Wellness Series 2 – Metformin
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February 5, 2023
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Metformin is a prescription medication used to treat type 2 diabetes. It works by lowering
Medicine is as complex as complex itself. The influx of information is insurmountable, new research, new studies, new sets of medical breakthroughs are rolled out consistently. All these compendium of information boggles the mind even of the most illustrious medical gentleman. Much more if the set of information coming through seems contradictory and banging against each other.
The convoluted inflow of medical information coupled with seemingly contradicting figures lead us to suspect if what we have known is still fact or fiction. Sodium is good, sodium is bad, coffee is antioxidant, coffee is addicting and so on. It pays to be informed about some of the most common myths in the field of medicine.
Of course we unwittingly expect our doctors to have an all-seeing eyes. We think, more than a decade of grind in medical school gives them esoteric power to know everything. But they don’t. Reality is…
Doctors might know or they even know that they need to dig deeper into their diagnosis. But most of them either lack the time to do so or simply just don’t care.
If a doctor, for example, found a patient with high-blood pressure, he will prescribe a pill immediately without even trying to know what causes your health predicament. Same goes through with any other diseases they encounter.
Doctors stop at the diagnosis, they don’t go any further. Maybe the guy is just dehydrated, has dysfunctional kidney, insulin resistance and so on.
In fairness, as mentioned above, the medical field is churning out disciplines and information at devilish load and haste to the extent that human learning prowess can not even get even with it.
“Things get challenging for a student or a resident that there is so much to learn, but with little capacity to learn. As a therapy, a student tends to specialize and get their hand into something they are comfortable with.” There are certainly benefits to specialization where doctors can drill down deeper into certain diagnosis. But this specialization can be expensive for a patient who gets referred to several doctors with several specialties if the first diagnosis is no good.
If you have chest pain, your cardiologist might say an angina. A gastroenterologist might say heartburn. An orthopedist will say costochondritis, an inflamed rib joint. A neurologist for a pinched nerve in your chest. And “it’s all in your head” for a psychiatrist.
When a disciplined gastroenterologist checks your intestine his attitude towards your entire body is related to his discipline, as if you are all intestines. You can no longer expect more because it is his specialty. What if it turned-out you have a kidney problem instead. You might even risk taking meds not related to your gastrointestinal issues. The least that he can do is refer you to another doctor and so on.
We believe that a good physician has an established professional relationship with his patients. He cannot give a good diagnosis in split-seconds. It takes time. And doctors believed they didn’t have much time.
In 1999, Journal of the American Medical Association said the average interaction between doctor and patient lasts twenty seconds before an interruption. Most doctors are basically disturbed and hurried individuals. They are more likely to give your diagnosis even before you explain your health predicaments.
It’s like a woman who used a sledgehammer to kill a mosquito on her husband’s head. She killed him too. But for her, at least she got the mosquito.
Drugs have side-effects. It could be intended or inherent to the drug itself. Besides that doctors are willing to prescribe drugs, the symptoms that they might be trying to address are caused by the previous drug they prescribed.
If you are diagnosed with high blood pressure, without batting an eyelash, a doctor will put you into calcium channel-blocker without even asking for your lifestyle, diet and emotional predisposition. But now you have terrible heartburn caused by a relaxed sphincter in your esophagus. The next visit, the doctor won’t change the previous medication. But instead give you antacid. But now the antacid is causing depletion of your Vitamin B Levels making you feel numbness. Another visit will let your doctor put you on nerve medicine. This goes on until your medicine cabinet looks like a commercial pharmacy.
Of course your doctor doesn’t know everything or might never even know your condition. If your condition is highly nutritional, then he might pass this thing out. Natural nutrition is even taboo in a strict medical school discipline.
No diagnosis, no reimbursement. At least that is how insurance companies work. If a doctor failed to write down a code for diagnosis, say therapy, nutritional changes or a procedure means no payment for them.
In conventional medicine, the more of us get sick means more to a doctor’s monetary account.
