Month: March 2018

Facebook and Privacy

Facebook and Privacy

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Privacy for Sale

I have been warning everyone for the last 20 years about privacy issues. Nobody seemed to care much. We had an early warning from Jeffrey Rothfeder, Privacy for Sale: How Computerization Has Made Everyone’s Private Life an Open Secret published in 1992. This was before the Internet was born in its current GUI format.

To prove how we were losing privacy even 26 years ago he was interviewed on a major show. The interviewer asked him just how fast he could find information on anybody.  Okay. Give me a name. She said give me some information on Dan Rather. At that time was well known that Dan Rather was a very private individual offscreen. Rothfeder was able to find very detailed personal information about Dan within five minutes. Everyone was stunned.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose — Janis Joplin

But nobody cared much. I wonder whether this harks back to the famous line from Janis Joplin, “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Early in life no one cares about privacy because there’s nothing much to lose. As we grow older there are more secrets to hide. Whether it be personal secrets, wealth or private information.

Now the problem with Facebook is a shared responsibility. You all give up so much information to Facebook without actually considering how this can be used or weaponized against you. All the information you provide can be shared even secondarily through friends. None of it is private.

Don’t believe Zuckerberg or Cheryl Sandberg of Facebook. None of this information is private. They don’t have sufficient safeguards. Remember, their goal is to sell information. That is how the accumulate wealth.

It proliferates. I have often seen various websites where the log-in offers you the possibility of a personal email with a password or alternatively, as a courtesy, just sign in with your Facebook or your Google account. More information is now being gathered. Every time you sign in using Facebook incredible information is being gathered.

Safeway

Even Safeway has been a master of information gathering. You know your Safeway discount card. The one that you swipe every time you go to the supermarket? That is another portal of information gathering. They know exactly when you are buying. What you are buying.  Profiling your buying habits to the cent. Incredible amount of information has been gathered that can be shared. And don’t believe that they anonymize this. I don’t believe it.

Nothing is free. So all of you who are using gmail or hotmail or yahoo email are not sending private mail. All this email is probably being surveyed, stored  and sold.  SSL SMTP is slightly more secure.

So Facebook becomes a shared responsibility. No doubt, Cambridge Analytica was harvesting this stolen information from Facebook in Machiavellian and sinister ways.

Free Email?

If you care, my suggestion is never use gmail or hotmail or Yahoo mail. Your own personalized email address is very simple. You can purchase your own vanity email address from GoDaddy dirt cheap. And you can use Go Daddy as your portal.

Personally, I have gone to the trouble of programming my own personal email server. Not something that I recommend for casual use. It took 2 to 3 months to perfect. But once perfected it is entirely private and nearly hack proof. Because the safeguards are so intensely strong.

So the overriding question remains, how much do you value your own privacy? How much are you concerned about the selling of your personal information?

I can tell you that even valid email addresses are being widely spoofed. Even though my email addresses are 100% certified with 3 widely accepted keys (DKIM, SPF and DMARC), last year one of my more common email addresses was being spoofed at the rate of 150,000 times weekly! No one cares. Everyone says nothing can be done. I don’t believe this. Not enough people care.

Spoofing is another form of identity theft. Where hackers are using your email address. To be honest, even I have never been able to understand how this is done. I only know through surveillance, it is very widespread and unknown to most of you.

Credit Cards

You know that credit cards are being stolen at an increasing rate.  The new embedded chips are an improvement.

HIPAA

In medicine we have been dealing with privacy issues protected by HIPAA.  The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.  It is designed to thoroughly protect your health information.

But this one has the opposite effect. Unintended consequences. It is overly stringent with onerous safeguards and expensive fines for “violations” or “incursions.”  It aims to protect your health information. But it actually hinders normal and timely communication between healthcare providers. And it does not protect against sharing information outside of the country.

All demonstrating that protection of privacy is an extremely complex issue.  But it is a vital topic that needs constant vigilance.

