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30.08.2015 Feature Article

Oxidative Stress & Prostate Health -Key to our survival!

Oxidative Stress  Prostate Health -Key to our survival!
30.08.2015 LISTEN

It’s Friday again and as I promised you last week when I wrote about low enzymes as a possible cause of today’s prostate disease. I wrote extensively on nutrition as our cells need good nutrition to be in a healthy form. Well, as I stated earlier, some researchers also think that the presenting problem is not a nutritional deficiency, but rather, underlying oxidative stress .

Oxidative stress has now been revealed beyond any shadow of doubt via medical research to be the root cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases. For instance, diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s dementia, macular degeneration, lupus, MS, et al .

Why, because oxidative stress is their worry than precise nutritional deficiencies, hence, researchers must decide the best approach to preventing or controlling oxidative stress. This they believed is accomplished by bolstering one’s natural defenses through cellular nutrition. So what is this cellular nutrition?

It is basically providing all nutrients to the cell at finest levels. This allows the cell to decide what it actually does and does not need. Some researchers also believe that we don’t have to worry about determining which nutrients the cell is deficient in. However, the best approach is to provide all of the significant nutrients at best levels--those levels shown to provide a health benefit in the medical literature. Any nutritional deficiencies will be automatically corrected over the next few months by this approach and all the other vital nutrients will be brought up to their optimal levels as well.

Cellular nutrition is also means that providing the body with all the antioxidants along with the supporting B vitamins and antioxidant minerals at best levels. This is what is termed "preventive medicine" at its best because we can literally attack the disease process at its core by preventing oxidative stress from occurring.

Controlling oxidative stress, is simply improving on our diet and eating more fruits and vegetables. This is believed to be a good starting point. By simply eating 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables each day you can decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer’s dementia, and cancer, two to three fold. We must certainly want to supplement a good diet—not a bad diet. However, even if you eat a great diet you can barely obtain the RDA level of all essential nutrients. Medical studies have shown that less than 1% of the American population accomplishes this on a consistent basis.

Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA):

Research studies expose standards of recommended daily allowance (RDA’s) have completely nothing to do with chronic degenerative diseases. RDA’s were only developed to avoid what are known as acute deficiency diseases like scurvy (deficiency of vitamin C), rickets (deficiency of vitamin D), and pellagra (deficiency of niacin). Let say, if you consumed the RDAs for vitamin C, vitamin D, and niacin, you would not develop any of these illnesses.

Admittedly, the RDA’s have done their job—how many people do you know suffer from these diseases? RDA’s were first developed in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The list of nutrients included in the RDAs grew over the next two decades and in the early 1950s, the definition of RDAs expanded to include the amounts of nutrients needed for normal growth. Despite the fact that RDAs have proved useful, most physicians and laypeople tend to assign more meaning to RDA standards than they should.

After extensive research in the medical literature and seeing some patients on some medications going with the RDA, on the topic of oxidative stress and the amount of nutrients needed to prevent it, I realized that levels of nutrients known to provide health benefits are extensively greater those recommended by RDA levels. For instance, the best level of vitamin E is 400 IU. The RDA is only 10 to 30 IU. To go by this, you may consider eating 400 IU of vitamin E. You would only need to eat 33 heads of spinach, or 27 pounds of butter; 80 avocados will do, or an alternative 5 pounds of wheat germ each and every day to obtain that level of vitamin E.

Likewise, the best level of vitamin C is roughly 1200 to 2000 mg daily, while the RDA is only 60 mg. To eat the best levels of vitamin C one would need to consume 18 oranges, or 17 kiwifruit, or 160 apples. So at this standpoint, it becomes clear that the only way to obtain these levels of nutrients is to supplement our diet. So you see we are dyeing solely without paying attention to preventive medicine, but how many doctors know about nutritional medicine?

