Dr. Tanelian's Weblog

Protein

The idea that eating protein produces “big” muscles is primitive, unsubstantiated and in the realm of pseudoscience.  Hopeful you will become Popeye if you exercise, but unless you are deficient in the fundamental amino acids necessary for protein synthesis this will not happen by consuming more protein  (see the HealthConnexin Medical News).  Real muscle development requires natural exercise and a full complement of natural nutrients.  We are not simply a steak such that one can add protein powders or solutions and it gets heavier – this is the equivalent thinking with a clay pot mentality; that if one wants a larger pot simply add more clay.  Yes, making it will make for a heavier pot, but will it be fashioned correctly?

Actually, Popeye made sense in that he advocated spinach – a highly alkalinizing food that prevents the breakdown of muscle.

Just remember Popeye was right and for more than one reason.

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Health Care Reform

What is health care reform?  Everyone wants this, yet no one knows what this is or should be.  There is widespread agreement that the U. S. health care system is broken, but what to do?  Yes, our nation’s number one problem is health care and I do believe it can be fixed; but is it in anyone’s best interest to do so? 

Clearly, this is not a new problem (at least 50 years old) and many attempts to fix health care have been repeatedly tossed away.  Why will it be different now?  Once again we are asking the monetary beneficiaries of this system (doctors, politicians, healthcare administrators, healthcare educators, drug companies, medical equipment manufacturers, etc.) to make a plan that improves (reduces) health care while their reward, sales and profits, will be reduced by reducing illness.  Therefore, does it seem possible or probable that our medical-industrial system will endorse the promotion of health and wellness?

No, it is not! So why then would anyone think this will happen within the political or current health care systems?  The only logical people to be developing and demanding a beneficial and low-cost health plan that works are those with no vested interests in illness, rather those with their own and their families health, wellness and wealth in mind – that is you and I.  Hippocrates over 2,000 years ago stated and realized this. 

Alternatively, our leaders are advocating hypothetical solutions such as electronic medical records that are totally unproven and simply line the pockets of the current medical-industrial complex.

Health will never be seen again unless we all stand up and demand a return of our health from our nation and its leaders!  By continuing as we have for the past 100 years, we all can watch the current 3 trillion dollars annually expended on sick care escalate to 4 trillion dollars within our lifetime and watch the economy falter even further. 

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Benefits of Vitamins?

Of course vitamins (13 acknowledged molecules called “vitamins” are essential for our health) and so are a multitude (1,000’s) of other molecules, but only if you are deficient in them.  Yet, we take the approach that “the more, the better” – not true.  More of any vitamin or mineral maybe better than, the same as, or worse than the amount you are already taking.  More does not necessarily mean better, yet this is our societal assumption!

 I have written numerous blogs and medical news articles about this reality.  Nonetheless, we see articles like today’s news story, “Little benefit is seen to vitamin pills”.  Sounds informative, but is that statement true?  NO.  Yes, it may be true if you already have the full complement and optimal amount of vitamins and minerals, but what if you are deficient.  According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s studies many if not most Americans are deficient in essential nutrients, up to 90% deficient!

The problem with all vitamin studies is that: 1) Researchers do not know where a person is starting or has been with respect to any given vitamin, 2) Is a given person deficient or exposed to an excess of any given vitamin on a regular basis, 3) Studies are too short to fully evaluate whether any vitamin is beneficial for any disease or not (this could require 60+ years of controlled data or more), and there are 100’s or more confounding factors not controlled for in any nutritional study.

Nonetheless, it is safe to say that most Americans could and would benefit from some vitamins and minerals since our foods (even organic) and water (tap, mineral or bottles) are severely lacking.

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Are You Prepared to Perform?

Performance requires advance preparation, not just, “I will wait until I have a problem, then fix it”.  Ultimate performance requires advance preparation!  In the case of Health this is called Prevention, in Athletics it is called Training.  Regardless, the basic truths are the same.

Humans are not a car.  Therefore, “fix it” is simply a fantasy.  Humpty Dumpty was written as a children’s nursery rhyme, but nonetheless remains the leading lesson of good health and all types of performance.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;

All the king’s horses,

And all the king’s men,

Couldn’t put Humpty together again

 The Molecular Fitness program is designed to enhance your performance in Health and Athletics, as well as in many other aspects of life.

 Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Molecular Fitness

Molecular Fitness is about helping your body perform better through optimization of the natural molecular and cellular components that are essential for life, health, mental and physical performance.

