POM Oil

Juicy Fruit - It always helps to read the bottom line. We extol the virtues of CNN Money, NY Times, the Los Angeles Times in their reporting. The LA Times does the stories that other mainstream publications miss. In this case the headline and story was:

"FTC: POM Wonderful health claims are bogus -POM Wonderful isn't quite as wonderful as it claims, the Federal Trade Commission said Monday, after filing a complaint that challenges the company's statements that pomegranate can prevent and treat everything from heart disease to erectile dysfunction." - LA Times

To us that means that POM isn't wonderful. But the end of the story and gist is that the Federal Trade Commission says that POM isn't a super food. We say POM is a super food. We say that because its the right color and its served cold. We constantly show the research and data that says the stuff POM is made of is better food than anything you can buy at your local fast food restaurant. We maintain this inspite of our friends at the FTC. We do agree that it might not be THE prevention medicine for heart disease or ED but that it comprises the items that help maintain a healthier life and lifestyle.

"Among the advertising claims the FTC is challenging are that the product has "super health powers," that drinking an 8 ounce glass of POM Wonderful slows the rate of prostate cancer, that the juice can treat erectile dysfunction and that it has been proven reduce arterial plaque by 30 percent." - LA Times 

We agree that POM isn't a silver bullet but that it made of the stuff that research has proven. Mostly we think that POM is over priced and beyond our means but if and when we're out and about and we need some juice IF POM is available and we HAVE to spend our money we'll spend it on the liquid.

 "POM Wonderful pomegranate products have been the subject of over 50 published studies, which span a number of important health areas. These studies were conducted by leading researchers, including a Nobel Laureate, who are affiliated with top universities around the globe. This vast body of published research was conducted exclusively on POM products, all of which come from our own Wonderful variety pomegranates and are processed using our custom-designed, proprietary extraction equipment. Since 1998, we have provided over $34M in funding to support scientific research on POM products at top institutions around the globe." POM (World Class Science)

We've seen the ads for the products which we admit we crave though we can't see (well some of us can't) paying full price for the product and its never really on sale. We like it though it isn't sweet and taste more like medicine than a refreshing beverage. It is admittedly an acquired taste. It's better to drink it than to try and eat the fruit and suck the same amount of juice out of the seeds.

"The administrative complaint does not mean the company has violated the law, the FTC said. A hearing has been scheduled for eight months from now before an administrative law judge." - LA Times

What we hope the complaint will do is make POM hype the research instead of their product. The problem is then we'll discover that we don't need POM. Or that other companies can make a similar product and cut into their profits. Or even worst that we can make a similar substance for much cheaper and of a much higher quality. That of course would be the death of POM. Whatever the case we will be watching the complaint results carefully.

"Is POM Wonderful a publicly traded company? POM Wonderful is a privately held company and has no plans to go public at any time in the future." - POM (FAQ) 

We hope that the reason for the complaint isn't because POM (a publicly traded but privately held company) challenged Minute Maid for its POM like substitute that we have purchased because of its appearance and its what we believed were health claims.

"In a related case, Mark Dreher, POM Wonderful’s former head of scientific and regulatory affairs and expert endorser, has agreed to a settlement that bars him from making any disease treatment or prevention claims in advertising for a POM Wonderful product unless the claim is not misleading and comports with FDA requirements for the claim. The settlement also prohibits Dreher from making other health claims for a food, drug, or dietary supplement for human use without competent and reliable scientific evidence to support the claim. The settlement contains a cooperation clause and reporting provisions to assist the FTC in monitoring compliance with the order." - FTC (POM)

You remember the Federal Trade Commission who last week decided to: "rescind its regulations governing the format and display of health warnings on smokeless tobacco packages and advertising... The FTC works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them."

It could just be we're feeling paranoid against anything federal. It could happen. If POM did it once they could have done it again. It just hasn't been our experience that POM has made any outlandish claims that we've seen. If POM does decide to fight this complaint then expect the professors from the University of California to be called for all their independent research. We like the idea of a super food. We also believe in magic!

