The practice of Dr. Marcus Ettinger

“Give Yourself and Your Loved Ones the Gift of Health”

December Heart Health Check (Open to the public)
Monday, December 5th thru Friday, December 16th

In addition to all of my standard treatments,during these two weeks, I will be paying extra attention to your cardiovascular health – preventative cardiology. From breakthrough lab testing, nutritional protocols and my new MaxPulse device, for screening the cardiovascular/autonomic nervous system*, I have something for everyone.

PS. my October 28th cardio screening sold-out – 30 spots!

*Autonomic nervous system: Part of the nervous system that was once thought to be functionally independent of the brain. The autonomic nervous system regulates key functions of the body including the activity of the heart muscle, the smooth muscles (e.g., the muscles of the intestinal tract), and the glands.

Dear Patients, Family and Friends:

I hope this e-mail finds you all happy and healthy.

Monday, December 5th thru Friday, 16th – In addition to all of my standard treatments, I will be focusing on your cardiovascular health.  From breakthrough lab testing protocols, nutritional protocols and my new MaxPulse device, for screening the cardiovascular/autonomic nervous system. “Remember, Prevention is the Cure.”

Why? Because Cardiovascular Disease is North America’s #1 cause of [preventable] death and it exceeds the next four causes of death combined.  Also, 70% of our population is either suffering from high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes or high cholesterol/triglycerides.  I have the knowledege and ability to handle all of these body challenges – and I want to help!

I want all of you reading this to be tested so we can be sure your heart-health is tip-top.  Please take me up on this and be a part of this screening (ages 30 and up).  You are encouraged to invite family and friends to be tested as well – it’s that important.  I feel this is just another piece of the puzzle in achieving your overall health and wellness goal.  As you all know, I want everyone of you to live a long and healthy life and it begins with educating yourself on your current state of [heart] health. Ignorance is not bliss – it’s expensive and painful!

Some of what we will find out from the MaxPulse Assessment:

1. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) – Determines one’s overall health status and autonomic nerve system. “Meta-analyses of published data demonstrate that reduced cardiovascular autonomic function, as measured by heart rate variability, is strongly associated with an increased risk of silent myocardial ischemia (lack of oxygen to the heart w/o symptoms) and mortality (DEATH).”
2. Differential Pulse Wave Index (DPI) – Overall cardiovascular health.
3. Eccentric Constriction (EC) – Constriction power of vessels from the left ventricle.
4. Arterial Elasticity (AE) – Analysis blood circulation and elasticity and resistance of the arteries.
5. Remaining Blood Volume (RBV) – Remaining blood in the vessels after systolic contraction of the heart.
6. Wave Type – Aging vascular health indicator.
7. Mean Heart Rate – Average beats per minute or heart rate.
8. Arteriosclerosis Progress – 7 pictorial wave types showing typical artery status.
9. Stress Score – Overall stress health compared to resistance levels.
10. Stress Levels – Mental stress, physical stress, and resistance to stress.
11. Changes in pressure, velocity, blood volume, and other indices.

You will receive your MaxPulse results the same day and I will give you a copy to keep. The Max Pulse™ testing device will give both of us a lot of very important data.  The test will also help me to assess your nutritional and/or pharmaceutical needs, as well as show the effectiveness of lifestyle changes, recommended treatments and/or additional diagnostic tests that may be needed.

The MaxPulse Assessment is $50 dollars for an individual, $80 for a couple or $25 if added to your regular visit. You can make an appointment with Stephanie or myself @ (714)639-4360. P.S. We have all spent more than $50 dollars on “things” far less important than testing the health of our heart.

Available cardio related lab tests: (all labs are done at my cost) Please call or e-mail if you have any questions related to blood tests. Full blood panels are also available – at cost.  My most popular cardio combo*

1. *VAP Cholesterol Test – By reporting 22 different components of cholesterol, the VAP Test identifies risks you can’t see with a standard lipid panel. ($75) retail over $200
2. *Cardio C-Reactive Protein (CRP) – Measures vascular inflammation, a strong indicator of future cardiovascular events. ($20) Retail over $75
3. Homocysteine – high homocysteine levels represent an important independent risk factor for coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, peripheral atherosclerosis, and venous thromboembolism (the blockage of a blood vessel by a migrating clot).
4. Fibrinogin – Fibrinogen is a protein that plays a key role in blood clotting.  Fibrinogen is a sticky, fibrous coagulant in the blood that appears to significantly increase the risk of experiencing one of the leading causes of death and disability – stroke. ($20) Retail over $50
5. *Fasting Glucose – Elevated blood glucose (sugar) is an independent risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and elevated blood lipids (fats). ($10) Retail over $25
6. A1C – Elevated A1C, with or without being a diabetic is directly assciated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and ($30) Retail over $60
7. Standard Lipid Panel – Total Cholesterol, Triglicerides, HDL’s, LDS’s and VLDL’s. ($20) Retail over $70

