The Journal of Healthy Aging
Volume 5 / Issue 4/ April 2005
INTRODUCTION
Over crowded, unsanitary marketplaces and
domestic fowl living underfoot on rural farms has been an Asian way of
life for generations. This way of life may be the leading cause of spreading
what is threatening to be the deadliest pandemic (world wide epidemic)
in human history.
The H5N1 influenza virus is sweeping through fowl in Asia, and soon may mutate
into a virus infecting humans. Historically when animal viruses jump into
the human population, devastating consequences follow. The effects of AIDS,
SARS, Ebola and West Nile on our population are well known.
Humans can catch the virus, H5N1, but so far it has a hard time traveling
from human to human. This is good, because people will have virtually no
immunity to this rapidly growing deadly virus. Millions of birds have been
infected and more than 50 human cases have been reported this year. Of the
people infected, 3 out of 4 will die.This is prompting government agencies
worldwide to scramble and find a way to prevent a global pandemic.
Dr. Shigeru Omi, the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific regional
director recently stated, “We at WHO believe that the world is now in the
gravest possible danger of a pandemic.” Many health officials agree there
will be an epidemic, they just don’t know when.
I. IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE
Avian influenza is not a new disease. It occurs all over the globe, not just
Asia. It is transmitted by migrating birds traveling thousands of miles
across the globe. Therefore, containing it is a challenge.
All birds are thought to be susceptible to avian influenza with some species,
such as waterfowl, more resistant than others. Two forms of the disease,
with fifteen subtypes, are known to exist in birds. The first form is mildly
pathogenic, causing slight illness characterized only by ruffled feathers
or poor egg production. The second, highly pathogenic form of the virus was
first recognized in Italian birds in 1878. This form is highly contagious
and rapidly fatal with mortality rates approaching 100%. This is the form
found in recent Asian cases.
Of the fifteen subtypes of avian influenza, the most pathogenic forms have
been caused by influenza A viruses of subtypes H5 and H7. For example, in
the United States in 1983-1984 H5N2 reached a mortality rate of nearly 90%.
H7N1 was responsible for the destruction of 13 million Italian birds in 1999-2001.
In Hong Kong in 1999, H9N2 surfaced, and more recently in 2003, H7N7 began
in the Netherlands making at least 83 people sick.
A HISTORY OF AVIAN FLU
Once a new flu is introduced into a vulnerable population, and able to spread
from human to human, it takes about a year to travel across the globe.
The Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 was thought to have originated in birds.
This flu is reported to have killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people
world wide. Most people infected died within the first few days of contracting
the disease and many died of complications soon after.
The “Asian” flu of 1957 caused about 70,000
deaths in the United States and the “Hong Kong” flu of 1968 killed approximately
34,000 in the United States. Both of these flus were a result of an avian
virus combining with a human strain of flu and creating a new, deadly virus.
In Hong Kong in 1997, the H5N1 virus strain caused severe respiratory disease
in 18 humans, 6 of these people died. This coincided with an epidemic of
highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by the same strain, in Hong Kong’s
poultry population. The entire bird population of Hong Kong was culled in
3 days, thus avoiding a pandemic at that time. Unfortunately, H5N1 has resurfaced.
Recent research has shown that viruses of low pathogenicity can, after circulation
for short periods in a poultry population, mutate into highly pathogenic
viruses. During the 1983-84 epidemic in the U.S., the H5N2 virus which initially
caused low mortality became highly pathogenic within six months. Its mortality
rate approached 90%. Control of the outbreak required destruction of more
than 17 million birds alone. The free roaming domesticated ducks share water
and food sources with wild migratory hosts and inevitably come into contact
with infected birds. The domesticated ducks then carry the virus back to
the farms. Farmers and other livestock come into contact with contaminated
feces or surfaces and can be infected. The avian influenza viruses are also
readily transmitted from farm to farm by mechanical means. Contaminated equipment,
vehicles, feed, cages and clothing can carry the virus for long periods of
time, especially in colder climates.
Another culprit is so called “wet” markets. In these crowded unsanitary markets,
live birds are caged, sold and slaughtered on the spot. One bird crammed
into a cage with 10 to 20 other birds, can spread the virus without moving.
This brings people into contact not only with live infected birds, and the
blood of dead infected birds, but contaminated surfaces as well.