Vitamin D Needs

To be or not to be. What do you want to be? What do you need to be? Who wants health care that's less than the best? First aid is one thing. When you get first aid you know that it's not the best care you can receive. We consider it a "band-aid." It's a temporary response to an immediately bad situation. When we seek the care of a physician or an emergency room we'd like the choice or knowledge of the kind of care we will be receiving. When money is a concern we always want the best for less. We exist to point the way.

For a health care facility - what do they wish to be? We assume they want to provide the best for less. Which is fine if you know what the best is. According to our new president and some independent agencies that monitor and evaluate such things Intermountain Healthcare does this better than anyone else in the nation.

"President Obama mention Intermountain Healthcare in his speech for Healthcare - (A) nine-year study of more than 2,500 patients compared carotid endarterectomy, a surgical procedure to clear blocked blood flow that is considered the gold standard prevention treatment, to carotid artery stenting, a newer and less invasive procedure that involves threading a stent and expanding a small protective device in the artery to widen the blocked area to capture dislodged plaque. The study, dubbed the CREST trial, is of the largest randomized stroke prevention trials ever conducted. The trial was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, and led by investigators at Mayo Clinic".- Intermountain Health Care (Feb 2010)

What's difficult to understand is why in any professional field if someone does it better why all the rest don't imitate the most successful? The choice would appear to be to strive to be the best by using the tools and methods that the best use. Everything else has to be considered sub par. There can only be one best and the differences between number one (1) and ten (10) should be too close to call. In the area of health care unfortunately that isn't the case. This does this appear to be the case when it comes to vitamins.

Vitamins are over the counter medications that few physicians prescribe. While there is generally little research available for these generics that are studies that examine the effects of vitamin deficiencies. We found this in the New York / LA Times and Yahoo News:

"In the study, researchers looked at tens of thousands of healthy adults 50 and older whose vitamin D levels had been measured during routine checkups. A majority, they found, were deficient in the vitamin. About two-thirds had less vitamin D in their bloodstreams than the authors considered healthy, and many were extremely deficient. Less than two years later, the researchers found, those who had extremely low levels of the vitamin were almost twice as likely to have died or suffered a stroke than those with adequate amounts. They also had more coronary artery disease and were twice as likely to have developed heart failure. The findings, which are being presented today at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando, don’t prove that lack of vitamin D causes heart disease; they only suggest a link between the two. But cardiologists are starting to pay increasing attention because of what they’re learning about vitamin D’s roles in regulating blood pressure, inflammation and glucose control — all critical body processes in cardiovascular health". - New York Times (November 2009)

Usually we receive our vitamins from the foods we eat and the way we live. Milk, tuna, sunlight and orange juice are the best sources of vitamin D but aren't generally found in our fast food lifestyles.

"Lack of Vitamin D could spell heart trouble - Researchers issue recommendations to screen for and treat Vitamin D deficiency—which is traditionally associated with bone and muscle weakness—may also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A growing body of evidence links low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels to common CVD risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes, as well as major cardiovascular events including stroke and congestive heart failure".- American College of Cardiology (December 2008)

When the president suggested checking the pressure in your tires as a way of improving fuel economy and his opponents laughed until they realized that the professionals in the automotive industry made the same suggestion and that the idea had merit. Sometimes the simplest ideas or rather the simple ideas can produce amazing results. A vitamin D deficiency can affect your ability to absorb calcium in a cascading effect. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is problem for us locally. The simple solution might just be to give all of us above the age of fifty-five (55) cod liver oil which is highest in vitamin D. To those of us who can't stand the smell there are gel capsules. Whatever form we take its in as long as we take it we're certain that Pearlie Mae would be proud! It could save the lives of many of the residences of our jurisdictions as well.

