Fwd: DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol 3, No 7) February 20, 2003

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" Andrew Saul, PhD "

DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol 3, No 7) February 20, 2003

Mon, 10 Feb 2003 14:54:20 -0500

 

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" I don't know if the world is full of smart men bluffing, or imbeciles who

mean it. " (attributed to Morrie Brickman)

 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 3, No 7) February 20, 2003

 

" 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.

 

DEFENSE AND BATS

 

So there I was in Africa, in a castle dungeon, lit by a single dim light

bulb, looking up at a ceiling entirely covered with bats. My feet were

Crocodile-Hunter-deep in " bat poo " (guano) which had no discernable odor. It

must have been a very different smell indeed back in the 1500's, when

hundreds of slaves were held in this miserable stone cellar and others like

it. Ventilation was by a single small barred window, way up high. For those

imprisoned there, there was no running water, no toilets, and no hope.

 

The fortress at Elmina, in Ghana, West Africa

 

http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk/gallery/mitchell006.php was once the

world's largest collecting and holding station for slaves before they were

shipped overseas. When I visited in 1974, I was not allowed to take

photographs because political prisoners were held there. Today it promoted

as a tourist destination.

 

http://www.biriwabeach.com.gh/eng/elmina.htm

 

Do not let those shining white exterior views fool you; Elmina Castle is

truly an awful place on the inside, underneath, downstairs in those

dungeons. The whole horrible business went on for nearly 400 years.

 

This was organized oppression on a large, commercial scale.

 

Today, many people are oppressed by fear and, in a manner of speaking,

imprisoned by fear. Political leaders have too often capitalized on their

fears, such as the fear of chemical weapons and biological warfare. Whoever

you are and wherever you live, you are of course understandably very

concerned for your family's health and safety.

 

One answer to this problem may have something to do with those bats

mentioned earlier.

 

Bats navigate by echo-location. That means the stealthy little guys have

on-board sonar. By sending out high pitched pulses and listening to their

return, bats can fly around dungeons in the dark without ever hitting the

walls or each other, or, incidentally, without ever getting in your hair.

Bats also find their food this way.

 

Many bats like to eat moths. There are moth species that not only can hear

the bat's sonar, but when they do hear it, will automatically fold up their

mothy wings and fall several meters straight down. By the time the bat gets

to where the moth is, it is where the moth was.

 

The moth does an akido move

 

http://www.aikidofaq.com/introduction.html .

 

There is an analogous akido move in immunology. It is futile to focus on the

preemptive killing of every germ, every time, everywhere. It cannot be done.

But rather than live in a bubble, scramble for the latest and greatest

antibiotic, or panic if your vaccination card is incomplete, why not

concentrate on the many ways you can strengthen your immune system yourself?

Most people I've met could use a good health tune up. Now is a very good

time to do one. Lots of blunt but practical hints at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/advice.html , with additional how-to's at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/DY_ch02_web.html

 

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

 

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

 

" The best defense is not to offend. " (Chuck Norris)

 

BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM IS LARGELY A " PHANTOM MENACE "

 

Most media hype about bioterrorism is about as accurate as the media hype

was for " Star Wars - Episode One. " Both have been very overrated.

 

DOES THE PLAGUE WORRY YOU?

 

The classic, perhaps the ultimate contagious disease of all time would be

bubonic plague. The loathsome Black Death killed better than one in four

Europeans during the 14th century. We are talking 30 million people now,

plus 45 million more dead in Asia. Pretty awful. Keep in mind, though, that

nearly three in four lived through it. How? The plague being a bacterial

disease, and neither vaccine nor antibiotic in sight, how did the great

majority of people NOT die?

 

DID YOU KNOW that there have been dozens of plague cases diagnosed in the

southwest USA in recent years? Have you had your plague vaccination? Do you

really think you need one? Then why hasn't it spread?

 

Smallpox, that virtually-vanished viral disease, is another case in point.

Even when smallpox reigned supreme, the vast majority of the population did

not contract it, and most of those that did nevertheless survived the event.

George Washington, to name one. Is smallpox all gone now because of drugs

and vaccination, or because of our natural immune systems? Can you prove the

first over the second? It is not possible to drug or vaccinate everyone on

earth even if everyone on earth could be or wanted to be drugged and

vaccinated. There are simply too many people, and there are definitely far

too many germs. (There are over two hundred viruses just for the common

cold.)

