Direct-pay Medicine

Cristy Beckman, who suffers from chronic pain in her spine and osteoarthritis, spent six hours in a doctor's crowded waiting room in severe pain.

That was enough, the Middletown resident decided. It was time to make a drastic change in how she was treated.

At about the same time, Dr. Christina Bovelsky opened Peachtree Family Medicine in downtown Middletown, Delaware with a unique approach to medicine.

Instead of dealing with traditional insurance, co-pays and deductibles, her patients pay a one-year membership fee that includes an annual physical exam and between two and four office visits. Small procedures such as nebulizer treatments, strep tests and electrocardiograms, are included.

Beckman, 46, became one of Bovelsky's first patients.

"There's an absolute peace of mind that someone is looking after your healthcare," Beckman said. "I don't think there's any way I could do something different."

Bovelsky's patients can pay monthly fees between $65 and $75. Yearly rates for adults vary between $780 and $900, depending on the number of visits a patient wants. Care for children under 18 ranges from $240 to $360. Additional office visits cost $80 each.

Nationally, more health care providers are embracing the direct-pay, or "concierge medicine," model.

A Physicians' Foundation 2014 survey found 7 percent of doctors run a direct-pay practice and another 13 percent plan to transition to some form of direct-pay model.

Most of Bovelsky's patients still have insurance for additional procedures and tests not covered by the doctor's fees, such as vaccines and lab work.

Health care providers say they are transitioning to direct-pay medicine because they are able to spend more time with fewer patients, which allows them to drill down to the cause of a medical issue instead of ordering extra tests. The doctors are also more readily available to patients after hours.

David Wilderman, a longtime physical therapist, decided to sell his physical therapy practice in Pennsylvania and open a new one in Delaware to help patients, like Beckman, who wanted a more personal approach.

"My belief is everyone should receive high-quality health care," he said. "The optimal goal is for my patients is to avoid medication and surgery."

Even with the extra attention, some fear direct pay and concierge medicine will drive up medical costs for individuals. Insurance representatives say consumers should make sure they completely understand a direct fee plan and the cost of treatments from a physician who is not working within a traditional insurance plan network.

Courtney Jay, a spokeswoman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a national trade association representing the health insurance industry, said in an email that a doctor can charge more for a specific procedure than he or she is typically reimbursed for by an insurance company, which means the patient will pay more for that procedure.

"The out-of-pocket amount for the patient would vary depending on the patient's specific policy within their plan," she said.

Dr. Nick Biasotto, a family doctor and past president of the Medical Society of Delaware, said many doctors are exploring these new business models because they are seeing more patients daily as practices merge and facing higher medical costs with technological advancements.

And, as doctors age, they tend to want to scale back.

At 65, Biasotto, said he found he couldn't keep the pace. He is beginning to transition to a direct-pay practice after becoming frustrated with seeing 45 patients a day. In his 36 years as a doctor, he's seen 4,000 patients.

"It's time for me to slow down. I don’t want to join the hospital system and crank out patient after patient," he said.

Under the direct-pay system, he might see 500 patients in a year and he'll be able to make house calls. He's heard of about eight other doctors pursuing these models.

But he also had to let some employees go and help some patients who couldn't afford monthly fees transition to new providers.

"That was the hardest part of the whole process . . . saying goodbye to patients I've cared for for years," Biasotto said.

A direct-fee model also helps doctors and patients eliminate paperwork such as prior authorizations and filing for reimbursements. Bovelsky said she uses that time saved to focus more on patients.

"The average time a doctor has with a patient is 7 minutes," Bovelsky said. "Here, it is at least 30 to 60 minutes. Sometimes it's 90. When you take the time to sit down, you are going to find the answer to what is going on with them.

"I love what I do and I wanted to spend my time with patients. The way medicine is set up currently ... it really is a revolving door."

"Insurance standards often dictate what services specialists, like physical therapists, can provide and how long they can care for patients," Wilderman said. "Often patients in physical therapy have between 12 to 24 sessions, but the amount of time spent with a therapist is under a half hour.  It's not in the patient's best interest," Wilderman explained.

Under his model, patients only will need four to six visits, for about an hour each, though there are no set number of visits a person must have. An initial assessment appointment is $195 with any additional visit costing $165. Patients can try to get their services reimbursed as well, he said.

"This is helping people get better faster...People don't have to lose valuable time away from work and family," Wilderman said. "I don't have to go by the insurance company saying I'm not going to cover that.

"When you tally everything up, it is cheaper in the long run to do what I'm doing as an out-of-network provider."

Jen Rini can be reached at (302) 324-2386 or jrini@delawreonline.com. Follow @JenRini on Twitter.