The potential benefits are vast and encompass prevention of disease as well as athletic performance and just plain feeling good and having more energy.

As for which benefit(s) are most important, this is a personal priority.  Obviously, “I feel good” seems to be most important in our “immediate gratification society”, but what about the totality of your life? 

Life is definitely about “I feel good”, but what about “I feel bad” when you are actually ill?  What about those 8 well known diseases of modern man (heart disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, ocular disease, obesity and Alzheimer’s) that you will one day succumb to?  Is there a magic cure or any cure for any of these diseases? NO!

Will you succumb to one if not all of these diseases if you live long enough?  YES

So why not feel great now, have more energy now, perform better athletically now and at the same time be preventing the multitude of diseases that potentially await you?

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

A Trillion Dollar Solution: Re-educating the Healthcare” System” could Help Bail Out America

Illness, money and our economy.

 Over the last 50 years, the results of the war against disease have been disastrous for America.   Most American’s are suffering from “healthcare” burdens.  Their hard earned dollars have been poured into healthcare without end, leaving citizens and the country in a state of financial disaster.

Presidents have called our healthcare system wonderful, “a model for the world”.  They were of course trying to get elected.  For years, advocates of “healthcare” claimed that we were winning the “War Against Disease” while the nation was expending 100’s of millions of dollars on “healthcare”.  Was this money spent on “Healthcare” or really on “Sickcare”?

The U. S. has run up an enormous tab outspending the rest of the world on “Healthcare”.  Currently, we are #1 in the world for per capita healthcare expenditure, yet #44 in the world for longevity.  Since we have begun the “War Against Disease”, we have spent trillions of dollars on a string of failed missions on individual diseases.  To head down the road to health, U.S. leaders will first have to take a brutally honest look at real costs and the real utility of their massively excessive spending.

In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau listed active hospitals in the U.S. as totaling 7,569.  With all these hospitals came a series of costly expenditures since the 1960’s and the full bill has yet to come.  While embellishing American medicine, the “War on Disease” has acted as a production line for the creation of yet more “Healthcare” outposts throughout the world.  If you were to begin the process of disentangling Americans from this world “illness” economy a vital financial empire would appear once again.

Without unjustified healthcare expenditures, expenses would immediately decline.  If current U.S. healthcare were simply brought under rational “evidence based” control there would still be significant savings.

The very opposite is happening.  Facing manpower demands on an overstretched Healthcare System the U.S. is planning to ramp up the size of its forces over the next several years.  This expansion comes with a sure-to-rise price tag and the support of both Presidential candidates.  Just attracting this many “Healthcare” providers will cost a small fortune.  This year hospitals will spend millions on advertising alone to help meet their recruiting goals.  On top of that they pay out millions in bonuses to recruits and this says nothing of how much it costs to train, equip and pay these “Healthcare professionals.

Capping, if not decreasing, the size of healthcare should be the foundation for new policy.  This would, of course, be a major departure for the U.S, Healthcare System, based upon the notion that the solution to disease is simply spending more.

The cost of manning, maintaining, and regularly upgrading healthcare facilities is already a significant financial burden for American taxpayers.  Getting out in today’s depressed market would be the financially prudent thing to do.

If the United States ever acknowledged it wasted trillions of dollars fighting “The War Against Disease”, then we might not be in such dire financial straits today.  And yet, despite the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression the U.S. continues to sink money into a “War Against Disease” with no end in sight.  The result is a sheer waste in every sense of the word.

When Americans want to get serious about a long-term strategy that brings genuine financial and national security, they will look to real cost-cutting options in medicine.   We need to stop squandering America’s resources on “Sickcare” and replace it with “True Healthcare” by having everyone take personal responsibility for their lives and their family’s lives so not to destroy our future.  We need to re-educate the medical profession and the public that prevention is the only viable long-term solution for health.  Only through these interventions will Americans enjoy a better quality and quantity of life!

 Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Longevity Should Mean Less Health Care Costs

Let’s be logical for a moment (1 millisecond is all I ask).  If we are living longer, then we should be healthier and therefore healthcare expenditures should have been less all of our life and they should still be less today.  Actually, if we live healthy until 100 years old and then suddenly die of “old age” we should have enjoyed a great quality of life with very little healthcare cost or suffering.

Instead, most people and the “experts” such as Victor Fuchs in the New England Journal of Medicine this week equate longevity with more expenditure on healthcare and a lesser quality of life. 