It’s like saying that if you have your diagnosis, you already know what’s wrong with you. It might be partly true, but most often you’re not. Most symptoms cause common and the same discomfort. An acid reflux or heartburn discomfort is almost the same as a heart attack. Coughing is both a symptom of a common cold and pneumonia as well as any other respiratory conditions.
Here are common sub-myth that all of us might have missed, especially medical doctors.
And it is not! Although acceptance about it is widespread that it seemingly becomes the truth. But instead, the contrary is true. On the onslaught of the symptoms it is where the levels of estrogen is erratic and is at its highest. The truth is that estrogen levels do not stop until the woman stops menstruating altogether. Even then, most women still produce generous amount of estrogen even after their cycle.
Secondly, although estrogen helps in building bones, its high levels in the blood encourages breast cancer. So, supplementation of estrogen during menopause is not only baloney but a health hazard as well.
The heart is the major pumping organ of the body. The vessels or the “pipes” where it pumps the blood is crucial to its overall health. That is why the sector that we commission to unclog these pipes are surgeons who perform heart bypass to remove the clog which they blame on cholesterol. We know that cholesterol isn’t always bad. In a study by Lancet, there are octogenarians who have high cholesterol levels yet in good shape as there are individuals who have very low cholesterol that are in bad health condition.
Heart disease is caused by inflammation. The arteries are the collateral damage of the activation of the immune system when the white blood cells get locked and loaded in attacking the enemies. What are the causes of inflammation? Tansfat, sugar, infection, stress, toxins are among others.
We think of Aspirin as a cure. Well, it is not, though it is the most widely known and used pain reliever of all times. It addresses the pain but not the cause of the pain. We usually call most drugs as “regular band-aids” for diseases. They are there to cover-up and give temporary relief. Thus, if you take ibuprofen to relieve joint pain, the pain may decrease but the joint destruction continues.
Sad but true, but most conventional drugs not only fail to answer the root cause of the disease but even worsen them. Anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat arthritis have been shown to increase the progress of the disease. And a long term use of it, such as cortisone, often leads to diabetes, obesity, cataracts, stomach ulcers, high blood pressures and more.
On the other hand, remedies that cure don’t have to be synthetic creations of big pharmas selling us not only temporary expensive relief but hazards as well. Glucosamine for instance is known to not only relieve symptoms but reduces joint damage as well. Glucosamine is naturally abundant in crustaceans such as crabs, lobster, and shrimp.
Always remember that drugs, most especially synthetic drugs don’t always cure disease but also cause it.
We have been made to believe that ones you have it, you have it all the way. But nope, our genes are dynamic and not static. It can adapt to genetic stimulants that either radical or beneficial. Think of it, if your genes can be affected by some radical factors such as radiation that causes cancer, don’t you think your genes can also be affected by natural healing factors such as Zinc and Curcumin that helps repair damaged genes?
Remember that the natural tendency of our genes is to heal and not to kill. Because if our genes have been predestined by nature to destroy instead of create, how do you expect humanity to survive this earth? We might have been long gone and extinct.
There are two general genetic predispositions that we are born with, naturally and lifestyle related. These are:
Is your original and inherent genetic blueprint. This is what nature has intended you to be, a healing and regenerating gene.
This gene is the outcome of your lifestyle predisposition – the outcome of what you eat, what you think and everything you’ve been into and what you have done that has caused the present condition of your genetic blueprint.
For your additional genetic information, according to research all of us carry what they call APO E or Apolipoprotein, a protein encoded by the genes. These genes come in three colors Epsilon 2, Epsilon 3 and Epsilon 4.
Also known as “immortality genes.” Individuals who possess these genes can be carefree about their diet and lifestyle such that they can go smoking, drinking and eat whatever they want and can still be disease resistant.
Those who possess this gene type must follow a healthy lifestyle for them to be healthy. And not doing so will dispose them to diseases. This genetic code made up 80% of the human population.