The avian influenza strains are easily spread
from country to country by international trade of live poultry as well
as the migratory patterns of birds. The H5N1 virus can survive for up to
four days at 71° F (22° C) and more than 30 days at 32° F (0° C). If frozen,
it can survive indefinitely.
B. HOW IS BIRD FLU SPREAD?
Wild ducks and other migratory waterfowl are the natural carriers of avian
influenza viruses and the most resistant to infection. However, domestic
poultry seem to have the least resistance to epidemics of rapidly fatal
influenza. The migratory birds serve as “hosts” for the disease, carrying
it in their intestines. These “host” birds rarely get sick or show symptoms
of being sick, but transmit it to other birds by shedding the virus in
saliva, nasal secretions and feces. A bird that has survived infection
excretes the virus for at least 10 days. Fecal to oral transmission is
the most common method between birds. The rice patties of Asia are an
ideal breeding ground for this type of transmission. Farmers plant rice
and flood the fields. Their ducks are set free to roam in the fields
because they eat the weeds and leave the rice
C. CAN HUMANS BE INFECTED?
Avian flu strains don’t do well in mammalian hosts. A study published last
March shows that avian flu strains can infect cells lining the human respiratory
system, but they seem to have difficulty replicating. Avian flus prefer to
bind to cells that have hair-like appendages called cilia. Human influenza
viruses prefer to infect nonciliated cells. To spread effectively from human
to human, avian flu strains would have to adapt to nonciliated cells. Avian
flu historically only infects birds and pigs; however the highly pathogenic
H5N1 strain has seemed to jump the species barrier. The virus has been found
in pigs, cats, tigers and humans. As of March 2005, the virus has killed
47 people in the last year; 34 Vietnamese, 12 Thais, and 1 Cambodian. The
World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control are concerned
the virus could combine with a human form of influenza and rapidly spread
through the human population; which has virtually no immunity to such a disease.
To date, the cases of avian influenza in humans have been caused by coming
in direct contact with infected bird’s secretions or via the air by being
in the vicinity of infected birds. There have been reports of people eating
a traditional Lunar New Year dish made with raw duck blood and contracting
the disease; however you can not contract the disease by eating fully cooked
meat or eggs. Other reports state people have been infected after being directly
involved in the slaughtering of infected birds. Because the virus is also
airborne, just being in the vicinity of live infected birds puts a human
at risk. At the present time, it is very rare for human to human transmission.
The right conditions must exist for the disease to mutate into a highly contagious
human form. If a person with the human flu gets infected with bird flu, then
the two viruses could potentially swap genes and create a new flu. This flu
could be as deadly as the bird flu and as contagious as the human flu. Pigs,
however, can be infected both by human strains and avian strains. This could
easily lead to a virus mutation if both these strains are present in a pig
at the same time. It is thought that the virus may not even need a host infected
with the human virus to mutate. Some experts believe it is possible that
the bird flu can “learn” to infect humans. The H5N1 strain mutates rapidly
and has been documented as acquiring genes from viruses infecting other species.
Laboratory studies have also shown isolates from this virus have a high pathogenicity
and can cause severe disease in humans. Health officials are worried because
the H5N1 seems to be mutating. A few cases of human to human transmission
have been reported, but only after close contact. In 2004 an 11 year old
Thai girl contracted bird flu and died. Her family owned chickens that had
died from the disease a few weeks earlier.Although she didn’t handle the
chickens directly, she played and slept in the vicinity where the chickens
were kept. The girl’s mother and aunt came to see her in the hospital. Both
women became infected. The mother later died and the aunt recovered. The
mother was a garment worker and didn’t have any contact with chickens. The
aunt hadn’t had any contact with poultry for 17 days before she fell ill.
That is longer than the typical 2 to 10 days it takes for symptoms to appear
once infected. Therefore, the doctors concluded the mother and the aunt contracted
the disease from the sick girl and not from contact with infected poultry.
Recently in the Netherlands, a Dutch investigation showed approximately 2000
people got bird flu. This strain was much less dangerous to humans than the
H5N1; only one person died. However, the real concern is this flu waseasily
passed from one person to another. Around 60% of the infected people’s household
contacts contracted the illness. Arnold Bosman, MD, of the National Institute
for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, Netherlands and
his colleagues write that “the bird flu is closer to mutating into an easily
transferred human form than we thought.” “Both [Dutch and Asian] avian influenza
outbreaks illustrate that crossing the species barrier is less rare than
previously recognized, that avian influenza virus adaptation [to humans]
occurs rapidly, and that if such jumps between species occur, human behavior
in the broad sense may accelerate dissemination.”
