Cardiovascular, Genitourinary, Medicine, Sex
Mae West Knew When Men Were Men
As a male, have you lost the "tiger-in-the-tank"? Possibly you are more irritable, suffer insomnia, have problems at work, lost height, lack energy and lack erections? Now you wonder if testosterone therapy is what’s needed to restore your male vigour? Mae West, the movie sex queen of long ago, knew what made men, men. She greeted them with a sultry voice, "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?" I first became interested in what’s often called "The big T" years ago when I interviewed Dr. Malcolm Carruthers at a Conference on Aging in London, England. Carruthers, a distinguished Harley Street specialist, was one of the early pioneers in testosterone therapy. During the interview with Carruthers,...Read More
Gastroenterology, Infection, Medicine, Miscellaneous
How Many Would Agree To a Fecal Enema?
John Dillinger, the notorious bank robber, was once asked why he robbed banks. He replied, "That's where the money is." Today, if you asked infectious disease experts where Clostridium difficile resides, they would reply, "It's in hospitals. It's dangerous and can be lethal." Other experts might warn that many C difficile infections could be avoided if North Americans would stop looking for pills to treat every human complaint. Rather than seeking pills they should be following a healthy dietary lifestyle. In fact, getting smart could even save 40 bowel movements a day, and, at times, a life. We have millions of bacteria living in our large bowels, usually not making war with one another. Studies show that about 3 percent of adults...Read More
Infection, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Vitamins
Death by Measles??
How would you react if your unvaccinated child or grandchild died from measles? No doubt your response would be one of agonizing grief. What you wouldn't know is that this personal tragedy did not have to happen in 2014. Unfortunately, I bet not one doctor in a thousand knows how Dr. Frederick Klenner successfully treated this viral infection over 60 years ago. Doctors are not the only ones unaware of Dr. Klenner. One of Canada's leading newspapers recently reported that there was no specific antiviral treatment for this highly infectious disease. It was wrong. This newspaper editor committed a major error by not reading history. Worldwide measles has been, in the past, one of the major causes of death among young children....Read More
Medicine
How Safe Are Your Drugs?
Have you ever wondered about the safety of drugs that you've purchased? Are you concerned that they have in the bottle what's indicated on the package? Or worried that they contain dangerous substances that shouldn't be present? So is there any way to be sure we're getting what we pay for? My interest started a few years ago when I read a report from the University of California expressing this worry. It stated that the majority of drugs were being imported from China, South Korea and other Asian countries. The report suggested that there were too few inspectors in these countries to ensure the quality of material exported. Nor were there sufficient inspectors in North America to catch ineffective drugs or...Read More
Cardiovascular, Lifestyle, Medicine, Nutrition
Stein’s Law and Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
Stein's Law says that if something can't go on forever, it has to stop. It's just a matter of when. Stein's Law always wins. But when will this Law stop the increasing number of North Americans taking cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs)? Surely enough is enough. Recently the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology issued new broader guidelines that in one fell swoop have added millions of healthy people to the list of those who will be prescribed CLDs. Dr's. John Abramson at The Harvard Medical School and Dr. Rita F. Redberg, cardiologist at the University of California, report that these guidelines will primarily benefit the pharmaceutical industry, not patients. Abramson and Redberg state this decision would be good news for patients...Read More
Cancer, Medicine
How Many Readers Know The Right Number?
