DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol 2, No 23) October 5, 2002

[Guest guest]

" Andrew W. Saul, PhD " wrote:(To UN:

dynewsletter-

 

To for free: update- )

 

" I have always been a naturopath. I just didn't know it had a name. "

 

(Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D., D.M.D)

 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 2, No 23) October 5, 2002

 

" Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A. "

 

Written by Andrew Saul, PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free

online library of over 350 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000

scientific references.

 

DAYLIGHT WAS FADING FAST as I wriggled through a weed-covered chink in the

metal fence surrounding the old Jackson Sanatorium. No, I was not an AWOL

inmate sneaking back before curfew. It was 1979, I was 24, and had been

working as a natural health lecturer for only a couple of years. When I was

promised a tour of what remained of this old five-floor naturopathic

hospital in Dansville, New York, I jumped at it. I had little idea of what

to expect. But fortunately Henry, natural hygienest, unofficial caretaker

and my guide this late autumn afternoon, was an enthusiastic (if not to say

rabid) scholar of the works of James Caleb Jackson, M.D. (1811-1895). He

undertook my reeducation immediately. For like most people, I knew nothing

of Doctor Jackson, though he was actually one of the most influential

natural health practitioners of the 19th century. He was a personal friend

of both Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and was Clara Barton's

physician. It was not by mere coincidence that the first chapter of the

American Red Cross was founded in Dansville. Jackson's contributions have

been largely obscured by his much better known contemporary, John Harvey

Kellogg, M.D., of Battle Creek, Michigan.

 

As we fumbled our way towards a side door into the darkened hospital

basement, my guide filled me in. He first explained to me that Jackson, not

Kellogg, was the true originator of the first dry breakfast cereal.

Jackson's may not have been as successful (it was neither flaked nor mass

marketed) but you may well have eaten some: it was called " Granula, " known

to this day as granola.

 

We were inside the building now. I looked around and there was just enough

light to see that I was standing in what was once a hydrotherapy treatment

room. There were assorted tubs, hot water tanks, Sitz baths, and massage

tables, some with fomentation towels still hanging silently beside them.

 

I asked if those towels had been hanging there since Dr. Jackson's day.

 

" No, " Henry said. " The facility was later operated by Bernarr MacFadden and

after his death in 1955, was kept open as a health resort and spa until

1971. "

 

Ah, yes. Millionaire publisher of magazines like True Detective and Physical

Culture, Bernarr MacFadden was the health nut who personally led a mass

health walk every year, all the way from New York City to Dansville.

Dansville is close to Rochester: that is quite a hike. The 325-mile

health-food-powered marathon was dubbed the " Cracked Wheat Derby. "

MacFadden, a public relations genius if there ever was one, also parachute

jumped out over Paris on his 84th birthday. He landed without injury,

possibly due in part to the fact that he also slept on concrete floors and

drank carrot juice. A lot of carrot juice. He was 87 when he died.

 

The image of those old towels, still waiting to be used, remains clearly in

my mind to this day.

 

We climbed upstairs into a large lobby that looked the part of a

once-elegant, formal ballroom. I found MacFadden literature and educational

packets in a drawer, neatly mimeographed and slightly musty. We moved to the

main hallway, at the center of which was a massive cast iron stairway. " It

is fireproof, " Henry said, " Because the first Jackson Sanatorium burned to

the ground. This building was built in 1883, and built to last. "

 

And so it had. Up the grand stairway we went, without so much as a creak to

be heard. When we reached the fifth floor, we proceeded down a long, faded

turquoise-painted hallway. To either side, you could see that each patient's

room had a louvered door, to improve fresh air flow. I stepped into a room,

and the first thing I noticed was that it was taller than it was wide, with

an enormous window and exceptionally high ceiling. Such high ceilings were

to be found on all floors of the hospital, said Henry, because fresh air and

sunshine were as much a part of " taking the cure " as were mineral waters and

fresh, raw vegetarian foods.

 

One more flight of stairs upward and we were on the roof. I am no friend of

great heights, and being way up top on this unrepaired building gave me the

willies. But Henry distracted me with consummate skill. He led me over to

what looked like one of several playground merry-go-rounds, you know, like

the ones Bill Cosby described from his childhood. But these were different.

Each of the round platforms looked as if someone had placed a small wood

framed, glass-paned greenhouse on it.

 

" Patients sat in one of these to sun themselves, " Henry explained. " And

every hour or so an attendant would rotate the thing so that the patient

continually had the sunlight fully on him. "

 

Much of the rest of the roof resembled a cross between a dance floor and a

high-school gymnasium.