Drug Cartel and Counter Culture Take a Hit

Smoking High-Strength Cannabis May Damage Nerve Fibers in Brain 
from The Guardian

Study suggests high levels of skunk use may affect the brain’s white matter, making communication between the right and left hemispheres less efficient

The brain’s white matter seen from the front as obtained by diffusion tensor imaging. Photograph: Institute of Psychiatry

High-strength cannabis may damage nerve fibres that handle the flow of messages across the two halves of the brain, scientists claim. Brain scans of people who regularly smoked strong skunk-like cannabis revealed subtle differences in the white matter that connects the left and right hemispheres and carries signals from one side of the brain to the other.

The changes were not seen in those who never used cannabis or smoked only the less potent forms of the drug, the researchers found.

The study is thought to be the first to look at the effects of cannabis potency on brain structure, and suggests that greater use of skunk may cause more damage to the corpus callosum, making communications across the brain's hemispheres less efficient.

Paola Dazzan, a neurobiologist at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, said the effects appeared to be linked to the level of active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in cannabis.  While traditional forms of cannabis contain 2 to 4% THC, the more portent varietis (of which there are about 100), can contain 10 to 14% THC, according to the DrugScope charity.

“If you look at the corpus callosum, what we’re seeing is a significant difference in the white matter between those who use high potency cannabis and those who never use the drug, or use the low-potency drug,” said Dazzan. The corpus callosum is rich in cannabinoid receptors, on which the THC chemical acts.

A DTI image of the corpus callosum, as seen from the side, is shown in red on and superimposed on a background MRI image of the brain. Photograph: Institute of Psychiatry

“The difference is there whether you have psychosis or not, and we think this is strictly related to the potency of the cannabis,” she added. Details of the study are reported in the journal Psychological Medicine.

The researchers used two scanning techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to examine the corpus callosum, the largest region of white matter, in the brains of 56 patients who had reported a first episode of psychosis, and 43 healthy volunteers from the local community.

The scans found that daily users of high-potency cannabis had a slightly greater – by about 2% – “mean diffusivity” in the corpus callosum. “That reflects a problem in the white matter that ultimately makes it less efficient,” Dazzan told the Guardian. “We don’t know exactly what it means for the person, but it suggests there is less efficient transfer of information.”

The study cannot confirm that high levels of THC in cannabis cause changes to white matter. As Dazzan notes, it is may be that people with damaged white matter are more likely to smoke skunk in the first place.

“It is possible that these people already have a different brain and they are more likely to use cannabis. But what we can say is if it’s high potency, and if you smoke frequently, your brain is different from the brain of someone who smokes normal cannabis, and from someone who doesn’t smoke cannabis at all,” she said.

“It is possible that these people already have a different brain and they are more likely to use cannabis. But what we can say is if it’s high potency, and if you smoke frequently, your brain is different from the brain of someone who smokes normal cannabis, and from someone who doesn’t smoke cannabis at all,” she said.

But even with the uncertainty over cause and effect, she urged users and public health workers to change how they think about cannabis use. “When it comes to alcohol, we are used to thinking about how much people drink, and whether they are drinking wine, beer, or whisky. We should think of cannabis in a similar way, in terms of THC and the different contents cannabis can have, and potentially the effects on health will be different,” she said.

“As we have suggested previously, when assessing cannabis use, it is extremely important to gather information on how often and what type of cannabis is being used. These details can help quantify the risk of mental health problems and increase awareness of the type of damage these substances can do to the brain,” she added.

In February, Dazzan and others at the Institute of Psychiatry reported that the ready availability of skunk in south London might be behind a rise in the proportion of new cases of psychosis being attributed to cannabis.

HOSPITALS "ADMIT" YOU SO THEY CAN GET YOU EVEN MORE SICK

". . . this is the way people entering the hospital begin to go downhill and face complications."

It starts like this.

