The perfect Frankengrain

4. February 2011 William Davis (25)
Pretend I'm a mad food scientist. I'd like to create a food that:

1) Wreaks gastrointestinal havoc and cause intractable diarrhea, cramps, and anemia.
2) Kills some people who consume it after a long, painful course of illness.
3) Damages the brain and nervous system such that some people wet their pants, lose balance, and lose the ability to feel their feet and legs.
4) Brings out the mania of bipolar illness.
5) Amplifies auditory hallucinations in people with paranoid schizophrenia.
6) Makes people diabetic by increasing blood sugars.
7) Worsens arthritis, such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
8) Triggers addictive eating behavior.
9) Punishes you with a withdrawal process if you try to remove it from your diet.

I will develop a strain that is exceptionally hardy and tolerates diverse conditions so that it can grow in just about any climate. It should also be an exceptionally high yield crop, so that I can sell it cheaply to the masses.

Now, if my evil scheme goes as planned, I will then persuade the USDA that not only is my food harmless, but it is good for health. If they really take the bait, they might even endorse it, create a diet program around it.

Dag nabit! Such a plan has already been implemented. Another evil food scientist already beat me to the punch. The food is called wheat.
Tags :

Comments (25) -

  • Anonymous

    2/3/2011 9:03:26 PM |

    Interesting story from the UK:

    How can a fit, clean-living 32-year-old have a heart attack? For Martin the answer was in his genes. Like thousands he suffers from INHERITED high cholesterol

    "He was diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), an inherited condition where the body cannot clear ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol from the blood."

    His arteries were so clogged that he needed a triple heart bypass — where blood vessels are taken from elsewhere in the body, usually the chest and legs, and used to create a new route for the blood to flow around the blockages.

    An estimated 100,000 people in Britain are living with FH but don’t know it, according to a report published last week by the Royal College of Physicians.

    The condition could kill them at any moment.

    So how could an apparently healthy man have such dangerous levels of cholesterol? Cholesterol is a waxy ­substance produced by the liver from the saturated fat we eat.

    It plays a vital role in the function of cells and production of hormones and vitamin D.

    Once it has done its job in the body, it’s also the liver’s job to remove it. In healthy people, this happens automatically.

    ‘The liver has “finger receptors” that reach out and grab hold of “bad” LDL cholesterol particles as they pass,’ says Professor Steve Humphries, the new report’s author and director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Genetics at University College London.

    ‘Good’ HDL cholesterol travels to the ­arteries to help unblock them before it also goes back to the liver to be removed by another set of receptors.

    ‘Once inside the liver, the cholesterol gets broken down, sent to the intestines and is then passed out of the body,’ says ­Professor Humphries.

    ‘But in people with FH, these receptors don’t work properly, so the cholesterol builds up in the blood.’

    (With the more common form of high cholesterol, the problem is that the patient has too much LDL for the receptors to cope with.)

    Over time, cholesterol deposits build up in the arteries, restricting blood flow to the heart and increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

    By the age of 55, if left untreated, half of men with FH will have developed heart disease, while a third of women with it will develop heart disease by 60.

    While most FH sufferers have heart attacks in their 50s and 60s, some, such as Martin, can be affected in their 30s and 40s — with no warning signs."

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1352284/How-fit-clean-living-32-year-old-heart-attack.html

  • chaim

    2/3/2011 9:35:02 PM |

    Dr
    what is better to use regular glutten bread or whole wheat?

  • Anonymous

    2/3/2011 9:55:31 PM |

    Doc Davis,

    I am a fan of your blog, follow it religiously and have commented many times. You provide great advice and we are all thankful for it.

    That being said it, the content has become repetitive. Wheat is unhealthy. It has many negative side effects. It hates puppies and kittens. And babies. We get it.

    I'd love to read more content about other health subjects.

