I Had The Most Fascinating Conversation On Call Tonight.

I am a hospitalist. A clinical scientist who takes an oath every day (a personal oath) to be the best damn doctor that I can be for every patient, every time.

I take my job seriously and I like to believe that I use my knowledge base to help patients heal to the best of their abilities.

But through the years of my clinical practice I have come to realize something, which anyone who has been reading my blog for the last few weeks may notice.

The more we know, the more we don't know. The startling results of peri operative beta blockers and increased mortality is proof of that. I have less faith in science and more faith in the art of medicine, maybe a greater understanding that the Ivory tower's way is not always the right way.

My conversation tonight is something that I never thought I would have. Me and my ER doc talking alternative medicine. We are smart, intelligent people. Top of our classes academically. 12 or more years of post high school education. And yet, here we are

Talking berries.

Specifically the acai berry, apparently considered a superfood.

Mona Vie Is the company. And it is a fascinating story. Their website shares their name.


Several years ago I remember reading a study suggesting that acupuncture had benefits to heart failure patients. I can't remember the specifics. But I can remember being shocked.

No way. Impossible. Ancient Chinese art. For heart failure? None of my preceptors would even consider it as real. Voodoo medicine.

Well, I believe it.

I don't know how, or why it works. But if it works, it works. I am a believer in the unexplained. Having science disprove itself weekly strengthens my conviction of accepting that which I don't always understand.
Something us docs are never trained in. And something we have a HUGE problem accepting at face value.

I have learned to accept that the more I know, the less I know and to allow life to fill me daily and I must respect the unknown.

The Acai Berry story is fascinating. Looking at the harm peri- operative beta-blockers are apparently causing certainly makes me pause and open my mind up to the possibility that science as I know it does not have all the answers.

Maybe the answers are in the acai berry. A super food.

I consider myself a healthy kinda guy. I work out, mostly in spurts. Frequently, as a physician, I refuse to accept my boundaries. And inevitably, I injure myself.

I pull a muscle.

Or tendinitis.


In the last 2 years, on both occasions I have suffered great pain for weeks at a time, and then lose that nagging urge to keep jogging. It is frustrating to say the least.

I consider myself academically, highly intelligent. Great grades, great persona, great personality. Most of my patients like me because I talk with them, not at them.

I joke. I laugh. I explain. I help them understand their illness.

And the many long hours can be exhausting. It wears on a guy. But I plug away, knowing I am doing what I was meant to do.

And I'm damn good at it.

To hear my ER colleague talk about it, in his own personal experience and those around him who have recently started using it, it seems like the Holy Grail of medicine.

I know it's not. Or maybe it is. I have no idea.

But to hear him talk about how it has helped him and others around him is intriguing.

Pain going away after years of "Celebrex"
Years of high blood pressure disappearing after just several months of using it.
Exercise fatigue, gone in a heart beat.
Working out stronger and longer.
More energy, less coffee
Weight loss
Allergies and asthma symptoms improving overnight.

And these are just testimonies from my local colleagues. My doctor colleagues. The same ones who practice medicine based on Ivory tower science. Hard data. Outcomes. Evidence.
It is so very intriguing to me.

And it is apparently being used by professional sports franchises to improve workouts and decrease fatigue.

To hear the ER doc talk, it is the fountain of youth.

Is it?

I have no idea.

But the more we know, the less we know.

He speaks of orthopods and cardiologists joining the bandwagon. He speaks of it as if it is the "next statin"

Hell, it sounds like a Holy Grail to me.

My wife's grandmother is at the top of the food chain in the decades old Stanley Home Products, the company that for decades sold by the Amway model. I tell you they sell great stuff that works. It is a network merchandising model. And she just loves what she does. And her clients love her. Win-Win.

I have never been involved in any type of network marketing product or business, nor have I ever had a desire, but considering my position in medicine and the benefits that could come from it, I am going to take the plunge.

I am turning my back, albeit just for a moment, against conservative data driven medicine. Data that was in retrospect causing more harm than good.

Apparently it will cost me about $39 to join as a "distributor", and I can get a one month supply on a recurring basis for about $150/month, in recurring supply.
Two oz twice a day. It is apparently quite tasty as well.


It's about the same price of many brand name drugs. I will give it a few months and see how it goes. I'm excited. I look at it as an opportunity to expand my horizons. To learn from the unknown. To come back to my patients with a possible alternative therapy to help their bodies heal them selves.

I know alot of folks have lost faith in our doctor medicine. In some small way, I have too. The beta-blocker story simple stunned me like never before.

I think of myself like the researchers who swallowed H. Pylori bacteria years ago to prove it's ulcergenic potential. I am sacrificing myself for the greater good. (Is that too melodramatic?)

I hope to get my brother, a fellow in interventional cardiology to give it a shot. That guy works out incessantly. I hope to get my aging parents. To get them a little pep. My sister with her chronic pain problems. I hope to use my family as my own personal learning experience on this apparent superfood.

If anyone wants to take the plunge with me and see what it's all about, I would love to enter a network marketing alliance with you. The money looks intriguing if you want to use it as a side business.

As for my thoughts on that. If the product works, it will sell itself. And the money would be just a value added benefit in the free market economy.

If the product is a sham, it will disappear.

But I really don't believe it is. Call it instinct. Call it science cloaked in the unknown. It is the Amazon forest, the source of so many drugs we have come to depend on.

Who knows, maybe it is the Holy Grail. It seems like every year formal medicine has their drug dejour.

Statins.
ACEi
Fish Oil
Niacin.

Apparently research at University of Florida has shown 90% plus destruction of melanoma and leukemia cells. Amazing stuff.

Here's a video of an oncologist Dr. Niles discussing the power of this wonder berry.

Here's what wikipedia has to say about the stuff

Here's a summary pulled off the internet.

Touted by NBC's Matt Lauer as the 'Amazons Viagra', the Acai Berry is quickly gaining popularity.
This incredible, anti-oxidant rich fruit just made Oprah.com's Top 10 Super Foods list.
With 10 times the antioxidants of grapes and twice the antioxidants of blueberries, the Brazilian Acai berry (AH-sci-EE) is considered to have the best nutritional value of any fruit on earth.
With the symmetry of a grape and the size of a giant blueberry, the Acai fruit tastes a bit like wild raspberry with a hint of grape.
Most people have trouble putting their finger on the taste because it's so different.
The much anticipated Acai Berry-based super food drink called MonaVie from Monarch Health Sciences will be available in 4 countries starting January 3rd, 2005.
Monarch is an established global health and wellness company that shares its financial success and opportunity with its distributor base of independent work from home resellers


I guess, me in my blind wisdom, is willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Feel free to contact me if you have any desire to give it a shot with me. Just drop me a line at happyhospitalistATgmailDOTcom and we can see where it takes us. I would love to sponsor you as a client in the network

At my hospital 4 ER docs, 5 RN's, and I just found out an orthopaedic surgeon has signed up to give it a shot and see how their health improves.


I will keep everyone updated on my thoughts and results and progress scattered throughout the weeks/months of my trial. See my side bar for details.