 

With a reverent sense of history, I offer a revisionist view of the germ

theory as Abraham Lincoln might have described it:

 

" You can infect some of the people all of the time, and all of the people

some of the time, but you cannot infect all of the people all of the time. "

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v1n3.html .

 

How about that always-sick kid I was stuck next to in Bio class?

 

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

 

ABOUT ANTHRAX:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n1.txt

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/immune2.html

 

SITTING DUCKS OR SWIMMING DUCKS?;

 

TOP TEN WAYS TO WRECK AN IMMUNE SYSTEM; and SCARED OF DISEASE? are all at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n2.txt

 

WHAT TO DO?

 

A healthy immune system is built every day by your lifestyle choices,

especially your nutrition choices.

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 1:

 

Take lots of vitamin C and defend yourself against viruses:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

And while you are at it, why not blast a few bacteria:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitaminc2.html

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n16.txt

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 2:

 

Conquer chronic tiredness:

 

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

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 3:

 

Strengthen your resolve with scientific studies on the antitoxic, antibiotic

and antiviral properties of megadoses of vitamin C:

 

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

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 4:

 

Take a good multivitamin every day. (I take one each meal.)

 

Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D., D.M.D., writes:

 

" In 1992, an eminent immunologist from Newfoundland, Canada and Johns

Hopkins assessed the effect of physiologic amounts of vitamins and trace

elements on immunocompetence and occurrence of infection-related illness.

(1) He assigned 96 independently living ambulatory, healthy elderly

individuals to receive either routine daily maintenance vitamin

supplementation or a placebo. Subjects in the supplemented group had higher

numbers of certain T-cell sub-sets and natural killer cells, enhanced

proliferation response to mitogen, increased interleukin-2 production, and

higher antibody response and natural killer cell activity. These subjects

were less likely than those in the placebo group to have illness due to

infections (23 versus 48 days per year).

 

 

" In a subsequent double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 35 additional

healthy, noninstitutionalized elderly subjects were once again supplied with

multivitamin versus placebo supplementation. (2) Pike and Chandra note that

giving micro-nutrients can play a crucial role in the maintenance of normal

immune function in the elderly. This piece of work received very little

attention because of its lack of drama. After all, these were just ordinary

healthy elderly people given a simple multivitamin trace mineral tablet!

 

 

" It is interesting, in light of these Newfoundland studies, that a recent

USDA survey of food intake, reported only 1% of Americans meet the minimum

standards for dietary adequacy. "

 

(from " The Health of the Naturopath: Vitamin Supplementation and Psychologic

State, " by E. Cheraskin, M.D., D.M.D. Reprinted with permission.)

 

(1) Chandra RK: Effect of vitamin and trace-element supplementation on

immune responses and infection in elderly subjects. The Lancet 1992;

340/8828:1124-1127.

 

(2) Pike J, Chandra, RK: Effect of vitamin and trace element supplementation

on immune indices in healthy elderly international J Vitamin Nutr Res,

1995;65/2 117-120.

 

MORE IMMUNE-BOOSTING HINTS:

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 5:

 

Take supplemental vitamin E.

 

" The effect of daily vitamin E supplementation (800 IU alpha tocopherol for

30 days) on immune responses of 32 healthy subjects (60+ years old) was

examined in a placebo-controlled, double-blind trial in a metabolic research

unit. The data suggest that vitamin E supplementation improves immune

responsiveness in healthy elderly. " (Meydani, S.N., Barklund, M.P., Liu, S.,

Meydani, M., Miller, R.A., Cannon, J.G., Morrow, F.D., Rocklin, R.,

Blumberg, J.B. Effect of Vitamin E Supplementation on Immune Responsiveness

of Healthy Elderly Subjects. FASEB Journal 3: A1057, 1989.)

 

" In a metabolic unit, using a double blind protocol, immune response was

studied in a group receiving vitamin E (800 mg per day) versus placebo. The

increased immunocompetence was matched by blood vitamin E levels which

jumped from 1.1 to 3.1 mg%. No such change in blood vitamin E occurred in

the control group (1.1 to 1.0 mg%). " (Meydani, S.N., Barkiund, M.P., Liu,

S., Meydani, M., Miller, R.A., Cannon, J.G., Morrow, F.D., Rocklin, R.,

Blumberg, J.B. Vitamin E Supplementation Enhances Cell-Mediated Immunity in

Healthy Elderly Subjects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 52:#3,

557-563, September 1990.)

