the are drug companies evil. my mom says so

The truth about the medical profession is that surgeons have made tremendous advances in what they can do and how to do it. The rest of the medical community actually knows very little about how your body works and what the basic elements are that each organ needs in order to function. Doctors get about 6 weeks of training of what vitamins and minerals the body needs. That training is so early in their 8 years of schooling that most of them don't remember any of it today as they practice.

Doctors today are trained in the field to prescribe a pharmaceutical drug for every ailment or complaint that a patient walks into the office for. Think of the TV drug commercials and I know you'll be nodding in agreement. A common ailment that is commonly cured by eating yogurt is vaginal infections. The bacteria in yogurt fights off vaginal infections. However, if you go to a doctor with this ailment, they will prescribe an antibiotic. Even doctors that know of herbal or natural remedies are afraid to mention them for fear of a lawsuit if it doesn't work.

There is a rapidly growing profession of holistic treatments these days. Many people are making use of people who know herbals, minerals and other natural treatments.

The standard medical profession today will lead you to believe that holistic doctors are little more than witch doctors. The fact is that the opposite is more likely the case.

Wow, I don't even know where to begin on this thread. First off, yes, there are doctors who will simply write a prescription for everything, but this is not the majority of doctors, just usually GPs who have seen the same things day in and day out, and thus write the prescription nonchalantly.

Secondly, where in the hell did you come up with the statements:

"The rest of the medical community actually knows very little about how your body works and what the basic elements are that each organ needs in order to function. Doctors get about 6 weeks of training of what vitamins and minerals the body needs. That training is so early in their 8 years of schooling that most of them don't remember any of it today as they practice."

Six weeks?!?! Excuse me?!?! I spent a full year studying the biochemistry (yes, including vitamins and minerals), and another full year studying pharmacology. This is standard practice for ANY medical student. Again, ANY medical student. And this is in the first and second years of medical school, meaning it would be the 5th and 6th years of our education, hardly early at all. Daveman, before you post inflammaroty statements about a profession, please educate yourself on it. You are tearing down and generalizing an institution that some of your own relatives and ancestors are probably a part of.

Oh, and as a woman, I take offense to the idea of eating yogurt to combat vaginal infections. Are you honestly saying no woman who eats yogurt has ever gotten a vaginal infection? Honestly.

Ciao,
~MFP

Originally posted by bsl4doc
Wow, I don't even know where to begin on this thread. First off, yes, there are doctors who will simply write a prescription for everything, but this is not the majority of doctors, just usually GPs who have seen the same things day in and day out, and thus write the prescription nonchalantly.

Secondly, where in the hell did you come up with the statements:

"The rest of the medical community actually knows very little about how your body works and what the basic elements are that each organ needs in order to function. Doctors get about 6 weeks of training of what vitamins and minerals the body needs. That training is so early in their 8 years of schooling that most of them don't remember any of it today as they practice."

Six weeks?!?! Excuse me?!?! I spent a full year studying the biochemistry (yes, including vitamins and minerals), and another full year studying pharmacology. This is standard practice for ANY medical student. Again, ANY medical student. And this is in the first and second years of medical school, meaning it would be the 5th and 6th years of our education, hardly early at all. Daveman, before you post inflammaroty statements about a profession, please educate yourself on it. You are tearing down and generalizing an institution that some of your own relatives and ancestors are probably a part of.

Hi Doc,

I'm glad to see you post here and welcome to this community of ATS. I'm sorry to have offended you, but I can offer no apology for what I said because it is what I have experienced when asking doctors for natural treatments to supplement their prescribed treatments.

Now that you have challenged me, I will also challenge you. Please tell me what natural things are important and sometimes vital to the gastrointestinal system. Tell me briefly about the acids, vitamins and minerals that can aid to make for healthy intestines and colon.

About the Yogurt thing, I would never suggest that yogurt will cure all yeast infections. It is, however, a good thing to try as a first line of defense. If it doesn't work, then a doctor is in line. Are you telling me that yogurt does not work?

I'd also be interested to know what your specialty is within the medical profession.

