The Future Of Medicine - Integrated Or Cellular?

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Health

Pharma

"There is no case for integrated medicine" says Beldeu Singh from Malaysia, citing the abysmal differences between today's drug based allopathic approach to health and other, non-drug modalities. Many medical doctors see integrated medicine as an opportunity to maintain the dominant position of the drug-based approach while "integrating" some of the diverse healing arts, but only those that will not directly challenge the drugs-for-health paradigm. We see such beauties as "acupuncture may be useful to control the nausea induced by chemotherapy".

Cellular medicine on the other hand, made a household word by Dr. Rath who proposes it as an innovative approach to heart disease, cancer and AIDS, is not so easily accepted. Although there is nothing unscientific about it, this new approach that emphasizes body biochemistry and intervention with natural components of metabolic processes is violently opposed.

Beldeu Singh discusses why this approach to health seems so incompatible with pharma-based intervention and he proposes that instead of integration, perhaps tolerance of diverse approaches to health on an equal footing with allopathic medicine would be a better way into the future.

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There is no case for integrated medicine

I refer to the Letter "A case for integrated medicine" (NST p21 Nov 8, 2005). In that letter, a doctor, from his own experience argued for a case for integrated medicine because he had undergone two major surgeries for gastric ulcer but it did not solve his problems and in fact developed all sorts of digestive problems that were later solved by an endocrinologist in Seattle (US) who started him on antacid tablets and some enzymes prepared from rice.

Scientists are trained during their career to always be critical and analytical of the information presented to them and to always keep an open mind and to never get attached to the absolute truth of any theory. A safe bet is to regard the "truth" as the "best working hypothesis" of the day or the one that makes the data or findings logical, pratical and beneficial while seeking more information through research but quite often many people's mental development end by acquiring a professional degree and the skills to carry out procedures and methods or a practice and the mind, having anchored in a particular mindset, tends to operates within its confines.

One of the mindsets that is being radically altered through research in cellular biochemistry is the traditional pharmaceutical notion of one disease-one drug.

Long ago, it was discovered that sailors on long sea voyages suffered from a condition called scurvy that could be cured by consuming onions or oranges simply because it was caused by a drop in cellular function due to a chronic depletion of vitamin C. Natural vitamin C, as an antioxidant promotes aerobic respiration in cells as it readily scavenges free radicals that cause oxidative stress on the Krebs cycle. Its severe depletion (below 60%) in the cell, over time, adversely affects optimal celluar function in all organs.

Today, however, doctors in Malaysia are not permitted to prescribe natural supplements in such conditions. That original health science concept of natural vitamin C as a cure has been abondoned and replaced with the idea of giving patients a "pharmaceutically prescribed" drug, even if that means a synthetic antioxidant. And several new synthetic antioxidants have recieved patents and will become part of "pharmaceutically prescribed" practice in modern medicine in the years ahead. One of the characteristics of allopathic medicine is that it is patent-driven.

Excess free radicals, whether of endogenous origin produced by metabolic reactions in the cell or from exogenous sources such as from cigarette smoke from exhaust fumes or toxic drugs or during the breakdown of chemicals such as alcohol in the liver can exert oxidative stress on the Krebs cycle and/or mitochondrial activity in cells, especially in persons who have a low intake of antioxidants and bioavailable minerals in their diet. That oxidative stress can interfere with cellular biochemical reactions and lower cellular function and over time or under severe oxidative stress cellular function may become impaired, leading to disease conditions.

Free radicals are ions that have an unpaired electron and are therefore positively charged. They are highly unstable and "rob" electrons from other biomolecules in the body and that initiates free radical chain reactions. Proteins and other molecules that have been damaged by free radicals can cause degenerative disease states in the body.

One of the most reactive species of free radicals is the hydroxyl ion which reacts in one nanosecond and excess hydroxyl ions produce hydrogen peroxide that inactivates the enzymes involved in the Krebs cycle, lowering cellular energy output and may eventually shut it down leading to death of the cell or abnormal functioning of the cell.