SYMPTOMS— Wild avians, the natural carriers of bird flu generally do not show any symptoms of the illness. Domesticated fowl, on the other hand, degenerate very quickly. The H5N1 in birds causes:
• Lack of energy or appetite
• Swelling of head, eyelids,
wattles and legs
• Purple discoloration of wattles and combs
• Nasal discharge
• Coughing and sneezing
• Diarrhea
• Sudden death Because of the evolving nature of the
H5N1 virus, the symptoms of bird flu in humans changes every year. Most people
experience normal flu-like symptoms:
• Fever
• Cough
• Sore throat
• Muscle aches
• Eye infections (conjunctivitis)
• Pneumonia
• Acute respiratory distress
• Viral Pneumonia
In February 2005, researchers in Vietnam
reported human cases of bird flu in which the virus infected the brain and
digestive tract of two children. This makes it clear bird flu in humans may
not always look like typical cases of flu. Tests are available if people
suspect they may have contracted the disease.
I WHAT IS BEING DONE TO CONTROL BIRD FLU ?
Dr. Samuel Jutzi, of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture
Organization, said the avian flu virus will persist in Asia for years and
coordinated efforts need to focus on controlling it at its source, “This means addressing the transmission of the virus where
the disease occurs, in poultry, specifically free-range chickens and wetland
dwelling ducks, and thus curbing the disease occurrence in the region before
it spreads to other parts of the world.” The most important control measure
is rapid destruction (culling) of all infected or exposed birds, proper
disposal of carcasses and the quarantining and rigorous disinfection of
farms. The total eradication of the Hong Kong bird population in 1997 is
credited with preventing a pandemic.
Heat kills the virus (56 degrees C for 3 hours or 60 degrees C for 30 minutes),
as well as common disinfectants, such as formalin and iodine compounds. However,
the virus can survive at cool temperatures in contaminated manure for at
least three months. The virus can also survive in water for up to four days.
Restriction on moving live poultry within and between countries is a must.
On February 4, 2004, the CDC (Center for Disease Control) issued an order
for an immediate ban on the import of all birds from Cambodia, Indonesia,
Japan, Laos, People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong, SAR, South
Korea; Thailand and Vietnam. This order complements a similar action taken
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). On March 10, 2004, CDC, in
coordination with USDA, lifted the embargo of birds and bird products from
Hong Kong. August 18, 2004, Malaysia issued an order stating slaughter of
birds in markets was no longer permitted. After that order, on September
28, 2004, Malaysia was added to the embargo list. Despite the embargo, smuggled
birds and bird products are still circulating. As recently as March 2005,
the U.S. health department put 11 states on alert because contaminated chicken
feet were imported into the U.S. Japan and the Republic of Korea appear to
have controlled their outbreaks in poultry, quickly and safely. No cases
of human infection have been detected in studies of workers involved in culling
operations. Unfortunately, the situation in other countries is more problematic.
The WHO is fully aware that governments in several countries with serious
poultry outbreaks do not have the resources needed to introduce the recommended
protective measures for cullers or to carry out the very rapid destruction
of poultry flocks. Because of this, the WHO, FAO, and OIE have jointly issued
an urgent appeal to the international community to make resources and forms
of support readily available in the interest of protecting public health.
A. WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THESE MEASURES?
Some experts feel these measures are not enough. However, implementing biosecurity measures such as building closed chicken sheds and erecting bird netting to chemical baths and vaccines is too expensive for poor countries. Highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreaks can be devastating for the poultry industry and for farmers. Economic consequences can be especially devastating in developing countries where poultry raising is an important source of income and food for impoverished rural farmers and their families. Because of this, farmers have been known to let their ducks loose to hide in rice patties. In some of these countries, remote backyard poultry farms may not be registered with agricultural authorities. When government authorities can’t find the birds it makes it virtually impossible for them to effectively undertake emergency control measures and eliminate the problem.
B. IS THERE A VACCINE?
Some flu experts fear that if a deadly virus like H5N1 can mutate enough
to spread easily among people, no one will be prepared to deal with it.