    Please take this in the spirit it was intended.
    -WheatFreeSince2003NotReallyButItRhymes

  • chaim

    2/3/2011 10:09:57 PM |

    Anon

    there are new ppl in this blog like me ,that did not reed all the posts

    For me ,it is a new thing as for many newcomers

    I never liked wheat, but I thought that was healthy

    We eat challah every Friday, my wife wanted to change it for whole wheat challah


    I dunno if to keep the same challah or to change for whole wheat

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/3/2011 11:47:58 PM |

    Hi, Chaim--

    Makes no difference. All the same.


    Hi, Anonymous--

    I hear you. However, as Chaim points out, there are usually several hundred new people here per day who still ask questions like "why no wheat?" So I re-explore some of the most common concerns.

  • terrence

    2/3/2011 11:56:37 PM |

    Dr Davis - I read your blog regularly, and have for a year or two now.

    I do NOT find your posts about the ills of wheat to be at all repetitive. What you have to say is always informative and often very funny.

    Please do NOT stop posting about wheat.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    2/4/2011 12:18:28 AM |

    Bedside manners may not be Doc's strong point. Once he almost   insulted Frankengrain's Aunt Butter (newbies can scroll blog's Labels, click "butter" & view comments).

  • DK

    2/4/2011 1:08:28 AM |

    Any evidence for any of this? And I mean real and solid evidence, not a bunch of anecdotes.

  • revelo

    2/4/2011 1:13:15 AM |

    You still haven't explained why the traditional people of Sardinia and Crete were so long-lived and healthy in old age (shepherds carrying heavy loads up steep mountain trails at the age of 90, etc), despite eating huge amounts of wheat (we're talking upwards of 750 grams of wheat bread per day for an active worker). For poor folk, the diet was mostly wheat, olive oil and wine, plus fruits, nuts and vegetables in season. Those with some money supplemented with dairy products, fish and meat. The Cretans and Sardinians were notoriously healthy, but the other traditional people of the Mediterranean basin plus the mountains of central Asia were also quite healthy on this wheat-based diet.

    Note that I use the past tense, because now that most of these peoples have moved to the cities, they are all becoming obese and diabetic and plagued with heart disease and other ailments.

  • Dr. William Davis

    2/4/2011 1:57:14 AM |

    Hi, Revelo--

    I don't know for certain, but I suspect that they are consuming a different genetic strain, e.g., emmer or a different, non-dwarf, variant.

    Wheat is literally 25,000+ different strains. While the majority are quite destructive, there are likely a few less destructive forms. This is one of the reasons I discuss the appeal of einkorn.


    DK and others--

    The evidence for much of this is actually overwhelming. It will be fully articulated in my forthcoming book from Rodale, Wheat Belly,

  • Jim White

    2/4/2011 2:09:07 AM |

    Thanks for the tip on Einkorn wheat. I have now added pasta back into my diet. I had eliminated it due to the huge blood sugar spikes. After eating pasta made from Einkorn wheat my blood sugar tests 100-108 just one hour after eating.  Traditional durem wheat pasta was producing 140+ even 2 hours later. Plus it is good.

  • Amy Dungan

    2/4/2011 4:31:53 AM |

    This is great! I'll be sure to share with the doubters. Smile

  • Anonymous

    2/4/2011 5:55:10 AM |

    Here's what would be more helpful: what to eat once you swear off wheat?
    What are we supposed to do for carbs? Potatoes and rice are glycemic bombs, we're told. Corn doesn't belong in a human diet either. High fructose corn syrup is in absolutely everything. Too much fruit is no good.  Short of somehow becoming a traditional Inuit or living in the induction phase of Atkins the rest of my life, I'm at a loss for ideas. I allow myself some pizza each week and a nice bowl of breakfast cereal, but I'm not extravagant with wheat, yet I have a trigylceride level of 292, HDL of 35, even with fish oil and niacin, and three days a week in the gym.

  • Anonymous

    2/4/2011 8:12:46 AM |

    Anonymous, my own Triglyceride levels came down from 214 just a year ago (at some point they were in the 300s) to 89 just before Christmas. This was by seriously cutting down on all sorts of carbs, I.e, only minimal amounts of bread, pasta, rice, etc. Hilariously, the doctor commented: “but remember, you don't need to cut fat from your diet completely!”. I just grinned. Having said that, I know exactly what you mean. If you go out for food, it is virtually impossible to avoid refined carbs in huge amounts in just about any dish. If you prepare your own food, you will have to discard the bulk of your favorite recipes from the past, and focus on stews etc. It's not easy. Regards, neuroscan.

