The greatest generation that could ever exist must be our current elderly or “Geriatric” generation.
They have gone through more changes in the world than any other generation in it’s history. They are the go getters. The inventors. When problems arise, they rolled up their sleeves and learned how to fix things. Yet, when it comes to their health, it seems as though they have given up their control to follow their MD’s recommendations, instead of researching their options or taking care of themselves like they always have in every other area.
At The Biamonte Center, we have had so many elderly patients who have told us how much they love their doctor. Even that their doctor has saved their life. But we see even more patients whose care is simply being managed with one prescription drug after the other and their quality of life slowly but surely fades away.
A definitive review and close reading of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million. Dr. Richard Besser, of the CDC, in 1995, said the number of unnecessary antibiotics prescribed annually for viral infections was 20 million. Dr. Besser, in 2003, now refers to tens of millions of unnecessary antibiotics.
The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million. The total number of iatrogenic deaths shown in the following table is 783,936. It is evident that the American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the United States. The 2001 heart disease annual death rate is 699,697; the annual cancer death rate, 553,251. And These numbers are even higher today.
Continue To Read the Full Stats Here –>Death by Medicine
Our nutritional requirements certainly change as we get older. We stop producing as much stomach acid and therefore, stop digesting our foods, all of the vitamins and minerals do not get absorbed and we develop chronic health conditions that we take medications for, which actually make the underlying problems worse.
But there is a better way! And you do not need to stop doing what you currently do with your MD or any other specialist. A smart nutritional plan and a doctor who looks to the whole person can help reverse MOST chronic conditions and get some of your strength, energy and youth back. At the Biamonte Center, we also have BioCybernetics software that was invented for NASA to determine nutritional deficiencies and in which priority to address them.
Don’t wait! Call today to schedule your initial consultation and have Dr. Biamonte put a specific and tailored nutritional plan together for you. You worked hard to get to your golden years. Now make sure you can enjoy them!
| Poor Nutrition Can Cause | Proper Vitamins and Minerals |
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Effects of aging and gastritis on gastric acid and pepsin secretion in humans: a prospective study.
Feldman M1, Cryer B, McArthur KE, Huet BA, Lee E.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND & AIMS:
Recent studies suggesting that gastric secretion does not decrease with aging included few elderly individuals and measured only acid secretion. The aims of this study were to measure gastric acid and pepsin output in 206 health Americans (age range, 18-98 years) and to compare secretion rates with gastric histology.
RESULTS:
Gastric acid and pepsin output rates were similar in young (age range, 18-34 years) and middle-aged (age range, 35-64 years) groups. Stimulated acid output was reduced approximately 30% in the elderly (age range, 65-98 years). However, after adjustment for histology, Helicobacter pylori infection, and other variables, age had no independent effect on acid output. The decline in acid secretion in the elderly was primarily related to a higher prevalence of chronic atrophic gastritis and a lower prevalence of smoking. Pepsin output was reduced by approximately 40% in the elderly. After adjustment for other variables, age remained a robust predictor of reduced pepsin output.
CONCLUSION:
Although advancing age has no independent effect on gastric acid secretion, it is associated with reduced pepsin output independent of atrophic gastritis, H. pylori infection, and smoking.
Elderly & Magnesium
Geriatric cachexia is associated with anorexia, involuntary weight loss, infections, decubitus ulcers, malnutrition, cognitive and psychiatric disorders, and even death (1). Yeh and Schuster stated that, of these conditions, only malnutrition is amenable to medical intervention. I propose that magnesium replacement therapy be considered as a therapy in geriatric cachectic patients found to be magnesium deficient.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant cation in the body and the second most abundant intracellular cation (3). It is an activator in ≈300 enzyme systems that are critical to cellular metabolism (4). Magnesium is essential in reactions involving ATP, which is required for glucose utilization, muscle contraction, and the synthesis of fat, protein, nucleic acid, and coenzymes (4). Other functions of magnesium include neurochemical transmission, skeletal muscle contraction, cardiac homeostasis, and the maintenance of normal intracellular concentrations of other cations (3).
Magnesium depletion is associated with biochemical and clinical derangements (3–5), which include impaired anabolic processes manifested by low serum albumin and serum protein concentrations and a decreased growth rate (5). Magnesium deficiency may contribute to cardiac arrhythmias, skeletal and respiratory muscle weakness, and seizures (3). Several mediators associated with the pathogenesis of cachexia are increased in magnesium deficiency (1). These include the inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, and TNF-α (2); PGE2 (6); and oxygen free radicals (2). In magnesium deficiency, not only are free radical concentrations higher than normal, but tissue concentrations of the antioxidants vitamin E, ascorbate, and glutathione are lower than normal; thus, endogenous antioxidant capacity is reduced, predisposing magnesium-deficient tissues to subsequent oxidative stress (2). The cytokine substance P, which increases early in magnesium deficiency, may lead to oxidative injury and appetite suppression, possibly contributing to the reduced food intake and weight loss that characteristically occur in experimental animals within 2 wk of dietary magnesium restriction (2).
Two surveys showed suboptimal magnesium intake among free-living adults in the United States. One survey, sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture (7), showed magnesium intakes that were 61.7% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA; 8) among elderly people from food-insufficient households. A second study was conducted among well-educated, middle-to-upper class, community-dwelling volunteers in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (9). In both men and women, median daily dietary intakes of magnesium failed to meet the 1989 RDA. Forty percent of the men and ≈50% of the women consumed less than two-thirds of the RDA for magnesium. The consequences of these marginal intakes of magnesium on health status are unknown and require further study.
Other studies provided data concerning the incidence of hypomagnesemia and of its associated mortality among hospitalized patients. In their study of an inner-city, medically disadvantaged, indigent population, Rubeiz et al (3) detected hypomagnesemia at the time of admission in 18% of ward and in 20% of intensive-care-unit patients. The mortality rates of the 2 groups of patients were approximately twice (P < 0.01) the rates of the normomagnesemic groups. They cited one study that reported low serum magnesium concentrations in up to 65% of intensive-care-unit patients, and another study that showed a higher mortality rate in hypomagnesemic postoperative patients than in their normomagnesemic counterparts.
Cognitive disorders, psychiatric disorders, and mental depression are occasional features of cachexia (1) and may be associated with hypomagnesemia (10). Levine et al (10) showed that patients with acute depressive disorders had elevations in the ratio of calcium to magnesium in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid. Hypomagnesemic patients have reported confusion, disorientation, agitation, hallucinations, and depression. Magnesium has been effective in alleviating depressive and manic symptoms in rapidly cycling bipolar disorders (10).
Possibly, magnesium deficiency contributes to diminished host defenses in the elderly (1). Elin (5) showed profound immunosuppressive capability in magnesium-deficient mice that had low numbers of antibody-synthesizing cells and low serum immunoglobulin concentrations. He cited studies in magnesium-depleted rats with decreased serum γ globulin and immunoglobulin G concentrations.
I suggest that magnesium deficiency in elderly patients contributes to cachexia. Magnesium deficiency puts the patient at risk of increased activity of damaging mediators that contribute to cachexia (eg, inflammatory cytokines, PGE2, and oxygen free radicals) and it reduces the tissues’ antioxidant capacity. Magnesium deficiency may increase the risk for cognitive and psychiatric disorders, which may be amenable to magnesium therapy (10).
It may be prudent to evaluate the magnesium status of elderly patients with cachexia. If these subjects are magnesium deficient, magnesium supplementation may be beneficial because magnesium supplementation is the best way to proceed to make sure that the correct amount of magnesium is ingested by the elderly.