 

" There were daily exercises up here, and people stood where these marks are.

Over there is a bridge and pathway leading up the hill to a mineral spring,

which opened up after a slight earthquake here in 1798. That spring is the

reason Dr. Jackson built here in the first place. "

 

There was no way I was going to cross what was left of that incredibly

rickety-looking bridge, and fortunately Henry didn't ask me to. It was

getting dark now, and time to go.

 

Henry produced an inadequate flashlight and by its weak yellow beam we

managed to make our way back down through a now nearly dark staircase, and

out the way we came in.

 

As we left, I looked up the side of the massive brick building, just barely

visible in the twilight. I thought how great it would be today to have a

true choice in hospitals like people had a hundred years ago. If there is a

true, full-service, public naturopathic hospital somewhere in America, it is

news to me. Even a natural-diet nursing home would be a milestone.

 

Dr. Jackson operated what his grateful patients affectionately called " Our

Home on the Hillside " during a time when the American Medical Association

and the pharmaceutical industry were just starting to gain the exceptional

political influence which they maintain to this day. Between the end of the

Civil War and the start of World War I, there was still freedom of choice in

health care in America. Homeopathy, herbology naturopathy, hydrotherapy, the

brand-new profession of chiropractic, and, of course, all manner of patent

medicine men competed openly for your body. It was an ideological open

season, when no one delivery system had preeminence. I am not sad to see the

passing of the covered wagon medicine-show quack. (Well, maybe he did not so

much pass as relocate to television commercials.)

 

But it is a great loss that America, and most of the countries of the world,

have only one politically recognized system of health care: allopathic

(drug-and-surgery) medicine. Such a single-party system inhibits a patient's

choice and, in my opinion, inhibits a patient's recovery far more.

 

How different things must have been when the 122-bed " Home on the Hillside "

was the health center of the Northeast. The sanatorium had its own rail

spur. What made the naturopathic hospital so popular? Perhaps it was the

water, or the huge organic vegetable gardens. Perhaps it was Dr. Jackson's

personality, which by all accounts was impressive indeed. But perhaps it was

simply the sanatorium's success rate that brought in the crowds. Nature cure

works. It worked then and it works now.

 

The times have changed since Jackson and even McFadden's day. But there is

nothing stopping you from making your home into your own personal health

retreat. Your daily routines can be the same health-boosting program of

whole-foods diet and life-affirming exercise that once led thousands to Our

Home on the Hillside.

 

" Founded on rock. For suffering ones and weary,

 

A home, secure from worldly care and strife;

 

Nature, the healing mistress, tends its portals,

 

Beckoning with gentle hand to paths of life. "

 

(Dr. Katy J. Jackson)

 

(For lots of links on natural hygiene:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/natural_hygiene.html )

 

TUTTI FRUTTI

 

I just finished a breakfast of fruit and fruit juice. Wait! Sure, it sounds

almost normal, but if you've been a regular reader of this Newsletter, you

KNOW there must be a catch. Right you are: The fruit was whole raw green

beans, and the fruit juice was from zucchini squash. (That " "

link at the top of this page really works, you know. . . )

 

From time to time, food legalists will tell you that, for whatever reason,

you should not eat fruits and vegetables together at the same meal.

Doubtless they will be delighted with my choices this morning, but the

normal folks out there will be scratching their heads over that " fruit "

definition. A fruit is any seed-bearing structure that proceeds from a

flower. Pumpkins, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers are all fruits.

My point here is that there is not much difference in our common

understanding of how " vegetable " and fruit differ.

 

Nor need we worry. Chimps and gorillas don't, that's for sure. I was

watching orangutans eating the other day (no, this is NOT a slam against my

daughter's seventh-graders in their school cafeteria). The orangutans ate a

delightful variety of natural, garden-grown goodies, lovingly tossed their

way by their keepers. Then the zoo staff presumably went off to their

McNothing lunches. They all should have had dinner together. . . right there

in the primate cage.

 

NEW, PRINTER-FRIENDLY DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER BACK ISSUES

 

are now being posted at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/backissues.html . The first 20 issues have

been resized and re-margined in order to print out better for most people.

We are getting to the rest as time permits. Thank you to all readers who

have so nicely nagged me about this.

 

DR. HOFFER'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

 

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, turns 85 this November the 11th, and the Doctor

Yourself Newsletter would like to encourage EVERYONE to send him a birthday

card by postal mail.

