From The February 2001 Issue of Nutrition Science News

Are Americans Getting Paranoid About Health?

by Jack Challem

An aging population has reason to be concerned about health—the older people get, the greater the risk of developing serious degenerative diseases.

But as a health writer, I sometimes wonder if people aren't getting a little too paranoid about the inevitability of growing old and dying.

It's no wonder, really, because health is big business, and nowadays so is health news. Such information can prey on anxieties, teasing people into watching the evening news, prompting them to surf Web sites, and egging them on into buying products. Major health associations only add to this fear by regularly warning about the growing incidence of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and other conditions. Meanwhile, drug companies pummel consumers with ads promoting prescriptions that lower cholesterol, treat heartburn, or restore sexual prowess. Supplement companies often leverage the same fears, though I do believe many nutritional supplements are beneficial.

Although all of these factors put dollars in the pockets of those of you who are pharmacists and health care practitioners, as professionals you may be feeling the burden of your clients' health anxieties. It is to you they turn for trustworthy advice and information, and thus you have a responsibility to help them sort through the hype and find realistic ways to reduce their risk of disease and improve their quality of life.

Drugs do help acute health problems, but how do daily dosage regimens of countless pills affect one's quality of life? Too often people don't address their condition until it becomes a crisis that warrants drugs, if not surgery. Before your clients fall into the day-to-day existence centered around pharmaceutical pill-popping, counsel them to help reduce health risks by getting back to basics. The following five simple steps will take them in the right direction.

First, encourage them to eat lots of vegetables. Hundreds of studies have shown that people who eat diets rich in vegetables—loaded with antioxidants, fiber, and many other important nutrients—are associated with the lowest risk of disease.

Second, have them emphasize the good fats instead of cutting back on all fats. They are best off including a good amount of omega-3 fats (in fish and flaxseed), and cooking with omega-9-rich olive oil. In addition, have them cut back on omega-6 fats (in most cooking oils and refined products) and avoid foods with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which throw a wrench into the body's metabolism and raise cholesterol levels.

Third, explain the benefits of cutting back on refined foods—that is, foods that have been significantly altered from their original appearance. These include breads, pastas, sweets, and most foods that come in boxes. Such foods generally provide little more than nutritionally empty calories. Instead, emphasize fresh foods.

Fourth—and here's a place where it can hit your bottom line with higher margins than drugs—take them through a step-by-step program to supplement sensibly. That means starting with the basics, such as a high-potency multivitamin and a multimineral. Advise them to take 400 IU/day of natural vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) and 1,000 mg/day of vitamin C. Other supplements can come later, if they wish.

Fifth, play up the importance of being physically active. A simple daily walk can lower glucose and improve insulin function, which will reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other disorders.

If you keep these five steps in mind, you'll do a better job of reducing the "noise level" of extraneous health information and help your customers stay focused on the foundations of health.

Jack Challem, known as The Nutrition Reporter™, has been writing about vitamin research for 25 years and is the author of Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance (Wiley, 2000).