CALLER: I'm having a problem with my hair falling out. It's not as bad as it was. But I did take Accutane for two years.
DR. HOFFMAN: Bingo,that can cause hair loss. You took it for acne?
CALLER: Yes, I had bad cystic acne and I struggled with it for years and the only relief that I got was from the Accutane. But I haven't taken it in the last six months. But someone recommended to me, Biosil.
Dr Hoffman: Let's assume that we have a situation where you go to the car dealer and you say, "I want a 2004 Saturn coupe." And so they say it's going to be six weeks before you get it, and you say, "Well, I want it now." You say, "Why don't you make sure that they send a lot of glass and plastic and rubber and steel to that factory so they can make my Saturn faster." Does that necessarily make sense? It might. Maybe there's a shortage of those essential commodities but maybe the factory just isn't making them fast enough. And that's the problem here.
It's not a question so much of the raw materials in your hair, it's you've had some sort of setback to your hair follicles due to the use of the medication, most likely. It could be coincidence like you're also having another problem or age related or menopause related problem that's causing your hair to thin -- that's possible too.
But it seems too coincidental that you took this medication and now, a few months later, your hair is thinning and you're losing your hair.
You can take all the building blocks and miracle-grow nutrients that are helpful for hair and they include: biotin and silica and Biosil -- by a company, Jarrow -- is an excellent product for nails and hair and bone. Just take a full complement of nutrients because you want those on board. Also essential fatty acids, those are the essential building blocks. But if the factory is decreased in its production, having all of the essential building blocks on hand isn't necessarily going to make a difference.
Another suggestion for you is to take saw palmetto because saw palmetto tends to reverse hormone related hair loss in men and women. It's not going to make you have a thick, luxuriant, instantaneous growth of hair but it will modulate those hormones that tend to cause hair to thin. And this is hormone related hair loss due to the wrong kind of testosterone affecting the hair follicles. It is a problem for women as well as in men.
CALLER: My husband was recently diagnosed with sarcoid of the muscle of the eye.
DR. HOFFMAN: That's a weird one. Sarcoid is a disease that usually affects the lungs. It can affect the kidneys.
CALLER: And also, he is a 58-year-old white male .
DR. HOFFMAN: Traditionally, we think of it as a disease most often affecting African Americans but that doesn't hold true.
CALLER: He has been tested and retested by pulmonologists, by everybody, and fortunately it's just localized in the muscle of the eye. And what they want to do is put him on a very high dose of prednisone, about two weeks at 150 milligrams and then reduce it to 20.
And my question to you is: Is this the right way to go?
DR. HOFFMAN: You have to do it because there's no natural therapy that will work that quickly to prevent him from having eye paralysis which could really affect his vision.
CALLER: Well, it has. The beginning of the problem is that he had double vision.
DR. HOFFMAN: He couldn't properly align his eyes?
CALLER: Exactly.
DR. HOFFMAN: Steroids are bad drugs but under the circumstances, you really need to put the fire out. And it's not great when you have a fire and the firemen come and knock down your door with axes and put gallons of water all over your living room. But you need to put out the fire. But the analogy holds.
Nutritional support is helpful for sarcoidosis but I can't tell you of a specific nutrient that's going to reverse the problem. I think sarcoidosis has a lot to do with immune issues and so I give my patients high doses of nutritional supplements and intravenous vitamin C and it really seems to help them when they have sarcoidosis.
There's also a study that suggests that high doses of melatonin could be helpful for curtailing sarcoidosis. But it's not going to make the eye work better, quickly so you have to do the prednisone thing. When you take prednisone, you need support with calcium and vitamin D and something called DHEA because high doses of prednisone will knock out DHEA production and, in addition, sleep problems often arise.
So melatonin is doubly beneficial here. It could actually help the sarcoidosis alleviate the sleep problems that occur when prednisone knocks out your natural body's production of melatonin. People often encounter sleep difficulties.
CALLER: I'm on Enalapril -- blood pressure pill
-- DR. HOFFMAN: It's an ACE Inhibitor blood pressure medication.
