Athletes Trading Health for Money, or Not

Did you ever wonder what it’s like to be  a famous, wealthy athlete–always covered in the news for your latest records and victories? I’m sure the glamour of the lifestyle is sometimes offset by daily life challenges and then there’s the big one: what pressures are there to compete with the all star, cream of the crop 24/7?

How many times are they offered steroids and other drugs to beef up their bodies and their performance? One only has to google the long term effects of steroids and find out all of the debilitating effects from depression to joint problems to impotence and sterility. That should be enough to drive any young person running in the opposite direction!

But the money and recognition for using steroids and other drugs is be a very strong motivator for so many athletes, pulling in athletes from the pros, college, and high school.There’s even web sites promoting steroids and arguing that they’re not all that dangerous…they claim it’s just a trick of the media to instill fear.

I’m not someone who follows professional sports, but  I happened to read a few articles this week highlighting the choices athletes make every day amidst the pressure to stay competitive and continue to perform at their peak. One was about Joe Torre and interviews about his new book The Yankee Years, covering his long history as Manager of the Yankees. The subject of steroids has come up big time! As Joe said in a Larry King interview,  ”In regards to steroids, I think we’re all to blame, all of baseball. I never realized how far reaching this problem has been.”

And what cost do these athletes bear with their choice of drugs? I found the www.TaylorHooton.org  site today featuring the foundation that one father began to respond to his son’s suicide after 3 years on steroids. Teaching kids there’s another choice. Typical to many teenagers striving to get to the top of the athletic ladder, his teenage son was trying to bulk up to be more competitive, when the long-term use of the drug took him down.

Then there’s “A-Rod”, Alex Rodriguez, a New York Yankee player who everyone in the sports world knows lots about. He kept his drug use under wraps for years.  He recently was interviewed by ESPN and apologized profusely for the years of misrepresenting himself and the serious mistakes he’d made for being naive and in giving in to the seduction of the drugs as a Texas ranger between 2001 and 2003.

He was giving himself injections, not knowing if he was even doing it right or if it was safe. Even, President Obama has jumped in with a comment on the news from Rodriguez: ”. . .if you’re a fan of Major League Baseball, I think it tarnishes an entire era, to some degree,” Obama said. “And it’s unfortunate, because I think there were a lot of ballplayers who played it straight.” Now Rodriguez, to make amends for his mistakes has decided to join the Hooton foundation to educate youth about anabolic steroids.

Contrast all of this news with a press release about Nancy Lieberman who has played it straight and who at age 50 came back to play in the finals of the Detroit Shock last year and last week  in the McDonald’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game Friday, Feb. 13, on the winning East team.From  a press release on Febuary 17, http://tinyurl.com/c482cm “To make sure I was ready for the game, I stay in good shape with physical exercise, training and proper dietary supplementation with Mannatech products like BounceBack™ capsules, CardioBALANCE® heart care formula, Optimal Support Packets, SPORT™ capsules and ImmunoSTART® chewables that help me achieve and maintain optimal wellness.”

Lieberman is the youngest basketball player in Olympic history to win a medal, a three-time college all-American and inductee in the Basketball Hall of Fame. She is also a member of the Team Mannatech program, a group of 195 athletes worldwide who utilize cutting-edge training techniques and proper nutrition while serving as educators preserving the integrity of sports competition and the health of all athletes.

“We are proud to have Nancy as part of our team and cheered her on as we watched her play and win last Friday,” said former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Butch Johnson, Mannatech’s senior director of community affairs and sports marketing. “Her accomplishments on and off the court and her dedication to health and nutrition make her the ideal role model for today’s wellness generation. We couldn’t be happier for her and look forward to her continued success.”

The Team Mannatech program aggressively supports the World Anti-Doping agency through its dedication to preserving the integrity of sports competition and health of all athletes. Mannatech products are formulated without any of the 4,000 substances banned by the International Olympic Committee’s 2009 world anti-doping list.

There’s always a choice in every moment. Choose for your well-being or pay many prices! 

HPV Vaccine Exemptions? Prevention?

