Newsletter v3n4

"The best part of a donut is the hole." (Dr. Paul C. Bragg, health crusader and teacher of Jack LaLanne)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 3, No 4) January 5, 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.

MY LIFE AS AN UNREFORMED HIPPIE In 1970, long hair was down to there, beads and bluejeans where what you'd wear, and there were protests everywhere. At the state college I attended, everyone conformed by not conforming. Well, almost everyone. I met one person who was actually an individual. It may have been the fact that his family kept live rattlesnakes as pets which initially seized my attention, but he himself proved to be the most interesting specimen in the house. A free-thinking but very short-haired fellow, who always wore an Oxford shirt and necktie to class, he described himself as a "militant middle of the roader." He was hard to pin down on any issue. He always insisted on reserving the right to decide for himself, even when he stood out uncomfortably in so doing. He simply did not care what others thought about him. He was too interested in the search for truth.

Now, over thirty years later, I think I have a better idea what he was on to.

Some of my regular readers think I am too conservative. (My irregular readers should consider more fiber.) DoctorYourself's "milk mail," for example, invariably tells me that my tolerance, even advocation, of some (repeat SOME) dairy products is dietary blasphemy. This I've addressed in a previous issue ( http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n8.txt ) in which I also take a somewhat nonstandard view on natural vs. synthetic vitamins. On the other hand, there are virtual legions of dyed-in-the-wool internet medical groupies (generally those who would never be caught reading this Newsletter) who would say that on EVERY subject, Dr. Saul is off the wall. And not a few of them write to tell me so.

Well. You can't please everybody, now, can you. To take a leaf out of my college friend's book, you really can't please anybody, so why worry?

Probably because the need is so great. There are a lot of sick people. If I can reach out to thousands with this newsletter, and over 300,000 people a year through my website, I need to read my mail.

And read it I do. I may not have the time to respond to all of it, but I pay close attention to it. You keep me honest when you email me your gripes, your success stories, your suggestions, and your compliments.

Keep 'em coming. And I'll keep the Newsletters coming. A healthy 2003 to you all.

READERS ASK: "I'm a body builder and wonder how much protein supplementation I should do to increase muscle mass."

None. The average meat-eating American consumes over 100 grams of protein daily, and only needs about 45 to maybe, possibly 65g if they are a real weight-training beast. A good near-vegetarian diet can provide this amount. You can get protein from foods other than meat, milk and eggs. If you check the food composition tables in any nutrition textbook (at your library or, I have no doubt, online somewhere) you will see that beans (not just soybeans), whole grain breads, sprouts, nuts, and even vegetables have significant amounts of protein. I raised my kids ovolacto-vegetarian and they are now tall, healthy adults. Elephants never even eat eggs or dairy. They are even bigger.

WEST NILE VIRUS C. L. writes:

"I assume that you are not really able to give a medical opinion without getting into some type of unfortunate trouble so I will try to word my question appropriately. What are some people who you respect saying one should do if they suspect they are infected with West Nile Virus?"

Nicely put. The best source I know is the website of Robert F. Cathcart, M.D.: http://www.orthomed.com (West Nile virus is specifically discussed at http://www.orthomed.com/Nile.htm ). The doctor also has excellent information on a number of understandably scary illnesses, including Legionnaire's, Ebola, Anthrax, Dengue fever, bubonic plague, flesh eating bacteria, and even the dreaded New Jersey Flu. My tongue may be firmly in my cheek on that last one, but I am quite serious about the value of Dr. Cathcart's work with extremely high doses of ascorbate (vitamin C). I taught health science for the State University of New York for about five years. When I lectured on Dr. Cathcart's research, I caught intense criticism from the rest of my department. So I consequently decided to very obviously NOT recommend his website. I used to tell my students to NOT look at it under ANY circumstances, or they too would just get into trouble.

Guess what they did? Oh, you are way ahead of me.

FREE ONLINE VIDEO OF LINUS PAULING An index of video clips and excerpts of interviews with Dr. Pauling is posted at http://www.internetwks.com/pauling/vidclip.html I especially enjoyed http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/video/Clip384.rm and http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/video/Mov378.rm

Thanks to the Vitamin C Foundation http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/ for providing this service.

GERSON THERAPY R. M. writes from New Zealand: "I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know how much I appreciate receiving your newsletter and being able to access the material on your website. It is an achievement in open mindedness to be able to recognize the Gerson Therapy for what it is. Just so long as humans retain the same metabolism as they always have, then the principles of the Gerson approach must remain the cornerstone of all successful approaches that are able to reverse degeneration. One can only ignore the principles at the risk of ultimate failure."

Hear, hear. Thank you. For information on Dr. Gerson: http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonbio.htm The transcript of a speech by Dr. Gerson is posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersonspeech.html The therapy is summarized and a how-to Gerson guidebook reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/gersontherapy.html Some unorthodox opinion on cancer therapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/cancer_flowers.html Scientific references on the Gerson Therapy: http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson_therapy.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/bib_gerson.html

CHARITABLE MEGAVITAMIN PROGRAMS SUCCESSFUL Vitamin C is now part of the daily lives of the Myky tribe in Brazil's Goias rainforests, thanks to the efforts of Sister Suzie Wills, SSJ and a number of other Sisters of St. Joseph. Suzie has been very effective in getting native people eating not only citrus fruits and berries, but also taking C powder and tablets on a regular basis. She reports healthier children and babies, and that infant mortality has dramatically decreased. Sister Suzie is now at Olinda, near Recife, Brazil, but is soon expected to be headed to back to Goiania.

