Newsletter v2n21

"Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contraryauthorities to be found." (Bertrand Russell)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 2, No 21) September 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.

7,000 hits a day at http://www.doctoryourself.com really racks up the email,let me tell you. Many readers have asked for information about an illnessnot discussed on my website or in back issues of t he Doctor YourselfNewsletter ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/backissues.html ). Over past years, I havecompiled quite a "request list" from readers worldwide. So, in this issue I will yield to your wonderful persistence and try to tackle just what alternatives may be worth trying for a number of ailments. As your list is fairly long, my suggestions will necessarily be brief. Dosage suggestions are not included here but may be derived from reading my website and the books I list or have reviewed there.

Common-sense caution: I am not a physician, and these are opinions and options to consider. There is rarely a short answer to any illness, and no one should think that what follows is anything close to being the whole story.

ADRENAL EXHAUSTION: Saturation of vitamin C is a specific for this condition. Along with the eyes and spinal fluid, the adrenal glands are, or should be, the major storehouse of vitamin C in your body. Without lots of ascorbic acid, your get up and go will have gotten up and went. Megadose vitamin C may be worth an adjunctive therapeutic trial for those with Addison's Disease.

AGE SPOTS: Also known as "liver spots." I'm not sure about curing them, but to prevent them I suspect that high-doses of the vitamin B-complex coupled with a raw food, raw vegetable juice, vegetarian diet would be the best approach.

ALOPECIA: Genetic factors aside, zinc deficiency is known to cause alopecia (hair loss) in animals. I think vitamin E and the essential fatty acids linoleic and linolenic acid are also important. I stopped my own hair from thinning by taking lecithin, high doses of the B-complex, and zinc. It has been 12 years now, and I have not lost any more. Will nutrition regrow hair? I doubt it, but it cannot hurt to give it a whirl.

ANOREXIA NERVOSA: Zinc deficiency is known to depress appetite. Intravenous multivitamins in quantity will do much to keep a hospitalized anorexic alive. I think niacin in quantity is worth trying to help the psychological aspects of this illness.

BEDWETTING: I have seen the homeopathic remedy Kali Phos 6X help here. I also think there is a role for behavior modification. When I was a college student, I worked as a summer-camp counselor at a facility for underprivileged kids, without a homeopathic remedy within miles. We always had quite a handful of bedwetters at the start of camp, but with consistent, positive reinforcement, we had far fewer when the kids headed back home.

BINGE EATING AND BULEMIA: Megavitamin C reduces food cravings. Juice fasting favorably alters appetite patterns. Afterwards, vegetarian diet helps keeps it all in balance. If you doubt this, it is because you have not tried it.

BURNS: First aid for burns is immediate cold. Topical vitamin E ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitamin_e.html ) is next.

First Degree Burns (redness, no blisters): At bedtime and again in the morning, rub in liberal amounts of vitamin E, mixed with a teaspoonful of olive oil to help spread it out.

Second Degree (blisters): For this, forget the olive oil and apply concentrated vitamin E directly, gently and frequently.

Third Degree Burns (damaged skin; skin missing): Drip vitamin E on the wound straight from the capsules and you do not have to touch the burned area at all. Risk of infection and need for skin grafting will be dramatically reduced. Be smart: get medical attention for ANY serious burn.

CANCER, SPECIFIC TYPES: To most nature healing advocates, cancer is essentially the same disease no matter where in the body it regrettably is found. There are quite a few articles at my website on this important topic. A http://www.doctoryourself.com site search for "cancer" will bring up 140 matches. You will read them all if you mean business.

DIARRHEA: Eat fiber. Applesauce, cheese, and calcium are other traditional cures.

ESOPHAGITIS: Cabbage juice ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/colitis.html ) and non-acidic ("buffered") vitamin C.

IMPETIGO: Medical treatment is usually systemic antibiotic drugs. I think systemic antibiotic vitamin C to saturation levels is an equally good approach. Topical non-acidic vitamin C might also be tried for localized relief.

MEMORY LOSS: Lecithin. Write that down before you forget it. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/lecithin.html )

MIGRAINE HEADACHE: First off, look up the side effects of any medication you take in the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR), available to read at any library, pharmacy or doctor's office. Eat lots of fiber to help reduce hormonal buildup. See a chiropractor and have your upper vertebrae checked. Eliminate junk food and stop eating dairy products. Try the Gerson diet: vegetable juices and a salt-free, mostly vegetarian diet. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancer_flowers.html )

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD): Frequent oral doses of niacin in large quantity ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/niacin.html ); ditto with vitamin C and the B-complex vitamins. Also important: dairy-free, sugar-free, vegetarian diet. I recommend an http://www.doctoryourself.com site search for "Hoffer" if you really want to learn what to do.

