Can Antibiotics Weaken Your Immune System?

An article appearing in the NY Times, 4/14/09, "Stomach Bug Crystallizes Antibiotic Threat," talks about the dangers of infections that can take root once the healthy bacteria in the gut have been killed off by antibiotics.

What the article fails to mention is that "probiotics" - substances that contain healthy, living bacteria - can be used to re-introduce the healthy bacteria into the gut and thus lessen the threat of pathogenic bacteria like the one the article mentions.

In fact, most traditional cultures have relied on many fermented products - things like yogurt, miso, naturally fermented pickles such as are used by the Koreans (kimchi) and the Japanese. These, forming part of the diet, kept the natural flora in abundance and helped compete with pathogenic bacteria. Our lack of use of these traditional items, with the advent of refrigeration and the loss of more tradtional food preparation customs (enter "fast food" and microwave cooking) - has had an unexpetded side effect - diets deficient in healthy bacteria!

The book, Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon, talks about traditional foods that can help restore health, and has many great recipes for preparing these.




This deficiency may be one reason that we get infections in the first place, as the healthy flora not only compete with pathogens, but they also produce vitamins such as the B vitamins which maintain health. Additionally, healthy flora maintains the integrity of the digestive tract so that digestion and assimilation are improved.

Recently, I had the misfortune of landing in the hospital... and had to have antibiotics administered. Normally, I avoid them in favor of more benign solutions. More about that, later. But, after getting the needed antibiotics, I did ask for something to replace my natural flora. And, the doctors were all too glad to prescribe a product called "Lactonex" which contained one of the common bacteria found in Yogurt, Lactobacillus Acidophilus. This was given to me several times a day, and I'm sure that this not only speeded my recovery, helped my digestion, but also staved off any possible secondary infections that might have appeared as a result of the antibiotics.

As mentioned, there are alternatives to using antibiotics in many cases, and these should be considered if an infection isn't too bad. Certainly, antibiotics shouldn't be carelessly or needlessly administered. Some of the natural solutions to infection that don't included antibiotics are preparations like Oil of Oregano, Olive Leaf Extract, and Colloidal Silver. These are things that can be found in a health food store and may take care of a minor infection, along with good nutrition and things like probiotics added to the diet to help build up the immune system.

Oregano Oil, for instance, has great antiseptic properties, and was at one time used to sterilize medical instruments. Note that it's not the same variety of Oregano that is used in cooking, so just eating that oregano is not going to give you the same benefits. You can read more about it, here:

http://www.homeremediesweb.com/oil_of_oregano_health_benefits.php

The product I use, Oreganol, is a standardized concentrate that has the beneficial elements of the oil, and can be obtained from your local health food store or online at Amazon.

Iodine: Chances are You Are Deficient!

Iodine is an essential mineral which is currently recommended at very small dosages (the current recommended daily allowance, or RDA, is only 150 micrograms), and many of us are aware that we get it in Iodized Salt, and so consider that we are getting plenty.

But is this the case?

A vital mineral, it is involved in the formation of thyroid hormones, which are key to the proper function of countless bodily processes. A deficiency of iodine has been correlated with goiter (a state of hyper-growth of the thyroid gland) and with mental retardation, if the deficiency occurs early in life.

Iodine is found in every cell of the body, but is concentrated in the glands in particular, and is key to endocrine (hormone system) function.

But iodine is also necessary to healthy breast tissue, and the breast tissue of women requires large amounts of iodine daily. Prostate tissue is also dependent on iodine for its proper function.

Dr. Guy Abraham, one of the world's leading researchers on iodine, has determined that the body needs about 13 mg. of iodine daily, nearly 100 times the RDA of 150 micrograms. This is also the approximate amount consumed in the Japanese diet, which contains a lot of seaweed. The Japanese have remarkably lower levels of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers as well as fibrocystic breast disease and prostate cancer - compared to the United States.

If you eat approximately 10 grams of iodized salt per day, the estimated consumption of the average person, you are getting only 770 micrograms of iodine, or less than one milligram and still far below what current research indicates is necessary for optimum health.

The breast tissue alone may use as much as 5 mg. per day, and the thyroid gland as much as 6 mg. daily. Clearly, by these standards, the RDA is far too low.