The New Year also finds our vitamin dispensary in full swing at St. Joseph's House in Rochester, NY. Every day, dozens of poor people receive a free, high-potency multivitamin at this large urban "soup kitchen" that has been serving disadvantaged persons for over 60 years.

If you are interested in helping either of these projects, please email me at doctoryourself.com/contact.html

PAPERBACK CLINIC: A SIMPLIFIED MANUAL OF NATURAL THERAPEUTICS

Reviewed by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.

Why review a book first published eight years ago? Well, I have several reasons and the first will reveal my bias. I like what Dr Saul is doing in promoting orthomolecular medicine with his book, his Doctor Yourself Newsletter, and the DoctorYourself.com website. The second is that, contrary to many modern medical writers, I do not believe that what is recent is necessarily better than what has been written some time ago. Thus I believe that books written by Drs Wilfrid and Evan Shute over 40 years ago are more valuable than some modern books dealing with vitamin E.

Paperback Clinic is a manual, not a read-through from start to finish. After reading the Part 1 ("Natural Health Techniques and Tools") in order to find what the author's philosophy is, and how he proposes to treat the subject, most readers will then proceed to those parts that are immediately important to them. This book should, however, be read in its entirety at ones leisure. The material is well put, easy to follow, and if followed, will help most readers recover who may have any of the several dozen health problems examined in this volume.

Concerning the treatment of arthritis, for example, Paperback Clinic's focus is on the importance of nutrition and optimum doses of nutrients such as calcium and vitamin C, and the author includes a discussion of Dr John Ellis' work with vitamin B-6. Dr Saul also refers to the pioneer in employing the B vitamins (especially B-3) in this field, Dr. William Kaufman, my friend who died recently and whose bibliography is among those published by Dr Saul at his website. To normalize cholesterol the natural way, Saul points out the methods, as well as the need, to decrease sugar, meats, fat and excess body weight. He also mentions taking niacin, the world's platinum (my word, since this is one of my discoveries) standard for lowering cholesterol levels, along with vitamins C and E. This is all excellent advice. On kidney stones, Saul points out that vitamins, especially vitamin C, actually decrease the incidence of stones which are in fact caused by other factors such as too little dietary magnesium. Contrary to popular medical belief, vitamin C does not cause kidney stones; at least it never has so far. Maybe in it will in the next 1000 years.

I think everyone will profit from this easy to read, practical, and accurate book. With the advice given in Paperback Clinic, we can enhance our degree of health and decrease the possibility of developing serious disease.

A.Hoffer MD PhD FRCP(C) 3-2727 Quadra St. Victoria, BC V8T 4E5

Paperback Clinic: A Simplified Manual of Natural Therapeutics, by Andrew W. Saul. New York Chiropractic College Press, Seneca Falls, NY, 1994. Oversized paperback, 199 pages. Library of Congress Control Number 95150857.

DID YOU KNOW: That General Electric found out that you can make synthetic diamonds out of peanut butter? (Modern Marvels: Diamond Mines, A&E, 2001)

THIS MONTH'S REASON TO BECOME (MORE OF) A VEGETARIAN: The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair (NY: New American Library, 1960)

The Jungle, a misnamed book if there ever was one, has absolutely nothing to do with either rain forests or the tropics. Rather, it is an expose of the utter brutality of American meat packing and food processing industries. This famous 1906 novel has been widely acknowledged as responsible for bringing about the first US Food and Drug Act http://www.doctoryourself.com/history1.html , much in the same way that Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin helped raise a public uproar against slavery half a century earlier.

Time has not diminished its punch. In this classic tale of industrial and agricultural misery, it is hard to tell who suffers more: the grimly impoverished human characters, or the nameless animals that are cruelly slaughtered for ham, leather and lard. Chapter 3 takes you on a literary if not literal guided tour of a hog slaughterhouse, and if that wasn't enough, a cattle slaughterhouse as well. You are virtually herded, right along with the workers and the cattle, through the muck of Chicago's stockyards, to witness diseased animals being killed and ground into meat for sale. The second half of chapter 9 peers into darkest corners of the food processing industry. Fertilizer mills and sausage plants are discussed in chapter 13. I doubt if you will ever willingly eat ham again after reading chapter 14.

This absolutely merciless book illustrates one of the major reasons people watch so much TV and eat so many take-out burgers: it is a whole lot easier to avoid confronting the realities of which Sinclair writes. Even today, who wants this close a look at kill floors, blood, and rendering vats? But do not worry: If The Jungle disgusts you, you are normal. A farmer friend of mine once told that what is truly disgusting is all those tidy, faceless, plastic wrapped packages of meat, neatly displayed in supermarket coolers. For, he said, that is impossibly far from what the animal looked like when it was born, raised, killed, dismembered, and flayed.

Need few good New Year's Resolutions? The Jungle provides the makings for plenty of them. One burger: hold the meat.

WAIT UNTIL HOWARD STERN HEARS ABOUT THIS "High-dose ascorbic acid increases intercourse frequency and improves mood: a randomized controlled clinical trial." (Brody, S.: Biol Psychiatry 2002 Aug 15; 52(4):371-4)

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 14 day trial of 3000 mg per day of vitamin C reported greater frequency of sexual intercourse. The vitamin C group (but not the placebo group) also experienced a decrease in Beck Depression scores.

This is probably due to the fact that vitamin C "modulates catecholaminergic activity, decreases stress reactivity, approach anxiety and prolactin release, improves vascular function, and increases oxytocin release. These processes are relevant to sexual behavior and mood."

And a Happy New Year to you, too!

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