The New Medical Crisis: Why are so many people dying.......

 

The New Medical Crisis:

Why are so many people dying after visiting their Doctor or being admitted into the hospital for a routine procedure?

 

For the past few years, industries we've relied on for the quality of our lives, have systematically failed: First the auto industry, then Wall Street, and now our own health care system – and with dire results. Succumbing to a plague of surgical blunders, side effects of corporate drugs, frivolous operations and more, our own health care system has become the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S. Even worse will be the incorporation of socialized medicine currently being forced upon us.

 

When patients die from medications, surgical errors, hospital-acquired infections, diagnostic machines, and hospital-induced malnutrition, doctors call that “iatrogenic death.” And it occurs more often than you think – around 784,000 deaths annually. That's more casualties than all the wars of the 20th century, combined. Medical errors account for 98,000 deaths each year, with another 32,000 deaths caused by surgical errors. Sadly, even medical officials admit the problem may actually be much greater because medical errors are reported only five percent of the time, which is why we as individuals have to learn to question the system. If you ask your doctor a question and he can't answer it, find someone who can. One of the primary purposes of my emails and health newsletters is to help my readers with alternative information to the (sadly) broken system we currently have in place.

 

Drugs With Dangerous Reactions

Side effects from medications (not including allergic reactions or medication dosing errors) are one of the leading dangers to patients. Four classes of drugs have been listed as being the worst offenders of the 2.2 million cases of serious adverse reactions to drugs each year. They are:

 

• Antibiotics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 percent

• Cardiovascular drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 percent

• Chemotherapy drugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 percent

• Analgesics/anti-inflammatory drugs . . . . . 15 percent

 

The procedure for FDA drug approval goes like this: the drug company submits a series of studies, often performed by the drug companies themselves or farmed out to scientific consultants paid by the drug companies. (By the way, I consider this to be a massive conflict of interest; read my article on how aspartame was approved and you'll understand why I and many other professionals feel this way.) These typically include human studies on a limited number of volunteers who take the drug to see if it works as expected and if there are any side effects. The problem here is that new problems associated with the drug appear after a drug is approved and has been taken by millions of people.

Consider this: According to the General Accounting Office (GAO), over half of the nearly 200 drugs approved by the FDA from 1976 through 1985 had serious post-approval reactions. And that continues even today. Doctors regularly receive drug recall information letters from the FDA, warning them that a new drug has new, serious complications.

 

Increasingly, we are seeing that these serious reactions were discovered during clinical trials and were covered up by pharmaceutical manufacturers in order to get FDA approval. In many cases, the pharmaceutical company scientists were the ones presenting the data on the drug in public hearings attended by the unsuspecting public. Shockingly, FDA scientists were often told by their supervisors not to release the damning info to the media or public. Why? Because influential politicians and bureaucrats who receive support from the pharmaceutical companies apply enormous amounts of pressure on FDA scientists to 'play ball' – or else. Even though the FDA tracks approved drugs to see if new problems arise after the drug has been taken by millions of patients, it still occurs and sometimes, with deadly results.

 

The Vioxx Debacle

One of the most enduring challenges among pharmaceutical companies has been to find a pill to alleviate arthritis – one of the world's major health problems. Twenty years ago they developed non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) that blocked one of the major biochemical pathways in inflammation (Advil and Naprosyn). The new pills blocked two enzymes in this pathway called Cox-1 and Cox-2, the price for this innovation, ulcerations of the stomach lining as well as liver and kidney damage. Scientists concluded that blocking the Cox-1 enzyme was the problem, and so the search was back on, this time for a pill that only blocked the Cox-2 enzyme (believed to be the source of inflammation). The new pill was Vioxx, developed by Merck. Merck believed they had a blockbuster with Vioxx and proceeded to spend millions advertising the wonder drug. Until recently, Vioxx was the most heavily advertised drug in history; Merck spent $160.8 million dollars (more than Pepsi or Budweiser) and sales quadrupled to $1.5 billion from $330 million.