Iodine is often deficient in soils that are not located close to the coasts, where iodine is more abundant. Historically, goiter has been a problem in inland areas where iodine in soil was not plentiful. The addition of iodine to salt did help to reduce goiter, but that is only bringing the body from a state of extreme deficiency to one approaching slightly closer to normalcy, where the body is still struggling to produce sufficient thyroid hormone, let alone to have enough iodine remaining for other tissues where it is needed.

David Brownstein, M.D., in his book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, gives numerous anecdotes from his practice concerning iodine deficiency and supplementation and, in particular, its use in helping patients recover from thyroid disease, fibrocystic breast disease, and generalized fatigue.



Brownstein also points out that other halides (a type of element which includes Fluoride, Chloride, Bromide and Iodide) all compete for absorption at the same receptor sites on cells in the body. The abundance of chlorine and fluoride in the water supply, and the use of Bromine as a dough conditioner in the baking industry, has exacerbated the tendency to Iodine deficiency.

A supplemental form of iodine, first researched in the 1800s by Jean Lugol, a French physician, combines Iodine with Potassium Iodide, and was used to treat a variety of infections at a dosage of two drops per day, which supplies 12.5mg. of iodine, approximately the amount considered to now be necessary for iodine sufficiency. Lugol's Iodine solution can be purchased in liquid form from some pharmacies, or supplement providers online.

Iodine solutions are used to handle a broad range of infections and conditions, including various fibrocystic or scarring conditions. A description of conditions that can be handled with potassium iodide solutions used internally or topically can be found at http://www.tahoma-clinic.com/iodide.shtml

A tablet formulation of Lugol's Iodine solution is available under the name Iodoral. Dosages of up to 50 mg. are recommended by Dr. Brownstein for some people to achieve sufficiency. Methods for testing for iodine deficiency, and determining correct dosage, are described in Dr. Brownstein's book. Iodoral can be purchased online, Amazon now carries it and includes a coupon for an iodine test with the purchase.

HIV and AIDS. What Are They, Really?

This seems to be one of those subjects that - with the very mention - inspires an emotional reaction in people. I've seen otherwise sensible medical professionals' eyes gloss over with fear when this subject is brought up. Why? Perhaps because of the lack of understanding, and misinformation, and outright superstition connected to these conditions.

Like Cancer, this subject inspires dread - primarily because of its dire consequences. It stands to reason that if it is such a subject surrounded by mystery and fear, that something yet remains unknown about it. But, let's proceed on the basis that I like to approach all things - namely, that something can always be done about any undesirable condition in life. Regardless of how bad it seems, something can always be done about it.

With that said, here I dive in to what must be the most “controversial” medical topic on Earth. Why, you might ask, should any matter of science and medicine become controversial? I think the answer is that it becomes that way when politics enters the field of science.

Back in the day, when most people considered that the Earth was flat, and a fringe group of explorers and scientists were proposing that it was, in fact, a sphere, it was practically treason for anyone to believe the latter. We all know how that has worked out.

Similarly, it was a man by the name of Harvey, in England, who discovered that the blood circulates thru the body. Up till that point, it was believed to have flowed in tides in the body. Harvey was ridiculed, but he was ultimately correct.

When a certain idea becomes very entrenched, and salaries or positions of authority depend on maintaining the status quo, politics starts to enter into science.

OK, so what about HIV and AIDS?

Well, let’s define a few terms. First, AIDS, since that is the condition that first was observed or defined. AIDS means, as most of us know, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It isn’t a disease, but a collection of diseases or conditions, all of which existed before AIDS, and all of which have known causes and treatments. Nothing new, there.

So, what is new? Well, that leads to HIV. In the process of trying to link several disrelated diseases together, that were appearing in gay men back in the early 80’s, someone came up with the idea that it was a single virus that was causing all of these conditions.

This wasn’t the only hypothesis, nor was it the first one. When the first cases appeared in a small population of gay men, mainly pneumonia and a rare form of cancer called Kaposi’s Sarcoma, it was postulated that these men were doing something in their lives that compromised their immune systems… the so-called “life-style hypothesis.”

In fact, the studies done at that time showed heavy recreational drug use in the gay community and in those appearing with these diseases. One drug that was in very frequent use was a nitrite inhalant called “poppers.” One survey showed that gay men appearing with some health conditions had used poppers as much as 300 times in the past year… or nearly daily!

