Advocates of putting fluoride in toothpaste and mouthwash argue that it is not swallowed and therefore not ingested. However, fluoride is absorbed through the mucous membranes of the mouth, and young children do not have control over their swallowing reflex. There have been numerous reports of children poisoned by ingesting high levels of fluoride through school fluoride mouthwash programs or fluoridated toothpastes full of sweeteners that kids want to swallow. Who knows how many stomachaches, in kids and adults alike, have been caused by unknowingly ingesting too much fluoride?
Please avoid fluoride in all forms, including toothpastes. This substance has crept into every link in our food chain, and the evidence is that even without fluoridated water and toothpaste, we’re getting a higher dose than is safe or recommended in our daily diets.
Avoiding Fluoride in Your Water
You can be thankful if you live in an unfluori-dated community, because it’s not easy to get rid of fluoride in your tap water. Distillation and reverse osmosis are the only two reliable methods for removing fluoride. Other water filters may work at eliminating fluoride for a short period of time, but fluoride binds so strongly and quickly to filter materials such as charcoal that the binding sites become fully occupied after a short time. The best ways to avoid fluoride are to stay away from toothpastes and mouthwashes that contain it. (You can also become politically active and begin to educate your community about the harmful effects of fluoride.)
If you are at a high risk for osteoporosis, it may be worth spending the money on a reverse osmosis water purification system.
Exercise for Strong Bones: Use ’Em or Lose ’Em
Lack of exercise is one of the primary causes of osteoporosis. Using your bones keeps them strong and healthy. Weight-bearing exercise significantly increases bone density in older women, while also increasing elasticity and toughness. Weight-bearing means exercise that uses your bones to support the weight of your body. Brisk walking counts as weight-bearing exercise, but add some light handheld weights and it’s even better. (Hold the weights with arms bent at the elbows and pumping vigorously, not dangling by your sides. Letting the weights hang puts undue stress on the rotator cuffs and can lead to injury.) Pushing a vacuum cleaner or lawn mower, gardening, dancing, and doing aerobic exercise also qualify.
Your exercise plan should include a minimum of 20 minutes of weight-bearing exercise three to four times a week. An hour is even better. In contrast to women who exercise, those who don’t continue to lose bone, regardless of what else they are doing. Studies of elderly people who fall and break a bone show that these people had poor flexibility, poor leg strength, instability when first standing, and difficulty getting up and down in a chair. Exercise can help increase flexibility, strength, and coordination. A weight-lifting program of just half an hour three to four times a week can significantly improve bone density. You don’t need to go to the gym to do a weight-lifting program. You can lift a can of peas or a small carton of milk. Women with advanced osteoporosis should work with a physical therapist to create a safe, effective program to reduce the risk of fracture. The Asian movement exercises such as yoga, tai chi, and qi gong can also be excellent for improving strength, flexibility, and coordination.
In a recent study on bone density and exercise, older women who did high-intensity weight training two days per week for a year were able to increase their bone density by 1 percent, while a control group of women who did not exercise had a bone density decrease of 1.8 to 2.5 percent. The women who exercised also had improved muscle strength and better balance, while both decreased in the nonexercising control group.
Chapter 21
Drugs for Herpes and Their Natural Alternatives
Cold sores (type 1 herpes), genital herpes (type 2 herpes), and shingles (herpes zoster) affect many millions of Americans, causing painful, burning, itchy blisters. The herpes virus is in the same strain as the chicken pox virus, and we know that shingles has its origin in chicken pox, which hides out in the nerves for decades, usually reappearing in the elderly as extremely painful blisters around the rib cage. We don’t know where cold sores and genital herpes originated, but we do know that genital herpes is a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease. Some researchers have implicated cold sores with Bell’s palsy, which causes facial paralysis.
Having oral sex with a partner who has a cold sore on the lips can also cause a genital herpes outbreak, and vice versa. No herpes virus ever completely goes away that we know of; it just retreats back into the nerves.
Genital herpes is a virtual epidemic among the baby boomers, affecting an estimated 20 million people. The first outbreak of blisters is usually the most painful and lasts the longest. After that, the progression of the disease varies greatly among individuals. In a lucky 40 percent of people who are infected, it retreats completely, never appearing again. In others, it reappears only occasionally. Others are plagued by constant outbreaks that can have a negative impact on self-esteem and sexuality.
Like all sexually transmitted diseases, herpes carries with it the burden of shame, guilt, and the risk of passing it on to somebody else. The first thing you can do is drop the shame and guilt (it will reduce emotional stress, which will help prevent the next outbreak) and be extremely careful about passing it on to somebody else. This is possible by using condoms vigilantly and avoiding sex during outbreaks. Although it may be an embarrassment to pass it on to another adult, it can be dangerous when passed on to a newborn baby during a vaginal birth.
Although the virus can theoretically be present and thus contagious when there are no symptoms, if you’re in touch with your body, you can usually feel it coming on. That’s the time to abstain or use a condom—abstention is safer.