 

Following its approval, a study showed a dramatic increase in heart attack and stroke deaths among people taking Vioxx. Follow-up studies found the same thing and late in 2004, Vioxx was pulled off the market. All told, over 139,000 Americans died or were seriously injured by Vioxx – not 28,000 as officially released by the FDA.

 

According to a trail of memos, Merck apparently knew of the connection to heart attack and stroke deaths but covered it up before they submitted the data for approval. Today, they're still trying to get the drug back on the market. Why would they do this?   There's only one answer: Money . . . It's unfortunate, but the bottom line for many of these companies is this: they don't care if they kill you or permanently disable you . . . they can make so much money so fast, that the legal fees from lawsuits are just a drop in the bucket.  I find this behavior nauseating.

 

Paying for Scientific Studies

The practice of scientists-for-hire has become so fraudulent that that some journals require a financial disclosure to be printed along with an article. Long ago, the pharmaceutical companies quickly realized that having an article in a prestigious medical journal was worth its weight in dollars – lots of dollars. Once a favorable article was published, reprints would be purchased and used to convince naive physicians that the drug they were promoting was supported by hard scientific evidence.

Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, published an article called, “Is Academic Medicine for Sale?” that concluded that the lines between academic medicine and industry have become blurred. Dr. Richard Horton, editor of the prestigious British medical journal Lancet, appeared before the House of Commons and described the relationship between medical journals and the drug industry as being “somewhere between symbiotic and parasitic.”

 

What few people realize is that scientific papers are often ghostwritten by pharmaceutical company scientists for publication in reputable journals. One doctor reported that a Pharma company had requested that he attach his name to an already authored paper. The doctor refused, but that didn't stop the company: they found another doctor who said 'yes.' This occurs very often and ultimately patients lose out because now their doctor falls for the dangerous drug findings contained within these phony studies.

 

Medical School Brainwashing

Here's a really big problem: the major Pharma companies are spending almost limitless amounts of money in an effort to influence medical school curriculum. The giant companies make large donations – as much as $10 million dollars – to major medical schools. And they offer financial support to academic research projects that endorse their drugs, establish lucrative contracts with medical school professors for minor projects, while supplying medical schools with learning material, conferences, and sometimes lecturers. Obviously, all this has a substantial impact on what school professors teach budding doctors. And the mind control doesn't stop there: this brainwashing continues even after medical school: Pharmaceutical companies spend about $2.5 billion dollars on advertising and courting doctors through sponsored educational seminars, visits to headquarter offices, as well as over 315,000 parties and events a year. Surprisingly, all this spending accounts for just 15 percent of the total pharmaceutical advertising budget. But they can afford it. One study states that the top seven Pharma giants earned more revenue than the top seven auto companies, the top seven oil companies, and the top seven airlines, hard to believe, and then believe this: Merck earns more money than all the airlines combined! And they use these profits to brainwash doctors into believing that only pharmaceutical drugs should be used to treat patients. And like most effective propaganda, its victims aren't just unaware they've been brainwashed, they also deny it. The sad part is that many medical schools don't even require a single class in nutrition. Think about it: not a single class in nutrition. I guess that's why the average life expectancy of a medical doctor is fifty-seven years. Quite frankly, I won't even go to an M.D. who doesn't practice what he preaches.  My family and I have two great physicians – the father and son team of Drs. Harold and Todd Robinson – who practice preventive health care. Now I realize that everyone doesn't have the ability to find a preventive health care team, but the reality is that you can still do research on your own.

 

Attendees at any of the major physicians’ meetings, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, AMA conventions or any other meeting by specialty societies, are sure to be besieged by dozens of Pharma representatives. They'll also hear lectures by physicians and scientists employed by the companies but who don't specifically mention that detail. And it's no surprise that these huge and influential meetings are, of course, paid for by the pharmaceutical giants who exert a tremendous influence over how physicians conduct their practice.

 

Examples Are Everywhere

These days, escaping the influence of pharmaceutical companies is practically impossible. Just look at what's on TV. Every 12-20 minutes is another drug ad featuring soft music, serious looking actors and soothing graphics – and the message for each ad is remarkably similar: we're here to help lower/ease/take away pain/give you comfort. By the way, these types of commercials promoting drug cures are illegal and banned in Europe. Imagine that.

