Anti-Aging Secrets: Cellular Energy & Health Newsletter

Dr. Frank Shallenberger’s
Vol. 7, No. 3
March 2008
Slam the Brakes on Aging
Imagine if the scientists of the future
were to discover a medical breakthrough
that could actually reverse the aging process.
Imagine if that breakthrough could
reduce your biological age by as much as 10
or 20 years.
Imagine if it could give you greater
energy, increased libido, and more strength
and stamina.
Imagine if it could improve your brain
function, lower your body fat, and improve
your mood and sleep.
And imagine if it could protect you
In this Issue
Q
Avoiding breast cancer might be
a lot easier than you thought .... p. 4
Q
Three reasons you don’t get
enough of this vitamin .............. p. 7
Q
Diagnosed with hepatitis C?
Here’s what you have to
do now ........................................ p. 8
Coming Next Month
• Now that you know how to evaluate
your energy levels, what does it take
to improve it? I'll show you easy
steps you can do at home.
•
Folic acid deficiency can cause everything from gingivitis to cancer. This
surprise cause is easy to avoid, but
most people don’t.
against degenerative diseases like arthritis,
diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis.
Well, imagine no more. Such a breakthrough already exists. And I’ve used it with
great success on hundreds of my patients.
Sound hard to believe? Then let me tell
you about one of those patients. That
patient is … me!
Meet Patient Frank S.
If you were to look at the picture on
my driver’s license, you’d see a 60-ish face
looking back at you. And if you were to
look at the date of birth on that same driver’s license, you’d see that I was born 61
years ago.
But what if you were to look at my
medical chart instead? Well, in that case,
you wouldn’t know I was 61. In fact, you’d
probably think I was 20 years younger.
That’s not a boast or an exaggeration.
Here are some of the numbers you’d find
on my chart:
« My blood pressure is 110/60
« My resting heart rate is 57
« My fasting blood sugar is 85
« My fasting insulin is under 5
« My HDL cholesterol is 63
« My LDL cholesterol is 103
« My triglycerides are 78
« My body fat is 12%
« My functional strength is 98%, which
Is it due to a strenuous exercise regimen? Nope. During the week, I do just a
half hour of exercise per day. And it’s moderate exercise.
is only 2% less than the average 40
year old.
« My energy production efficiency, the
single most important measurement
of aging there is, is 133%. That’s 33%
better than the average 44 year old!
Is it because I take fistfuls of supplements at every meal? Again, the answer is
no. I take three different supplements a day
and that’s it.
« My lung capacity is 106%, which
is 6% higher than the average
40 year old.
Maybe it’s because I’ve had healthy
habits my entire life? No again. As a young
adult, I smoked, drank, and popped prescription drugs like they were candy.
« My cardiac capacity is 135%, which
is 35% higher than the average 40
year old.
« My equilibrium (sense of balance) tests
out like that of someone much younger.
But more important than my “numbers” is what those numbers enable me to
do. At an age when many are slowing down,
I’m busier than ever. I put in a full 8-hour
day seeing patients at the clinic. And in my
spare time I do research, write books and
articles, do radio interviews, and teach
training seminars for doctors.
Plus … I have no trouble skiing down
difficult slopes in the Sierra mountains…
balancing on the top of a mast on my sailboat … keeping up with the 30-year-olds in
my bicycle club … or making the 215-mile
drive to San Francisco to visit my granddaughter.
In short, I do pretty much whatever I
want, without limiting myself.
Is this health and youthfulness due to
my “good genes?” Hardly. My family history
includes diabetes, heart disease, senility, and
neurological disorders.
Real Cures (ISSN 1062-4163) is published monthly by
Soundview Publishing, LLC. Publisher: Wallis W. Wood;
Editor: Frank Shallenberger, MD. Subscriptions $49 per
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770-399-5617. Real Cures is a newsletter containing general comments on health, nutrition, and medicine. Readers
are advised to consult with their own physician before
implementing any health idea they read about, whether
here or in any other publication. Copyright © 2008 by
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Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or its contents by xerography, facsimile, or any other means is illegal.
