Ben Fuchs

Ben Fuchs is a nutritional pharmacist from Colorado. He specializes in using nutritional supplements when other healthcare practitioners use toxic pharmaceutical drugs.He is the founder and formulator of Truth Treatment Systems for skin care, host of The Bright Side syndicated radio show, a member of Youngevity's Scientific Advisory Board, health expert and frequent guest on Coast to Coast am with George Noory."The human body is a healing and regenerating system, designed divinely to heal & renew itself on a moment to moment basis." "Take charge of your biochemistry through foods and supplements, rather than allow toxic prescription drugs to take charge of you." ~Ben Fuchs

Oct

2013

Melanin is Really Important Stuff!

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Poor Mr. Melanin. These days the latest skin care products feature skin whitening agents to shut down the production of the tanning biochemical. And of course standard medical dogma discourages sun exposure, effectively suppressing melanin synthesis. And those that go out in the sun are encouraged to wear sun protection, even further reducing melanin activity. All of which is too bad because as it turns out melanin is really important stuff!

Albinism occurs when melanocytes produce little or no melanin. This albino girl is from Papua New Guinea.. By Muntuwandi, from Wikimedia Commons

In fact melanin, the biochemical most people recognize as a good tan, may be the most under-appreciated AND most fascinating molecules in the body. Melanin, the most ubiquitous and basic pigment in all of biology is the stuff that darkens your skin when you lay out, play golf, take a walk or do whatever you do to catch some rays. And while lots folks love a nice tan, how many of us can say that we understand just what exactly it is that gives the skin that much-desired golden hue.

What we call a tan is a manifestation of a chemical reaction that occurs between sunlight and melanin, the skin pigment that is found in all living things from fungi to fauna to human beings. And a pigment is nothing more than a molecule that absorbs waves of energy, the waves of energy called “light”. Waves of energy vary by their length and these various waves appear to us as colors. Red for example, has the longest wavelength. The wave we see as green is intermediate in length and Violet the shortest wavelength color visible to the human eye.

Pigments don’t absorb just any light. The typical pigment is selective about the kind of light it will absorb; other types are just not acceptable. Rejected light can be observed as the color of the pigment. A green colored pigment, for example, absorbs every part of the light spectrum BUT green which is rejected and thus observable. Likewise when we see red or blue, or any other color, what we are seeing is the light radiation that has been rejected, eliminated, spit out.

Melanin is a pigment too and like other pigments it absorbs specific types of light; i.e. wavelengths. However unlike other pigments, the light melanin absorbs is an invisible form known as ultraviolet radiation (UvR). As would be expected from a molecule that absorbs invisible light, the light melanin emits or rejects is anti-invisible light! It’s black. Instead of emitting colors as do other pigments melanin gets hot. In fact a melanin molecule can generate enough heat to enhance and amplify chemical reactions, acting in essence like a metabolism stimulating battery.

But melanin is more than a light absorbing pigment. Melanin is one of the most important organizing molecules in the body. It’s light absorbing properties ultimately allow it to structure the chaotic quantum waves of energy that comprise our environment into the tangible physical world we know as real. Melanin is known as a biological transducer which means it can convert energy forms into other energy forms. For example melanin can change sound energy into light energy and light energy back into sound. That’s why the erstwhile tanning molecule is found in great abundance in both the non-tanning eye and inner ear.

There are three main types of melanin. The first two, phaeomelanin (red-brown in color and most abundant in fairer folks) and eumelanin (brown black and found in the in those with darker complexions) are skin and hair pigments. The third type of melanin is found in great abundance in the brain. There it’s called neuromelanin, and it appears to act as a biological semi-conductor structuring, channeling. and organizing electrical energy. Neuromelanin is a powerful free radical scavenger and brain protective anti-oxidant

If you’re interested in boosting melanin production, think tyrosine. This essential amino acid is not made in the body and to keep you’re levels adequate you’ve got to make sure you’re getting in the diet. Good sources of tyrosine include seaweed, spirulina soy, eggs cheese, quinoa, avocados and pumpkin seeds. You can also use tyrosine supplements. A 500 mg a day dose will not only get you enough of the amino for building melanin, it’ll probably give you a little buzz too. That’s because in addition to being an important component of melanin it’s also a fundamental building block of important biochemical energizers including dopamine, norepinephrine, adrenalin, and thyroid hormone.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/beauty/Do-fairness-creams-work-magic/articleshow/9064048.cms