Drug companies spend billions of dollars to control negative information regarding medications, not only on television but also on radio and in newspapers. And if they're putting forth that kind of revenue, just how likely are the major media outlets to carry stories on the dangers of vaccines or side effects of best-selling drugs? The same is true for medical journals, which typically feature expensive full-page pharmaceutical ads. And now you have potentially dangerous drugs, approved by the FDA, and heavily promoted by unsuspecting physicians.  It’s funny . . . 20 years ago I was telling everyone not to use aspartame/NutraSweet/Equal. Very few of us had jumped on the anti-aspartame bandwagon at that time. Boy, did I take the hits. I was threatened with lawsuits and more . . . someone even called a CBS affiliate to tell them that if they had me on their talk show again, advertising would be pulled. It was a real challenge but finally, the tide turned: Now everyone knows that aspartame is bad. The same thing happened to me with the hydrogenated oils and margarine manufacturers. Once, in Atlanta on 'Steve and Vicki in the Morning,' I spoke about how bad margarine was and how organic butter was a better alternative. Oh, my goodness!! I had a local Atlanta university demand airtime to tell everyone that hydrogenated fats were safe. Several months later, the federal government finally got into that debate, telling us that trans fats were so dangerous that they had to be disclosed on the label. Needless to say, I felt justified. Unfortunately, the information I was giving on the dangers of trans fats was over 30 years old: The university had simply not bothered to update its out-of-date research from the 1940s.

 

Female Hormones

DES (diethylstilbestrol) – a powerful form of estrogen – was introduced in 1939. Nearly a decade later, it was promoted as a wonder drug for pregnant women who were told by their doctors, that the drug would make their babies bigger and stronger. Fifteen years later, studies demonstrated that it was mostly ineffective. Problems really developed some 30 years later when it was discovered that girls born to mothers who took the drug had a very high incidence of vaginal cancer, requiring hysterectomies. In addition to these increased surgical procedures it greatly increased the infertility rates of the daughters of the mothers who had taken DES. By the way, my wife Sharon was one of them. That's why I know these stats so well. It was extremely personal to my wife and me.  She miscarried seven times. I personally believe that the drug DES given to her mother, and was one on the primary causes behind the miscarriages. I remember being in a fertility clinic in Ohio. We were on the road but were having to have her hormone levels checked daily. In the waiting area were around 20 women my wife's age. So I decided to do an impromptu study. I stood up and asked the entire waiting room how many of their mothers had taken DES. Every woman in the room raised her hand. All of them were having problems getting pregnant. By the way, DES also increases testicular cancer in the sons of the mothers who took the drug. Enough said.

Could the dangerous effects of ultrasounds be the next sobering discovery 30 years from now? Also, expectant mothers should take note of this lesson when they're advised to have a flu vaccine.

 

In 1942, the Ayerst Pharmaceutical Company released a new form of female hormone called Premarin, designed to be a wonder drug to relieve menopausal symptoms. The real marketing breakthrough came with the appearance of Dr. Robert A. Wilson's article in the January 1964 issue of Newsweek, entitled “No More Menopause,” which was followed by his book, Feminine Forever. Years later, Wilson’s son revealed that Ayerst had funded his father’s book and speaking tours. For Ayerst, this investment really paid off: 12 percent of all post-menopausal women regularly took the drug. The payoff for the women who took the drug: later studies revealed a link between Premarin and endometrial cancer, heart disease, stroke and highly invasive breast cancer.

 

For nearly half a century women believed their doctors who told them that the drug was safe. Even today doctors still prescribe Premarin as the drug of choice for menopausal symptoms. After it was decided that the problem was using estrogens alone (Progesterone was known to suppress growth of breast tissue), Ayerst created the combination product Prempro, a combination of Premarin and medroxyprogesterone acetate, both artificially manufactured products.

