After enjoying a healthy sex drive since the onset of puberty I suddenly had little or none. This did not make my husband happy, and it made me even more unhappy. After consulting with my doctor, trying various over-the-counter remedies, and generally pursuing any avenue that promised even a slight renewal of my sex drive I stumbled on a combination that works for me.

First taking a two mile walk two or three times a week, in addition to my regular activities, helped a bit. Some of the natural remedies offered seemed to help some. The biggest aid though was discovering that the antihistamines I take for my allergies may be the biggest culprit. My allergies have been getting worse over the years and I’ve been taking more meds for them. Once I discovered this possible problem I began making certain I did not take them within twenty-four hours of times I thought we might have time to play. Then I added Guaifenesin to ward off congestion. That added the needed boost by relieving the dryness problem. Guaifenesin breaks down mucus in the vagina which will cause a gentler environment for sperm making it easier to reach the egg.

While my drive is certainly not back up to pre menopause levels it is certainly a lot better than it has been for the past couple of years. I hope some of these ideas can help others with this disconcerting problem.

And Stephanie Espiritu writes: Fibromyalgia Syndrome affects 3 to 6 million people in the United States alone. Although men live with the disorder it’s more common among women, with a ratio of 9:1 according to The American College of Rheumatology criteria. Although it is not life threatening it can be very difficult to endure.

Symptoms vary with each individual but can be debilitating and hinder one’s regular activities. Chronic musculoskeletal pain, severe fatigue, sensitivity to touch, burning, stabbing and shooting muscle pain are just some of the symptoms of Fibromyalgia. Many patients suffer with irritable bowel syndrome, chronic bladder conditions, cognitive or memory impairment and dizziness. Some have reported Migraine Headaches, Upper Airway Resistance while sleeping, Alpha-EEG and Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome. Certain medical conditions are commonly associated with Fibromyalgia such as: Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus (SLE) and Sjogren’s Syndrome. Many things can cause the patient’s symptoms to worsen. Some have reported a change of sleep cycle, stress and weather conditions to be triggers. Cold temperatures, barometric pressure and humidity can also cause the symptoms to worsen.

There is no know cause of Fibromyalgia but some doctors believe that it is linked to suffering an injury or physical or emotional trauma which affects the nerves, spine and brain. Recent studies show that genetic factors may predispose individuals to a genetic susceptibility to Fibromyalgia.

For the person that lives with this disorder their entire life is impacted. Not just by the physical pain but also by the emotional as well. Because this is an invisible condition, family, friends and even employers doubt that there is actually anything wrong with the person that is struggling. They regard them as hypochondriacs, unmotivated and lazy. They believe that since there is no visual evidence of an illness there can’t possibly be one. This isn’t always just the opinion of those that are close to them, it has also been the opinion of some doctors. Since there aren’t blood tests to diagnose Fibromyalgia some doctors come to the conclusion that the patient has a psychological disorder and suggests therapy with a psychiatrist and often anti-depressants are prescribed. Despite the unbelief of others, those living with this disorder know that there is something wrong with them; that it isn’t something that they are imagining, nor are they crazy. By not having the support of family and friends as well as a doctor’s diagnosis, they become isolated, helpless and eventually these feelings can lead to depression. Although family and friends care for them and want to understand what they are going through, many are incapable. They can’t grasp the idea that the patient is no longer able to participate in activities, attend work or even manage their pain. Because of this they tend to become bitter and sometimes resentful towards the patient. Their relationships suffer and in some cases can be broken beyond repair.

However, there is hope for both the patient and their families. Although there is no cure for Fibromyalgia, treatments are available. Pain Management Specialists, Occupational Therapists and Rheumatologists are highly skilled in this area. Trigger point injections, Guaifenesin therapy, prescribed medications and nerve blocks are just a few treatment options that have been shown to be beneficial. Families also have access to resources on how to understand and live with someone struggling with Fibromyalgia. There are support groups, family counseling and published articles available. Being educated about Fibromyalgia Syndrome enables family members to be a support system and offer the encouragement needed to cope with this disorder.

A relatively new theory is that with the decreased amount of daylight we produce less vitamin D. It is well known that vitamin D in important in building strong bones, but new research is revealing that this vitamin is instrumental in maintaining a healthy immune system as well. Whereas our flu season is November to March, those living in the Southern Hemisphere get the flu from June through September which is their winter months. This is an interesting piece of anecdotal evidence.

In a 2006 study published by a UCLA research team, vitamin D was able to kill bacteria responsible for tuberculosis. The researchers postulated that human differences in the ability to produce vitamin D may make certain individuals vulnerable to microbial infections. According to Dr. Julian Whitaker, a well-respected physician, increasing vitamin D intake during the winter months is a safe, if not proven, approach to protecting us against influenza. His recommendation is 800 to 1000 IU vitamin D for those living South of the parallel that runs through Philadelphia, Denver and Reno and up to 2000 IU for northerners. A recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition(September, 2007) concluded,”The widespread use of vitamin D supplements (1000 IU per day) has been advised as a simple way to improve many aspects of public health.”

There are two forms of vitamin D: D2 (ergocalciferol), which does not appear naturally in humans, and D3 (cholecalciferol), the form made in the body. If you choose to supplement, make sure you get the D3 form.

For those of us who cannot jet off to the tropics during the winter months, vitamin D just may give us the edge at escaping the dreaded influenza.

This is especially alarming because numerous scientific journals link usage of pain relievers, whether acetaminophen or NSAIDs, to an increased risk of cancer, stomach bleeding, heart disease and high blood pressure. That is, the more doses and the more often the pain relievers are consumed, the more likely those chronic, degenerative and potentially deadly diseases occur. Pain relief may seem like a pill away to many people when they are hurting. Most people reach for an over-the-counter pain reliever (OTC) to numb the pain.

Battling pain is essentially battling prostaglandin, the cause of inflammation.
OTC’s are rather effective at negating the effects of prostaglandin, the cause of  your pain.

While using pain relievers may be a very short-term, viable option, medicating pain with anti-inflammatory medications without making nutritional or postural changes is not sustainable.

Have you ever wondered, “Why does my pain keep coming back?”

Your pain may keep returning because many foods in the typical American diet ALSO produce prostaglandin in the body. So pain relievers in the absence of other strategies to combat prostaglandin can lead to a chronic state that recurs or doesn’t resolve.

This is especially alarming because numerous scientific journals link usage of pain relievers, whether acetaminophen or NSAIDs, to an increased risk of cancer, stomach bleeding, heart disease and high blood pressure. That is, the more doses and the more often the pain relievers are consumed, the more likely those chronic, degenerative and potentially deadly diseases occur.

Take for instance:

• Death from Ulcers

36,500 deaths occur each year in the US due to stomach bleeding from taking over-the-counter or prescription pain relievers (New England Journal of  Medicine June 17, 1999 Wolfe, Lichtenstein & Singh)

• First Heart Attack

Use of any NSAIDs to relieve pain leads to a 40% increased risk of having a first heart attack (European Heart Journal 5/26/2006)

• Breast Cancer Risk

Using ibuprofen daily for 5 years or more led to 50% increased risk of
breast cancer over those who didn’t use it (Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol. 97 No. 11 805-12)

Using aspirin daily for 5 years or more led to 80% increased risk of breast cancer over those who didn’t use it (Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol. 97 No. 11 805-12)

• Heart-Related Deaths

Taking pain relievers for 6 months or more DOUBLES the risk of heart
attack and stroke or other heart-related deaths. Specifically, ibuprofen saw a 300% increased risk over non-users. (American Association for Cancer Research in Anaheim/Associated Press 4/19/2005)

• High Blood Pressure Risk

Older women taking 500 mg/day of acetaminophen saw a 93% increased risk of high blood pressure over women who didn’t take acetaminophen.

Older women taking 500 mg/day of ibuprofen saw a 78% increased risk of high blood pressure over women who didn’t take ibuprofen

In younger women who took the same acetaminophen dose as above, they saw a 99% increased risk of high blood pressure over women who didn’t.  (Hypertension Sept. 2005 46:500)

Sadly, using pain relievers as an ongoing strategy for pain relief increases your risk for cancer, heart disease and high blood pressure. So in this book we will explore some drug-free ways to decrease inflammation through diet and nutrition, alternative therapy, correct posture and exercise.

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MISTAKE #1

The patient relies solely on their primary care doctor for treatment of pain relief
For patients who want quick results, a prescription may be fastest, for the doctor AND for the patient.

But with doctors’ patient loads and managed care contracts, there can be precious-little time at a doctor’s visit to convey all of the aspects of the patient’s history that could be addressed to help relieve pain.

So for the patient who KNOWS they don’t want a drug-oriented solution, they can be disappointed with that first trip to their primary care doctor’s office.

Alternative therapy providers often spend more time with their patients to understand the background issues that play into the patient’s condition.

But frequently, patients must route themselves to such a practitioner
because most physicians will not suggest a referral outside of the medical field.

At best, most physicians would be in agreement with a patient who
suggests trying an alternative practitioner. But other physicians may be quite antagonistic about it.

The medical physician’s expertise lies with drugs. However, the reliance on drugs to relieve pain has been repeatedly shown to correlate with serious, deadly diseases later in life.

Take for instance the Vioxx fiasco. Vioxx was a blockbuster prescription pain reliever for Merck. The British Medical Journal (BMJ) (12/4/2004) reported that Merck scientists were seriously discussing a potential heart attack risk with using Vioxx as early as November 1996.

According to that BMJ article, a culture of intimidation and fear permeates the FDA making it difficult for drug safety officers to protect the public.  Vioxx ultimately was pulled off the shelves after an estimated 88,000 to 139,000 Americans had heart attacks or strokes as a result of taking Vioxx.

One of the FDA’s own agency experts, Dr. David Graham, testified in Senate hearings that the approval of Vioxx by the US Food and Drug Administration led to the single greatest drug catastrophe in the history of the world.

So the “quick fix” today is increasingly leading to a heavier burden on the healthcare delivery system, and more importantly, YOUR HEALTH, tomorrow.

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MISTAKE #2

Patient Eats a Diet with Many Foods That Promote Pain

Did you know that you probably eat foods every day that make your pain worse? Certain kinds of sugars and fats dump right into the inflammation pathway to make MORE prostaglandin. More prostaglandin means more pain and disease. There’s so much research about prostaglandin that there is a medical journal devoted to researching it.

The typical American diet is booby-trapped at every meal with refined or processed ingredients that promote inflammation. It is this slow erosion of health, meal-by-meal, that leads to pain as well as many chronic degenerative diseases.

Too many vegetable oils

Some fats are considered essential. They are known as the essential fatty acids (EFA). Some are much more prevalent in the American diet than others.

The most prevalent of fats in the typical American diet come from
vegetable oils. These are known as “omega 6” essential fatty acids. In some countries, people actually have deficiencies of this EFA.

However we do not need to worry about supplementing our diet with this fat in America. You will find them listed on the ingredients of almost any pre-packaged product you can find at the grocery store!

Omega 6’s derive from plants like corn, cotton, safflower and soy. They are not saturated fats like butter or lard. If you look at the molecular structure of butter, it is “saturated”. That is, every “spoke” on every carbon has hydrogens attached to it.

But Omega 6’s have 2 hydrogens missing from their carbons. This makes them “unsaturated”. That is, you could plug 2 more hydrogens back into the molecule to turn it back into butter.

But their significance to pain is this: omega 6 vegetable oil, called linoleic acid, is 3 reactions away from being prostaglandin inside the body. So the more vegetable oils that you consume, the more likely they are to end up in the “pain pathway”.

So you probably noticed that all of those Omega 6’s I mentioned were
liquids when they are sitting in your pantry. Do you think food
manufacturers could use those kinds of oils very successfully to package and shelve their products?

Trans Fats

Imagine this: you make a cake at home and put it in an air-tight
Tupperware. How long do you think that cake will be edible?

If you live in Denver like me, then maybe a week (that is, if you can restrain yourself from eating the whole thing before then!) But when I lived on the east coast where there is a lot more humidity, a cake was more likely to get funky even sooner.

So can you imagine what food manufacturers would do if their snack cakes and chips and candy bars would only last on the shelf for a week? First of all, their products would probably spoil before they arrived to the store, wouldn’t they?

So food manufacturers developed a process to add a hydrogen BACK into those vegetable oils. It makes that liquidy omega 6 oil into a stiffer fat that won’t spoil (as fast anyway). This is called a “partially-hydrogenated oil.”  This process requires a heavy metal to get the hydrogen back on there.  And the end product is a molecule which is twisted out of its organic shape.

Recognize what this is? It’s a “trans-fat”. These are the very worst fats you could ever consume. Remember how I said they are kind of stiff so they can sit there on the shelf wrapped in cellophane for weeks on end? Those same properties get incorporated into the covering of individual cells throughout your body.

This has wide and far-reaching consequences for MANY aspects of your health: mood, hormones, immunity, pain! Think of the covering of an individual cell as a liquidy, flexible layer. That layer is designed to separate the contents of your cell from the rest of the environment around it.

Sometimes things need to get into the cell. And sometimes things need to get out. So there is this system kind of like a ferry. The ferry (really a glob of protein) sits amongst the fats of that liquidy, flexible cell layer.

When you eat trans fats, stiff, twisted fats get used instead of the liquidy, flexible ones. Remember trans fats were kind of stiff?

The stiffness of the trans fats alters the “ferry’s” structure which keeps its passenger from being able to hook on. The “ferry” and its incoming or outgoing passenger are like two puzzle pieces that hook together.

When there is a predominance of omega 6 fats in the diet, the ferry’s
passenger isn’t as able to deliver critical messages to the DNA or to other cells elsewhere.

Have you ever noticed how many products you use say “partially
hydrogenated soybean/cottonseed/corn oil”? It’s the first ingredient of  Coffeemate! Even worse, a heavy metal is used to get that hydrogen back on there. So these kinds of fats have many evil aspects to them:

• they are tainted with heavy metal due to the hydrogenation process

• they have a “twisted” molecular shape the body doesn’t recognize

• solvents are used to extract the oil from the plant (unless the product specifically says “pressed”, like through a screen to “squish” the oil out of the plant), leaving traces of harsh chemicals behind

And just so you know: in 1996, it became mandatory for food companies to label trans fat content. But there is a loophole: if the serving size contains 500 mg or LESS, then the label can say “O g trans fats.”

There’s some fuzzy math for you: 500 mg = 0! Products merely had to change the size of their servings to legitimately list their product as “0 g trans fats.”

In the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study of 80,000 women, it was found that a 2% increase in trans fat calories translated into DOUBLE the risk for coronary disease!

If you stuck to a 2000 calorie per day diet, that is ONLY 40 calories of transfat. The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of  Sciences, declared in this article there is no safe amount of trans fat in the diet. (San Francisco Chronicle 1/30/2002 by Kim Severson)

Another alarming statistic about trans fats relates to French fries: merely one extra serving of French fries per week given to 3-5 year olds led to a 27% increased chance of breast cancer later on in life. Hot dogs, on the other, hand did not correlate with an increased risk. (International Journal of  Cancer 8/10/05 Michaels, Rosner et al Harvard Medical School)

So beware of ANY product listing hydrogenated oil. The label could be deceiving due to food-labeling standards. The Trans Fat Solution provides guidance for cooking and shopping to avoid trans fats.

Merely eliminating trans fats from your diet will take you far towards
achieving your goals of pain relief. You will get the extra added benefit of overall improved health, too!

Simple Carbohydrates

Because there is a general knowledge of diabetes, most people are aware that eating sugar triggers the production of insulin. It’s insulin’s job to come in and use up the sugar. The more sugar that is consumed, the more insulin is produced.

Higher sugar levels relate to a measurement called the glycemic index. So if a food has a high glycemic index, then it is considered to produce a high amount of insulin.

Foods that have higher glycemic indexes are the typical bad foods: white sugar, white flour. Samples include enriched bread, donuts, bagels, pasta, white bread in general (rolls, pastries, etc.)

This is very important because a higher glycemic index with its higher insulin level stimulates the reaction which is 2 steps away from prostaglandin in the inflammation pathway.

So a diet with chronic refined simple carbs is going to keep the cycle of pain going. In my opinion, this is one of the most insidious aspects of seeking pain relief. Pain relievers stop one of the reactions in making prostaglandin. But meal after meal stimulates it all over again.

This doesn’t even touch on the links of prostaglandin to chronic disease because prostaglandin production is responsible for more than pain. There are mountains of research that link it to decreased immune system, degeneration, heart disease, mood disorders, sunburn, and most importantly, cancer.

I feel patients can make HUGE strides in their pain levels and overall health by cutting back on refined sugars and flours as well as omega 6 oils and trans fats.

If you dovetail that with a healthy dose of omega 3 fish oils and
antioxidants, you will be taking very positive steps towards managing your pain and disease levels.

Meat

I hate to confirm what you might have been wondering. But meat also
increases inflammation. The muscle and fat in meat, eggs and organ meats contain arachidonic acid (AA). And AA is one step away from prostaglandin in the inflammation pathway.

The carbohydrate-fattening of animals with grains (usually corn or soy) stimulates insulin production just like it does in humans. That causes inflammation products to be stored in their fat and muscle. Red meat tends to have more fat, thus more inflammation products than other meats.

Some side effects besides pain that can result from excessive amounts of arachidonic acid are chronic fatigue, poor or restless sleep, difficulty awakening or grogginess on wakening, brittle hair, thin, brittle nails, constipation and dry flaking skin.

The authors of Protein Power also cite sensitivity to arachidonic acid as a contributing factor to diabetes and high blood pressure. They suggest eliminating animal sources of arachidonic acid for a few weeks to note if there are improvements in insulin management or blood pressure.

Scroll through this link for a tip on reducing the fat, and thus arachidonic acid, from a steak or roast while making it juicier at the same time.

Range-fed, grass-fed and wild game are significantly healthier to eat. Their meat is harder to find and sure to be more expensive. But the authors of Protein Power say that individuals with arachidonic acid sensitivity should do better on these meats than with commercial feed lot animals.

So for immediate pain management, try cutting back on your meat
consumption. Buy the leanest portions, trim fat off before cooking and drain off any cooked fat. And don’t cook with animal fat (lard, left-over bacon grease, etc.)

