Enjoying Your Money

With rising inflation and interest rates, investors following my recommendations should be making good money right now.

That’s wonderful and, needless to say, I’m very pleased.

But making money is one thing. Enjoying it with a healthy long life is another thing entirely.

Why do some people die prematurely, while others live until a ripe, old age? Why do some age with a healthy body and sharp mind, while others age with debilitating, long-term diseases?

I’m not a medical doctor. But I am fortunate to have access to doctors and scientists who are racing ahead on the leading edge in this field: Disease prevention and anti-aging.

Dr. John Zenk

The first is Dr. John Zenk, author of Living Longer In The Boomer Age and Chief Medical Officer of Humanetics, a biomedical company specialized in the research, development, and manufacture of natural anti-aging ingredients.

I called him at his office a couple of weeks ago.

“Just ten years from now,” he said, “the state of health care in America will be visibly transformed. Twenty years from now, it will be unrecognizable.”

“In what sense?” I queried.

“First, baby boomers are aging in large numbers. The new older generation — you and me included — will be the single largest age group in the nation. The number of people 70 years or older will mushroom.

“Second, even among younger generations, we are witnessing a rise in chronic diseases — heart disease, type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s. And as baby boomers get older, the frequency of these diseases will increase even more.

“Third,” he continued, “these diseases suck up financial resources like crazy. Patients go to the doctor. They get treated. But instead of getting better, their diseases only get worse, gobbling up even greater financial and human resources.”

I probed to better understand what might be causing this looming health care disaster. In response, Dr. Zenk talked about a series of apparently unrelated chronic illnesses that medical science is now linking in a single, integrated, disease complex.

“The first aspect of this disease complex,” he said, “is high-carbohydrate, high-fat diets — now widely known to be linked to type-2 diabetes and heart disease. Plus, to connect the dots one step further, it’s now a virtual medical certainty that there’s a link to Alzheimer’s.”

“Alzheimer’s too?” I asked.

“Yes. Diabetes and insulin resistance spurs a host of other problems — blood vessel damage, kidney problems, and peripheral nerve damage. These, in turn, seem to be related with the incidence of Alzheimer’s even among those who never show symptoms of diabetes.”

“But how does this tie back to aging?”

“Aging and weight gain go hand in hand. For every ten years you age, you’re likely to experience a 2% decrease in your metabolic rate. Do the math, and you’ll find that it could mean about five pounds in increased weight per year. The older you get, the fatter you grow.”

“Is this confirmed?”

“Yes. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that obesity alone increases the risk of death just by itself, over and beyond the increased risks of actual diseases associated with obesity.

“So there you have it: High-carb, high-fat diets … weight gain … aging … and a series of diseases related to all three.”

“To address this, what’s the first priority?”

“Your heart. That’s your first and highest risk area. If you’re overweight or you’re not doing enough to promote healthy aging, it will probably show up first in your heart. Heart disease is directly associated with all the factors related to aging.”

Rik J. Deitsch

The second expert I called on was Rik Deitsch, CEO of Nutra Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in pharmaceutical products and technologies. I finally reached him this past Friday morning, while he was vacationing with his wife and children in Orlando.

“From what I’ve read about you, you seem unusually dedicated to biochemical research on heart disease,” I said. “Is there a particular reason?”

“When I was a kid, my father was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, which, at that time, was an incurable and fatal cancer. He enrolled in a clinical trial for an experimental treatment at Temple University in Philadelphia. And although I was just six at the time, I remember it vividly. My mother used to haul me and her other four children to visit him frequently.”

“Was the treatment working?”

“That’s what Mom was desperate to know. But the physicians wouldn’t give her the time of day. Then, one day, she spotted a group of college kids in blue jeans and white lab coats walking the halls of the hospital. They were the biochemists running the clinical trials. They sat down with her to patiently explain everything. She was relieved and overjoyed, and I knew, right then, that I wanted to be a biochemist.”

“But why the passion for heart disease?”

“Thanks to the biochemists, Dad survived the cancer, alright. But about 28 years later, he died of a heart attack. He endured years of treatment to survive a disease we thought could never be cured … and then he was struck down instantly by a disease that’s usually preventable.”

“What did his doctor know about his heart problems?”

“Not a thing. We had no idea. In fact, Dad had just had a check-up. The blood work — everything — came back just fine. One Friday afternoon, he just passed out. They rushed him to the hospital, ran an angiogram, and found only 20% of his heart was functioning. That Sunday afternoon, he had an emergency quintuple bypass and seemed to be recovering OK. But a short while later, he went into a bad cardiac rhythm and died.”

“Why hadn’t anything shown up in his check-up?” I queried.

“Because he was fit. So the stress tests couldn’t detect anything.”