h/t Lew Rockwell

These are my prefacing remarks.  Hospitals get you in, no, maybe I should use their elite professional term of "admit."  Right, hospitals admit you.  You've earned it.  How do they do that?  They have to come up with a diagnosis first.  My mother's ER doctor claimed she had pneumonia.  She didn't. Something else was causing her bleeding. Pneumonia doesn't cause bleeding.  But do you think that anyone in the family knew the difference between pneumonia and the causes of her bleeding?  Do you think that her doctor or anyone of the attending physicians would tell her or the family the truth about pneumonia symptoms?  What, are you crazy?  And is bleeding so bad?  Her ER doctor diagnosed her with pneumonia to give the family a bone to chew on while he admitted her so that the slew of hospital-contracted technicians could roll their holy hardware in and out of her room and get paid.  And why not?  Her health insurance was a veritable ATM machine, like the ones you drive up to, put your card in, press a few keys, and hundred dollar bills come shooting out.  Once inside the hospital, the family expected her to get well and be out in a day or two.  She was in for ten days.  Her conditioned worsened, of course. She was on the anti-biotic, Zosyn, for each of the ten days, a standard anti-biotic.  Insomnia is one of its side effects.  So the doctors ran their tests, one even proving that she had no pneumonia. They just kept pumping her with Zosyn.  But the doctor hemmed and hawed and hedged his bets by keeping her.  The family didn't know their rights.  They accepted the doctor prescription of death.  She was after all 89 years old. You have to love it how doctors, well anybody for that matter, use people's age against them.  Her one immunity resource, her gut flora, was destroyed by the Zosyn.  Se la vie. Remember that hospitals have bills to pay.  Hospitals have things to sell you.  But they don't really give you a choice, since the product is often forced or coerced upon you by a doctor, who operate more like money managers making sure you take and buy their dope.  Don't do it.

Here is Bill Sardi . . . .

I had made it to age 70 without any chronic diseases and no need to take any prescription drugs.  Last Tuesday afternoon that ended.  The mild chest pressure and shortness of breath began Tuesday afternoon while I was driving to my son’s counseling session in Chino, CA.  I began popping vitamin C tablets every few minutes, which is all that I had available in the car. 

I drove to Pomona Valley Hospital emergency room within an hour where I was quickly ushered into a hallway to undergo an immediate electrocardiogram.  It appeared normal on the print out but the technician said he saw an abnormal beat on his screen (a premature ventricular contraction).  I took my pulse.  My heart was skipping a beat every six beats.   I was having real heart trouble.

It took another 40 minutes for emergency room personnel to take me into a treatment room and give me a nitroglycerin tablet to dilate my blood vessels, a blood thinner and an aspirin tablet to halt any clots.  Within 20 minutes my condition was stable; no shortness of breath.

My cardiac enzyme level (troponin level) was 0.6 upon admission (0.3 is normal), 1.5 later in the emergency room and eventually rose to 50.0 the next day.  High troponin levels indicate a heart attack (blockage of circulation in a coronary artery).

I was admitted to the hospital late that afternoon and began dealing with the challenges of hospitalization. 

First, the nurse offered me vaccines for the flu and pneumonia.  I declined, saying I didn’t come to the hospital with a health crisis intending to get injected with two pathological germs, a mycobacterium and a virus.  I said this is the way people entering the hospital begin to go downhill and face complications.

The male nurse acquired personal information for the hospital chart.  He didn’t believe I was 70 years old and had me take my driver’s license out of my wallet to confirm my birthdate. 

The ordeal of staying overnight in a hospital was challenging. Uninterrupted sleep is almost impossible.  Light pollution (I had to cover up 9 lights in my room) and noise pollution (the incessant “beep” of the
heart monitoring  machine directly outside my room) were agonizing.  I got 4 hours of sleep that first night.  (How does anybody get well in an environment like that?)

At 5AM the nurses and technicians began working me up with blood tests and prepping me for an angiogram (dye test of my coronary arteries).  At 7 AM I was being wheeled in my bed to the cardiac cath room on the ground floor.  A humorous moment came when my hospital bed wouldn’t fit into the elevator.   Made you feel like they really planned things well (??).

In the cath lab a team of 5 nurses and technicians were busy moving x-ray machines and monitors into place and setting up instruments.  I informed them I didn’t want to hear the word “oops” during my procedure.

I was offered a pain reliever and a sedative that I once again declined, saying these drugs would induce shallow breathing that could result in pneumonia.  The nurse couldn’t believe I was refusing the medication.

About 40 minutes later the cardiologist had found a single coronary artery that was blocked (blood clots, not cholesterol) and placed a stent (a wire prop).  He kept asking if I felt any pain.  I said no.  The stent was introduced through an artery in my wrist instead of more customary route through the groin. 

I didn’t feel any better after the procedure because my heart circulation had already been re-established with medications.  I had told the cardiologist I didn’t want a stent unless it was absolutely necessary.  I got a stent anyway whether I liked it or not.  Now I have a time bomb in my chest, as stents tend to attract blood platelets that result in clots.  So the very health threat I walked in with is still a present danger that only 8 or 9 months taking blood thinners will avert.  After a few months the tissue covers the stent and then there is nil risk of a clot. 

I would spend another night in the hospital just for monitoring.  My first meal in the hospital was described as a special cardiac lunch.  It was comprised of zero-fat/high sugar carbohydrate foods like soda pop (can you believe?), sugary custard, a sugary jello cup and some sliced beef with noodles. 

I had to call my culinary friends, Tom and Valerie Aruffo, who cater events for me, and they brought me real food to eat (salad greens, meat for protein, etc.) 