For eggs, buy free-range which are usually available at most markets.
Depending on your pain levels, consider going red-meat free for a couple of weeks.  Eat free-range chicken in the meanwhile and see how things go. If you have the fortitude, go meat-free for a short time. Later on, add free-range or wild game in place of some of your typical meat meals.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

I will admit that this category is a bit of a weakness for even me. I have a bit of a Coca Cola habit. But I have scaled it back dramatically. When I did, it helped me to lose 20 stubborn pounds that wouldn’t budge with working out alone.

Fat Land explains the mechanism behind high fructose corn syrup and how it could be responsible for 15 pounds of your fat!

But I digress: we are talking about pain relief. And this guy, HFCS, is worse than refined sugar. It happens to be a man-made sweetener. It stimulates insulin production just like sugar or white flour. But for some reason, its structure allows it to sit in the spot that insulin needs to go (on insulin’s receptor site.)

This means that ALL of the insulin produced by HFCS is roaming around looking for someplace to go. So it all ends up in that step I mentioned above: stimulating the step that is two reactions away from prostaglandin in the inflammation pathway.

You should really be aware of this ingredient in your food purchases. It is the number one ingredient on Yoplait yogurts; soft drinks; bottled teas; many juices.

It is insidious—it is stimulating the inflammation and pain pathway. And there are mechanisms described in Fat Land that explain how this packs on the weight, too. Give up HFCS in beverages for a month and do nothing else. See how your pain or weight changes!

While you are seeking pain relief for the “here-and-now”, you should know that any steps you take towards improving your diet will reduce inflammation so that your pain levels CAN improve.

With all of these suggestions, it’s all about balance. You might find red meat is a much bigger aggravating factor to your pain than the next guy who finds that cutting out his daily donuts or soft drinks gives him more relief.

If you only cut down on soft drinks but eat red meat two times a day,
though, just realize you might not have gone far enough.

Where you can’t eliminate, don’t beat yourself up. But see if things are changing. It might give you the reality to go further and eliminate one or more of the foods we have discussed.

This will make your body more receptive to whatever non-drug treatment you pursue.

I realize it’s probably not news to you that these foods are unhealthy. But you probably never realized their link to flaring up pain due to their link to the inflammation pathway.

I feel that by empowering you with the KNOWLEDGE of how your food is really affecting you, that it will give you the determinism to make important dietary changes beyond just being told, “Sugar and fat is bad for you.”

I hope it’s becoming obvious how any step you take that keeps you off of pain relievers also helps you lower your cumulative risk for disease. Nice bonus isn’t it??

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MISTAKE #3

Patient Makes Pain Worse Every Hour at Work Due to Bad Sitting Posture.  Many people have a job that requires a lot of sitting. Whether their job requires them to work at a desk or drive a vehicle, chronic bad sitting posture makes them more prone to painful conditions.

Most people have never been taught the actual mechanics of proper
sitting. There is merely the general consensus that you should “sit up
straight.”

However, there are simple strategies you can use so that you don’t have to “remember”.

A researcher at the University of Colorado found that 90% of the brain’s energy is spent maintaining your posture against the force of gravity. That means the other 10% has to carry out all of the other functions of the body!

Can you see how you might not have any extra to spare for “remembering” to have good posture?

SEAT WEDGE

I recommend for my patients to use a seat wedge for applying this single most important datum about proper sitting: your hips should be HIGHER than your knees. Click here for an article that explains the basic mechanics behind proper sitting. It has pictures of good and bad posture.

A seat wedge forces you to sit up straighter by forcing your knees lower than you hips. An even better solution is a kneel-sit office chair. These are chairs with a pad for your knees and a base for your butt.  The wedge is NOT a fix-all for bad sitting posture. But it is a pretty darned good start. For instance, some people with a very long torso probably need a taller wedge. The standard wedge probably doesn’t shift the spinal alignment enough for them, so there ends up being pressure where there shouldn’t be.

That is the caveat with seat wedges: they are obviously at a fixed thickness.  And of course people come in all shapes and sizes! So the biggest complaints about using a wedge are:

1) Causing too much pressure on the sitting bones

2) Feeling like they are sliding off of it.

A way to overcome part of this is to make sure the chair is taller enough.

That goes for car seats as well as office chairs. Sorry to say this, but sitting up higher in an SUV or truck is going to be much easier on tall people than lots of sedans that have seats right at the floor board. Even I have trouble having good posture in my Toyota Camry and I’m only 5’9”. Fortunately I live 8 minutes from my office and do very little long distance driving.

My Audi, however, has every seat adjustment you could want, including raising the seat vertically. Look for that feature if you are narrowing down a car purchase. It is the most critical feature to getting your chair comfortable. My observation is the lumbar support is over-hyped.

Most people have heard about using a lumbar pillow. A lumbar pillow by itself isn’t near as effective as a wedge is for most people. But once you have the wedge, any kind of lumbar pillow or throw pillow behind your back will make your posture better.

Get your chair high enough. Tilt the seat base DOWNWARD to mimic the wedge effect. Then stick any kind of cushion behind your low back for support. I don’t recommend a specific lumbar support because I find anything will do once the other factors are set right.

If you are 6’2” and drive a Miata, none of this is going to help! I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the only handling is to get a bigger car if your pain is worse after driving in your car but you are a tall person in a little car.

Trust me, it pains me to make a $30,000 recommendation! At least try as many of the other recommendations in this book. Then re-visit the car seat and see if you are still having problems.

KNEEL-SIT CHAIRS

Angling the knees to the ground allows a more natural low back curve
which limits slumping in the upper back. The more of a slump you have when you are sitting, the more pulling on the spinal cord and muscles. Thus, more pain!

Follow this link to see an inexpensive kneel-sit chair like my home chair that is pictured in the previous article. It doesn’t have many adjustments. It only “cinches” together or “cinches” apart. You could get lucky and find one at Office Max and try it out in person. I haven’t noticed them in stock in a long time, though.

The pads on my inexpensive one are pretty well worn out 2 years after buying it. It was $50 when I got it. But it could help you a bunch at work while you are seeking pain relief if you have to sit for hours and hours. The closest I could find is $60 at Amazon.

My chiropractic office kneeler chair is much higher quality. It is
manufactured by Tempurpedic and I absolutely love it. Click here to find it at Amazon. I definitely paid more for mine at the local back products store.

Later on you will see my recommendation against Tempurpedic beds and pillows. I’m not against the memory foam. In the capacity of cushioning bony body parts for sitting, I think the material is very comfortable. But in the section about bad neck pillows, you will learn about disappointing experiences with Tempurpedic’s sleep products.

The memory foam seat cushion and knee cushion is pressure-relieving.  Tempurpedic’s kneel-sit chair swivels, raises up and down and rolls on casters. The one thing I’d point out is it doesn’t have a backrest or arm rests.

My opinion is arm rests get in the way and I prefer the chair to not have them. I would consider a low back rest helpful though. The chair in one of the previous articles was from www.kneelsit.com. Their chair has the low back rest and from all of the searching I’ve done, I find it to be the very best office chair I can find.

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There is definitely a gradient towards learning these instructions. It is a matter of testing and re-testing what works for you. Don’t get frustrated.

I will encourage you by saying I’ve seen some patients who made no lasting improvement with their adjustments until they began incorporating this data. It really can make a difference!

If you need more help, I have a DVD with a chapter demonstrating proper sitting techniques, “Secrets to Good Posture…That Your Mother Never Revealed”. You can see the introduction of the DVD on my chiropractic website by clicking here.

Mistake #4

Patient Doesn’t Know About Natural Pain Relievers or How to Properly Use Them

The two ingredients found in cold-water fish are actually nature’s anti-inflammatories. However, many patients have a “hang-up” about taking fish oil and don’t include it in their vitamin regimen.

Or many others who DO include it don’t know about their product’s purity, the effective dosage, the proper ratio of the active fish oil ingredients or that anti-oxidants are required for proper metabolism.

Fish oils have proven so effective, that researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that when non-surgical neck or back pain patients were given between 1200-2400 mg of omega 3 oils, that almost 60% of them were pleased enough with the pain-relieving qualities to discontinue their NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories) (Surgical Neurology 65 April 2006 326-331).

The patients in that study were on the fish oil for an average of 75 days and began the first two weeks on the higher dose and reduced their dose for the remainder of the study.

Given the facts of that study, I’ve found most patients make mistakes with the correct dose or just “sticking-with-it”. There are many other mistakes I’ve seen patients make with their fish oil supplement. Don’t you make them too!

Here’s the data…

a. Too small of a dose. Patients take the “recommended” dose on the
bottle–usually 2 pills. Most store brands contain well under 1000 mg
for 2 pills, when at least 1200-2400 mg was used in the above study.

SOLUTION: Know the dose in your brand. Don’t be fooled by the front
label that claims “1000 mg” when the ingredient label states there’s
only 400 mg of the 2 critical ingredients, EPA and DHA per serving. The total of EPA plus DHA is your true dose.

a. Most patients do not take the fish pills consistently enough to ever get a result. Did you ever start taking them and forget why you started and then just stop?? The above study was for 2 ½ months. If you ran out of your initial bottle you probably didn’t make it to 2 ½ months.

SOLUTION: Take fish pills daily while managing pain levels. Continue
them once pain levels are managed to combat ongoing inflammatory
assaults on the body.

b. Many patients give up because they can’t handle the fish burp.

SOLUTION: Refrigerate your fish pills to reduce the chance of burping. This also prevents accidental oxidation of the delicate chemical bonds in DHA and EPA. Definitely keep them away from heat so they don’t go rancid. For instance, don’t keep them in a cabinet next to the microwave.

SOLUTION: Take them at bedtime so you’re not aware of the fish burp.

SOLUTION: Take a gallbladder homeopathic remedy to handle the cause of the fish burp. Contact me for help with ordering or ask your favorite herbologist or naturopath for a gallbladder remedy that reduces burping. Patients who have taken the remedy for a few days usually get past the fish burp.

c. Many patients give up because they can’t handle the taste of fish oil on their lips:

SOLUTION: If you need to take such large doses that you use a liquid
instead of pills, try this: Have two shot glasses of juice. Pour the fish oil in the top of one of them and don’t stir. Drink the fishy one first and sip the 2nd juice shot slowly to get the juice off the lips. Take with solid food meal. That helps congeal the oil with the food, too.

d. Many patients think that fish oil supplements are the same as cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is high in vitamins A & D. When you take cod liver oil at doses that are necessary to fight inflammation, you will be taking too much Vitamin A.

Vitamin A is one of the fat-soluble vitamins and shouldn’t be overdosed. Vitamin A toxicity isn’t an issue when they “squish the fish” regular fish oil. The fish’s body oil contains very little vitamin A. (Arthritis Research & Therapy Vol. 8 Issue 1 2006 p.402)

SOLUTION: Avoid the potential for Vitamin A toxicity by avoiding cod liver oil for pain-reducing doses of 2 g and higher.

e. Most patients do not take enough antioxidants with the fish pills for
proper metabolism. The special chemical bonds in the fish oils that
make them so fluid and well-suited for your body are also very unstable.

Taking antioxidants balance out that instability. In fact, you would be
WORSE off if you consumed the fish oils WITHOUT antioxidants than if you didn’t take them at all. So never skip your antioxidants.

• Supplement with external anti-oxidants including vitamins C,
B12, B2, B6 & folic acid & E.

• Include precursors like coQ10, L-acetyl carnitine, selenium and
manganese to boost your body’s production of internal anti-
oxidants that clean up free radicals.

Boosting your array of anti-oxidants overcomes the natural oxidation that takes place otherwise with the double bonds of the fish oil components, EPA and DHA.

A scarcity of anti-oxidants with high doses of fish oil allow for lots of free radical production which will lead to all of the damaging effects associated with free radicals. Aging, cancer and neurological diseases are the most frequent results of unmanaged free radical exposure.

The Ultimate Omega 3 Diet is a reference for the absolute necessity of anti-oxidants in conjunction with fish oils. Supplement with a minimum of 400 mcg of B12, 500 mg of Vitamin C, 50 mg of B2, 50 mg of B6 and 800 mcg of folic acid per 2 g of fish oil.

This doesn’t account for precursors for your internal antioxidants like CoQ10, alpha lipoic acid and L-acetyl carnitine which should be included every day for their age-fighting properties that protect the insides of the cell.

SOLUTION: My favorite antioxidant product is a liquid called Vibe 2.0 by Eniva. I have been using it for 1.5 years daily and so have my parents who make sure they never run out of it. Many patients have truly enjoyed this product over their previous anti-oxidant choice.

It is listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR). That fact alone gives this product tons of credibility because very few natural products are listed there.

It tests very highly for “bio-availability.” It has a very high anti-oxidant assurance rating of 100,000 (called ORAC). It’s vegetarian-friendly, contains no artificial sweeteners, MSG or genetically-modified ingredients.

It hasn’t been irradiated or pasteurized, either. Also there are no trans fats or hydrogenated products in it.

It is the perfect way to get your basic vitamin antioxidants. But it also
includes 3 other antioxidant formulas for supporting functions
throughout the body including heart, cellular health and immune
system.

I highly recommend Vibe 2.0 for your daily anti-oxidants, but it has the added benefit of soluble minerals and trace minerals, which are not found in most other products.

Soluble means they are ready for the cells to use. Because they are so
small (angstrom-sized), they enter right away and are usable instead of being stuck to some unusable material the way colloids might be.

Visit this link for ordering information. Make sure to pick the 32 oz.
bottle of Vibe 2.0, not Vibe Original. I personally do not like the Original flavor and I can’t imagine many people who would! Vibe 2.0 is acai berry flavored and I enjoy mixing it with a small glass of water for washing down my other vitamins, especially my fish pills .

Vibe is also packaged as individual 1 oz. packets that are great for travel. But frankly they are a little expensive for daily use. Consider getting a box of packets to have on hand for travel, though. That way you can continue your protocol when you are out of town. The packets are great for packing on the airplane!

f. Most generic brands of fish oil are not molecularly-distilled for
impurities like PCB’s, dioxins and mercury that contaminate every fish population on the planet. Without molecular distillation to purify the oil, you could be concentrating high doses of these carcinogens.

SOLUTION: Only trust pharmaceutical-grade fish oils since they are not only purified for mercury, but also molecularly-distilled for PCB’s and dioxins at a minimum.

NOW Foods makes a pharmaceutical grade omega 3 fish oil that may be found at:
<a href=”http://www.healthyvillage.com/product_details/7367.html” target=”_blank”>HealthyVillage.com</a>

g. Most patients have an unspoken limit to the number of pills they are willing to swallow each day, even if the pills are vitamins.

Most formulations of the best store brands like Nordic Naturals require 6 pills to get 1.5g. Yikes! If you are attempting to get the higher dose, well, you can do the math. For a 2.4 g dose like in the pain relief study, you’re looking at 9-12 pills for many store brands.

SOLUTION: The effective pain-reducing dose of 1 teaspoon of Lemon Flavored Omega-3 Fish Oil.

Just a warning about the SIZE of fish pills: many brands have large gel
capsules that kind of look like a horse pill.

h. Most patients do not know the correct ratios of the two ingredients
that come from fish. The two ingredients are EPA and DHA. There are
MANY studies in the literature that support supplementing with as high of an EPA content as possible. EPA directly stops one of the steps in the inflammatory pathway.

This is vitally important for pain relief. EPA goes head-to-head in
stopping the products we discussed in the food section that lead to
inflammation. There are so many foods you just learned about earlier
that PROMOTE inflammation and pain that any step reversing
inflammation is valuable.

Dr. Barry Sears, MD advocates twice as much EPA to DHA for adults in his book The Anti-Inflammation Zone: Reversing the Silent Epidemic That’s Destroying Our Health. It is also advocated by Dr. Stoll MD of Harvard in his book The Omega 3 Connection.

For those of us who are mathematically-challenged, 3:2 is the shorthand way of saying “3 parts of one ingredient for every 2 parts of another ingredient.

A 3:2 ratio looks like this on the label—330 mg of EPA and 220 mg of
DHA, the ratio of Nordic Naturals; a 2:1 ratio looks like this–500 mg of EPA and 250 mg of DHA. There is relatively MORE EPA than DHA per serving in a 2:1 product.

Even the most-published geneticist in the world, Dr. Artemis Semophilus who has 103 published articles on omega 3’s, advocates at least a 2:1 ratio of EPA to DHA.

Many of the better store brand formulas contain a 3:2 ratio. That
happens to be the naturally-occurring ratio. But once again, a HIGH
ratio of EPA is recommended, especially to get the most effective pain relief.

Some brands of fish oils have whacky ratios that have no relation to
proper metabolism. Wholesale club brands, for instance, are the worst of all worlds: bad ratios, low amounts of active ingredients and lack of purity.

SOLUTION: Pick a fish oil product that contains at least twice as much
EPA as DHA. Nordic Naturals is 3:2, for instance.

i. Patients were WRONGLY told that the omega 3’s in FLAX will convert over into EPA found in fish.

While it is TRUE that a small portion of flax omega 3’s can convert to
EPA, it is a very inefficient pathway.

Only 1-10% of flax can convert to EPA. So you would have to take huge quantities of flax oil to get a therapeutic amount of EPA. In fact, taking 6.3 g of flax for 2 years would not allow you to make adequate EPA and DHA. (Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care Vol. 7(2) March 2004 pp 131-136)

There are also studies indicating men should take flax oil in moderation as there are links to prostate cancer with high doses of flax oil. Other studies show flax seeds can be consumed without limit, however.

SOLUTION: Add flax to your diet through ground up flax seeds or flax oil in salad dressing. 100 mg each day of the omega 3 derived from flax, called Alpha Linolenic Acid is desirable. (Healthy Fats for Life by Vanderhaeghe)

j. Patients are misled into supplementing with an Omega 3-6-9 product. You must know that Omega 9 is oleic acid—that is—olive oil. If you just add olive oil to your everyday cooking, it is not necessary to supplement with this fat.

Omega 9’s have been studied against omega 3’s for pain relieving
qualities. It has been found omega 9’s don’t offer the pain relief or
heart protection that omega 3’s offer. In my opinion, it is a waste of
money to buy a supplement with omega 9.