In fact, I spent a lot of times in my 30s
feeling just plain lousy. But then I discovered an anti-aging secret so powerful that it
revolutionized my health and the health of
my patients.
And Today, I’m Going to Share
That Secret With You…
If you watch professional sports, you
know that most athletes peak sometime in
their early 30s. The really good ones can
stay at the top of their game until they turn
40. But most have already started to lose a
step or two (or more) well before then.
That’s because we all peak physically
some time in our 30s. After that, we begin
to go downhill. We age. We notice aches and
pains more often. Our muscles tighten up
and our limbs, especially our legs, stiffen.
And we just can’t move like we used to.
Of course, if you’re not a professional
athlete, you may not notice the difference
for a while. But we all begin to age in our
30s. The question is “why?” And how can
you stop it from happening?
The answer to these questions lies in
your cells. When you’re young, your cells
produce a lot of energy. And they continue
to produce more and more energy until they
peak in your 30s.
After that, your cells start to produce
energy less efficiently. In fact, their efficiency declines in a steady, predictable, and nondebatable pattern for the rest of your life
until you die.
—2—
Over time, your cells will lose enough
efficiency that the loss begins to affect the
organs that these cells make up. At that
point, the organs begin to decrease in function. The heart doesn’t work as well. The
liver doesn’t work as well. The brain doesn’t
work as well. And so on.
When those organs start to lose function, you start to notice something. Your
blood sugar isn’t quite what it used to be.
Your cholesterol levels go up. Blood pressure
goes up. And your sexual function and your
ability to sleep decline.
As the years go by and the cells continue to lose their efficiency, the organs start to
deteriorate. Eventually, they get to the point
where their function is so compromised, diseases begin to set in. Diseases like diabetes,
or osteoporosis, or heart disease.
After that, your body begins to grow
frail and weak. The organs degenerate
to the point that they’re basically falling
apart. And if you don’t do something
about it, you spend your final years in a
nursing home.
Most people think this cycle is natural
and inevitable. They think that as they age,
they are supposed to lose energy. In fact, at
some point, people might go to their doctor,
who says, “What do you expect, you’re X
years old.” That’s because doctors believe
this is how aging occurs.
But this is NOT how it works!
The truth is, you don’t lose energy
because you age. You age because you
lose energy.
That’s the secret to anti-aging! The
aging process stems from one thing, and one
thing only — decreased cellular energy.
This makes sense because every cell
needs energy to function. It’s so important, in
fact, that energy is the universal biomarker
for aging. It’s the only marker that can
accurately tell you how your body is working.
And it can tell you this 100% of the time.
Most doctors like to use your blood
pressure, cholesterol levels, lung capacity,
blood sugar and insulin levels, and equilibri-
um as markers for age and health. While all
of these are important markers, not one of
them can predict how old — and how
healthy — you really are.
The reason is that while these factors
get worse in some people who age, they don’t
get worse in everyone. For instance, blood
pressure isn’t a good predictor of age because
there are plenty of people over 60 with normal blood pressure who are sick and frail.
So it’s not a good measurement for aging.
But your cells don’t lie. If they aren’t
producing energy as effectively as they
should, you’re on the fast path to aging
and disease.
This is not just conjecture; it’s been
proven in several studies. In one study,
researchers took genetically similar mice
and divided them into two groups. They
then genetically altered the mitochondria
(a cell’s furnace, which converts oxygen to
energy) of one group so that their energy
production was dramatically decreased.
They left the other half of the group alone.
So the only difference between these two
groups of mice was energy production.
The researchers then followed these
mice over the course of their lifetime. They
found that because the genetically altered
mice produced a lower amount of energy,
they didn’t live as long.
Even more importantly, the altered mice
developed more degenerative diseases at an
earlier age. In fact, all of the genetically
modified mice developed the age-related
problems that are so typical of older people.
They developed arthritis, diabetes, heart
disease, loss of hair, osteoporosis (with
spines bent over), and they were less active
in their cages.
That means the less energy you have,
the more likely you are to develop disease.
