We Are Living Too Short and Dying Too Long

By Ladd R. McNamara, M.D.

One of the world's preeminent scientists said, "We are living too short and dying too long."  As a medical doctor who no longer practices medicine, I was a board certified doctor who used to treat disease with drugs and performed surgeries because it was how I was educated and trained at two of the best medical institutions in this Country.  However, nearly 98% of the national health care costs are spent in the last year of people's lives trying to keep terminally ill people "alive." We are keeping them alive, many with very low quality of life.  Many times it seems we are just extending their deaths. Having experienced a breaking down of our health care system, rising insurance and medical costs, and now having moved into the wellness arena of assisting others enjoy the incredible benefits of quality vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, along with proper dietary changes and exercise, to promote overall health and longevity, I can say with a certainty which of the two makes the most sense both from an economic stand point and for maintaining true health. I have shifted my efforts on the health and wellness movement and aligned myself with a credible company that has what I believe are the best products to promote overall health.  The medical research indicates that with the modification of lifestyle; that is, diet, exercise, reduction of stress, and nutritional supplementation, we may be able to reduce the incidence of many chronic diseases and possibly slow the aging process.  Isn't this what we all want; to live long, healthy, and energetic lives?

What would it be worth to you, or a loved one if you could reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, or any number of chronic diseases?  Well, it just may be possible!  Medical studies have shown various ways in which this is possible.  Certainly we know that diet and exercise plays a huge role in our health; so does sleep and stress.  More and more, research is indicating the role that nutritional supplements play in promoting, and maintaining cardiac health, brain, kidney, lung, intestinal, liver, joint, bone, skin, and immunological health.

The hardest part for me is getting people to actually believe the importance of taking vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and the essential fatty acids on a daily basis.  People have to change their belief systems, just like I did. When I was practicing medicine, and I was first introduced to the thought of taking more than a simple multivitamin per day I thought it was a waste of time and money.  Little did I know about the decades of medical research indicating that taking vitamins and minerals beyond what is found in food, beyond what is found in a simple daily multivitamin can have dramatic effects on our health.

When I started recommending broad spectrum, pharmaceutical grade nutritional supplements to my patients I witnessed incredible benefits that I did not think was possible.  My patients were experiencing the difference that only quality supplements could bring about, and as a result it changed my belief system about supplementation.  That is why I aligned myself with the company producing the products that were changing people's lives.

After more than a decade of witnessing tremendous health benefits among my patients, family and friends, researching the medical studies and cutting edge of nutraceutical medicine, as well as traveling the world speaking on the subject of proper nutritional supplementation, I can say with certainty that lives are being changed for the better.  True health is happening. Hope is being restored.

However, no matter how well you live, eat, exercise, and supplement with vitamins and minerals, you will more than likely get a fatal disease one day, and of course, eventually you will die.  Like it or not, we are mortal beings.  With the wellness movement we are simply trying to improve the quality of life while we are on this earth by decreasing the risk of premature chronic degenerative disease and aging, as well as prevent premature death.  How would it be to live well beyond 100 years of age and still have the vitality to play golf, swim, exercise, climb stairs, play with your great, great grandchildren?  I believe this is all possible if we take the steps to decrease the toxic exposure in our environment, reduce stress, exercise regularly, eat right, and protect our cells from oxidation and excessive inflammation with quality supplementation.

You Can Choose How You are Going to Live and How You are Going to Die

YOU have more control over how you are going to live, what diseases you may or may not get than you could possibly imagine.  Yet most people live like they are a victim to their genetics, habits, social circumstances, or appetites.  The things we tell ourselves to justify our self-defeating behavior (I know these well, as I am not immune):  "Oh, I was born this way."  "We're at a party, and I've been good with my diet, and I DESERVE to let myself go and ruin everything I've been working at over the past month."  "I can't help it, I'm a choc-alcoholic."  "Everybody in my family is fat, so I am must have fat genes."  However, your lifestyle, that is, what YOU CHOOSE (not your genetics) ....your diet, exercise, stress levels, adequate sleep, or lack thereof, exposure to toxic substances, and adequate nutritional supplementation are the main factors that all determines over 80% of your risk factors for specific chronic degenerative diseases and the speed of the aging process. (By the way, there is little difference between the aging process and the disease process.  They go hand-in-hand.)

Please realize that health is not the absence of symptoms, it is the absence of disease!  Just because you don't feel cancer developing inside the breast or prostate doesn't mean it is not there.  Just because you don't feel plaque building up inside the arteries doesn't mean you don't have cardiovascular disease.  The most common first sign of heart disease is not chest pain, tingling or numbness in the left arm, or shortness of breath, ....it is sudden death!  Yes, DEATH!  The person who had the fatal heart attack was totally "fine" until they died.  As far as they were concerned, they didn't have heart disease.  In fact, they most likely did not even have a family history of heart disease.  Obviously, they did not develop heart disease and suffer a fatal heart attack over the course of a few weeks, they developed heart disease over the course of decades, ....and so are you, right here, right now, unless you are actively doing what it takes to slow, stop, and possibly even reverse chronic degenerative diseases.  The reality is, you can, ...all without the use of drugs!