CALLER: -- ten milligrams. Unfortunately I'm running low, I only have 7 left. I take two a day. My question to you is: How safe is it for me to be without it.
DR. HOFFMAN: That's a good question. This is a problem that many people have. Life gets tougher as you get older and you have to remember when you go out you have to bring your glasses, your hearing aid, maybe your -- when you travel you have to take your blood pressure medication, your Viagra. There are so many things to think about so sometimes you forget.
Is it dangerous if you go off this particular medication? Well, there's one category of blood pressure medications where, really, it's dangerous to stop cold and those are the beta blockers. What will happen sometimes when you stop a beta blocker is you get rebound hypertension or sometimes rapid heartbeats or arrhythmias. There's kind of a rush of adrenaline when you withdraw from these medications but that is less likely to happen with the ACE Inhibitors.
If you have a way of checking your blood pressure over the next couple of days, make sure you do. If anything untoward should happen like very high blood pressure, if you have a really bad headache, pressure sensation in your head, maybe you need to see a doctor sooner rather than later to get him to spot you some medication. But probably this will pass uneventfully. In fact, 40 percent of people who take high blood pressure medication, when they go off, it turns out they don't need them. And especially if they've undertaken diet and exercise and listen to this program and take the supplements that we talk about. Check with your doctor but I think you'll be okay.
CALLER: I called you about a month ago -- I had a terrible cold when I called -- asking you about using Prempro before hysterectomy and you told me to use it and so that's what I've been doing. I am having the surgery and he doesn't expect to take out my ovaries unless there's something wrong.
DR. HOFFMAN: That would be much preferable because you want to hold onto your ovaries because they make useful hormones that can help your mood, energy and generally support your health.
CALLER: That's good. Well my doctor told me he wants me to go on Premarin for the rest of my life. What would you suggest?
DR. HOFFMAN: The suggestion is that you use what are called bio-identical hormones if you need to be on hormones. How old are you?
CALLER: 61.
DR. HOFFMAN: 61. Well first of all, I don't know what's going on out there in California but here in New York where I broadcast from, we've heard about all the studies that suggest that it's not necessary for women to continue taking estrogen for their entire lives. And if for any reason there's a need to take estrogen like you're having a terrible menopause -- that's the main reason these days because the cardiovascular benefits of estrogen have been overstated. The bone enhancing effects of estrogen can easily be duplicated with other medications or supplements.
Alzheimer's prevention, that's not been proven. In fact, a recent study said that estrogen makes no difference. The only effect is that it would somewhat increase your risk of breast cancer so I don't know where your doctor is coming from. Does your doctor put all the women in his practice on estrogen just as a matter of course?
CALLER: I don't know. He told me because it helps tone up the muscles in my bladder and rectum have prolapsed.
DR. HOFFMAN: That may be a reason. But if you do go on estrogen, suggestion is that you go on the bio-identical hormones. A lot of people don't know what that is but this has recently been given a big impetus by the new book by Suzanne Somers. I happen to disagree with Suzanne Somers. Suzanne Somers just had breast cancer and I'm not real keen on breast cancer survivors taking hormones whether they're synthetic or natural.
So a suggestion is: Find yourself a physician who understands the use of bio-identical hormones. This will make a difference indeed in terms of rectal prolapse in terms of your pelvic organs that are remaining after hysterectomy. But I'm not sure you even need that. I would take a view that we would try to maintain you on little if any estrogen and see if you could do without it.
CALLER: I would like to ask about the best supplements for octogenarians for the brain.
DR. HOFFMAN: Well, I think there's evidence that Gingko is helpful. gingko biloba has protective effects against the advent of Alzheimer's disease. Also phosphotidyl serine is helpful. I would make sure that you have your B12 levels checked. And even sometimes when they're adequate, B12 shots but not oral supplements can make a difference in focus and concentration.