Understanding how flu viruses work is likely to be the best protection we
have against another epidemic.
There are four different influenza antiviral drugs approved by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment and/or prevention of influenza.
These include:
•Amantadine
•Rimantadine
•Oseltamivir
•Zanamivir
All four have activity against influenza
A viruses. However, some strains can become resistant to these drugs. Analysis
of some of the 2004 H5N1 viruses isolated from poultry and humans in Asia
have shown that the H5N1 virus is resistant to amantadine and rimantadine.
However, the virus remains sensitive to the newer flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza.
CDC director Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH said that the U.S. is making plans
to stockpile Tamiflu.
“We are talking with the manufacturer
and are in the process of stockpiling significant quantities of the drug.” Only
one plant is making Tamiflu, so supplies remain short. The Federal government
has stockpiled more than 2 million doses of antiviral medicine. That number
pales in comparison to other countries. For example, Brittan has 14 million,
France 13 million and Canada 8 million. The CDC and WHO isolated “seed strains” of
the current bird flu virus that can be used to make a vaccine. In February
2005, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said it was nearly ready to
start safety test on a vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur. The new vaccine was
prepared in two different concentrations of 4,000 doses each. Vietnam also
announced in March 2005 that its own bird flu vaccine was almost ready for
human tests. In preliminary tests monkeys were injected with a very weak
form of the H5N1 virus. Three weeks later, the monkeys are still healthy
and have produced antibodies to the virus. These results are promising. However,
the world is far from having the billions of vaccine doses it would need
to curb a pandemic. The nature of the flu changes
all the time so there is no guarantee that the vaccines produced will protect
against the strain that might cause pandemic flu. Tests will have to determine
weather it is safe for use in humans, effective against the disease, or even
if the potency remains when stored in bulk form.
Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research
and Policy states, “We’ve got a long way to go to be able to even cover our
population in a timely manner, let alone the rest of the world.”
III WHAT CAN WE DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES?
Several government and world wide agencies, such as the CDC and WHO, have guidelines for keeping the population as safe as they can. The precautions range from broadly targeted guidelines for whole countries to more specifically targeted guidelines for citizens, poultry workers, health care workers and overseas travelers.
In April 1999, the WHO developed an influenza
pandemic preparedness plan and given the present situation has urged all
countries to develop or update their own influenza pandemic preparedness
plans.
Some of the guidelines for avoiding a pandemic are as follows:
• Quarantining and destruction of infected farm animals
• Maintaining strict sanitation measures
on farms
• Vaccination of persons at high risk (although
there is no vaccination for bird flu, using vaccinations for human strains
cuts down on the probability that a human virus and bird virus will comingle)
• At risk persons should take antivirals
as a prophylactic measure
• Visiting a doctor as soon as possible
if you suspect you have been exposed to infected poultry
• Stringent hygiene practices
when traveling to at-risk countries.
CONCLUSION
Mass epidemics are etched into human history and generally
happen every 20 to 30 years. It has been 40 years since the last one. If
countries do not get diagnostic tools and surveillance systems in place
for early detection we could see the worst pandemic in human history. By
some official’s estimations, millions, if not tens of millions of people
could die if the H5N1 strain of avian influenza spreads among humans. This
isn’t cause for panic, it is cause for education. Global spread of a pandemic
cannot be stopped, but with education and preparedness, its impact can
be greatly reduced.
[Sources: CDC website, WHO website, Singapore government bird flu website,
Eurosurveillance Weekly website, New England Journal of Medicine.]