By then I had others bring me other dietary supplements: potassium/magnesium capsules; zinc; fish oil; vitamin D; vitamin C, resveratrol.  The nurse allowed me to keep them as long as I hid them from the charge nurse. 

The cardiologist and hospital staff had great difficulty assessing my case.  I had normally low blood pressure (129/69 upon hospital admission), low cholesterol, normal blood sugar (5.5 hemoglobin A1c), and was normal weight (12 pounds over my high school weight) with no history of tobacco use or over-use of alcohol.  Furthermore, to confound everything, I had full heart pumping pressure (ejection fraction) after the event, which means no tissue  damage to the heart muscle.   I didn’t fit the mold. 

This latter phenomenon is explained by my daily intake of resveratrol (Longevinex®), that activates internal antioxidants in the heart tissue prior to a blockage of circulation, which in turn prevents or limits damage to heart muscle.  I explained my case on the telephone to Nate Lebowitz MD, a Ft. Lee, NJ preventive cardiologist, and he believes resveratrol spared me from heart damage. 

What goes unexplained is that the cardiologist who implanted the stents in my coronary artery was not the least bit curious as to why I had no loss of pumping pressure or why I had reached age 70 without any chronic disease.  When I explained I have been taking a resveratrol pill he said he didn’t know what that was.   In fact, the doctor ordered that I cease taking all dietary supplements and continue with the problematic drugs he prescribed.

He had me take an ACE inhibitor (lisinopril), which drove my blood pressure down to 90/40 and I felt mentally fatigued.  I’m holding that drug aside for now.  When blood pressure is that low tissues above the heart (brain, eyes, ears) don’t receive adequate blood circulation.  I also refused to take a statin cholesterol-lowering drug, which the doctor didn’t put up much of a fight over.  Maybe in the back of his mind he knows statins are useless and problematic.

I’m embarking on an accelerated 90-day artery-cleansing regimen of arginine (5000 mg0, chondroitin (5000 mg), vitamin C/lysine-proline, resveratrol.  I’m relying on molecular medicine, not synthetic drugs, to see me through.

For all of my friends who called to offer get-well messages, made me chicken and lentil soup, and provided me support while in the hospital, I am ever grateful.  I’m back home spending time with my 11-year old son Matthew, who helped pa-pa wash the car.  Updates will be provided in due time.

". . . calcium and magnesium may be the best choice for insomnia"

Because of its calcium and magnesium content, dairy is a great food to help you sleep better.

from Nutritional Breakthroughs

According to a recent study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1.6 million American adults with insomnia have gotten a deeper, more restful night's sleep by using natural and alternative remedies [like food]. The most widely known natural insomnia remedies for sleep are the minerals calcium and magnesium, the herb valerian root, the natural hormone melatonin, and the amino acid tryptophan.

1.6 million is a lot of sufferers from insomnia, but the only one who really matters is you.  I have tried a few herbs to help me sleep.  I've tried melatonin, and that only makes me feel more lethargic when I wake up in the morning.  So no go there.  Many have touted the health benefits of melatonin.  Maybe.  But the road to the benefits are too heavy for me.  I don't like that heavy feeling in the morning.  No thanks.

I have tried magnesium separate from calcium.  It helps.  

I have tried calcium separate from magnesium.  It too helps.

Ah, there's the word "helpful."  Watch out for those side effects.  I've never had nausea or head aches or memory loss, confusion, or dizziness from any of the ones that I've tried.  Like I said, I did experience lethargy when waking up from the smallest doses of melatonin.

The NIH study on Complementary and Alternative Medicine found that "A majority of people who used natural therapies for their insomnia reported they were helpful." Many adults who suffer with sleeplessness would prefer to avoid the side effects of sleep medications such as memory loss, headache, nausea, depression, dizziness, confusion, a hangover effect, and possible addiction.

Though I have tried chamomile tea, I have never tried Valerian root.

In modern herbal medicine, Valerian is the most common herb used for insomnia. Valerian root makes getting to sleep easier and is also used for nervous tension and anxiety. Valerian is often combined with other mildly sedating herbs like chamomile, hops, passion flower and lemon balm. Drowsiness and an inability to remain alert are Valerian*s most common side effects.  It may be unsafe to take while driving or operating heavy machinery and should not be consumed along with alcohol or sedative drugs.  

 Know what to expect from Melatonin.

There is no Melatonin in salmon.  Only a good source of magnesium, potassium, and calcium

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone produced by the pineal gland, which is located in the center of the brain. At night or in the dark, the pineal gland releases melatonin to regulate the sleep cycle. The body produces less melatonin with advancing age.  While melatonin doesn't require a prescription, it is a potent hormone.  If too much is taken, it can make it more difficult to wake up and may result in daytime grogginess.  It is best used under the supervision of a doctor.