If someone can possess “immortality genes” then possessing the opposite is also possible. The possessor can exercise, eat healthy, avoid all vices to their heart’s content but still can be prone to diseases. Fortunately, only a very few percentage of the population inherit this genetic code.
Remember, that these genetic showcases are not foolproof. Which means, sometimes they don’t go as coded. There are possessors of unfortunate genes that live long and normal lives while those who possess the opposite do not. So do not be too carried away by these types. Take note that genes are dynamic and not static. You can do something about it.
Getting old is a number, while aging is a physical state. There is less that you can do about the former, time is time and it has to pass with or without you. While aging is very relative and can be very much negotiable depending on your capacity and willingness to change your physiological estate.
Harvard University did a study about the physiologies of the Tarahumara people in Mexico. Tarahumara are known for their propensity to run, maybe for fun or lack of transportation. These people believed that the older people are even more adept in running than the young ones. And the Harvard study confirmed that 65 year olds perform far better than 40s.
Don’t mistook lifespan from life expectancy. The average life expectancy ranges from seventy to eighty years. But life span can go as long as 120 years. Same is with health span. How long are we going to live healthy is not the same as how long are we going to be alive.
Aging is a physical variable that can be tweaked and enhanced for you to live not only the most quantity but also quality.
Fat is overrated. Fat is nominally overused, abused and misused when dealing with things related to losing weight and staying in shape. Fat is highly demonized specially by rosy advertisements of slimming products to the extent that everyone is getting allergic reactions to it.
Fats are not created equal. Simply put it – good fats and bad fats. Technically, good fats are Unsaturated Fats, fats found mostly in plants, vegetables, fruits and some fish. Bad fats are Saturated Fats, mostly found in animal fats, margarines, hydrogenated oils and others. Fat comparisons are further technical, but simply, the more hydrogen attached, the more saturated it becomes.
From here, the choices for you are clear, simple as black and white. Remember, healthy fats are literally oiling our system for it not to become rigid specially at cellular level. This only happens when you thrive on a diet rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and consuming the opposite will result in ill health.
Gone are the days where the food we eat is as good as nature intended them to be. It is the time where food adulteration and alteration due to industrialization is still a daydream. But nowadays, you can get filled to the brim but deficiency is still a surefire in your physiology.
Too much food modifications, enhancements and preservation for monetary gain lets loose those important nutrients that our body should merit.
One of the most notoriously adulterated foods on the table is white bread. You have to know that before the influx of industrialization, bread is a spit away from the natural source straight to the oven. No processing, no bleaching and preservatives added, making the bread of old very nutritious. In fact, bread before industrial times are baked just for the day. They go easily bad due to essential oils and fibers still intact.
Today, bread is washed to useless bare unessentials leaving only starch, and the nutrients go straight to the drain. For short, our modern lives seem to feed us all the trash while denying us the real nutrition. And we are the raving fan of it.
Think about that!
That is also the major reason why supplementation becomes necessary and an added expense nowadays. City and urbanized living seems to offer the perks we’re looking for in life, but it offers both the Yin and the Yang of things.
If modernity offers a gratifying breeze of life, it might also disatify part of our physiology. If we’d be excused for hasty generalization, where people in provinces and mountains got no choice but to eat healthy produce, hectic city dwellers eat simply the opposite – too much sugar, too less vitamins. Too much sodium, too less nutrients. Too much fats, too less fiber. Too much to eat, too less nutrition. And too much stress, too less sleep.
Supplementation is your ally to counter the balance of not eating properly. And not having any vice doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be in the safe zone against diseases. If you are familiar with colleagues who don’t smoke or drink but still have heart disease, stroke or cancer you might want that to be your mirror on the wall.
Nevertheless, if you think you are eating really healthy, then ditch out the supplements. Supplements come in concentrated form to supplant things that are supposed to be there, but are not. If you are one of the junkies suckers, by all means, do supplement.
But not just any type of supplements, know these 5 Supplements Lifehacks before popping up the pill.
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