You are correct in suggesting that I am out of my area of expertise. However, it is the job of a "good" doctor to educate their patients into good health rather than just continually fixing our ailments.

Can you help us to understand some good health practices so that we won't need so many pharmaceuticals? Many of us would like to know more about how our bodies work. Can you help?

I know that I came off hard on the medical community as a whole, but I'm basing my statements on my experiences with some of the best gastro-intestinal doctors in the world.

While working on treatments for a rare case of colon cancer in a 33 year old woman, we asked the questions of what fruits, vegatables, other foods, vitamins, minerals can we include in our diets to help make healthier intestines? We asked these questions from every doctor we came in contact with and we received a baffled look from them. They drove home the issue that the chemo and radiation was necessary and that we were looking in the wrong direction. Again, we restated that we had every intention of following the chemo and radiation prescribed, but that we wanted to build the intestinal strength to better bear these harsh treatments. They finally stated that they simply didn't know how to answer us, but that eating vegatables and fruits wouldn't hurt. That was the best reply we received.

You tell me how to interpret that.

I'm no doctor, but I can add something. They cant tell you which ones work, because there is no proof that any of them do. Dont believe all the talk about the "toxins" in your body. Thats crap. Your body takes em in all day. And then, about 8 hours later, it gets rid of them.

Taking the "homeopathic" road is a dangerous one. Sure people used them for years and years, but so? Thats because that was all they knew. With the advancments of modern medicine, why would want to go back to relying on roots for your health? Theres a reason previous generations only lived 40 or 50 years. There was a time that herion was then end all be all of medical cures. Whoops.

I lost my mother to cancer many years ago. She tried the macrobiotic diet and all the other "cures". Nothing. Chemo and radiation put the cancer into remission. It was only after going on the macrobiotic diet and stopping the radiation and chemo, did the cancer return. With a vengence. Then it was to late.

Eat right, exercise, dont smoke. Those are the natural things you can do. The rest is up to genetics. You're either gonna get cancer or not. Its genetic. No amounts of roots or herbs are going to prevent that.

I'm glad to see you post here and welcome to this community of ATS. I'm sorry to have offended you, but I can offer no apology for what I said because it is what I have experienced when asking doctors for natural treatments to supplement their prescribed treatments.

Now that you have challenged me, I will also challenge you. Please tell me what natural things are important and sometimes vital to the gastrointestinal system. Tell me briefly about the acids, vitamins and minerals that can aid to make for healthy intestines and colon.

About the Yogurt thing, I would never suggest that yogurt will cure all yeast infections. It is, however, a good thing to try as a first line of defense. If it doesn't work, then a doctor is in line. Are you telling me that yogurt does not work?

I'd also be interested to know what your specialty is within the medical profession.

You are correct in suggesting that I am out of my area of expertise. However, it is the job of a "good" doctor to educate their patients into good health rather than just continually fixing our ailments.

Can you help us to understand some good health practices so that we won't need so many pharmaceuticals? Many of us would like to know more about how our bodies work. Can you help?

I know that I came off hard on the medical community as a whole, but I'm basing my statements on my experiences with some of the best gastro-intestinal doctors in the world.

I would be happy to answer all these for you, to the best of my ability Davenman. I am in my third year of medical school, so there are obviously plenty of things I don't know, but hopefully the fact that I am freshly out of biochem and pharmacology will help a bit rather than talking to a 70 year old doctor who hasn't taken these classes in decades. Since I'm still a student, I don't technically have a "specialty", per se, but all my elective rounds have been in internal medicine, which I intend to specialize in.

Firstly, cellulose is very important for your gastrointestinal tract, which is why roughage is so important. While we cannot digest cellulose, it stimulates the bacteria of the large intestine to ferment the cellulose and other fibre products, increasing the bulk of the bowel. It also aids in stimulating the division of some intestinal lumen cells by irritating them.

As far as acids go, I'm not sure you're speaking of chemical acids. The only acids I know of which are direly important to the body are fatty acids, specifically triglycerides. These are invaluable sources of energy as the beta-oxidation of these compounds, along with many other fats and long chain carbohydrates, produces much more energy than glucose, as well as necessary intermediates for the citric acid cycle. Some amino acids, such as guanine, are a necessary part of our diet, but they can't be ingested in amino acid form, only in protein form, as your body doesn't store individual amino acids. It denatures and reuses the pieces of whole proteins.