Any disease.
Another study has even stronger scientific evidence of the importance of energy
and long life. The researchers in the study
used muscle biopsies to test the energy levels of a group of mice. Then they subjected
—3—
The Easiest Way To
Avoid Breast Cancer
If you want to avoid breast cancer, your
doctor might tell you that mammograms are
your best bet. But mammograms can only tell
you if a cancer has already formed. And by
then, it may be too late.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to avoid
the cancer. All you have to do is avoid high
glycemic carbohydrates.
Your conventional doctor would never tell
you that. After all, he thinks these carbohydrates are good for you. That’s what the government’s food pyramid tells them. And that’s
the muscle tissue to nuclear magnetic
resonant scanning. This is a very accurate
way to determine their energy production.
As expected, because of the genetic differences between each mouse, there was a
considerable variation in energy production
efficiency. Some of the mice produced
energy really well, and some of them not
nearly as well.
Then, after they measured their energy
production, the researchers simply followed
the mice over the course of their life. They
all ate the same food, lived in the same
cages, etc. And the researchers recorded
how long they all lived.
Result: the mice with the highest
level of cellular energy production efficiency
(in the highest quartile) lived 36% longer
than those in the lower quartile. Again,
this is proof positive that energy is
absolutely vital to your longevity and
disease resistance.
Obviously, most of us don’t want to
have a muscle biopsy to determine our energy levels. It’s invasive, which always carries
a risk of infection, and it’s very painful. So
how can you find out your energy levels
with a high degree of accuracy without all
the problems? Let me show you….
where the medical community gets its nutritional advice. But this advice could be the cause
of the dramatic surge in breast cancer we’ve
seen the past decade or so.
You, like most of my savvy readers, may
know that high-glycemic carbohydrates create
elevated levels of the hormone insulin. And elevated insulin levels (anything over 10 mIU/L)
dramatically increase your risk of cancer. This
is why diabetics have an increased risk of
breast cancer.
In a recent study, researchers found that
women with the highest one-third of insulin
levels had almost three times the incidence of
breast cancer.
The Ultimate Energy Test
Anytime someone tells me that they
want to slow down aging and prevent disease, I immediately give them a test I developed in the late 1990s. I call it Bio-Energy
Testing. This test is easy to perform. It’s
completely safe and non-invasive. And I
believe it’s the ultimate tool to determine
the actual status of your health.
I discovered Bio-Energy Testing after
seeing some interesting technology out of
NASA. Do you remember the movie “The
Right Stuff?” It was the story of the
Mercury astronauts and their flight into
space. In that movie, there’s a scene where
NASA doctors have the astronauts breathe
into a tube. The tube leads to a machine
that helps measure lung function.
That machine isn’t just the stuff of
movies. NASA actually uses that machine to
test lung function. And it’s the basic technology behind Bio-Energy Testing.
Before NASA came up with this
technology, the testing was very cumbersome. People would have to breathe into
something like 40 different plastic bags.
But NASA created a Gas Exchange Analysis
device that was about the size of a small
TV set.
—4—
factors that increase insulin levels include a
lack of physical activity, obesity, and a diet high
in omega-6 oils. You’ll find these in corn oil, safflower oil, whole grains, and so many fast and
processed foods.
Another recent study explains why. It
showed that elevated insulin levels cause the
liver to decrease the production of sex-hormone
binding proteins. These proteins are regulatory
proteins. They protect breast tissue from excessive levels of estrogen, which stimulates breast
cancer cells. By decreasing the levels of these
binding proteins, insulin causes breast tissue to
be exposed to abnormally elevated levels of
estrogen.
But that’s not all. Insulin also stimulates
cancer cells directly. And eating high-glycemic
carbs is the most influential factor on insulin
secretion.
However, it’s not the only factor. Other
High glycemic carbohydrates are not healthy
foods, no matter who tells you they are. Make it
a point to eat these foods only once in a while. In
fact, I tell my patients to treat them like chocolate cake. A little chocolate cake every now and
then is OK. But you wouldn’t delude yourself
into thinking that eating chocolate cake as a
regular part of your diet is a healthy choice.