Call today to set your appointment (714) 639-4360.  I Hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

Dr. Marcus Ettinger

Additional Reading:

Microvascular and Macrovascular Complications of Diabetes

Heart Disease Facts and Statistics

5 ways to make your heart live longer

How to Lower High Triglyceride Levels through Dietary and Lifestyle Changes

Dr. Marcus Ettinger
630 S. Glassell St. #103
Orange, CA 92866
www.advancedhealing.com

Dear Dr.  Ettinger,

I wanted to thank you for you and your wife’s guidance through my weight-loss with Ultra-Lite.

I had spent more than 20 years well over 200 pounds and had tried other programs with limited results, unable to successfully lose over 30 pounds.  Ultra-Lite was the first program that I could maintain focus, eat real food (no processed foods), while losing weight. No loss of skin tone (wrinkles) and I actually ended up looking younger.

Your weekly guidance and check-ins were essential for me because I had decided not see any of my losses during weigh-ins (did not look at the scale and I did not want to know how much I was losing).  I was told weekly that I had great weight-loss but never the exact amount.  Having my measurements taken was important also because I knew I was losing inches, but I didn’t need to know the specifics. Sometimes my inches lost was greater than a weight loss. Others on the program, I am sure need to use the specific, weight-loss, information for motivation and they will get it. But for me, I would have just played around with the numbers and try to get away with cheating if I had known my exact weight-loss.  For me, not knowing my exact weight-loss enabled me to focus on just staying on program.

After a few weeks the healthy eating resulted in more energy with, of course, my cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar levels going down.  I lost 65 pounds in a matter of 7 months. Getting rid of all the size 20-24 clothes was so rewarding and now living a healthy lifestyle is very satisfying.

Thank you again,

M.D.
Orange, CA

Four Important Facts Everyone Should Know about Weight-Loss:

Vitamin D deficiency, levels lower than 32 ng’s/mL, is known to nearly double the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes, and researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis now think they know why.

Researchers have found that diabetics deficient in vitamin D can’t process cholesterol normally, so it builds up in their blood vessels, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. The new research has identified a mechanism linking low vitamin D levels to heart disease risk and may lead to ways to fix the problem, simply by increasing levels of vitamin D. Recent studies consider the lower limit of 32 ng/mL to be a threshold for optimum health. Hollis BW. J Nutr 2005 Feb 135 (2) :317-22.

“Vitamin D inhibits the uptake of cholesterol by cells called macrophages,” says principal investigator Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi, M.D., a Washington University endocrinologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “When people are deficient in vitamin D, the macrophage cells eat more cholesterol, and they can’t get rid of it. The macrophages get clogged with cholesterol and become what scientists call foam cells, which are one of the earliest markers of atherosclerosis.”

A healthy macrophage cell, at left, with sufficient vitamin D. On the right, a macrophage with inadequate vitamin D has become clogged with cholesterol, an early marker of atherosclerosis.

Macrophages are a type of white blood cell that is dispatched by the immune system in response to inflammation and often are activated by diseases such as diabetes. Bernal-Mizrachi and his colleagues believe that in diabetic patients with inadequate vitamin D, macrophages become loaded with cholesterol and eventually stiffen blood vessels and block blood flow.Bernal-Mizrachi, an assistant professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology, studied macrophage cells taken from people with and without diabetes and with and without vitamin D deficiency. His team, led by research assistants Jisu Oh and Sherry Weng, M.D., exposed the cells to cholesterol and to high or low vitamin D levels. When vitamin D levels were low in the culture dish, macrophages from diabetic patients were much more likely to become foam cells.

The research team reported that vitamin D regulates signaling pathways linked both to uptake and to clearance of cholesterol in macrophages.

“Cholesterol is transported through the blood attached to lipoproteins such as LDL, the ‘bad’ cholesterol,” Bernal-Mizrachi explains. “As it is stimulated by oxygen radicals in the vessel wall, LDL becomes oxidated, and macrophages eat it uncontrollably. LDL cholesterol then clogs the macrophages, and that’s how atherosclerosis begins.”