In biochemical terms, health can be defined as the optimal functioning of cells. When a significant number of cells begin to function at levels below the optimal levels, cellular energy output decreases and one feels lethargic or fatigue sets in. If the antioxidant and micronutrient levels in those cells remain low, then disease conditions begin to manifest. In such situations aging may also proceed at an accelerated rate.

Prolonged oxidative stress depletes antioxidants in the cells and tissues creating an unhealthy state in the cellular environment that eventually leads to oxidative injury. Oxidative injury is said to have occurred when certain and clear symptoms appear such as lower production of antibodies by the immune system due to oxidative suppression of the immune system by excess free radicals. Naturally, if through some intervention, impaired or diminished cellular function can be restored to its optimal level, health is restored.

Some examples of oxidative injury include oxidative injury to the cell membranes leading to rentention of sodium ions in the cells or migration of magnesium ions out of the cells and into the bloodstream.

Another example of oxidative stress is oxidative stress in smokers on cells in the arterial endothelium causing them to produce excess nitric oxide that in turn acts as free radical stressor associated in a cluster of diseases such as diabetes, ED, MS, cardiovascular disease. In all of these cases, there is depletion of the body's natural antioxidants including coenzyme Q10, glutathione and other selenoproteins and alpha lipoic acid. If excess nitric oxide is induced in a pregnant women, whether by smoke or drugs, it passes through the placenta and it could interfere with metabolic processes in the fetus and could cause developmental defects in the fetus, such as "hole-in-heart" etc.

Research has also shown that cells under oxidative stress, as in smokers, become impaired in their cellular function as indicated by lower production of hormones and other protein molecules. In a disease condition such in cancers, a particular protein may not be manufactured in the cell due to severe depletion of the natural antioxidants in those cells.

Research has proven that when the natural antioxidant enzyme levels in cells drop below 80% the cell dies and when the natural vitamin C level in white blood cells drops below 60% it cannot function properly in its cytotoxic role that kills pathogens. During phagocytosis, the white blood cell resorts to anaerobic respiration to produce a sudden burst of free radicals directed at the pathogen and the hydrogen peroxide formed, inactivates the enzymes in the bacterial cell but it requires excess natural vitamin C to stop the anaerobic respiration initiated to produce free radicals that are cytotoxic to the bacterial cell.

A good example of a condition caused by very rapidly acting free radicals is when a bee sting causes immediate pain and there is very rapid swelling around the sting. Bee venom contains free radicals and it generates free radicals very rapidly. Most allopathic drugs and heavy metal ions do not produce such rapid reactions.

The common factor in antibiotics and almost all of allopathic drugs, anti-parasitic drugs, chemotherapy drugs and radiation is that they all generate free radicals in the body, in particular the hydroxyl ion which is cytotoxic to both the pathogen or cancer cells as well normal cells and when in excess causes the so called complications from drug use. Practically every drug has its benefit-risk profile. In contrast, cellular medicine aims to first remove the oxidative stress (through the use of antioxidants) on cells followed by providing micronutrients in bioavaliable form so that the improving cellular function will enable aerobic energy output as well as increase the natural antioxidant enzyme levels which further improve cellular function.

Many allopathic drugs are blockers or inhibitors and while they may be effective in blocking a pathway that appears connected to a disease state, such as high (bad cholesterol) LDL, it may also block the pathway that produces an antioxidant enzyme such as coenzyme Q10. Statin drugs, used in cardiovascular disease end up in reducing the coenzyme Q10 levels in heart muscle, thereby increasing the risk to the heart. Coenzyme Q10 is essential in the pathway that yields cellular energy to muscle cells and it is also an antioxidant. Nature, very wisely carved a double role for such biomolecules, which means that they participate in cell biochemistry, physiological roles and protect the cells in the advent of oxidative stress and cellular medicine would naturally aim to devise interventions that would increase the overall Q10 levels in people with cardiovascular disease.

These case scenarios highlight the inherent conflict of allopathic medical practice with cellular biochemistry. Some systems of medicine aim to boost the immune function or the blood antioxidant levels etc whereas in contrast the allopathic system of drug use