 

from Antioxidants in Health and Disease: The Big Picture, by E. Cheraskin,

MD, DMD (Reprinted with permission of the author and the Journal of

Orthomolecular Medicine 10: #2, 89-96, Second Quarter, 1995.) Full text of

the article is posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/antioxidants.html .

 

IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 6: Drink lots of vegetable juices, and here are (still

more!) reasons why:

 

Carotene in high doses has been specifically shown to strengthen the immune

system by helping the body to build more helper T cells. The amount used in

this well-controlled study was 180 milligrams of beta-carotene per day. This

is, theoretically at least, the equivalent of 300,000 International Units

(I.U.) of vitamin A per day! (6 mg of beta carotene can be converted into

10,000 I.U. of vitamin A in the body.) That amount consumed as the oil, or

retinol form of vitamin A, would likely be toxic. But as carotene it is not.

There is indeed a big difference between forms.

 

Also noteworthy is that the study produced positive results in a mere TWO

WEEKS.

 

" Immune system response to short-term, high-dose beta carotene

supplementation was examined. Supplements of 180 mg of beta carotene per day

for two weeks increased the number of T4 lymphocytes (helper cells) and did

not effect the T8 lymphocytes (suppressor cells). " (Alexander, M., Newmark,

H., Miller, R.G. Oral Beta Carotene Can Increase the Number of OKT4+ Cells

in Human Blood. Immunology Letters 9:221-224, 1985.)

 

Incidentally, even people with the weakest of immune systems (AIDS patients)

have benefitted from huge carotene dosages (Graham, N. American Journal of

Epidemiology, December, 1993).

 

FACTOID FOUND OUT:

 

The factoid:

 

" Excess carotene consumption is dangerous! "

 

The FACTS:

 

Excess carotene causes the skin to turn slightly orange, once succinctly

described as resembling an artificial suntan. The medical name for this

condition is hypercarotenosis or just carotenosis. Hypercarotenemia refers

to elevated blood levels of carotene, and is also called just carotenemia.

Both are harmless. According to the doctor's standard reference Merck

Manual, 14th edition, " excess intake of carotene does not cause

hypervitaminosis A " (p. 891). Hypervitaminosis A is vitamin A toxicity from

the preformed, oil type of vitamin A. It is not due to carotene.

 

In short, it is singularly difficult to kill yourself with carrots.

 

" Orange " you glad to know that?

 

FACTOID FOUND OUT:

 

The persistent factoid:

 

" Scientific studies have shown carotene to be harmful to smokers! "

 

The FACTS:

 

Smoking is what is harmful to smokers. Studies using SYNTHETIC beta carotene

have been the negative ones, such as:

 

Omenn GS, Goodman GE, Thornquist MD, et al. Effects of a combination of

beta-carotene and vitamin A on lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. N

Engl J Med 1996;334:1150-5.

 

Omenn GS, Goodman GE, Thornquist MD, et al. Risk factors for lung cancer and

for intervention effects in CARET, the Beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy

Trial. J Natl Cancer Inst 1996;88:1550-9.

 

The Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group. The

effect of vitamin E and beta carotene on the incidence of lung cancer and

other cancers in male smokers. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1029-35.

 

Synthetic carotene is generally ineffective, and sometimes appears to be

harmful to multi-decade smokers. However, numerous studies have shown that

large quantities of NATURAL carotenes, like those in vegetables and

vegetable juices, are protective.

 

By the way, if you are still giving credence to those scare-stories about

carotene, please remember that a single 8 inch raw carrot contains over

20,000 IU of the vitamin A activity, which is 400% of the RDA. Be sure to

never let your kids eat carrots unsupervised! (NOT!)

 

Or better yet, be sure your kids do not have to breathe second-hand smoke,

anywhere, ever.

 

So IMMUNE BOOSTER NUMBER 7 of course would be:

 

Stop smoking. More on this follows further below.

