What is the controversy???

Health and Choice…

If you aren’t mad about the new stimulus bill- you aren’t paying attention! The health bill that was  hidden deep within the “Stimuus Bill” passed by our legislators and our president will DRASTICALLY limit our Freedom of Choice about our own health care. It REQUIRES:

* Your health records to be put in an electronic format

* The ability of those records to be accessed by government officials

* Health policies to be designed from the results of the data

* Medical doctors to follow the health policies.

What this means to you is that legislators will be determining what health treatments are ‘best’ for you from a cost perspective. Are you ready to allow your elected officials to make your health decisions for you?? I know I’m not.  I’m ready for a Health Revolution!!

That’s why I signed this petition that is being sent to President Obama outlining a BETTER system of health reform that will:

* Encourage health and prevention- not just medical treatments

* Encourage PEOPLE to take responsibility for their health

* Actually REWARD people for GOOD health

* Offer Freedom of Choice in health care decisions

* Be a WAY BETTER long term solution for the health care crisis!!

Please join me in signing the Health Revolution Petition for REAL health reform that promotes REAL HEALTH and REAL FREEDOM of CHOICE!!

Thank you for helping me make our country a better place to live.

Sincerely,

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen

Functional Medicine Practitioner

http://www.easy-immune-health.com

So, you go to your doctor’s office and get your cholesterol checked. Standard operating procedure, right? We have been taught since grade school that low cholesterol levels are the best way to lower your heart disease risk.
 
 

So, if you DO happen to have “high cholesterol”, and the definition of “high cholesterol” keeps getting lower and lower all of the time, it’s likely that your doctor will put you on the ‘standard treatment’ to reduce heart disease risk- a statin drug. If you have a GREAT doctor, hopefully it will be recommended that you do some lifestyle changes: eat better, get some exercise, add Omega 3 fatty acids to your diet, etc. and check your cholesterol level in a few months.

But if you have a “Standard American Doctor”, it’s likely that you will get sent home with a statin the first time you are told that you have “High Cholesterol”.

Statins come by many names: Crestor, Baycol, Atorvastatin, Simvastatin, Lipitor, Zocor, Pravachol, Mevacor, Lescol among others. The intended effect of all of these drugs is to reduce your cholesterol- which they are generally very good at.

But at what PRICE do these drugs lower your cholesterol?

In many cases, statins are just the start of the “drug list” that you end up carrying around in your wallet in case of emergency. Could statins be the “gateway drug” that makes you NEED all those other drugs in the first place?

There are MANY published studies that show that statins cause many different problems- most of which “require” another drug to “fix”. The Crestor- CRP study showed a significantly increased rate of diabetes among Crestor users. This obviously requires one or two new drugs: insulin and/or an antidiabetic drug (or two). Most people who are on two or three different prescription drugs often have heartburn and get a prescription antacid to help with that symptom.

Both prescription antacids as well as diabetic drugs have been shown to cause an INCREASE in fractures among older women.

Aha! Another drug added to the mix- an osteoporosis drug known as a bisphosphenate.

Another study shows a significant increase in depression with the use of statins. Now you “need” an antidepressant, another boon to the pharmaceutical industry. However, a great study shows that men with low cholesterol and who have depression are at much greater risk of dying than other men!!

Great trade off.

Lets not forget that one of the notorious effects of statins is muscle weakness, muscle wasting and a serious condition called Rhabdomyolysis- a life threatening muscle wasting condition that will put you into the ICU for a few days. Oh, and studies show that prescription antacids ALSO cause muscle weakness, muscle pain and rhabdomyolysis. All of that muscle weakness will probably keep you at home more- increasing your risk of osteoporosis and depression even more!

I forgot that the myositis- another word for muscle pain- will force you to need some pain medication for “non specific” muscle pain. The pain medication will probably make you Constipated- with the inevitable drug, a stool softener or the need for laxatives. If you make it through all of that without cancer or the need for a liver transplant – a couple more of the unfortunate “adverse effects” of statins, then the diabetes has now increased your chance of getting Alzheimers disease- and the need for a few more drugs (that don’t work very well).

Ahhh, but the relief of knowing that you have a 1% less risk of heart disease that COULD have been managed simply with diet, exercise and a few targeted supplements- Priceless!

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

Gardasil, the new Vaccine that is being recommended for young girls in order to prevent cervical cancer, is back in the news.
After reports of girls becoming ill or even dying after the injection, the National Vaccine Information Center found searched the records and found that the rate of Vaccine Complications after Gardisil is 30 times higher than with the Meningococcal Vaccine.
Many states have already, or are contemplating making the vaccine mandatory for school entrance.