NAUSEA: I'd suggest getting your neck checked by a chiropractor. Homeopathic remedies often help. Morning Sickness: Natrum Phos 6X Motion Sickness: Kali Phos 6X. Nausea from indigestion: Juice fast. Nausea from nervous tension: Regular practice of stress reduction. This really helped me, let me tell you.

NIGHTMARES: I think bad diet equals bad dreams. Your brain gets the same nutrients, or garbage, as your stomach does. Do not eat even good food within three hours of bedtime. Regular exercise is important, too. More at ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/sleep.html )

POST-PARTUM DEPRESSION: Niacin, cashew nuts ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/prozac.html ), and a really good babysitter.

ROSEACEA: Doctors usually give antibiotics for this condition. Saturation levels of vitamin C have a powerful antibiotic effect.

SCIATICA: Saturation of vitamin C, stretching exercises, chiropractic care and weight loss.

SHINGLES: Saturation levels of vitamin C. This sounds too simple to work, doesn't it. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html )

STUFFY NOSE AND/OR SINUS PRESSURE: Drink lots of water and vegetable juices. Facial massage. Horseradish, vinegar and cayenne pepper sauce. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/sinuses.html )

VITILIGO: High-doses of B-complex vitamins; lecithin; PABA and magnesium. Have your thyroid checked. (Balch and Balch, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 1990, p 310.)

YEAST INFECTION / CANDIDA: Saturation levels of vitamin C. Some women have successfully used vitamin C tablets as topical inserts. I personally do not think that avoiding all dietary yeasts is absolutely necessarily to banish pathological yeasts.

SOME IMPORTANT TREATMENT PRINCIPLES: 1) If you are not already familiar with "saturation" (bowel tolerance) of vitamin C, this is a good time to learn. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html ) Remember what Dr. F. R. Klenner said: "Administer vitamin C while pondering the diagnosis." ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/vitaminc.html )

2) If you smoke, drink alcohol ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/alcoholism.html and http://www.doctoryourself.com/alcohol_protocol.html ), are overweight ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/weight_loss.html ) , or eat meat or junk food. . . STOP TODAY. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/badhabits.html )

3) Near-vegetarian diet and juice fasting are long time tried and true therapies that build all parts of the body. If you have not tried them, you are volunteering to be sick. ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/juicefast.html and http://www.doctoryourself.com/juicing_2.html )

Of all the recommendations I've ever made to clients in the past 25 years, it is these three axioms that have helped the most people.

Can this article, or me, be your one-stop source for all healing knowledge? No way. But should I be asked to testify before the Supreme Court, this is what I would say if under oath.

BOOK REVIEW Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless, by Howard Straus (Kingston, Ontario: Quarry Press, 2002) ISBN 1-55082-290-X. Softcover, 397 pages plus bibliography.)

Really good conspiracies take decades to surface. In the case of natural-healing physician Max Gerson, M.D., attempts to discredit his vegetable juice, raw food and coffee enema cancer therapy were so effective that the whole story has never been told.

Until now.

Dr. Gerson's grandson, Howard Straus, has just published the definitive Gerson biography. It is fascinating reading, at times bordering on the unbelievable. And what a story: a respected physician discovers a natural cure for cancer, and the medical-pharmaceutical lobby actively and relentlessly conspires keeps it from the public.

All of it is provably true. Mr. Straus has gone far beyond requirements to research his subject and support his statements. And he has had a family "in" that no other Gerson biographer has: his mother, Charlotte Gerson Straus, the doctor's daughter. Together, and with expert assistance from Barbara Marinacci, they have assembled documentation I believe to be sufficient to topple the tower of organized, politicized medicine.

For over sixty years, cancer treatment and research has been almost entirely restricted to cut, zap and drug: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Billions and billions of dollars have been expended investigating every cure BUT a nutritional one.

Where is the real incentive to cure the disease, anyway? Business is good. It is now pretty much an open secret that more people live off cancer than die from it. The big money is to be made in disease, not in health. Dr. Gerson guaranteed his own ostracism when he dedicated his life to find out why patients lived, and what could be done to be sure they did. Then he went and did it.

In 6th grade, Mrs. Palmer taught my class that debates are won when you present your case as more compellingly and more factually than the opposition. This may be true in most endeavors, with the exception of medicine. Linus Pauling and Abram Hoffer ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_vitc_can.html ), who each write favorably of Gerson's work, pioneered and popularized widespread megadosing with vitamin C and niacin, respectively. They did this so successfully that the only angle left to their many critics was the ad hominem: attack the men, not the idea.

"Coffee Enema" Gerson was attacked in much the same way. It has been ridicule, not science, that has kept the Gerson therapy away from your local oncologist's office. Try a simple test: ask ten doctors what they think of using the Gerson therapy against cancer. Then ask the same doctors what they KNOW of the Gerson therapy. I'll lay good odds that about all they know is that the guy used coffee enemas. "Would you like cream and sugar with that?" a physician once said to me. And you'll likely hear worse.