Fat Happy and Seventy

If we're any indication Pearlie Mae did NOT live longer than her twin sister Mamie nor her older sister Alice. Alice was less mobile than either younger sisters but what she did have they didn't was weight. Not just the weight of her wisdom and memories of older children long since passed but size. In her final days the family had to assist in her hourly care which we did grateful though not tirelessly. It wore us out. Her son traveled by plane weekly to assist in her care. Her daughter maintain primary and overall care of Mother Alice.

Currently the "study published today in the Journal of The American Geriatrics Society (AGS). Researchers looked at data taken over a decade among more than 9,200 Australian men and women aged between 70 and 75 at the beginning of the study, who were assessed for their health and lifestyle as part of a study into healthy aging. The paper sheds light on the situation in Australia, which is ranked the third most obese country, behind the United States and the United Kingdom."

The results are in and though not an American study only one conclusion can be reached and that is - the couch wins! While it might be true for the US there are other research studies that point in a different direction for other nationalities. Specifically, "Lean Mass Index: A Better Predictor of Mortality than Body Mass Index in Elderly Asians" from the same Journal of The American Geriatrics Society (AGS).

"[T]he researchers concluded that the type of disease which caused their death, for example heart disease or cancer, did not affect the level of protection being overweight had. To remove any risk of bias in participants with illnesses which caused them to lose weight, and also increased their risk of dying, the researchers contrasted subjects who were relatively healthy compared with those who had major chronic diseases or smoked and found no apparent differences in the BMI: mortality relationship."

But we're neither asian nor concerned about negative news. We'll listen here and just think of us ourselves as Aussies! Of course you've got to get to seventy (70) years of age before you can really derive any benefits from being fat and happy! From other studies we know if we want to live to sit on our butts to old age that that extra spare tire or chin and a half can protect you against heart disease or cancer rather than be a source of heart disease or cancer. We're not sure why this is we're just glad it's so. Maybe its more of that everything in moderation we've heard so much about.

Pearlie Mae, Mamie and Alice all lived beyond seventy (70) years of age. First there were five (5) including Buddy and Nellie when there were just the few. Nellie was the baby and Buddy the baby boy. The baby Nellie went first and then Buddy - both big fat and happy. Buddy more than Nellie though his respiratory strength was the worst. In their cases Nellie only left to go to church and Buddy needed full time nursing care when sitting up became too much for his lungs. One by one and then there were gone.

What Does Not Destroy

"Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger." - Friedrich Nietzsche [1895] MAXIMS AND ARROWS, 8 of 44, Twilight of the Idols, Translated from the original German

CAUSES OF DEATH By Jurisdiction 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH 5TH District of Columbia North Carolina Maryland Virginia United States of America North Carolina Virginia

We take the quote to mean to learn from your losses, disasters or setbacks. What makes us stronger is to learn from the problems in fighting the H1N1 and the problems in the distribution of limited supplies to a wide majority.

Haiti, the island and its people, has sufferred and unreasonable amount of natural and manmade disasters yet in their struggle to survive comes great stories of love, faith and courage. Their survival can only, we hope, make them stronger. Almost universal in voice is the belief and hope for such strength for Haiti's recovery.

May we find such strength in the things that destroy us. The top destroyers us are: cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure and accidents. It's just the order that varies and not that much from line to line. Surprising The District of Columbia and North Carolina share the same first two (2) causes: cancer and heart disease while Maryland, Virginia and the nation as a whole share the same first three (3) causes: heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases). North Carolina share the last three (3) cause with MD, VA and the US: high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases). The District of Columbia shares it's third (3) cause with North Carolina and Virginia's fourth (4) cause: accidents. The fourth (4) for the District: high blood pressure (cerebrovascular diseases) and Maryland which reflects the national pattern: chronic lower respiratory diseases.