Though I've obviously consumed foods with Tryptophan, like turkey and milk, I have never tried supplementation.  On this be careful too. Read the side effects.  Do you really want any of these?

Tryptophan is an amino acid (a component of protein) that is found in turkey, tuna, bananas, dates, oats and dairy products. It has been used for people with insomnia because it is converted into serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain that*s involved in mood, appetite and sleep.  

A related compound to tryptopha that occurs naturally in the body is 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), This may also be helpful for insomnia.  Possible side effects with 5-HTP include nausea, stomach upset and decreased sex drive. It should not be used along with antidepressant drugs.

Looks like the combination of calcium and magnesium may be your best bet.

The minerals calcium and magnesium may be the best choice for insomnia.  They are proven natural relaxants and provide many additional health benefits. Calcium is directly related to our cycles of sleep. One study found that calcium levels were higher during some of the deeper levels of sleep, such as the rapid eye movement (REM) phase.  Calcium causes the release of the sleep-inducing amino acid tryptophan.  Magnesium has been successfully used for sleeplessness.  Regarding magnesium, probably no other single deficiency is so responsible for the widespread use of tranquilizers.

Calcium also helps to strengthen bones, lower blood pressure, alleviate symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, and protect against colon cancer. One possible side effect from taking too much calcium or magnesium is diarrhea, at which point less can be used.

 I cannot speak to "other important factors," for I've only tried these minersals separately in capsules.  In food, I am sure there are other factors.  I just couldn't tell you which ones are key.

Digestibility and absorption are important factors in selecting the best forms of calcium and magnesium to use. For example, Sleep Minerals II from Nutrition Breakthroughs is a natural insomnia remedy that contains highly absorbable forms of these minerals. It also contains vitamin D and zinc and is delivered in a softgel form with healthy carrier oils, making it better assimilated than tablets or capsules and providing a deeper, longer-lasting sleep.

But apparently formula from Health Breakthroughs has been helping other individuals.  

Alex R. of Ramseur, North Carolina says: "Sleep Minerals II has been a blessing for me. It has given me the opportunity to withdraw from a highly addictive sleep medication over time, and has allowed me to sleep while going through this most difficult ordeal.  What's great about it is it doesn't lose its effectiveness, which is something that happens with medications.  I am most thankful for this product."

The problem with reporting continues.  Above, the NIH reports 1.6 million insomnia sufferers.  Here in the prose part of the narrative, it states "millions of people."  Are we to take that to mean 1.6 million?  Is that "millions"?  Perhaps.

The NIH study confirms that millions of people are benefiting from natural remedies for insomnia. Indeed, these are far better than putting a drug-based, potentially addictive chemical into your body. One good tip is to seek remedies that not only help you sleep more deeply, but also have additional benefits to your overall health.  

Okay, so now you know which is the best mineral or supplement for insomnia.  Next question is do you shop for supplements or do shop for food sources of these minerals?  I say go with the food remedies.  

FOOD SOURCES OF CALCIUM & MAGNESIUM
Milk, cheese, grassfed beef, wild-caught fish, nuts and seeds.  Brazil nuts may be the most potent source or magnesium, but I would say any nuts will have some in them.  My favorite nuts are cashews and macadamia nuts.  These seem to have a little more fat.  Which is good.  There are other foods that can help your sleep patterns.

Oh, and don't exclude acupuncture.  Acupunturists can needle you to help your body relax and get a very good and deep night's sleep. 

"Sleep . . . organiz[es] . . . and keep[s] permanent newly learned skills and memories."

Thanks to Robert Wenzel

This was a terrific presentation.  His steps for learning new material was pretty good.  So was his 6 Steps to a Better Memory.

What follows are my notes from the presentation:

Cortisol stops all neurons from developing.  Coritsol is that hormone that we produce when we're stressed out, injured, or cannot sleep.  If your work situation is producing any of these and your coworkers enjoy watching you being stressed out, it's probably not a good idea to remain at that foul and fetid place.  Stress decreases the hippocampus.  Wow.  So it literally shrinks your brain. That was interesting and horrible.  

Be aware of how you react to stress.  Avoid counterproductive stress. Good advice but I wonder how much of this is a constant in everybody's work week.  Exercise and sleep both combat sleep.  True that, true that.  