For years, doctors used this machine
to test lung function in emphysema
patients. They also used it to test the
lung function of high-performance athletes
and astronauts.
But until I came along, no one had put
two and two together and figured out that it
could be used on regular folks to test their
energy production.
When I figured this out and told people
in the field, they said, “Of course!” It was so
obvious — but only after the fact.
Here’s How Bio-Energy
Testing Works
You probably learned in school that
people breathe in oxygen and breathe out
carbon dioxide. When you breathe in oxygen, it floods your cells with oxygen. The
oxygen then enters the mitochondria, energy is produced, and the resulting waste
product is carbon dioxide.
Then we feed the information into a
computer program that calculates your
energy production efficiency, metabolic rate
(how well you produce energy at rest),
whether you’re producing energy from fat or
glucose, how well your body turns energy
into muscle strength, and ultimately, your
biological age.
Once we take these measurements,
we compare them to what the energy scores
are for the average 30 year old, 40 year old,
50 year old, and so on. When I compared
those scores to the traditional bio-markers
people use, I found a strong correlation.
Except that instead of having to measure
10 different bio-markers, I have to measure
only one!
That one marker is how efficiently
your cells produce energy.
How Energy Efficiency
Declines With Age
Bio-Energy Testing simply measures
how efficiently your mitochondria are able
to convert oxygen to energy, and how much
carbon dioxide is created as a result. Using a
mouthpiece, we measure how well your body
makes this conversion at rest and while
exercising.
Young children make the oxygento-energy conversion the most efficiently.
And we all know how much energy they
have.
But as time goes on, various factors
can interfere with this conversion. These
include infections, injuries, lack of sleep,
—5—
stress, poor dietary habits, smoking, drugs,
lack of exercise, too much exercise (which
is a form of self-inflicted injury), and
exposure to toxins (such as heavy metals,
pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals).
Doctors have taught for years that free
radical molecules cause aging. It’s true that
they do cause tissue destruction. As a result,
they do play a major part in aging. But what
causes all the free radicals? I told you earlier that low energy production is what causes you to age. And now I’m going to tell you
how. It has to do with free radical production. Lower energy levels cause your free
radical levels to go up at an alarming rate.
Here’s why:
Free radicals are a by-product of
inefficient energy production by your
mitochondria. When your mitochondria
work efficiently, they don’t produce very
many free radicals. But as they work less
efficiently, they start producing more
and more.
It’s very similar to a car engine. As the
car engine works less efficiently, you get
more pollution coming from the exhaust. As
the mitochondria become less efficient, you
get more free radicals. Your cells also
become more susceptible to free radical
damage. And you age faster.
If free radicals were the cause of aging
and energy loss, then lowering your free
radical levels would stop the aging process.
That’s why doctors have told you to take
so many antioxidants. We call antioxidants
“free radical scavengers” because they
attack free radicals and remove them from
your body.
The only problem is that antioxidants
don’t stop the aging process. Now that may
sound like heresy to you. But let me explain.
There have been dozens of animal
studies testing this theory. But not one has
ever found that you can stop (or even slow)
aging by taking antioxidants.
That’s because antioxidants don’t
directly attack free radicals. Antioxidant
enzymes do. Antioxidant enzymes include
SOD (superoxide dismutase), catylase, and
glutathione peroxidase.
These enzymes stop or quench free
radicals. But when they do, the enzymes
become inactivated. That means they can’t
quench another free radical until something
reactivates them. That something is the
antioxidant nutrients. These include vitamins C, and E, beta-carotene, lipoic acid,
selenium, etc.
However, this still doesn’t solve the
problem. Since antioxidants reactivate
antioxidant enzymes, then the studies should
show that taking antioxidants reduces free
radicals and the damage they cause. But,
again, that’s not what they show.
