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 Journey to Understanding
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Journey to Understanding
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The future of Health Care will involve a paradigm change from the treatment of symptoms to the prevention and healing of chronic illnesses.
Almost all chronic diseases are the result of physiologic changes that are grouped under a term called the 'Metabolic Syndrome'. The diagnosis is made by (3 of 5) of the following conditions; central obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, elevated triglycerides, decreased HDL, and elevated blood pressure. Increase clotting, inflammation of the lining of blood vessels and elevation of small density LDL are frequently associated.
The basic cause of the Metabolic Syndrome is the toxicity of elevated insulin levels in your body. Ideal fasting blood insulin levels range between 2 to 6. Levels of 8 are borderline and fasting levels over 10 are going to bring on these chronic diseases sooner or later.
Getting your fasting blood insulin level is the one most important test for evaluating and monitoring your health. Elevated blood insulin levels come from eating foods that raise you blood sugar rapidly. Because high sugars levels in your body are toxic to your cells, the body's defense mechanism is to secrete insulin to store the sugar, but chronic high insulin levels are also toxic to our cells.
High sugar and insulin level causes carmalization of the receptors of your cells and cause your cells to function abnormally with miss-communication. The body can build new cell receptors from glyconutrients that are found in fresh ripe fruits and vegetables. These foods are very deficient in today's diets.
MSG, hydrolyzed proteins, and aspartame also produce elevated insulin levels. These are taste enhancers and very prevalent in our manufactured food supply. They also are excito toxins, which are substances that mimic our normal neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit nerve impulses from one nerve to another. If we ingest these chemicals in our foods, they can actually excite a nerve to the point of exhaustion and death. Since there are glutamate and aspartate nerve receptors on the pancreas they also stimulate insulin release and cause more insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome.
Everyone needs glyconutrient supplements to rebuild cells that have been injured by high glycemic foods and the excito toxins that make up so much of today's diet.
Since most people are not concerned about their health until symptoms develop, they may not be aware that they are heading for trouble unless they have a test warning them of impending problems. A fasting blood insulin test is the single best test for determining health risk. It is also the best test to follow the course of the metabolic syndrome. The test is a strong motivator to change lifestyle by exercise, low glycemic foods and avoidance of excitotoxins. - Walther Meyer MD
Perhaps every young physician dreams of being a 'healer'. We are rewarded with success at times, but there are many frustrations and disappointments as we pursue this goal. At least, this certainly has been my experience. But, all in all, the practice of medicine has been enormously enriching and fulfilling. My younger colleagues tell me that I practiced during the "golden years of medicine" and I believe that this is true. True, in spite of the continuing proliferation of scientific information and technological advances.
Despite the great growth of scientific knowledge and improved treatment, the business aspects of medical practice have seemed to obscure the caring role of the idealistic physician.
From the old-fashioned patient response of "you're the doctor" and acceptance of prescription or treatment without question, the present day response is frequently "are there side effects?" and "what do I do to avoid getting sick again?" These questions frequently do not have good answers, but patients are requesting information to empower themselves and their loved ones to keep healthy and productive.
In this day and age, it seems to me, that the patient's desire for personal empowerment is getting more difficult as medicine becomes more involved and technical. As individual physicians, we must learn about, and instruct, our patients in the basics of good nutrition and healthy life style to empower them to stay healthy and avoid chronic illnesses.
Good nutrition is, I feel, the basis of good health and longevity. Medicine, as a profession, has seemed to overlook this basic fact. We have not defined what good nutrition is, and pretty much have accepted the fact that "the food pyramid" says it all. This web site is my humble effort to empower those who have interest, to understand what good nutrition is, what it can do for us, and how to get it.
Walther W Meyer MD, CMD
A great part of what I have learned revolves around nutrition; something that I have always told my patients to get, but never really told them how to get it.
For the greater part of my practice, I thought of a diet as a certain balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats as seen diagrammed in 'the food pyramid'. This is the 'Macro-Diet' concept. I now know that diets and nutritional concepts revolve around cellular chemistry and cellular nutrients.
Our metabolism is as individualized as our fingerprints. We are not only controlled by our genetic inheritance but also by how our genes function. The function of our genes is greatly influenced by what nutrients are present.
Our genes are like computer programs that 'tell' our cells what kind of protein to make. If the 'building blocks' (nutrients) for these proteins are not there, a defective copy will be made. Our immune system cannot function properly unless the essential glyconutrients are available for cellular communication. The glycoproteins enable our immune cells to identify invading organisms and abnormal cells within our bodies and destroy them.
About 75% of our immune function is in the white blood cells lining our intestinal tract. This is where our body comes in closest contact with our external environment and there is able to destroy invading organisms and neutralize toxins.
Although it is theoretically possible to get all the needed nutrients by eating plant ripened fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nuts, essential oils and proteins, it is a practical improbability to supply these substances without supplementation.