 

FACTOID DEBUNKING FACTS from Dr. Abram Hoffer will be found at

 

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

 

 

For a really good discussion of vitamin A:

 

http://www.roche-vitamins.com/home/what/what-anh/what-anh-vitamins/what-anh-

vitamin-a.htm

 

EMPHYSEMA

 

My aunt needed oxygen to put on her socks. A severe case of emphysema, which

a lifetime of smoking had failed to cure, was the reason. She was just one

of an estimated 16 million Americans suffering from Chronic Obstructive

Pulmonary Diseases (COPD), all primarily caused by tobacco use.

 

The fourth leading cause of death, COPD kills over 100,000 annually. That

number is increasing; medical research has contributed virtually nothing to

stop it.

 

( http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/meetings/workshops/copd_wksp.htm ).

 

But you can stop it by stopping smoking, and by stopping other people from

smoking, and by stopping non-smokers from " involuntary smoking, " also known

as breathing second-hand smoke.

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/tobacco.html (If you would like to help

prevent another generation of tobacco addiction and disease, go to the

all-volunteer

 

www.SmokefreeAir.org and send a smokefree EZ-letter to a key decision

maker.)

 

OK, the lecture is over, and now for the part that you tuned in for: what

can be done for the disease itself?

 

I think the following are worth trying:

 

1) Vitamin E helps the body, especially the heart, to do more work on less

oxygen. This has been known for some 50 years

http://www.doctoryourself.com/shute_protocol.html My suggestions for use and

for adjusting dosage are posted at

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

 

2) Carotene (in orange and green vegetables) and lycopene (in tomatoes) are

powerful antioxidants. At least some of the damage of empysema is caused by

oxidants such as free radicals. While vitamin E is your body's number one

antioxidant, vegetable juices will provide a great variety of others.

 

3) Pricey though it is, I would recommend coenzyme Q-10 for COPD sufferers,

at least 300 milligrams daily, divided into six 50 mg doses. This is a

hospital-friendly supplement, as there are no known negative side effects

and therefore no basis to deny it to any patient. My crash course on " The

Art of Inpatient Negotiation " is posted at

 

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

 

4) Some emphysema is due to inflammation. Vitamin C at saturation doses

fights chronic inflammation better than and more safely than anything else I

know. Yet just ask anyone YOU know with emphysema this simple question: Have

you tried it yet? Saturation of vitamin C is easily reached through frequent

oral doses, and is fully described in these articles:

http://doctoryourself.com/titration.html

http://doctoryourself.com/vitaminc.html

http://doctoryourself.com/vitaminc2.html

http://doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html

http://doctoryourself.com/klenner_table.html

 

Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., author of or mentioned in the above papers, was

a board-certified chest specialist. His policy was literally, When in doubt,

take a huge amount of vitamin C. He wrote, " Some physicians would stand by

and see their patients die rather than use ascorbic acid. " Vitamin C should

be given to the patient while the doctors ponder the diagnosis. " Very ill

patients may need a vitamin C intravenously. How to get your doctor to order

this:

 

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

 

5) Chiropractic adjustment, while certainly not a cure for emphysema, may

help reduce some shortness of breath symptoms. A " MA " roller can also be

useful for some do-it-yourself adjustments (and an internet search will find

them for you).

 

For more about your Unsung Lungs:

 

ASTHMA

 

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

 

COUGHING

 

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

 

LUNG CANCER

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/riordan1.html

 

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

 

TUBERCULOSIS

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n18.txt

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n1.txt

 

Especially:

 

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

 

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

 

Both of these articles discuss the nutritional therapy of Max Gerson, M.D.,

which was demonstrated effective on TB even before it was with cancer.

 

THE TRICK TO METRICS

 

A gram is 1,000 milligrams. A liter is . . WAIT! There is much more fun to

be had with these:

 

A Youngman is the amount of mirth contained in the average one-liner.

 

A milliHelen is the amount of beauty necessary to launch a single ship.

 

And you can blame the following on

 

http://nickell.tierranet.com/humor/metric.htm :

 

1 million microphones = 1 megaphone

 

10 cards = 1 decacards

 

453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake

 

10 rations = 1 decoration

 

2 monograms = 1 diagram

 

8 nickels = 2 paradigms

 

2 wharves = 1 paradox

 

More seriously, now:

 

http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/

 

A FINAL THOUGHT:

 

" I think the best advice I can give is, Never waste your time worrying. 95%

of what we worry about never happens anyway, and the 5% that does we can't

do anything about. " (100-year-old retired teacher, Medina, NY)

 

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Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.

 

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