SOLUTION: It is the easiest thing to heat your pans with Virgin Coconut Oil instead or butter in place of canned non-stick sprays. Add it to your boiling water for pasta. I LOVE to cook eggs in it. No need to add milk to scrambled eggs. The eggs are quite moist when cooked over low heat with Virgin Coconut Oil.

Olive Oil is one of those good oils you can incorporate into your diet.
However, don’t cook over high heat with olive oil because it denatures.

As for Omega 6’s: Vegetable oils are omega 6’s (also called linoleic
acids). Safflower, soy, corn, canola, sunflower, and cottonseed are all
omega 6 oils. They are so prevalent in our diet that you never need to
supplement with them, at least in this country.

They ARE essential. But our food supply is so overburdened with them that it is actually necessary to LIMIT them in your diet.

Most omega 6’s dump right INTO the inflammatory pathway!! Please
promise me you will never buy a supplement that has soy or corn oil.

The only omega 6 you will ever need to supplement with is a special
one. It is technically gamma linoleic acid (GLA).

Your skin cannot convert the vegetable oils (linoleic acid) into GLA. So get GLA into your diet with borage oil, black currant seed oil or evening primrose oil.

Because it is helpful for the skin, it is considered a “beauty” supplement. In Healthy Fats for Life, the author says that GLA should be supplemented in the same ratio as flax (i.e. 100 mg of flax and 100 mg of GLA each day.)

But the significance of GLA’s for our discussion lies in the fact that GLA’s are called a “carrier molecule” for escorting the fish oils around the body.

Remember we are trying to get the most benefit for pain relief from
taking nature’s anti-inflammatories. Healthy Fats for Life and other
references say we need GLA to help skin assimilate fish oils, so why not give ourselves every benefit we can?

SOLUTION: I suggest you find a plain supplement that contains one of
those 3 oils. Look for a dose of about 100-200 mg of borage oil, black
currant seed oil or evening primrose oil.

If you are taking another supplement that already contains it, then you can rest easy. Or get the vitamin store brand as there are no quality issues with GLA’s that I know of.

If you choose to use Vibe 2.0 as your anti-oxidant, it contains black
currant on the label, but doesn’t list the dose so I would still advise
supplementing with that low 100 mg dose.

SOLUTION:

One teaspoon (5 ml) of NOW Foods Lemon flavored Omega 3 supplement, you get 1,400 mg  of omega 3 fish oil.

• 740 mg of EPA
• 475 mg of DHA
• 185 mg of other omega 3’s
• no inflammation-promoting omega 6 fatty acids
• no wasteful omega 9 oils
• molecularly-distilled
• pharmaceutical-grade
• 100 servings per bottle

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CONTRAINDICATIONS

A final note on fish oils: the only contra-indication is for people who are allergic to fish or people on blood-thinning drugs (like Coumadin).

Fish oils are actually NECESSARY for the healthiest possible pregnancy and for nursing babies. But since this E-book isn’t designed for that purpose, check with your doctor.

Seriously, though, question your doctor if they discourage you from
taking fish oils while pregnant because there is vast research supporting not only its safety, but its necessity.

MAXIMUM DOSAGE LIMIT

Also, you should know multiple research studies state there are no
upper limits of safety for fish oil doses. There are studies for cancer and mood disorders that use well over 10 g/day with the only possible side effects being loose stools. Keep in mind to boost your anti-oxidants by a relative amount if you take higher amounts of oils.

If you have ANY questions about contraindications, please don’t hesitate to email me. I will look up whatever research I know of for you to take in hand to your doctor’s visit. There are MANY more references for the benefits of fish oils than are relevant for this e-book.

MISTAKE #5

Patient Uses the Wrong Pillow or Mattress for Sleeping

Many people know when they have had a funky night of sleep because
when they wake up in the morning, things are sore, pinching or even
painful. My experience has shown me that most people have no data
about how to set up a pillow to support their body.

Cervical pillows come in all shapes and sizes. They usually have a curved out area for your head to lie on while the neck area is a little thicker. Some cervical pillows are skinnier on one side and fatter on the other.

Despite different thicknesses of cervical pillows that are available, there is one piece of data that makes many of them unworkable: the material of the pillow compresses to one degree or another and that causes you to lose spinal support as the night wears on.

This lack of support accounts for odd twists and pressure points that
shouldn’t exist. This fact holds true whether you are a side-sleeper or a back sleeper.

STOMACH SLEEPERS

(I KNOW you weren’t wondering about stomach sleepers, were you??
You should never, ever sleep on your stomach! That leads to terrible
twisting and pressure through the lower neck joints. That position
almost guarantees a recurring pain problem. If you see a chiropractor, they will love you because you will help pay for their kid’s college tuition . People who insist on sleeping on their stomach need this data worse than anyone!)

SIDE-SLEEPERS

SOLUTION: Anyway, back to correct pillow setup. You own a common household item that can be used to substitute for compressible pillows: bath towels. Start with approximately 3 folded bath towels. The height of towels should measure approximately the width of your shoulder to the base of your neck.

The beauty of using bath towels is they are completely adjustable at any time. Merely peel back one or two layers of towels to get the ideal
height for comfort. The stack of towels SHOULDN’ T feel hard on your
head or ear. Add or subtract one layer and re-test if it does.

BACK SLEEPERS

SOLUTION: For those people who sleep on their back: use a hand towel and fold several times for the “just right” thickness to support your neck. Don’t roll it into a cylinder though.

You will get the best results with these pillow tips when used with a firm mattress. Note: a firm mattress with a cushy pillow top doesn’t work as well.

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Okay, I need to address mattresses with you. It IS related to this topic. And is a concern with many people who are consistently having pain when sleeping, or having more pain in the morning when they wake up.

If your pain is worse when you wake up than when you went to bed,
then you really need to troubleshoot your pillow and mattress.

Getting your spine better aligned will really benefit this particular
exacerbation of pain. But even if you are or become a chiropractic
patient, these issues still must be addressed in order to get the
maximum benefit.

There’s nothing worse than when your patient comes in and says things were good, until they woke up the next day. So take a hard look at how you can improve your pillow setup. Then consider the following mattress recommendations.

If your pain is still worse in the morning, experiment with a different bed in your house. Note if your pain is better when you spend the night somewhere else. If you consistently sleep better when you travel, or can sleep better on an alternate bed in your house, seriously consider replacing your mattress.

MATTRESSES: Select Comfort (“Sleep Number”)

I will tell you that slightly more than half of patients I have surveyed love their Select Comfort Air mattresses. Slightly less than half of them don’t like it. The air mattress is not a perfect solution—probably because it is not a solid surface.

You should be aware that Select Comfort motors break periodically and there is only a pro-rated amount of warranty coverage. Like the
warranty you get on tire treads—you pay the portion of the repair based on how long you have owned it.

And several patients report their mattress naturally loses air throughout the week and they need to re-pump to their desired firmness. So if the motor breaks, the mattress will become useless unless you fix it.

One other complaint that I’ve heard several times: the center of the bed has a “no-man’s land.” That is, it’s not part of the air mattress and it’s kind of like a ridge between the two sides of the bed. Maybe you are long past snuggling with your partner . If that’s the case, then it
probably won’t bug you. Just take note of it when you are in the store.

I just like to bring up the issues others have described to me throughout the years. I believe they have a generous return period where you could get a refund if you weren’t satisfied. But if you know you aren’t the type to bother and you would just suffer through with your decision, it’s better to beware!

MATTRESSES: Tempurpedic

Tempurpedic mattresses may work well if the mattress is newer. But after a couple of years, the material breaks down and a firm pillow setup cannot make up for the fact your body is sinking into the mattress.

The fact that Tempurpedic breaks down so soon is why I would really like to veer you away from their products. I used to be a huge advocate. The novelty the memory foam and the firmness worked well. I had several pillows and everyone in my family had bought them as well. We all loved them, in the beginning.

But everyone began noticing their pillows weren’t supportive after the two year mark (my mom, dad, uncle, grandmother, sister, husband, you get the idea?) This was so consistent as to become predictable, even with patients who had purchased them, too.

At the time, I was ordering directly from the manufacturer located in
Lexington, KY, long before you could find their products at any retail
location , except Brookstone’s.

Back then, they were not willing to uphold their warranty on the product, which was stated to be well over 2 years. I fought with them to get one pillow exchanged. But for what? For it to deteriorate again in 2 years?

Tempurpedic products are quite expensive to be replaced every two years.  Back when I was selling them, a typical queen pillow was easily $100. I think you could spend upwards of $200 on the extra thick, long version. I’m sorry but a $200 pillow better last me a LONG time!

I will tell you that I use my old, broken-down Tempurpedic travel pillow for sleeping on my back and it works wonderfully for that. But that’s not a very good way to recommend a product, is it .

Also, I had the Tempurpedic mattress. It was the SAME story as the pillows. A little over 2 years after using it nightly, I was consistently waking up with neck pain. That is not a very good testimonial being a chiropractor who focuses on structural correction!!

So I moved the Tempurpedic to the guest room and swiped the new,
“cheap” firm mattress I had bought to put in there. It was called Doctor’s Choice by Denver Mattress. I’m still using that mattress 6 years later very happily. No pillow-top either. (The ex-husband took the Tempurpedic when he moved out, so now my guests don’t even have to suffer on it .)

MATTRESSES: Denver Mattress

Many patients have successfully taken my Doctor’s Choice
recommendation. Denver Mattress usually gets a bad rap around here. I’m not sure why. My mattress has held up well, but I couldn’t guarantee every unit they sell will. For the price, it’s worth the gamble compared to the traditional brands.

My queen mattress was $400 in 2002. Many brands were well over $1000. And many patients have complained about needing to replace their “expensive” mattress as soon as you would expect with a “cheap” mattress, like less than 5 years. So as far as I can see with the mattress industry, it seems to be a crapshoot.

MATTRESSES: King Koil

I will mention a brand that is endorsed by the International Chiropractic Association and was used throughout the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas at one time. (I’ve heard MGM has more rooms than any other hotel in the world, so that’s a LOT of mattresses!) It is called King Koil. It’s not universally available. But if you can find that, I believe it would be worth investigating.

I really wish I could give you a solid mattress recommendation to go with your pillow set up. I don’t have personal experience with many brands (just the ones I’ve mentioned.) But from a structural standpoint, I would avoid the Intelligel bed for the same reason to avoid the Tempurpedic. If you give it a try and it helps, then great.

If after attempting the pillow instructions and experimenting with different mattresses your pain is still worse during or after sleeping, seek out a chiropractic consultation.

Chiropractic is the best method for realigning your structure. Adjustments relieve inflammation and pain by taking pressure off of joints that aren’t designed to handle it. That will ultimately allow you to get more comfortable while you are lying down.

Better sleep is a consistent positive side effect of being a chiropractic
patient. Visit my chiropractic website for more information.

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It would be good to get feedback from people about beds that have worked very well for them, or even ones that were terrible.

It is interesting to note than in 7 years of trouble-shooting people’s pain while sleeping or when they wake up in the morning, that no “cream of the crop” mattress has risen to the top. Email me if there is a brand or style that was really good or really bad.

If you need more help, I have a DVD with a chapter demonstrating proper sleeping techniques, “Secrets to Good Posture…That Your Mother Never Revealed”.

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MISTAKE #6

Patient Exercises the Wrong Muscles to Relieve Pain

Most people think they should work their abdominal muscles and low back muscles to strengthen their backs for pain relief.

However many people are unaware of their overall bad posture and how that is linked to their back pain.

To understand what I mean, let’s quickly look at the mechanics of your back bones (vertebrae) and the attached muscles. You have muscles that pull vertebrae left; muscles that pull vertebrae right. You also have muscles that pull vertebrae forward (towards your belly button.)

But you don’t have any muscles that can pull your vertebrae backwards. So when bones get out of place, your body is able to fix quite a few misalignments on its own.

However, there is one direction that the body can’t fix because there is no muscle to pull in that direction.

The body can’t fix vertebrae that get stuck forward.

So visualize someone with slumped forward posture. Most people think slumping is due to laziness. In fact, the body’s inability to fix that forward misalignment is why you get slumped.

Slumping forward causes the low back muscles to tighten up to keep your body upright.

Many patients who come in with low back pain as their main complaint have slumped posture to some degree. That is, their head is protruding forward and/or they have a rounded upper back (the beginnings of that “hump” that your grandmother had).

So in my office it is necessary to address slumped posture with a certain kind of adjustment that allows the vertebrae to go BACKWARDS.

It is different than traditional chiropractic adjustments. Traditional
chiropractic adjustments usually have you lie down on your tummy and push on the back, from back to front.

This is different than in my office where you are standing up against the wall. With some leverage behind you, it allows the vertebrae to slide backwards. Posture is better immediately. Visit my chiropractic website for more information about this structural correction method used to improve posture and decrease pain.

The benefit of improving slumped posture is your low back muscles can relax and stop causing pressure on the disc, muscles and nerves.

So any exercise that strengthens the frame so that you are less likely to get slumped posture is necessary in helping with back pain.

There are several groups of muscles that PULL the trunk forward: pec
muscles in the chest; biceps muscles in the arms; abdominal muscles; psoas muscles in the hips.

But do you know the only muscles which pull the shoulders BACKWARDS?

A small group of muscles called rhomboids. They aren’t a very large muscle group, compared to the ones that were just mentioned.

Rowing exercises targets these muscles for strengthening. Add this simple strengthening exercise to your protocol to make your upper back less prone to getting out of place from bad posture while sitting.

There are very few activities that naturally use this muscle group so they are usually weak and full of knots in most people. Knots are more likely when a muscle is weak and stretched.

You really don’t need to stretch this muscle group. It gets PLENTY of
stretching from the typical person’s chronic sitting posture. All of those muscles on the front of your body tend to pull it forward while sitting.

To complement the rhomboids, stretches the pec muscles and abs.

This is best accomplished by extending one’s back over an exercise ball and slowly walking the spinal vertebrae over the ball while focusing the stretch through the armpits, the pecs, the belly and the groin.

Light strengthening of abs and low back muscles is desirable. However, many patients usually have tight low back muscles already and additional strengthening could exacerbate low back pain.

Rather, focus on other postural muscles like trapezius and latissimus.
Those muscles are similar to the rhomboids in that many people do not naturally use them in their regular activity.

They are chronically weak and if you’ve ever noticed knots in the tops of your shoulders, you will understand what happens to weak, stretched-out muscles.

Light strengthening of the traps will make them more resistant to wear-and-tear of bad posture.

Strengthening of the postural muscles helps prevent slumped posture. Reducing slumped posture will reduce strain on the skeleton that causes pain throughout the body.

Check out the chapter on my posture video for demonstrations of
strengthening rhomboids and traps, stretching pecs and abs with low-tech equipment like a Swiss ball and theraband. You can see the introduction of the DVD on my chiropractic website by clicking here.

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MISTAKE #7

Patient Wears Shoes that Make Pain Worse

I have consulted with hundreds of people about their shoes in conjunction with helping them with their pain. And I can tell you that many people fail to get pain relief because of misconceptions about “supportive” shoes.

There is a normal structural alignment of the foot, skeleton and spine.
While most people aren’t perfect, once people are misaligned to a certain degree, it can lead to pain.

Wearing orthotics to correct only the arch of the foot neglects the
misalignments of the whole skeleton. Read Jan and Adele’s stories about the help they got in our office with this important data.

My experience with orthotics is that patients who have used them do not get predictable results with pain relief. Some people get relief of their back or foot pain with orthotics. Other people’s pain gets worse with them. And some people must wear their orthotics every minute to maintain their relief– even during a midnight trip to the potty (an actual patient’s story)!

There is certain data about supportive shoes that can help you get pain relief, not just in the foot, but throughout the body, as long as your shoes support the whole skeleton, not just the arch bones.

ARCH SUPPORTS

Arch supports in both shoes throw off your mechanics. I know you’ve always heard you should have “support”. And most shoes you buy have an insole with some bump for the arch. But many people test poorly with this set-up.

Read this article at my chiropractic website for an explanation of the
mechanics of bilateral arch supports.

So I find it necessary to remove most factory insoles and replace them with a flat insole that doesn’t have bumps under the arch or elsewhere.

A reference in this article shows that typical walking shows are WORSE for arthritis in the lower extremities than just going bare-footed. The arch support in the factory insoles is likely the reason why.

DANSKO CLOGS, BIRKENTSTOCKS & CROCS

These brands of shoes have a built-in arch in the base of the shoe. These shoes are not fixable. When people are frustrated with pain, I know they are more likely to just “try something.” But I can tell you these shoes throw the mechanics back out of place every time.

There is a caveat with arch supports: this data is most beneficial when
used in conjunction with changing your alignment with adjustments.

It’s possible that your orthotics, clogs, Birks or arch supports are supporting whatever your current alignment is and actually gives you some pain relief. And that is fine. Why mess with something if it is working for you?

Thus, it is possible that changing your arch supports, orthotics or heel height could aggravate your pain. I doubt it would be very significant, but just something to watch for if you are not a chiropractic patient.

HIGH HEELS

There certainly is an ideal heel-to-toe ratio for each patient. Wearing shoes that are too flat or much too tall will equally lead to problems. High heels are the absolute worst if you are seeking pain relief.

For most women, I’ve noticed that regular use of high heels leads to severe increased neck pain, at least if they are getting adjustments and resuming wearing heels right away.

That’s not to say you can’t ever wear high heels again. But when patients are in pain relief mode, I advise against it until things stabilize.

FLIP FLOPS

On the “flip” side of the coin, flip flops are just as bad, but for the opposite reason (no pun intended . Okay maybe it was!)

Flip flops don’t offer any heel height. The flimsy nature of the shoe doesn’t support the foot as a whole. And brands like Teva usually have a built-in “bump” where the arch support would go, making things even worse.

Flip flops inevitably lead to increased slumped posture. And that is what we are trying to avoid with these instructions.

Slumped posture tugs on the spinal cord and on the nerves as they branch off of the cord, increasing pain and numbness levels.

COWBOY BOOTS

The Mama Bear “just right” heel height approximates the heel of a cowboy boot. In fact, cowboy boots test out great. They rarely have a built-in arch support and have a great heel-to-toe height ratio.

