The Importance Of Magnesium

Magnesium is a critical co-factor in more than 300 enzymatic reactions in our bodies. It also affects virtually every organ in the body, which makes it an extremely important mineral that is has been underutilized in this country.

Recently docs have been using magnesium to treat patients with acute heart attacks, chronic cardiovascular disease, heart arrhythmias, diabetes, asthma, and chronic fatigue syndrome which are just a few of its positive impacts.

A blood test for magnesium is not the best way to tell if you have enough magnesium in your system since magnesium is found primarily in the cells. This means you could be deficient in magnesium even though your blood levels are normal.

A better test is the magnesium loading test. In this test, you collect a 24 hour urine sample and the total magnesium is measured. Then the person is given an injection of a specified amount of magnesium and another 24 hours urine sample is collected. If the body retains more than a certain amount of magnesium, then it is concluded that the body is deficient in magnesium.

The best forms of magnesium supplements are chelated magnesium, magnesium glycinate, magnesium aspartate and magnesium taurate. The prescription form of magnesium chloride is also useful.

(The Importance of Magnesium to Human Nutrition, by Michael B. Schachter, M.D., F.A.C.A.M.)

Can You Trust Your Doctor’s Recommendations?

While heart disease is among the most studied of illnesses, the Wall Street Journal reported that only 11% of more than 2,700 recommendations approved by conventional cardiologists for treating heart patients were supported by high-quality scientific testing.

Because treatment decisions are often made very forcefully by the doctor, the patient is convinced that the doctor knows what he/she is talking about.

According to Harlan Krumholz, a cardiologist at Yale University School of Medicine, doctors should disclose to patients the strength of the evidence behind the care they recommend.

Read this months Teplitz Subscriber Report

LiveJournal Tags: dr jerry teplitz,doctor recommendations,scientific testing,disclose medical evidence

To Scan Or Not To Scan – Your Body That Is!

Medical scanning using MRI, CT and PET imaging machines has grown into a $100 billion dollar a year business with 95 million scans done each year. Still, some big questions remain: Are they helpful and are they safe?

The answer revealed by recent research studies is that 20% to 50% of the procedures reviewed should never have been done because their results did not help diagnose ailments or treat patients.

Part of the problem is that older machines may create bad scans, which may lead to false or poor diagnostic data. According to Dr. Gary Glazer, the chairman of radiology at Stanford University, a scan done on a 10-year-old machine versus a new one will have significant differences in the quality of the image. Even a scan done on the latest equipment may not have been done correctly or correctly read by a qualified doctor.

In addition, the field is mostly unregulated. While imaging centers can choose to become accredited by the American College of Radiology, not many do. This will change in 2012 when a Medicare law goes into effect requiring accreditation.

Another concern is that a growing number of doctors are referring patients to imaging centers owned by the doctors themselves. Studies have found up to 3.2 times as many scans are ordered by those docs. So, is a scan being requested by the doc because it’s necessary or because it’s profitable?

The final issue is the amount of radiation that you are exposed to when a scan is done. A study of hospital patients showed that they had been exposed to 45 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation. Since the typical X-ray delivers .02 mSv, 12% of patients had been exposed to more that twice that amount.

With all these concerns, you need to ask your doc some questions before you agree to have a scan done, including how old the machine is and the qualifications of the scanner and the interpreter.

(Reported The Virginian Pilot, 2009, Article by Gina Kolata, New York Times News Service)

Making Sure You Have Enough Vitamin D In Your System

Making Sure You Have Enough Vitamin D In Your System

LiveJournal Tags: Dr. Jerry Teplitz,vitamin deficiency,disease prevention,vitamin d3,vitamin levels,hydroxyvitamin d,diasorin,quest tests

As I’ve reported before, Vitamin D is becoming more and more important in disease prevention and healing. We are also discovering that many of us are deficient in Vitamin D.

Even though your own body can create it by being out in the sun without sunscreen, most of us spend very little time in the sun. This means we need to consider taking supplemental Vitamin D3 (D3 absorbs the best).

So how do you determine what level of Vitamin D you have in your body? You can get a baseline measurement by having a blood test, but you need to make sure your doctor is requesting the right one.

The best blood test is called 25(OH)D which translates to 25-hydroxyvitamin D. For optimum health your results should be higher than the normal range. Normal is 20-56 mg/ml, while optimal is 45-50 mg/ml. Also, make sure your level is never below 32 mg/ml.

Finally, ask what analysis system the lab is using. One testing method called the Quest system gives false results that appear to be 25-40% higher than the better test, the DiaSorin assay, which is available at LabCorp. In addition, the LabCorp test costs less than half of the Quest test.

So…get your Vitamin D level measured make sure it’s the right test and it’s being done via the right method.