May 14, 2004

FREE-TO-THE-POOR UPDATE & DR. ANDREW SAUL’S NEWSLETTER MENTION

A number of our members subscribe to Dr. Andrew Saul’s newsletter (www.doctoryourself.com). Dr. Saul is a contributing editor for the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, who has also taught graduate-level clinical nutrition classes. We happen to have gotten a lovely mention in his most recent newsletter.

One of our members (we’re not sure who) mentioned our Free-to-the-Poor program to Dr. Saul some time ago, and he wrote to us asking for a donation to the St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality in Rochester, NY. We were impressed with the program, whereby homeless people are asked individually if they want supplemental vitamins and, for whoever says “yes,” a volunteer personally hands out vitamins at mealtimes.

Wow! No waste and vitamins being dispensed to a truly needy group of people. We were sold. It took some time to coordinate everything, but we recently delivered almost 600 bottles of Multi-Vites to St.Joseph’s House. At our modest prices, this donation would cost over $1700; on the open market, to buy these vitamins would cost over $4000!

THANKS to our members for contributing to our Free-to-the-Poor program – Dr. Saul not only thanked us, but also our fair members publicly in his newsletter!

Here’s what Dr. Saul had to say…

VITAMIN DISPENSARIES

“It all started at a soup kitchen, two decades ago. Some of us were helping prepare and serve meals to poor and homeless folks at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality in Rochester, NY. The idea of offering each person a good daily multiple vitamin came up, and we decided to give it a try. I observed some notable improvements, especially among drug addicts and alcoholics.”

“Over twenty years ago, when interviewed for The Mother Earth News magazine (Jan-Feb 1984, Issue 85), I said (link provided for reference): http://www.motherearthnews.com/menarch/issues/085/085-016-01.htm

"Simple, easily available vitamins can actually fight drug addiction. I've written to (then First Lady) Nancy Reagan and expressed my support for her fight against drug abuse in children. And I told her of our work with our vitamin dispensary that serves the poor in Rochester. We have seen substance abuse trail off when individuals get adequate vitamin supplements…especially B vitamins and vitamin C in substantial quantities. I suggested to Mrs. Reagan that she help develop a national vitamin supplementation program. Naturally, all I got in reply was a polite letter from her press secretary. Yet I've talked to street people who were so drunk they couldn't stand up without my holding them. We get such alcoholics on vitamin C and B-complex, though, and those individuals can get off the booze.

And that means a lot."

“Though there were interruptions in the program due to lack of funding, the dispensary is currently going full tilt once again. Between 50 and 100 people every day benefit from nutritional supplementation that they would otherwise not be getting.”

A BIG THANK YOU (TO OUR HEALTH CO-OP & MEMBERS)

“St. Joseph's House has recently received a most generous donation of **hundreds** of bottles of multivitamins from Our Health Co-op, ‘a Florida-based company providing scientifically-promising, high-quality health products made affordable. Our Health Co-op focuses on healthy aging and serving those with limited means, particularly fixed-income seniors.’”

“The Co-op's "Free to the Poor" program is, I think, the very model of corporate responsibility. Details are provided, simply and elegantly, at Free to the Poor.”

“I would especially like to publicly thank the members of Our Health Co-op, whose contributions made this life-affirming donation possible.”

KAT'S PRIDE

This kat is brimming with pride. We have an amazing community of caring members and we are honored to be a steward for a collective impact on the world! Purr, purr!

GUGGUL DEBATE – 2600 YEAR TRADITION VS. RECENT SABINSA STUDY

Q: Why haven’t you brought out your Guggul Plus, with guggulsterones, policosonol, and hawthorn berry?

A: This is a tough industry, with the science changing over time. We started production of our Guggul Plus and had to work out the testing procedure (testing this particular blend had some tricky issues). Then, some research came out that made us pause.

Guggul had some very good scientific research indicating its usefulness for reducing cholesterol (studies done primarily in India).

Interestingly, the first references to guggul (a gummy resin and related to frankincense or myrrh) was circa 600 B.C. and the reference was in Sanskrit to “coating and obstruction of channels.”