The profound health effects of natural products are being recognized more and more. I have been puzzled by the slow acceptance of this information in traditional medicine. - Walther Meyer MD
It's an interesting, although a somewhat irritating, fact that it takes about 20 years for a scientific discovery to get into the medical mainstream. The discovery that a supplementary vitamin (folic acid) could prevent neural tube defects was known for more than 20 years before it was prescribed routinely in pregnancy for the prevention of spina bifida in newborns. New discoveries are often ignored initially, then contested as unproven, before finally being accepted as self-evident. Looking back at this process, it is troubling to consider how much pain and suffering could have been avoided if this safe and inexpensive 'discovery' had been accepted and used earlier.
The increasing scientific information about nutritional supplements and their relationship to health and chronic disease is another case in point. Although this knowledge is being used by a few physicians, most of them only suggest that their patients eat a 'good diet' and follow the 'food pyramid' plan for good health. More and more doctors are beginning to recognize that our diets are deficient in a number of special nutrients and are prescribing them to maintain and improve health.
There has been a great national effort to map the human genetic code. Great strides have been made in this quest. Finding out what genes we have is important, but it is only part of the picture. How these genes function is another big part of understanding. We are 'hard wired' in our genes (genotype) but how our genes function (phenotype) is greatly influenced by the nutritional substances available in our cells. Continuing to increase our understanding of how we can modify the expression of our genes by supplying the proper nutrients is providing new opportunities to improve our health.
In spite of all of the talk about weight loss and eating less fat and cholesterol, -which people are doing-, our population is more overweight than ever. To understand this problem we need to know that we have been substituting too many carbohydrates and simple sugars for the fats. This has actually made the problem worse because high glycemic foods raise insulin levels and stimulate enzymes that turn these carbohydrates into fat. Low glycemic diets are the way to control the problem of obesity.
We are beginning to understand that the prevention of illness depends on healthy bodies and that a body cannot stay healthy unless it is provided with the proper nutrients. By the time a symptom has developed, we now know that some cellular events went wrong long before. That is why treating the symptoms is not fixing the problem.
More and more emphasis is being given to the prevention of illness. When someone comes to see the doctor with chest pain, they may end up needing heart surgery, but when they are discharged from acute care they will be given a life style and a nutritional plan that will minimize their chances of coming back in a few years with another acute cardiovascular episode.
When someone is found to need surgery or chemotherapy for their cancer, they also will be given a plan of nutritional therapy designed to strengthen their immune system along with or after their acute care. We know that the start of cancer basically represents a failure of the immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. Many treatments are very toxic and we are learning of the need to protect non-cancer cells from these toxins with nutritional supplements.
This is exciting information, because it is possible to do these things now! We are on the verge of providing people with the knowledge of how they can personally stay healthy or how to get control of their health problems. Just imagine the implications for our families. I hope this information will not languish for another 5 or 10 years before it gets into the medical mainstream.
Walther W. Meyer MD
E-mail: info@nutritionalmedicine-wm.com or call at 715-748-3197.
How to get control of one's own health has been a question asked by many generations. We are bombarded on a daily basis with information on how to treat whatever our health concerns are, and it is a rare day that we don't read or hear of some herb, supplement, or treatment to take for whatever ails us.
Ancient wisdom and current understanding seems to show that the body is able to heal itself if supplied with the needed nutrients. We have two main nutritional problems as I see it; one is that we get far too many carbohydrate (sugar) calories that cause a chronic elevation of our blood insulin levels, and the other is that we are deprived of plant sugars (glyconutrients) because our diets are deficient in ripe fresh fruits and vegetables.
Glyconutrients are an essential need for cellular health, and, if lacking, interfere with normal cellular function. When our cells are not healthy, neither are we. Organ systems, such as brain, heart, and lungs for example, are made up of many, many cells. Although the cells in each organ have specialized function, they all have similar nutritional needs. This is the reason that glyconutrients have such a great effect on our general health. They don't treat some part of our body, or help some condition; they help all cells in every organ stay healthy. When our cells are healthy, our organs are healthy, and so are we. - Walther Meyer MD
To get more information on glyconutrients contact Dr. Meyer at info@nutritionalmedicine-wm.com or call at 715-748-3197.
When I started looking for a way that my patients - and myself - be able to get control of our health, I used the word Odyssey to describe a sort of wandering around looking for answers. If you have read any of the other stuff on this site, you are aware that I think that the answer is in the field of nutrition. It is not the nutrition that I was taught in medical school or the nutrition that I told my patients about. It is all about cellular nutrition, the science of which is just developing. It is as exciting as it is new.
It is about cellular structure, energy production within each cell, the chemical nutrients needed, the cell membrane, the formation of cell receptors, cellular communication, ligands, enzymes, and neuropeptides. It is about the chemical individuality of each person, relation of aging to the antioxidants and toxins that we are exposed to; and the relation of all of these factors to supplying our bodies with proper nutrients for cellular integrity.
My wanderings have brought me to the point where I realize that one of the main keys to proper nutrition is the availability of glyconutrients. So my wanderings are over! In future articles, I will try to convey my understanding of these things.
Walther W. Meyer MD
E-mail: info@nutritionalmedicine-wm.com or call at 715-748-3197.
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