Category: General

Steve Parcell, ND Sometimes I like to cut and paste the abstract. I consider this important news and plan to discuss it with a number of my patients on simvaststin. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Apr 10. pii: S0735-1097(13)01403-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.02.074. [Epub ahead of print] Simvastatin impairs exercise training adaptations. Division of Cardiology at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. Abstract OBJECTIVES: Determine if simvastatin impairs exercise training adaptations. BACKGROUND: Statins are commonly prescribed in combination with therapeutic lifestyle changes, including exercise, to reduce cardiovascular disease risk in patients with the metabolic syndrome. Statin use has been linked to skeletal muscle myopathy and impaired mitochondrial function, but it is unclear whether statin use alters adaptations to exercise training. METHODS: We examined the effects of simvastatin on changes in cardiorespiratory fitness and skeletal muscle mitochondrial content in response to aerobic exercise training. Sedentary overweight or obese adults with at least 2 metabolic syndrome risk factors (defined according to National Cholesterol Education Panel Adult Treatment Panel III criteria) were randomized to 12 weeks of aerobic exercise training or to exercise in combination with simvastatin (40 mg per day). The primary outcomes were cardiorespiratory fitness and skeletal muscle (vastus lateralis) mitochondrial content (citrate...

Kelly Parcell, ND Boulder, CO   Iron helps form hemoglobin, the part of the red blood cell that carries oxygen and thus plays an important role in the body’s delivery and use of oxygen to and by working muscles. A lack of iron in the body can reduce aerobic capacity and impair endurance performance.  What remains unclear is the extent to which iron depletion without anemia and iron supplementation above basic needs affect athletic performance. Studies of the nutritional status of athletes in various disciplines have shown females are at greater risk of mineral deficiencies. This reflects the situation in the general population, with menstruating women being the main risk group for mild iron deficiency. Athletes who move from lower altitudes to higher altitudes may experience difficulty increasing their red blood cell mass and not be able to gain the benefits of altitude training their iron levels are suboptimal.   “I believe there are sufficient arguments to support controlled iron supplementation in all athletes with blood ferritin levels below 60” says Steve Parcell, ND co-owner of NatureMed in Boulder, CO. Ferritin is a storage form of iron and the most sensitive marker of iron reserves. This iron “reserve” is not...

Do Men Go Through Menopause?. By Steve Parcell, ND By the time men are between the ages of 40 and 55, they can experience a phenomenon similar to menopause, called andropause.  Alternative names for Andropause have been suggested including the Male Menopause, Androgen Deficiency in Aging Male (ADAM) and Partial Androgen Deficiency in Aging Male (PADAM) .  Unlike women, men do not have a clear-cut benchmark such as the end menstruation to mark this transition. Andropause is defined as a time in the life of men when hormones decline. Most of us know that testosterone declines as we age but many people do not realize that other important hormones can be affected. Somatopause is a decline in growth hormone levels. Somatopause signifies the gradual decline in growth hormone production by the adult pituitary gland in both men and women that begins at approximately age 30 and continues at a steady rate throughout life. Growth hormone is secreted by the anterior pituitary gland. A very busy gland, the anterior pituitary also secretes thyroid stimulating hormone (promoting thyroid activity), adrenal corticotropic hormone (promoting adrenal activity) and other hormones. When levels of these hormones go down cognition (brain function), energy level, libido (sex...

By Steve Parcell, ND The predecessor of naturopathy may have been the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204) who, in contrast to many of his medical colleagues, downplayed the importance of drugs and surgery and argued that diet, exercise, and mental outlook were the keys to vibrant health. A court physician to the royal family in Cairo, Egypt, his book Preservation of Youth, espoused completely natural healing methods. Written for a dissolute young prince who suffered everything from depression to indigestion, he warned, “overeating is like a deadly poison to any constitution and the principle cause of all diseases.”The German Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762-1836), who served as royal physician to the King of Prussia, is regarded as one of the founders of holistic medicine. A prolific author and proponent of “Nature Cure,” which consisted of hydrotherapy (cleansing the colon with a water flush), air and light baths, vegetarian diet and herbal remedies, Hufeland was also a great fan of mineral springs and “Water Cure” (popularized by Sebastian Kneipp). His most successful written work, The Art of Prolonging Human Life (1796), became one the most widely read books on preventive medicine and was the first natural health best-seller. Hufeland coined the phrase “macrobiotics,”...

Lead Developer of HPV Vaccines Comes Clean and Warns Parents, Young Girls that It Is All A Deadly Scam (http://www.thedailysheeple.com/lead-developer-of-hpv-vaccines-comes-clean-warns-parents-young-girls-its-all-a-giant-deadly-scam_012014). I have a patient right now who was part of the Gardasil Vaccine trials and her story is devastating. You may look at the source of this article and see that it is a controversial nay-sayer journal, however, it does correlate to the stories I have heard from my patient. I went on to comb through the literature on sites that are reputable research sites only to find validation for my skepticism all of these years. Just on PubMed alone, I found over 30 studies on the issues and concerns of the Gardasil vaccine. Those that reported positive findings had very limited parameters of success. Many, many others listed similar side effects and concerns as Dr Harper's report. Here is a report from 2013 that you may find interesting: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23016780 Unfortunatly, as parents and patients, the days of trusting your provider and mainstream medicine advice are over. The infiltration and influence of the pharmaceutical industry on patient care is completely out of control! It also happens in the supplement industry and as providers, we are constantly questioning the quality and efficacy...