  • majkinetor

    2/4/2011 2:30:33 PM |

    There is lot of CH in vegetables.

    For instance, 100g of brussels sprout has around 4g of CH.
    Its so delicious when cooked for few minutes in olive oil and/or butter that you can easily eat around 300g per day which gives you 16g.

    Potato is good alternative. Its hi GI (and GL) but, high GI foods in small amounts don't rise sugar. Amount is important. One boiled potato for instance.

    Other stuff: carrot, black chocolate (75%++ cocoa), oat brans, cashews, cranberries.

    Those are extremely healthy foods with good amount of slow carbs.

  • Might-o'chondri-AL

    2/4/2011 4:32:03 PM |

    Hi Revelo,
    Twice here I've seen mention of Crete & Sicily intake. Those islands' heat and humidity foster unique symbionts.

    Temperature will influence the varieties of soil bacteria. Based on the prophylactic gastro-intestinal affect of Japan's Natto I'd look to a local strain of Bacillus subtilis found on the drying wheat stalks.

    Humidity will influence the varieties of mycotic (fungi) strains post-harvest grain is exposed to. Rural storage isn't hermeticly controlled conditions.
    Based on human prophylactic gastro-intestinal affect of Japan's Koji (Amazake)I'd look for fungal mycellium of a local Aspergillus strain.

    Swine, whether kept as pigs or feral boars, expose country folk to non-symptomatic helminths (worms). Human immune system modulates away from auto-immune response in reaction to them. I'd look at the swine Whipworm species interaction.

    Robust rural 90 year olds are gaunt and conditioned. Carbohydrate based diets facilitate this by producing triglycerides to send out from the liver. In between the muscle cell's, and not fat, these are stored as di-acyl-glycerides.

    A genetic/epigentic determined copy number variation of an enzyme influences our ability to convert "di-" back into tri-acyl-glyceride (triglycerides). The muscle then "burns" this on site for a lot of energy. My 2000 decade co-villagers relied on tubers (carbohydrate); one reputedly closing in on 100 years regularly walked many kilometers.

  • thehurricane

    2/4/2011 6:59:00 PM |

    That pretty much sums it up...  I love this blog.

  • thehurricane

    2/4/2011 7:01:03 PM |

    Anonymous...
    It might be repetitive but he does update his blog EVERY day... this in addition to being a doctor, husband, parent.  The fact is that wheat really is so destructive and addictive for some people that it's worth repeating every day.  
    Keep at it Doc and I am looking forward to your book!

  • Patricia D.

    2/4/2011 7:50:30 PM |

    Regarding the connection between Urinary incontinence and wheat ...

    A connection has also been noted between Vitamin D3 deficiency and urinary incontinence.  There was a study from SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y from March 2010:
    http://www.webmd.com/urinary-incontinence-oab/news/20100322/low-vitamin-d-linked-incontinence

    I began to optimize my VD3 levels late in 2009 and this was one of the first benefits I realized - within a few months this situation had improved dramatically for me.  

    Then we started to cut way back on our wheat consumption in the fall of last year.

    It would be hard at this point for me to determine that having cut back on wheat is also having an impact - but there has been no obvious improvement.  Perhaps complete wheat elimination would have a more telling effect - but I do feel my situation now is near normal, whereas before it was an inconvenient problem of considerable concern.
    *

  • Patricia D.

    2/4/2011 8:02:49 PM |

    I know Dr. Davis did some baking (experiments) with Einkorn wheat.  I've found a few other sites for "heirloom wheat" flours ....
    Anson Mills:
    http://www.ansonmills.com/wheatflour.htm
    and ...
    Kamut: Ancient Grain in Modern Times:
    http://www.suite101.com/content/kamut-ancient-grain-in-modern-times-a89648

    ... and I'm sure there are more.