While the debate goes on about the Gardisil vaccine and its efficacy and whether or not this vaccine should be part of a list of required vaccines, it looks like parental rights are still at risk. Dawn Richardson, Austin parent and advocate for parental choice writes in a letter to parents in her school community: “you need to know that your right to a vaccine exemption when your child attends a private school is not upheld and protected by law – and in fact many private schools do not accept the exemption.” Dawn initiated the PROVE program ten years ago. PROVE stands for Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education. All are encouraged to visit the site: http://www.vaccineinfo.net to learn more about vaccines and exemptions.

It is amazing to see how many people assume the only way to prevent cancer is through vaccines. Educated people argue that cancer is just a reality so we need the vaccines. There is such an opportunity here to educate the public about building the immune system of the body. We have abnormal cells in our body daily and what can determine our health is not how many vaccines we subject ourselves to, but how we are building the terrain of the body to protect itself. When there have been plagues through history affecting vast segments of the population, not everyone succumbed. Those with strong immune systems faired well. The same is true today. If you would like an informative article on building the terrain of the body, please e-mail us. We’ll send it along.

Beyond the issue of parental rights and which vaccines should be among the list of required for school attendance, numerous health concerns about the vaccine itself and State Senator Hegar brings up some important points in the Houston Community Newspaper — on line at HCNonline.com

“Hegar said that an even greater risk is that the Gardisil vaccine protects against only four strains of the HPV virus that can cause cervical cancer, while the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 100 strains of HPV can cause genital warts and that 30 sexually transmitted high risk strains can cause cancer of the cervix. While the four strains of the HPV virus that the Gardisil vaccine protects against are responsible for up to 70 percent of cervical cancers, anyone receiving the Gardisil vaccine will still need to have regular PAP tests to detect cervical cancer. “Governor Perry’s mandated vaccine may only lessen the risk and does not prevent women from getting cervical cancer,” Hegar added.

“Forcing all Texas 11 and 12 year old girls to receive the Gardisil vaccine is completely out of line with the longstanding history of why children in the United States are required to receive nine vaccines for thirteen different diseases.

“Unlike, all of the other mandated vaccines in Texas, Gardisil will not eliminate a preventable disease in our State. Instead, parents will be given a false hope that their daughters will never contract cervical cancer, which is a grave injustice to these young girls and their families.”

Take action today and learn what you can do to strengthen your immune system! There’s even some YouTube links that will be a wake up call about how easily you can begin to build your immune reserve. Write to us at healthtutor.gmail.com

Does you daughter need another vaccine?

What do you think about our government dictating what vaccines we must give our children? Do we have any real evidence that any of the vaccines are safe and perform as they were intended? Why not build up our children’s immune systems with healthy eating habits and good supplements before turning them over to the government for experimentation. What ever happened to our freedom of choice in such matters?

Before you read the info below, this is a quote from a book called “Selling Sickness” by Ray Moynihan and Alan Cassels “How the worlds biggest pharmaceutical companies are turning us all into patients”

On the inside cover – the first paragraph reads:

“Thirty years ago, Henry Gadsden, the head of MERCK, one of the world’s largest drug companies, told Fortune Magazine that he wanted Merck to be more like chewing gum maker Wrigley’s. It had long been his dream, he said, to make drugs for healthy people so that Merck could “sell to everyone” Gadsden’s dream now drives the marketing machinery of the most profitable industry on earth.

Using their dominating influence in the world of medical science, drug companies are systematically working to widen the very bondaries that define illness. Old conditions are expanded, new ones are created, and the markets for medication grow every larger. Mild problems are redefined as serious illness, and common complaints are labelled as medical conditions requiring drug treatments. Runny noses are now allergic rhinitis, PMT has become a psychiatric disorder, and hyperactive children have ADD. Being “at risk” for a condition such as high cholesterol or low-bone density is sold as a disease in its own right.

Selling Sickness reveals how widening the boundaries of illness and lowering the threshold for treatments is creating millions of new patients and billions in new profits, in turn threatening to bankrupt health care systems all over the world. As more and more of ordinary life becomes medicalized, the industry moves ever closer to Gadsden’s dream: “selling to everyone”.”