We now understand why. Like free
radicals, the mitochondria produce antioxidant enzymes. But unlike free radicals,
which increase as mitochondrial efficiency
drops, antioxidant-enzyme production
decreases as the mitochondria become less
efficient. Thus, decreased energy production
leads to a deadly combination — increased
free radical formation with decreased
antioxidant enzymes. As the mitochondria
become less efficient, there are less and less
enzymes produced for the antioxidants to
reactivate. This combination lets free radicals destroy tissue, which leads to aging
and disease.
What’s more, taking antioxidants
won’t help the mitochondria produce more
enzymes. In fact, there’s only one thing that
will — improving energy production. A
recent article in the New England Journal
of Medicine concluded that the biggest
difference between a 25-year-old and a
75-year-old is in how efficiently their bodies
use oxygen to produce energy.
And in next month’s issue, I’m going
to show you the absolute best ways to get
your mitochondria to produce energy more
efficiently, revitalize your cells, resist disease, and feel and function years younger
than you do today. What’s more, you can
do these treatments in the comfort of your
own home. Don’t miss it! Q
—6—
Three Reasons You Don’t
Get Enough Vitamin K
Most people don’t think about vitamin
K when it comes to protecting their health.
But vitamin K is a vital nutrient.
If you don’t have enough vitamin K in
your body, you substantially increase your
risk of getting some serious diseases. These
include cancer (such as breast, colon, liver,
and stomach), atherosclerosis and heart disease (vitamin K prevents arteries from calcifying), and osteoporosis (it reduces calcium loss in your bones).
The problem is that it’s becoming easier for people to develop a deficiency. That’s
because there are three common chemicals
that keep you from getting adequate
amounts of vitamin K.
(1) The most common chemical is fatblocking drugs. Since vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin, these medications interfere
with its absorption. And they cause a deficiency. Common fat-blocking drugs include
many of those used to lower cholesterol.
It also includes the new prescription
weight-loss drug Orlistat (xenical). And
recently the FDA cleared Alli — another
nasty little diet drug that has the same effect.
(2) The second chemical is the fat substitute Olestra. Olestra also goes by the
name Olean. No matter what you call it,
Olestra is a wonderful example of how crazy
the world is getting. Olestra is an “artificial
fat.” In other words, it is a non-food molecule that contains no nutritive value at all.
Although it’s fat soluble, your body cannot
absorb it. The intestines don’t have an
enzyme capable of digesting it. And, since it
tastes like fat, you can enjoy your “fat”
without gaining weight. The FDA approved
it as a fat substitute in 1996 and is popular
on Oreos, chips, and other junk “foods” that
are supposed to make you thin.
The problem with Olestra is that it’s
able to absorb fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin K. Because your body can’t absorb
Olestra, it also won’t absorb these vitamins.
The result is multiple fat-soluble deficiencies — and all of the health problems that
go with them.
(3) It’s not just drugs and man-made
chemicals that cause vitamin K deficiencies.
The natural fat blocker chitosan also blocks
your body’s absorption of the vitamin.
Chitosan comes from chitin, which
comes from mushrooms and many sea
creatures. It protects tissues and helps their
resistance to invaders. Many people take
chitosan to lose weight or to lower their
cholesterol. It works by inhibiting fat
absorption. So it may lead to vitamin K
deficiency.
If you’re taking any of these products,
ask your doctor to check your vitamin K
level. If it’s low, consider getting off the fat
blocking products. Also make sure you’re
eating vitamin K-rich foods, such as most
vegetables, oils, eggs, and legumes. God
made these foods. Be sure to eat them
instead of the new miracle foods created by
Madison Avenue. You might want to take a
supplement as well. I suggest you take 15
mg a day of vitamin K2. Q
References:
Chlebowski, R.T., et al. “Vitamin K in the treatment of cancer.”
Cancer Treatment Review. 12:49-63, 1985.
Deuchi, K., et al. “Continuous and massive intake of chitosan
affects mineral and fat soluble vitamin status in rats fed on a
high-fat diet.” Biosci Biotechnol Biochem, 59(7):1211-1216,
1995.
Gundberg, C.M., et al. “Vitamin K status and bone health: an
analysis of methods for determination under carboxylated
osteocalcin.” J Clin Endocrinol Metab, 83:3258-3266, 1998.