Also consider the nutrients vinpocetine or acetyl-L-carnitine. You're pretty sharp if you're able to keep up with all that information. If you want to maintain the working integrity of your brain, try that brain teaser because lots of my relatives and older friends in their 70s and beyond are getting on the internet and they're finding it fascinating and a daily challenge and mental simulation to get involved with all that information looking stuff up on the internet.
If you can get somebody to help you, you can get information on these things by going to one of the search engines Google or check on my website. There's a search feature -- if you plug in the names of these supplements, you'll get description of what they do.
Also consider DHA. DHA is also helpful -- from fish oil. It's an important ingredient in fish oil but it actually helps brain development in the fetus. So it's good for pregnant moms to take but it's also good for older individuals to take because it will enhance brain function.
So that's a pretty good rundown of some of the things you ought to be taking.
CALLER: I just want to have some information about chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia. I have it and it runs in cycles where I'll be okay for a month or two and then it comes on for a week or so. And I was taking doxycycline but my doctor doesn't want me to take any medications for it.
Are there any nutrients I can take instead that would have --
DR. HOFFMAN: Oh, yeah. There's a whole host of nutrients and a whole series of approaches to fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. You may want to look at my book, "Tired All the Time: How to Regain Your Lost Energy." The book is out of print but there are a lot of copies available at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com that are knocking around.
Also, the book, "From Fatigue to Fantastic" by Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, specifically addresses fibromyalgia and multiple issues. One that's important that I've discovered lately is levels of brain neurotransmitters. We can measure these through simple tests and we'll find, sometimes, people with low levels of dopamine or serotonin or norepinephrine. These are important brain chemicals that kind of modulate your experience of pain and help to deepen sleep and improve just the quality of your mood and energy.
So balancing those with the appropriate nutritional supplements -- it's not always possible to fix deranged neurotransmitters with vitamins. If that were the case, there would be no need for pharmacological drugs for people with psychiatric issues. But you can improve people's neurotransmitter balance with amino acids like 5-Hydroxy Tryptophan and Tyrosine, vitamin B6 and other nutrients that help to achieve balance.
Hormonal issues are very important. Not enough DHEA,testosterone in both men and women and in women, the levels of progesterone and estrogen affect this. Levels of magnesium are very important but it's hard to get magnesium glycinate into to by taking it in oral form. Sometimes we use something called a Myers' cocktail, an intravenous treatment in our patients with fibromyalgia to really, significantly boost magnesium and help reduce muscle tightness and muscle aching that may happen when the muscles get tired and help properly relax.
Other nutrients that are helpful are CoQ10, carnitine, ENADA. Helping people sleep better is important. So reestablishing sleep with either supplements like kava or melatonin, valerian or in some cases using low doses of sleep medications. This helps bring about a healing process in fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.
Some patients inexplicably have low levels of B12, they respond to B12 shots. Other patients -- low levels of vitamin D are very important part of the pain picture in fibromyalgia because when you have low levels of vitamin D, your bones demineralize and they actually may ache.
People say, "I've got that deep achy feeling in my bones." That may really be what's happening -- the bones are aching due to demineralization with inadequate levels of vitamin D. So using vitamin D as a pain medication can be helpful if we find the vitamin D levels low. There are so many ramifications to treating chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia; we go through a whole checklist of issues that can make a difference.
Do a little research on your own and you may seek guidance from a nutritionally-oriented physician or health care practitioner who can guide you through a protocol of proper support for this condition.
CALLER: I've been diagnosed with a low grade, low acting malignant lymphoma.
DR. HOFFMAN: Of all the kinds of lymphoma to have, that's the best kind --
CALLER: You think so? It's non-Hodgkin's -- I don't know --
DR. HOFFMAN: And do you know what the treatment is for that?
CALLER: That's why I'm calling you.
DR. HOFFMAN: The treatment for that -- conventionally now -- is to just watch it.
CALLER: That's what's happening now.
DR. HOFFMAN: Isn't that incredible? Your doctor says, "You have a type of cancer and we're not going to treat it."
