Nutritional Healing

Optimum Health: A Natural Lifesaving Prescription for Your Body and Mind
by Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., F.A.C.C.

Now you can achieve optimum health.

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Stephen Sinatra shows us how we can take control of our health through the latest findings of mind-body medicine. As a leading cardiologist and psychotherapist, Dr. Sinatra is a uniquely qualified expert in the field. Dr. Sinatra's well-balanced, totally natural program of nutritional, emotional, and physical strategies can dramatically improve the quality of your life and help you live longer.

• Eight simple rules for optimum health--they could save your life
• The insulin-resistance epidemic and the Great Fat Debate
• The myth, fact, and fiction of cholesterol
• Discover the heart-healing secrets of the Mediterranean diet
• Coenzyme Q10: a miracle vitamin for heart health
• A natural approach to healing arthritis
• Dr. Sinatra's natural cholesterol-lowering formula
• Recipes for preventive medicine
• Dr. Sinatra's antiaging prescription
• And much more!

Phytonutrients/Phytotherapy

My gradual transition toward nutritional/metabolic healing started in the early 1980s with my own personal use of vitamin and mineral supplements. However, it was not until 1984 that I began to prescribe vitamin and mineral support to my patients. Two years later I began to use low doses of coenzyme Qin my practice. I administered it to patients about to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery and to patients who suffered from heart failure. I also prescribed 10 mg of coenzyme Q three times daily as a nutritional support for patients going on the "heart/lung" machine during cardiac surgery. Since 1986, I have become increasingly comfortable integrating complementary approaches with traditional Western medicine to facilitate healing.

I now have tremendous confidence recommending coenzyme Q in doses of 360 to 400 mg to treat my most difficult cases of congestive heart failure. I have noticed that as I have become more comfortable using nutritional support systems, many patients have become more confident as well. Frequently, many of my cardiac patients would request that I treat them for other health problems. As a board-certified cardiologist, I lacked confidence in treating illnesses outside my own area of specialty. But I observed many "accidental cures" occurring over the years. For example, when I was treating arthritic cardiac patients, coincidentally many of them reported their arthritic symptoms improved on my treatment plan - a plan that integrated various diets, herbal remedies, and nutritional support systems.

My patients have always been my best teachers. I learn from them every day. When a phytonutrient relieves symptoms in one patient, I then feel more confident recommending it to others with similar symptom constellations. One thing I am sure about is that natural foods, herbs, vitamins, minerals, and other phytonutrients have the potential to reduce or eliminate symptoms, much like prescription drugs; and they do not have the side effects of pharmacotherapy. Because of my experience in treating thousands of patients, listening to them discussing their symptoms, and witnessing their recoveries, I have grown to feel quite comfortable recommending phytonutrients even for ailments outside the field of cardiology.

In addition to my personal and clinical experience, my knowledge base in nutritional supplemental healing expanded during the research for two books I have authored on the subject. When patients ask me to help them with heart disease, depression, sexual dysfunction, psoriasis, constipation, prostate problems, and even cancer, I feel confident in my recommendations.

In this section of the book, I will offer you some of the insights I have obtained from my experience in treating these patients. With rare exceptions, I only prescribe herbs, vitamins, and minerals that I have taken myself. In fact, over the last twenty-five years I have seldom recommended complementary strategies to patients that I have not experienced myself, including psychotherapy, myofascial therapy, deep tissue massage, cranial/sacral therapy, martial arts, herbal remedies, vitamins, and even chelation therapy. Because of my firsthand experience with these healing modalities, I can offer you insights into many of the more common maladies that affect not only cardiac patients, but also most of us in general. Let's start with depression and fatigue.

Depression and Fatigue

Not a day goes by in my office that I fail to meet someone who is fatigued, tired, listless, or just lacking in energy. I often hear complaints such as "Doc, I just don't have my usual spark." Many of these people are mildly depressed, lacking that "bounce in their step." This is my remedy:

1. B vitamin support including folic acid, B-6, B-1, B-2, B-12, and biotin. Take at least 40 mg of vitamins B-1, B-2, and B-6; 40 mcg of B-12 and 300 mcg of biotin. Take pantothenic acid, 50 to 250 mg daily.

2. Coenzyme Q, 60 mg after each meal.

3. L-tyrosine, 2 grams one to two times daily. (Do not exceed 4 grams daily.) Tyrosine is an essential amino acid that gets into the brain easily, passing the blood-brain barrier. Once absorbed by the brain, tyrosine is a precursor to the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine. These two neurotransmitters are directly dependent upon dietary tyrosine. Supplementing tyrosine should increase these active neurogenic transmitters in the body. Please note that tyrosine should not be taken in the presence of antipsychotic medications (usually prescribed by physicians) or in the presence of malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer.

4. Ginkgo biloba, 40 mg three times daily.

5. Saint-John's-wort, 300 mg three times daily. Saint-John's-wort is an herbal remedy for depression. Hypericin, the active ingredient, causes an inhibition of serotonin re-uptake. It has been nicknamed "herbal Prozac."

Nutrients for the aging brain - "I can't remember ... "

Although memory loss is not an inevitable consequence of aging, it is a fact that the average brain loses about 10 percent of its mass as we approach our golden years. Many of my older patients tell me, "I can't remember this," or "I can't recall that." However, memory problems affect all of us. Each of us knows the frustration of being unable to retrieve or recall a needed piece of information. Because stress and depression affect memory, it is important to consider the nutritional support suggestions I recommended in the fatigue and depression section of this chapter. In addition to those suggestions, I would recommend the following nutrients for the "aging brain":

1. Eat foods high in DMAE (dimethylaminoethanol) such as sardines and anchovies, or take 100 mg of DMAE daily.

2. Take at least 30 mg of lipoic acid daily. (Lipoic acid, like L-tyrosine and Pycnogenol, can cross the blood-brain barrier to protect cellular membranes from oxidation. As a polypeptide, lipoic acid is also a chelator of excess iron, copper, and other toxic metals such as cadmium, mercury, and lead. (Because lipoic acid also increases glutathione levels, it has antioxidant potential.)

3. Pycnogenol, 30-60 mg three times a day.

4. Phosphatidylserine, 30 mg one to two times a day. (Phosphatidylserine protects brain cell membranes.)

Most of these nutritionals, including L-tyrosine, B vitamins, and ginkgo, can be purchased in health food stores.

© 1998 by Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.

About the Author

Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., F.A.C.C., is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. He has special expertise in utilizing behavior modification and emotional release as tools for healthy leaving. Trained in Gestalt and bioenergetic psychotherapy, he is a certified bioenergetic analyst. Editor of monthly Phillips' HeartSense newsletter, Dr. Sinatra is a much-sought-after speaker for medical conventions and anti-aging conferences.