Death Doesn't Lie

The sad thing; most people depend upon medications to save them from heart attacks or death from heart disease.  If you believe the commercials with all the ads for medications to lower your cholesterol you would think we should have heart disease licked by now.  Why, after decades of lowering people's cholesterol, isn't it amazing that the number one cause of death in both men and women is still heart disease and stroke?  And, here's the kicker, over 60% of men and women who die of heart disease have NORMAL cholesterol levels.  What does that tell you?  If their cholesterol levels are normal, why are they dying of heart disease?  Shouldn't they be spared atherosclerosis and a heart attack if they don't even have high cholesterol?  This suggests that high cholesterol levels may not be the primary cause of heart disease.  Something else might be.  And, that something else appears to be oxidation!  It is the oxidation of the LDL cholesterol and oxidation of the arterial walls that appears to be the primary cause, or pathology for heart disease, no matter what level of cholesterol a person has ....even if it is normal.

LDL cholesterol can be oxidized by many different sources; cigarette smoke for one.  The arterial walls can be oxidized by various toxins, all causing inflammation and plaque build up, regardless of one's cholesterol level.  One of the most notable sources of oxidation of the arteries is by homocysteine, an amino acid complex produced by the liver.  Homocysteine is second only to cigarette smoke in causing damage to the arteries, inflammation, and plaque build up, which causes atherosclerosis, and eventually heart disease and death.  Again, all this happening regardless of one's cholesterol level.  Obviously, the higher one's LDL cholesterol, the more there is to be oxidized, but it is the oxidation that is the key to heart disease!

It appears that the primary "cause" to heart disease, atherosclerosis, and stroke (according to the medical literature) is how much oxidation to the LDL cholesterol and inflammation to the arterial walls is happening; not so much the level of the LDL. (Please refer to my book, "The Cholesterol Conspiracy" for over 200 medical references.)

What about the safety of cholesterol-lowering medications?  In my book, The Cholesterol Conspiracy I bring up several concerns about these medications.  It is not my place to encourage people to go off their medications, but I would suggest that they should have a long discussion with their doctors on the pros and cons of these medications after they have read my book.

I am not against medications.  There are many medications that have helped save lives.  Without modern medicine we would not have many of the advances and quality of health we enjoy today.  However, due to the greed that exists in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries there is a dark underbelly in which negative side effects are often suppressed and denied, and sometimes more harm is done than good.  Sometimes there are better, healthier alternatives than drugs for keeping us well; and we as health care professionals have not emphasized these modalities enough due to the influence of these powerful institutions.

In the United States alone there are over 100,000 deaths per year from medications.  These are not accidental dosing. These are deaths from medications taken the way they were prescribed.  Medications are the third to fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., a fact often ignored when you are prescribed a medication for your cholesterol or blood pressure.  Think about that the next time you are handed a prescription and told not to worry about it, ...yet, you're told to "be careful about taking vitamins and minerals, because you could hurt yourself if you don't know what you're doing."  How many deaths per year occur in the United States from vitamins and antioxidants?  None!  Wow!  Again, death doesn't lie!

There are numerous studies that show that diet, exercise, and various supplements, such as fish oil do more to lower the risk of death from heart attacks than taking cholesterol-lowering medications ever could.  However, you are not told this due to powerful money interests behind medications.  It is true that cholesterol-lowering medications lower your cholesterol, but the "disease" of high cholesterol is a man-made disease created in the 20th Century.  The goal should not be to lower your cholesterol for the sake of low cholesterol itself, it should be to lower your risk of death from heart disease, ...at least that is how I think, anyway.  More importantly, there are safer and more effective means to lower your risk of heart disease and premature death than the use of drugs, namely proper diet, exercise, and properly balanced, quality nutritional supplements.

The War Within Our Bodies

To understand how this works, very simplistically speaking, there is a war within our bodies between oxidation and antioxidation.  The more oxidation from stress, lack of adequate vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, proper diet, etc. the more likely we are to develop heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, and accelerate the aging process.  The more antioxidants, broader spectrum of antioxidants, and the better quality of antioxidants, we put in our bodies, the less chance of disease and premature death.  It really is that simple!  Yet, people want to make it more complicated, or worse yet, it's not worth the money to them. I have seen women spend more money on getting their nails and hair done then protecting their bodies from chronic diseases.  I have seen men spend more money on maintaining the "health" and beauty of their cars then the health and beauty of their bodies, which are not replaceable.