IV PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
A. WHEN THE BRAIN, NOT THE EARS, GOES HARD OF HEARING — Problems with the brain -- not just the ears -- cause a great deal of the age related hearing loss in older people. Researchers are finding more and more subtle problems in the way our brain processes information as we age, so much so that an older person whose ears are in fine shape may have trouble hearing because of an aging brain. In addition to earlier findings of a specific type of “timing” problem that limits our hearing as we age, the group is now finding increasing evidence of a “feedback” problem in the brain that diminishes our ability to hear. At the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology in New Orleans, researchers discussed the results so far for the hunt for genes that play a role in the aging brain’s plummeting ability to organize the information our ears record. “Traditionally, scientists studying hearing problems started looking at the ear,” says Robert D. Frisina, Ph.D., professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and an adjunct professor at Rochester Institute of Technology. “But we are finding patients with normal ears who still have trouble understanding a conversation. There are many people who have good inner ears who just don’t hear well. That’s because their brains are aging.” The findings come from researchers at the International Center for Hearing and Speech Research (ICHSR), an NIH-funded group of scientists in Rochester, N.Y., that is recognized as a leader in research in age-related hearing loss. The center includes scientists from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology and neuroscientists from the University of Rochester. Sophisticated tests that measure how well the brain processes information that the ear detects are helping scientists sort out the findings. Normally the brain does a masterful job of filtering, sorting, and making sense of the information that flows through our senses every day the colors and shapes we see, the textures of the objects we feel, the sounds ranging from the cooing of children to the screech of tires on pavement that we hear morning to night. Our brain stem sorts the bluster of information in ways that make it easy for us to carry on our lives. Oftentimes it’s this ability of the brain, not hearing itself, that is diminished in older people who say they don’t “hear” well. The loss is detected most markedly in tests that measure a person’s ability to hear a sentence amid a background of babble, much as one might hear at a party while trying to speak to an individual nearby. The recently discovered feedback problem is central to this problem, says Frisina. His team has found that in mice, the brain problems usually precede actual hearing difficulties, and that early problems with the brain’s feedback system make the ears more vulnerable to damage without the brain’s filtering capacity, the ears are more likely to be exposed to damaging noise. The brain’s ability to provide proper feedback to the ear, by filtering out unwanted and unnecessary information, declines beginning in our 40s and 50s, Frisina says. Without that filter, a person is quickly overcome by a barrage of information that is difficult to sort. It’s a little bit like a computer user who would be overwhelmed by input if the spam filter suddenly failed and all sorts of bogus messages started streaming into the “important documents” folder. When it comes to hearing, the increase in sensory information making its way to the brain actually hurts the person’s ability to hear well. “The number one hearing complaint among the elderly is that they have trouble hearing speech because of background noise. Someone might hear fine in a quiet environment like their home, but when they go to a restaurant or a meeting or a party, it sounds like chaos to them,” Frisina says. “That’s partly because the feedback system is failing.”
To get to the root of the feedback problem, Frisina’s
neuroscience team is investigating the possible role of a breakdown in
calcium regulation in the brain stem, throwing askew the way nerve cells
talk to each other and possibly resulting in a toxic buildup of calcium
in some brain cells. Recently the team used genechip activity to chart
the activity of more than 22,000 genes in mice, comparing activity levels
of genes in young mice and their older counterparts. While dozens of genes
in humans and mice are known to contribute to congenital deafness, none
has been linked to age-related hearing loss in humans. The latest studies
offer several promising leads in genes that affect the functioning of brain
chemicals like glutamate and GABA, important neurotransmitters that allow
nerve cells in the ear and brain to talk to each other.
The difficulties can isolate people from friends and family, beginning when
people first have difficulty with age-related hearing loss in their 50s and
60s. “This problem is especially tragic because just when people have time
to spend with their children and grandchildren, they can’t understand what
is going on,” says Frisina. “They’re losing something they had. People respond
to this isolation by either clamming up or aggressively dominating conversation.”
The estrangement can be severe and can even result in depression. While there
is no cure for age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, some simple steps
can lessen its effects. Speaking loudly is an instinctual reaction when talking
to a hearing impaired person, but that won’t help when talking to someone
with age-related hearing loss. “Speaking slightly slower than usual will
help,” says Frisina, “as if you were talking to someone who speaks a foreign
language. “Many older people are actually especially sensitive to loud sounds,
so the worst thing you can do is raise your voice. What you need to do is
look at the person and speak slowly and clearly. Speaking loudly is like
turning up the volume on a cheap stereo -- it’s only going to distort your
speech and add to the confusion.” Six years ago the same team of researchers
reported finding a closely related brain “timing” problem where people are
not as adept as they once were at detecting slight gaps in speech. While
the average person can hear sound gaps of about 2 milliseconds apart, someone
with a timing problem may be anywhere from 2 to 50 times worse detecting
such gaps, which are crucial •
though unconscious for properly hearing consonants and vowels. “To
a person with a timing problem, conversation sounds like everything is spoken
through a drainpipe,” says James Ison, professor of brain and cognitive science. “One
sound leads into the next, smearing words together.” For instance, most people
know that in the English alphabet, the letter that follows “K” is “L,” not “Elamenopee.” To
a person with a timing problem, short pauses are imperceptible, blurring
words together. The problem has the most effect on a listener’s ability to
hear the first consonant of a word -- cat, hat, bat, fat, and rat may sound
remarkably similar, for instance.