INSOLES

Don’t fear…most walking shoes and lace-up shoes can be fixed up. The first handling is to get a flat insole. Most shoe departments have an abundance of insole choices with “bumps” that don’t work well.

If you can’t find a good one, at least get a cheap Dr. Scholl’s sole liner. They wear out kind of fast, but you can use it while you look for something else.

HEEL LIFTS

The next aspect is to see if the shoe has a negative heel. I help patients overcome this problem by putting a 1/8” heel lift in each shoe. Negative heel results when the toe-box of the shoe curls up a bit compared to the heel. Usually tennis shoes or hiker shoes have this issue. Click on this article for a picture of negative heel and further explanation.

I have heel lifts that come with 3 in a pair and flat insoles that can be
trimmed to your shoe size and shape. Email me if you’d like guidance with this or help with ordering insoles or heel lifts from my office.

If you need more help, I have a DVD with a chapter demonstrating proper shoes and how to modify them, “Secrets to Good Posture…That Your Mother Never Revealed”.

MISTAKE #8

Patient Consumes Sugar-Free Products that Make Pain Worse

Nutrasweet

Aspartame (the active ingredient in Nutrasweet—i.e. Equal, diet soft
drinks) can replicate many symptoms for which people seek pain relief. This link shows 92 different symptoms reported to the FDA by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1995.

The major symptom reported is headaches. But also note that neurological symptoms were frequently reported as well as dizziness, numbness & tingling and sleep problems.

Artificial sweeteners are an easy item to remove from the diet to aid with pain relief. There is no nutritional value and every reason to discontinue it without a second thought!

FDA maintains that aspartame is safe for the food supply. But a well-
documented study in the European Journal of Oncology (Vol. 10 No. 2 2005) showed otherwise. Check this link for an in-depth look at the FDA’s antics in keeping aspartame on the market.

I have to warn you that it is a bit hard to confront how something as toxic as aspartame is permitted in the food supply. But when you consider the money at stake for corporations, you will not believe the lengths that will be pursued to preserve profits.

Pretty far down in the text of the previous link, Dr. Russell Blaylock, the author of The Taste That Kills, mentions that because of the way mice and rats in the studies metabolize aspartame compared to humans, we are actually 2 times more sensitive than rats and 7 times more sensitive than mice to having a seizure from aspartame. Something to keep in mind with the following study!

Lab rats were fed aspartame over the course of their lives in an amount equivalent to what a human would typically consume, adjusted for the rat’s body size (20 mg/kg of body weight). They were allowed to die a natural death.

Rats who consumed the LOWEST amounts of aspartame had a 62%
increased risk of lymphoma and leukemia.

Alarmingly enough, when another group of rats was fed methanol over the course of their lifetimes, their rates of lymphoma and leukemia increased by the same rate as rats which were fed aspartame.

Why would the researchers compare aspartame to methanol, you are
probably wondering?? Because aspartame breaks down into aspartic acid, methanol and phenylalanine in the gastrointestinal tract of rodents and humans.

Methanol is not something you want to be ingesting, is it? According to Wikipedia, methanol is wood alcohol that is used as antifreeze, solvent, and fuel. Then methanol metabolizes into formic acid and formaldehyde (an embalming agent!)

Additionally, aspartic acid causes injury to neurons due to overstimulation of receptors for amino acids and can lead to stroke, hypoglycemia, epilepsy, Huntington’s disease, ADD, dementia, Alzheimers and Lou Gherig’s disease.  (New England Journal of Medicine Lipton & Rosenberg 330(9): 613-622 1994)

ASPARTAME AND CANCER

Briefly, I wanted to tell you about a patient whose wife has a rare kind of thyroid cancer. She is quite young, in her 30’s. She is living with it. My patient has been very concerned because she drinks diet Coke by the 2 liter daily. She refuses to quit drinking it. But at one point, he told me she did cut back quite a bit.

At her next cancer checkup, whatever they measure was smaller for the first time in all of her checkups. But that wasn’t enough to convince her to quit. So she continues, despite having 2 small children to raise.

I don’t understand how a person can pursue treatments and diagnostics that are enough to break the bank, yet be unwilling to give up a $1/day habit that is shown to promote cancer like wildfire?

“THE TASTE THAT KILLS”

Check Dr. Blaylock’s book for further information about aspartame’s link to causing cancer, and promoting it once you have it.

Eliminating aspartame from your diet is so important for getting relief from your pain that I INSISTED it have its own category outside of the food category. It is also critical for reducing your risk for nasty, incurable diseases later in life!

Splenda

There isn’t as much research about this artificial sweetener as there is for aspartame. But you should know that sucralose (which is the chemical sweetener in Splenda) is a sugar molecule with three chlorines attached.

The manufacturers claim it is no more harmful than the chlorines that are in sodium chloride. That’s like saying there’s nothing wrong with consuming the chlorine in hydrochloric acid!

It’s just marketing, not science. Chlorines cause more free radicals in the body than any other element except fluorine. It’s NOT a by-product that you want to be exposed to. And you definitely don’t want to expose children or pregnant women to it!

Sucralose can cause sluggishness, fatigue, make legs feel like lead weights, mood swings, severe cramps, intense pain, painful bowel movements, bloating, dizziness, confusion, brain fog, diarrhea, nausea and joint pain.
(Reference: Splenda: Is it Safe or Not? Janet Starr Hull)

It is found in nearly 4,000 food, beverage and health-care products,
including diet drinks, ice cream, protein bars, vitamins and toothpaste. It is also found in gum, OTC drugs and salad dressings.

I did find one study where rats were fed doses of 1.1 mg of Splenda per kg of body weight as the lowest dose upwards to 11 mg/kg body weight for the highest range. Splenda used for the study was purchased from the supermarket.

Just so you know, the FDA says a 5 mg/kg of body weight is a safe daily dose. This study showed rats which were fed the smallest dose of Splenda (1.1 mg/kg body weight) showed a significant weight gain during and after Splenda supplementation. Kind of ironic, don’t you think? Replacing sugar with Splenda is supposed to ward off weight gain!

All rats, regardless of Splenda dose, displayed altered intestinal bacteria from the expected norms. (Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health 2008, 71: 1415-1429) Probably explains the bowel symptoms listed above.

Janet Starr Hull’s book Splenda: Is It Safe or Not? makes the case for not using artificial sweeteners.

Stevia

A good alternative to Splenda, saccharin and Nutrasweet is stevia. It is a natural herbal sweetener. It is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It has been used for hundreds of years in South America as a sweetener.

It can’t be patented so you won’t find big commercial interests like
Monsanto promoting it. Instead of the “little blue packet” (like Equal)
stevia comes in the “little green packet” as marketed by Herbal Advantage. You can also buy it in a bottle of liquid.

It’s available at traditional grocery stores in the Denver market as well as health food markets. Look in the aisle with artificial sweeteners. I haven’t explored if smaller towns carry it.

Consider ordering from Steve at www.Stevia-Extract-Sweetener.com for a quality product that apparently tastes better than the store brands. He even has stevia plants for sale—you can plant your own and harvest the leaves for your own home-grown sweetener.

At least swap out the Equal in your coffee and tea with this product to cut back on your aspartame intake overnight.

For a diet soft drink alternative, try sparkling waters. I love to have a
“bubbly water.” I buy the store brand of canned bubbly water for
something to stick in the refrigerator that satisfies my urge for carbonation. Add a stevia packet for sweetening, though I like it just fine without.

At restaurants, I order club soda with lime. It might take a bit of acquiring the taste. But I like it as an alternative to plain water myself. Splurge once in awhile on better brands. Calistoga sparkling water is a tasty brand available in the Denver market.

Dr. Hull recommends the Stevia Cookbook for those who need to cook without sugar and want to avoid artificial sweeteners. I admit I don’t cook much and haven’t tried the book myself. But the index has quite a few yummy sounding recipes!

The bottom line for artificial sweeteners is this: medicating over the top of a slew of diet drinks, Equal in your coffee or tea, gelatins, yogurt and other “diet” products each day is exposing you to a creditable risk of disease while continuing the cycle of pain.

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MISTAKE #9

Patient Uses Statin Drugs to Lower their Cholesterol

If you are struggling with ongoing aches and pains, strains and sprains, and just aren’t responding to treatment protocols, whether its drugs, chiropractic, massage or exercise, AND you are taking drugs to lower cholesterol then you MUST know this information and talk to your doctor about it.

I know that if anything is going to upset you that this item is the most likely to put you on the defensive. That’s because everyone “knows” you shouldn’t have high cholesterol so that you don’t have heart or stroke problems. It is just one of those common knowledge things like “brush your teeth after every meal.”

What you haven’t been told is this: the manufacturers of the class of drugs which lower cholesterol—called “statins”—rake in $25 billion a year from statin drugs alone (Reference: Selling Sickness by Moynihan).

There is a vested financial interest towards keeping you on your statins, so let’s just clear the air about that fact. Statins are a BLOCKBUSTER product. Great for making stock investors happy. Not great for your health as you are going to see!

You will be surprised to know that only 50% of all people who die suddenly from cardiac causes don’t even have a history of heart disease. (New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 346 No. 15 111-8 April 11, 2002)

Thus, half of all deaths do not have an indicator like high cholesterol. That is the first misleading thing about medicating with statins that must be considered.

What about statin’s proven record of preventing cardiovascular deaths? The most-cited study for statin effectiveness goes like this: a group of 100 people were on statins; another group of 100 people weren’t on it. The group on statin drugs had 2 cardiovascular deaths.

Three people died in the group that didn’t take the drug. The statistics are stated to say there was a 50% better outcome from using statins (50% being the difference between 2 and 3 deaths. One death is 50% of 2!) (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine October 2004 Vol. 97 Number 10 pp. 461-464 Thompson & Temple)

Do you see that the difference from 3 deaths to 2 deaths is actually very small? It’s really only a 1% difference in mortality. So the purported benefit is actually very small.

And when you consider that consuming statins causes a 1600% increased chance of peripheral neuropathy, is it any wonder you need to take a hard look at continuing this medication? (Neurology May 2002)

There are MANY problems that statins cause in your blood chemistry. Without overwhelming you with a biochemistry lesson that will make your head spin, let’s understand what statins do.

Glucose (the smallest unit of sugar) is metabolized to a product called
acetyl-CoA. It takes 32 steps to turn acetyl-CoA into cholesterol. Statin drugs inhibit product #3 from being converted to product #4 in the pathway. So nothing after product #4 gets made.

Now you have 28 other compounds after product #4 being interfered with. Seems a little drastic, don’t you think?

In addition to that, cholesterol is the main ingredient for steroid hormones. Limiting its production will limit the precursors needed for:
• 7 more steps to produce bile acids
• 7 more steps to produce alderstone
• 8 more steps to produce estrogen
• 6 more steps to produce cortisol
• 7 more steps to produce testosterone

(Reference: Metabolism at a Glance by J.G. Salway 2004)

What is especially noteworthy about statins and pain is the interference of Acetyl CoA’s ability to make enough energy for the cell’s needs. The energy unit for the cell is called ATP and it is severely limited in the presence of statins due to the pathway described above.

Collagen, the elastic-like product in musculoskeletal tissue, requires lots of ATP. When there is a shortage of ATP, collagen is weak and falls apart. You will be more prone to muscle tears and strains. Thus you will be more prone to pain and not likely to heal well once you are injured.

As a chiropractor, I have documented DRASTIC improvements several times over with patients once they removed themselves from their statin protocol. The difference is like night and day.

Patients who never improved began to improve. Other patients who had reached a plateau for a long time began new levels of improvement once statin therapy was stopped.

Mind you, statins cause some damage and extra vitamin and mineral
supplementation should be included to boost all of those cycles back to a normal level so healing can begin. Just quitting the drug is one part of it. Replacing depleted good guys is the other part of it.

Finally, if you and your doctor really want to measure your risk for
cardiovascular events, research in the New England Journal of Medicine points to a marker in the blood called C-reactive protein (CRP) as superior to LDL cholesterol in predicting cardiovascular risk. (NEJM Vol. 347 No. 20 Nov. 14, 2002 pp. 1557-1565)

Authors of this article comment that LDL cholesterol levels have been the focus of current guidelines because of its importance of forming plaques on the inner linings of the arteries.

CRP BLOOD TEST

But these authors go on to say that clot formation often occurs in the
ABSENCE of high LDL’s. CRP levels mark overall inflammation throughout the body and correlate for an overall risk of disease including heart attack, stroke, sudden cardiac death, and peripheral arterial disease.

It can be measured inexpensively with “high-sensitivity assay” and are stable over long periods, without fluctuations throughout the day like other testing.

The authors also comment that correlating LDL and CRP levels provided better prognosis because it identified high risks better than screening for either one alone.

SIP TESTING

Besides CRP, there is another test that can be beneficial in determining overall bodily inflammation and risk for disease (including cardiovascular events).

It is the ratio of omega 6’s to EPA. The test is called SIP: silent inflammation profile. Dr. Barry Sears’ book explains the details behind SIP, or silent inflammation profile. Your doctor can go to www.siptesting.com for assistance with ordering this blood test.

A very healthy SIP measurement is 1.5-3. SIP measurements above 10 need immediate correction. Schizophrenics have a SIP of 70! All of the dietary and omega 3 suggestions I have made are effective at changing this ratio while taking statins would have little to no effect.

So at this point, I hope I have convinced you to open up talks about
alternatives to statins with your doctor. But I’m sure you are feeling scared that if your cholesterol isn’t managed, that you will be more prone to having a cardiovascular event, right? After all, that was the whole reason you began this drug therapy.

OMEGA 3’S AND CARDIOVASCULAR RISK

You are in luck, because there is abundant research that points to omega 3 fatty acids providing significant heart protection (yes, our old fish oil friend):

• Omega 3’s reduced the chance of cardiovascular death by 32% while
statins only reduced it by 22% (a 44% difference). (Archives of Internal Medicine April 11, 2005; pp. 725-730)

• Omega 3’s reduced death from all reasons by 23% while statins only
reduced it by 13% (a 32% difference) (Archives of Internal Medicine April 11, 2005; pp. 725-730)

• Compelling evidence from studies, investigations and trials show 3
dietary strategies that are effective at preventing heart disease:

o Substitute unsaturated fats for saturated and trans fats (Review
foods to refresh your memory on what these are)

o Increase consumption of omega 3 fatty acids from fish or
plants (Review the Omega 3 section for what to look for)

o Consume a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole
grains and low in refined grains

o Reference: Journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 288, No. 20, Nov. 27, 2002, pp 2569-2578

• Men with the highest levels of omega 3 fatty acids in their blood had
81% reduced risk of cardiovascular event as compared to men with the lowest amounts of omega 3 fatty acids in their blood. (New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 346, No. 15, 1113-8 April 11, 2002)

• Patients who had already suffered one heart attack had a 41% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular events after only 3 months at a low dose of 1g per day of omega 3’s [Note: these authors consider 1g a low dose] (Circulation 2002; 105: 1897-1903 April 23, 2002)

• Coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in the US.

o Consuming 4g a day of omega 3 fatty acids reduces high
triglycerides by 25-30%

o Healthy people should take about 1.2 g a day of omega 3’s

o Because mercury in fish might lessen the protective effect, fish oil
supplements should be mercury-free

o Reference: British Medical Journal 2004; 328: 30-35 January 3, 2004

• Fun Fact: Consuming omega 3 fish oils is 800% more effective at
preventing sudden cardiac death than having an AED defibrillator
machine on-hand in all public areas and homes. About 75% of the
reduction in deaths would occur from apparently healthy individuals
supplementing with omega 3’s. (American Journal of Preventive Medicine Vol. 31, Issue 4, October 2006, p. 316)

Here’s a comment from an earlier reference about the use of fish oils for reducing cardiovascular risk:

“That fish oil is not used more widely to manage cardiovascular risk appears to reflect more the influence of pharmaceutical product marketing on the practice of ‘evidence-based medicine’ than the merits of fish oil relative to those of commonly used proprietary agents” (Arthritis Research & Therapy Vol. 8 Issue 1 2006 p.402
Cleland, James & Proudman)

Have I belabored the point enough about not needing statins, but rather, needing omega 3’s to reduce your risk of cardiovascular events? Did you read Mistake #4 about using natural anti-inflammatories? If not, read that now. Then order your pharmaceutical-grade Omega 3’s and anti-oxidants.

For more info about cholesterol side effects and additional studies visit SpaceDoc’s website about statins. This site belongs to Dr. Duane Graveline MD, a retired physician and astronaut. (Get it? Space doc??) He presents similar findings as we’ve already discussed. Or you can get his book to learn more details about the statin culture in traditional medicine.

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CONCLUSION

I would love to hear back from you after you have tried some of the
strategies and tips I have outlined.

Now that I have all of this written out, I intend on getting this succinct info into the hands of my patients. It’s truly hard to convey everything I know to each and every patient to help them with their pain relief.

Chances are we can never meet or work together. But you have an edge on all of the people who are paying me for my help!

When the time comes and if you are ready to explore the natural
inflammation-fighting effects of chiropractic adjustments, I can only
imagine the advanced results you would get by following the tips in this book before starting care.

And even though I personally have a structural correction focus in my office, I believe you would obtain great results with pain relief no matter what kind of chiropractor you picked by following these guidelines.

All of the mistakes that I have described truly sabotage my patients’ efforts at getting the best results. If you take these ideas and work them into your diet, your supplement routine and your posture/exercise routine, I feel confident in saying that you will get better pain relief than any drug you have ever tried.

And you might even get better relief than patients who continue to ignore their diet, drugs and supplements.

I am hoping the best for you in protection from pain while also protecting your long-term health.

Please feel free to email this e-book to friends you know who could be
helped with the suggestions provided.

Email me your feedback so I know how to focus my future efforts.

Come back to the website regularly. It will be a continual work-in-progress as there will always be new research on health and nutrition to get to you!

Yours in Health,
Dr. Erica S. Kasprzyk, DC
www.get-drug-free-pain-relief.com
Atlas Chiropractic, PC
2305 E. Arapahoe Rd. Suite 207
Centennial, CO 80122
303-738-0390

It is generally accepted that the Japanese have longer life spans with far fewer health problems associated with cardiovascular disease than almost any other nationality in the world. Of course, part of this record can be attributed to a diet high in grains, vegetables and fish. However new research has shown that another important and relatively little known aspect of the Japanese diet, a fermented food called natto, plays a very large part in Japanese cardiovascular health. It was also what led researchers to discover the enzyme Nattokinase, an essential component of natto.