Oct

2013

Lupus is a Disease of the Immune System

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Lupus is a non-tissue specific (it can show up in many parts of the body) autoimmune disease with broad based symptoms, the most common of which is a butterfly shaped pattern of redness that appears on the face. At one time physicians used to believe it was caused by a bite from a wolf (lupus is the Latin word for “wolf). Today doctors and other medical geniuses will tell you that there is no known cause, but I’m only a simple little pharmacist so I’m going to tell you that there is. Lupus is a disease of the immune system. It represents a characteristic immune system malfunction called autoimmunity, which simply means the body’s defensive chemistry turns on itself (auto = “self”). According to the Lupus Foundation website the symptoms of lupus “mysteriously” show up. They claim that they are “devoted to solving the mystery of lupus”. Oh really? Well, perhaps they should listen to The Bright Side where we talk about the real causes of lupus and other autoimmune diseases, which is quite obviously a jacked up and malfunctioning immune system. The only mystery is what exactly is it that is causing this hyperactive and misguided immune initiation.

Drawing of the typical “butterfly rash” found in lupus. By National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

Ok, good question. What is it that causes a confused defensive response? That is, a defensive response that instead of focusing its wrath on an enemy instead turns its considerable biochemical firepower on the organism that it’s supposed to be defending. Well, in order to answer that question we have to understand where in the organism the immune system is located.
The vast majority of the immune system, anywhere from 70 to 80 percent, is located in a specialized tissue of the digestive tract. It’s technically called “Gastro Intestinal Lymphoid Tissue”, or GALT, and it’s responsible for initiating all immune responses to troublesome foods that pass through the digestive tube called the intestine. The most significant GALT response involves increasing the permeability of the digestive lining thereby allowing immune cells, which live in the blood, to have access to said troublesome food.

Unfortunately this permeability of the digestive lining is a two way street. In addition to allowing immune system cells to enter into the intestine from the blood, it unfortunately also permits food particles to enter into the blood from the intestine. Big problem!

Once food particles enter into the blood, a second defensive response is then initiated within the blood. And now we really have problems! The immune system is intelligent; it learns and “remembers”. Foods have a chemical constituency and the immune cells learn to respond to and can “remember” the specific chemical constituency of a food particle. Once the offending food structure is “remembered”, the immune system will become activated by ANY similar chemical structure. In other words, it will attack any substances with that same or a similar chemical constituency. Because chemical constituencies are consistent throughout nature and biology, there are many organs and systems in the body that “look” like foods that the immune system has learned to react to. The immune system will then react to those tissues too. If, for example, the immune system learns to react to a chemical structure in hamburger particles that have entered in to the blood AND those hamburger chemical structures are similar to patterns of chemicals in the skin, the immune cells can (cross-) react to the skin, in addition to hamburger. Thus will be born an autoimmune disease of the skin perhaps psoriasis or vitiligo or scleroderma. If you’re eating soy and a defensive response is triggered, the immune system can learn to respond that troublesome legume’s chemical makeup. Soy’s chemical structure may resemble the structure of the thyroid, which can then become a victim of the immune activity that was supposed to be defending the body from soy. That’s called autoimmune disease of the thyroid, or Hashimoto’s Disease, which is the most common cause of hypothyroidism. If you eat bread or pasta and a wheat particle get into the blood, the immune system can learn to react to the chemical makeup of the wheat particle. Wheat particles may resemble the chemical structure of the intestine, and voila, autoimmune disease of the intestinal lining which is known as Celiac Disease. Sometimes learned immune reactions to food can affect connective tissue which provides structural support for everything in the body. If this occurs the disease is given the term “lupus”, which is essentially an autoimmune disease that can affect anything, including the joints, kidneys, lungs, blood and heart. In other words lupus can be a big autoimmunity mess!

If you’ve been diagnosed with lupus (or any other auto immune disease) there are NO curative medications. But that’s not a problem because immune system issues need not be medical issues. By definition, an immune health condition is a defensive (immune) response to an offending agent. An immune (and autoimmune) disease means we’re doing something that is activating the immune system. Best bet is to figure out what the heck we’re doing to activate the immune system and then STOP DOING IT! Clue: it usually involves food. Eliminate foods that cause any digestive distress. Using nutrition to build up the digestive tract is also important. Probiotics are always helpful. Glutamine powder can help rebuild the digestive lining, and polysaccharides from aloe, noni and ocean vegetation can have a wonderful soothing and supporting effect for digestive tissue. And strengthening the immune system with Vitamins E, C, and A; and minerals like selenium and zinc is a good idea for any autoimmune or immune health condition.

