![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by taylor18 on October 11, 2003, at 7:49:03
Hi Larry,
Are you a doctor? What do you have doctorates in? Do you know what you know primarily from self-study or formal education? What have you studied?
I'm 18 and looking into medical school.
Posted by Larry Hoover on October 11, 2003, at 9:49:23
In reply to Larry H. Credentials/Education, posted by taylor18 on October 11, 2003, at 7:49:03
> Hi Larry,
>
> Are you a doctor?I'm not an M.D., I'm an environmental toxicologist. There are many courses in common between the two specialties, but there are many different ones, too.
> What do you have doctorates in? Do you know what you know primarily from self-study or formal education? What have you studied?
It's a mixture, really. I always was a geek. I was reading university-level chemistry textbooks for pleasure, when I was eight years old.
My knowledge of nutrition is entirely self-taught.
> I'm 18 and looking into medical school.
You don't need to determine the destination, yet. Pre-med courses are really preparatory for a variety of graduate specializations.
Good luck,
Lar
Posted by David Smith on October 14, 2003, at 3:02:05
In reply to Re: Larry H. Credentials/Education » taylor18, posted by Larry Hoover on October 11, 2003, at 9:49:23
"I'm not an M.D., I'm an environmental toxicologist."
Oh wise one, I too have a question.
Is it likely there is an environmental cause for the increase in mental illness? Or is it just good marketing on the part of the pharmaceutical industry?Many thanks for your valuable insight.
dave
Posted by Larry Hoover on October 17, 2003, at 10:10:07
In reply to Re: Larry H. Credentials/Education » Larry Hoover, posted by David Smith on October 14, 2003, at 3:02:05
> "I'm not an M.D., I'm an environmental toxicologist."
>
> Oh wise one, I too have a question.<humbly bowing his head>
> Is it likely there is an environmental cause for the increase in mental illness?
Certainly. Diet is environment, for example.
We consume a hugely distorted ratio of fatty acids today, when compared with any other time in the history of man. Since the advent of industrial farming techniques and the food processing industry, we obtain far more omega-6 fatty acids than was even possible before now. And, in addition, sources of omega-3 have been removed from the food chain. Estimates of the historical omega-6:omega-3 ratio lie between 1 and 4, whereas today's diet provides a ration of somewhere between 15 and 50. Industrial farming and food processing also introduce reduced amounts of essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.) into the food-chain. If you don't provide the body's machinery with the raw materials it needs, how can it work well?
Even the advent of grain production has been associated with e.g. schizophrenia rates. There are substances in e.g. wheat that people are intolerant of, and exposure leads to mental changes, including hallucinations.
My field of study has focused on endocrine disruption. In a nutshell, there are man-made toxicants which bind to hormone receptors, and influence bodily function. The influence can be antagonistic (blocking the excitation provided by normal hormone exposure), agonistic (acting as if there was normal hormone exposure), reverse agonistic (activating the receptor, but inducing the opposite effect to normal hormone exposure), or combinations of all these processes. There are also different forms of each process, and to complicate things further, different tissues have different receptor types within the same class, and may respond differently to the same stimulus. An example is tamoxifen blocking estrogen receptors in breast tissue, but not blocking estrogen receptors in the uterus.
We have identified thousands of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and they're in every breath you take, and every swallow of food or water.
At first, I reacted with horror when I discovered some new toxicant, and its route of exposure in humans. Plastics (plasticizers), Oh no! <plastic avoidance in effect> And so on. Soon, I came to realize that there wasn't much I could do about exposure. Not really. Manage what I could, and leave the rest to God. Ya know?
We're all guinea-pigs, in a massive uncontrolled experiment.
An example. People freak out at the possibility that fish oil has contaminants in it. Well, it does. And so does anything you eat. We've just looked at fish oil more closely than some other products, like hamburger. You don't want to know what's in your hamburger. Ignorance is bliss.
The bottom line is that people who use fish oil have better health outcomes than those who don't. Better heart health, better blood pressure, better triglyceride levels, better mood, etc. And that's *despite* the contaminant burden.
> Or is it just good marketing on the part of the pharmaceutical industry?
I'm not a pharmaceutical company basher. There are huge problems with the way things work today, but profit-driven medical practise was not invented by them. They merely reflect our own cultural failings.
Pharmaceutical companies are reacting to perceived need. We need mental health care. How we provide it, is the issue. Drugs may be a readily-available treatment, cheap to manage (e.g. "Here's your drug, now go away."), but I don't blame the drugs for anything. Nor do I blame their providers. "I have seen the enemy, and it is us."
> Many thanks for your valuable insight.
>
> daveGood questions, Dave. Keep them coming.
Lar
Posted by stjames on October 17, 2003, at 23:59:45
In reply to Re: environment/mental health » David Smith, posted by Larry Hoover on October 17, 2003, at 10:10:07
"I have seen the enemy, and it is us."
Reminds me or a recient ER rerun. Dr Green,
recovering from his tumor, refused to give
antibiotics to the recient crop for folks with
the virus going around. They were pissed.
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Alternative | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.