While most people gradually lose the ability to hear high frequencies as
they age, the feedback and timing problems account for many of their complaints
about hearing, Frisina says. “These problems with the aging brain, which
nearly everyone experiences, are on top of problems with our ears, which
you may or may not have as you get older. For many people, even if they can
still hear sounds as they get older, they still lose the ability to hear
and understand speech, because of these brain problems,” Frisina says. [University
of Rochester Medical Center]
B. IS TOXIC MERCURY EXPOSURE RUINING
YOUR LIFE? — Though there are many natural sources of mercury emissions
such as volcanoes, geothermal springs, geologic deposits and the ocean,
human activities may have doubled or even tripled natural amounts of mercury
in the atmosphere within the past 150 years. In fact, according to a U.S.
Global Survey, human activities have caused the atmosphere’s mercury content
to rise by 1.5 percent a year; and the problem is global. In the modern
era, mercury became a common ingredient in some of the following products:
• Paints
• Pesticides
• Batteries
• Fluorescent light bulbs
• Skin creams
• Vaccines
• Non-digital oral thermometers
It is important to understand, however, that mercury is an incredibly toxic and dangerous substance; a single drop in a large lake could make all the fish in it unsafe for consumption. In the United States, coal-fired plants pump about 50 tons of mercury into the air each year: Mercury from such emissions falls out of the sky and into oceans, lakes, rivers and streams, contaminating the flesh of fish, shellfish, seals and whales.
If you are one of the unfortunate
people that wind up eating these fish then you are setting the stage for
future health problems. Big predators such as albacore tuna, shark and
swordfish can contain as much as 100 times more mercury in their tissue
than smaller fish. According to a nationwide survey by the Centers of Disease
Control and Prevention, one in 12 women of childbearing age already have
unsafe blood levels of mercury — as many as 600,000 babies in the United
States could be at risk of developing health complications. Data suggests
that even tiny amounts of mercury exposure in utero could cause children
to suffer from:
• Slower reflexes
• Language deficits
• Shortened attention spans for adults, the health risk
factors are just as severe, including a strong link to heart disease, as
well as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and
the escalating rate of autism.
Still, seafood is just one of the most
common sources of mercury exposure in adults.
C. POLICOSANOL— A BETTER ALTERNATIVE
TO STATIN DRUGS. New study finds that this sugarcane extract safely lowers
cholesterol levels.
Let’s say that you have the choice between taking a prescription drug and
a natural supplement to help you lower your cholesterol levels. And let’s
say there really isn’t much difference in how these two approaches affect
total cholesterol in the blood they both lower the levels significantly.
Which approach to better heart health would you choose? If you’re like most
Americans, you would choose the natural approach. Consumers tend to associate
prescription drugs with more frequent and more pronounced side effects, so
they choose nutritional supplements instead.
All things considered, most people would probably prefer a natural supplement
(with virtually no side effects) for reducing their cholesterol levels. Policosanol
is a mixture of related chemical compounds isolated from sugar cane (Saccharum
officinarum L.). The compounds that constitute policosanol are not sugars,
however, and they do not raise blood sugar levels. What they do is inhibit
the body’s synthesis of cholesterol, which occurs in the liver, thus effectively
lowering blood cholesterol levels. In patients with high levels, the effects
can be dramatic. For more information on this product see the enclosed flyer
or call Western Health Products at 877-640-1010 to place an order.
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FREE WEEKLY UPDATES BY EMAIL The McAlvany Health Alert is pleased to offer a free email update every week as a service to our readers. So much is happening in the world of healthy aging that we can’t get it all into our monthly issues. Also, many of the supplement formulators change their recommendations for dosage, etc. and need to get this information out to the public. Further, new therapies and supplements are introduced every week that our readers would benefit from knowing. Send your email address to us ASAP. Of course, we will not share it with anyone!! Call us at 800-464-1170, drop us a line, or visit our website www.mcalvanyhealthalert.com to be included in this timely, FREE service.