Oct

2013

Saturated Fat Myth

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

For decades medical model mythology has maintained that the heart and saturated fat are mortal enemies. Ever since Dr. Ancel Keys concluded that the lower incidences of heart disease in Japan, Finland, and some of the European countries was related to their lower intake of saturated fat (and cholesterol), Americans and health care professionals have had a love hate relationship with lipids. Although as a country we still consume large amounts fatty foods, and the vast majority of us find it impossible not to indulge, it’s next to impossible to find a doctor or dietician who doesn’t demand we don’t. Saturated fat is best thought of as “hard fat”, saturation being a chemical term that can best be perceived as hardness. Butter, lard, and cheese are all examples of foods that contain lots of saturated fats, while most liquid oils contain large amounts of unsaturated ones.

Coconuts sundried in Kozhikode, Kerala for making copra, which is used for making coconut oil. By Dan Iserman , via Wikimedia Commons

For almost 60 years health dogma has held that when we eat saturated fat, the firmness of our feta somehow becomes hardness in heart and blood vessels, resulting in the sticky fatty plaques that are linked cardiac pathology. This is despite the fact that pre-1900s statistics show that even though our great-grandparents ate much more saturated fat than do we, their 21st century descendents, heart disease of all kinds was far less prevalent, affecting around 8 percent of the population. By 1921 it was the leading cause of death, and it has remained so to this day, despite billions of dollars spent on diagnostics devices and lots of drugs.

Over the last 100 years or so Americans intake of saturated fatty foods has dropped dramatically. At the turn of the 20th century, for example, butter consumption fell from over 18 pounds per person per year to around 10 pounds or so by 1950. Today Americans eat only around 5 pounds of butter a year. On the other hand as the consumption of liquid fats, which in addition to being unsaturated are also highly processed, has risen, so have the rates of heart disease. The more unsaturated fat Americans ingest the sicker we become, not the other way around! Now whether or not there is direct causal link between heart disease and liquid oils has never been shown definitively, but certainly the demonization of saturated fats and their supposed connection to cardiac disease is at the very least unsubstantiated.

Whats more, there’s some evidence that eating saturated fat may actually be good for us. It’s much more stable than unsaturated (and especially poly-unsaturated) oils which break down and form heart-disease promoting free radicals really easily, especially when heated. And, Dr. Keys’ own data showed that countries with the highest per capita consumption of saturated fat actually had the lowest rates of heart disease.

Coconut Oil is my favorite saturated fat. It loaded with Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs), a special kind of saturated fat that’s especially filling and energizing. MCT’s are preferentially burnt, which makes them ideal for folks dealing with pancreatic, liver or fat malabsorbtion issues. For those with impaired gall bladder functioning or who’ve had this important structure removed, coconut oil MCTs can be an important source of fatty nutrition. Butter is great saturated fat too. It’s got iodine, selenium and Vitamin K to boot. Put it on steamed asparagus or broccoli. Add some Celtic sea salt and spices…yum!!

*Did you know dark chocolate is 43 percent saturated fat?*

http://www.jwatch.org/fw108056/2013/10/23/cardiologist-decries-myth-role-saturated-fat-heart?query=pfw

Oct

2013

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Late last week the FDA approved a new drug to treat Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH). The medication, called macitentan (Opsumit, Actelion) is the second drug approved this month to treat the debilitating disease. Earlier, the regulatory body approved a medication called riociguat (Adempas).

Micrograph showing a plexiform lesion of the lung, as seen in irreversible pulmonary hypertension. Image contributed by Bulent Celasun, MD, via Wikimedia Commons.

Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension is a condition that affects the blood circulation in the pulmonary system, which is medical term referring to respiratory mechanics and the lungs. Although no one knows exactly how many people have PAH, according to the American Thoracic Society (ATS), it may affect as many as hundreds of thousands of Americans. It can best be thought of as high blood pressure of the lung arteries and can lead to all kinds of unpleasant bodily symptoms including bluish lips, hands or feet, dizziness, fatigue and lethargy, shortness of breath, fainting and swelling in the lower extremities. PAH has no surgical cure, progresses rapidly and is marked by progressive degeneration and breakdown of the blood vessels that travel from the heart to the lungs. In a normal healthy body, blood is carried from the heart, then to the lungs, where it picks up oxygen, which is then in turn delivered back to the heart and then to the rest of the organs and tissues of the body. Under conditions of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension however, pulmonary arterial constriction, i.e. a tightening of the blood vessels in the lungs, restricts flow resulting in a sluggish circulation to the heart as well as a decrease in the amount of blood and oxygen that is ultimately delivered to the rest of the body. In addition, long term hypertension in the pulmonary arteries can lead to vascular changes including thickening of vessel walls, inflammation and the formation of plaques, all of which can further impair circulation and blood flow. Most significantly as the condition progresses, the heart, which is forced to work harder and faster to compensate for the vascular changes, becomes weakened. This can result in heart failure which is the most common cause of death in cases of PAH.

