No, don't take Kim Kardashian's advice on this one | #19
Plus: Proton Pump Inhibitors and a new suicide prevention number
Greetings everyone—
Dignity Integrative published three new posts this month:
Nurturing the Brain-Gut Connection. This topic is SO important—we’ve touched on it here and there, but this post provides a good overview. What is the vagus nerve and what is its role? How does the gut act like a Second Brain? What is the impact of gut health on specific disease states? This post goes into each of these.
Benefits of Yoga for Managing Diabetes. Yoga and diabetes might seem unrelated, but there is extensive literature on how simple yoga practices can profoundly influence a range of physiological, psychological, and behavioral changes. These in turn help you control stress, heart rate, body weight, and yes insulin secretion. Recommended!
The rise of functional medicine vs. integrative medicine. Finally, I dive into the growth of functional medicine over the past few years, since I started Dignity Integrative, and also why the distinction between integrative medicine and functional medicine doesn’t really mean as much as it might have used to.
Ok! On to this month’s recommendations:
#1: Half of all cancers are preventable, but this is NOT the way to do it
This is an incredibly bad idea, even if Kim Kardashian is recommending it. The use of full-body scans to detect early cancer seems appealing—but the risks of false positives and medical misadventures to determine if that spot on your kidney is anything to worry about far outweigh the chance of finding early cancer in an otherwise healthy person.
As reported by the NY Times, up to 1 in 6 tests can be considered a ‘false positive’ prompting unneeded follow up not to mention the mental anguish of worrying if this is ‘cancer’ or not.
There are specific and targeted scans recommended such as Chest CT for those who are or were long-term smokers to detect early lung cancer. Other than that, I do not recommend them.
#2: Meanwhile, more younger people are getting cancer
Full-body scans are not a good idea even though more and more young people are getting cancer.
According to the Global Burden of Disease database, global incidence of early-onset cancer increased by 79.1% and the number of early-onset cancer deaths increased by 27.7% between 1990 and 2019. Early-onset breast, tracheal, bronchus and lung, stomach, and colorectal cancers showed the highest mortality.
The cause is almost certainly related to dietary risk factors: diets high in red meat, low in fruits, high in sodium, and low in milk, as well as alcohol consumption and tobacco use, are the main risk factors underlying early-onset cancers.
A commonly quoted statistic is that 1 out of every 2 cancers are preventable when simple life changes are implemented.
For a deep dive into what is causing our current rates of cancer and how we fight it, read our post from last year, “The Next War Against Cancer.”
#3: The most effective treatments are the simple (though not easy) ones
Every month there is a new study that shows more or less the same thing: GET OUT AND WALK!
It is the first (and second) recommendation I make to every patient I treat.
This incredible meta-analysis of over 225,000 patients followed for an average of over 7 years showed a progressive 15% improvement in all-cause mortality (all causes of dying) for every 1,000 steps you take (equal to 0.4 miles).
Here’s that statistic in graphic form:
In other words, the more steps taken, the stronger the decrease in all-cause mortality. Sadly and specific to adolescents, the study states that over 80% do not get enough physical activity which is worrisome for these individuals as they age.
#4: Proton Pump Inhibitors associated with increased dementia in the long term
Meanwhile, a recent study published in Neurology concluded that long-term use (more than 4.5 years) of proton pump inhibitors (like Prevacid and Nexium) is associated with a 33% increased risk of dementia over baseline in this study of 4,200 people.
One of the proposed reasons is that the PPIs may reduce your gut’s ability to absorb B12 from your food. B12 is an essential vitamin important in overall cognition. It is one of the reasons I try to wean my patients off long-term use of PPIs whenever possible.
#5: A new federal program worth every dollar
The first line in this article from JAMA says it all, sadly: “Every 11 minutes, someone in the US dies by suicide.”
That grim statistic, from 2021, reflects a 36% increase in suicide rates over the previous two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The new national 988 number is an attempt to lower that tragic number. An example of a federal program worth every dollar, calls (as well as texts and chats) were answered in under one minute, on average, for over 5 million contacts in the last year. If you or someone you love are in need, calling 988 can help to save a life.