    These grains also predate the dwarf wheat mutant, and I wonder if anyone here has any experience with these flours?

    I now consider that cutting back on wheat consumption is a lifestyle choice for us and we won't be going back.  But I do occasionally bake a cake, or use a bit of flour to thicken a sauce, and sometimes bake bread.  

    I would like to have an alternate flour in the house that I feel comfortable cooking with.

  • paleoish

    2/5/2011 1:10:12 AM |

    Dr Davis, you have the patience of a saint to humour anonymous coward(s). I DO like reading the reminders of how bad wheat is, because people like me with ambiguous symptoms may or may not ever get a diagnosis of gluten intolerance or celiac disease. My last wheat cheat involved blood, so it's very possible that I have CD, but I dread the diagnostic process. Either way, it is emotionally draining to swim against the tide! Your posts help keep me on the straight and narrow.

    Doc, are there any references or further info on the issue of wheat triggering bipolar manic episodes? I'm having a major "a-ha" moment over this one. I'd love to read more about it. I've been reading your blog and that of Dr Emily for a while, and I don't recall seeing any info on that. Pardon me if I missed it.

  • Kevin

    2/5/2011 8:18:07 PM |

    I can't give up wheat products.  Because if this website I've drastically reduced my intake but haven't been able to make a total break.  Dr D's continual wheat-is-bad theme is pushing me toward my goal.  I do not want him to change this web's focus.  Without it I'd probably revert.  

    kevin

  • skcubrats

    2/9/2011 2:26:15 AM |

    Aren't corn and soybeans just as bad?  I thought he was going to end up with corn.  Remember, 95% aren't eating enough whole grains!  Zero is enough for me!

  • Josh

    2/9/2011 2:51:15 PM |

    Chaim -

    Shalom!  If you make your own hallah try to find some emmer or einkorn and see if that helps.

    If not try making sourdough, since at least the phytic acid is removed by the fermenation.

    It is possible that many Jews are not as sensitive to wheat since we have been eating it for a long time (of cource that was einkorn and emmer).

    Keep in mind you only need to eat a cbeya to wash with a bracha and czayit to bench on.  That's 2oz of bread - really not such a big deal if you're not eating wheat the rest of the week.

    I will also point out that Abraham served cream, butter, and organ meats to his guests.

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Blast triglycerides

15. May 2009 William Davis (0)
The conventional answers to high triglycerides levels are generally: low-fat diet, a fibrate drug (Tricor, Lopid), a statin drug, and--most recently--prescription fish oil.

This is the regimen to take if you want the drug industry to get even richer and more powerful than they already are. After all, what CEO of a pharmaceutical company can stand to have his salary and benefits slashed to below $200 million this year? It's outrageous!

If you really want to blast the heck out of your triglycerides and achieve numbers like 50 mg/dl, then the regimen to consider consists of:

--Elimination of sugars, wheat, and cornstarch
--Fish oil--Sam's Club would do fine at $8 for 350 capsules, or the high-potency at $14.99 for 180 capsules (at 680 mg EPA +DHA, nearly the same potency as prescription Lovaza at 842 mg)
--Vitamin D supplementation sufficient to achieve normal blood levels (60-70 ng/ml)

Those three strategies alone can reduce triglycerides far more than any drug combination. In fact, it is rare for someone with triglycerides as high as 900 mg/dl to not reduce them to the <100 mg/dl range.

Cheerios: Prescription required?

13. May 2009 William Davis (15)
Followers of The Heart Scan Blog know my feelings about Cheerios:


Can you say "sugar"?

Cheerios and heart health


There's an interesting tussle going on between the makers of Cheerios, General Mills, and the FDA.

The FDA says that the Cheerios' package claims of:

• "you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks"
• "Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is ... clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that eating two 1 1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol."

constitute a medical claim, i.e., trying to promote Cheerios as a drug.

I'm glad that the FDA has come down on General Mills. But I find this entire episode laughable: The debate is over the purported health benefits of what I would regard as pure junk food, no better in my view than claiming that a cupcake has health benefits, or a carton of ice cream.