PAH can be associated with various other disease states including connective tissue disease, hypothyroidism, liver disease and heart disease, HIV infection and stimulant drug intake. However the vast majority of cases, according to ATS literature are said to be idiopathic, meaning they are associated with no known cause.

Although there is no medical cure for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, drug treatments have traditionally focused on vasodilators, which open up the blood vessels. However these kinds of drugs can create potential problems via lowering blood pressure in the rest of the body and ultimately decreasing the flow of blood to the lungs. Although the recently approved drugs, macitentan and riociguat, operate via novel mechanisms they are still vasodilators and can result in the same kind of problems as the more conventional PAH medications.

As with other circulatory health challenges there are many nutritional and dietary strategies that may help improve PAH. According to researchers writing in the European Respiratory Journal in April 2013, there is an increased prevalence of insulin resistance in PAH patients. Thus, restoring insulin sensitivity by reducing the intake of sugars and refined carbs may have a beneficial effect. Additionally there are nutritional supplements that can be used that improve insulin response. Niacin, thiamin, chromium and vanadium can all increase insulin sensitivity. So can the mineral magnesium, which can the potentize effects of insulin, and can provide lung and circulatory benefits. Magnesium has also been used as a medical treatment for PAH in newborns. In a 2004 study of 12 newborn babies with pulmonary hypertension published in the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics, magnesium was found to be “a safe and effective pulmonary vasodilator”, which is medical talk for “a safe substance for opening up blood vessels in the lungs”.

Finally, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center, while not specifically associated with treating pulmonary arterial hypertension, there are several nutritional supplements that can be used to improve heart health function in general. These include carnitine (500mg, three times a day), CoQ10 (200-600mg a day), Vitamin E (400 IU a day), potassium (20mg and day) and taurine (1000mg twice a day).

Oct

2013

The Cuddle Chemical Oxytocin

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

I love simple health tips. Drinking water, practicing caloric restriction, using Celtic Sea Salt, and regular deep breathing are all simple, inexpensive and easy to use strategies for improving health and well-being. And now it turns out, simple eye contact can up-regulate brain biochemicals that are associated with improved health care. While most of us intuitively understand looking someone in the eye can have beneficial effects most people don’t realize the biochemical logic behind the benefits associated with eye contact.

By Edgar181, via Wikimedia Commons

It all comes down to the cuddle chemical oxytocin, or as Dr. Paul Zak calls it in his book of the same title “The Moral Molecule”. Sometimes referred to as the “Biochemical of Love”, oxytocin is best known as a labor induction substance; the word oxytocin literally means “sharp (sudden) delivery”. Women who are undergoing a painful childbirth will be given an intravenous oxytocin drip designed to speed up the labor process, but oxytocin does so much more than improving uterine contractions and dampening a difficult delivery.

Oxytocin is associated with many, of what can be called, virtuous behaviors including generosity, trust, gregariousness, and bonding. Signs of oxytocin deficiency are similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia including poor impulse control, anger management issues and social anxiety disorders. And, there’s an interesting relationship between oxytocin and autism. In a 1998 study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry autistic children were found to have lower levels of oxytocin then their non-autistic counterparts. In another study, this one from the journal Neurophsychopharmacology published in 2003 patients showed a decrease in autistic type repetitive behaviors when oxytocin was administered intravenously.

New mom’s oxytocin levels rise when they see their newborns as does the oxytocin levels in the baby’s themselves. Adequate oxytocin levels are associated with an appropriate maternal recognition of a newborn’s unique odor. Breast feeding and baby’s mouthing of the nipples also stimulates maternal oxytocin. Oxytocin is important for stimulating maternal behaviors; it causes mom to be more caring, eager to please, more sensitive to other’s feelings, and to recognize
non-verbal cues more readily.

Oxytocin has anti-depressant properties. Brain oxytocin levels go up when we’re touched when we watch sad movies or when we’re feeling compassionate or empathetic. It’s involved in memory and learning, it stabilizes cortisol levels and it can stimulate the growth and maturation of heart cells. Some researchers believe that the feelings of love and empathy associated with the drug MDMA also known as “ecstasy” is at least partially mediated by the action of oxytocin.
Oxytocin activates cells of the parasympathetic “relaxation” nervous system, and symptoms of anxiety and nervous tension diminish. It has anti-stress benefits and can improve blood flow too. Oxytocin stimulates blood flow to the brain and to the uterus and not surprisingly it’s circulatory effects are responsible for
the cheeks rosy glow associated with sex and orgasms.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131016100447.htm