Data Source:
Table 29. Number of deaths, death rates, and age-adjusted death rates for major causes of death for the United States, and each state, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Marianas, 2006 (CDC)

Smoke Attacks

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do" - Goethe

Maybe its just us but we like to go to the source and maybe only "squints" can get away with submitting a "uncorrected proofs" prepublication copy. We were never allowed to submit such a thing when we were in school but that was a long time ago. The Goethe quote comes from the pages of the report. What they found and published as a scientific evidence was the title "Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects - Making Sense of the Evidence" concludes that: "...that data consistently demonstrates that secondhand-smoke exposure increases the risk of coronary heart disease and heart attacks and that smoking bans reduce this risk. Given the prevalence of heart attacks, and the resultant deaths, smoking bans can have a substantial impact on public health."

This might be news to smokers and the paid defenders of the "right to smoke"campaign but for those of us challenged breathers this isn't news. While some people might remember the movie Basic Instinct for Sharon Stone's legs - for us it was the lighting of her cigarette that preceded the crossing. That kind of smoke attack strikes us whenever we see a dangerous gang of smokers crowding the entrance of some public building. You have to take a deep breath before crossing their path and holding it until you can clear the area. This same type of physical reaction can occur whenever a person is terrified of being attacked.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement in support of the report saying:

• "Exposure to secondhand smoke could cause acute coronary events, such as a heart attack.
• Evidence suggests that even brief secondhand smoke exposure might trigger a heart attack.
• Smoke-free bans decrease acute coronary events."

One of the wonderful things about our smokefree DC though there is no smokefree MD or VA. Whenever we travel south and stop through VA we have to share air space with smokers separated only by a door or partition. Whether or not Virginia adopts or makes any changes to current laws or not is yet to be determined. To those of us desperate to breath we'll just have to hold our breaths until then.

Bill Maher who we credit with the "thinning the herd" comment smoked up until a few (more than nine) years ago. Who knew that he was actively pursuing that goal. Now we know!

While we certainly felt attacked and all but the most dense of smokers thought somehow blowing their smoke in the air was effort enough for us as long as it wasn't in our faces. It's doubtful that even this report will be received with any more belief. To again quote Maher not as long as our Government "is a Mafia that wants a cut."

Live Long & Prosper

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) normally the bearer of the big bad scrary news reported that we're living longer and healthier lives. Though women are still living longer than men (80.4 as compared to 75.3 years) its a narrowing gap. "For the first time, life expectancy for black males reached 70 years..."

"...There were an estimated 11,061 deaths from HIV/AIDS in 2007, and mortality rates from the disease declined 10 percent from 2006, the biggest one-year decline since 1998. HIV remains the sixth leading cause of death among 25-44 year-olds"

Even with a pandemic coming heart disease and cancer are still the two leading causes of death in 2007 while flu and pneumonia was down. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's increased but not significantly. The full report can be found as a PDF at the CDC website. Good news about death and dying - who knew such a thing was even possible?

We did! It's more information not less that can lead us to do things such as change our diets and maybe exercise more. We need to be prepared with more information to make us less afraid in the future and of the future.

Chocolate Heart Health

Chocolate saves a heart from breaking and now every news report is saying the same thing without asking the same question on aspirin - "How much is enough?" The Stockholm/Boston report says that even a little is better than none but with our obese lifestyle any excuse is a good excuse to eat chocolate. Not any candy mind you, the review of the data says it must be chocolate. We're giving "kisses" as our wedding favors and its great to know we're being life savers even if we didn't consciously make the decision.

We can only access the free abstract which says: "Chocolate consumption was associated with lower cardiac mortality in a dose dependent manner in patients free of diabetes surviving their first AMI. Although our findings support increasing evidence that chocolate is a rich source of beneficial bioactive compounds, confirmation of this strong inverse relationship from other observational studies or large-scale, long-term, controlled randomized trials is needed."

From the very same Journal of Internal Medicine is a cautionary article publised earlier in the year: "The epidemic of obesity took off from about 1980 and in almost all countries has been rising inexorably ever since. Only in 1997 did WHO accept that this was a major public health problem and, even then, there was no accepted method for monitoring the problem in children."