Think of it this way.  If for some reason a person wishes to die prematurely, and wants for some reason to increase their risk for all manner of diseases, they would simply need to smoke several packs of cigarettes per day, and continue this year after year, preferably for decades, right?  It would also help to eat poorly, not exercise, and add excessive stress to their life.  All this would be causing excessive oxidation (damaging) to their cells.  The damage would occur so often, the repair processes would be worn down, and disease would result.  If this concept is so simple to understand then why would it not be simple to understand the opposite course of action?

If a person were to do what would be considered the opposite of smoking and stress, that is nourish their body daily with quality vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids, ...nutrients that protect cells from oxidative damage; protecting cells from free radical damage, and allowing cells to operate at their optimum year after year for decades, then is it not reasonable to expect less damage and disease in all organs throughout the body?  And, less disease means a better quality and longer life.  This is true wellness, or true health.  Cigarettes increase disease and shorten one's lifespan.  You would therefore think that quality nutritional supplements would help decrease the risk of disease and possibly lengthen one's lifespan, in combination with other healthy lifestyle changes.  Logically this makes sense, and each year the medical research is indicating that this indeed just might be the case.

The medical research indicates that taking a nutritional supplements: vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and the essential fatty acids, along with a healthy diet and exercise, is the best and safest option for possibly reducing the risk of several chronic degenerative diseases, including, but in no way limited to:

How to Choose a Quality Supplement?

Now, the only thing you need to know is which vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and essential fatty acids to take, how much, how often, what is a "healthy diet," how to lose weight effectively, and how much is "enough exercise."  Throughout this website, these questions will be answered.

There is a great reference book, such as The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements (Fourth Edition) by Lyle MacWilliam that can help you choose a quality nutritional supplement.  Here are some things to look for in identifying a quality supplement brand:

A brand that follows the pharmaceutical model for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), not just Food-Grade GMP.  There is a huge difference.  Food-grade basically means the products cannot cause harm and cannot have visible animals parts.  Pharmaceutical model is a whole different level of quality and standards, and most companies do not follow these standards.

Potency Guaranteed:  Make sure that the product you select is guaranteed to have in the bottle what is listed on the label.  Studies from Yale New Haven Hospital and Tufts University Medical School in Boston have shown that many supplement brands do not have the correct ratios of ingredients of nutrients to each other, and were missing some nutrients altogether.  In many cases, what it said on the label was not even in the bottle.

Superior Ingredients that Come with Certificates of Analysis:  If the company makes their own products, which is ideal, because they are able to maintain quality control over the manufacturing process, then do their raw ingredients come with Certificates of Analysis to be pure, potent, free of toxins and pesticides.  Most companies do not.

Does the company have an Athlete Guarantee?  Most competitive athletes will not use supplements because they do not want to risk being disqualified from their sport due to banned substances that might be found in the supplement.  How confident is the company that their products are pure?  Are they willing to put their money behind their guarantee? If they are, then that says a lot for the credibility of the product.  This is a company you can trust.  Are there athletes (Olympic and professional athletes using their products with confidence AND results?)

Are the company's products based upon research and scientific principles, or are they making up the pseudo-science as they go along?  If there is science to back up their formulas then you can trust what they are doing is good manufacturing.

Does the company have a team of nutritional scientists on staff, or do they farm out the manufacturing of their products to a large manufacturing facility to "white label" their products?  This makes the difference between who is really on the cutting edge of scientific discovery and who is just going along with what is fashionable.

Is there a money-back guarantee on unused products?  If yes, then, then the company has nothing to hide.  This, along with everything stated above is a company you can trust.  When you find a company you can trust, stick with it, because trust in this area is critical in the long run, especially when it seems that every other month we're being told different things by the news media.

In Summary, here is the take away message:

• 1. You have more control over your life, health, and death than you realize.
• 2. Small daily changes add up over a lifetime.
• 3. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and the essential fatty acids are safe and effective in promote overall health, and according to the medical studies may possibly help reduce the risk of many chronic diseases, along with a proper diet and exercise.
• 4. Not all supplement brands are made equally.  There are differences, and these differences will affect your health.  
• 5. Lifestyle changes are necessary to maintain optimal health: proper diet, exercise, reduction of stress, and adequate sleep, being among them.
• 6. We can help direct you to a quality supplement brand and assist you with proper dietary choices, including a proper weight loss program if it is necessary.

Please contact us for further information on how to select a quality nutritional supplement brand, and for our recommendations.  Please note, we cannot give medical advice, and before beginning any program; such as a diet, exercise, or nutritional supplements, you should discuss it thoroughly with your personal and licensed health care professional who is well-versed in the knowledge of nutritional supplementation.

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