 

Eleven years ago, studies were conducted by the Women’s Health Initiative to test the drug’s safety. They were halted after two years because of a significant increase in invasive breast cancer, venous thromboembolism, heart attacks, and strokes. In the meantime, a press release carried by all the news services announced that a study indicated Premarin could protect against Alzheimer’s dementia. Yet, the analysis of the Women’s Health Initiative study results found that it actually increased dementia. Sadly, this vital news never received the same media attention, although, it’s been known for decades that both Premarin and medroxyprogesterone acetate are broken down in the body into a number of brain damaging metabolites, most doctors don't know this.

 

 

The Truth Behind Cholesterol Lowering Drugs

New research reveals that elevated cholesterol, even LDL cholesterol, does not cause atherosclerosis (heart attacks and strokes) by itself. The real cause of atherosclerosis is chronic inflammation in the wall of the blood vessels.

 

Statins do not work by reducing cholesterol — they reduce inflammation and suppress immunity. When the statin drugs were first developed and released, the makers were aware they decreased CoenzymeQ10 production, a vital energy molecule used in every cell in the body, especially muscle cells and brain cells. Manufacturers were also aware that statin drugs could cause levels of CoQ10 in muscles to drop so low it could produce a fatal condition called rhabdomyolysis. Initially, they added CoQ10 to the statin drugs to prevent this, but removed it soon after, believing that patients and doctors would be frightened by this news. Consequently many patients were harmed and even died. Even today, a great many doctors are not aware of this side effect and don't suggest CoQ10 supplements to their patients.

 

The potential adverse effect of statin drugs is being discussed in scientific literature, but such information is not currently documented in the PDR or other drug information databases that are used on a daily basis by physicians and other healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals need to be attentive to the potential depletion of essential nutrients in patients taking prescription medications for an extended period of time. Evidence points to the national, widespread use of statins as the cause behind an epidemic of heart failure – due to the missing CoQ10: low levels of CoQ10 can cause heart failure and that supplements can improve the condition of some patients who suffer from heart failure.

CoQ10 (Health Masters’ CoQ10) is also essential to brain function, and an increasing number of patients are developing neurological problems, even dementia, while on unsafe drugs like statins. Yet, doctors (and patients) are so conditioned that prescribing a statin drug is almost a reflex. There are over 45 million people taking these dangerous drugs daily, and are expected to take them for many years in order to manage elevated cholesterol levels. Clearly, this is a pharmaceutical company’s dream drug.

Advocates of statins are even proposing that children with even slightly elevated cholesterol levels take statin drugs their entire lives. This is madness! Well-documented studies indicate that statins cause cancer or promote the growth of cancer. Patients are never told this and most doctors have never heard of it.

 

Some experts have recently suggested that the dose of statins be doubled. Even at present doses a dramatic number of patients suffer from clouded thinking, memory loss, muscle weakness, and peripheral neuropathy (numb hands and feet and motor skills loss). If the dose is doubled, the incidence of these complications will rise exponentially, affecting millions more. Upon close review of the studies favoring the benefits of statin drugs, it has been noted that most are authored by doctors with admitted ties to the pharmaceutical companies. The same is true for thousands of lectures and seminars consistently held and the tons of educational materials regularly distributed to doctors, medical universities, and national medical meetings. The propaganda blitz exceeds anything we have seen before, and the money keeps rolling in.

 

The Panic Over Vaccines

Not so long ago were stories in the news of long lines of senior citizens waiting for hours outside a clinic for their flu shots. All across the nation, the elderly were frightened into waiting for something that was more dangerous than the condition it was treating: the flu vaccine. What they didn't know was that elderly people who received the flu shot once a year for five years increased their risk of Alzheimer’s disease 1,000 percent. The reason: an influenza vaccine contains both a full dose of mercury and brain-damaging aluminum. Then there was the story of one hospital where orders for flu shots for all elderly were placed on their charts without the attending doctors’ permission. Patients were livid after receiving the shots without first being asked if they even wanted it.