Why is sleep so important?  Sleep is where the brain reviews and organizes things that happened to your in your day.  It's where the excess and unessential things gets discarded.  Part of a dialogue between your hippocampus and cerebral cortex and the rest of the brain where all of the new information and skills are stored.  If you don't sleep, then all of the new things you learn will be gone tomorrow.  Consolidate new information with good sleep.  Helps to keep your memories permanent. Sleep disruptions are common in aging and disease.  It's why we see memory impairments.  Even a short afternoon naps can improve memory retention. Stabilizing, organizing, optimizing, and keeping permanent newly learned skills and memories.  be helpful for beginning to consolidate new information.  

Socializing is important.  Friends help fill in gaps in memory.  They can also reassure us that we are young at heart.

Living alone doubles the risk for dementia markers.  Why are other people good for us?  Be with people who don't cause us stress.  Talking, interacting, having a conversation, all of this keeps us healthy and alive.

Friends are part of what keeps our memories young.

Eat light and healthy.  Ah, yes.  Food remedies.  Eat light and healthy.  Couldn't be more accurate!

1.  Exercise regularly.

2.  Keep mentally active.  

3.  Avoid unproductive stress.

4.  Get a good night's sleep.

5.  Socialize with others.  For those people who cause you stress, either keep interaction with them to a minimum, remove yourself completely, or give it back to them good and hard.

6.  Eat light and healthy.

His point about avoiding saturated fats and high cholesterol foods is flat out wrong.  This is part of the standard American commercial diet.  Truth is that saturated fats and high cholesterol foods are not only healthy for you but essential in fighting disease and aging, the two factors he mentions earlier that impair sleep.  Cholesterol fights inflammation.  It is vital for life.  Coconut oil and coconut butter, a saturated fat, is awesome for health.  See Dr. Mary Enig for thorough reviews on its benefits. One heart surgeon told me that he takes 2 teaspoons of coconut oil every morning for heart health. Not only does coconut oil fortify the heart, it also helps your kidneys function better.  What is not to like!!

Benefits of Butter . . . Redux

Kerrygold grassfed butter is all the rave in the paleo circles.  For good reason, and I am glad.  But for me, salted raw butter from Organic Pastures is by far the more creamier and tastier product.  Kerrigold grassfed butter almost tastes greasy when compared to raw butter.  The health benefits can be had from both, but if that is the case then why not opt for the tastier product--that being Organic Pastures raw butter? Read about the benefits of butter from Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD:

Why Butter Is Better

by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig, PhD

When the fabricated food folks and apologists for the corporate farm realized that they couldn't block America's growing interest in diet and nutrition, a movement that would ultimately put an end to America's biggest and most monopolistic industries, they infiltrated the movement and put a few sinister twists on information going out to the public. Item number one in the disinformation campaign was the assertion that naturally saturated fats from animal sources are the root cause of the current heart disease and cancer plague. Butter bore the brunt of the attack, and was accused of terrible crimes. The Diet Dictocrats told us that it was better to switch to polyunsaturated margarine and most Americans did. Butter all but disappeared from our tables, shunned as a miscreant.

This would come as a surprise to many people around the globe who have valued butter for its life-sustaining properties for millennia. When Dr. Weston Price studied native diets in the 1930's he found that butter was a staple in the diets of many supremely healthy peoples. Isolated Swiss villagers placed a bowl of butter on their church altars, set a wick in it, and let it burn throughout the year as a sign of divinity in the butter. Arab groups also put a high value on butter, especially deep yellow-orange butter from livestock feeding on green grass in the spring and fall. American folk wisdom recognized that children raised on butter were robust and sturdy; but that children given skim milk during their growing years were pale and thin, with "pinched" faces.

Does butter cause disease? On the contrary, butter protects us against many diseases.

Butter & Heart Disease

Heart disease was rare in America at the turn of the century. Between 1920 and 1960, the incidence of heart disease rose precipitously to become America's number one killer. During the same period butter consumption plummeted from eighteen pounds per person per year to four. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in statistics to conclude that butter is not a cause. Actually butter contains many nutrients that protect us from heart disease. First among these is vitamin A which is needed for the health of the thyroid and adrenal glands, both of which play a role in maintaining the proper functioning of the heart and cardiovascular system. Abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels occur in babies born to vitamin A deficient mothers. Butter is America's best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A.

Butter contains lecithin, a substance that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolism of cholesterol and other fat constituents.

Butter also contains a number of anti-oxidants that protect against the kind of free radical damage that weakens the arteries. Vitamin A and vitamin E found in butter both play a strong anti-oxidant role. Butter is a very rich source of selenium, a vital anti-oxidant--containing more per gram than herring or wheat germ.

Butter is also a good dietary source cholesterol. What?? Cholesterol an anti-oxidant?? Yes indeed, cholesterol is a potent anti-oxidant that is flooded into the blood when we take in too many harmful free-radicals--usually from damaged and rancid fats in margarine and highly processed vegetable oils. A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.