To understand why this enzyme is so important, it helps to know a little about the history and production method of natto, the use of which probably came about quite by accident. It has been speculated that someone probably stored soybeans in a package of straw or sack of rice straw which serendipitously created the perfect circumstances required for fermentation. Whatever the source of this discovery, it evolved into a national dish and a mainstream product that has been used in Japan for well over 1000 years as a treatment for fatigue, diarrhea, heart and circulatory problems

One theory has it that natto was first used during the Jomon period between 1000 B.C. and 300 B.C. According to another story, its discovery dates back to 1083 when Yoshiie Minamoto, a famous samurai of the period, was on a battle campaign in northeastern Japan and his army was attacked while boiling soybeans for horse feed. Hurriedly packing up the beans, his troops did not have time to open the straw bags until a few days later, which gave the beans time enough to ferment. The soldiers and their commander ate them anyway, and liked the taste. A third source suggests that the discovery of natto was a relatively recent event that occurred during the Edo period (1603 to 1867).

But whenever it occurred, from that point on samurai warriors also fed this mixture to their horses to increase the animals’ endurance, stamina and strength.

.

Natto is made by fermenting cooked whole soybeans with a bacterial starter, now thought to be a strain of the species Bacillus subtilis, at 40 degrees centigrade (104 ⁰ F) for 14-18 hours, until the dark-brown beans become covered with a viscous, sticky substance. This material is a form of glutamic acid and becomes more noticeable when the beans are lifted from the bowl, at which point they stretch out to as much as eight feet.

Usually sold in the container in which it is fermented, natto has a slightly musty flavour which is definitely an acquired taste. Natto is unique to Japan, where it is usually served for breakfast mixed with shoyu (natural soy sauce), mustard and, sometimes, minced leeks, generally on top of or mixed in with hot rice. Because natto is made from soybeans that have not been dehulled, it is a lightly processed, whole and natural food. Easily and inexpensively made at home, this nutritious food _______can be eaten without additional cooking.

It is interesting to note that all traditional fermented soy foods except natto (and its close relatives) are cultured with molds; miso, shoyu, and soy nuggets with aspergillus; tempeh with rhizopus, and fermented tofu with actinomucor. Natto alone is fermented with bacteria. Moreover, it is one of the few foods in the world fermented with aerobic, spore-forming bacteria. As a direct result of this procedure, natto produces active protease enzymes, which predigest the soybeans.

One of these enzymes, nattokinase, has been the subject of considerable interest due to its curative properties pertaining to cardiovascular health in general and its spectacular effects on embolism and blood clots in particular.

In 1980, Dr. Hiroyuki Sumi of the University of Chicago Medical School tested 173 different foods for their effect on healthy circulation. He was searching for a natural agent that could successfully dissolve thrombus associated with cardiac and cerebral infarction (blood clots associated with heart attacks and stroke).

One day in 1980 Dr. Sumi took the natto that he was eating for lunch and dropped a small portion into the artificial thrombus (fibrin) plate and was astonished to observe how the natto gradually dissolved the thrombus and had completely dissolved it in 18 hours! Dr. Sumi found that the sticky part of natto, commonly called “threads” exhibited a strong fibrinolytic (blood-clot-resolving) activity. He named this naturally occurring fibrinolytic enzyme “nattokinase”. He reported that he thought the nattokinase enzyme derived from natto to be the most effective natural product to facilitate effective circulation he had ever seen, and commented that nattokinase showed “a potency matched by no other enzyme.” 4, 6

Dr. Sumi reported that nattokinase not only prevented clots from forming but also dissolved blood clots that had already formed. Until this time, there had never been any natural product capable of treating and preventing the number one cause of death and disability in the USA.

Thrombotic clogging (blood clots) of the cerebral blood vessels is now widely believed to be one of the leading causes of dementia. Some Japanese medical experts, for instance, have estimated that thrombosis is responsible for around 60% of the senile dementia cases reported in their country. It occurs as a result of small clots that migrate to the brain, successfully blocking various smaller blood vessels. This in turn cuts off the blood supply to portions of the brain, along with the vital oxygen needed for proper brain function. While the blockage is not severe enough to create life-threatening situations, it is substantial enough to interfere with memory and to be associated with senile dementia, sometimes even being mistaken for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Thrombotic diseases typically include cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, cardiac infarction and angina pectoris, as well as conditions caused by diminished blood vessel flexibility, among them senile dementia and diabetes. If chronic diseases of the capillaries are also considered, then the number of thrombus-related conditions might be much higher. Cardiac infarction patients may have an inherent imbalance. It may be that their thrombolytic enzymes are weaker or present in lesser amounts than their coagulant enzymes. Nattokinase holds great promise to support patients with such inherent weaknesses in a convenient and consistent manner, without side effects. 1, 4, 6

Debilities caused by thrombosis do not suddenly just appear, although it often may seem that way. An important factor to remember is that thrombus is a direct result of long-term problems and issues related to improper clotting of the blood. It does not occur overnight, as is the case with most chronic conditions.

This common but dangerous affliction can now be easily prevented. Just as research has reported a change in the levels and ratios of both coagulant and anticoagulant enzymes naturally found in the blood as we age, it could be inevitable that blood-vessel conditions such as thrombus increase in number unless preventive measures are taken. Unfortunately up until now there have been no safe and natural products available that were capable of effectively averting this potentially deadly condition. The only options have been prescription-based anticoagulants such as warfarin and heparin, both of which are not suitable for long-term use due to numerous and dangerous side effects.

With the availability of nattokinase, however, a new, natural and worry-free line of defense has opened up for the millions of Americans whose prospects for a healthy and active future have been clouded by the threat of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.

For more information on Nattokinase please visit our Nattokinase page

Stevia should be planted in the spring after the soil temperature reaches 65 deg F. Plant in full sun and in a light, sandy, open, well drained soil with neutral pH. Use a standard garden fertilized. Do not use a lawn fertilizer or fertilizers with high nitrogen. Adding extra Boron will help keep the Stevioside level high.

Stevia should be harvested in the fall. The leaves contain about 12% Stevioside (one of the sweet factors). The old brown Stevia leaves will contain 8 to 10% Stevioside. The stems contain about 3% Stevioside. Our Stevia Sweet Recipes Cook Book has many recipes that use Stevia leaf powder.

In the Fall just as the plant is starting to bloom you cut the plant off at ground level (the sweet factor is the highest just before flowering). The plant should be harvested early in the morning and dried in the full sun. The whole plant should be dried first then the leaves pulled from the stems. Hang the plant upside down or lay on a plastic window screen in full sun until completely dry. Strip the leaves off the stems. Discard the stems. When crispy dry, store in a plastic bag until ready to use. Leaves harvested this way in the fall will be 2 to 3 times sweeter than leaves from the same plant harvested in the summer. Break the leaf with your hands or put them a blender to make powder. Please email or phone if you have additional questions. The best place to buy Stevia plants is at www.stevia-plant.com .

In fact, it was probably out of sheer anger that I decided to look into it – to prove, perhaps, how some people were attempting to profit by offering false hope to others. Frantically I searched for evidence to show that the supposed curative power of this little leaf was nothing more than someone’s brazen invention.

But what I found instead was scientific as well as anecdotal confirmation that the claims I had so contemptuously dismissed were, in fact, quite valid.

I discovered that the same conclusion had been reached by scientists from all over the world – based on clinical trials. One study, for example, had involved some 226 people in Switzerland with stage four cancer. The 160 patients that got the leaf enzyme lived an average of three extra years.

My anger was soon replaced by a sense of frustration that so many researchers and experts could be aware of the life-giving miracle in this leaf, and yet this was not common knowledge to be shared with us by our conventional medical practitioners in this country – not even when my mother’s life depended on it.

I am writing this booklet because I want you to know the essence of what I’ve learned in approximately 300 hours of research on this subject. I should add that I’ve had professional training in information science. Unlike scientists who set out to prove how a specific category of people are affected by a specific chemical and may devote 25 years of clinical studies to that particular discipline, an information scientist is one who examines the lifetime works of other scientists, together with current studies, cultural traditions, historical medicine and the changes it has undergone over time, as well as general theory, postulates, experiments, the interactions of scientists and the business world, and related data. Once I think my research has been properly substantiated, I then go about drawing what seem like logical conclusions.

It is my hope that this booklet will help you to discover for yourself the health-enhancing qualities of this wonderful leaf and, hopefully, to use them to extend the lives of both you and your loved ones. Please pass this information on to others who might benefit from it, too.

Role of papain in treating a variety of maladies

One of my first realizations that there might be something to the aforementioned claim came about when I read an interesting clinical study performed to discover what percentage of cancer patients around the world used alternative therapies, what therapies were used, and what the effect was overall. Papaya tea was on the list of regular complementary and alternative therapies (CAM) in 14 countries.

I found out why when I began doing research on enzymes. An enzyme is a biological catalyst - like in a car, a “starter” or “igniter” – that can bring about a change without changing itself. Your body has over 3,000 enzyme catalysts that have been given names.

The papain enzyme, found in both the papaya fruit and its leaves, has a special function, which is to break up proteins. Digesting proteins is a role our pancreas usually performs pretty well until we’re about 25 years old. Then things tend to kind of get backed up. The primary reasons are that we eat dead food (which overworks our pancreas) and don’t eat enough raw fruits and vegetables, so that by the time we hit our mid-twenties, we have bodies full of toxins, and habits that only make things worse.

The depleting effect that diet has on the enzymes our bodies produce was a subject of research done in the mid 1940s by Dr. Edward Howell, who was later interviewed by raw-food advocate Victoras Kulvinskas for a book the latter was writing, “Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity.” When asked how serious a strain our diet of mostly cooked food placed on our “enzyme bank,” Dr. Howell replied, “I believe it’s one of the paramount causes of premature aging and early death. I also believe it’s the underlying cause of almost all degenerative disease.” The “stealing” of enzymes from organs such as the brain, heart, lungs and muscles to service the overburdened digestive tract, he maintained, “sets up a competition for enzymes among the various organ systems and tissues of the body. The resulting metabolic dislocations may be the direct cause of cancer, coronary heart disease, diabetes and many other chronic incurable diseases. This state of enzyme deficiency stress exists in the majority of persons on the civilized, enzyme-free diet.”

Papain can help us overcome this deficiency, particularly when working in tandem with all of the other ingredients in the papaya leaf. That in essence is why papaya leaf tea can make your body begin to function again like that of a healthy young person.

The papain enzyme, like your pancreatic enzymes, is a protein-eater and can substitute for a weak pancreas. By helping you to digest proteins from your food, it keeps them from forming toxic matter in your intestines.

Frequently, papain is included in prescription combinations of digestive enzymes to replace what individuals with cystic fibrosis or pancreas conditions cannot produce naturally. Because it improves digestion in general, papain has also been used orally to treat less serious digestion disorders such as bloating and chronic indigestion.

Digestive disturbances are not the only conditions that papain has been known to help alleviate. It may, for instance, reduce postoperative swelling, expedite healing from injuries and help relieve the pain and inflammation of rheumatoid arthritis. It has also proven effective as a treatment for psoriasis and cold sores caused by Herpes zoster virus, warts and ringworm, and in removing dead tissue from burned skin, a result of its ability to break down proteins.1

As if all that weren’t enough, it is used in many countries both to treat and help prevent malaria. In fact, according to the global hunger fighting organization ECHO, a hospital in Zimbabwe, located in an area where malaria is a serious problem, began using papaya leaf tea a number of years ago and reported that those taking it did not come down with the disease (although admittedly this claim is anecdotal).2

Probably the most difficult part of doing research on the use of papaya leaves around the world is that the leaves (as well as other parts of the plant) have so many varied medicinal uses and is probably why they are not as well known for their impressive cancer-fighting properties.

Are papaya leaves really an effective treatment for cancer?

It may be hard to believe, but nearly a century ago, a Scottish embryologist, Dr. John Beard, developed a theory that pancreatic enzymes defend the body against cancer cells, which he explored in a book called “The Enzyme Treatment of Cancer and its Scientific Basis”. Beard had been studying placentas, and noted how a placenta seems to invade the uterus in a manner not unlike a tumor, but stops growing once the fetal pancreas begins to work. From that observation, he extrapolated that pancreatic enzymes might have a similar effect on cancer itself. In subsequent experiments with both animal and human subjects, he showed that juices extracted from the pancreases of young animals and injected into patients with malignant tumors could, in fact, effectively shrink them.

When other physicians tried to duplicate the work, however, they were less successful – probably because they failed to follow his procedure, which was to extract enzymes from young animals and inject them while they were still fresh. As a result, Dr. Beard’s theories were largely dismissed and fell into obscurity – that is, until the 1960s when Dr. William Donald Kelley, a Texas dentist, cured himself of usually fatal pancreatic cancer using the Beard approach, then went on to develop his own nutritionally based cancer therapy that was reported to be highly effective in patients whose immune systems had not been totally destroyed by chemotherapy and other conventional treatments. It was Dr. Kelley’s belief that cancers originated with primordial germ cells that are able to invade normal tissue at places in the body that have been compromised by stress or toxic exposure where they encounter no resistance from the immune system, and that pancreatic enzymes could effectively reduce or eradicate them.3

Both Dr. Beard’s and Dr. Kelley’s ideas have also been adapted by Dr. Nicholas Gonzelez, who developed a detoxification regimen that includes a freeze-dried porcine pancreatic enzyme administered in capsule form.4

Essentially, what pancreatic enzymes do is to digest protein – which is what enables them to destroy cancer cells. But cancer creates its own weapons to eradicate these enzymes and when one’s pancreas is already weakened, a malignancy can easily overwhelm it. To quote Dr. Kelley, “a pancreas that cannot metabolize protein cannot protect the body from cancer.”5

Studies done of mice that had been inoculated with malignant tumors and treated with enzyme therapy at different times, have demonstrated just how effective such treatment can be in preventing cancer from metastasizing. The first set was given enzymes at stage four cancer after tumor removal; 30 percent survived. The second set was given enzymes at the onset of cancer; their survival rate was 60 percent. The third set was given enzymes prior to the introduction of cancer, and 100 percent of them survived. Such research should serve to indicate the importance of enzyme supplementation as part of an anticancer regimen.6

The enzyme found in the papaya leaf, papain, is a protein-eating substance that can perform the same function as pancreatic enzymes and can compensate for a weak pancreas if you have cancer or help to prevent cancer by digesting proteins from your food so that they do not

4 Ibid
5 Biser, Sam. Curing Cancer with Nutrition: The use of diet and enzyme therapy to cure Cancer. Charlottesville, VA: University of Natural Healing, Inc., 1994.
6 Wald M, Olejar T, Pouckova P, Zadinova M, Proteinases reduce metastatic dissemination and increase survival time in C57Bl6 mice with the Lewis lung carcinoma. Life Sci 1998, 63:L237-243
go undigested and become toxic in your intestines. According to one study, in fact, “papain will digest most protein substrates more extensively than the pancreatic proteases.”7

The importance of papaya leaves as a cancer-fighting agent is further accentuated by the fact that of 3,000 enzymes that scientists have identified, there are only two created by natural plants and fruits that specialize in eating away the fibrous coating, or protein armor, that forms around cancer cells via a process called proteolysis. These specialty enzymes, known as “proteolytic,” or protein eating enzymes, are papain and bromelain. Bromelain is found in the core of the pineapple. Of these two it is the papain from papaya leaves that has been most widely used both culturally and historically to successfully treat various cancers.

Specifically how does this enzyme work to inhibit malignant growth?

As the process is explained in the journal The Doctor’s Prescription for Healthy Living, “Formation of fibrin (protein) on the tumor cell membrane serves as a protective barrier against tumor cell recognition by the immunological system. Proteolytic enzymes (like papain) inhibit both excess fibrin deposition and inflammation, thus helping to prevent the spread of tumor cells.”

7 http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/Area_of_Interest/Biochemicals/
Enzyme_Explorer/Analytical_Enzymes/Papain.html
8 “Systemic Oral Enzymes in Cancer Therapeutics,” The Doctor’s Prescription for Healthy Living, Vol. 4 , No. 6

The fallacies that have caused many doctors to ignore papain’s cancer fighting ability.

As I discovered, however, many conventional practitioners are apt to dismiss the whole concept of oral enzyme therapy for cancer based on a premise they learned in medical school, which has since been shown to be fallacious. I only found out about it because I really needed to understand why my mother’s doctors didn’t recommend enzyme therapy when the information, the science, the clinical studies were all there to show that it really works.

What I learned was that we need to give these doctors a bit of a break — at least, the ones here in America who are older than 45. That’s because the textbooks that they studied told them that enzymes are great for digestion, but they are simply too big to make it through the intestinal wall, so enzymes taken by mouth therefore could not work. It was only within the last 25 years that scientists proved this hypothesis to be incorrect (and most doctors, it should be noted, aren’t taking refresher courses or keeping up with all the latest developments in medicine).

Steve Hefferon explains on the Health Guidance Web site, “Proteolytic enzymes, also referred to as “proteases,” are enzymes that break down proteins into their smallest elements. If this breakdown of proteins happens in your gut, we call the enzymes ‘digestive’ because they help us digest our food. Systemic proteolytic enzymes, however, have a completely different purpose, so please don’t confuse the two. When taken on an empty stomach, proteolytic enzymes will pass through the stomach or intestine lining and enter the circulatory system. This is why they are called ’systemic’. Once they enter the circulatory system, they circulate throughout the body.

Just how far behind the informational curve physicians can be on such matters is exemplified by an experience I had one Saturday at my business upon discovering that a customer of mine happened to be a doctor. I asked him his credentials, and when he told me that he was on the board of directors of a homeopathic enterprise, that really aroused my curiosity. “So,” I inquired, “Do you know of papain?” “Yes”, He replied,, “That is the protein-eating enzyme”. I then asked him what the chances were that papain could be used to successfully treat cancer. His response was one of disdain. “Horse manure!” he declared. “The enzymes won’t make it past your stomach.” I smiled. Information science had paid off. I told him how scientists have now proven that enzymes can make it past the stomach and through the intestinal wall. My little “seminar” with him ended up lasting about an hour, at the end of which he asked me to please e-mail him all of my data.