Editors obviously pay me to pass along medical advice to you. But this week I can't answer a fundamental health question. So let's switch roles to see if any reader with the Wisdom of Solomon knows the right number to this dilemma. I'll publish the results, as it's vital that a figure be found. After all, it's going to affect how long you live. Stephen S. Hall writes a fascinating article in the magazine "New York" about the escalating cost of cancer drugs. New cancer medication now costs tens of thousands of dollars, but may extend lives of patients only a matter of days. Dr. Leonard Saltz, a cancer specialist at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is an outspoken advocate for...Read More
Genetics, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Pain, Vitamins
BioSil : The Natural Way to Prevent and Treat Fragile Bones
What causes the holes in Swiss cheese? I'm sure the Swiss know the answer, but I don't. I do know what makes holes in bones, causing osteoporosis. Today millions of North Americans are taking prescription drugs to treat this devastating disease. But there's a safer, natural remedy, BioSil tm, to prevent "holey" bones. The figures are frightening. Studies show that one in four women and one in eight men over age 50 have osteoporosis. And with an aging population we can expect more cases in the years ahead. Who develops this crippling disease depends on several factors. Genetics plays a role in certain families. So does being thin, small boned and of white or Asian ancestry. Smokers, those who take three or...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine
Drug Reactions a Leading Cause of Death
Napoleon Bonaparte was not only a brilliant military strategist, but he hit the bull's eye when he remarked, "Most men die from their medicine, rather than from their disease". Now, a report published by the Canadian Institute of Health, says that adverse drug reactions send too many seniors to hospital. It's because North Americans have become the most over-drugged society in history. What an ironic situation! In the underdeveloped world people are dying from the lack of medical care. Now, in the developed world, unintended harmful drug reactions are causing thousands of deaths and hospital admissions every year. It appears that all our medical benefits come with a caveat. Too much of anything can often be worse than none at all. The...Read More
Cancer, Medicine, Miscellaneous
How Many Patients Would Agree to 500 Chest X-rays?
Does the doctor always know best? Normally the answer is "Yes". But when your doctor orders a CT scan (computed tomography), does he really understand the amount of radiation your body receives? A recent report from the University of California expresses concern about the overuse of the many types of scans performed in the U.S. Canada is not immune to this problem. So what can patients do to protect themselves from needless radiation? CT scans are used to diagnose cancer, heart problems, kidney stones and injuries. Obviously, a three dimensional view of the body saves lives. But the effects of radiation are cumulative. The more CT scans, the greater the danger, and your body keeps an accurate score. Today CT...Read More
Medicine, Vitamins
Health Canada : Where Are The Dead Bodies?
Do you know that every day 290 North American citizens are killed by prescription drugs? To kill the same number of people a jumbo jet would have to crash every day. So why are natural remedies being removed from health food stores while drugs that kill remain available? Dr .Zoltan Rona, an expert on natural remedies, recently told me that, "Health Canada has been raiding health food stores, terrorizing proprietors and confiscating natural food supplements." He asked, "Could you help to stop it?" Rona described a New York Times report that the government's primary suspect in 542 deaths was Pradax, a blood thinning agent. Moreover, when this drug causes bleeding there is no antidote to stop it. Yet Health Canada has...Read More
Cardiovascular, Gastroenterology, Medicine, Pain
How to Decrease the Risk of Pain Relievers
"Remember, you never get anything for nothing". That's a caution I've repeated over and over to patients. Why? Because some people naively believe it's possible to get health benefit without risk. Today, millions are popping a variety of over-the-counter pain relievers while ignoring important red flags warning they may result in death. Heart and Stroke Risk The American Heart Association reports that, with the exception of acetylsalicylate acid (Aspirin) and possibly naproxen (Aleve), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Motrin and Advil) increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. This is particularly true for those who have already suffered heart attack or are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. Now, a report in the Journal "Circulation" has more disturbing news. Dr....Read More
Cardiovascular, Medicine, Miscellaneous
New Zona Plus Device To Treat Hypertension
Why would patients choose to endure the side-effects of blood pressure pills when a new Zona Plus exercise can ease hypertension? Before you say "it's too good to be true", let me tell you about F-16 fighter pilots. These pilots have to withstand huge G-forces in combat to prevent them from blacking out. This presented a major dilemma for flight researchers. It turned out researchers solved two diverse problems at the same time. Studies showed that exercises to strengthen abdominal muscles decreased the effect of gravitational force. But they also discovered that hand gripping exercises could lower blood pressure. This has lead to the development of the Zona Plus device. A recent article in the Journal of Hypertension analyzed several clinical...Read More
Genetics, Medicine, Miscellaneous
Nature’s “Immunologic Scalpel” For Our Toxic World
"Today it's impossible to escape the endless list of toxins and chemicals that enter our environment day after day. Fumes from cars, radiation from computers, the earth's depleted ozone layer, packaged foods that have been over-processed, pesticides sprayed onto crops, to mention a few. It's no wonder that so many North Americans suffer from toxic inflammatory diseases. But there is a natural way to boost the immune system." Fortunately, our own immunity works 24/7 against toxins that enter the body and trigger allergic reactions. Without this natural defense our bodies would decompose in a few days due to microbes, parasites and toxins. "Every year North Americans, on average, suffer six common colds due to weakened immune systems. But infections become more dangerous...Read More
Medicine, Vitamins
What Will I Do If I Get Influenza Or Step On A Rattlesnake?
