Retraction: Ear Cleaning
Section titled “Retraction: Ear Cleaning”In my December newsletter, I recommended ear cameras for home use. Audiologists and ENT doctors are reporting eardrum perforations and lesser injuries from camera-guided ear cleaning devices. Please let me walk back this premature recommendation.
As I discoved with alarm when I graduated from medical school, we doctors don't get superpowers along with the diploma. If it looks like we are wrong, it's best for your health and our knowledge to let us know. Any doubt about my particular human shortcomings, here's proof.
Table of Contents
Section titled “Table of Contents”- Better Table Salt
- You Need More Potassium and Less Sodium
- Three Points
- The Solution
- Medicine For People! is Now Online
Better Table Salt
Section titled “Better Table Salt”Whether you use the saltshaker or not, you're better off switching out the contents.
Brands differ around the country, but this is what is on the shelf here in Port Townsend.
On the left is monosodium glutamate, a.k.a. MSG, and on the right is a common salt substitute, potassium chloride.
My saltshaker has a half-and-half mixture of these two. For most of us, this combination is far healthier than the common table salt we put in our saltshakers, BUT about a sixth of us need to exercise care, and one or two people out of a hundred can suffer serious to fatal consequences. Read on to learn why.
Most of You Need More Potassium and Less Sodium
Section titled “Most of You Need More Potassium and Less Sodium”Today we consume far more sodium than potassium—we evolved eating just the opposite. No veterinarian would advise such an unnatural diet for your pet.
Regular table salt, aka sodium chloride, shortens lives through heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. As well, too little can harm us as well.
Without potassium we get more of the same risks, plus irregular heart rhythms including atrial fibrillation. And those dreaded leg cramps.
Even if you are younger, you need to get your kidney function checked before taking extra potassium. At any age, though, you can take MSG; it does not deserve the bad rap it used to have.
If you are among the 85% of people with good kidney function, putting a combination of MSG and potassium chloride into your saltshaker counteracts the above problems with minimal work. You already have a saltshaker, maybe you already shake it. Why not turn those into healthy shakes?
The complaint most people have with the potassium chloride salt substitute is that it tastes bitter. Mix it with MSG and the bitterness goes away. Plus, we do need some sodium in the diet and that comes with monosodium glutamate plus whatever is added to the processed foods that you buy. And, more plus, this mixture seasons better than regular table salt.
Three Points
Section titled “Three Points”The trouble with recommending this in a newsletter is that when I advised it in the office, I knew your kidney function.
Please read the links if you have doubts. This is an effortless way to majorly decrease your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Most of us will benefit from more potassium.
So much so, that the FDA considered adding potassium to processed foods to reduce the toll of heart disease.
Our underdiagnosis of kidney weakness stopped the FDA from recommending potassium enrichment of foods.
The One-Two Solution
Section titled “The One-Two Solution”If you have an ongoing relationship with a physician or advanced care practitioner, they should have a clear idea of your kidney function. A brief message to them on MyChart should allow them to answer the question for you, or let you know if your kidney function needs to be evaluated. If you take any of these medications that interact with potassium, make sure these meds are in your provider’s records.
If your stethoscope artist gives you the OK, follow my 1:1 recipe above. Younger people and athletes are probably better off with a 2 part KCl:1 part MSG ratio, but that's one for your doctor.
New Website
Section titled “New Website”That's enough health information for today. On a more personal note…
For you readers who were my patients, please know that I loved taking care of you. I appreciate that you chose me as your physician.
For the past 25 years, these newsletters have focused mostly on medical topics and avoided social issues. It's past time to address those. They now threaten our health and well-being.
I have spent most of a lifetime—imperfect myself—trying to help imperfect but most admirable people with life's problems. Time and circumstances often required action with incomplete information. Sometimes no action was ideal. We had to wait or choose something less than ideal but better than nothing.
We the people also need, right now, to stop looking for perfect solutions and see what we can do with “good enough until we can figure out a better way.”
With my son Michael's help, I hope to make some contributions to such an endeavor. You are reading this newsletter on the preliminary version of our website here at:
Please look around. We’ve got all our previous newsletters, and more.