This approached also requires more than a generic multiple vitamin. One-a-day multiple vitamins are primarily based on RDA levels, thus providing no measurable health benefits. Significantly more potent supplements are needed each day to provide the optimal levels to provide cellular nutrition.

There is a “Magic Bullet" Approach because, most scientific studies done on nutritional supplements are approached in the traditional way of testing drugs—hoping to discover a "magic bullet". A disease is isolated and targeted by one specific drug. The pharmaceutical results of that drug are then measured.

Research trials have been similarly conducted for nutritional supplements. For example, calcium and vitamin D have been tested for their effects on osteoporosis; vitamin E for heart disease, magnesium for irregular heartbeats or selenium to reduce the risk of cancer.

But one setback remains, however: vitamins such as C, D and E are not drugs. They are natural nutrients that our bodies get from our foods. The various antioxidants and supporting nutrients work on different types of free radicals and in different parts of the body. Vitamin E is the best antioxidant within the cell membrane. Vitamin C is most effective within the plasma. Glutathione works most professionally within the cell itself. Accurately, dozens of antioxidants are at work in various parts of the body and are effective against particular types of free radicals. They work together—synergistically-- to control oxidative stress. This means that 1 plus 1 does not equal 2, but 8 or 10.

Medical research separates these nutrients out and tries to study their individual effect. The amazing fact remains that the overwhelming majority of studies actually does show a health benefit with even an individual nutrient. However, since oxidative stress is the underlying problem we must concern ourselves with, it is important to realize that all of these nutrients work together—synergy.

Vitamin C actually replenishes vitamin E and intracellular glutathione so it can be used over and over again. Alpha lipoic acid also regenerates vitamin E and glutathione. In addition, these antioxidants need optimal levels of the B vitamins—folic acid, vitamin B1, B2, B6, and B12—in order to perform at optimal levels. They also need the so-called antioxidant minerals such as: selenium, manganese, copper, and zinc to do their job right. If you have glutathione in the world available but are worn-out in selenium, which glutathione needs to work, there will be very little health benefit.

So when all of the essential nutrients are provided to the cell in a complete and balanced nutritional supplement, the combined effect is unique. The potency of these nutrients in optimizing our body’s natural antioxidant, immune, and repair systems is certainly possible. Oxidative stress can be prohibited and our health will be protected.

So as I know this as an integrative medicine expert, I apply these principles for my patients who are already suffering from a major chronic degenerative disease like cancer et al. I provide them with the same basic cellular nutrition I recommend for all my patients and then I add additional potent antioxidants to the system modified to each specific disease. So you see as a researcher in alternative medicines, I believed that when physicians take advantage of the most tremendous healing asset, the host--our bodies, and support it rather than denying its importance in the healing process, amazing clinical improvement is possible.

Cellular nutrition is all about health, not disease. "Attacking" the root cause of chronic degenerative disease is true preventive medicine. By applying these same principles, you who are in good health can decrease the risk of developing this chronic degenerative disease

We are essentially "living too short and dying too long". Let me ask you this question? How long do you expect to live? If you want to live long then, I recommend preventative rather than post-problem medicine—empowering people to avoid getting major diseases in the first place. Most people in Ghana are now afraid of growing old because it is believed that aging is the cause of today’s prostate disease but it is not!

Do you fear growing old? Have you accepted chronic disease or pain as a given in your future? Are you willing to make necessary life changes to ensure your health? I believe a full and abundant physical life does not need to start slipping away at age forty. Each year of your life can be your very best. But first you must understand the war that is waging within every one of our bodies.

You see, though, oxygen is essential for life itself. But did you know it is also essentially dangerous to our existence? I call this the "dark side" of oxygen. And as a result, we are essentially rusting both inside and out. The same process that causes a cut apple to turn brown or iron to rust is the cause of all the chronic degenerative diseases we fear and even the aging process itself.