"Dr. Gifford-Jones, should I agree to a flu shot this year?" Fear of this vaccine has been triggered by recent newspaper accounts of impurities found in some products. Although they are unfounded, every year some people still refuse the shot. When that's the case, they should learn how Dr. Frederick R. Klenner saved many patients from life-threatening viral infections, and the bite of a rattlesnake. Why Dr. Klenner was never given the Nobel Prize in Medicine is hard to understand. He was a family doctor in North Carolina. Unfortunately he wasn't my doctor when I awakened one morning with the worst headache I'd ever experienced. I was in my final year at The Harvard Medical School and later that day I...Read More
Alternate Treatments, Medicine, Miscellaneous
Neo40: Is It A Miracle Supplement?
Several months ago I reported on a unique drug, Neo40, which has now been approved by Health Canada. To find out more about Neo40, now available in health food stores, I interviewed Dr. Nathan Bryan, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Texas Health Center in Houston and creator of the formula. G-J - What is Neo40? NB - Neo40 is a lozenge that contains L-Citrulline, an amino acid derived from protein, vitamin C, beet root and hawthorn, a potent combination that produces nitric oxide. Early in life our bodies manufacture large amounts of nitric oxide (NO). But after age 40 production of NO decreases. This sets the stage for hypertension, kidney dysfunction, diabetes, heart attack or stroke, just to name...Read More
Cancer, Lifestyle, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Women's Health
Sorry, But What We Told You Is Wrong
Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime Prime Minister, once remarked, "To every question there is a clear, concise, coherent answer that is wrong". In medicine there are also many questions, and all too often the answers from experts are found years later to be wrong, sometimes with devastating consequences. A report in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 13 percent of research articles published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in 2009 reported reversals in medical findings involving drugs, screening tests and invasive procedures! For example, for years we've been told that increasing good cholesterol is a prudent move. But new research shows it does nothing to protect against heart attack, strokes and early death. Here's another hummer. Doctors have urged...Read More
Medicine
What Did I Learn This Week at the Harvard Medical School?
What's the most beautiful sight in the world? Some say its India's Taj Mahal. To me it's what greeted me years ago, the night I arrived in Boston. It was the glistening white marble buildings of The Harvard Medical School on a moonlight night. This past week its grandeur impressed me again when I attended a reunion. But soon my classmates and I were distressed by what has happened over the years to its idea of medical care, too much cold technology, too little common sense and too little "care". It's appalling that the U.S. consumes 40 percent of all the drugs produced in the world today. Yet it ranks forty-second in...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine, Miscellaneous
Rx For OxyContin Addicts:
What will happen to the 200,000 or more Canadian OxyContin addicts now that this opioid narcotic is no longer available? For years these people have embarked on a willful act of self-destruction. Isn’t it about time for society to get its priorities straight? To care more for those who have lived a good lifestyle, paid their taxes and when dying of cancer, suffer needless agony because there’s no money for more palliative centers in this country. Those who are rallying to help OxyContin addicts are making a series of illogical errors. Purdue Pharma, makers of OxyContin, also made a blunder. It spent needless money producing OxyNEO, an opioid version of OxyContin that resists crushing or liquefying so addicts can’t snort or...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine, Nutrition
Which Do You Prefer, Heart Attack or Diabetes?