Now, however, we face a new challenge — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved oral enzymes for cancer therapy. Doctors in America can’t recommend or prescribe what is not FDA approved. European doctors can, however, and now do. The drug companies, though, won’t be interested in paying for clinical studies unless there is money in it for them and one can’t patent a leaf, unless it’s sufficiently altered to make it an “original” formula.

Then there are those “experts” who have attempted to dismiss the effectiveness of the enzyme action of papaya tea based on the conventional scientific claim that enzymes “die” at 114 degrees Fahrenheit. In actuality, papain has proven to be an exception, especially in the presence of water, with optimum activity at 150°F, perfect for tea. Proof that papain’s effectiveness survives high temperatures is shown by the fact that, when used as a meat tenderizer, it continues to tenderize after cooking.

But the best anecdote I’ve seen reflecting the tendency of conventional medicine to keep cancer patients unaware of the potential benefits of this therapy (and one that helped motivate me to write this booklet) is the story about Hope Clinic founder Dr. Ernesto Contreras, Sr. Contreras, a believer in enzyme therapy, started the clinic for cancer victims that the rest of the medical world had given up on. He had to endure years of being called a quack, but with persistence, succeeded in demonstrating that the process of curing cancer is not about just killing a tumor, but is a matter of “whole healing” involving the spirit, mind and body. Then, late in his career, after having survived decades of disdain from the medical establishment, he had an interesting patient visit his clinic. As his son recounted the story, “…a renowned oncologist came to visit my father. He explained that he had cancer and was looking for someone to treat him. My father asked him, ‘Why not take the chemotherapy that you have prescribed to your patients over the past 30 years?’ The doctor responded, ‘But this is me we are talking about, Ernesto!’ This cancer specialist’s experience treating thousands of cancer patients had taught him that chemotherapy alone was not going to cure him. He came to my father looking for an integrative approach.” 10

Some ‘anecdotal evidence’ of the power of papain in treating cancer

Whenever practitioners of conventional wisdom wish to downplay evidence that something can bring about some either desired or undesired effect, they’ll refer to it as “anecdotal” (as opposed to “scientific”). In this booklet, I’ve attempted to tell you a little about the science involved in the use of papaya leaf enzyme in the treatment of cancer. Now I’d like to present you with a few examples of the “anecdotal” evidence of its effectiveness:

10 Francisco Contreras, MD, Jorge Barroso-Aranda, M.D., Ph.D., and Daniel E. Kennedy, -”Dismantling Cancer,” Interpacific Press
In one case, a 40-year-old banana grower had undergone two operations for bladder cancer, but they did not prevent the cancer from metastasizing. He was then placed on a very simple diet consisting of fresh, living foods with no preservatives, white flour, sugar, colorings or additives, and was told to stuff a handful of papaya leaves into a saucepan filled with water; boil them, simmer for one hour and “drink it till it comes out of your ears.” Five weeks later, he reportedly had no trace of cancer whatsoever.11

In another, an elderly woman in Britain, suffering from bowel and stomach cancer, had been sent home to die. Having been given no chance of recovery, she was provided with papaya leaves that had been ground in a coffee grinder and told to brew them into a tea, which she drank regularly. Her cancer vanished without a trace.”12

Then there was a 74-year-old woman who had bladder cancer, which surgery failed to completely remove. Over a period of three months she used papaya leaves, and when she ran out of leaves, she used the skin of the fruit which she boiled. When she went back to the doctor for a check-up after that period, the diagnosis was that the cancer had been eradicated, a result confirmed by a subsequent examination four months later. She has since reported feeling 100 percent better and sees her result as proof that papaya has the ability to promote recovery from cancer.13

11 www.rejoiceinlife.com
12 Ibid
13 Harold Tietze ,”Living Food for Longer Life”, Beekman Books Inc , 2001, p. 49

Papaya leaf tea: the basic essentials

By now, there are some questions about papaya leaf tea that you’d undoubtedly like to have answered. For instance, are there people who shouldn’t drink it?

The answer is yes – the same ones who are advised against taking any proteolytic enzymes, who, according to Steve Hefferon of the Health Guidance Web site, include:

Individuals taking prescription blood thinners (Coumadin, Heparin, Plavix);

Anyone who will be having surgery in less than two weeks;
Individuals with known ulcers of the stomach;
Individuals with gastroesophageal reflux disease. (GERD);
Pregnant or lactating women;
Individuals currently taking antibiotics, and
Individuals with an allergic reaction to pineapples or papayas. 14

Then there’s the question of how safe it is for people other than those listed above, and whether it has any side effects. “Proteolytic enzymes have an excellent safety record, with no significant side effects reported,” notes Hefferon, But, as with anything, he advises that their use be discontinued in the event that an allergic reaction ensues.15

14 http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/7226/1/What-Are-Systemic-Proteo
lytic-Enzymes-And-How-Can-You-Benefit-From-Them.html
15 Ibid

Finally, how should it be brewed and how often consumed? According to the organization ECHO, it is recommended in countries where it is used as a malaria preventive that it be taken regularly on a twice-a-week schedule, as follows: “Use one fresh leaf which you boil in 2 liters of water. Let it boil a short time and let it rest for some minutes. Drink 1/4 of a cup each time. It is bitter, but it is not poisonous. You should not eat the raw leaves, however.”

Directions for Papaya Tea

The dried leaves are available in cut or powder form.16 Add one half cup of Papaya leaf cut to 5 cups of water. Bring to a boil and then simmer 2 minutes. Take the pan off the heat then add a pinch of green Stevia leaf. Cover and let steep for one to four hours. Put a large paper coffee filter in a strainer and pour the tea through it. Drink ¼ cup - one to two times a day or as directed by a health care professional.

16 www.gaia-movement.org/files/newsletter%20september%20small.pdf

Why papaya tea instead of a papain pill?

At this point, some readers may be convinced of the benefits of papain but wondering why it’s necessary to have to ingest it as tea brewed from papaya leaves. Wouldn’t it be simpler to take it in supplement form?

Papain pills, in fact, are readily available. The enzyme is drawn out of the papaya tree by slicing the trunk and draining out the milky sap, which is dried and then made into pills. So why not forget the tea and just take the pill?

The reason that I personally believe in using tea made from the natural leaf is that there is more to the leaf than just papain and that the synergistic interaction of papain with other substances in the leaf may substantially contribute to its cancer-fighting and therapeutic properties. As powerful as papain can be by itself, the papaya leaf is also a source of riboflavin, or Vitamin B2, which is required for various cellular processes and plays a key role in energy metabolism, as well as beta carotene, Vitamin E, and potassium – substances that our diet seems to lack in the quantities we really need.17 While the way enzymes work remains largely a mystery, we do have some clues that to achieve maximum effectiveness, they require the presence of nutritional “accomplices” (such as vitamins), while other substances actually can slow down or stop enzyme functionality (such as sugar and alcohol).

A mentor of mine told me that when he studied at Oxford University in England he was taught that intelligence was not necessarily the search for the right answers, but instead, the passion to find the right questions. After all my research on this subject, my conclusion is that we ask the wrong question when we ask what the “cure” for cancer is. This is as pointless as asking for a “cure” for aging, or a “cure” for gravity.

17 http://www.rain-tree.com/papaya.htm
What, then, is the right question? Perhaps instead of “How do I try not to die,” it is, “How should I live?” That’s a question I would answer by advising you to eat what your body needs to live (ideally, 11 servings of fresh vegetables per day and four servings of fruit), not to consume cell-destroying things (sugar, and processed foods), and supplement your diet with papaya tea to fight off the carcinogens you will inevitably encounter in this world. If we could all spend our entire lives doing this, I believe our lives would not only be considerably longer, but we could all keep cancer at bay, just like the mice in the experiment mentioned earlier who were administered enzymes prior to being injected with cancer and had a 100 percent survival rate.

Living healthier lifestyles to whatever extent is feasible for each of us will, I’m convinced, greatly increase our chances of being able to overcome the malignancies that will periodically try to make inroads into our bodies, and to otherwise lead healthier and happier lives. Getting into the habit of drinking papaya leaf tea is certainly one of the easiest – and perhaps most effective – things we can do along these lines.

This is something I would hope you would encourage everyone you know to do as well — your parents, your children, your friends, and hopefully, even your doctor.

The last thing that my mama asked for before she died of this brutal cancer was a hamburger. Sad that she thought she had tried everything – every possible panacea out there. The ultimate irony was that the FDA had approved a drug for her rheumatoid arthritis, and that this FDA- approved drug was later shown to be a carcinogen and was pulled off the market. I’ve since discovered that papain is a very effective remedy for inflammatory diseases, very specifically, rheumatoid arthritis. That’s one reason I’m not all that concerned about whether papain has the FDA seal of approval as a cancer fighter, or as a means of alleviating any other ailment. The important thing is that we have enough evidence of the fact that it actually works.

I don’t know who couldn’t relate to my mama, and her last wish for one of the simple pleasures she had always taken for granted. It is so hard to change our eating patterns, and we only have so long to enjoy life.

That’s why, instead of the anger I originally felt when I read the claims about papaya leaf, I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to help spread this news myself. I’d like to think the knowledge I now possess, that could have given my mama additional years, might enable your mom or dad – or perhaps even you yourself– to live a much longer and healthier life.

I don’t think there is anybody reading this who would disagree that ANY improvement in memory is most welcome, and much appreciated by all! Well, how about a tremendous increase in memory - over 50% increase - and with absolutely minimal effort! This is now a reality as you will see, with no arduous “mental exercises” to perform, or other cognitive brain teasers. All you need do is pop a couple of small tabs daily, and YOU WILL see the benefits in memory in less than one month.

I have tried this wonder herb for over 4 months now and I have experienced what I estimate is at least 50% improvement in short-term memory functioning. I no longer need to write my “TO DO” lists every day, I just remember a lot of the things that I have to do - it is simply quite effortless! So what is this wonder herb that can improve memory by so much with so little effort? Read on, and I will reveal all her secrets!

GINGKO BILOBA - the memory herb!

Before we start to explore in detail everything modern research has discovered about what gingko can do and how it works, let’s stop to review, in simple terms, one of the bodily processes that are essential for good health - blood circulation. It cannot be overemphasized how vital blood circulation is to our health and well-being. The quality of circulation and how freely blood can move through the vessels to all parts of the body and how well it can carry nutrients (such as oxygen, sugars, enzymes and other life-giving nutrients) and remove the waste products of cellular metabolism directly affects the health of every cell in the body.

When all these nutrients are not supplied to the body every minute of the day and the wastes are not constantly removed, the body begins to age more rapidly. We begin to experience aches and pains, we get stiff, our joints start to weaken, our energy levels dwindle rapidly, our senses become dulled, and the brain and memory become sluggish. We cannot learn new things as well, we forget important telephone numbers, names of friends, and generally we have trouble keeping up with all the changes going on around us.

Today we are going to talk about how a wonderful herb can REALLY help to increase your memory power. Is there anyone that does not want to improve his or her memory? I don’t think so, as memory is crucial to everything that we learn every day, whether you are a student, professor or a lay person.

What is it?
The herb that I am talking about is Gingko biloba. Gingko is the oldest living tree species - over 150 million years old. It is also one of the most well researched herbs in the world, with over 400 studies to date.

What’s the evidence?
According to one German study, blood flow increased 57 per cent one hour after Gingko was taken. Another study found that gingko improved brain function by a striking 72 per cent on average after three months of use. In yet another study of 200 patients who endured memory problems for about 4 years, 71 per cent improved after 3 months on gingko, compared with 32 per cent on placebo (an inactive sugar pill).

What is it used for generally?
Apart from its memory enhancing qualities, it is also used by many Health care practitioners for the treatment of vertigo, tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and a variety of neurological and circulation problems, including impotence. Gingko can also help to counteract the effects of ageing, including mental fatigue and lack of energy.

How does Gingko work?
Gingko works by increasing blood flow to the brain and other body tissues by helping to dilate the tiny capillary networks that run throughout the body. It has two groups of active substances, flavonoids and terpene lactones, including ginkgolides A, B and C, bilobalide, quercetin and kaempferol.

What are the benefits?
As the blood circulation in the brain is improved with the continual use of gingko, this helps to improve short and long term memory, increased reaction time and improved mental clarity. It is now the natural treatment of choice in Europe for Alzheimer’s disease (a type of senile dementia) that includes difficulties of concentration, memory, absentmindedness and confusion, lack of energy, depressive mood, anxiety, dizziness, tinnitus and headache.

Other benefits from using gingko, based upon scientific studies, include: complications from stroke and skull injuries, the treatment of eye and ear disorders (can increase blood flow to the retina and slow down deterioration), improving circulation in the extremities, which is common in diabetics.

Who can use it?
Gingko is used both by clinical professionals with their patients, but also by the ordinary layperson to help boost memory, relieve tension and anxiety and improve mental alertness, elevate mood and restore energy. Research has shown that side effects are very rare and reversible. These include upset stomach and headaches in a very small handful of people. If in doubt, always ask your health practitioner.

How much do you need?
The dosage of gingko that was used in these studies was about 120 mg daily - the gingko that was used in these studies was a manufactured extract. A well-tested effective dose is a total of 120 milligrams daily, divided into three doses of 40-milligram pills. However, about 8 “00” capsules of the whole herb, good quality, dried and powdered, would provide the same amount of those active ingredients (plus whatever the researchers threw away) - and be more economical to boot.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Dr. George J. Georgiou, Ph.D.
Naturopath - Clinical Nutritionist - Homeopath - Herbalist -
Iridologist - Clinical Psychologist - Clinical Sexologist

In the book “Herbal Defense”, Robyn Landis and Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa have a chapter on “Herbs for the Heart”. This chapter discusses nutrients, special foods, exercise and several other herbs.

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The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

I asked for Strength………
And God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom………
And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity………
And God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage………
And God gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love………
And God gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favors………
And God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted ……..
I received everything I needed!

May God Bless You with unspeakable joy, not only in the world to come, but in this world also.

May your path be bright and full of light everywhere you go.

May God tell darkness that it must flee at your command.

And, I pray your feet will never stumble out of God’s plan.

May the desires of your heart come true, and may you experience Peace in everything you do.

May Goodness, Kindness, and Mercy come your way.

And, may you gain Wisdom and grow in the Lord everyday.

Please send this Blessing to those you care about. It may be just what they need to hear, at just the right time.

“…St. John’s wort can have a…beneficial effect on depression.”

Depression can be a response to stressful events, hormonal imbalances, biochemical abnormalities, or other causes. Mild depression which passes quickly may not require any diagnosis or treatment. From nutrients to herbs, there are many mood-lifting alternatives. But keep in mind that there’s a world of difference between an occasional funk and clinical depression—a physician, psychiatrist, or other health professional should be consulted for persistent or serious cases of depression.

Was It Something I Ate?
Restricting sugar and caffeine in people with depression may elevate mood (J Applied Nutr 1988;40:44-50). How much of this effect results from the sugar and how much from the caffeine remains unknown. People with depression can avoid sugar and caffeine for one week to see what happens.

Food allergies occasionally are a trigger of mental symptoms, including depression (Biol Psychiatr 1981;16:3-19). A nutritionally-oriented health professional can be consulted to diagnose possible food sensitivities and identify which foods to avoid.

Lifestyle changes can also affect depression. Since exercise boosts endorphin production, it can positively affect mood and help with depression (Sports Med 1990;9:380-89). As little as three hours per week of aerobic exercises can profoundly reduce the level of depression (BMJ 1985;291:109).

Herbal Pick-Me-Up
Several studies demonstrate that St. John’s wort can have a significant and beneficial effect on depression (Phytomed 1995;2:67-71, Phytomed 1994;1:3-8). Patients receiving St. John’s wort (450 mg three times per day) show a remarkable improvement in mood and ability to carry out their daily routine. One study documented that St. John’s wort is as effective as the prescription antidepressant imipramine for treating depression (J Ger Psyciatr Neruol 1994;7:S19-23). However, no long-term studies of more than one year have been done on the effectiveness and safety of St. John’s wort.

St. John’s wort could, theoretically, make the skin more sensitive to light; so fair-skinned individuals taking this herb should avoid strong sunlight and tanning beds. [Editors note: Light sensitivity is always mentioned with St John’s wort but I have never seen anyone who was bothered by it except cows that eat too much of it.] Also, St. John’s wort can negatively interact with compounds in certain foods like red wine, aged cheese, yeast, and pickled herring, which is why these foods should be avoided. St. John’s wort should not be taken in combination with anti-depressant medication.

The B Vitamins
The birth control pill can deplete the body of vitaminB6, which can in turn contribute to depression. Many women who are depressed and have become vitamin B6 depleted while taking the Pill respond to vitamin B6 supplementation (Lancet 1973;I:897-904). Vitamin B6 might also alleviate depression associated with premenstrual syndrome, (Internat J Vit Nutr Res 1985;(Suppl 27):213-24) although the research remains inconsistent (Brit J Obstet Gynaecol 1990;97:847-52). Many nutritionally-oriented doctors suggest that women who have depression associated with PMS take 100-300 mg of vitamin B6 per day.

Harvard scientists found that, in a group of depressed, but otherwise-healthy young adults, more than one in every four were deficient in vitamin B6, as well as vitamins B12 and riboflavin (J Am Ger Soc 1991;39:252-57). Other researchers concur that low levels vitamin B12 can interfere with mood, while supplements of this vitamin can brighten spirits (N Engl J Med 1988;318:1720-28).

Another B vitamin, folic acid, is also implicated in depression, since as many as one-third of depressed individuals have marginal or deficient folic acid levels, and moods can improve with folic acid supplements (Lancet 1990;336:392-95).

Bad Mood Busters
Minerals can also account for mood ups and downs. For example, when researchers track the moods of people fed a low-selenium or high-selenium diet, they find that moods match the selenium level of the diet (Biol Psych 1996;39:121-128).

Supplements of phosphatidylserine, a special kind of fat that is found in high concentration in the brain, may influence mood by altering neurotransmitter levels (neurotransmitters are brain chemicals needed to regulate mood). When depressed women were given either 300 mg of phosphatidylserine or a placebo, those taking the phospha-tidylserine reported 60% fewer depression symptoms than the other women (Acta Psychiatr Scand 1990;81:265-70).