Does our modern perception of health make sense?

Are we really living longer today?  Not really.  Maybe a few years, but we are living much sicker than ever before, dying on average 13 years after illness sets in.

SIMPLE SOLUTION – stay healthy throughout your life!  PREVENT ILLNESS and maximize the quality and quantity of your life!

ENJOY EVERY DAY!!!!!

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Immunization?

Prompted by an MSNBC article, Strife over shots: Should our kids play together? I decided to question why vaccination at all.

We take it for granted that “vaccines” are the reason for our existence, but is that true? No man has survived and still survives thousands of infections throughout his life without being vaccinated to them. Why then do we need any vaccines?

Today we discriminate against children and their parents if they do not embrace vaccines. Does that make any sense? No, the only person potentially at increased risk of contracting a disease if not vaccinated against it is the non-vaccinated person – so let them take this calculated risk. Proponents of mass immunization cite “herd immunity” (the theory that fully vaccinated populations do not contract diseases) as their reason for imposing vaccines upon everyone, but that is not true.

We assume that a vaccine provides us with full immunity against disease, but that is not true. Obtaining immunity from contracting a disease and recovering does a better job of producing permanent immunity than does a vaccine. We immunize based on the fallacy that “one size fits all”, but that is also not true.

We assume that diseases would increase if we stopped immunizing, but actually studies from Germany show that to be untrue. When vaccination was halted, the mortality rate continued to decline. In fact, the decline of the “killer diseases” we vaccinate against began before mass vaccination.

What we really need to question is – are these vaccines actually creating disease? Since the advent of mass vaccination we have seen the emergence of autism, ADD, hyperactivity, dyslexia, and a host of allergies. Not only could the vaccine be directly responsible, but also the additives and preservative in our vaccines could cause many problems.

Little is known by the general public about the risk of vaccines being designed to create disease at a later date in unwitting individuals who just go along with anything. Are we opening the door for our own mass destruction?

It can be “damned if you do” and/or “damned if you don’t” – so what should you do? I say that vaccination should be an individual or parental choice, just assume some responsibility and educate yourself to the best of your ability.

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Exercise and Acidosis

Acidosis causes many adverse conditions that impair optimal athletic performance (decreased endurance, poor bone health, poor muscle performance, poor wound healing, arrhythmia generation, decreased heart performance, decreased alertness and mental acuity, and many other essential impairments).

It is also very important to know that studies done on humans have shown that saline [sodium chloride (NaCl or common table salt)] ingestion leads to the generation of metabolic acidosis, which in turn reduces the bloods oxygen carrying capacity and ability to remove carbon dioxide. In comparison, an alkalinizing beverage such as MineralConnexin can prevent metabolic acidosis from developing and significantly enhances the oxygen carrying capacity of our blood and its delivery to our tissues, while simultaneously helping to remove excess carbon dioxide.

Overall, one of the many significant advantages of an alkalinizing beverage, such as MineralConnexin, is that it will enhance athletic performance and endurance by helping to deliver more oxygen to all tissues, including muscle while simultaneously helping to conserve energy through enhanced carbon dioxide removal; thereby, leading to a slower breathing rate and less unnecessary expenditure of energy.

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.

Some Things Never Change

Yes, some things never change. It is some 300 years later and the message is essentially the same. Just as with the Revolutionary War and with the Hidden Genetic Program (which I call the Molecular Operating system – MOS), the same statements and urgency can be applied to Healthcare (which I call sick care) today.

Take a few minutes to read these quotes put forth by two of the most insightful, selfless and brilliant minds that have and that will to come change our civilization.

“PERHAPS the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in deference of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason."
Thomas Paine
COMMON SENSE, February 14, 1776

“Assumptions can be dangerous, especially in science. They usually start as the most plausible or comfortable interpretation of the available facts. But when their truth cannot be immediately tested and their flaws are not obvious, assumptions often graduate to articles of faith, and new observations are forced to fit them. Eventually, if the volume of troublesome information becomes unsustainable, the orthodoxy must collapse.”
John S. Mattick
THE HIDDEN GENETIC PROGRAM, Scientific American, October 2004

Next, on the horizon and most important for the future of mankind is HEALTH. Yes, real health as it is the most important asset we have and directs our happiness, wellness, freedom, economy, security, children, and all future generations.

ISN’T IT TIME WE ALL STEP UP!

Darrell L. Tanelian, M.D., Ph.D.