Thursday, February 28, 2008

Health tips

The Cure for Heart Disease website offers a great deal of info about the Pauling Protocol, which is high doses of Vitamin C combined with other nutrients, particularly lysine. This protocol has reversed artery blockages as well as other miraculous health improvement. I believe this works and even tho I don't currently suffer from diseases that relate to this protocol, I think people should know about it and perhaps recommend their family and friends who do suffer from heart disease to be come informed.
http://www.paulingtherapy.com/
http://www.thecureforheartdisease.com/pauling/stories.html

The health challenge I did, and sometimes still do, suffer with is chronic inflammation, manifesting as severe joint and muscle aches, muscle weakness, urinary tract problems, headaches and fatigue.

By reading Ultrametabolism by Dr. Hyman, I learned about the ubiquitousness of inflammation in the American diet, and started to eliminate many common foods and add more nutritious foods, getting almost immediate relief.

Inflammation has been recognized as the main health issue behind a wide range of diseases, including arthritis, heart disease, cancer, strokes, Alzheimer's, allergies, asthma, diabetes, Parkinson's, aneurysms, colitis, prostate problems, and others. Chronic inflammation is a warning that something is seriously out of balance with your health. It's extremely unfortunate that most people, including doctors, have no idea about the warning signs of inflammation and don't know how to treat it. Inflammation is invisible and, until your body reacts to it, is silent. For example, researchers have discovered that if you're a woman with rheumatoid arthritis, your risk of having a heart attack increases 100 percent.

Inflammation is caused by a variety of factors. It is a major part of the body's defense system. Redness, heat, pain and swelling are part of the healing process for every bump, bruise or rash. When the body senses danger from trauma or invasion by microbes, it sets in motion a sequence of events designed to contain the danger and protect itself from additional harm. Inflamed tissue has enhanced ability to kill invading microorganisms and inflammation sets the stage for repair of damaged tissue. Inflamed tissues, whether on the surface or internal to the body, is red, swollen, hot and painful. The key is to realize that many of us suffer from inflamed internal parts: inflamed arteries; inflamed joints, diagnosed as arthritis; inflamed muscles; inflamed nerves, diagnosed as neuritis. Inflammation can show up in many forms.

The Inflammation Syndrome says in the Foreword, "Healing begins with inflammation, which nature meant to clean up damaged tissues and protect against infection. . . . When we dig deeper, we find that chronic inflammation is the consequence of an injury to the body combined with nutritional imbalances or deficiencies. To properly treat inflammatory diseases, it is essential to correct the underlying dietary problems."

A diet lacking in healthy fats is one such factor. Too much processed food, which is loaded with hydrogenated and/or trans fatty acids is another. Excess fat tissue causes inflammation. Most medications create inflammation because the body treats it as a foreign molecule in the body. Medications such as vaccinations, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and birth control pills are good examples.

Allergens are another cause because the body releases inflammatory substances (like white blood cells). Allergic reactions can occur in response to dietary allergens: food proteins (gluten, soy, casein, corn), additives (pesticides, preservatives, colorants, flavorings), contaminants (antibiotics), environmental substances, dust, air pollutants, pollen, animal dander, and toxic metals. Some individuals produce excessive body defense reactions, and the body sends out inflammatory substances that end up attacking healthy tissue. For example, gluten foods, like white flour, are not fully metabolized by the body and often create an allergic reaction, which creates inflammation.

Inflammation is also caused by viruses and infections. Stress releases excess cortisol, a hormone that suppresses anti-inflammatory response in the body, which certainly causes inflammation.

Once we understand chronic, or sustained, inflammation, we can understand why it's important to identify and eliminate the offenders. Usually, that means looking hard at white flour, all sugar and most sweeteners (you should be able to use natural agave nectar, which is low-glycemic, stevia, and xylitol), alcoholic beverages, which turn to sugar in the bloodstream, and processed meats. By all means totally eliminate processed table salt and replace all consumed salt with natural sea salt, which contains 80+ natural minerals.

Eliminate nicotine, tobacco, pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, processed and packaged foods, and refined foods. The body has a hard time digesting molecularly changed foods, for example crackers, cookies and chips, which contain many artificial substances and were probably fried in fats which were converted to trans-fats, which are hazardous to health.

Most people will not eliminate as much as is needed unless they have a good reason. So there is an education process involved. That's where Dr. Hyman's book came in . . it answered many questions in detail. There are several books on the subject of inflammation that I recommend.

Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss by Dr. Mark Hyman
I personally swear by his 6-week Plan

Ultrametabolism, the website/

The Inflammation Syndrome by Jack Challem

The Inflammation Cure by William Joel Meggs


While eliminating sources of inflammation, two other steps seem appropriate. Detoxification and nutrition. There is a lot written about both these phases of health improvement. The key seems to be to adopt an eating style which will nourish the body and build the immune system.

I put the Heart Disease Cure info first, but I wonder how that Pauling Protocol works with the understanding of inflammation? Does the Pauling Protocol also alleviate other symptoms of inflammation?