In my experience, Cheerios does not 1) reduce risk for heart disease, nor 2) reduce cholesterol.

It does, however, cause blood sugar to skyrocket and increase the small type of LDL--you know, the type that causes heart disease.

"Placebos are frequently of value"

12. May 2009 William Davis (1)
The treatment of angina pectoris, generally speaking, is unsatisfactory.

Any procedure that relieves mental tension is valuable. Since patients suffer particularly during the winter, I encourage winter vacations in a southern climate.

I insist that obese patients lose weight, and have found small doses of benzedrine, 10 to 20 mg. daily, helpful in curbing the appetite.

I generally forbid smoking. This is a particularly disturbing task for many patients to carry out. In such cases, I suggest that 3 or 4 cigarettes be smoked daily, knowing full well that regardless of what I say or recommend, the patients is going to continue to smoke.

Innumerable drugs, most of which are of questionable value, have been used to prevent attacks of angina pectoris. In fact, placebos are frequently of value.

Testosterone--The male sex hormone has been effective in my experience. Whether it acts as a vasodilator or merely by promoting a sense of well-being is not known.

Alcohol--Alcohol (whiskey, brandy, rum) has been used for many years in the treatment of angina pectoris. I have prescribed it in moderate quantity--an ounce several times a day--and while I have not made alcoholics of any of my patients, I also have not cured any of them with it. Preparations, such as creme de menthe, are of value in relieving "gas" of which so many patients complain.


From Heart Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
Emanuel Goldberger, MD
1951

Iodine is not salt

12. May 2009 William Davis (3)
I've noticed a point of confusion recently, something I hadn't noticed in my patients before: Because of the public health advice from the FDA, American Heart Association, and Surgeon General's office to reduce sodium/salt intake, people have thought this meant reducing iodine, too.

I believe that people have drawn an equation in their minds:


Sodium = iodine


Of course, they are two entirely unrelated things.

Recall that the only reason iodine is added to many (not all) salt products is because it was a public health solution to solve the substantial nationwide iodine deficiency prevalent during the 20th century. But it was a solution conceived in 1924, when the FDA thought this was the best way to get iodine into Americans. And it worked.

Unfortunately, sodium does indeed present adverse effects in some people. As a result, "get your iodine from salt" has evolved into "reduce your sodium intake." Everyone forgot about the iodine: They forgot about the large disfiguring goiters, the poor school performance in iodine-deficient schoolchildren, the mentally-impaired offspring of iodine-deficient mothers.

So don't confuse sodium with iodine. You may need less of the former, but more of the latter.

For more on this, see "Help keep your family goiter free."

"You can't reduce coronary plaque"

10. May 2009 William Davis (9)
"I told my cardiologst that I stumbled on a program called 'Track Your Plaque' that claims to be able to help reduce your coronary calcium score.

"My cardiologist said, 'That's impossible. You cannot reduce coronary plaque. I've never seen anyone reduce a heart scan score."

Who's right here?

The commenter is right; the cardiologist is wrong.

I would predict that the cardiologist is among the conventionally-thinking, "statins drugs are the only solution" group who follows his patients over the years to determine when a procedure is finally "needed." In fact, I know many of these cardiologists personally. The primary care physicians are completely in the dark, usually expressing an attitude of helplessness and submitting to the "wisdom" of their cardiology consultants.

Quantify and work to reduce the atherosclerotic plaque? No way! That's work, requires thinking, some sophisticated testing (like lipoprotein testing), even some new ideas like vitamin D. "They didn't teach that to me in medical school (back in 1980)!"

Welcome to the new age.

Atherosclerotic plaque is 1) measurable, 2) trackable, and 3) can be reduced.

We do it all the time. (Amy still holds our record: 63% reduction in plaque/heart scan score.)

Though I pooh-pooh the value of statin drug studies, there's even data from the conventional statin world documenting coronary plaque reversal. The ASTEROID Trial of rosuvastatin (Crestor), 40 mg per day for one year, demonstrated 7% reduction of atherosclerotic plaque using intracoronary ultrasound.