 

The government (CDC, Public Health, and NIH) have joined with medical societies to promote flu vaccines, not only for the elderly, but also for children between the ages of 6 months and 18 months old, pregnant women, and anyone those between the ages of 18 and 26 years of age. This is practically the entire population, great news and even greater profits for flu vaccine manufacturers and all to the tune of many billions of dollars.

 

And then there's this: officials remove the mercury from childhood vaccines because of the overwhelming proof of harm to the developing brain, and then add it back by giving it to pregnant women and babies – brilliant! Unfortunately, like the small child, an elderly person’s brain is extremely vulnerable to mercury, especially the form in vaccines (ethyl mercury).

 

One popular scare tactic is to urgently (and falsely) announce that 36,000 elderly people die from the flu, each year. If this were actually true, every year as many people are dying now as did die during the 1963 Hong Kong flu pandemic. The real number (according to the CDC website) is actually less than 1,000. Even worse is the fact that for the vast majority of people, the flu vaccine does not work and for others, it increases their risk of becoming seriously ill or dying. The vaccine in an immune depressed person (as is common in the elderly) actually further weakens the immune system, as does mercury. Equally as shocking is that which virus chosen to be included in any given year’s batch is actually a guess, and studies show that most years, that guess is wrong. Dr. J. Anthony Morris, former chief vaccine control officer and research virologist for the FDA stated, “There is no evidence any influenza vaccine is effective . . . the producers of these vaccines know they are useless but go on selling them.” Most people who die from the flu already suffer from a chronic illness, and the vaccine would not have helped them, anyway. A study reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at the death rates from flu before the flu vaccine program and then after, and found that despite massive inoculations of the elderly, their incidence of flu deaths remains unchanged. Still, your doctor – a victim of the Big Pharma brainwashing machine – believes otherwise.

 

A childhood vaccine study came to the same conclusion: Most vaccines give no protection after three to five years, and many of the vaccines themselves are dangerous. The Hib vaccine, for instance, makes it more likely that your child will develop meningitis, and the same goes for the pneumococcal vaccine. The pertussis vaccine (DTaP and DPT) is associated with a very high incidence of brain injury and seizures.

 

Since most doctors actually know little or nothing about the interrelationship between the body’s immune system and the brain’s special immune system (microglia) they don’t understand that giving a large number of vaccines to a child ultimately damages the brain. The extent of that damage depends on any number of factors, including genetics, and that that the damage can continue for years. That explains the 600 percent increase in the incidence of autism since the early 1980s. If we include all developmental problems of the brain (learning, memory, behavior, and language problems) the numbers are much higher. Unfortunately, as your doctors are doling out vaccines in good faith, they're unaware that they've being deceived or brainwashed and remain in the dark about the dangers of vaccines. Why? Because they continue to get their information from the manufacturers of the vaccines and professional societies which remain are in the pocket of these companies.

 

Doctors Out of Control-Bureaucrats in Control

As government-controlled systems continue to grip the world, we're finding ourselves in the midst of a medical-care system that treats people as collectives and not as individuals and families. Instead of answering to patients or their families, doctors increasingly find themselves answering to insurance companies, Medicare/Medicaid bureaucrats, and medical boards. The problem of doctor arrogance toward families has gotten so out of hand, I've actually heard of one cardiovascular surgeon who called a wife on the day of her husband’s funeral to convince her not to sue him.

 

Patients who request special nutrients are treated as if they were idiots, even when they back this up with a number of peer-reviewed studies. It's not unusual for doctors refuse to add magnesium to their patient’s IV because they've never heard of it, even if the request is coming from a medical professional experienced in its use.

 

Slowly, a small number of doctors have become interested in nutrition, but many medical societies have implemented methods and professional reprimands to prevent these doctors from incorporating nutrition in their practices. Medical societies control the doctor’s license, which can be removed almost on any pretext. One well-publicized reprimand by the medical society licensing board goes a long way in controlling doctors' use of nutrition in their practice: Fear of professional ridicule and fear of what the medical board might do is usually enough to stifle a doctor using nutrition to treat patients. There is a move underway to force doctors to conform to practicing medicine as dictated by specialty boards. Many doctors are perfectly willing to conform, while others are more independent-minded and put their patients first. Extensive protocols outlining how patients will be treated for each condition have been developed. Pharmaceutical input is extensive.