 

Dr. Hoffer's office address is:

 

#3A - 2727 Quadra Street

Victoria, B.C. V8T 4E5 Canada

 

(From the USA, postage to Canada is 60 cents. International readers will

want to check rates with their local post office.)

 

Let's let the doctor know how much we appreciate him, and flood his office

with greetings.

 

IN HONOR OF DR. HOFFER, I am going to publish testimonials as to how many,

many persons he has helped in his over-50 years of nutritional practice.

 

Has megavitamin therapy changed your life? If so, please send me an email

with your story. ( drsaul ), with " Birthday " in the

subject line). I will print a sample of the most interesting letters

received. Here's a great gift you can give to Dr Hoffer, whom I consider to

be the " Father of Orthomolecular Medicine. " And you do not even have to wrap

it.

 

THE DANGERS OF CAFFEINE are such a popular topic at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com that we are publishing a new paper, below, in

its entirety.

 

Caffeine Induced Anaphylaxis, A Progressive Toxic Dementia

 

by Ruth Whalen, MLT, ASCP

 

Cerebral allergy is an allergy to a substance, which targets vulnerable

brain tissue and alters brain function. Masked cerebral allergy can cause

symptoms of mental illness (Walker, 1996; Rippere, 1984; Sheinken et al.,

1979). Symptoms range from minimal reactions to severe psychotic states,

which may include irrational behavior, disruptions in attention, lack of

focus and comprehension, mood changes, lack of organizational skills, abrupt

shifting of activities, delusions, hallucinations, and paranoia (Sheinken et

al., 1979; McManamy et al., 1936).

 

 

An allergic reaction to caffeine manifests as anaphylaxis (Przybilla et al.,

1983). During a state of caffeine anaphylaxis, the body enters the fight or

flight mode, which may be mistaken as hyperactivity, anxiety, or panic

disorder. Caffeine anaphylaxis causes cerebral vasculitis, leads to the

breakdown of the blood brain barrier, and generates toxic dementia.

 

 

Toxic dementia induced by a stimulant or other toxin affects function of all

brain areas (Jacques, 1992). Several signs of toxic dementia are memory

impairment, deterioration of social and intellectual behavior, and attention

deficits (Allen et al., 2001; Jacques, 1992; Headlee, 1948).

 

 

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), assumed to affect children, (though of

late, adult onset ADD is grabbing a slice of the pie of psychiatric

disorders), is indistinguishable from caffeine allergy. Claudia Miller, M.D.

stresses that a chemical sensitivity, which includes caffeine as a chemical

capable of inducing sensitivity, can induce attention deficits with

hyperactivity (Miller, 1997).

 

 

Deteriorating intellect, the first stage of caffeine induced allergic

toxicity masquerades as ADD. Inability to concentrate, lack of

comprehension, lack of focus, hyperactivity, delusions, and disorganized

thought processes are hallmark signs of caffeine allergy. An allergic

reaction to caffeine results in poisoning of the prefrontal cortex. Damage

to the underside area on the prefrontal cortex, above the eye sockets,

generally renders a person absent minded and interferes with the ability to

monitor personal activities (Carter, 1998). Injury results in loss of verbal

and social inhibition, interferes with focus and memory (Eliot, 1999), and

suppresses math skills (Carter, 1998).

 

 

In studies involving comprehension skills, as in mathematics and logical

reasoning, caffeine has either exhibited no change, or has actually depleted

performance (Braun, 1997). Caffeine may jeopardize math skills and detailed

projects, which require additional thought (Serafin, 1996; NTP Chemical,

1991).

 

 

Caffeine anaphylaxis interferes with the ability to focus. Sitting still

becomes a project. Raising the catecholamine level, caffeine produces

additional dopamine, which increases locomotive movement. Agitation is

associated with excess dopamine (Carter, 1998).

 

 

Caffeine causes faster speech and mobility in children (Nehlig et al.,

1992). With 80% of the world's population consuming caffeine, most persons

have remained stimulated since childhood. Stimulated adults can't detect

caffeine-induced changes in themselves or in children. Misjudging a child's

natural state, adults assume children should speak and act at the same rate

as stimulated adults. People forget that we are born relaxed. Acceleration

of speech and action indicates mania (Victor et al., 2001; Restak, 1984),

associated with bipolar affective disorder. Manic symptoms affect children.

Psychiatrically hospitalized manic children display symptoms of ADD (Carlson

et al., 1998).