Happy safe computing

Jack LaLanne age 60
My Daily Personal Nutrition Routine

My Daily Personal Nutrition Routine

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People ask me what is your personal nutrition routine?  What do you take on a daily basis? What supplements and micronutrient do you take yourself for optimal nutrition? To achieve optimal health and well being in a high stress world today.

Personal Goal

A personal goal and my mission for all of you is health and well-being. Longevity with vigor. Protection from cognitive decline. Prevention of diabetes, arthritis and cardiovascular disease.  Growing older without aging.

It was the famous British physician Sir Thomas Sydenham who said.

” you are as old as your arteries.”

Arterial health is a major goal. This is why we strongly advocate CIMT imaging of your carotid arteries here in our office.

My daily routine starts upon arising (on an empty stomach) with fat soluble nutrients.  This includes:

  • 1 tbl of fish oil
  • Vitamin E 1200 units
  • Vitamin K2 15,000 mcg
  • Vitamin D3 10,000 units
  • Thyroid
  • Phosphatidylserine 300 mg and
  • Nattokinase 100 mg to prevent heart attacks and strokes.

These fat soluble nutrients are more efficiently absorbed with fish oil.  They are taken on an empty stomach so they do not interfere with oatmeal for breakfast.

There is a 45 to 50 minute hiatus.  Read my morning emails.  A morning shower after which I apply my first dose of testosterone cream.

Breakfast

Breakfast starts with Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free oatmeal. Cooked to a creamy consistency over a gas stove. Now my first highly fortified protein shake of the day.

  • 2 scoops of whey-based protein
  • 1 tsp (3 grams) of carnitine tartrate
  • 1 tbl phosphatidylcholine
  • 1 scoop of d-ribose
  • l-deprenyl for cognitive enhancement

This is the most efficient and richest source of high quality protein. The protein shake can be mixed with Odwalla orange juice or your favorite base.

Breakfast is fortified with an array of vitamins and micronutrients.

  • Selenomax 200 mcg
  • OptiZinc 30 mg
  • Nutrient 950 multivitamin
  • DHEA 50 mg
  • Diaxinol
  • 4Sight
  • Vitamin B2
  • Methyl folate 1600 mcg
  • B12 10,000 mcg
  • Alpha lipoic acid 300 mg
  • Ginkgo Biloba 60 mg
  • ProBiotic 100
  • Vitamin C as ascorbyl palmitate
  • “Reacted” chelated Iron 58 mg (read my previous series on iron)

It’s quite a handful, but each of these is designed to improve immune function, cardiovascular function, energy and cognitive vigor.

Lunch

Lunch is a very sparse affair with my second protein shake of the day.

  • 2 scoops of whey-based protein
  • 1 tsp ( 3 grams) carnitine tartrate
  • Gluco-shield.

It is a quick and efficient source of energy.  This carries me through the day until 5:00 or 6:00 pm.

Dinner

Dinner is a rich source of protein including fish, chicken or organic beef with some vegetables, most especially broccoli and carrots. My preference at night is a combination of chocolate Rice Dream and chocolate Hemp Milk.

At night I might cheat with a tiny source of extra carbohydrate. The goal is always low carbohydrate, high-protein. This is not a ketogenic diet.  It is a modified Paleo diet.

Ketogenic diets do promote weight loss. I am still concerned about the quality of fats being advocated in ketogenic diets.  Usually including large amounts of butter, cheese, bacon, sausage and other sources of potentially inflammatory Omega-6 oils.  Omega-6 fats potentially increase arachidonic acid which promotes a cascade of inflammatory metabolites.

This is the source of another blog soon.

Dinner is also supplemented with:

  • Nutrient 950 multivitamin 3 caps
  • Diaxinol 1 cap
  • 4Sight 1 cap
  • Ginkgo biloba 60 mg
  • Magnesium 400 mg
  • Alpha lipoic acid (a stellar antioxidant) 300 mg

Bedtime

Just before retiring at night I take

  • Magnesium 200 mg
  • Nattokinase 100 mg

Coda – Ask Jack

Jack LaLanne at age 60. Original fitness guru
Jack age 60

Does that sound like too much? We could have asked Jack LaLanne. Our supreme nutrition and exercise experiment. He took all known supplements and micronutrients for well over 70 years.