Body temperature, fresh coffee enemas offer at least two vital benefits for a seriously ill patient: pain relief, and detoxification. One does have to accept the second to appreciate the first. Gerson's extensive medical experience taught him that both are accomplished. Patients and physicians who follow Gerson's protocol have seen that he's right. That is the only standard that is absolutely necessary.

Too bad that some critic's egos let them forget the true healer's prime directive: "For the good of the patient, to the best of my ability." If there is a down side to vegetable juices, I am yet to hear it. The worst reproach I've encountered is that, while harmless, vegetable juices have no special properties against cancer. How can that be, when doctors now know (and our grandmas have known for generations) that vegetables DO in fact help prevent and arrest cancer. All vegetables are high fiber and low fat. Tomatoes are loaded with lycopene. Orange and green vegetables tremendous sources of carotene. Broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts and cabbage (the cruciform vegetables) are all heavyweights in the fight against cancer. (LINK)

How, pray tell, could their juices NOT have anti-cancer properties? Juice consists of the entire cytoplasmic contents of a vegetable's cells, but without an unpalatable excess of indigestible fibrous cell wall. It's the corn without the can; the nut without the shell; the cash without the bank.

The two chief purposes of juicing is to increase the quantity of vegetables consumed, and to increase a patient's absorption of what is consumed. More vegetables is good. Better utilization is good. Ergo, juicing is good, and Gerson was right.

I find that, like a method actor, I need to get into character before discussing a book. To this end, I had two quarts of carrot juice for lunch and now I can feel the part in a big way. I am juiced up and in the groove. And for all my 20 years of juicing, for all the many miles on my juicers, I owe a personal debt of thanks to Dr. Gerson. He was pretty much the first physician ever to plainly set all this down into a clear-cut, specific therapeutic regimen. This is provided in great detail in two other books: The Gerson Therapy (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy.html ) by Charlotte Gerson and Morton Walker (2001). NY: Kensington Publishing Corp. ISBN 1-57566-628-6 and A Cancer Therapy: Results of Fifty Cases (briefly reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/bestbooks.html ) by Max Gerson (1977) Del Mar, CA: Totality Books.

In the next edition of Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless, I would to see paragraph by paragraph footnote references. Many a good-reading history book provides this for obsessive scholars who just have to challenge every statement. They are out there, and I think the tightest possible citation system is best suited for such a controversial work as this. I also think serious students of the Gerson therapy would appreciate a topic index. I liked the inclusion of photographs and an exhaustive international bibliography. I think translating the mostly German-language reference titles into English would be a worthwhile project.

Dr. Max Gerson: Healing the Hopeless is a tribute, an education, and a warning: there is a price to pay for true lifesaving innovation in medicine. The best possible review of Dr. Gerson's life story could not surpass what the great Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer, M.D., wrote:

"I see in Dr. Max Gerson one of the most eminent geniuses in the history of medicine. He has achieved more than seemed possible under adverse conditions. Many of his basic ideas have been adopted without having his name connected with them. He leaves a legacy which commands attention and which will assure him his due place. Those whom he has cured will attest to the truth of his ideas."

"Medical heretic" Dr. Robert Mendelsohn said that one grandmother is worth two MD's. Good fortune has favored Howard Straus. His grandfather was worth hundreds.

(Reprinted with permission of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Second Quarter 2002, Volume 17, Number 2, pages 122-124.)

WHY FDA MEANS "FOOLISH DRUG ADVOCATES" FDA and the international pharmaceutical cartel are attempting to restrict vitamin potency with a "dosage must be restricted to insure safety" argument. Consider this: tincture of iodine, a deadly poison, is sold over the counter without even being in a child-resistant bottle. There is a screw loose here somewhere, and it may be more than just the iodine bottle cap.

Think this one over while pondering how you will feel when CODEX soon takes away your right to buy high-dose food supplements:

SO WHO WANTS TO "WATER DOWN" YOUR VITAMINS? by Bill Sardi

Guess who is soon going to dictate the dosage of vitamins and minerals you can purchase? How about foreign dictocrats at the United Nations and the World Health Organization? Yes, and it's all being done under the name of free trade "harmonization," in a so-called attempt to preserve U.S. vitamin manufacturers sales to foreign countries.

According to guidelines just released by the U.S. CODEX delegation, as part of treaties under the General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which would be binding upon all members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), foreign "experts" would dictate to American companies the maximum amount of vitamins and minerals that can be placed in food supplements. Foreign manufacturers could challenge the WTO that more potent U.S.-made brands represent unfair competition. Since many foreign countries already restrict the dosage of vitamins and minerals in food supplements, the new guidelines are likely to be used to water down the dosage of U.S-made brands so that foreign companies can compete with U.S. manufacturers.