CALLER: That's right. And he said, "You can get a second opinion if you want." But that's the general --
DR. HOFFMAN: And that's good because in the past, all forms of lymphoma have been treated very aggressively. Some need to be treated aggressively. But yours, we can do watchful waiting.
And the good news is that for the early phases of lymphoma, we can offer nutritional support that I think slows the progression of the disease. I'm not trying to say that we have some magic panacea in a vitamin bottle for this condition but the use of nutrients like lycopene, curcumin, resveratrol, ultra-potent extracts of green tea called EGCG, nutrients that help slow the replication of cells like vitamin D are very important in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Identifying food sensitivities like gluten sensitivities -- actually shown to be an association between lymphoma and gluten sensitivity. We want to actually identify that if that's a problem. fish oil, helpful too for altering the biology of slow growing tumors. High doses of vitamin C, an intravenous vitamin C can be helpful for lymphoma. For patients with serious lymphoma -- one of my patients recently told me that he pay a visit to Dr. Burzynski in Texas, down in Houston, who was an innovative cancer practitioner. He had lymphoma.
We had that conversation about what some of the options were. He decided to visit Dr. Burzynski and today, fifteen years later, there's no evidence of disease. He had no conventional treatment and we believe the alternative therapies made a difference for him.
Any time there is progress on the lymphoma front -- drugs like Rituxan are being used successfully -- they're coming up with more targeted therapies. I think you'll do well because your disease is slow developing and there are some real exciting developments on the conventional front for treatment of this condition so that in three, four, five or ten years when you need them, they'll be there to stay the progress of the disease if it gets worse for you.
CALLER: The other night I heard you speaking about the virtue of vitamin D for a diabetic to take. In view of that I have ordered vitamin D because I am a non-insulin diabetic.
DR. HOFFMAN: Right, but you're an insulin-resistant diabetic. New research suggests that deficiencies in vitamin D can promote insulin resistance. That's a key factor in both types of diabetics. The kinds that take insulin -- but particularly in the individuals who do not require insulin, they are often insulin resistant.
CALLER: This is what happened: I called the vitamin company that I used and they only distribute vitamin D in 400IUs. So what I thought was: Is it all right just to double up on dosage, and I'd like to take maybe two in the morning and two at night -- how does that sound?
DR. HOFFMAN: Here's the deal. The problem with vitamin D is that it's toxic in high doses and manufacturers are scared to make it at doses that could invite liability because people will dose themselves and a few people will develop problems.
A suggestion is that if you get your vitamin D measured -- I really do this with my patients. And when we find the levels low, we supplement high, we may go as high as 2-, 3-, 4,000 a day. Don't try this at home on your own. In some individuals, we give them 50,000 a week by prescription for as many as 8 weeks. But we carefully measure the vitamin D response because we don't want to go over the top. Too much vitamin D can cause kidney stones and serious problems in the body.
So increase your vitamin D. If you do it on your own, don't take more an 800 or 1,000 on your own. If you want to take more, check with your doctor. Get the vitamin D test before and check your response to vitamin D with a repeat test.
CALLER: I just want to know what EGCG does for the body.
DR. HOFFMAN: It practically does everything except fetch the evening paper for you and your slippers. It's an amazing, ultra-potent extract of green tea which has cancer prevention effects, heart disease prevention effects.
New studies are looking at its effects in infection diseases, viral diseases like AIDS. Topical EGCG when applied to the skin has anti-aging effects -- all kinds of good stuff. And in addition, it helps you lose weight. It seems to have a thermogenic effect. It seems to light the body's fire to burn off energy and burn fat. So that's a pretty good list of things that it does.
May 10, 2004
Spending Doesn't Give U.S. Edge in Health Care
By Sarah Lueck. The Wall Street Journal. May 5, 2004
Firing SQuad for M.D., Nurses
By Jose Martinez.The NY Daily News. May 7, 2004
Ray Walford, 79; Eccentric UCLA Scientist Touted Food Restriction
By Thomas H. Maugh II. The Los Angeles Times. May 1, 2004
May 15, 2004
CALLER: I'm 35, I'm in menopause and I have osteoporosis. I have a T score in my spine of -3.4 --
DR. HOFFMAN: That's pretty significant osteoporosis because a minus 2.5 or 2.6 is considered the threshold of osteoporosis. And minus 3.5 is well beyond that so you're far down the line. Do you have any other medical conditions that might contribute to this?