 

While still voluntary, moves are underway to make it mandatory. Those who violate the protocol will have their licenses removed, or worse. Calling these protocols “evidence-based medicine” gives them a false air of scientific authority. In an earlier study by the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, it was concluded that only 10 to 20 percent of all procedures currently used in medical practice were shown to have any efficacy. The bottom line: much of what is done by medicine has no scientific basis and many procedures are unnecessarily dangerous.

 

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Few people can fathom the stress and pressure a dedicated and caring doctor faces daily: being overworked, assaulted daily by the government bureaucracy and insurance companies, forced into larger and larger group practices, and living under a constant threat of devastating lawsuits. Yet, increasingly we see arrogant self-absorbed doctors who possess the “God-complex” so often attributed to doctors. And far too many are nothing more thieves with stethoscopes. That's one of the reasons that so many unnecessary surgeries are preformed. It really is a tragedy.

 

In many ways modern medicine is a magnificent wonder, while in others it is still rooted in the dark ages and, at times, inhumane. Surgery has produced ingenious ways to treat many deadly and debilitating disorders, such as life-saving heart surgeries, valve replacements, surgery to treat deadly aneurysms, tumor removals, and hundreds of other ingenious techniques. Anesthesia which used to be so dangerous – while still a risk – has had safety improvement.

 

Each day we see new and more accurate ways to diagnose disease through technology. The greatest successes in medicine have been in the area of acute medicine, things that arise suddenly, often with devastating consequences. But this modern wonder is not without its shortcomings. While medicine treats chronic disease, it fails to utilize known powerful nutritional immune stimulants to assist the body in fighting infections and diseases.

• Modern medicine also ignores the need to replace the beneficial bacteria in the colon afterward.

• Doctors perform surgery but fail to support healing with proper nutrition and immune support (Health Masters Immune Support DF), despite the fact that both surgery and anesthesia are powerful immune suppressors.

• Doctors treat strokes and heart attacks, but ignore the harmful excitotoxic effects of food additives and protein supplements. Even worse, they refuse to use magnesium (Health Masters Magnesium and Malate Acid) to protect the brain and heart from further damage or to add to their regimen nutrients known to support the heart and brain.

• They treat lupus with cancer-causing powerful drugs yet ignore simple methods to alleviate the suffering, such as adding magnesium supplements (Health Masters Magnesium and Malate Acid) and omega-3 oils (Health Masters Norwegian Omega 3) to the diet and avoiding known food-based inflammatory additives.

• Modern medicine treats cancer with powerful drug combinations that have little positive impact on the majority of cancers, but make many curable cancers incurable and often shorten life. Likewise, they ignore recent scientific advances in nutrients and nutrient supplements that suppress cancer development and growth. (Health Masters Vitamin C and Health Masters Immune Support DF)

• Worse yet, modern medicine ignores scientific evidence that some food additives, such as monosodium glutamate, omega-6 oils, and aspartame, dramatically promote cancer growth. Shockingly, many cancer patients are encouraged to include these cancer-promoters in their diet.

Medicine has changed in the past few decades, and much of it, negatively: Third-party payers have gradually taken over the decision-making process and inserted themselves between the patient and the doctor. Insurance companies, it turns out, are worse even than the government.

 

Consequently, many doctors become disillusioned and end up retiring early. The maverick physicians who work outside the system find themselves ostracized – or worse. Creative thinking is trampled underfoot by a system that rewards obedience and punishes independent thought and creativity.

 

Only the unified voices of millions of angry patients can change this. But a good place to start is to remember that your physician works for you and it is your right to demand to be heard, treated with respect and not spoken down to. Dr Robert Mendelssohn’s excellent book, Confessions of a Medical Heretic, discusses the points made in this article in greater detail and should be read by everyone.

 

 

Ask Dr. Ted

I suffer from restless leg syndrome and am afraid to take the medications for the condition because of side effects. Are there any natural alternatives?