“What about today? If he were alive today and he went in for a typical check-up, would they have detected a problem?”

“Probably not. Medicine still isn’t geared to prevention. Before heart problems can show up on most tests, many people already have pretty severe heart damage.”

Eighty Percent of 40-Year-Olds
Already Suffering Cardio Damage

I stopped taking notes for a moment and asked, “How old was your father when he died?”

“58.”

I froze, and a shiver went up my spine. My mind seemed to rise above my body and I looked down at the scene below.

I barely recognized myself. There, seated in my armchair, was an aging man with a white beard, also 58-years old, also thinking he was physically fit, and also with a check-up that showed nothing wrong with his heart. And there he was, cradling a phone receiver on his shoulder, typing away avidly on his laptop, but totally oblivious to what might be going on inside his body.

“Statistically speaking, how common is this type of thing?” I asked, feigning dispassionate objectivity.

“Right now, here in the U.S., about 80% of 40-year-olds have at least one 50% occlusion in the coronary artery.”

For a few long seconds, I said nothing. Then, for the first time, I inserted myself into the story. “But what about someone like me? I don’t have to worry about this, do I? I eat healthy foods. I work out six times a week. I even have a trainer and a swim coach who are paid to kick my butt and make sure I don’t slack off.”

“That’s all very good. But I’ve seen hundreds of fit people like you in the hospital — some who recover from their heart attacks, some who don’t.”

“You said 80% of the people have a 50% occlusion? What age group was that again?

“40-year-olds.”

“40-year-olds!? What about when you’re in your 50s or close to your 60s?”

“Much worse.”

“But why are most people ignoring this data?”

“People say, ‘I’m healthy. I’m just fine. I don’t need prevention.’ And yet we’re talking about a disease that’s, by far, the number one killer — globally. Among all diseases in the entire industrial world, heart disease kills the most people. Period.”

“But why?”

Syndrome X

“In my view, it’s because of what’s commonly called ‘the metabolic syndrome’ or ‘syndrome X.’”

I recalled my earlier conversation with Dr. Zenk and recapped what I remembered. “He stressed declining metabolism rates as we age. He said it’s linked to a complex of related diseases — obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s. Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Yes. Same thing. Until just a few years ago, medical science couldn’t connect the dots. But now, biochemically, it’s pretty obvious to us what’s going on. As people get older and heavier, they accumulate a host of inflammatory compounds — chemicals that show up in the process of inflammation.”

“Why is inflammation such an issue?”

“Because inflammation is such a common, frequently occurring, natural defense mechanism of the body in response to almost anything — bacteria, viruses, toxins, even many foods. But it also leads to the kind of damage that’s associated with this syndrome, which, in turn, leads to the heart disease, the diabetes, and the Alzheimer’s.”

“When you say ‘damage,’ what exactly are you referring to?”

“I’m referring to damage that begins at the cellular level. Any time there’s an inflammation, it limits blood flow, causes poor circulation, deprives the cells of oxygen. So cells die … which leads to tissue damage … and eventually organ damage. People used to think this was a natural part of the aging process. But it’s really the natural progression of disease.”

“Like water torture?”

“Exactly. Borrowing a term from physics, we call this phenomenon ‘error catastrophe.’ It’s a near-endless series of small errors and accidents. Each one, in itself, is inconsequential. But when combined over time, they build up and eventually cause a catastrophic event.”

“Such as?”

“Such as a heart attack. It all happens imperceptibly at a deep, hidden, cellular level. One day, you think you’re healthy and fit. The next day, you’re in a hospital … or worse. These are lifestyle diseases. They build up inside you, based on your lifestyle, over a period of years. That’s why they’re so preventable.”

Early Detection and Prevention

“But,” I interjected, “your father thought he did everything right. He was physically fit. He had his check-up. Is there no way to detect heart disease in its earliest stages?”

“Fortunately, there ARE a couple of ways. You can get an ultra-fast CT scan. This allows us to take a close look inside your coronary arteries without being invasive. Plus, you should couple that with a blood test to show your cholesterol levels, your CRP (proteins that are powerful predictors of cardiac events) and any homocysteine (a building block of protein that can irritate blood vessels).”

“Suppose I don’t take these tests. Then what?”

“Then you can still virtually assume that, unless your diet and habits are nearly perfect, you’re most probably suffering some level of cardiac damage, no matter who you are and no matter how old you may be.”

“Where can I have the tests done?”

“Heart scan clinics that do this are beginning to pop up everywhere.”

“Beginning? Why just beginning?”

“For a long time, most doctors were against CT scans. They preferred cardiac catheterization. But that procedure was much more invasive — they’d put a tiny camera through a vein in your leg all the way up to your heart. Then they had to subjectively and selectively poke around wherever they thought they might find something. Sometimes they could accidentally dislodge a plaque and even cause a cardiac event.”