That process becomes accelerated when a person is deficient in vitamin D, and people with type 2 diabetes are very likely to have this deficiency. Worldwide, approximately one billion people have insufficient vitamin D levels, and in women with type 2 diabetes, the likelihood of low vitamin D is about a third higher than in women of the same age who don’t have diabetes.

The skin manufactures vitamin D in response to ultraviolet light exposure. But in much of the United States, people don’t make enough vitamin D during the winter — when the sun’s rays are weaker and more time is spent indoors.

The good news is when human macrophages are placed in an environment with plenty of vitamin D, their uptake of cholesterol is suppressed, and they don’t become foam cells. Bernal-Mizrachi believes it may be possible to slow or reverse the development of atherosclerosis in patients with diabetes by helping them regain adequate vitamin D levels.

“There is debate about whether any amount of sun exposure is safe, so oral vitamin D supplements may work best,” he says, “but perhaps if people were exposed to sunlight only for a few minutes at a time, that may be an option, too.”

Oh J, Weng S, Felton SK, Bhandare S, Riek A, Butler B, Proctor BM, Petty M, Chen Z, Schechtman KB, Bernal-Mizrach L, Bernal-Mizrachi C. 1,25 (OH) vitamin D inhibits foam cell formation and suppresses macrophage cholesterol uptake in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Circulation, vol. 120(8);pp. 687-698. Aug. 25. 2009. Published online August 10, 2009 doi:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.109.856070

The goal I set with each each client is to discover the precise dietary, physiologic and/or structural imbalance that is the root cause of their body problem. The vast majority of today’s body problems are a direct result of long-term aberrations in both diet and lifestyle. With proper identification and correction, the body does exactly what it was designed to do – achieve vibrant and lasting health.

Today’s standard of medical care is to treat all diseases and symptoms with drugs or surgery. The problem here is that prescription drugs don’t correct the underlying cause – the nutritional, biochemical or structural imbalances. In fact, prescription drugs usually create more problems and actually make it harder for the body to heal. Prescription drugs are only designed to treat symptoms, by activating or suppressing reactions in the body. These drugs were never created to do what is truly needed to get ones health back and that’s – rebuild and regenerate tissue and/or function. The simple truth is that a chemical cure is not the answer to a nutritional biochemical or structural imbalances.

As an analytical thinker and compassionate doctor, I find it completely unreasonable that the current medical community chooses to label the vast majority of body problems as ‘diseases’ and to routinely intervene with chemical cures or surgery, as the first treatment option. More often than not, the cure ends up becoming worse than the disease. Patients who choose an alternative medicine approach often respond better to dietary, life-style changes and targeted nutritional supplements than to a plethora of prescription drugs.

I have personally found that most individuals, particularly those taking multiple prescription drugs for chronic conditions, fare better in the long-run when those drugs can be reduced or eliminated. In fact, the majority of chronic body problems such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, low thyroid, high blood pressure and cholesterol can be managed successfully without the use of potentially harmful drugs or un-warranted surgery – if given a chance.

As an alternative and integrative medicine practitioner, I am not against prescription medications, as there are times when it is appropriate to use a medication. In fact, I routinely work with my patient’s medical doctor, in an integrative manner, sharing test results and formulating a plan designed to reduce or illuminate, if possible, their medication.

Alternative medicine, on a gradient scale of treatment options, for most body problems, should be the first choice on the list. The reason being is that if dietary and lifestyle modification, along with targeted nutritional supplementation and exercise can’t handle the problem then there is always the medical option. This sequencing makes more sense because you can’t undo a surgery once performed or completely reverse the damage done by long-term pharmaceutical use.

I hope this has given you some food for thought.

In good health,

Marcus Ettinger BSc, DC

Founded in 1992, Advanced Healing Center of Orange County is an alternative medicine, integrative medicine and chiropractic clinic located in Orange, California. An alternative medicine expert, chiropractor and “21st Century Medical Detective”, Marcus Ettinger BSc, DC has over 21 years experience treating thousands of people, of all ages, with effectiveness, compassion, honesty and personal integrity.

Dr. Marcus Ettinger has extensive training and is a recognized expert in diagnosis, clinical nutrition, vitamin and mineral supplementation, herbal therapies, chiropractic, weight management, and trigger point therapy.