Consider the aging of our skin. Oxidative stress is the cause of wrinkles, drooping skin, and age spots. The next time you are with a large gathering of people of different ages, observe closely the change you see in people’s skin. Aging is a process we all take for granted, but when you look more closely, and compare a baby’s face, to that of a grandparent’s, the effects of our largest organ being exposed to all the pollutants in the air, sunlight, and cigarette smoke is baffling. This aging of the skin is an outward manifestation of "oxidative stress," which is occurring within every cell in your body.

As a PhD candidate in alternative medicine and prostate cancer, I have reviewed well lots of medical and scientific studies in regards to nutritional supplements and their affect on your health. I even came across a book authored by medical doctor who has no knowledge in nutritional medicine but something happened and now he is practicing nutritional medicine because he believed it.

For instance studies appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, British Lancet, and Annuals of Internal Medicine report that beyond any doubt the "root" cause of well over 70 chronic degenerative diseases is "oxidative stress." These are the "who’s who" of diseases we all fear and want to avoid; diseases like heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s dementia, macular degeneration, lupus, MS, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue. "So what," you may be wondering, "is ‘oxidative stress’?"

Within every cell of the body is a heater called the mitochondria. As oxygen is utilized within the heater of the cell to create energy and life itself, occasionally a charged oxygen molecule is created, called a "free radical." This free radical has at least one unpaired electron in its outer orbit essentially giving it an electrical charge. If this free radical is not readily neutralized by an antioxidant it can go on to create more volatile free radicals, damage the cell wall, vessel wall, proteins, fats, and even the DNA nucleus of our cells. Chemically this reaction has been shown to be so volatile that it actually causes bursts of light within our bodies!

Living a healthy life becomes a matter of balance. You must have enough antioxidants available to readily neutralize the number of free radicals your body produces. If you don’t, "oxidative stress" will occur. When this oxidative stress is allowed to persist over a prolonged period of time, you will most likely develop a serious chronic degenerative disease.

You see conventional trained medical doctors were taught in medical school that you don’t need supplements—that you can get everything you need from a good, healthy diet. And this is what they normally tell their patients. This is wrong! Ask me why? You see, t our forefathers farming practices is totally different from what it pertains now. The modern day farmers are only interested in the money and not our health! Our farms have been crippled with all sorts of chemicals depriving us of the good nutrients the body cells need to carry its function!

Since balance is the key, we need to look closely at the individual players that are at war within. The number of free radicals you produce each and every day is never the same. All the pollutants in our air, food, and water dramatically increase the number of free radicals we produce. Enormous stress, excessive exercise, cigarette smoke, sunlight, radiation, and every drug prescribed greatly increase the number of free radicals produced in the body. In fact, there has never been a generation on this planet subjected to more oxidative stress than this present one. We are literally under attack from our polluted environment, stressful lifestyles, and over-medicated society.

This ongoing attack is depriving us of our most precious gift—our health. But God did not leave us defenseless against this onslaught by free radicals. In fact, we actually have our own army of antioxidants, which are able to neutralize free radicals and render them harmless. In generations past, these defense systems were sufficient. Unfortunately this is no longer the case. Our bodies’ defense systems need additional allies.

Most antioxidants come from vegetables and fruit. This creates a gap in our protection, because our foods have become significantly depleted in their content of antioxidants and supporting minerals as a result of mineral depletion in our soils, green harvesting, cold storage, foods that are highly processed, our poor food choices and food preparation.

Supplements (cellular nutrition) are our best hope in winning this war within and protecting our health especially prostate health! Your Health Matters!

Dr. Raphael Nyarkotey Obu is a registered alternative medical practitioner who specializes in Prostate cancer - studied the Master’s program in prostate cancer –Sheffield Hallam University, UK and a PhD candidate in prostate cancer and alternative medicines, Indian Board of Alternative Medicines Academy, Kolkata, India and the founder of Men’s Health Foundation Ghana and De Men’s clinic and Prostate Research Lab in Dodowa, Akoto House. Tel: 0500106570. E-mail:[email protected]

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