Examples of Drugs for Treating Herpes
Acyclovir (Zovirax)
Famciclovir (Famvir)
Penciclovir (Denavir)
Valacyclovir (Valtrex)
What Do They Do in the Body? Inhibit the herpes virus.
What Are They Prescribed For? Treatment of herpes virus infections.
What Are the Possible Side Effects? Valacyclovir is used for treating all types of herpes. It is a remarkably effective and reasonably safe drug for most people. Its most common side effect is headaches. Other side effects can include abdominal pain, nausea, missed periods, joint pain, dizziness, depression, and vomiting. In the elderly, especially those with kidney disease, this drug has been reported to cause central nervous system adverse reactions, including agitation, hallucinations, confusion, delirium, seizures, and encephalopathy.
Acyclovir has caused testicular atrophy in rats. It can cause kidney damage, liver damage, and electrolyte (mineral) balance disturbances. Adverse reactions to acyclovir have included fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness, skin rash, loss of appetite, water retention, swollen lymph glands, numbness, and tingling.
Famciclovir has caused cancer, mutated cells, and impaired fertility in rodents. Adverse effects include a high incidence of headaches as well as dizziness, insomnia, fatigue, itching, fever, sinus infections, back and joint pain, numbness, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting, and appetite loss.
Penciclovir is a topical cream approved for treating cold sores. It has caused headaches, rash, and numbness.
CAUTION!
Think Twice About Taking These Drugs If . . .
You have kidney or liver disease.
Natural Alternatives for Herpes Drugs
Herpes is one of the few health problems where we would recommend a drug. For most people, Valtrex is a reasonably safe and effective drug. Now that generic versions are available, the price is also reasonable. If Valtrex gives you a headache or other side effects, try the following natural remedies. Regardless of whether you take Valtrex, these suggestions can help prevent a herpes outbreak and may eliminate the need to take any drugs.
Your best strategy for preventing a herpes outbreak is to keep your immune system strong. That means following the Six Core Principles
for Optimal Health. You can also take extra vitamin A for up to two weeks (10,000 IU daily), an extra 10 to 15 mg of zinc daily for up to two weeks, and the herbs astragalus and echinacea, which both stimulate and support the immune system. Naturopath and author Michael Murray recommends thymus extracts derived from young calves and then standardized (follow the directions on the container).
You Probably Don’t Need Herpes Drugs During Pregnancy
Genital herpes can be passed on to a baby when it passes through the birth canal if the mother is having an active outbreak when she gives birth. This can cause severe problems in a newborn, including blindness. So when women with herpes are told by their obstetricians that they should take Zovirax or another antiherpes drug for the last trimester of pregnancy, they may think that not doing so would be tantamount to negligence.
The truth is that it’s quite rare for a woman with herpes to have active lesions when she gives birth. This may be due to high levels of estrogens and progesterone, or the simple fact that her body is marshaling its every effort to create an ideal environment for the arrival of her baby. Herpes inhibitors have definitely not been proven safe during pregnancy and have been found to cause birth defects in animal studies. No adequate, well-controlled studies have been done with pregnant women. The only time these antiviral drugs are justified during pregnancy is if a woman has her first herpes outbreak during pregnancy. If this happens, the disease can affect the baby, and drugs may be the best course of action.
According to the Santa Barbara Midwives, a group of certified nurse midwives who have been delivering babies for two decades, herpes lesions detected during labor can be covered with special sticky bandages that prevent the baby from coming into contact with them. If worse comes to worst, a cesarean section will protect the baby from being exposed. Natural approaches to preventing herpes outbreaks will also help. Avoid foods rich in arginine such as nuts, and take supplemental lysine as directed later in this chapter. Don’t use vitamin A, thymus extracts, or astragalus during pregnancy. Echinacea, elderberry, or lemon balm should be used during pregnancy only if you are under the care of a natural health practitioner. Selenium is OK to use during pregnancy in recommended doses.
With both pharmacological and natural treatments, it’s important to begin treatment in the earliest possible stages of the outbreak. Shingles doesn’t recur very often, but when it does, it is generally preceded by fatigue and an aching or sharp pain in the area of the first outbreak.
Most people know when an outbreak of cold sores or genital herpes is coming. The area around the mouth where cold sores occur is usually tingly or numb for a day or two before the outbreak. Genital herpes may be preceded by fatigue; sore or tired muscles; a fever; pain in the groin, hips, or legs; swollen lymph glands in the groin area; and then shortly before the outbreak, numbness and tingling in the area where the blisters will appear.
Some of the factors that we know can bring on an outbreak of cold sores or genital herpes are stress, infections, fevers, colds and flus, sun exposure, and menstruation. Women have noticed that sexual conflict or ambivalence (a form of stress) can aggravate herpes.
Arginine and Lysine
We also know that chocolate, nuts, grains, beans, and other foods containing high levels of the amino acid arginine can precipitate a herpes outbreak. (It’s possible that for some people it’s only peanuts that aggravate herpes—you’ll have to experiment for yourself.) Too much acidic food such as tomatoes, and in some people, vitamin C, can also aggravate an outbreak.