So here’s the article about Governor Perry’s unilateral decision paving the way for other states to follow:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-02-02-texas_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

This next one is from Global New in Calgary but if you search there are articles from every newspaper across Canada:

Vaccine committee recommends widespread use of HPV vaccine for girls (The vaccine Gardasil is produced by Merck)
Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Pre-teen girls in Alberta are one step closer to receiving the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer.

Gardasil was approved in July, and now the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has delivered recommendations about who should be getting the shot.

It says girls between the ages of 9-13 should be routinely vaccinated, before sexual activity starts.

It should also be administered to females between the ages of 14-26, even if they’re already sexually active, or have had previous pap test abnormalities.

NACI doesn’t recommend Gardasil for girls younger than 9, pregnant women or men.

We still don’t know who will pay for this vaccine. Right now it is available at pharmacies with a doctor’s prescription, but it’s expensive. Some question how effective it will be, if governments don’t pick up the tab.

“This is an expensive vaccine. I think it now costs between $600 and $700 for 3 doses over 6 months, and that is not going to be affordable for most families. If there’s serious commitment to see this vaccine as a major means to prevent cervical cancer in Canada, then both governments, provincially and nationally, need to support the inclusion of the HPV vaccine in a vaccination program,” says Laura Wershler, the exective director of Sexual Health Access Alberta.

Alberta Health says there’s been no decision on whether to include this vaccine in it’s provincially funded vaccine program.

The vaccine protects against 4 strains of the Human Papilloma Virus, which is responsible for about 70% of cases of cervical cancer.

Updated news:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4532274.html

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:
There is a an old saying in politics: Don’t count your chickens before
they are hatched. Texas Governor Rick Perry should have remembered that
old saying before crowning himself King and wielding his executive
branch power like a scepter over the Texas legislature in order to force
all little girls in Texas to get three doses of Merck’s HPV vaccine,
GARDASIL.

The funny thing about it is that Merck had launched a massive
PR/advertising blitz for GARDASIL on TV and in magazines and, with a
little help from some friends, was successfully simultaneously
introducing bills in multiple states with a military precision not seen
since the invasion of Iraq. It was breathtaking in scope and public
health officials, many doctors, politicians and editors were giving
GARDASIL a standing ovation as the greatest advancement in the history
of vaccines and cancer prevention. Flush with the victory of having
convinced the FDA that GARDASIL should be fast- tracked into early
licensure in the summer of 2006 and with unanimous blessing by the CDC’s
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that GARDASIL should
be used by all pre-adolescent girls, Merck was on a roll.

Merck was on a roll until parents, who were being threatened with state
mandates forcing their little girls to get three doses of GARDASIL,
started to object after taking a closer look at the evidence for the
safety, efficacy and costs of GARDSIL to prevent 3700 cases of cervical
cancer every year that can be prevented with routine pap screening and
early treatment of pre-cancerous signs. Some legislators and
investigative reporters started asking questions. It was revealed that
Merck was, in effect, funding the political effort to get many states to
mandate the vaccine. The National Vaccine Information Center issued a
press release on Feb. 1 questioning how Merck could possibly know
whether it was safe to give GARDASIL to little girls when they only
studied less than 2,000 of them in pre-licensure clinical trials and
when reports were already coming into VAERS that indicated some pretty
serious health events were occurring after GARDASIL vaccination. Some
legislators in some states pulled state mandate proposals or modified
them to include opt-in provisions for parents.

Then Merck choked, convincing the Governor of Texas to put on his cowboy
hat and perform the Heimlich maneuver. But what they didn’t count on was
public opinion when it comes to messing around with the democratic
process and freedom.

After PROVE’s Dawn Richardson stood her ground against HPV vaccine
mandates in Texas on NBC’s “Today Show”and legislators and doctors alike
told “King Perry” on Tuesday that he had gone too far, today an MSNBC
poll of more than 85,000 responders shows that the majority of Americans
do not think HPV vaccine mandates are right.