While the reference is to Asia, Latin America and others to Swedish men obesity is a local problem with deadly consequences. Chocolate seems an easy solution to us the very lazy. Anything but diet and exercise and anytime the suggestion is adding chocolate to the mix whether it's coffee or candy - its the right perscription. A couple of kisses every other day sounds like just about the right amount IF we were to self medicate and we won't. We do have some extras though. There is a bag on the side of the bed so until their gone - what can it hurt?

While the review was of heart attack survivors the: "(o)bjectives. To assess the long-term effects of chocolate consumption amongst patients with established coronary heart disease. Design. In a population-based inception cohort study, we followed 1169 non-diabetic patients hospitalized with a confirmed first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) between 1992 and 1994 in Stockholm County, Sweden, as part of the Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program." The news is reporting this as newest, greatest, latest health information clearly it isn't but we suggest that everyone use caution when following any advice, including ours.

Aspirin Cures Cancer

Another review of prior research finds that the most popular form of cancer can be cured or reduced with one of the cheapest and most popular drug on the market. What the report abstract does not answer is how much or how little is necessary to get the results. The danger is in playing doctor instead of seeing a doctor and as long lines form at the emergency room and longer wait times for scheduling an appointment with our favorite physician we may try to fix ourselves. Or even worse to delay treatment rather than seeking the advice of a qualified professional.

If we answer the question do we risk you the reader making the "self fix it" decision yourself? When the news of aspirin's amazing properties began to surface to the news we would personally supplement our own medical regime with a single aspirin before bed despite prior warnings to the contrary and usually when our own perscriptions had been depleted. As far back as March 2005 the New York Times reported: "Because aspirin carries a risk of bleeding, doctors do not currently advise healthy women or healthy men with no clear risk of heart disease to take aspirin to prevent heart attacks or strokes. The study results are unlikely to change that practice."

Don't self medicate! Don't self medicate! Don't self medicate! Now how much is enough? The report does not suggest however earlier reports suggest a baby aspirin amount of a single tablet. Our own usage was always in excess of the recommended amount. A single dollar store tablet is 325 mg and the recommended amount in a child dosage is 85mg.

Our use was daily and though aspirin doesn't protect women from heart attacks their studies showed less usage provided an equal amount of results from a less frequent amount of aspirin. "Regular use of low-dose aspirin does not prevent first heart attacks in women younger than 65, as it does in men, a 10-year study of healthy women has found... ...The amount of aspirin taken by subjects in the Women's Health Study - 100 milligrams every other day - is less than the amount one gets from taking a baby aspirin, which contains 81 milligrams, every day. But the researchers noted that the smaller amount still had the intended effect on blood clotting, as evidenced by blood analyses, by reduced risk of stroke and by the greater incidence of bleeding" the March 2008 New York Times reported.

Aspirin is still a medicine and like any medicine its got its up cancer curing side and its bleeding ulcer, suicide pill of choice down side. Lets leave the prescribing to the professionals.

Enemy Us

The things that cause us (rather them) to die or get ill the most aren't nasties out to do us harm but to quote the comic strip POGO (or FLOOK if you're british) "I've seen the enemy and he is us." The top diesases (heart disease, cancer and stroke) are all avoidable. If we got regular checkups or if we lived a better life (exercising, eating healthy) we would live longer. The implication is that if we took better care of ourselves we'd never die. That of course is completely wrong. 

We (rather they) die of what they die of. We are born to die. In today's climate of rising health costs and rising unemployment the conversations are now about finally doing something about our growing under and uninsured. Failing to address this rising tide will only continue to depress any economic or social growth that a President of Hope might create. In the shadow of a now pandemic (the "swine flu"), failing to protect the most vunerable appears suicidal.

It's not a question of finally doing something, the question is and always was what, how much and when. Both Roosevelts, Calvin Coolidge, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter and Clinton all have tried tackling the same problem with the same belief health care for all citizens. I mistakenly believed that this was a new concern.