• How Can Needles In My Skin Help My Health?
• Alternative Approaches for Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease
• Chrohn’s Disease and Prescription Medications

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Dear Health Conscious Individual,

Welcome to House Calls with Dr. Cutler!

In today’s issue, I’ll discuss alternative approaches to pain management and rehabilitation for Rheumatoid Arthritis and other pain sufferers. In addition, I’ll provide some basic information and similarities between Diabetes Type 2 and Heart Disease.

And in the Q&A section, I’ll talk about Chrohn’s and my best advice for dealing with its many symptoms.

Yours for healthy living,

Michael Cutler, M.D.
Medical Advisor, True Health™

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How Can Needles In My Skin Help My Health?

Getting stuck with needles sounds more like torture than a medical treatment. But there’s evidence that acupuncture—a standard health practice in Asia—helps relieve pain. Should you try it for arthritis?

The Chinese therapy of acupuncture has been used for millennia to treat a range of ailments. Now it looks like Western medicine is getting the point.

Acupuncture has become one of the most popular—and accepted—unconventional therapies within the United States. An estimated 15 million Americans have tried this needle therapy. It’s offered in many chronic pain clinics, and is covered by some insurers and managed health organizations. The World Health Organization recommends it for more than 40 conditions as diverse as asthma and chronic pain. The Food and Drug Administration regulates acupuncture needles as medical devices, the same as it does surgical tools.

In 1997, a National Institutes of Health panel found acupuncture to be an acceptable treatment for many pain conditions, including fibromyalgia and general musculoskeletal pain. And, no, it usually doesn’t hurt after an initial “pinch” or sting. So it’s no surprise that some rheumatologists are suggesting acupuncture, along with more conventional treatments, to their arthritis patients—and a few even give acupuncture treatments themselves.

“It’s really almost mainstream now,” says Stuart S. Kassan, M.D., a rheumatologist in private practice in Denver who became an acupuncturist in 1996. “It’s safe when done properly, and can be very helpful for pain.”

However, Dr. Kassan says, many doctors do remain skeptical. “Some roll their eyes and say they can’t believe I’m doing acupuncture,” he says. “But rheumatologists see a lot of patients with problems we can’t do anything about, especially chronic pain. We all become very frustrated. This is where acupuncture makes its greatest impact: with patients who have failed with conventional treatment.”

Don L. Goldenberg, M.D., Chief of Rheumatology at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in
Boston, agrees. A fibromyalgia specialist, he often works in conjunction with a medical doctor trained in acupuncture, which he finds often gives good results when used in addition to more conventional treatments. “Acupuncture clearly can help lots of chronic pain issues, including fibromyalgia,” he says.

But it doesn’t work for everyone. “Some people respond spectacularly—but not all,” says Wendell Hatfield, M.D., a Denver rheumatologist who is also a trained acupuncturist. “And as with all treatments for chronic conditions, it’s not a cure. It helps control the symptoms.”

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Alternative Approaches to the Treatment and
Rehabilitation of Rheumatoid Arthritis

A holistic approach is called for in Rheumatoid Arthritis, and several alternative therapies are effective for reducing the symptoms. People have found success through acupuncture, chiropractic, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, herbal medicine and dietary therapies.

Also, since this is an autoimmune disease, stress reduction and relaxation training are imperative to calm and balance the immune system. These
methods do reduce symptoms.

Detoxification and support of the digestive system are important because poor digestion leads to an accumulation of undigested materials which microscopically leak through the gut and into the bloodstream, which may be a contributing factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

Detoxification and a cleansing diet which restores colon health are recommended, as well as the continuation of a healthy, whole foods diet. Foods rich in essential fatty acids, such as cold water fish, have anti-inflammatory characteristics.

There are many possible combinations of herbal medicines for Rheumatoid Arthritis. One herbal combination that works for many sufferers is a mixture of tinctures of meadowsweet, willow bark, black cohosh, prickly ash, celery seed, nettle, wild yam, valerian, all in equal parts, with one spoonful taken three times a day.

However, in most cases, it is best for treatment to be individualized. There are many anti-rheumatic and anti inflammatory herbs. Your unique
characteristics and symptom picture would determine what would be best for you, and for this you should seek the advice of a practitioner trained in herbal medicine.