 

 

Complaints of lack of focus, failing memory, and other mental abnormalities,

signify hypomania, a lesser degree of mania (Victor, 2001), which

accompanies the first stage of ongoing-caffeine-induced-anaphylaxis-induced

fight or flight dementia. Unable to correlate the patient's complaints with

a textbook disorder, physicians assume ADD.

 

 

According to the American Psychiatric Association, which classifies caffeine

as a substance, substance intoxication can present with disturbance in

thinking, judgment, perception, attention, motor activity, and social

functioning (1994). Caffeine toxicity can induce restlessness, agitation,

irritability, confusion, and delerium (Steinman, 2001; Fisher Scientific,

1997; Turkington, 1994; Shen et al., 1979). In addition, anaphylaxis can

induce delerium (Kaplan, 2000).

 

 

Unlike Stephen Cherniske, aware of instinct warning him that caffeine was

affecting his behavior (Cherniske, 1998), a child does not know. A youngster

can't feel the mild stimulant rush because the underdeveloped body has

developed a tolerance. Similarly, a toxic adult loses natural insight and

can't recognize caffeine induced intellect and personality changes (Shen,

1979; McManamy, 1936; Crothers, 1902).

 

 

During partial withdrawal, the body metabolizes some caffeine, saturating

cells. Clarity struggles to return. Symptoms of partial withdrawal can

overlap traits of poisoning (Strain et al., 1997) and can mimic depression

(Hirsch, 1984). As the noradrenaline level diminishes, symptoms of

depression set in (Restak, 1994, Ackerman, 1992). Caffeine induced

withdrawal depression can manifest as hyperactivity, lethargy, irritability,

confusion, and lack of focus. The glucose level, which rises along with

adrenaline (Davidson et al., 1969) and remains elevated during the body's

struggle to maintain homeostasis, drops. A decrease in glucose encourages

lack of motivation, which may also mimic depression.

 

 

As Allbutt and Dixon stressed, in 1909, regarding caffeine, another " dose of

the poison " provides minor relief, but continues to jeopardize organs

(1909). A return to caffeine intake increases noradrenaline, heightening the

fight or flight response. In turn, adrenaline, dopamine, and glucose

increase, thus lifting depression. With continued substance exposure, toxins

accumulate (Van Winkle, 2000).

 

 

Caffeine allergy is a deceptive allergy. Ongoing caffeine anaphylaxis

reduces allergic inflammation and maintains organ stimulation. Endogenous

glucocorticoids (including cortisol) inhibit inflammation (Claman, 1983).

Theophylline is the principle therapy for asthma. All forms of theophylline

maintain open bronchial passages, allowing for easier breathing. During

ongoing caffeine anaphylaxis, airways remain open. Adrenaline, the drug of

choice for anaphylaxis, is always present in a caffeine consumer. By

suppressing phosphodiesterase release, caffeine (Davidson, 1969) increases

cyclic AMP. Excess amounts of cyclic AMP inhibit histamine production

(Dykewicz, 2001; Ernst et al., 1999). Phosphodiesterase inhibitors inhibit

histamine release (Raderer et al., 1995).

 

 

Cyclic AMP is increased in patients diagnosed as schizophrenic and many

individuals diagnosed with affective disorders (Nishino et al., 1993; Erban

et al., 1980; Biederman et al., 1977). Histamine is reduced in persons

diagnosed with schizophrenia, a late stage of ongoing caffeine anaphylaxis.

 

 

Although the histamine level is low in schizophrenics (Malek-Ahmadi et al.,

1976; Hoffer et al., 1967), schizophrenic patients exhibit a marked

tolerance to histamine (Lea, 1955). This suggests, in the case of caffeine

anaphylaxis, that during the onset stage of schizophrenia, when anaphylaxis

induced hyperactivity, or anaphylaxis induced panic symptoms were mistaken

as ADD, anxiety, or panic, (before continued cerebral poisoning), histamine

was increased but the allergy went undetected.

 

 

Symptoms of allergic anxiety (Bonner, 2000; Kaplan, 2000; Walsh, 2000) may

be mistaken as anxiety neurosis, considered an onset symptom of

schizophrenia. When a young person experiencing a first anxiety episode

arrives in an emergency room, doctors suspect a developing schizophrenia

(Victor, 2001).

 

 

Attention and memory deficits accompany schizophrenia (Zuffante et al.,

2001; Goldberg et al., 1993). Researchers theorize that prior to the onset

of schizophrenia changes in a person's cognition may be subtle (Goldberg,

1993).

