Clinic Notes, Feb 24

Here we go with the latest Clinic Notes bits and bobs I find interesting for practitioners…

First, a useful patient story type reminder of what can be achieved in cardiovascular health with the right nutrients. Side Benefits, Not Side Effects in Orthomolecular News. He described the benefits of a programme he devised for high lipoprotein (a) and heart issues, which has results in solving much more than he bargained for.

I’ve had quite a few people struggling with hair loss recently. As you know, there can be many reasons for it – mostly gluten autoimmune follicle attack and hormones in my clinical experience – but I’d not thought of MSM before. Might be useful for those more sticky cases. Sponsored by the manufacturer and a small sample size, but I share in case it is useful. In the NMJ: Methylsulfonylmethane and Hair Health, Effect of a sulfur-containing supplement on improving hair condition.

I had a quick look for a hair supplement – and of course many have MSM in; I’d just never noticed as I get MSM for skin, collagen, nails etc but hadn’t twigged it for hair. Anyway, I thought this looked quite a goodie, esp if androgens are involved.

Again in the NMJ, was an interesting article about breast cancer screening time guidelines not being suitable for black women, who they reckon would benefit from earlier screening. Racial Considerations in Breast Cancer Screening. In the UK, breast screening is recommended at age 50-53. Black women (in the US studies anyway) would need to be screened from about 42 to offer the same benefits because their risk of early-onset breast cancer seems to be higher – denser breasts?

“In general, Black females had an increased risk of dying due to early-onset breast cancer and so could be screened up to 8 years earlier than the recommended starting age of 50 years. Black females reached the risk threshold level at age 42 years, that were equivalent to White females at age 51 years, American Indian or Alaska Native and Hispanic females at age 57 years, and Asian or Pacific Islander females 11 years later, at age 61 years. Race and ethnicity–adapted starting ages for Black females were consistently lower to achieve similar risk of breast cancer mortality, specifically they were 6 years earlier for mass screening at age 40 years and 7 years earlier for mass screening at age 45 years.”⁵

NMJ

Talking of cancer, how close are we to the longed-for MCED (multicancer early detection) tests where a single blood test can detect pre-symptomatic cancers? Not too far, according to this article on Medscape, but also I note that some experts (take a bow, oncologist Karol Sikora) are not sure about them yet because of false results, only picking up advanced, not early cancers, and worrying people unnecessarily. Check it out:

Universal Early Cancer Detection: How Close Are We?

Doesn’t social media for your business get on your nerves sometimes? It does me. I feel much of the time I am communicating with ghosts. You don’t feel like your work or words are being noticed or even put before your audience, thanks to the ruddy algorithms – unless you’re paying for advertising nowadays. I often consider just stopping all of it. In fact, I really focus on my blog and newsletter nowadays with an FB page for Purehealth and repost on Linked In for practitioners. I used to have FB groups, Twitter accounts, Instagram; the whole shebang, with an automated posting whatsit to save me time – but not money! It is far better to write specific posts for the various platforms and, frankly, I can’t be bothered; life is too short!

I am always interested in other business owners who have forsworn social media – and I’m seeing quite a few doing it; there is a definite trend away from online to offline marketing again, I can feel it! I have started getting hope from Astrid Bracke’s Female Owned, Small business without the hustle Substack newsletter. Check it out if you want to see how she does business without social media. Of course, I am old enough to have built my business without social media or the t’internet, so old hat to me, but a good reminder! Begin with this one:

“You can’t run an online business without social media” (and other myths I was told)

I feel drawn to writing on Substack – it seems to be writing for writers mostly – but actually it’s just a platform for a (free or paid-for) blog, which I’ve had since 2000!

Finally, for this issue: should we recommend probiotics to pregnant mums and babies? I always have, I don’t know about you. What about babies on formula? Here’s one take on the subject in the Townsend Newsletter. Probiotics for Moms and Babies: Health or Hype? She tends to go for bifido strains, as do I, but I did pick up a useful tip: L. rhamnosus has been shown to reduce postpartum depression and anxiety in a double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial.⁸. So, including that in Mum’s probiotics during pregnancy might not be a bad idea. I see Viridian do a good one including that.

In case it helps, I have a few ideas on useful homeopathic and essential oil remedies during pregnancy too in my Pregnancy factsheet here.