Merkel, R.L. “The use of menadione bisulfite and ascorbic acid
in the treatment of nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.” Am J
Obstet Gynecol, 64:416-418, 1952.
Prasad, K.N., et al. “Vitamin K3 (menadione) inhibits the
growth of mammalian tumor cells in culture.” Life Sciences,
29:1387-1392, 1981.
Yoshida, T., K. Miyazawa, I. Kasuga, et al. “Apoptosis induction
of vitamin K2 in lung carcinoma cell lines: the possibility of
vitamin K2 therapy for lung cancer.” Int J Oncol., 2003
Sep;23(3):627-32.
—7—
LETTERS
TO THE
Q. My husband just tested positive for
hepatitis C. What do you know of that
can help or stop this? — Lee M., via e-mail
A. This is a great question. I’ll have to
answer it in full in a future issue. But let me
give you some hope. Just because your husband has a positive hepatitis C test does not
mean he has the disease.
It means only that at some point in his
life, he was exposed to the virus. He may
have the disease. But it’s more likely that he
developed an immunity to it. It’s important
to remember that 70% of those who have a
positive hepatitis C test never actually
develop hepatitis. For them, being infected
with the hepatitis C virus is not a problem.
The word “hepatitis” means that the
liver is inflamed. The only way your husband has the disease is if his liver is
inflamed. Inflammation causes pain, fatigue,
joint pains, or certain kinds of rashes. But it
takes a liver biopsy or a series of blood tests
(liver function tests, transferrin saturation,
C-reactive protein, sed rate, ferritin) to confirm the inflammation.
If the liver is inflamed, the liver function
tests will be elevated over 100 IU/L, the iron
panel may show a transferrin saturation over
45%, and the C-reactive protein, sed rate, and
ferritin will be elevated. Another excellent
test for liver inflammation is a Fibrospect test.
You can find information about this test at
http://www.regence.com/trgmedpol/lab/lab47.
html. If your husband has any of these indications of hepatitis, then he has hepatitis C.
If not, then all he has is a positive hepatitis
C test.
The drug companies insist that anyone
with a positive hepatitis C test will have
problems with the virus and must take the
drugs. But that’s not true. People that have
a positive test, but who don’t have hepatitis
are lucky. All they have to do is the following:
(1) Avoid alcohol, except maybe one to
two times per month. In people infected with
the hepatitis C virus even moderate drinking may be enough to cause inflammation.
EDITOR
(2) Take a good, high-quality multivitamin/mineral every day, along with a good
omega-3 mixed fatty acids supplement.
(3) Check the tests I mentioned above
once a year and, if possible, also check the
Fibrospect test annually as well. If any of
these tests indicate that the liver is starting
to become inflamed, then you may actually
have hepatitis C.
If your husband has both a positive test
for hepatitis C and symptoms (listed earlier), a grade 2 or greater biopsy or Fibrospect
score, or an elevation of the tests mentioned
above, then he actually has hepatitis C. In
that case, he will need to take action that
will halt any more liver inflammation from
developing before it becomes a concern. The
best way to do that is to follow the above
advice as well as take the following:
(1) Milk thistle extract, 400 mg two
times a day.
(2) Lipoic acid, 200 mg two times a day.
(3) Selenium, 200 mcg two times a day.
(4) Artichoke leaf extract, 400 mg three
times a day.
These can help keep inflammation
under control. I’ll have a lot more on hepatitis C in future issues.
But, again, the likelihood of your
husband having the disease is pretty small.
I hope that gives you great encouragement
— and steps to take to keep any potential
problems under control. Whatever you do,
don’t take the drugs. These steps will be
all you need.
—8—
Got a Question?
Do you have a question for Dr.
Shallenberger? If so, please send it (typed
only) to him c/o Soundview Publications,
P.O. Box 467939, Atlanta, GA 31146-7939 or
[email protected]. While he
won’t be able to respond personally, he’ll try
to answer as many questions as he can in
these pages.