 

 

Chlorpromazine (Thorazine) and other phenothiazine drugs exhibit an

anti-histamine effect (Sifton, 1994; Malek-Ahmadi, 1976), similar to

diphenhydramine (Benadryl). A person allergic to caffeine, taking a

phenothiazine medication, will experience relief of the physical

manifestations of ongoing caffeine anaphylaxis. In addition, phenothiazine

medications reduce allergic induced abnormal psychological symptoms,

including a reduction in paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions, and

generate a return of partial insight, focus, and comprehension.

 

 

Ongoing caffeine allergy induces a progressive toxic dementia (McManamy,

1936). In a caffeine allergic person, each caffeine or theophylline dose

increases toxin accumulation. A buildup of caffeine, which may exceed

tolerance level, saturates the ability of metabolism (Carrillo et al., 2000;

Nehlig, 1999); rate of drug accumulation exceeds rate of elimination.

Introducing a stimulant into a caffeine allergic individual's system will

further poison the frontal cortex and hypothalamus and continue to mask

allergic symptoms of caffeine anaphylaxis. Continued stimulant use increases

toxic psychosis, which results in decreased affect and deterioration of

mental abilities.

 

 

(I have posted all the references cited in the paper above at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine2.html

 

To read another of Ruth's excellent caffeine articles, please go to

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine_allergy.html )

 

Copyright 2002 Ruth Whalen, MLT, ASCP. Reprinted with permission of the

author. Email Ms Whalen at

 

Tenpaisleypark

 

THE WHITE OF THE COW

 

Reader's Say:

 

" For the most part I enjoy your articles, but I am very surprised that you

have such a pro-dairy stance. In a previous Doctor Yourself Newsletter

 

( http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n8.txt ) you wrote:

 

As a former dairyman, I am probably more kind to milk products than some.

Milk is better than meat. Furthermore, I advocate cultured milk products

(cheese, yogurt) NOT fluid milk, to get calcium. It is undeniably true that

retaining your calcium is as important as eating it. Exercise, vitamin D,

and a low-protein, near-vegetarian diet all help a lot. Avoiding caffeine,

alcohol, and especially " soft drinks, " which are a " hard " source of dietary

phosphorous, are also important steps. In a perfect world, I'd say this: to

be built like a gorilla, eat like one. But so many people have crummy diets,

and such plentiful vices, that I will take refuge with one of the great

vegetarian moderates of our time: Mahatma Gandhi. He ate, and recommended,

some cheese. This was a necessary nod to reality. (end of quote)

 

" I disagree with your milk is better than meat comment... 100%. Meat has

some hormones, toxins, antibiotics in it... but they do not hold a candle to

the concentrated (10,000 pounds of blood to create 55 pounds if milk per

day) toxins (up to 200 times the safe levels of dioxins, alone), allergens

(casein, lactose and more), up to 52 antibiotics (perhaps 53 with the

illegal use of LS-50), a full 59 hormones ONE of which (IGF-1 plug and play

cancer fuel) is identical between cow's and humans, up to 20 million live

bacteria per liter, a national average of 323 million pus cells per liter,

the protein lactalbumin linked to diabetes mellitus, the protein

casomorphine linked to behavioral problems... and more.

 

" As to advocating cheese... it takes 10 pounds of polluted milk to make one

pound of cheddar cheese. One goes from 49% of calories from animal fats

(despite the fact that milk is 87% expensive water) to 74% of calories from

animal fats. Now add to that the cholesterol equivalent of 17 slices of

bacon per eight ounce cup of milk... and one major cause of heart disease

being (hands down) the biggest US health problem should be most evident. "

 

Sincerely,

 

Dave Rietz

 

(Thank you for keeping me honest. Dave's excellent website

 

http://www.notmilk.com has over 600 pages of material on why we do not need

moo juice. I recommend it.)

 

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Persons interested in my book PAPERBACK CLINIC: A Simplified Manual of

Natural Therapeutics, may obtain it directly from me at 8 Van Buren Street,

Holley, NY 14470, USA for $34.00 postpaid in the USA; US $39.00 to Canada,

and US $50.00 airmail to all other countries. I will be happy to autograph

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update-

 

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered as

prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or

physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program

necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one

should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from

a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

 

" DOCTOR YOURSELF " " DoctorYourself.com " and " Doctor Yourself Newsletter " are

service marks of Andrew W. Saul. All rights reserved.

 

Copyright c 2002 and prior years Andrew W. Saul drsaul

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