What else...vitamins! Vitamin C is a necessary portion of the diet. I take a multivitamin everyday, which everyone should be in the habit of doing as foods today don't contain as many vitamins as they should. Vitamin C is related to the oxidation of some carbohydrate compounds in the intestine, as well as reducing oxidative damage to cells. The minerals I can think of off the top of my head as being vitally important to the daily diet are iron, especially for women, and zinc. Iron is a key chelator in hemoglobin. Iron deficieny is linked to poor circulation in many many women, which is why many women complain of cold finger and toes, as well as low blood pressure. Zinc is a key co-vitamin in the immune system and is a helpful co-activator of many immune cells.

That's just some stuff I could remember off the top of my head, Davenman. I hope it was helpful. If you need more, I'm sure I can dredge up my texts and flip through it real fast for you.

Ciao!
~MFP

Doc,

I'm sorry to take so long to reply. I'm sure you are very busy too.

I had to do a bit of reading up elsewhere to understand what you wrote. Yes, the cellulose is quite important in our diets for healthy bowels. I don't know about the fatty acids that you are referring to.

I learned that vitamins A, C & E are very important to the bowels and to the rest of the body. Of course, all of the vitamin Bs are important. Folic acid is particularly important to the bowels. Calcium and Magnesium are important minerals to the bowels. I remember that A & C are important to the bodies immune system and E is important to healing. The Bs are important to almost every organ and every aspect of our bodies needs. I don't remember why Calcium and Folic Acid are so important, but I think it had to do with the replenishment of the inner bowel cells. Magnesium is important in helping the body to absorb Calcium properly.

It has been suggested that mammal meat should be consumed in limited amounts because it is difficult on our digestive tract. Plenty of fruits and vegatables and a handful of nuts are suggested daily. When speaking of nuts, peanuts are about the least benificial and almonds are considered best. Raw nuts are the best and only in limited amounts.

When it comes to any foods that we consume, fresher is always better. As I had said previously, all living things live off of or consume other living things. When we derive our life from the fruit of other life, it also makes sense that food that has been sitting for a considerable amount of time would have much less life in it than fresher foods. The key is to understanding the circle of life and thereafter the nature of life and the body in general.

I paid attention in Health Ed in high school, but I don't remember these things being covered. I scored a high B for a grade in that 1 semester class some 25 years ago. It wasn't until recently that I began to attempt to learn more about the needs of our bodies. I think the medical profession would do well to help by teaching us better how to maintain healthier bodies.

Doc, Now that you've explained who and where you are in the medical profession, I realize that you are still in your molding process. I hope that you'll consider these things in your education.

I have an 8 yr old daughter who is absorbs everything with ferver. She brings a tear to my eye often as she amazes me in her knowledge of things. I sometimes hope that she will pursue a career in medicine. Whatever she does, I hope that she'll have a similar perspective to that of Louis Pasteur, DaVinci, Galileo and others who have dared to examine things of this universe from a different perspective than everyone else. It is that God-given ability that made them great men of science.

True science comes from those who are willing to question all that their predecessors assumed without question. Dare to question! Dare to challenge! Dare to push the envelope! Dare to walk to the beat of another drummer. Don't accept as truth just because everyone else in the world does.

For that matter, I don't take my suggestions as any sort of truth. Rather, investigate and see if these things are true. Learn to understand the circle of life.

I wish you much success and understanding in your pursuit of science. Prove all things. Test all things. Hold fast to that which is true.

Davenman: Yes, yes, and yes. The vitamins you spoke of are quite important. I can't speak for medical education outside of Europe, but those vitamins are vitally important in a daily diet. Many drugs administered by physicians in Europe contain these drugs as a precautionary method.

Thank you for your kind words, and I encourage your daughter greatly to pursue a career in medicine or nutrition. Sounds like she has a great tutor as her guide!

Ciao,
~MFP