Is it getting easier for patients to make the right health decision today, compared to 50 years ago? It should be, considering the huge advances in medical knowledge since that time. But unless you’re blessed with the Wisdom of Solomon, these advances may merely help you exchange one disease for another. Or, as one wise sage remarked, “Life would be easier if there were no ‘buts’.” For instance, a study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine has depressing news for those taking cholesterol-lowering drugs (CLDs). Researchers studied thousands of middle-aged and older women for seven years, who were taking CLDs. Their discovery? Compared to those who were not taking this medication...Read More
Lifestyle, Medicine
Act Like Animals To Save Your Kidneys
Who are the master chemists that control water balance in our bodies, keep the blood neither too acid nor alkaline, rid us of dangerous waste, filter every drop of blood in our bodies every 30 minutes and weigh a mere five ounces? They’re our kidneys. But millions of North Americans are so abusing this vital organ that their lives depend solely on renal dialysis. What lethal mistakes are they making? History provides much of the answer. Fifty years ago in Australia, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, people developed a bad habit. They were using mixtures of Aspirin, codeine, phenacetin and caffeine, not only for pain relief, but also for their mood-altering qualities. In fact, at watch factories in Switzerland, workers were...Read More
Medicine
New Short Needle Removes Fear of Diabetes Injections
Why would a 200 pound, tough, football player suddenly turn pale and develop circulatory collapse from such a trivial event? I'll never forget this scene at the Montreal General Hospital many years ago. A football playing friend, whom I had known for years, was visiting Montreal and required a needle injection due to a serious infection. A few seconds after this event his huge, hulking frame suddenly collapsed and he was lying semi-conscious on the floor. The diagnosis was Belonephobia (Needle Phobia) and although it's a relatively rare condition many people have needle anxiety and find injections intimidating. This can have a profound effect on the treatment of those with diabetes. Today, 247 million people worldwide have diabetes. In North America, a...Read More
Medicine, Psychiatry
Fatigue – Is it the Prelude to Serious Disease?
Who isn't tired now and then? Ask any doctor and he will tell you not many people, as day after day patients complain of this common problem. But how often is the feeling of being tired associated with bona fide medical disease? A report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal helps to answer this question. So what should you know about the TATT syndrome? Dr. Henk de Vries and his colleagues in Holland studied 571 patients for two years who complained of fatigue, exhaustion or malaise. They report that 10 percent of patients consulting Dutch physicians complained of fatigue. Of this number 46.9 percent were given more than one diagnosis that could be associated with this complaint. The diseases were quite diverse,...Read More
Cardiovascular, Medicine
Rx For The Heart: Marry A Smart Woman
Thank God I married a smart woman. And one who majored in English. Commas, colons and semicolons are a puzzle to me. I'd still be, were it not for her, wondering whether to use "a" or "an", "affect" or "effect", "escapee" or "escaper". I'll die before I know the meaning of a compound noun. This column wouldn't have lasted one year if I'd married a not-so-literate wife. But, just as important, I might have died long ago from heart disease. A new study shows that marrying smart is good for the heart. Investigators from the Institute of Nutrition Research at the University of Oslo analyzed 20,000 married men over a 14 year period. The men, ages 35 to 56 years were...Read More
Medicine
Torture at @ 2:00 am
What's the worst torture of all? Ask Thomas Sydenham and he would quickly say "gout". Sydenham, often referred to as the English Hippocrates, died in 1698 of gout. To my knowledge, no one since that time, has better described the intense pain associated with this disease. He wrote, "The victim goes to bed and sleeps in good health. About 2:00 A.M. he is awakened by severe pain in the big toe. The pain becomes intense, violent, tearing and so exquisite the big toe cannot bear the weight of bedclothes or the jar of a person walking into the room. The night is passed in torture." Gout has often been referred to as the "blue-blooded disease". It's easy to see why since it's...Read More
Medicine
What I Learned From Sitting in a Bar? – Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Where do I get ideas for this column? It's usually from long hours of reading medical reports, talking to researchers, searching the net and various sources. It can be tedious and tiring. But this week I got lucky. I was having a drink at my favourite watering hole when a friend said to me, "You should write about a problem I know that kills people. It also makes them ill and they don't realize the cause of their poor health". He then told me some tragic stories. He said, "A child vomited and appeared to be having a seizure. No one knew why. In another case two women, swimming in a cluster of boats, suddenly lost consciousness and nearly drowned. Two...Read More