Jack once said, “I can’t die, [he most famously liked to say]. It would ruin my image.”

I can remember Coach Dees in high school. He was our cross country coach.  On the first day he said, “Now I want all of you to go out and start drinking wheat germ oil.”   This was 1960 when you went into a tiny proto health-food store with an old guy sitting at the bar drinking carrot juice.  Wheat germ oil was supplied in plain unattractive brown bottles.   It was my first source of concentrated Vitamin E.

In Medical School at UCSD a group of us would read Adele Davis.  Then Linus Pauling started writing about OrthoMolecular Medicine.  He was advocating therapeutic, supra-physiologic doses of vitamins, minerals and selected micronutrients.

It’s been a life-long quest.

We all want healthy and robust longevity in a chaotic world. The ultimate goal of the preventive medicine physician is to set an example and show the way.

Thank you for reading. Now what are you taking? Drop me a line. Don’t forget your Fullscript source of all supplements and micro-nutrients.  Then read (or re-read) my bestselling book.  The Life Extension Revolution.

Philip Lee Miller, M.D.

Carmel California

Looking for Prescription Drug Medication information

Looking for Prescription Drug Medication information

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How do you personally find valuable and appropriate information about prescription drug medications today?  What is your best source?  How do you balance the need to know with overly cautious or scary warnings?   Even I have difficulty locating information unless I use a physician-only proprietary database such as Epocrates.

Today I want to introduce you to Consumer Safety, a valuable source of drug information.   This site provides notable “black box” warnings.  The really serious adverse effects that you might want to know.  This is my initial recommendation.

But let’s look at some history.  A trip through past publications of thorough and objective drug information.

Historical Precedents

I have been a subscriber to the Medical Letter since the day I entered Medical School.  This is the best and most objective source of new drug information.  It is a biweekly newsletter now with an online presence.  But there are limitations.  It is ponderous and laborious technical reading.   And their recommendations never include more creative approaches or uses.  What we call “off label” use.

In the mid-1980s I took a brief respite from emergency medicine. I was an early pioneer in CD-ROM technology.  Depending on your age, you may or may not recall this was the earliest days of the first IBM PC and the first generation Apple computers.  My mission at that time was programming drug information databases for easy retrieval and presentation.  CD-ROM was a new and promising technology of electronically based information.  I envisioned (in my mind’s eye) the advent of book sized electronic retrieval of prescription medication information and prescribing.  This was decades before the advent of the iPad. I also learned a valuable lesson at that time. Never be too far ahead of the curve.

It was a fascinating journey. I had intense discussions with all the leading publishers of drug information at that that time.  Starting with the first loose leaf Drug Interactions publication that originated at Stanford.   Then engaging discussions with the publisher of Facts and Comparisons. That was the best source of drug information and the one used most frequently by every good pharmacist.  I traveled to Rocklin, Maryland to meet with the marketing chief of the US Pharmacopeia.  Still the gold standard for drug information and standardization.   Similar to the USP was the American Hospital Formulary Service (AHFS) Drug Information.  All these publications have morphed into online sources.

Current Sources

In today’s world a Google search will most often take you to WebMD or Drugs.com.  They are minimally helpful because of legal and FDA concerns.   Most often they will caution you to “check with your physician or healthcare provider.” The whole point of online searches is an independent source of information.

Personally, I use Epocrates most often.  There is no one single “best” source.  It depends on your search criteria. What do you want to know?

Finally, you may also want to know about herbal preparations.  While I was working on the CD-ROM project I was also a reviewer for the American herbal pharmacopeia which is a project still in process after decades.  These are very dedicated people with scant funding sources.  The monographs are well researched and highly enlightening.  The German E commission is another reputable and exhaustive compendia.

