The UltraMind Solution (19 page)

I have some big concerns regarding some of the most common medications. What concerns me as much as what we know now is what we don’t know.

The past decade has seen a litany of products that have fallen from
grace—Vioxx, Avandia, Rezulin, Seldane, Baycol, CETP inhibitors, Premarin, and more. Which drugs that millions consume today will be the fallen heroes of tomorrow?

I am certainly not against medications or their intelligent use. But they should be used carefully, with full awareness of
all
their effects whether that’s “drug action” or “side effects.”

Most medication is prescribed for conditions that are better treated by diet, nutritional therapies, and lifestyle changes.

Here are the top drugs on my radar that have potentially harmful effects on the brain, and deplete critical nutrients that are required for optimal brain function and health. For a complete list, I highly recommend the
Drug-Induced Nutrient Depletion Handbook.
Most doctors are worried about supplements interfering with medication. This rarely occurs. But few doctors worry about severe nutrient depletion, which can lead to long-term harm from well-known “side effects” of common medications.

Coenzyme Q10 is lowered by common drugs including the cholesterol-lowering statins (Lipitor, Zocor, Pravacohl), beta-blockers (Toprol, Inderal), and antidiabetic drugs (the oral hypoglycemic drugs like Glucotrol and Micronase).

Coenzyme Q10 is made by the same enzyme in your body (HMG-CoA reductase) as cholesterol. So if you take a statin, you shut down your production of coenzyme Q10, which is necessary to make energy for your cells.
²¹
If you are taking these medications, seek alternatives. If you must take them, be sure to add 100 to 200 mg of coenzyme Q10 to your supplement regimen to replenish your depleted levels.

The most worrisome class of medication for the brain in the long term, I believe, is the acid-blocking drugs.
²²
These include Prilosec, Prevacid, Nexium, Aciphex, and Protonix.

Effects of Acid-Blocking Medication

Prevents adequate protein digestion, which diminishes our ability to provide the amino-acid building blocks of neurotransmitters to help our mood, memory, and attention.

Prevents mineral absorption, leading to decreased magnesium levels in the body. Magnesium deficiency is a major contributor to anxiety and mood disorders.

Increases the risk of intestinal infections
²³
and causes osteoporosis.
²⁴

And most important, prevents absorption of B
₁₂
,
²⁵
leading to fatigue, memory loss, dementia, and depression.
²⁶

Other drugs that deplete B vitamins include aspirin, estrogens (including birth-control pills and steroids), diuretics or water pills, anticonvulsant drugs (seizure medication, also often used for mood disorders, such as Tegretol and Depakote), anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, and drugs for Parkinson’s disease such as Sinemet.

There is one drug that stands above all others in quickly depleting glutathione—acetaminophen (Tylenol or Panadol). It is found in countless over-the-counter medications. People take it all the time without thinking about it. But the truth is that this drug is more toxic than most prescription drugs.

Glutathione is your body’s last stand against toxins, inflammation, and free radicals. You will learn why these problems wreak havoc in your body in Part II, and how glutathione protects you against them.

For now, suffice it to say that glutathione is one of the single most important chemicals in the human body, and a deficiency in it can cause severe mental and physical health issues.

In addition to the environmental and dietary influences that deplete glutathione, half of us (and most of the people with broken brains) are missing a key gene, GSTM1, which helps the body rebuild its stores of glutathione. This only compounds the problem.

You can boost your own glutathione levels by eating foods from the broccoli and garlic families and taking a supplement called NAC (n-acetylcysteine), which helps rebuild your depleted glutathione.
²⁷
It works to treat acetaminophen overdose in the emergency room, and prevent liver failure and death, and it will work to protect you.

And remember: acetaminophen can be dangerous, especially if consumed with alcohol. Take it only occasionally and only if you really need it.

Aside from the inadvertent contamination of many calcium supplements with lead,
²⁸
many medications have or have had metals put in on purpose! These metals can be literally poisonous to your body and brain.

For example, aluminum has been linked to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s. It is found in antacids such as Gaviscon, Maalox, and Mylanta, which people swig like orange juice. It is also found in our water, cookware, foil wrap, and most underarm deodorants.

Up until recently, mercury, in the form of thimerosal, was the most common disinfectant placed in vaccines (and is still in most flu vaccines) and contact-lens fluid.

Other studies “prove” that mercury exposure from vaccines is harmless.
²⁹

Or is it?

A recent CDC study in the
New England Journal of Medicine
appears to have been designed to show no harm. Notably:

1.
They excluded all kids with autism from the study! These are the kids with the genetic susceptibilities to problems. These are the kids who
can’t
detoxify. This is like doing a study to see if peanuts cause allergies, but excluding
all
kids with an allergy to peanuts from the study. It’s just plain bad science.

2.
They did
not
measure mercury levels in the bodies of the children—just their exposure. So if kids were good detoxifiers, of course they wouldn’t have effects from the mercury. They should have measured the total body load of mercury in the children studied and
then
noted how that correlates to any neurologic or other effects. They also should have measured the genes involved
in detoxification of mercury, such as apo E4 and GSTM1. Again, this is just plain bad science.

3.
The study itself and its accompanying editorial disclose, as potential conflicts of interest, that a number of the authors are either former employees or serve on an advisory board of, or were receiving grant support, lecture fees, or consulting fees from, the very manufacturers who put mercury in vaccines in the first place. That’s like putting tobacco companies in charge of studies on the risks of smoking.

4.
They didn’t explain how it could be safe that between 1991 and 1999, little babies could have inadvertently received up to 125 times the EPA safe level of mercury as determined by the oral methyl mercury standard on any given day that multiple vaccines were given. This not only exceeded the EPA standard but also the FDA, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and World Health Organization safety standards.

This kind of unscientific “research” is the problem that keeps the medical industry (not to mention our economy) connected to practices that clearly don’t promote health and well-being.

If thimerosal is as safe as studies like this attempt to suggest, why was it removed from use after fifty years from most childhood and adult vaccines in 2001 (except, of course, the ones we export to the third world)? You can find out which vaccines contain mercury by going to
www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm
.

Mercury isn’t safe. It’s the second-most toxic subtance known to human biology on the planet. The only chemical worse is plutonium.

Yet mercury is everywhere in our society. Here are a few examples:

A mercury-containing powder called calomel was given to babies for teething pains in the 1940s and caused pink disease (a syndrome that included cognitive and psychiatric disorders that mimicked autism). Incidentally, calomel has been used since the early days of American history as a remedy for many diseases. It is what led to President Andrew Jackson’s insanity.
³⁰