Amino Acids Play a Role
Amino acids are not just the building blocks for protein, many of them are also the building blocks for neurotransmitters. The amino acid tyrosine converts into the mood-lifting neurotransmitter norepinephrine. But women taking oral contraceptives often have low levels of tyrosine—which many experts believe is related to depressed moods common in Pill users (Clin Chem Acta 1970;29:49-53). Supplements of tyrosine may make up the shortfall caused by the Pill (Am J Psychiatr 1980;137:622-23).

Another amino acid, phenylalanine is also believed to buoy mood. Some studies find that the majority of depressed individuals find some relief with L-phenylalanine supplements of 3-4 grams per day, although lower amounts of DL-phenylalanine (75-200 mg per day) were helpful in one study (J Neural Trans 1977;41:123-34).

Checklist: Depression Remedies…
Multi-vitamin/mineral Daily Amount
St. John’s wort Whole herb 450 mg. One to three times per day
Vitamin B6 100-300 mg per day
Folic acid 400-800 mcg per day
B-complex vitamins moderate dose supplement daily (in place of individual B vitamins)
Selenium 200 mcg per day
Phosphatidylserine 300 mg per day
Tyrosine 7 grams per day
Phenylalanine 3-4 grams per day
DL-phenylalanine 75-200 mg per day

In the book “Herbal Defense”, Robyn Landis and Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa have a chapter on “Herbs for Depression, Addictions, Anxiety, and Insomnia”. This chapter discusses nutrients, special foods, exercise and several other herbs.

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Are You Depressed?

Everyone feels a little down once in awhile, but what are the signs that you should seek professional help? If you answer yes to any of the following questions, consult a health-care professional:
Do you feel sad every day or have you lost interest in your usual activities?

Appetite and/or weight changes

Sleep disturbances

Fatigue

Feelings of worthlessness

Excessive guilt

Suicidal thoughts

Attempted suicide

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Vitamin A For Healthy Babies

Pregnant women have been cautioned against using vitamin A supplements, after research suggested a link between high intakes (more than 10,000 IU) of vitamin A and birth defects. However, a recent epidemiological study suggests that vitamin A supplementation may in fact prevent birth defects when used in amounts less than 10,000 IU daily prior to and during the first trimester of pregnancy (Internat J Vit Nutr Res 1998;68:219-31). Beta-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A not associated with increase risk of birth defects in any amount.

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Water: With or Without Minerals?

All bottled waters are not created equally. The ideal packaged waters are rich in the minerals magnesium and calcium, but low in low sodium. After testing the mineral content of various commercially available bottled waters, researchers found that the mineral content varies considerably between brands (Am J Med 1998;105:125-30). Magnesium content ranged from 0 to 126 mg per liter, calcium from 0 to 546 mg per liter, and sodium from 0 to 1,000 mg per liter. Check the label for mineral content before purchasing.

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HERB OF THE MONTH

St. John’s Wort
St. John’s wort is best known as a remedy for depression, although in Europe, St. John’s wort was, and continues to be, very popular for the topical treatment of wounds and burns.

What does it do?
While it was previously thought that the antidepressant actions of St. John’s wort were due to hypercin and inhibition of the enzyme monomine oxidase (Planta Med 1984;50:272-74), current research has challenged this belief.

New research suggests that St. John’s wort exerts its antidepressant actions by inhibiting the reuptake of the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine (Pharmacopsychiatry 1997;30:102-7). By making more of these neurotransmitters available to the brain, St. John’s wort is able to act as an antidepressant. Hyperforin is another constituent of St. John’s wort recently found to be responsible for antidepressant effect (Pharmacopsychiatry 1998;31(Suppl):54-59).

The St. John’s wort whole herb has been used by herbalists for thousands of years, but only recently has it been identified as a therapy for mild to moderate depression. St. John’s wort may be taken as tea (1/2 oz of dried herb per day) or as capsules 6 to 12 per day. Even more recently, research has shown that severe depression also responds to this herb, although twice the dose is needed (Altern Med Rev 1998;3:18-26).

How much should I take?
St. John’s wort herb has been found to work much better than than “standardized herbs” or extracts. The whole herb has a balance of components in it not found in extracts.

• For mild to moderate depression, the majority of the research has used 450 mg of St. John’s wort one to three times daily.
• Higher intakes may be used for more severe depression but this should be done under the supervision of a health care professional.
• Results are usually evident after two weeks of taking St. John’s wort, but length of use should be discussed with a health care professional.

Are there any side effects?

• Theoretically, St. John’s wort could make the skin more sensitive to sunlight, but this is unlikely when used at recommended levels (Pharmacopsychiatry 1997;30:94-101.). Nevertheless, fair-skinned individuals should be alert for any rashes or burns following exposure to the sun.
• The use of St. John’s wort together with prescription antidepressants is not recommended.
• Consult a health care professional before discontinuing use of prescription antidepressants and starting St. John’s wort.

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SUPPLEMENT OF THE MONTH

Multiple Vitamin/Mineral
Multiple vitamin/mineral supplements can be taken as a type of “nutritional insurance” to fill in any gaps in a basically healthy diet.

Which form is best?
Multiples are available as a powder inside a hard shell pull-apart capsule, as a liquid inside a soft-gelatin capsule, or as a tablet.

• Many people find capsules easier to swallow.
• Some people prefer vegetarian multiples. While some capsules are made from vegetarian sources, most come from animal gelatin. Vegetarians need to carefully read the label to insure they are getting a vegetarian product.
• Properly made tablets and capsules dissolve readily in the stomach.

What about time-released supplements?
Some multiples are in time-released form. The theory is that if the vitamins and minerals can be slowly released into the body over a period of time, it is better than releasing all the nutrients at once. Except for work done on vitamin C—which showed time-released C was better absorbed than non-time-released—research hasn’t been conclusive on this, so it is still not certain whether this is a good idea or not. Some experts think time releasing makes some of the nutrients, iron for example, unavailable since by the time the nutrient is released it has moved too far down the digestive tract to be absorbed efficiently.

What about chewables?
Multiples don’t taste very good. In order to make chewable multiples palatable, whether for children or adults, some compromises must be made. First, bad tasting ingredients (like iron) must be reduced or eliminated. Second, the rest of the ingredients must be masked with a sweetener. Unless an artificial sweetener like aspartame (Nutri-Sweet) or saccharine is used, the only sweeteners available are sugars. Herbal Advantage carries vitamin C sweetened with Stevia in a powder that when mixed with water makes a pleasant tasting drink.

Some chewables, such as vitamin C, contain more sugar than any other ingredient. Chewable acidic vitamin C has been shown to damage tooth enamel.

When should a multiple be taken?
The best time to take vitamins or minerals, with the exception of amino acids, is with meals. Multiples taken in between meals often cause stomach upset and are likely not as well absorbed.

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Breaking News

A recent trial involving 497 healthy premenopausal women suggests that improper calcium regulation may be responsible for PMS symptoms (Am J Obstet Gynecol 1998;179:444-52). Women who supplemented with calcium carbonate tablets (1,200 mg daily), compared to placebo, experienced a 54% reduction in symptoms. Results were most striking for the symptoms of depression, irritability, mood swings, and headaches.

Supplementation with calcium appears to work by restocking supplies of the mineral and suppressing the secretion of parathyroid hormone, which can lead to depression. CoralCalcium contains the proper ratio (2:1) of calcium carbonate and magnesium and has one of the highest absorption rates in human biology.

Inadequate Calcium intake has been linked to such diseases as osteoporosis, certain cancers and damage to nerves and muscle. In addition, Calcium has been proven to be a factor in preventing, or at least delaying the occurrence of hypertension.

In one study using human volunteers, it was shown that calcium supplementation had a significant effect on reducing blood pressure levels after only eight weeks of consumption. In another study lasting 27 weeks, individuals showed a decrease of up to 9% in diastolic pressure after using calcium supplements. Both studies conclude that calcium supplementation is essential to good health. Especially when you consider that most adults, because of concerns about fat intake or lactose intolerance, under consume dairy products, therefore, losing a main dietary source of Calcium. Add to that the average American diet which includes an excessive amount of animal protein, facilitating the need for more Calcium supplementation. This is due in part to the fact that a high protein intake increases calcium excretion in the urine.

Magnesium is another vital component to good health. This essential mineral is required for normal cell operation, in addition to being an important nutrient for the pituitary gland and the maintenance of a healthy nervous system. It has been estimated that up to 70% of all adults are below the minimum daily requirement for Magnesium, which is 400 mg per day.

Magnesium deficiencies include poor memory, mental confusion, cardiac irregularities and, in severe cases, convulsions and coma. In addition, it has been determined that Magnesium actually enhances the absorption and retention of Calcium. In one important study using patients with severe coronary heart disease, all were found to have a lower mean serum Magnesium level as compared to healthy individuals who showed no sign of heart disease. Stroke patients have also been reported as usually deficient in Magnesium, both in the serum and the cerebrospinal fluid. The recommended dosage is 600 mg of Calcium and 300 mg of Magnesium per day, preferably with meals.

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Beauty Update

Vibrant, healthy skin is not only attractive, it can be an indicator of overall health. Good nutrition is essential for glowing skin. For example, inadequate vitamin C impairs the formation of collagen, the glue-like substance that holds the skin together, and low vitamin A levels can lead to dry, scaly, and rough skin.

As the years pass, collagen and elastin fibers in the skin start to deteriorate, and wrinkled and sagging skin result. Research has shown that antioxidant nutrients—including vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and selenium—may put the brakes on both natural and free radical-induced aging of the skin. Consequently, the skin may appear more youthful-looking for longer.

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FAST FACTS

• It is generally a good idea to take dietary supplements with food, especially the oil-based supplements such as evening primrose and flax.
• The only tools needed in life are WD-40 to make things go and duct tape to make thinks stop!
• Only 15% of the salt in the average diet comes from the salt shaker, the rest is hidden in processed foods.

This subject is of vital importance!

Scientists report that over 150 degenerative diseases are caused by high acid levels in the body. Knowing this fact, we should begin by understanding what acidity and alkalinity are and how they relate to our health.

The pH scale ranges from 0 to 14, with 0 being extremely acidic, 14 being extremely alkaline and 7 being neutral. Body fluids range between 4.5 and 7.5 pH (blood must maintain 7.35 to 7.45 pH). A one point drop on the pH scale is 10 times more acidic; for example from 7 to 6 is 10 times more acidic, from 7 to 5 is 100 times, from 7 to 2 is 1,000,000 times more acidic. Most plants and fish thrive in waters of pH values from 6.6 to 7.4. This is a good rule of thumb to use for humans as parasites, viruses, bad bacteria, and degenerative diseases are more prevalent in an acidic system. In order for the body to remain healthy, it keeps a delicate and precise balance of blood pH at 7.365, which is slightly alkaline. The body does whatever it has to in order to maintain this balance. The problem is that most people have incredibly acid-forming lifestyles. Acid is produced in your body whenever you have stress, upset emotions and when the food you eat is acid-forming.

The human body is composed of 78% water. The cells in the body are 98% water. Even our bones are 20% water. We can live for thirty days without food but only 3 days without water. If all the water is removed from a 150 pound person, the residue left would weigh less than 35 pounds. We know that the body fluids of healthy people are slightly alkaline while the same fluids of those who are sick are acidic, either very acidic or slightly. Generally speaking, the more acid your body is, the more serious the illness you have. The degree of acidity significantly affects the body’s ability to prevent and/or reverse illness and disease (including such degenerative diseases as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and others). Individuals that have severe health challenges almost invariably also have high acidity. Unfortunately, acidity has become a national epidemic that is one of the most ignored or unknown underlying causes of many of the degenerative diseases of the western world.

High systemic acid levels contribute or cause directly, numerous health problems;

• Acid systems can’t use calcium effectively.
• They can’t maintain proper blood oxygen levels and cancer can only develop in an oxygen poor, acidic environment.
• Acidic blood can’t circulate properly creating extra strain on the heart.
• It adversely affects the digestive system and the lymphatic system.

How is this condition created?

Our acid problems are due to a combination of two chronic habits:

• What we eat and drink
• What we are not taking in [nutrients, vitamins, minerals, water, etc.]

Whatever comes into contact with our skin, lungs and digestive system is absorbed into the body very quickly. To achieve and maintain a healthy alkaline body, we must eat foods and drinks that produce an alkaline body.

The Standard American Diet (SAD) consists of fast food, high protein, fat, sugar and carbohydrates, which contribute to an overly acidic body. In addition, Americans eat next to no vegetables and the vegetables that are eaten are often cooked thereby creating another acidifying food whereas raw, unprocessed vegetables are alkalizing to the body. In general, it is important to eat a diet that contains both acidic and alkalizing foods. People vary, but for most, the ideal diet is 75 percent alkalizing and 25 percent acidifying.

Dr. Bruce Ames, noted biochemist at the University of California at Berkeley at a 1998 conference of the Society of Toxicology, told the audience of researchers that nutrient deficiency may explain why the 25% of the population that eats the least fruit and vegetables has double the cancer rate in comparison to the 25% of the population that eats the most fruits and vegetables.

“Lack of Vitamins may cause Cancer” Reuters, October, 28, 1998

It is probable that the population that eats higher amounts of vegetables and fruits is also more alkaline than the rest of us. It only makes sense. It isn’t just the nutrient content of the food; it is the acid vs. alkaline ratios that are positively affected as well.

The National Health and Nutrition Survey reported that;

• Less than 10% of Americans consumed five daily servings of fruit and vegetables
• 40% ate no fruit or fruit juice
• 50% ate no vegetables
• 70% have no dietary vitamin C
• 80% didn’t eat anything that had carotenoids
• The number one vegetable in the United States is French Fries and that comprises 25% of all vegetables eaten.
• Number two is Iceberg Lettuce and a close third is Ketchup.

If we can’t even eat the minimal amount of alkalizing foods it is no wonder we have such nationwide issues with degenerative diseases caused by acidity.

Dehydration is rampant often because the average American thinks that drinking soda or coffee is the same as drinking water. As well as acting as a diuretic, soda has an acidic range around 2.5 pH. It takes an incredible amount of “good” water to counteract the effects of soda. You may have to drink nearly 32 glasses of 7.0 pH water to eliminate the bad effects of 1 glass of soda. In addition to soda, coffee, caffeine, and smoking all contribute to raising the acid levels in one’s body, thereby contributing to serious health problems. It is important to understand that raising the body’s pH does not cure disease. It does however, allow the body to heal itself by normalizing cellular function and ridding itself of toxins. Also fruits and vegetables will be adding the minerals that are so important to maintaining good health.

Alkalizing Supplements

We can reduce the acidifying effects of our diet in the short term with Coral Calcium and Greens Blend, but most importantly we need to choose a diet which is balanced on the side of alkaline-forming foods. All natural, raw, vegetable and fruit juices are alkaline-producing. Fruit juices become more acid-producing when processed and especially when sweetened. A food’s acid or alkaline-forming tendency in the body has nothing to do with the actual pH of the food itself. For example, lemons are very acidic; however the end products they produce after digestion and assimilation are very alkaline so in fact lemons are alkaline-forming in the body. Likewise, meat will test alkaline before digestion but it leaves very acidic residue in the body so, like nearly all animal products, meat is very acid-forming.

A severe acid condition forces the body to borrow minerals - including calcium, sodium, potassium and magnesium from organs and bones to buffer (neutralize) the acid to safely remove it from the body. This is a primary cause of osteoporosis. Acidic conditions can also cause such problems as:
Cardiovascular damage Weight gain, obesity and diabetes
Bladder conditions Kidney stones
Increased propensity for depression Acceleration of free radical damage
Hormonal problems Premature aging
Aching muscles and lactic acid buildup Osteoporosis and joint pain including arthritis
Low energy and chronic fatigue Slow digestion and elimination
Yeast/fungal overgrowth Lack of energy and fatigue
Lower body temperature Escalation of tendency for infection
Immune deficiency Loss of drive, joy, and enthusiasm
Easily stressed Pale complexion
Headaches Gastritis
Loose and painful teeth Inflamed, sensitive gums
Mouth and stomach ulcers Cracks at the corners of the lips
Inflammation of the corneas and eyelids Impaired digestion and excess stomach acid
Nails are thin and split easily Hair looks dull, has split ends, and falls out
Dry skin Skin easily irritated
Low blood oxygen levels Leg cramps and spasms

Coral Calcium is called the great alkalizer. Dr Linus Pauling recommended taking L-Lysine with your Vitamin C. Also consider these other great alkaline-producing products we have ready to ship: Alfalfa, Bladderwrack, Broccoli, Kelp, Spinach, Spirulina and the new Greens Blend.

L- Lysine, Vitamin C and heart disease prevention.

Heart Disease is the Number 1 killer in the United States.

14 million Americans have heart disease and more than 2,600 die daily from heart attacks in the United States alone. 15% of adults in their late 30s to 40s are afflicted by cardiovascular disease, about 50% of 55 to 64 year-olds, and 65% of those will be afflicted in the next decade. The media would have you think that if you live long enough, it is inevitable that you will be affected by heart disease to some degree or another.

Is this true or not? Judge the evidence for yourself.

After 20 years of aggressive drug therapy and promotion of low-fat diet, the number of deaths attributable to cardiovascular disease has not reversed. Obviously, this elusive condition is far more complicated than we had ever imagined.

OR IS IT?

For decades, the public at large has been taught that the key culprit to heart disease is high cholesterol in our blood that comes from a diet that is high in cholesterol. This is not true and the research shows it.

Consider the following:

• Polar bears maintain a total blood cholesterol of over 400 mg/dl and they seldom have heart attacks or heart disease.
• Eskimos are relatively free of heart disease and yet they eat more animal fats from fish and marine animals than almost anyone else.
• The Okinawans are the longest living population group in the world. The average life span for an Okinawan woman is 84 years. The diet consists of fish 2-3 times a week and high intake of vegetables. The cholesterol intake on the whole is more than most with very few issues regarding cardiovascular disease.
• People in North India consume 17 times more animal fat but have 7 times fewer incidences of heart disease compared to people in Southern India.