I have NEVER seen a heart attack or appearance of heart symptoms (angina, unstable angina) in a person who has reversed coronary plaque (unless, of course, they pitched the whole effort and returned to bad habits--that has happened). Stick to the program and coronary risk, for all practical purposes, been eliminated.

A heart scan score is not a death sentence. It is simply a tool to empower your prevention program, a measuring stick to gauge plaque progression, stabilization, or regression. Don't accept anything less.

Lethal lipids

8. May 2009 William Davis (15)
There's a specific combination of lipids/lipoproteins that confers especially high risk for heart disease. That combination is:

Low HDL--generally less than 50 mg/dl

Small LDL--especially if 50% or more of total LDL

Lipoprotein(a)--an aggressive risk factor by itself


This combination is a virtual guarantee for heart disease, often at a young age. It's not clear whether each risk factor exerts its own brand of undesirable effect, or whether the combined presence of each cause some adverse interaction.

For instance, lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a), by itself is the most aggressive risk factor known (that nobody's heard about--there's no blockbuster revenue-generating drug for it). Each Lp(a) molecule is a combination of an LDL cholesterol molecule with a specific genetically-determined protein, apoprotein(a). If the LDL component of Lp(a) is small, then the combination of Lp(a) with small LDL is somehow much worse, kind of like the two neighborhood kids who are naughty on their own, but really bad when they're together.

Interestingly, the evil trio responds as a whole to many of the same corrective treatments:

Niacin--increases HDL, reduces small LDL, and reduces Lp(a)

Elimination of wheat, cornstarch, and sugars--Best for reducing small LDL; less potent for Lp(a) reduction.

High-fat intake--Like niacin, effective for all three.

High-dose fish oil--Higher doses of EPA + DHA north of 3000 mg per day also can positively affect all three, especially Lp(a).


If you have this combination, it ought to be taken very seriously. Don't let anybody tell you that it is uncorrectable--just because there may be no big revenue-generating drug to treat it on TV does not mean that there aren't effective treatments for it. In fact, some of our biggest successes in reducing heart scan scores have had this precise combination.

"Get regressive"

6. May 2009 William Davis (0)
This caught my eye:



Niaspan, prescription niacin, now sold by Abbott Laboratories, is now promoting its advantages in regressing coronary plaque:



In patients with a history of coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypercholesetgerolemia, Niaspan (niacin), in combination with a bile acid-binding resin, is indicated to slow progression or promote regression of atherosclerotic disease.



And the new slogan: "Get regressive."



Interestingly, the new marketing campaign is based on relatively old data. They base this new claim on 3 studies:



1) Cholesterol-Lowering Atherosclerosis Study (CLAS)--a 1987

CRP House of Cards

4. May 2009 William Davis (15)
Lew has coronary plaque with a heart scan score of 393. At age 53, that's in the 90th percentile (higher score than 90% of men in his age group).

On our search for causes of his coronary plaque, we identify low HDL of 41 mg/dl, high triglycerides of 202 mg/dl, small LDL (83% of total), calculated LDL of 133 mg/dl, and severe vitamin D deficiency with a starting blood level of 25-hydroxy vitamin D of 19 ng/ml.

His c-reactive protein: 4.1 mg/dl--above the cut-off of 2.0 mg/dl that the pharmaceutical industry is targeting as a mandate for statin therapy, particularly given the JUPITER data.

Lew instead eliminates wheat and other small LDL-provoking foods and, as a result, loses 28 lbs in 3 months; adds omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil; supplements vitamin D sufficient to increase his blood level to 70 ng/ml.

Along with dramatic correction of his starting abnormalities, his c-reactive protein: 0.4 mg/dl--no statin drug.

In my view, increased CRP is nothing more than a surrogate for the inflammatory phenomena that arise from high-carbohydrate diets, overweight, and small LDL. Correct those and CRP drops off a cliff. In fact, it is exceptionally rare for CRP to not drop to very low levels following this formula.

I believe that CRP is one more item on the list of reasons--the house of cards--the pharmaceutical industry is building to persuade us to take more and more statin drugs. LDL not low enough? Take more statin. Diabetic with low cholesterol? Take a statin. Inflammation? Take a statin.