CALLER: I have polycystic kidneys. My BUN is -- DR. HOFFMAN: Do you know what happens when you have polycystic kidneys? One of the things that happens is you get osteoporosis because the kidneys are responsible for converting vitamin D into an active form of vitamin D which is beneficial for the bones.
So something that you may want to do is talk to a specialist, your kidney doctor or perhaps an endocrinologist or a nutritionally-oriented physician like myself to measure the specific type of vitamin D which is made by your kidneys. Because there may not be enough and that may be why you're in trouble here, at least part of the trouble.
CALLER: I tried the Fosamax and I had more aches and pains in my joints.
DR. HOFFMAN: It sometimes does that. This is one of the side effects of Fosamax, is that as it remineralizes your bones -- when I was a kid growing up; do you remember having growing pains? Because kids literally grow measurable amounts at certain times during puberty even overnight, if you have a very fine measuring device you can detect if child may grow a millimeter or so per night.
So your bones are being remineralized and that causes them to ache. That's one of the known side effects of Fosamax.
CALLER: I'm wondering what natural stuff I can take?
DR. HOFFMAN: I have to say that your osteoporosis is pretty bad and you may or may not be able to take Fosamax. There may be a way you can take the Fosamax with an anti-inflammatory medication, something like that, so you don't have as much pain because it is pretty useful. And there are other options besides Fosamax, there's Actonel, there is Evista, among the drugs.
In terms of natural things, we ought to check that vitamin D connection. I think that's an important connection for you because the fact that you have this kidney disorder -- I would go right there and check the levels, the critical metabolite of vitamin D that's essential for bone minerals.
Other things of course: magnesium, silica and boron -- these are natural bone builders along with fish oil. A lot of people think fish oil is just for heart disease prevention, aches and pains, but fish oil actually reduces inflammation. Inflammation is one of the reasons why bone loss is accelerated. So fish oil can be helpful in this.
I don't know if there's a magic pill you can take from a health food store that's going to make your bones remineralize, you will probably slow the progression but since having that kidney problem, that may be the reason that you're in trouble.
CALLER: I got hit by a car and I had a broken tibia and broken fibula, and I'm undergoing physical therapy now. And my lawyer was talking about possibly making a settlement. But somebody told me that after physical therapy, sometimes you're left with a limp or a severe disability, and I was wondering what the odds of are of that happening?
DR. HOFFMAN: There are two issues here. One is the medical outcome. The other is the legal outcome. Do you want me to tell you how you should treat yourself so that you should have the maximum disability so you can have the maximum recoverable settlement?
CALLER: Sure.
DR. HOFFMAN: First of all, start smoking. Smoke about two packs of cigarettes a day, that will definitely interfere with your recovery and you will get major damages.
CALLER: I don't smoke anymore; I don't smoke any less either.
DR. HOFFMAN: The other thing to do is because your leg hurts, this is to ensure maximum settlement from the defendant, don't do any physical therapy. Take a load off your legs, relax, sit in a chair with a clicker and you will have major disability long term.
The other thing to do is eat lots of junk food. Make sure you have lots of polyunsaturated fats, load up the calories, gain about 30 or 40 pounds of weight because now you can't exercise as much. And you may be drowning your sorrows by eating a little bit heavier, sugary foods and so on. Gain weight and you will definitely increase your chances of disability. Don't take any vitamins. Don't listen to guys like Dr. Hoffman on the radio who claim that vitamins somehow reduce inflammation or can enhance the growth of cartilage because that's all quackery. That's how you can maximize your settlement.
Now, you want to go in the other direction. You want to talk about increasing your chances of having a good recovery. Number one, do physical therapy.