At the same time that states are making it mandatory, Spain has looked at the evidence and has pulled Gardisil off of the market completely due to its safety concerns!

For more information, go to the National Vaccine Information Center website and learn more about the risks of Gardasil. While you are there, please Sign their Petition to have the Federal Government reassess the risks of Gardisil before more girls get injured or die from this dangerous vaccine.

Kerri Knox, RN

Functional Medicine Practitioner

http://www.easy-immune-health.com

C difficile is the “new superbug”.

It is a highly contagious disease that causes abdominal pain and diarrhea and is a HUGE problem in hospitals.

Most people acquire C difficile as a ‘side effect’ of antibiotic use and often acquire it DURING a hospital stay, where they are required to be segregated from other patients and placed in ‘isolation’ to protect the health care workers and other hospital patients from acquiring it.

C difficile has been in the news lately as a new superbug that is becoming highly resistant to the medications that are used to treat it. Much like the more familiar Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus, more commonly known as ‘MRSA’, another bug called Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus (VRE) and now even Strep -as in strep throat- it is now being called a ‘Multiple Drug Resistant Organism’.

As usual, drug companies have created a so-called solution to this problem in the form of a drug.

In this case, the drug is a vaccine designed to prevent C difficile and is beginning human trials in hospitalized patients over 65 years old.

While on the surface, this sounds GREAT!! Hey, lets prevent this terrible disease!!

But the truth is that there is already a  well studied, inexpensive and easy to use solution to this problem.

This solution has been used for years by natural health practitioners and there are many studies to back up its effectiveness.

The problem: ANTI-biotics.   The solution: PRO-biotics

Probiotics are well studied in the realm of prevention of antibiotic associated diarrhea as well as the prevention of antibiotic associated C difficile infection.

Even the STRAINS  of the specific probiotic bacteria that help to prevent C difficile are well known.

Saccromyces boulardii and lactobacillis acidophilus have been extremely well studied for the prevention of antibiotic associated diarrhea.
Natural Standard, an organization dedicated to providing high quality, peer-reviewed, evidence-based information about complementary and alternative therapies states, “There is good evidence that concurrent use of Saccharomyces boulardii with antibiotic therapy reduces the incidence of developing antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) (Clostridium difficile and other).” And they give it an A for its therapeutic effectiveness based on no less than 15 cited studies.

So, why are we going around testing potentially dangerous vaccines that usually contain toxic preservatives such as: thimerosol, coal tar, and/or formaldehyde when there is ALREADY an effective solution to the problem at hand?
And why are we not ALREADY treating patients in the hospital who are at risk of C difficile infection by giving them the natural probiotic saccromyces boulardii?

Good Questions!!

Kerri Knox, RN
Functional Medicine Practitioner
http://www.easy-immune-health.com

Over 7.5 Million Prescriptions have been written for the new “third generation” of birth control pills.

Wow, third generation- they must be better, right?

Wrong!

It seems that these “third generation” pills are the latest ploy by drug manufacturers to make more money. You see, older drugs eventually lose their patent and other companies use the same formula to make “generic” drugs.

When this happens, the original manufacturer loses a market share of that drug.
Drug manufacturers HATE this and are always trying to find a way to regain that market share.
These “third generations”, that go by the names of:

* Desogestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol
* Desogen
* Mircette
* Velivet
*Apri-28
* Kariva
* Ortho-Cept
* Reclipsen
* Cyclessa

are their latest way of doing this. These pills are not only NOT better, but they are MUCH worse- doubling the risk of blood clots that can cause severe medical repercussions and even death!
Read the science here, then sign the petition to the FDA to help us get these unnecessary drugs off of the market. Take a stand and tell the FDA that human life is more important than the profits of drug manufacturers. And please send this on to any women that you know who are on birth control. It could save their life!!

Kerri Knox, RN

Functional Medicine Practitoner

http://www.easy-immune-health.com

Here’s an interesting little fact. Studies show that statins, the class of drugs widely prescribed to lower cholesterol levels, have the effect of INCREASING vitamin d levels.

Now, there is plenty of evidence that Vitamin D decreases risk of heart problems and that the vast majority of people- including heart patients- are Vitamin D deficient. So, there are some researchers speculating that the small reduction in heart attack risk that has been shown with statins, could very well be simply from  improved Vitamin D status!