Butter & Cancer

In the 1940's research indicated that increased fat intake caused cancer. The abandonment of butter accelerated; margarine--formerly a poor man's food-- was accepted by the well-to-do. But there was a small problem with the way this research was presented to the public. The popular press neglected to stress that fact that the "saturated" fats used in these experiments were not naturally saturated fats but partially hydrogenated or hardened fats--the kind found mostly in margarine but not in butter. Researchers stated--they may have even believed it--that there was no difference between naturally saturated fats in butter and artificially hardened fats in margarine and shortening. So butter was tarred with the black brush of the fabricated fats, and in such a way that the villains got passed off as heroes.

Actually many of the saturated fats in butter have strong anti-cancer properties. Butter is rich in short and medium chain fatty acid chains that have strong anti-tumor effects. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid which gives excellent protection against cancer.  Vitamin A and the anti-oxidants in butter--vitamin E, selenium and cholesterol--protect against cancer as well as heart disease.

Butter & the Immune System

Vitamin A found in butter is essential to a healthy immune system; short and medium chain fatty acids also have immune system strengthening properties. But hydrogenated fats and an excess of long chain fatty acids found in polyunsaturated oils and many butter substitutes both have a deleterious effect on the immune system.

Butter & Arthritis

The Wulzen or "anti-stiffness" factor is a nutrient unique to butter. Dutch researcher Wulzen found that it protects against calcification of the joints--degenerative arthritis--as well as hardening of the arteries, cataracts and calcification of the pineal gland.9 Unfortunately this vital substance is destroyed during pasteurization. Calves fed pasteurized milk or skim milk develop joint stiffness and do not thrive. Their symptoms are reversed when raw butterfat is added to the diet.

Butter & Osteoporosis

Vitamins A and D in butter are essential to the proper absorption of calcium and hence necessary for strong bones and teeth. The plague of osteoporosis in milk-drinking western nations may be due to the fact that most people choose skim milk over whole, thinking it is good for them. Butter also has anti-cariogenic effects, that is, it protects against tooth decay.

Butter & the Thyroid Gland

Butter is a good source of iodine, in highly absorbable form. Butter consumption prevents goiter in mountainous areas where seafood is not available. In addition, vitamin A in butter is essential for proper functioning of the thyroid gland.

Butter & Gastrointestinal Health

Butterfat contains glycospingolipids, a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastro-intestinal infection, especially in the very young and the elderly. For this reason, children who drink skim milk have diarrhea at rates three to five times greater than children who drink whole milk.12 Cholesterol in butterfat promotes health of the intestinal wall and protects against cancer of the colon.13 Short and medium chain fatty acids protect against pathogens and have strong anti-fungal effects.14 Butter thus has an important role to play in the treatment of candida overgrowth.

Butter & Weight Gain

The notion that butter causes weight gain is a sad misconception. The short and medium chain fatty acids in butter are not stored in the adipose tissue, but are used for quick energy. Fat tissue in humans is composed mainly of longer chain fatty acids.15 These come from olive oil and polyunsaturated oils as well as from refined carbohydrates. Because butter is rich in nutrients, it confers a feeling of satisfaction when consumed. Can it be that consumption of margarine and other butter substitutes results in cravings and bingeing because these highly fabricated products don't give the body what it needs?.

Butter for Growth & Development

Many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children. Chief among them is vitamin A. Individuals who have been deprived of sufficient vitamin A during gestation tend to have narrow faces and skeletal structure, small palates and crowded teeth.16 Extreme vitamin A deprivation results in blindness, skeletal problems and other birth defects.17 Individuals receiving optimal vitamin A from the time of conception have broad handsome faces, strong straight teeth, and excellent bone structure. Vitamin A also plays an important role in the development of the sex characteristics. Calves fed butter substitutes sicken and die before reaching maturity.

The X factor, discovered by Dr. Weston Price (and now believed to be vitamin K2), is also essential for optimum growth. It is only present in butterfat from cows on green pasture.19 Cholesterol found in butterfat plays an important role in the development of the brain and nervous system.20 Mother's milk is high in cholesterol and contains over 50 percent of its calories as butterfat. Low fat diets have been linked to failure to thrive in children21--yet low-fat diets are often recommended for youngsters! Children need the many factors in butter and other animal fats for optimal development.

Beyond Margarine

It's no longer a secret that the margarine Americans have been spreading on their toast, and the hydrogenated fats they eat in commercial baked goods like cookies and crackers, is the chief culprit in our current plague of cancer and heart disease.22 But mainline nutrition writers continue to denigrate butter--recommending new fangled tub spreads instead. These may not contain hydrogenated fats but they are composed of highly processed rancid vegetable oils, soy protein isolate and a host of additives. A glitzy cookbook called Butter Busters promotes butter buds, made from maltodextrin, a carbohydrate derived from corn, along with dozens of other highly processed so-called low-fat commercial products.