According to studies, the problem is due to an insufficient amount of a neurotransmitter called dopamine, in specific areas of the brain. The drugs known to increase brain dopamine levels, such as L-dopa and ropinirol, parlodel, and Mirapex, all can have unpleasant side effects.

· Because the disorder is worsened or triggered by anemia due to low iron (Health Masters Iron Glycinate), B-12 (Health Masters Sublingual B-12), or folate, the first order of business is to get a blood iron panel test. This will tell you if your iron levels are good.

· Reduce your intake of caffeine, alcohol, tobacco

· Only do moderate exercises (extreme exercise can worsen symptoms.)

· Consider taking a well balanced multivitamin/mineral supplement (Health Masters Multivitamin) to avoid deficiencies of folate and B-12.

· Include two 500 milligram capsules L-tyrosine, twice a daily, and magnesium (as magnesium malate) (Health Masters Magnesium and Malate Acid) in a dose of 500 mg, twice daily.

 

Is there is any way to correct or repair oligodendroglia cells?

There is compelling evidence that MS is an excitotoxic disorder and that it is the accumulation of excitotoxins at the site of the damage, which causes the destruction of the insulation building cells (oligodendroglia). MS is a disease in which the insulation surrounding nerves and brain pathways is stripped in certain areas.

 

In the past, we considered this an autoimmune disease and that the immune cells were doing the damage. Now we realize that in fact, the immune reaction is generating a great number of free radicals and this is triggering the excitotoxicity. The best evidence indicates that the oligodendroglia cells are killed by the excitotoxic process.

 

The immune attack is the first priority, which can be achieved with dietary changes:

· Mostly vegetables, some fruits, no red meats, and no mercury-containing fish.

The iron in red meats, as well as arachidonic acid and glutamic acid all worsen the damage.

· Eat only small amounts (3- to 6-oz.) of turkey or organic chicken. It is also critical to avoid all soy products and omega-6 oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, peanut, soybean, and canola oils), which are known to increase inflammation.

· Omega-3 oils (especially the DHA component) (Health Masters Norwegian Omega 3) have been shown to block excitotoxicity as well as inflammation. In addition, they play a major role in repair of damaged glia cells.

· Drink only filtered or distilled fluoride free water. (Health Masters Distiller Model 8800)

· Avoid all other sources of fluoride. Curcumin and quercetin (Health Masters GHI Cleanse), ferulic acid, ellagic acid (Health Masters GHI Cleanse), alpha-lipoic acid (Health Masters Alpha-Lipoic Acid) and natural vitamin E (Health Masters Super Potent E) all reduce inflammation and block excitotoxicity.

· Vitamin B-12 (methylcobalamin or hexocobalamin, folate, BenfoMax (vitamin B-1) (Health Masters Sublingual B-12), vitamin B-6 (as pyridoxyl-5-phosphate) (Health Masters Cortico B5 B6) all promote nerve healing as well as re-myelination of damaged nerves, something that previously was thought to be impossible.

· Magnesium (Health Masters Magnesium and Malate Acid) is critical since it protects against excitotoxicity and reduces inflammation.

· Avoid mercury in all its forms, especially in dental amalgams and vaccinations. Likewise, a number of pesticides can trigger autoimmunity and excitotoxicity.

Most important is saving oligodendroglia that have been injured but not killed, which is often the case.

These steps will go a long way to do just that.

  

We recently switched my 6-year-old great grandson, who has ADD symptoms, to soy milk. Does drinking soy milk cause memory problems?

Number One please read my entire email called "Does Soy turn little boys into little girls?

The developmental learning and language problems are all linked, that is, they represent defects in brain development. There is compelling evidence that the common denominator is an excess accumulation of the excitotoxic neurotransmitter glutamate in the brain during critical stages of brain development.