“And with the CT scan?”

“It’s completely non-invasive. Plus, the software objectively and thoroughly computes data which emulates a broader and more detailed cardiac catheterization.”

“Is it covered by insurance?”

“Some insurers are starting to cover it. But if you’re outwardly healthy and you go to a clinic for these kinds of prevention-oriented tests, the insurance industry will generally throw you into the category they call ‘the worried well.’ From their perspective, you don’t really need it right now. So they won’t pay for it. That’s the way insurance companies usually work. They’re reactive — not pro-active.”

“I know. But do you think they’ll ever change?”

“Actually, there IS a paradigm shift taking place, albeit slowly. Health and Human Services, for example, is pushing for insurance companies to pay for more prevention. They’re recommending ‘10,000 steps to a healthier America.’ They’re getting communities to create walking paths, for example. The result is that many people are now becoming more aware. Unfortunately, not enough are actually changing their habits.”

“Other than heart disease, can you give me a specific example of a disease where you think more prevention would make a huge difference?”

“Diabetes! I’ve tried to convince Health and Human Services that if they did nothing else but recommend a diabetic fiber supplement, we could greatly lower the cost of treating diabetes, which, in turn, would greatly reduce the risk of heart disease and kidney failure.”

“How much money are you talking about?”

“Actually, treating diabetes itself is relatively cheap — say, about $5,000 per year. But once it starts affecting the heart or the kidneys, the costs escalate dramatically. One heart attack alone will set you back close to $30,000. Once you get kidney failure, figure about $60,000 per year for dialysis and upwards of $100,000 for a transplant. Tack on the extremely high, ongoing cost of Alzheimer’s — and you can see why the entire Medicare/Medicaid system is on a collision course with financial failure.”

“So what are you doing about this personally?”

“I’m doing what I wish I could have done for my father before he died. If I knew then what I know now, he’d be alive today.”

“Please be more specific.”

“I would have made sure he got proper diet and proper supplementation — supplements specifically designed to lower his risk of heart disease.”

“Is that what you do?”

“Yes. Right now, my whole purpose in life is formulating supplements that significantly lower the risk of heart disease. There are hundreds of cardio products on the market. But as far as I can tell, they’re all narrowly focused. Some treat the heart muscle. Some address the heart rate. Others relax blood vessels for better blood flow. Still others treat poor surface circulation. The company I formulated the product for — Waiora — wanted a single program that could do virtually everything, that thoroughly addressed all three aspects of cardio health — large blood vessels, small blood vessels, and the heart muscle itself.”

“Isn’t anyone else providing a similar program?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“What research do you have to back-up your product?”

“In our field, there are three types of research: There’s tertiary research, which is generic material about the disease itself. This supports the general concept of a product. There’s secondary research, which supports the ingredients or groups of ingredients in the product. And there’s primary research — on the product itself.”

“What kind of research are you relying on right now?”

“Right now, since ours is a relatively new product, most of our research is of the second kind. But it’s solid and vast. To cite just one example, it includes all the research that went into the 1998 Nobel Prize of medicine.”

“Which was …”

“The discovery that nitric oxide is a neurotransmitter, relaxing the blood vessels and allowing for more efficient blood flow, especially to the periphery.”

“Would you recommend this product for someone who has a perfectly healthy heart?”

“Of course. This product may also help push back on existing disease. But prevention is the primary focus, which means starting as early as possible. You want to prevent it from setting in. You want to prevent it from getting worse. Or you want to prevent it from being fatal. It’s all natural ingredients — just a food supplement. So there are no side effects.”

My Bias

I was personally so impressed by this product, I decided to start taking it myself. My associate, Larry Edelson, has already been taking it for a few months, with surprising results, and he was the one who originally told me about it.

Plus, I’m so impressed with the company that produces it, I have decided to partner with the firm to help offer it to my readers. This is the first time in my 38-year career that I’ve done this.

I feel it’s important that you be aware of that. No matter how objective and impartial I may try to be, my business relationship with the firm — and my personal experiences with the product — are bound to slant my views in some way. I am admittedly biased in their favor.

But if you check it out in detail, as I have, I think you will be too. I’ve posted the details here.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
Editor, Safe Money Report
President, Weiss Research, Inc.
martinonmonday@weissinc.com

P.S. You wouldn’t fire your financial adviser because someone you respect gives you conflicting opinions about the economy. By the same token, it’s essential that you continue to work with your doctor despite philosophical disagreements he may have with this information.

Martin Weiss and “Martin on Monday” are non-partisan. Third-party ads do not necessarily represent their opinion and should not be interpreted as an endorsement.

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