Vitamin C and Heart Disease: A Chronology

The role Vitamin C plays in heart health.

“The medical profession itself took a very narrow and very wrong view. Lack of ascorbic acid caused scurvy, so if there was no scurvy there was no lack of ascorbic acid. Nothing could be clearer than this. The only trouble was that scurvy is not a first symptom of a lack but a final collapse, a premortal syndrome and there is a very wide gap between scurvy and full health. ” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Nobel-prize winner for his discovery of vitamin C in 1927.

Vitamin C consumption in the U.S. rises by 300%. Coincidentally mortality from heart disease decreases by 30% in the U.S. This is the only country with a significant drop in heart disease fatalities.

Two Canadian medical doctors, Drs. Paterson and Willis, suspected that the heart disease process is related to the stability of arteries. They noticed that atherosclerotic plaques are not randomly distributed. Plaques usually develop at the same locations in places where blood vessels are stretched or squeezed, i.e., where mechanical forces and stresses are great, for example in the coronary arteries. In other words cholesterol acts as a bandage or repair kit and is present at all blood vessel areas where damage has occurred.

1937- Canadian cardiologist Dr. J. C. Paterson reported that more than 80% of his heart disease patients have low Vitamin C levels compared to other patients.

1954- Dr. G. C. Willis showed that Vitamin C supplementation can reduce arterial deposits. Makes first claim that atherosclerosis is reversible.

1967- Dr. Boris Sokoloff studied the effects of 1 to 3 gm doses of Vitamin C on sixty patients over the age of 60 yrs. with CVD. Not a single vascular event occurred during the year long study period when 6 to12 heart attacks were expected.

1986- Dr. Pauling summarizes the evidence for vitamin C against heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other diseases in his book “How to Live Longer and Feel Better”, which becomes a bestseller.

1989- Dr. Pauling discovers that optimum dietary vitamin C prevents the deposition of lipoprotein(a) in arterial walls.

1991- Dr. Pauling published “Solution to the Puzzle of Human Cardiovascular Disease”. This scientific paper concluded that Vitamin C deficiency is the direct and most frequent cause of heart attacks.

1992- Dr. Enstrom and colleagues (UCLA) showed in a study involving over 11,000 Americans, that increased intake of Vitamin C reduces the death rate from heart disease by nearly half and prolongs life for more than six years. Enstrom EE, Kanim LE, Klein MA: Vitamin C intake and mortality among a sample of the United States population. Epidemiology 1992;3(3):194-202.

1997- American Heart Association press release reported on German studies that credit Vitamin C in the blood stream with “almost completely reversing endothelial dysfunction” in smokers. In other words, ascorbic acid may prevent damage to the walls of blood vessels caused by smoking that eventually leads to cardiovascular disease.

A variant of the so-called “bad” LDL cholesterol called lipoprotein(a), or Lp(a) for short, was studied and found to be a major player in the heart health story. Lp(a) is a substance that consists of an LDL “bad cholesterol” part plus a protein (apoprotein a), whose exact function is currently unknown.

New research has shown that people with high levels of Lp(a), have a much higher risk of heart disease.

Lp(a) is sticky because of receptors on the surface of the molecule called lysine binding sites. Work that led to the 1987 Nobel Prize in medicine discovered that lysine (and proline) binding sites cause the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.

Beisiegel et. al. in Germany examined plaques during autopsy and found only Lp(a), not ordinary LDL cholesterol were present in plaques.

Those with the highest Lp(a) and cholesterol levels were 14 times as likely to have obstructed blood vessels as those with the lowest levels.

Analyzing the findings from 27 studies, British researchers found that those patients with high levels of Lp(a) had a 70% higher risk of developing heart disease over a period of 10 years.

Despite previous conflicting results concerning the importance of Lp(a), researchers maintain that this study shows that Lp(a) has a “clear association” with heart disease risk.

Researchers also maintain that a person’s Lp(a) is largely governed by genetics. For example, people of African decent tend to have higher levels than Caucasians. While this may be true we also know that the formula Dr. Linus Pauling created works to lower Lp(a) dramatically and has been used to reduce and in some cases remove the blockage from arteries throughout the body.

According to the Pauling/Rath 1994 United States patent, the amino acid lysine (lysine analogs), along with vitamin C and other antioxidants (e.g. Co-Q10, vitamin E and vitamin A), can, in sufficient concentration, inhibit Lp(a) binding to exposed lysine residues. Proline residues are also exposed by lesions in blood vessels. Later experiments showed that proline as well as lysine, with vitamin C, other amino acids and antioxidants, in oral amounts well past what is needed for prevention, becomes a solvent by inhibiting the binding of Lp(a). A binding inhibitor augmented with vitamin C can stop and apparently even reverses some plaque formations. Pauling and Rath even have a second U. S. patent for using these binding inhibitors as solvents to melt atherosclerotic plaques from human organs during organ transplants. The organ is dipped in the Lp(a) Binding Inhibitor solution and the plaques melt away.

The Lp(a) binding inhibitors become the Pauling Therapy for heart disease to be used only at high dosages, between 3 to 18 grams of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and 3 to 6 grams of L-Lysine. The first cases where this high Vitamin C and L-Lysine therapy were used quickly resolved advanced cardiovascular disease in humans. The effect is so pronounced, and the inhibitors are so nontoxic, that Pauling doubted a clinical study was even necessary. Recently, the amino acid proline was found to be an even more effective Lp(a) binding inhibitor than lysine in vitro. Adding between .5 and 2 grams of proline may be of significant additional benefit.

New Research

Avoid trans fats in the diet and take a quality Omega 3 Essential fatty acid with 10% DHA and EPA.

“Research has shown that an Omega-3 index of 8 % to 10 % reduces a person’s relative risk of death from coronary heart disease by 40% and from sudden cardiac death by 90 %.” This benefit probably results from restored insulin-mediated glucose/vitamin C uptake into cells.

New research confirms Dr. John Ely’s 30-year theory that sugar (glucose) competes with ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) for insulin-mediated uptake into cells. Taking sugar can effectively crowd out the ascorbate part of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). The effect of the Pauling Therapy is reportedly much more pronounced and immediate when sugar is eliminated.

If you are “tired of being tired,” you’re not alone —fatigue is one of the most common complaints heard at a doctor’s office. Fatigue can have a wide variety of causes: from poor diet, lack of sleep or exercise, and obesity, to side effects from certain medications or a sign of drug/alcohol abuse. And that’s not all. A feeling of tiredness could also indicate anemia, infection, hormone imbalance, low thyroid or adrenal function, depression, mental or physical stress, or other serious conditions.

The dietary changes and supplements discussed in the following sections can provide an occasional “oomph” to your life, but fatigue that persists for more than a few days, is associated with pain or discomfort for which the cause is unknown, or has unusual symptoms, should be addressed with your physician.

Focus on Diet Basics
Skipping breakfast, eating on the run, and weight-loss diets are prime culprits of low energy levels. Frequent small meals and snacks—based on nutrient-dense foods—are the obvious solution here. A steady supply of carbohydrates will keep you humming along at top speed by maintaining energizing blood sugar levels.

Stick with the complex carbohydrates (such as breads, grains, and pasta) because simple carbohydrates (found in cookies, candy bars, and soda) dump sugar into the bloodstream, causing a spike in blood sugar. There’s a quick energy lift, but the immediate response from the pancreas is to send out plenty of insulin to move the excess sugar from the blood into the cells. Blood sugar levels then plummet, perhaps to even lower levels than before the sugary snack.

Vitamins and Minerals for Vitality
Almost every vitamin and mineral plays a role in the complex process that turns food and oxygen into energy—which means that even a marginal deficiency of one or more nutrients can lead to fatigue. A high-potency multi-vitamin/mineral supplement acts as nutritional insurance to ensure that any nutritional gaps are covered.

After conducting a small clinical trial, Dr. Mark Levine from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD found that, long before scurvy develops, low intake of vitamin C lead to feelings of fatigue and irritation (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1996;93:3704-9). This vitamin C related fatigue is easily remedied by correcting the deficient intake with modest doses of vitamin C.

Skimping on the B vitamins can cause weakness and reduced energy, particularly since a low intake of folic acid, vitamin B12, or biotin can lead to the energy-sapping condition of anemia. A B-complex supplement can be a valuable way to ensure a balanced intake of this family of nutrients.

Iron deficiency can be a cause of chronic weariness, particularly in women. Although only a small percentage of women are anemic (the final stage of iron deficiency), almost 40% of young women have low iron stores and twice this number of exercising women come up short with this important mineral (J Am Diet Assoc 1989;89:257-9). Even mild iron deficiency without anemia leads to fatigue as the brain and muscles are literally starved of energy-giving oxygen (Ann Rev Nutr 1986;6:13-40).

Iron-rich foods, such as a serving of spinach or a handful of dried apricots, or a moderate-dose iron supplement (i.e., 18 mg per day) can re-energize lagging energy stores if iron deficiency is the root of the problem. Even so, the amount of iron present in many multiple vitamin/mineral supplements is often adequate, making a stand-alone supplement unnecessary.

The vitamin-like substance coenzyme Q10 is naturally concentrated in the mitochondria of cells—the area where energy is produced. It is known to be useful for people with poor heart function (Conn Med 1997;61:707-11) and some doctors have reported successful use of coenzyme Q10 in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome (North Carolina Fam Phys 1992;43:6-11). (See “Supplement Spotlight” on page 4 for more information about this nutrient.)

The amino acid L-carnitine transports fats to the mitochondria, where they are used in energy production. Some research indicates that this amino acid can postpone fatigue, particularly for very physically active people (Int J Sports Med 1990;11:1-14).

Herbal Energy Sources
Ginseng has a long history of use for increasing mental alertness and brain power (Nippon Yakurigaku Zasshi 1992;100:423-31) (see Herbal Focus on page 3). Caffeine-containing herbs, such as guarana and kola nut, are true stimulants. Like coffee, they increase respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure. In moderate amounts these sources of caffeine enhance alertness and endurance, but side effects, such as cramping, diarrhea, insomnia, and headaches can develop in sensitive people or those taking high doses.

One of the more questionable stimulants is Ephedra. This herb stimulates the central nervous system, but in too large of a dose or in certain individuals, it can cause high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, nerve damage, stroke, and even death. Ephedra is considered unsafe for use without a doctor’s supervision.

Everyone feels tired once and awhile, but you don’t have to take your “energy crisis” lying down! A few dietary changes and perhaps an occasional nutritional supplement may be all it takes for you to stop feeding your fatigue and start refueling your energy stores.

Checklist: Energy Boosters *
Multi-vitamin/mineral Daily Amount
Vitamin C 200- 500 mg per day
B complex vitamin 18 mg per day (only if iron deficient)
Iron Daily
Coenzyme Q10 30-90 mg per day
L-carnitine 1-3 grams per day
Siberian Ginseng root 500-1000 mg per day

In the book “Herbal Defense”, Robyn Landis and Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa have a whole chapter on “Energizing Herbs”. This chapter discusses Adrenal and Thyroid depletion and how to nourish them. It talks about

“Short-Term Energy” herbs like Guarana Seed, Kola Nut, Yohimbe, Yerba Mate, and Ma Haung;

“Mediun-Term Energizers” like Licorice Root, Cubeb Berry, Garlic, Onion, and Ginger; and

“Long-Term Builders” like Fo-ti root, Astragalus root, Siberian Ginseng, Saw Palmeto berry, Triphala, Black Cohosh, Prickly Ash Bark, Muira Puama root, Sarsaparilla, and Bladderwrack

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Quiz - How’s Your Energy Level?

Answer yes or no to the following questions to determine your energy level and the role diet and lifestyle may play in your fatigue.

Rate Your Energy

1. Does your day typically start as you drag yourself reluctantly out of bed, instead of waking refreshed?
2. Are you so tired by the time you finish your workday that all you want to do is veg out to TV sitcoms?
3. Does it often feel as though your alarm goes off just as you were entering a restful stage of sleep?
4. Do you find yourself longing for an “afternoon nap” morning, noon, and night?
5. Do you sometimes feel as though you just don’t have the energy to get through the day?

More than two “yes” answers indicate that you are a prime suspect for fatigue, but you probably didn’t need us to tell you that.

Rate Your Diet

1. Do you eat breakfast every morning?
2. Do you eat at least 2,000 calories each day, mostly comprised of healthful foods?
3. Do you grab for a bagel or an apple, instead of a candy bar, to fight your midday doldrums?
4. Do you limit yourself to less than three cups of coffee every day?
5. Do you drink six to eight glasses of fluid every day (colas and coffee don’t count!)?

More than two “no” answers indicate that your diet may play a role in your energy crisis.

Rate Your Lifestyle

1. Is your life so crammed that you rarely find time to relax and enjoy yourself?
2. Do you feel as though you are “burning the candle at both ends?”
3. Do you consistently shortchange your sleep time?
4. Is your favorite hobby channel surfing from the couch?
5. Do you circle the parking lot for five minutes instead of parking in the first spot you see and taking a five minute walk?

More than two “yes” answers may finger your lifestyle as the source of your energy roller coaster.

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Could it be Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Approximately 2.4 million Americans are estimated to suffer from the baffling condition of chronic fatigue syndrome. According to research from the University of Southampton, U.K., some patients suffering from CFS have low blood levels of magnesium and respond favorably to magnesium supplementation. Patients taking magnesium supplements report greater energy levels, improved emotional state, and less pain than those taking a placebo (Lancet 1991;337:757-60). Another controlled study found that a combination of evening primrose oil and fish oil helped 85% of patients with fatigue, aches and pain, and depression (Acta Neurol Scand 1990;82:209-16).

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HERB OF THE MONTH

GINSENG
Ginseng has been in traditional use by Chinese medicine for thousands of years, namely as a general tonic and to boost vitality in the elderly. There are several types of ginseng, including Asian ginseng (also called Korean ginseng or Chinese ginseng), Siberian ginseng (also known as eleuthero), and American ginseng.

What does it do?
Asian ginseng and American ginseng contain ginsenosides, which are believed to increase energy, counter the effects of stress and enhance intellectual and physical performance (Econ Med Plant Res 1985;1:218–84).

Research with Siberian ginseng indicates that it helps the body adapt to stress. It does this by encouraging normal adrenal function, allowing them to optimal functioning when even challenged by stress (Phytomed 1994;1:63-76). Research has shown that eleuthero improves the use of oxygen by exercising muscles. This means that a person is able to maintain aerobic exercise longer and recovery from workouts is much quicker (Planta Medica 1986; 37:175-7).

How much should I take?
Chinese Red Ginseng (whole root powder)
Capsule: 1-2 grams per day
Tincture 2-3 ml per day

Siberian Ginseng (whole root powder)
Capsule/tablet: 2-3 grams per day

Chinese Red Ginseng is usually used for one to two weeks, followed by a one to two week “rest” period before resuming. Siberian Ginseng may be taken continuously.

Are there any side effects?
Ginseng is generally safe, although in some people or in high doses it may cause over stimulation and insomnia. Consuming caffeine with ginseng increases the risk. Individuals with uncontrolled high blood pressure should not use ginseng. Ginseng is not recommended for pregnant or lactating women. Ginseng bulk or Ginseng capsules.

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SUPPLEMENT OF THE MONTH

Coenzyme Q10
Coenzyme Q10, also known as ubiquinone (because it is found ubiquitiously in the body) is a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from free radicals (Internat J Vit Nutr Res 1994;64:311-5).
Coenzyme Q10 aids in metabolic reactions, such as the complex process of transforming food into ATP—the energy the body runs on.
Although almost every body cell contains coenzyme Q10, the mitochondria (the area of cells where energy is produced) contain the most coenzyme Q10.
The heart and liver, because they contain the most mitochondria per cell, have the greatest amount of coenzyme Q10. Periodontal disease has been linked to coenzyme Q10 deficiency, and supplements of coenzyme Q10 might help the healing of this condition (Gaby AR. Coenzyme Q10. in Pizzorno JE, Murray MT. A Textbook of Natural Medicine, Bastyr University Press, Seattle, 1998).

How much do I need?
A commonly recommended amount for individuals interested in coenzyme Q10 supplementation is 30-90 mg per day. People with specific health conditions (based on the advice of a nutritionally-oriented physician) might be recommended to supplement with higher levels. Supplements that are oil-based suspensions of coenzyme Q10 might absorb better than forms that lack oil.

What foods provide Coenzyme Q10?
Coenzyme Q10 is found in spinach, broccoli, nuts, meat, and fish.

Can I take too much Coenzyme Q10?
Coenzyme Q10 is not associated with side effects, however congestive heart failure patients who are taking coenzyme Q10 should not discontinue supplementation without first consulting a doctor.

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Breaking News

High blood levels of an altered amino acid called homocysteine is now accepted as a risk factor for heart disease. A recent study screened 509 men, 30-49 years old, for homocysteine levels and selected the 132 men at risk for heart disease to participate in an intervention trial (Am J Clin Nutr 1998;67:858-66). The subset of these men who took a combination of B vitamins (folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12) in the amount of 2.5-10 times the RDA had a significant drop in their homocysteine levels after eight weeks, compared to a placebo group. This study adds credence to the theory that B vitamin supplements, in those with high levels of homocysteine, might reduce the risk of heart disease.

For additional information on heart disease see: HEART TECHNOLOGY

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Women’s Health

Between 20 and 90 percent of pre-menopausal women are affected to some extent by premenstrual syndrome (PMS). PMS is responsible for a myriad of symptoms in the week preceding menstruation. Depending on the particular symptoms experienced by a women, various nutrients can be of help. Among the most effective supplements for PMS are vitamin B6 (for depression, irritability, headaches, edema, acne, and fatigue), evening primrose oil (for breast tenderness, irritability, and depression), vitamin E (for irritability, fatigue, and depression), and magnesium (for cravings, mood changes, and muscle spasms) (Somer E. Food and Mood. Henry Holt, 1995).

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FAST FACTS

• Pesticides on fruits and vegetables concern many people, but the good news is that most produce has little to no residue. The situation improves even more if you wash your produce before consuming it.
• Don’t go too far trying to lower your fat intake, certain fats, called essential fatty acids, are needed for optimal health. Sources of these “good fats” include fish, flax oil, evening primrose oil, borage oil, and black currant oil.