Who benefits from the propaganda blitz against butter? The list is a long one and includes orthodox medicine, hospitals, the drug companies and food processors. But the chief beneficiary is the large corporate farm and the cartels that buy their products--chiefly cotton, corn and soy--America's three main crops, which are usually grown as monocultures on large farms, requiring extensive use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. All three--soy, cotton and corn--can be used to make both margarine and the new designer spreads. In order to make these products acceptable to the up-scale consumer, food processors and agribusiness see to it that they are promoted as health foods. We are fools to believe them.

Butter & the Family Farm

A nation that consumes butterfat, on the other hand, is a nation that sustains the family farm. If Americans were willing to pay a good price for high quality butter and cream, from cows raised on natural pasturage--every owner of a small- or medium-sized farm could derive financial benefits from owning a few Jersey or Guernsey cows. In order to give them green pasture, he would naturally need to rotate crops, leaving different sections of his farm for his cows to graze and at the same time giving the earth the benefit of a period of fallow--not to mention the benefit of high quality manure. Fields tended in this way produce very high quality vegetables and grains in subsequent seasons, without the addition of nitrogen fertilizers and with minimal use of pesticides. Chickens running around his barnyard, and feeding off bugs that gather under cowpaddies, would produce eggs with superb nutritional qualities--absolutely bursting with vitamin A and highly beneficial fatty acids.

If you wish to reestablish America as a nation of prosperous farmers in the best Jeffersonian tradition, buy organic butter, cream, whole milk, whole yoghurt, and barn-free eggs. These bring good and fair profits to the yeoman producer without concentrating power in the hands of conglomerates.

Ethnic groups that do not use butter obtain the same nutrients from things like insects, organ meats, fish eggs and the fat of marine animals, food items most of us find repulsive. For Americans--who do not eat bugs or blubber--butter is not just better, it is essential.

Notes

Price, Weston, DDS Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 1945, Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc., La Mesa, California.

Representative of American folk traditions about butterfat is this passage from "Neighbor Rosicky", by American author Willa Cather: [The Rosickys] had been at one accord not to hurry through life, not to be always skimping and saving. They saw their neighbours buy more land and feed more stock than they did, without discontent. Once when the creamery agent came to the Rosickys to persuade them to sell him their cream, he told them how much the Fasslers, their nearest neighbours, had made on their cream last year. "Yes," said Mary, "and look at them Fassler children! Pale, pinched little things, they look like skimmed milk. I'd rather put some colour into my children's faces than put money into the bank."

Cranton, EM, MD and JP Frackelton, MD, Journal of Holistic Medicine, Spring/Summer 1984.

Nutrition Week Mar 22, 1991 21:12:2-3.

Enig, Mary G, PhD, Nutrition Quarterly, 1993 Vol 17, No 4.

Cohen, L A et al, J Natl Cancer Inst 1986 77:43.

Belury, MA Nutrition Reviews, April 1995 53:(4) 83-89.

Cohen, op cit.

American Journal of Physical Medicine, 1941, 133; Physiological Zoology, 1935 8:457.

Kabara, J J, The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids, J J Kabara, ed, The American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, IL 1978 pp 1-14.

Jennings, IW Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Ill, pp 41-57.

Koopman, JS, et al American Journal of Public Health 1984 74(12):1371-1373.

Addis, Paul, Food and Nutrition News, March/April 1990 62:2:7-10.

Prasad, KN, Life Science, 1980, 27:1351-8; Gershon, Herman and Larry Shanks, Symposium on the Pharmacological Effect of Lipids, Jon J Kabara Ed, American Oil Chemists Society, Champaign, Illinois 1978 51-62.

Levels of linoleic acid in adipose tissues reflect the amount of linoleic acid in the diet. Valero, et al Annals of Nutritional Metabolism, Nov/Dec 1990.

34:6:323-327; Felton, CV et al, Lancet 1994 344:1195-96

Price, op cit.

Jennings, op cit.

DeCava, Judith Journal of the National Academy of Research Biochemists, September 1988 1053-1059.

Price, op cit.

Alfin-Slater, R B and L Aftergood, "Lipids", Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, Chapter 5, 6th ed, R S Goodhart and M E Shils, eds, Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia 1980, p 131.

Smith, MM, MNS RD and F Lifshitz, MD Pediatrics, Mar 1994 93:3:438-443

Enig, op cit.

"Diet Roulette", The New York Times, May 20, 1994.

About the Authors

Sally Fallon is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched, thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

Mary G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart disease. Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health effects of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She is a licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals, industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over 60 technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on whole foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.