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Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease

Type 2 Diabetes and Heart Disease: both are related to nutrition and both can be prevented or helped by the same foods and supplements. Type 2
diabetes is normally preceded by decades of slowly increasing insulin, blood sugar and belt-size (it is always healthier to sit on your fat than have your fat sit on you). Early prevention is very effective but there comes a point when insulin production permanently breaks down. Smart nutrition can first prevent weight gain and diabetes, and eventually heart disease.

Both conditions are epidemic with 1 in 13 Americans developing adult diabetes, and 1/3 of those over age 60 developing the disease. Most diabetics will develop heart, kidney, nerve and blood vessel diseases, for an amazing 1/4 of total “health” costs! Other countries have similar increasing rates. Later-in-life diabetes is an accelerating, eventually one-way track to heart disease.

What makes a diabetic? Simply put: when your pre-breakfast blood sugar (plasma glucose) gets over 126 mg/dL (7 mmol/L). This is one area
where a blood/finger prick test is important since serious organ or foot damage can be done before one realizes that the blood sugar is elevated. Another measure is fasting glucose: when 2 hours after taking a dose of glucose, the blood level is still over 200 mg/dL (11.1 mmol/L). With this method, a measurement of more than 140 (7.8) starts to suggest a problem.

Type 1 diabetes normally develops at an early age and with it the body stops making insulin needed to process sugar and starch. Type 1 represents less than 5% of total diabetes cases. The hormone insulin must be dosed by injection in relation to sugar and starch intake. According to a European Diabetes Trial that yielded results in 2003, Type 1 diabetes may possibly be prevented with vitamin B3 in people with declining insulin production which can show up years before irreversible damage.

In the now-exploding Type 2 diabetes, which develops in obese kids or at a more “mature” age [Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus, NIDDM or
maturity-onset], the problem is initially not a lack of insulin, but that the body’s cells become insensitive (resistant) to its effects. Increasing amounts of insulin try to “push the gas pedal,” but the system doesn’t react (by taking fuel, or glucose, into the cells). With Type 2, both blood-insulin and blood-sugar (glucose) become high, which creates a double problem.

This double problem is…

1. Insulin, as it always did, still changes excess blood-sugar into fat [in blood and around the belly, and it keeps it there]. So, insulin
   tends to make, and keep, you fat;
2. High blood-sugar makes blood vessels and blood components “sticky”.

Both of these effects reduce blood flow to all areas of the body, but especially to the feet, eyes and kidneys. Fat, around the body, or as triglycerides in the blood, does nothing to promote blood circulation. Good circulation is 50% of good health. This is why weight control, “shaking up the fat” (exercise), a good multi-vitamin with minerals, omega-3 oils and high-fiber, and low glycemic index foods are all-important.

Vitamin D is helpful in regulating blood sugar, but unhelpful are: high omega-6 oils like corn, fermented soy or sunflower. High waist size (belt length,
regardless of your height) with high blood triglycerides (fats), high sugar, high insulin and high blood pressure, all lead to ill-health. This group of symptoms is known as Metabolic Syndrome X. Please be careful and make the changes you need to maintain control over your blood sugar levels, weight and overall fitness.

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Q & A

Each week in the Q & A section of House Calls with Dr. Cutler, I will share with you some of the many questions I get every week from subscribers to my monthly advisory newsletter, Easy Health Options”. For more information on Easy Health Options”, visit www.easyhealthoptions.com

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Chrohn’s and Prescription
Medications

Dear Dr. Cutler,

My 25 year old daughter has Chrohn’s. She was diagnosed at 17 and was in remission for a few months while she was pregnant at 19. But she has been very sick ever since and cannot seem to conceive, and her son is 6 years old already.

She has all the bad symptoms and can’t seem to take any of the medications prescribed very long, because the side effects affect her health even more. Her gastroenterologist is not doing anything but prescribing Asacol.

She has tried other doctors who then prescribe her other medications and steroids that she has already taken, with side effects that are too negative. I would love to find an herbal remedy or at least something to put an end to her constant misery. Can you suggest anything? Thank
you. —Cathleen J.

Dear Cathleen,

As always with these illnesses with “unknown” causes, it is wise to look at various causes which all add up to influence genetic predisposition. In other words, do all you can to reverse the genes from producing the illness effect.

These are to address allergic causes (chemicals, foods, environmental allergies) with something like NAET (www.naet.com); emotional contributors and triggers and nutritional issues with a program such as 90 Days to True Health™—it’s the best tool I know for this (go to www.truehealth.com to
order). In the meantime, continue meds until you can successfully wean them under your doctor’s care.

All the Best!

Respectfully,
Michael Cutler, M.D.