Page 13 - Spring2012

Caustic Commentary

Sally Fallon Morell takes on the Diet Dictocrats

GROWING EUROPEAN TREND titioners blame the overuse of antibiotics for the problem, but
While U.S. public health officials are fighting raw milk tooth might there be another cause? A study from 1999 indicates that
and nail, raw milk vending machines are becoming ever more people with low cholesterol, especially low LDL-cholesterol,
popular in Europe. Now manufactured in Poland as well as in are particularly prone to MRSA; MRSA does not exist in the
Italy, the Polish company Milkmat SC is set to expand from presence of normal LDL-cholesterol (Atherosclerosis 1999
the current one hundred fifty machines to one thousand or Feb;142(2):389-393). Since virtually all hospital patients are
more in the coming years (http://thebovine.wordpress.com, put on cholesterol-lowering drugs to get their LDL-cholesterol
January 26, 2012). What is happening in Europe, where raw as low as possible, MRSA will continue to plague the best
milk is freely available, is more than just an interesting fad. It efforts of doctors and nurses to support healing after opera-
is a trend that will help Europeans become healthier, wealthier, tions or injury.
smarter and happier, ready
to overtake the U.S.—stuck ANOTHER CAUSE OF
in the stone age of bad sci- RESISTANT INFECTIONS
ence—in every aspect of Another cause of MSRA has
prosperity and culture. emerged: heartburn drugs that
reduce stomach acid. These in-
B DEFICIENCY LINKED clude Nexium, Prilosec, Prevacid,
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TO MEMORY PROBLEMS Zegerid and many others that
Accumulating evidence that fall into a category called proton
vitamin B supports healthy pump inhibitors (PPIs). They are
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brain function comes from prescribed to treat acid reflux,
the Chicago Health and Ag- stomach ulcers and similar condi-
ing Project (Neurology, Sept tions, and work by reducing the
27, 2011;77(13):1276-1282). amount of acid in the stomach.
The study found that methyl- Stomach acid kills pathogens, and
malonate, a marker of vitamin with reduced levels, pathogens
B deficiency, is associated with a reduction of brain volume like Clostridium difficile can take over. The study, published
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and so may contribute to cognitive problems. An earlier in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, showed that nearly
study, published in the same journal, found that people who half of four hundred eighty-five patients hospitalized at a
tended to eat vitamin B -rich foods are less likely to develop medical center over a four-year period who had C. difficile
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Alzheimer’s than those who did not (Neurology, Oct 19, infections had previously taken PPIs (Clin Infect Dis. (2011)
2010). The best sources of B are liver and shellfish—foods doi: 10.1093/cid/cir668). The elderly are especially at risk.
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that seniors are warned to avoid because they contain high Unlike MRSA, C. difficile still responds to certain antibiot-
levels of cholesterol. ics but in severe cases, surgery to remove the infected part
of the intestines is performed. The solution of course is to
LOW CHOLESTEROL AND MSRA cease taking the drugs and eat plenty of salt so the body can
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a make stomach acid, but that’s not advice patients are going
bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. to hear any time soon.
MSRA is a growing problem in hospitals because it is resistant
to antibiotics like methicillin. Called the “superbug,” MRSA STATINS: YET ANOTHER SIDE EFFECT
can cause serious skin infections or infect surgical wounds, Doctors in the U.S. write over two hundred fifty million
the bloodstream, the lungs, or the urinary tract. Health prac- prescriptions for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs per year,

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