First of all, if you are presently taking a “statin” class, cholesterol lowering drug you may be doing far more  long-term harm than good.  News Flash – Lipitor and Pravachol in the most comprehensive study to date (18 months 654 patients) found that: yes, both did bring the numbers down (ON PAPER) but in the arteries where it counts (Your LIFE or Your DEATH), Lipitor only reduced the harmful plaque by a fraction of 1% and (GET THIS), Pravachol actually increased the plaque by almost 3% (NICE!).  Your numbers are low, your doctor is happy and you’re happy.   All the while you’re actually increasing your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, heart attack and/or dying.

An ignored fact by the medical establishment:
These drugs block cholesterol production in the body by inhibiting the enzyme called HMG-CoA reductase in the (BIG WORDS REMOVED FOR YOUR PROTECTION) pathway.   This same pathway is also shared by an important body chemical, needed for life, CoQ10 ( also available as a nutritional supplement).  Therefore, one unfortunate consequence of statin drugs is the unintentional inhibition of CoQ10 synthesis.  Thus, in the long run, statin drugs could predispose the user to heart disease, liver failure, heart attack or death, by lowering their CoQ10 status; the very condition that these drugs are intended to prevent.

Another, life or death, ignored fact by the medical establishment:
CoQ10 enzyme is responsible, in the body for nerve growth (Brain, spinal chord, and electricity to the heart).   When the body’s CoQ10 is too low, nerves begin to die and one experiences tingling, numbness, cramps, and even brain damage.  If you are having nerve pain or muscle cramps (calves, feet, toes or heart palpitations)  you must start taking CoQ10 and get off statins, because the nerve damage can become permanent. (Or you may die which ever comes first).

And now another ignored fact by the medical establishment:
Special Warning about Statin Drugs:
There is a slight chance (How often is slight?) of liver damage from Lipitor, “so your doctor may order a simple blood test to check your liver function before you start taking the drug”, again 6 weeks and 12 weeks after you begin therapy or when your dosage is increased, and every 6 months thereafter (Does he/she do that?).  If the tests reveal a problem, you may have to stop using the drug. (Really!)

What! Another ignored fact by the medical establishment:
Drugs like Lipitor have occasionally (Is that more or less than slight?) been known to damage muscle tissue, so be sure to tell your doctor immediately if you notice any unexplained muscle tenderness, weakness, or pain, especially if you also have a fever or feel sick. Your doctor may want to do another simple blood test to check for signs of muscle damage. (That’s nice)

Your kidding? Another ignored fact by the medical establishment:
“The Most Important Fact about This Drug”:
Lipitor is usually prescribed ONLY IF!!! Diet, exercise, and weight loss fail to bring your cholesterol levels under control.  IT’S IMPORTANT!!! to remember that Lipitor is a supplement, not a substitute for those other measures. To get the full benefit of the medication, you need to stick to the diet and exercise program prescribed by your doctor. (Did your doctor give you a diet?  Did you even try the diet?  Did you try exercising for even a day?)

And, the last, but not the least, ignored fact by the medical establishment:
According to Dr. Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, “Fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs are benefited at all”. “The vast majority of drugs – more than 90 per cent – only work in 30 or 50 per cent of the people.” (So, even if you are taking a medication, you only have a 30-50% chance of it working anyway.  You have better odds in Vegas).

Depending where you get your statistics, Lipitor is the third or sixth most prescribed drug in the world, with lifetime sales around one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000).  That’s just one drug folks.  How sad!  Why are people so afraid of eating right and exercising?  I guess that’s for another post.

By Marucs S. Ettinger DC, BSc.

Note: last test my triglycerides were 545 now they are 110.

I am continuing the use of the lecithin granules with the flax oil along with the low glycemic food list and was wondering what type of milk product to use if I eat an occasional bowl of all bran or some type of cereal like that.   Do you recommend rice milk, soy milk, or just fat free milk….?

Again, thank you so very much!!! You do not know how happy I am!!!!

Sincerely,
Pam Jones

Pam,

I am so glad you had such great numbers on your most recent lipid panel.  Keep-up the good work!!!

I have to be honest, I am not a big fan of cereal or milk. That said, having a bowl of cereal once every now and then isn’t going to kill anyone.  If you have to have a bowl than just do it and don’t worry about the milk. Remember, only every now and then!!!

Sincerely,

Marcus Ettinger DC, BSc.