Doctor Uses Some Foods As Medicines

[Guest guest]

By Daphne

Special to The Washington Post

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

" Just a cold? I thought I was dying. " Martha sounded irritated.

She had hustled the kids off to day care and skipped work, clearly expecting

to hear that something more dramatic was brewing than a late springtime

cold. But what motivated her visit to my office, I realized, was not the

infection itself as much as the dizzying array of symptoms caused by her

self-administered treatments: The fatigue and stomach pain appeared to

intensify with each dose of opioid-derived cough suppressant she chugged; as

for her headache, dry mouth and racing heart, they coincided suspiciously

with a decongestant that contained pseudoephedrine (a close cousin to

methamphetamine).

Bolstered by a growing body of data and my own clinical experience, I opened

my electronic medical record and entered a prescription that would give

Martha relief without more side effects: mushroom ginger soup. The recipe

sits right there on my screen, one click below morphine and one above

mycostatin.

There was a time when I might have scoffed at a physician whose pharmacopeia

included gastronomical offerings. Like many of my colleagues, I left medical

school with a sturdy respect for biomedical research and a belief that there

was a drug to match every ill, or almost. When medication wasn't the answer,

surely there was a surgery.

Such illusions were swiftly dispelled within months of entering a family

medical practice where my patients range in age from 2 minutes to 102 years

and, on any given day, I am challenged with everything from

upper-respiratory infections to asthma and lung cancer. Rare are the moments

when a specific pill promises a quick fix. To the contrary, medications

often produce a buckshot-like effect, hitting organs far beyond their

intended target. So prescriptions to control cough end up causing

incontinence, arrhythmias and sleepiness, and those for joint and low-back

pain frequently kick off a series of digestive woes.

Over the years, these frustrating experiences have prompted me to take a

closer look at nutrition and herbal research. Take that soup: Unlike

standard pharmaceutical cold preparations, which study after study has shown

do little to block symptoms or speed up recovery, ginger and mushrooms have

the potential to help, and with virtually no ill effects. Indeed, a phalanx

of lab-coated scientists have finally convinced me of something that

generations of traditional Chinese and Japanese healers, and my

great-grandmother, already knew to be true: Ginger is an excellent

decongestant, and mushrooms boost your immune system.

Some of the most compelling mushroom research has been done by ,

a nutritionist at Arizona State University and author of more than 30 papers

in peer-reviewed journals. and his colleagues have tested a variety

of common mushrooms, such as white buttons and shiitakes, and found that in

the presence of viruses such as those that cause cold and flu symptoms, all

of them can raise the levels of the immune system's proteins to three to

five times normal.

Although mushroom extracts and supplements have gained popularity on store

shelves, with promises that they can stop the spread of cancer and help

manage infections, cautions that no one has been able to definitively

pinpoint the substances that give fungi the immune-boosting qualities he has

identified. " Nutrition researchers have gotten themselves in trouble before

when they tried to find the magic bullet in foods, " he says, referring to

studies where high-dose nutrient extracts given to reduce a cancer

paradoxically caused a cancer spike in the study participants.

, who does get some funding from the mushroom industry, went on to

advise that eating whole fungi rather than taking supplements is likely to

be the healthier choice. Lucky for us, it happens to be the tastier option

as well.

Another favorite recipe in my EMR is turmeric stir fry. In 1999, while Merck

and Pfizer were ceremoniously launching their painkillers Celebrex and

Vioxx, researchers in the United Kingdom reported the results of laboratory

research suggesting that curcumin extracts of turmeric (first referenced in

ancient Sanskrit medical theses for its ability to soothe joints, wounds and

intestinal tracts) could have the very same impact in treating arthritis

pain.

We all know how this story ends: Vioxx and Celebrex have since been linked

to heart problems and stomach ulcers, while turmeric marches on, posing few

risks other than its tendency to permanently stain your collar (and

semi-permanently, your teeth).

Not wanting to miss out on the action, nutraceutical companies have produced

an array of anti-inflammatory, curcumin-containing supplements. Being

mindful of wallets and taste buds (and aware that unregulated supplements

sometimes don't contain what they purport to), I steer patients instead

toward my turmeric stir fry and other turmeric-laced dishes. (They are also

in my EMR below " Triphasal Birth Control Pills " and above " Tylenol " !)

According to physician Tieraona Low Dog, chair of U.S. Pharmacopeia's

Dietary Supplements and Botanicals Expert Committee: " You need to take two

to three teaspoons per day of turmeric to see a benefit. Remember, though:

Eat the turmeric with some fat and add black pepper, as this dramatically

increases the absorption of the curcumin. "

Certainly recipes are not a panacea for our health woes; nor will EMRs clear

up the quagmire that is our current medical system. But when it comes to

treating the chronic or subacute medical problems that are the bread and

butter of most primary care practices, non-pharmacological prescriptions for

edibles (and, for that matter, exercise and mindful breathing) may have the

potential to save billions of dollars annually, in both direct drug costs

and the treatment of side effects.

Most important, recipes offer an attractive alternative for those who are

wary of popping too many pills.

A recent study reported that 1.6 million Medicare beneficiaries per year

fail to fill or refill one or more prescriptions. While some of the

abandoned prescriptions may have been lifesaving or life-prolonging,

somewhere between 35 and 65 percent were given to addresshealth issues such

as osteoarthritis pain or the cough and congestion experienced by my patient

Martha, all problems where pharmaceuticals have no clear advantage over

other forms of treatment.

In this study, the reasons Medicare beneficiaries gave for their

" non-adherence " not doing what the doctor tells you to do) were varied: Some

were worried about cost, some felt the medication would not work and others

feared side effects.

A tasty dish made with inexpensive ingredients from the local market could

sidestep many of their concerns. After all, food is the one medicine that we

seem quite willing to swallow -- at least three times a day.

Daphne is the author of " The Jungle Effect: A Doctor Discovers the

Healthiest Diets From Around the World -- Why They Work and How to Bring

Them Home. "