What did that mean? No one really knew until the mid 1960’s, when an Indian medical student studying Ayurvedic medicine came across this reference to this “coating” and “obstruction of channels.”

Interestingly, in 600 B.C., Ayurvedic doctors had what amounts to a “flowchart” showing the cause and effect of overeating fatty foods, obesity, sedentary lifestyle & lack of exercise – namely that those who engaged in these practices got metabolic disturbances and “coatings” and “obstruction of channels” occurred. The end result in the flowchart was morbidly “death.”

Gum guggul, interestingly enough, was shown as a treatment for these "obstructions of channels."

As part of her doctoral research, our Indian medical student did some animal testing (a 2-year rabbit study, where rabbits were fed high cholesterol diets, high in hydrogenated vegetable oil diet). Half of the rabbits got gum guggul and half didn’t.

The rabbits receiving guggul had no plaque deposits and showed clean arteries, even with high hydrogenated fats. Further animal studies showed same things. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, in India, studies consistently showed guggul helped with LDL reductions and total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

Now, these studies were not so perfect (they were smaller trials with some criticisms on methodology). However, through the 1980’s and 1990’s, there have been many anectdotal reports that guggul helps achieve healthy cholesterol levels in two to four months.

In the late 1980’s, a large Indian pharmaceutical licensed “gugulipid” (a trademarked name for guggul) to Sabinsa. Last year, Sabinsa sponsored a study, fully expecting to confirm the effectiveness of guggul. They (and many in the industry) were shocked by the results, which did not support guggul’s use for reducing cholesterol.

The Sabinsa study was well-designed (no one has faulted the research and the sponsor genuinely wanted to see a “paws up” results). The Sabinsa study was, however, only one study. As scientists in the crowd know, you can do everything correctly in two different research instances and get two different results (that pesky thing about “causation” and “correlation!”).

Here’s the conundrum – guggul has been used in the Ayurvedic tradition to treat high cholesterol and heart disease with good reports for at least 2600 years.

Here are our questions to our fair members who have used guggul:

“What has your experience been with guggul products?”
“Do you continue to buy guggul?”
“Do you wish to buy a guggul product from the Co-op?”

Send your notes to: guido@ourhealthcoop.com

Our consultants lean toward trusting 2600 years over one study. With our pricing and margins, however, we can’t afford to bring out a product that our members aren’t interested in buying.

So, vote now or forever hold your peace (well, “forever” is an awfully long time, so that may be a tad extreme!).

SOY ISOFLAVONES IN MENOPAUSE PRODUCTS

Q: What do you make of all the bad press on soy, including soy isoflavones?

A: Research has indicated that soy formulas for infants can be troublesome, but this is a case of a mono-diet, whereby the percentage of consumption is 100% -- as the main food and protein source.

There are protease inhibitors in soy, which can prevent the break down of protein. Cooking soy helps break down the proteins, and fermenting soy helps even more (e.g., tofu).

Research supporting soy isoflavones (in small supplemental amounts) for menopausal women is still considered entirely credible (we have many devoted Menopause Formula members who would agree).

Issues with protease inhibitors are not present (the isoflavones are not protein, but instead are phytoestrogens).

Remember, however, that we’re talking about alternative medicine, so it’s always wise to go with amounts proven to be helpful in creating health and not think that if “some is good” then “more is better.”

I know, I know, the marketing gods are ashamed of this kat’s cautionary ways. That’s part of what’s nice about being a kat though, we don’t lean toward “herd” mentalities. ^..^

HEALTH IN THE NEWS

FAVORITE PETS

Hey there, hi there, ho there! We’ve got a new edition of Favorite Pets posted. Take a look: Favorite Pets.

And, newbies, please send in your favorite not-yet-famous pets (solicit from your kids or grandkids if need be – they’ll be thrilled to see their pets on this kat’s site, promise!).

Alas, time to find something to chase! ^..^

Still purringly yours,

Guido

Guido Housemouser (The Enforcer) ^..^
Chief Kat and Community Manager
Our Health Co-op
931 Village Blvd, Suite 905-480
West Palm Beach FL 33409

“Making Health Affordable Together”