 

Soy has been popularized by a number of people, mostly from people who benefit from its sale. Recent studies have shown that soy and soy extracts (soy proteins isolate, soy protein concentrate, etc.) have a number of negative side effects. To add to that, has one of the highest concentrations of glutamate (an excitotoxin known to damage the brain) of any plant. The developing brain of babies and small children is five times more sensitive to its toxic effects than are adult brains. One 25-year long study compared adults who consumed tofu to those on a soy-free diet. The results (confirmed by serial CT scans) uncovered a dramatically higher incidence of brain atrophy in those consuming soy products. Additionally, they had higher rates of dementia. Experimental evidence in animals supports this.

Soy also contains very high levels of manganese, fluoride, and omega-6 oils, all of which increase brain injury. Newer studies have confirmed that soy significantly stimulates the growth of breast cancer. A safer alternative – is goat’s milk, which chemically is very similar to human milk. For more information on the true story of soy, read The Whole Soy Story by Kaayla Daniel, Ph.D., CCN.

 

Can anything nutritionally be done to improve the symptoms of someone with Tourette’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder?

These two neurological disorders frequently occur together and have many overlapping symptoms and neurological causes. Essentially, when this over activity occurs in the brain it interferes with control of impulses and compulsions. There is hope, however, in the form of dietary changes and specific nutritional supplements.

· Change diet to fresh fruits and vegetables, no red meats (chicken or turkey instead), avoid fluoride, no processed foods and drink only pure filtered or distilled water. It's also important to avoid vegetable oils called omega-6 oils (corn, safflower, sunflower, peanut, soybean and canola oils), since they increase brain inflammation. Growing evidence suggests the dramatic rise in these conditions is due to various conditions that cause brain inflammation. As an example, a condition called PANDAS, occurring after an infection with beta-hemolytic streptococcus germ (a cause of sore throats), causes an acute onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Studies of the brains of people with OCD, indeed, indicate inflammation in the affected parts of the brain. Vegetable oils promote inflammation of the brain, as does MSG, aspartame, fluoride, mercury, aluminum and pesticides. Vaccination also inflames the brain and does so for years.

 

Magnesium (Health Masters Magnesium and Malate Acid) has been shown to reduce brain inflammation and reduce a pathologic process called excitotoxicity. This brings us to another important dietary step, and that is to cut out all food excitotoxins, such as MSG, aspartame, hydrolyzed proteins, soy products, broth, stock, carrageenan, natural flavoring, etc. It has been shown that part of the problem is that the excitatory transmitters in the brain (glutamate and aspartate) are in excess. Omega-3 oil, especially one high in DHA, (Health Masters Organic Cinnamon Cod liver oil) reduces brain inflammation. One tablespoon three times a day of the oil will not only reduce brain inflammation, but will help repair any damage that has been done.

· The B vitamins, especially thiamine, riboflavin, folate and B-12 (as methylcobalamin or hexocobalamin) (Health Masters Sublingual B-12) are also essential. Vitamin E (natural form) 400 IU a day (Health Masters Super Potent E), vitamin D-3 (1,000 IU a day) (Health Masters Ultimate D3 5000) and selenium 200 ug a day (Health Masters E400 with Selenium), also play a major role in reducing brain inflammation and correcting behavioral problems.

· Brain serotonin can be increased using a supplement called 5-HTP (Health Masters 5-HTP). The typical beginning dose is 25 milligrams and gradually increased to a desired level of effectiveness. It must be taken on an empty stomach, since other amino acids (proteins) suppress its absorption. Do not eat for one hour after taking it. It should not be taken in conjunction with medications that raise brain serotonin levels, such as SSRI medications (Paxil, Zoloft, etc). If taking other medications, check with their doctor for guidance. Ironically, DHA (Health Masters Norwegian Omega 3) also raises brain serotonin levels, whereas aspartame significantly lowers it, making OCD and Tourettes worse.

· Its also noted that a diet high in sugar increases anxiety, restlessness, impulsive behavior, depression, suicide risk, criminal behavior and can deplete the brain’s serotonin, all common findings in OCD and Tourettes syndrome. Breads (especially white bread) and potatoes also induce hypoglycemia, just like sugar.

 

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. The advice noted here is generic and not specific to any individual. You should not use the information on this website for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment. Always consult your doctor before undertaking any medical or nutritional course of action.