Enough already.

At-home blood tests

2. May 2009 William Davis (6)
Our at-home blood tests are proving a hit.

So far, vitamin D is the number one most popular test, no surprise.

Second--to my surprise--is DHEA. I would have predicted it would have been thyroid testing.

Our male and female hormone panels are also proving popular.

I've personally been using the thyroid and vitamin D testing to monitor my levels. I increased my Armour thyroid based on a low free T3 value, while my vitamin D was perfect at 77 ng/ml on 8000 units vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) per day.

The process of performing the blood spots is straightforward. The finger pricks are virtually painless using the automatic spring-loaded finger stick devices:





The number of blots to make depends on how many tests you'd like. Just a vitamin D test requires 2 blots. If 6 or more tests are ordered at a time, then all 12 blots should be made. (Two spring-loaded lancets are provided in each kit.)





If you are interested in any of our at-home blood tests, go here.

Our own Heart Hawk has posted an editorial on about blood spot testing on Health Central:

Simple, affordable home blood testing is a real game-changer in the arena of informed, self-directed healthcare. For the first time broad access to home blood testing, on a scale similar to that enjoyed by persons who routinely test their blood sugar, is available to virtually everyone and it removes doctors as the gatekeepers of these tests. Even private insurance companies and Medicare are beginning to understand the potential for improving healthcare and decreasing costs and are slowly beginning to expand coverage of home blood testing much as they do for diabetics or persons taking anti-coagulants.

"Help keep your family goiter free"

1. May 2009 William Davis (10)
People ask, "If I need iodine, should I go back to iodized salt?"

First of all, how did this notion of iodized salt originate?

In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the FBI, Marlon Brando and Doris Day were born, and Calvin Coolidge was elected President of the United States. Half of American households had a car, while 1 in 4 Americans were illiterate.



In the 1920s, cities were a fraction of their current size and a third of the U.S. population, or 36 million people, lived in small rural communities.

Goiters were also wildly prevalent in 1924. Up to a third of the population in some areas of the country, particularly the Midwest, suffered from goiters, thyroid glands that enlarged due to lack of iodine.

Goiters were not only unsightly, but sometimes grotesque, causing a visible bulge in the front of the neck. Occasionally, they would grow so big that it compressed adjacent structures, like the trachea, and would have to be surgically removed. Goiters were commonly associated with thyroid dysfunction, especially low thyoid or hypothyroidism, that resulted in low IQ's in schoolchildren, debilitation in adults. Women of childbearing age delivered retarded children.

So iodine deficiency in early 20th century America was a big problem. How to solve this enormous public health problem in a large nation without television, few radios, no internet, with a largely rural and often illiterate population?

Thus was iodized salt born, a simple, technologically available solution that could be implemented on a large scale nationwide at low cost. The FDA chose this route in 1924, figuring that it was the best way to ensure that most Americans could obtain sufficient iodine through liberal use of iodized salt. Public health officials urged Americans to use salt. Morton's salt label proudly bore the slogan "Help keep your family goiter free!"

It worked. Goiters largely became a thing of the past.

How about today? The American Heart Association recommends limiting salt, recently announcing that they would like to limit intake to 1500 mg per day. The American Medical Association has been lobbying the FDA to set lower salt limit guidelines. The FDA has been clamping down on food manufacturers to reduce the quantity of salt in processed foods.

Why limit salt? The concern is that there are segments of the population (not all) that are salt sensitive, particularly African Americans, people with certain genetic forms of high blood pressure, conditions that cause water retention, and any degree of heart or kidney failure. Salt in these peoplem, in fact, can be disastrous.
So adding iodine to salt was the solution to epidemic goiter. And it worked.

But salt is not a perfect solution, just one that served its purpose back in 1924. What we need is a 21st century solution.
You will find that in the various iodine supplements at your health food store. My favorite is kelp--inexpensive, available, and a form that mimics the way Japanese people obtain iodine (though by eating seaweed, rather than with tablets).


Image of kelp courtesy Wikipedia