Currently, many foreign travelers seek U.S.-made food supplements and bring them back to their native lands because of their high quality and maximum dosage. This would all change. U.S. food supplement manufacturers would likely lose their prime position in the world marketplace. Oddly, CODEX claims its guidelines have been drafted to protect U.S. manufacturers and consumers.

CODEX Guidelines Legally Binding Some three years ago The Center for Science In The Public Interest (CSPI) ["International Harmonization of Food Safety and Labeling Standards," June 1997] cited numerous international trade agreements and codes which could be used to enforce standards upon U.S. manufacturers of food products and now on food supplements. The WTO's Dispute Settlement Body could impose trade sanctions on industries unrelated to food supplements which could cause Congress to buckle and give in to restrictions on food supplements.

Upper Limits Being Established CODEX guidelines attempt to establish upper limits on the dosage of food supplements. While the upper limit on vitamins appears to be established to protect consumers from potential side effects from over-dosage, the very establishment of maximum dosage would likely be misunderstood by the public. Printing upper limits on food supplement labels would likely scare many consumers away from these products.

CODEX guidelines make the false assumption that there are thousands of cases of serious side effects emanating from over-dosage of food supplements and that the public needs immediate protection. Vitamin and mineral supplements are far safer than aspirin and ibuprofen (which cause thousands of cases of stomach ulcers and death from hemorrhage annually), acetaminophen (causes 70,000+ cases of liver toxicity annually and a few hundred deaths yearly), chlorinated tap water (causes 20,000+ new cases of bladder and kidney cancer annually), table salt (contributes to millions of cases of hypertension that can lead to strokes), and aspartame artificial sweetener (produces thousands of reports of adverse effects annually), all which are over-the-counter items like food supplements.

Just Who Are the Experts? Another guideline proposed by the U.S. CODEX delegation is to require labeling that would urge consumers to take supplements only on the advice of a physician, dietician and nutritionist. The CODEX Draft continued to spread the mistaken idea that all the public needs to maintain health is a good diet. While food supplements do not replace meals, still less than 1 in 5 Americans consume the recommended five to seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. An estimated 8 in 10 Americans are short on magnesium, 4 in 10 are deficient in vitamin D and vitamin B12, and all humans suffer from a genetic mutation that blocks the natural conversion of blood sugars into vitamin C that most animals exhibit.

Costs Would Rise If upper limits on food supplements are established then consumers who still want to consume higher doses of certain supplemental vitamins or minerals would be required to take more pills which would of course raise the cost to consumers.

CODEX Disregards Congress Congress has explicitly forbidden the FDA from limiting potency or availability of supplements. Instead, the FDA and the U.S. CODEX delegation disregarded the wishes of Congress and moved ahead with the CODEX guidelines which still contain provisions for upper limits and other restrictions.

Vitamins have been a hot political issue in the past. More letters have been received by Congress on vitamins than any other issue on Capitol Hill. It's time to the public to pull out their pens once again.

(Bill Sardi ( Bsardi@aol.com ) is a health journalist and author. His website is www.askbillsardi.com. Copyright (c) 2002 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas, California. Edited and reprinted with permission of the author.)

(Editor's note: Be sure to ask Bill for a subscription to his free email newsletter. Next issue, I will be discussing how to still get your vitamins after CODEX becomes the law of the land. If you do not like the idea of having to go that way, let your voice be heard immediately (LINK)

DOCTOR YOURSELF WEBSITE OF THE MONTH Important: You can find VACCINATION EXEMPTION LAW, STATE BY STATE, at http://www.access1.net/via/STATES/allstates.htm : "All States have a Medical Exemption. In addition, all States have a Religious Exemption except Mississipi and West Virginia." Interesting, that, since the First Amendment applies (or should apply) in EVERY state, don't you think?.

FULL REFERENCE FOR THE BRONCHITIS ARTICLE previously mentioned in the Doctor Yourself Newsletter (Vol 2, No. 16 http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n16.txt ) LANCET Volume 359, Number 9318, pages 1648-1654, 11 May 2002. Azithromycin for acute bronchitis: a randomised, double-blind, controlled trial. Arthur T Evans, Shahid Husain, Lakshmi Durairaj, Laura S Sadowski, Marjorie Charles-Damte, Yue Wang

Correspondence to: Dr Arthur T Evans, Collaborative Research Unit, Cook County Hospital, Room 1600, Administration Building, 1900 W Polk St, Chicago, IL 60612, USA ( e-mail: aevans@cchil.org ) His team's conclusion: "Azithromycin is no better than low-dose vitamin C for acute bronchitis."

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