evil people; but there are people who sometimes are misguided by self-interest and profit. This can result in an entire industry going in the wrong direction when making decisions about what is good for the health and welfare of consumers. Use common sense and make decisions based on what you know, even though it is difficult to know the truth when you read conflicting opinions from different authorities. Yes, my head spins too. No wonder modern people have more and different diseases than less modern people.
As you can see from this short discussion, it is difficult – if not impossible – to be sure about the nutrients in our diet. PDI and DCI alt med treatment of Peyronie’s disease and Dupuytren’s contracture gets the results that it does because it saturates the tissue with those nutrients needed for natural healing to occur. No one could eat enough food to match this level of nutrient saturation. I take the position that it is safer and more effective to do more than to do less to help myself.
This concludes our discussion for this issue of the newsletter. I hope everyone found this PDI Newsletter interesting and informative so you can do a better job of helping your own Peyronie’s disease or Dupuytren’s contracture.
If you want to contact me with a question, please do so through the “Ask Dr. Herazy” Q & A section of either website at Peyronies Disease Institute or Dupuytrens Contracture Institute. .
If things are going slowly for you, and you feel discouraged, put that energy into something productive. Write me an email that describes what you are doing, and include questions about those things you do not understand about your problem. I will do the best I can to help you so that you get the kind of results you want.
Watch out for winter, it is coming. Stay focused on your treatment plan. See you next month. TRH
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