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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, June 27, 2010
Why You are Sick if You Want to Eat Right
(But It's Perfectly Normal to Treat Angina with Pressure Pants)
Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
(OMNS, June 27, 2010) First of all, we are not making this up. "Healthy food obsession sparks rise in new eating disorder: Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder" was an actual article headline from UK's The Observer, founded 1791, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.
And now, eating right has an official disease name, too: orthorexia nervosa. (1)
Oooh! Tell us more!
Symptoms evidently include "refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods (and) any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives." Also, "sufferers tend to be aged over 30, middle-class and well-educated" and "solely concerned with the quality of the food they put in their bodies." (2)
Comic strip artist Morrie Brickman once quipped, "I don't know if the world is full of smart men bluffing, or imbeciles who mean it." But orthorexia nervosa is not a prank.
Neither is this:
"Vibrating trousers help angina patients," said Medical News Today. And, although lacking the pedigree of The Observer, the reporting is still weirdly noteworthy:
"Angina patients in the UK are being treated with vibrating trousers which work by increasing the blood flow to the heart. . . The patient is treated for seven weeks. He/she has to wear the pants for one hour a day, five days a week. The seven-week treatment costs 10,500 pounds sterling. Most private health insurers will pay for the course, says Vasogenics, the company that makes the vibrating trousers." (3)
You can watch a slick American-market sales video at http://www.vasogenics.com/ or http://www.vasogenics.com/downloads/vasomedical.wmv. The illustrated patient's guide is downloadable from http://www.vasogenics.com/SITE%20images/Vasogenics%20patient%20guide%20lr.pdf
Monty Python devotees recall the troupe's "Trim Jeans" inflatable reducing pants send-up from 1972. (Series 3, episode 2). There are those who might opine that the British equivalent of $2,000 a week to have your calves squeezed is not comedy. At least, not intentionally.
The inflatable pants (ECP or EECP) therapy may provide symptomatic relief. Or, as BlueCross/BlueShield claims, it may be useless. (4) But either way, it is significant that in all the discussion there is not a breath of mention of vitamin E. Vitamin E is the safest, cheapest and most effective solution to angina. (5)
And a "fixation with healthy eating" is, well, healthy. After all, if you are not a health nut, then just what kind of a nut are you?
References:
(1) Donini LM, Marsili D, Graziani MP, Imbriale M, Cannella C. Orthorexia nervosa: a preliminary study with a proposal for diagnosis and an attempt to measure the dimension of the phenomenon. Eat Weight Disord. 2004 Jun;9(2):151-7. See also this mildly critical 2008 article from the Turkish Journal of Psychiatry: http://www.turkpsikiyatri.com/en/default.aspx?modul=article&id=638
(2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/16/orthorexia-mental-health-eating-disorder
The Observer, August 16, 2009, News section, p 12.
(3) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/14414.php, Oct 4, 2004.
(4) English T. 'Inflatable-pants' heart failure therapy lacks supporting evidence. Health Behavior News Service. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/02/060221235310.htm or http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Alerts/6-02-21-InflatablePantsHeart.htm
Putnam KG, et al. External counterpulsation for treatment of chronic stable angina pectoris and chronic heart failure. (Review). Technology Evaluation Center Assessment Program Vol. 20, No. 12. December 2005. Background: http://www.bcbs.com/blueresources/tec/what-is-tec.html
(5) http://www.doctoryourself.com/estory.htm Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 17, No. 3, Third Quarter, 2002, p 179-181.
To learn more about vitamin E as prescribed by Drs. Wilfrid and Evan Shute:
Dosages the doctors used: http://www.doctoryourself.com/shute_protocol.html
A case story: http://www.doctoryourself.com/angina.html
Forms of vitamin E: http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitamin_e.html
Medical references: http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_shute.html
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org
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