Lysine is the amino acid that opposes arginine, so taking a lysine supplement, 500 mg three times daily between meals at the first sign of an outbreak, can help reduce symptoms. If you have chronic herpes outbreaks, you can take 500 mg of lysine daily as a preventive. Foods that are high in lysine include fish, turkey, chicken, beef, and dairy products.
The Antiviral Duo: Selenium and Elderberry
Two recent additions to your antiviral natural medicine cabinet are elderberry extracts and selenium. Both are powerful antiviral agents. See Chapter 12 on colds and flus for details on elderberry. There are anecdotal reports that a combination of elderberry and selenium at the first signs of an impending genital herpes outbreak stopped the outbreak altogether. Follow the directions on the container for elderberry dosage.
For some people, taking a preventive dose of 200 mcg of selenium daily has noticeably reduced the incidence of outbreaks. If you feel an outbreak coming on or have one, you can increase the dosage for a week. By the way, you can try this dynamic duo of elderberry and selenium for any type of viral infection.
Lemon Balm
It’s nice to have lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) around the garden because it smells so good. This member of the mint family is also an herbal remedy for herpes, and a lemon balm cream is the bestselling cold sore remedy in Germany, where it has been well studied. Some reports say that when the cream is applied to cold sores regularly, eventually they don’t recur. At the very least, lemon balm cream speeds up the healing process. You should be able to find it at your health food store.
Chapter 22
Drugs for Impotence and Their Natural Alternatives
Just as women go through menopause and have a decline in the hormones estrogen and progesterone around the age of 50, men go through a more gradual but sometimes equally distressing age-related decline in hormones. In men it is the male hormones, or androgens, that decline, and for this reason the male version of menopause is sometimes called andropause.
Andropause can cause weight gain, hair loss, breast growth, and perhaps most distressing for many men, impotence or the inability to achieve and maintain an erection. Many other factors are related to impotence besides declining hormones, the most important being the same blood vessel problems that cause heart disease. Before the release of the impotence drug Viagra, erection problems in older men were not openly talked about, and most men simply resigned themselves to an old age without sex. But Viagra has brought male impotence out into the open, and millions of the now-infamous and expensive blue pills were sold within a few months of its introduction.
Mechanics of Impotence
By age 75, more than 50 percent of men have impotence problems. The medical point of view used to be that it was caused by anxiety, but we now have scientific evidence that most impotence is caused by circulatory problems ranging from clogged arteries to high blood pressure.
The penis becomes erect through signals from the brain that cause changes in its blood vessels. The arteries that bring blood into the penis open wider, while the veins in the penis that take blood back to the heart constrict, so that more blood enters the penis than exits it. Two chambers in the penis fill with blood, causing the penis to stiffen, or become erect. The contraction of muscles surrounding the base of the penis raises the internal pressure even higher.
Impotence can be caused by a failure of the blood vessels in the penis to operate correctly, or it can be caused by a lack of libido or sex drive. Lack of libido is most often due to a decline in male hormones or by prescription drugs. If impotence is caused by clogged arteries, leaky veins, or poor blood pressure control, it may be a first sign of heart disease. Diabetics have poor circulation, and as a result as many as 50 percent of diabetic men are impotent.
Hormone Imbalance
Anything that increases estrogen levels in men will create a corresponding drop or suppression of testosterone and the male hormone androstenedione. Some ways that men may unwittingly create a rise in estrogen levels include using excessive alcohol, using pesticides and solvents, eating a lot of nonorganic red meat from livestock that has been fed estrogens (which includes virtually all U.S. livestock), or taking the drugs Tagamet (cimetidine), ketoconazole, or cyproterone acetate. Because fat cells make estrogen, obese men also tend to have higher estrogen levels.
Although men with low testosterone may still be able to physically achieve an erection, testosterone seems to be what drives libido in men, so a man with test
osterone deficiency may have less sexual desire. See Chapter 19 for details on using supplemental testosterone and DHEA.
Are Prescription Drugs Sinking Your Sex Life?
Impotence is a known side effect of many prescription drugs, including blood pressure drugs; antidepressants; antibiotics; antihistamines; stimulant drugs; H2 blockers such as Tagamet and Zantac; heart drugs such as beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, ACE inhibitors, and angina drugs; painkillers; sedatives; tranquilizers; sleeping pills; and prostate drugs. The SSRI antidepressants (e.g., Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Effexor) tend to help maintain erections, but because they also tend to deaden the emotions and dampen the libido, they aren’t good impotence drugs. In fact, because they tend to create a false sense of emotional detachment, they tend to be sex sinkers for both men and women.
Cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, and smoking can all contribute to impotence. Marijuana can cause a drop in testosterone levels.
Examples of Impotence Drugs
Sildenafil (Viagra)
Tadalafil (Cialis)
Vardenafil (Levitra, Nuviva)
Drugs That Can Cause Impotence
• Antidepressants, including monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and tricyclic antidepressants
• Tranquilizers, sedatives, sleeping pills, narcotics, and hypnotics, including phenothiazines, benzodiazepines, meprobamate, and barbiturates
Prescription Alternatives Page 56