Actually, the Governor of Texas and Merck may have done America a favor:
the debate about the threat to freedom and the democratic process posed
by forced vaccination policies, the influence of corporations in the
political process, and abuse of power by the chiefs of executive
branches of government is now being openly discussed.
Let freedom ring.

What Are We Marketing to Our Children?

Sometimes it’s tough as a parent to help your child make healthy food choices–it’s a challenge because we’re so often in a hurry and looking for quick solutions ourselves. But consider for a moment what the health of these children will be like if we keep letting them and ourselves succomb to the latest in marketing junk food to our kids. Here’s an excerpt from the Guardian. Read the complete article linked below to see how the research is being done from kids’ focus groups to hone in on how to effectively sell to our young. Who’s watching out for the health of our children? It really falls upon every parent, teacher, and administrator of children’s programs to get involved and be proactive about protecting our children.

From the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1759888,00.html

“The average American child now spends about 25 hours a week watching television. That adds up to more than 1.5 months, non-stop, of TV every year. And that does not include the time spent in front of a screen watching videos, playing video games or using a computer.

Aside from going to school, American children now spend more time watching television than doing anything else except sleeping. The average British child spends two hours and 20 minutes every day watching television and 25 minutes playing video games. In the UK, more than half of children under the age of 16 have a television in their bedroom.

During the course of a year, the typical American child watches more than 40,000 TV commercials. About 20,000 of those ads are for junk food: soft drinks, sweets, breakfast cereals and fast food. That means American children now see a junk food ad every five minutes while watching TV – and see about three hours of junk food ads every week. American kids aren’t learning about food in the classroom. They’re being taught what to eat by the same junk food ads, repeating again and again.

Although the fast food chains in the US now spend more than $3bn every year on television advertising, another form of product promotion has proven even more effective. ‘The key to attracting kids,” one marketing publication says, “is toys, toys, toys.’”

What’s being done in Australia on a national level is a survey to see what the children are eating:

“AMA (Australian Medical Association) President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said today there must be a National Nutrition Survey to get a true picture of what Australians of all ages are eating if we are to put in place strategies to turn back the obesity and overweight tide that is engulfing our children.” Read more.

As always, you can contact us at 866-741-2922 or HealthTutor@gmail.com

Ask Your Doctor? Maybe not about Nutrition!

One of my challenges as a wellness educator and holistic health practitioner is working with consumers who want to ask their doctor to evaluate nutritional products. It seems like a good idea, but is it? Consider how many hours the average doctor has studied nutrition. While some doctors are educated about nutrition, most fall woefully short of being expert consultants in this area. The ones who are educated in this area, have usually pursued it on their own after medical school.

In an article released on April 12, 2006 published at www.nutraingredients-usa.com, Stephen Daniells details the disquieting news that indeed, US medical schools provide very minimal nutrition education to their students. 60% do not meet even the minimal requirements of 25 hours of education recommend in 1985 by The National Academy of Sciences. This data was culled from a new survey published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Vol. 83, pp. 941S-944S).

“Dr Daniel Fabricant, vice president of scientific affairs of the National Nutritional Foods Association, applauded the authors of the study, but said that it seemed to confirm what many in the research community have long believed to be true.

‘There is an ever increasing amount of good science that demonstrates how very important nutritive factors, like the use of dietary supplements, are for not only maintaining health, but in preventing disease.’”

Some doctors have been very proactive about nutrition education and pursued holistic health programs, continuing education programs and independent studies. We work with many such doctors today. To see continuing education programs for health professionals on glycobiology and glyconutrition, visit: www.proevity.com

Next time you hve a burning question about nutrition or a particular supplement you are considering and you want to ask your doctor, you might preface your conversation with a question about whether or not they have worked with nutrition extensively with disease conditions. If the answer is “no,” they are probably not qualified to give an opinion about nutrition choices. You’re better off asking someone like me or another wellness educator or holistic practitioner.

Have a question about mixing nutrition and pharmaceuticals? Ask someone who is qualified such as a pharmacist trained in nutraceuticals. They’re available with or without your doctor’s involvement at www.mannapharmacists.com

Contact us at healthtutor@gmail.com with any questions or to receive our Health E-Newsletter! 866-741-2922