Number two, eat well, don't gain weight. Eat clean and natural foods.
Number three, take lots of vitamin C because vitamin C is very important in healing trauma. That doesn't mean take 20 grams of vitamin C all at once and give yourself an ulcer or diarrhea but take vitamin C in small doses throughout the day to ensure high levels. When I broke my shoulder, I actually received intravenous vitamin C for several weeks daily to ensure better recovery. Take glucosamine sulfate because glucosamine is a building block for cartilage. What you're going to do first before you remineralize bone is you'll lay down a cartilage matrix and then the calciumand magnesium and other minerals will then go into the bone and heal. Take some essential fatty acids because they'll help to reduce inflammation. fish oil, I think, is helpful here too and I think that will help. I think that's going to make a difference here.
CALLER: I'd like to know if there's an alternative to surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome. I've had two cortisone injections in the fingers, they were blocking. That was okay for eight months and now I'm getting tingling, burning, numbness and in the morning -- the hand is swollen.
DR. HOFFMAN: Have you tried vitamin B6?
CALLER: Well, I have it with my multivitamin.
DR. HOFFMAN: You probably don't have enough B6 for it to work in carpal tunnel syndrome. Generally, to get results in carpal tunnel syndrome you need anywhere from 100 to 500 milligrams a day. You have to be careful with doses above 2 or 300 though and probably that should be done under the supervision of a nutritionally-oriented doctor. B6 can be dramatically effective for carpal tunnel syndrome.
Other things that are in the news these days: One is a type of cold laser therapy, it uses cold red laser light and it doesn't burn. It's not like that scene in Goldfinger where James Bond is menaced with a giant laser beam pointed at his private parts. It's a cold laser that you barely feel. That's one of the problems with the therapy, people say, "Did I get the treatment?" Yeah, you got the treatment. And what it does is, it warms and improves the circulation of the tissue right beneath the surface, right in the carpal tunnel and it can be helpful.
Another thing you can try is magnetic therapy, applying a magnet locally can be helpful. For many of my patients, they have problems related to overweight or hyperthyroidism. If you lose a few pounds with a better diet, sometimes the carpal tunnel improves and the hyperthyroidism definitely increases your risks. So make sure you don't have that. Especially at your age you might want to get your thyroid checked to see if you don't have a slowdown in your metabolism.
CALLER: I heard your caller about osteoporosis and I wondered why you didn't mention Zometa, which I just had an infusion of last week?
DR. HOFFMAN: Well the reason I didn't mention Zometa is because it's an intravenous treatment that is very radical for really severe osteoporosis or for people who absolutely don't tolerate any other type of therapy. So Zometa is actually a type of therapy that was used for people who have certain types of spinal degeneration and various other types of diseases and it can be used in osteoporosis but it's kind of an extreme therapy.
It is likely that in this woman who was complaining that she was having aches and pains from the remineralization process due to Fosamax that she might well have it with Zometa. So it's an option but -- what prompted you, you sound pretty young, how old are you?
CALLER: I'm 64, but don't tell anyone.
DR. HOFFMAN: I won't tell anyone. What prompted you to get this very aggressive form of therapy at the tender age of 64?
CALLER: I have pretty severe osteoporosis. I already have had one compression fracture with a lot of pain --?
DR. HOFFMAN: That's the reason. You have demonstrated at a young age -- 64 is a young age -- a very marked tendency towards osteoporosis. We're not joking around with this. Not only do you have the numerical risk, but you've actually shown that where the rubber meets the road, you get fractures. And so they want to use the most aggressive form of therapy to reverse that bone loss so they're going to use Zometa with you and other therapies. Are you using nutritional support, vitamin D , anything else?
CALLER: I'm taking calcium. I take fish oil and what else can I do?
DR. HOFFMAN: Get your vitamin D level checked. I think it's important. What we have discovered with vitamin D is that a lot of people are walking around with levels of vitamin D that are barely adequate and when you have osteoporosis, you don't want to have just borderline low vitamin D.
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