This is not idle speculation either. An interesting parallel between Vitamin D and statins is that both of them reduce C- reactive protein (CRP) levels in the blood.

C reactive protein is a marker for inflammation in the body.

While it is a ‘general’ marker and not specific to heart disease, the vast majority of heart patients have elevated CRP levels and it is considered a risk factor for heart disease. In fact there are some doctors who believe that inflammation is the REAL boogey man and that Cholesterol Problems are All Just a Big Lie!

However, researchers STILL don’t know WHERE the inflammation is coming from in patients with heart disease.

Some experts speculate that one source could be periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease is a well known risk factor for heart disease, and there is a strong link between Vitamin D deficiency and periodontal disease.

Are you seeing the connection?
In reality, it may be much cheaper and safer to prevent heart disease by taking Vitamin D and getting good dental care than taking statins. Yet doctors are still not recommending EITHER of these simple approaches to prevent heart disease, instead they immediately recommend statin drugs that come with a whole HOST of problems of their own- diabetes, liver failure and muscle wasting among some of the more common.

Do your due diligence if your doctor asks that you take a statin drug. There ARE measures that you can take to reduce your risk of heart disease that don’t require taking pharmaceuticals. So, before you get on Statin Drugs for the rest of your life, you really owe it to yourself to read What Dr. Lundell Has To Say About Cholesterol Reducing Drugs.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Health Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Easy Immune Health.com

In the past two weeks, I have been approached by several people about “glyconutrients”. The first person wanted to offer me a business opportunity selling glyconutrients, the others were approached by someone else about the opportunity and wanted to know my opinion of them.

As I had never heard of glyconutrients before, and I am always looking for excellent products that might be of benefit to my clients and readers, I decided to do some research.

These glyconutrients are being sold under the brand name of Ambrotose by a company called Mannatech.

A quick google search produced this Objective Opinion Piece by Dr. Ralph Moss states that he “can find no hard evidence for” the claims of cancer prevention or treatment that is being made.

I then went to Pubmed, the best place to find studies and clinical trials, I found an article called “A Glyconutrient Sham” from the journal Glycobiology.  This article, which I also found to be very unbiased and objective, states,

“we find no convincing support for human therapeutic or health claims of Ambrotose® Complex or its components.”

As I’m not one to blindly believe either the alternative community OR the conventional medical community, I decided to consult  a very unbiased and trusted resource on natural treatments.

Natural Standards is a non profit organization dedicated to rating natural therapies on an A to F scale based on the actual clinical evidence that is out there to support the claims being made.

Unfortunately, Natural Standards found that the ONLY claims that held up were for the treatment of children with ADHD and failure to thrive- both of which received a grade of  “C”- not very impressive.

Their conclusion is,

“There is currently a lack of available scientific evidence showing effectiveness for any condition.”

So, if you are thinking of getting into the glyconutrient business or taking it for yourself, you might want to take a second, more in-depth look at the company’s products to see if they really stand up to the claims that are being made.
Kerri Knox, RN
Functional Medicine Practitioner

http://www.easy-immune-health.com

The CDC, hospitals and doctor’s offices around the country are intent on pushing the pneumococcal vaccine as a safe and effective way to reduce the burden of pneumonia on society. It’s touted as being especially important for the elderly population to get this vaccine, as they are not only more prone to GET pneumonia, but more prone to dying from it or becoming critically ill.

But This Study says it “does not appear to be effective in preventing pneumonia”. Not effective in preventing pneumonia?!

Importantly, this study was done as a “metanalysis”. A metanalysis is a study that is done to look at all of the studies that have been done on a subject, like a drug, to get a big picture view of the results of all the studies combined. This is very important because individual studies may be biased, be very small or have other problems. A metanalysis takes all this into account. They dismiss studies that have major flaws and generally only look at high quality studies. In this case 21 studies were examined with a total of over 100,000 test subjects.

And the conclusion is that the pneumococcal vaccine doesn’t work. Yet hospitals across the country spend millions of dollars unnecessarily in order to follow the regulations issued by the CDC that push these vaccines that  contain “preservatives” like mercury, formaldehyde and coal tar. Along with the equally questionable flu vaccine, hundreds of thousands of people- particularly the elderly -are pushed to get large amounts of these “preservatives” injected into their bodies for the sake of the virtually nonexistent benefit of reducing their incidence of disease! So, do your due diligence and please question your medical authorities when they suggest that you get the pneumococcal vaccine.

Kerri Knox, RN
Functional Medicine Practitioner
http://www.easy-immune-health.com