I started with a recommendation for consumer safety. All these sources are a rich array of prescription medications and herbal extracts. Email me with any further suggestions or comments.

A personal plea. If you find this information useful, enlightening or revealing, please pass on to friends and relatives. This blog is a portal for guides to your health and well-being. We challenge all assumptions. A second look at topics of major interest for you.

Help us increase our readership.

Then go to Fullscript for all your supplement and micro-nutrients updates.

Generations
Not So Random Thoughts on Aging

Not So Random Thoughts on Aging

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Baby boomers and aging

Why Are Baby Boomers Dying Prematurely?

I am a pioneer antiaging/age management physician.  I co-authored the best-selling book on the age management – The Life Extension Revolution: the New Science of Growing Older without Aging. I was the founder of the Los Gatos longevity Institute rebranded as California Age Management Institute. These credentials are well known.

I have been giving serious thought and reflection on an alarming dichotomy of generations. It appears that so many individuals who were born in the 20’s and came of age during the Great Depression and World War II are living well into their 90s. They are living forever. I have wondered what is it that promotes this longevity?  This even includes survivors of horrific POW and Concentration camps.

Meanwhile, baby boomers are dying prematurely in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. Notable names like Leon Russell, Glenn Frey, Tim Russert. The list grows every day.

At first I thought these were all entertainers. Like the premature death of Jim Morrison, James Dean, Andy Kaufman, Marilyn Monroe, Jerry Garcia and Janis Joplin.  But I have also seen a number of my own medical school classmates pass well before their time.

So what is it about those who grew up and came of age during the Depression and World War II?

They lived a less stressful life. There were no microwaves, cell phones, television, DVDs, Internet, computers. Before there was traffic congestion with cosmopolitan smog and more recently invisible and lethal EMF smog. They ate sparsely. They ate healthy foods that were enriched in non-depleted soils. From “victory gardens.” They did not overeat because there were no fast food restaurants. Modified caloric restriction.  Food was expensive.

Generational Age Categories

An interesting headline published by the WJ Schroer shows these descriptive categories.

  1. Depression-era — born 1912 – 1921
  2. World War II — born 1922 -1927
  3. Post-War Cohort — born 1928 – 1945
  4. Baby boomers — born 1946 – 1965 (early and late waves)
  5. Gen X – born 1966 – 1976
  6. Gen Y or Millennial’s – born 1977 – 1994
  7. Generations Z – born 1995-2012. These are not Millennial’s. These are the victims of the most recent Florida shooting.

Each one of these generations is characterized by an ethos and environmental factors. It must have an effect on aging and longevity. I often talk about life attitudes that can be characterized by decades.

20-year-olds are fearless and have no concept of limits. Evel Knievel dare devils , Olympic athletes and Army recruits. 30-year-olds have a glimmer of age limits but it is fleeting.

40-year-olds begin to sense time is beginning to take its toll and are the most motivated and dedicated to achieving optimal health and well being. 50-year-olds are more aware of non-infinite mortality. 60 year olds sense the quickening of the sands of time.

70-year-olds are well aware of time limits. 80-year-olds are either highly motivated to passing the 90-year-old barrier or are totally accommodated to the facts of their own mortality. 80-year-olds are either marking time or actively engaged in longevity prolongation.

The Challenge for You

How do you characterize yourself? In what generation do you find yourself? In what decade do you find yourself? What are your goals and aspirations? What are your hopes and most fervent desires? What motivates you? These are vital questions at all ages but gather increasing importance with advancing age.

I hate the term senior citizen. It makes me want to blurt out, “right on, junior citizen.” My mother-in-law hates the term the Golden Years. So did my mother. They refer to it more often as the Rust Years not the Golden Years.

This dichotomy between Depression-era/WWII babies and Boomers needs more study and thought. It is today’s challenge to you. What do you want to do? We most definitely live in highly challenging times.

Epilogue

As Jerry Garcia said, “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

“It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson