Newsletter v1n13

"It's loaded with vitamins A, B, C, D, E, F -- GEE I love food!" (Curly Howard of The Three Stooges.)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF (SM) NEWSLETTER Vol 1, No 13
April 29, 2001 "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 more
than 200 natural healing articles with over 3,000 scientific references.

I CATCH FLAK from supplement partisans now and then when I urge you (as I did last issue) to
get most of your nutrients from Mother Nature and not from the latest "magic bullet" tablet. But I
get a lot MORE letters of support from people who appreciate that I will not take sides, nor will I
sell out to commercial interests. Remember: foods are NOT enough to supply all your needs for
vitamins, especially vitamins C, E and the B-complex, and the minerals magnesium, zinc,
and chromium. But good whole foods, veggie-juice supported, raw-food rich, near-vegetarian
eatin' remains the best way to get the most nutrition for the least cash. There I stand; and to my
critics, I say: if you don't like my peaches, don't shake my tree, and go unsubscribe at
http://www.doctoryourself.com/newsmail.html

For the rest of us, we are too busy staying well and sharing how to do it, cheaply, with those who
are sick of sickness.

WEIGHT LOSS: REDUCING A BIG, MISUNDERSTOOD TOPIC

We tend to overeat and still be undernourished. One possible explanation is that we overeat
because we *are* undernourished. Overeating is a perhaps a natural craving which attempts to
increase our vitamin intake. The problem is, the more we eat, the more vitamins we need to
metabolize the food, specifically more of the B-vitamins and more lipid-protective vitamin E. And
the more we eat to try to get these nutrients, the more calories we take in, and the more we
weigh.

The way out is to just get off that train. Dieters, take your vitamins. You need plenty of them every
day. You also need plenty of water every day. Unless you have a limiting medical condition, you
do NOT need food every day. If you are overfat, you do not even need food every WEEK. Fat
is stored food. So use it! Make your body go to your fat reserves and burn 'em... by simply not
eating. Drink lots of vegetable juice for fluids and electrolytes (minerals) and for some
carbohydrate. The carbohydrates prevent ketosis and spare protein. So you will not poop out, and
you will not lose muscle doing this. You will gain energy, and you will lose fat.

I often get the most work done when I fast. This is illogical, yet true. While fasting, I still take lots
of vitamin C, with calcium as a buffer, and I drink lots of water alternating with veggie juice or
watered-down fruit juice, as well as a multiple vitamin several times daily.

More on this is posted at
http://doctoryourself.com/juicefast

DID YOU KNOW that Atilla the Hun died of spontaneous pinpoint hemorrhaging? Did you know
that is doc-talk for a bloody nose? Yes, the great warrior, that Scourge from the East, was laid
low by vitamin deficiency... vitamin C deficiency, to be precise. (Time Lab 2000, The History
Channel)

DID YOU KNOW that you can soak cooked eggshells in "Real-Lemon" juice and make your own
calcium citrate solution? I have little idea as to just how much calcium a given ounce of such a
solution would contain, but what else are you going to do with those eggshells, anyway? So this
summer, make calcium-fortified lemonade. And while you are at it, toss a little vitamin C powder
in. No need to tell the kiddies that it's good for them.

DID YOU KNOW there are over one million REPORTED accidental hypodermic needle pricks per
year in the US? And the Centers for Disease Control has said that there are several million more
that go unreported. (USA Weekend, April 8-10, 1994)

TODAY'S *THREE, count 'em, THREE* REASONS TO BECOME (MORE OF) A
VEGETARIAN:

One: MAD COW DISEASE
I think I know why all those cows are so mad: we kill 100,000 of them for food every single day,
just in the USA. Worldwide, it is a bovine holocaust. India excluded.

And it is far worse for turkeys and especially chickens: we kill MILLIONS of them daily. Chicken is
America's favorite dead-animal flesh food (only slightly decayed by the time you buy it) easily
eclipsing beef and that "other white meat," dead pig. Before your next mouthful of bird muscle,
please consider the following:

Two: CHICKEN SHADES
Hens by the thousands raised in such claustrophobic, crowded cages that the birds will literally
peck each other to death. To reduce prison-yard aggression in chickens, red tinted contact
lenses are now marketed for poultry workers to slip into the birdy's eyes. It takes a trained
operator just a few seconds per bird, the manufacturer claims. I do believe I have my nomination
for the World's Worst Job.

Three: CHICKEN KEESTERS
There is so much colon bacterial contamination in chicken meat that there is now a product to
close off the bowels of dead chickens. It is called "Rec-Tite," and it is essentially super glue for
chicken anuses. And I am NOT making this up.

Bon appetite!

Reader's Question: "Could you please discuss the natural versus synthetic vitamin
controversy?"

Sure. Naturally, I prefer "natural" vitamins with the following considerations weighed in:

1) Can you can afford them? If not, I'd rather you take vitamins from Wal-Mart than not take
vitamins at all.

2) The differences between vitamin brands are usually not great. There are a few exceptions
One example would be Standard Process vitamin C, which is concentrated entirely from beet
tops; the tablet has 5 milligrams of (really, really natural) vitamin C in it. If you have in your hand
a 500 mg vitamin C tablet, and it is smaller than a hockey puck, you can be sure it is made with
laboratory vitamin C and that is OK. It works. Is the beet-top C better? I'm sure it is but it is
simply too cumbersome and too expensive to give to a pneumonia patient that may require
100,000 mg a day for prompt recovery.

3) Natural products tend to have stood a longer test of time and are generally recognized as safe.
Synthetics may be only an approximation of the natural substance. But the best way to get lots of
entirely natural vitamins cheaply is to eat only really good foods, leaning towards fresh and raw
every chance you get. THEN, you also supplement for the extra quantity of vitamins that you do
indeed need more of (vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, chromium and the B-complex,
mentioned above). I drink orange juice and eat fruit right along with my 10,000 -15,000 mg of
ascorbic acid each day. I eat nuts, whole grains and fresh butter right along with my 600 to 800
IU of vitamin E every day. Easy!

BOOK REVIEW:
I more or less backed into the alternative health field. When I was an undergraduate, biology
professor John I. Mosher asked me if I wanted to go to medical school, or if I really wanted to
help people. This somewhat unexpected question started me reading. I have not been the same
since I read The Pattern of Health, by British physician Aubrey Westlake, M.D., discussed at
http://doctoryourself.com/motherearth.html

The Pattern of Health (a boring title if there ever was one) is a rather unspectacular-looking (and
now out of print) paperback, but it's probably one of the most important volumes I've ever read.
Westlake was a conventionally educated English medical doctor. He felt that, after many years as
a practicing physician, he'd spent too much of his time just bailing out leaking boats. He was
frustrated by his medical inability to get to the fundamental cause of disease, to promote self-
help, and to effect practical, deep-down cures. The Pattern of Health is the story of his personal
discovery of alternative healing techniques. That book inspired me to read more on the subject,
and one thing led to another. I soon started using basic naturopathic methods myself - such as
fasting, switching to a vegetarian diet, and taking vitamin supplements - and I actually started
feeling better. This book changed my life, defined my career, and kept my family well.

How's that for a positive review? Try a used book search, or an interlibrary loan, to read The
Pattern of Health. (Berkeley California: Shambala / Random House Books, 1973)

DoctorYourself Recommended WEBSITE(S) OF THE MONTH:

My Dad always said: Ask the organ grinder, not the monkey. Go right to the top for your
information. Well, here is the best there is: the twin all-text websites of Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD.
For information about megavitamin (orthomolecular) treatment for psychosis, depression, OCD,
schizophrenia and more, please visit
www.islandnet.com/~hoffer/hofferhp.htm

For information about the orthomolecular treatment of cancer, please see
www.islandnet.com/~hoffer/homepage.htm

Dr Hoffer is the world's most experienced nutritional physician, an excellent writer, and a must-
read.

CANADIAN GOVERNMENT REPORT QUESTIONS VALUE OF WATER FLUORIDATION
(From the New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation, April 23, 2001)

Fluoridation probably does more damage than good, says a Canadian government report. The
best solution is to cease fluoridation, the author suggests.

Dr. David Locker, a University of Toronto dentistry professor, reports "No Canadian studies
provide evidence that water fluoridation is effective in reducing (tooth) decay in contemporary
child populations." Locker is author of the 2001 "Benefits and Risks of Water Fluoridation,"
prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Health Canada.

"Current studies support the view that dental fluorosis has increased in both fluoridated and non-
fluoridated communities (at)... rates of 20-75% in the former and 12-45% in the latter," Locker
reports. Dental fluorosis -- white spotted, yellow or brown permanently stained and sometimes
pitted teeth -- can only be hidden with expensive cosmetic dentistry not usually covered by
insurance.

Current fluoridation studies are flawed, reports Locker. Fluoride's alleged beneficial effects are
topical; ingested fluoride causes fluorosis. Sodium fluoride and silicofluorides are added to 62%
of U.S. and 40% of Canadian water supplies to mimic the natural calcium-fluoride community
water sources like that of the Southwest U.S.A. where researchers, in the early 1900's, unraveled
the epidemic of embarrassingly brown stained teeth, that were curiously decay resistant. Fluoride,
the villain that stained teeth, was the assumed cavity fighting superhero.

So, in the late 1940's, officials started adding artificial fluoride to many U.S. drinking waters to
improve America's dental health. A 1981 survey hinted they were already on the wrong track.
This National Institutes of Health Survey reported that cavities were still lowest in the Southwest
region. Over thirty years of artificial fluoridation across the U.S. should have leveled off decay
rates. But it didn't then and it hasn't since.

"We believe the calcium and other, now well-known bone and teeth building minerals in the water
and soils, was responsible for lower decay rates -- not the fluoride," says lawyer Paul Beeber,
President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation.

For more information, please contact: Paul Connett, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry, St. Lawrence
University, Canton, N.Y.;

ggvideo@northnet.org; or Paul Beeber, President of N.Y.S. Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation,
nyscof@aol.com

HAIR LOSS: Another Reader's Question
Mr. G. writes:
"I've heard about a product that stops hair loss. It is really expensive. Is there a non-prescription
or organic means of accomplishing the same thing? The company claims its product to be "all
natural," so I am automatically cautious."

I join you in your skepticism. If hair loss is other than simple, genetically-based male pattern
baldness, sometimes zinc and the B-vitamins, and lots of fresh, raw foods and juices can help.
"Help" does not mean "replace," but rather "slow the rate of hair loss." I personally noticed a
receding of my own hairline about ten years ago, and have arrested it with the above. You can
quickly find my viewpoint on dosages of these supplements
with a site search at
http://doctoryourself.com/search.html

MORE MEN'S HEALTH CONCERNS COMING NEXT ISSUE

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