Nitrite substances are known carcinogens, and immune suppressors, and because they were being inhaled, they were suspect in the cases of lung conditions, including pneumonias.

http://www.duesberg.com/media/jlpoppers-3.html

That subject is still hotly debated, but poppers became highly regulated in the 80s and soon dropped largely into disuse. Along with that, the incidence of Kaposi’s Sarcoma has largely disappeared.

It can be seen, then, that from the earliest days of so-called AIDS (the name came along some time after the first cases appeared) – the initial belief was that the observed diseases were occurring in groups of men who had similar lifestyles – that lifestyle being a very fast-lane, drug-using one.

Enter Dr. Robert Gallo, a researcher who worked in cancer research for much of his career, and who had been looking into retroviruses, a type of virus which was considered a plausible candidate for the cause of some types of cancer. One of the things which made it a candidate, was that retroviruses in general were not cell-killing viruses, and since cancer is a disease where cells grow out of control – a type of virus which wasn’t killing cells that it inhabited seemed like a plausible cause of cancer.

Gallo, in culturing the lymph material of some gay men with the symptoms of “AIDS,” found what he thought to be one of the retroviruses he had been working with. He didn’t find it in all of the men, in fact, and his work was later criticized by other scientists, but he nonetheless announced to the media that he had found the probable cause of AIDS.

That assertion, by Gallo, has been the cause of much debate ever since. At last count, over 2,500 doctors (MDs and PhDs) have signed a letter calling for a reappraisal of the HIV/AIDS hypothesis.

http://www.rethinkingaids.com/quotes/rethinkers.htm

Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize winner for invention of one of the key diagnostic HIV tests, called the “PCR,” tells a very detailed story about trying to find the actual paper that showed that HIV was the probable cause of AIDS, and that he has never been able to find it – because it does not exist! In other words, the published evidence of how Gallo came to his conclusion, is missing.

http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/hiv/kmdancing.htm


Peter Duesberg, a UC Berkeley professor and researcher, and a man considered one of the most knowledgeable men in the world where retroviruses are concerned, doesn't consider that HIV is the cause of AIDS. Just because it is there, doesn't mean it is the causative factor, as he points out in his book AIDS: The Good News is HIV Doesn't Cause It. The virus, according to Duesberg, is a "passenger virus," and like all other retroviruses, is not a cell-killing virus but is, in fact, harmless.

What does all of this mean?

Well, we have become very attached to this idea that HIV and AIDS are synonymous… in fact, many people do not know that there is a difference, at all.

HIV is a retrovirus that isn’t easily found in anyone with so-called AIDS. Antibodies that are thought to be produced in response to this virus can be found, using several methods. (Actually, specific proteins thought to be associated with antibodies that are thought to be associated with the virus - can be found. Yes, it is that far removed!) The virus itself, cannot. It “hides,” it lays dormant only to emerge years later, it can sometimes be cultured out of the blood of people using an elaborate methodology. But, it cannot be readily viewed or isolated in the uncultured blood of people with AIDS diseases. This is a departure from past scientific protocol - normally a disease-causing agent can be isolated in every case of, say, strep throat. That is one of the premises necessary for a diagnosis.

To further complicate matters, some people test positive and never get sick, other people develop symptoms of AIDS yet never test positive! And some people test positive, negative, and indeterminate on the very same test, when repeated for verification purposes.

Clearly, there are problems with the HIV test, itself. While presumed by many people to be very accurate, a list of over 60 factors that can cause a “false positive” reaction is widely known in the medical profession. One of these is flu vaccination. The antibodies to HIV are “non-specific,” meaning that they can appear in response to other infectious conditions in the body. The tests themselves are open to interpretation and are, in fact, interpreted differently from one country to another, and one agency to another. Which means – a positive test in the U.S. might not be positive if one flew to the U.K., or Canada.

A life-threatening diagnosis in one country, turns into “you’re fine” in another.

If this is all news to you, and a bit shocking – it isn’t really a new phenomenon in the world of medicine. That is to say, there are plenty of times in history when a disease was widely “known” to be caused by some contagious factor – but, that turned out to not be the case!

A famous example is the case of scurvy, a disease that was often seen in sailors who spent much time at sea. It was thought to be contagious, and sailors with the condition (spots on the skin, bleeding gums, and bleeding sores) were sometimes thrown overboard! Yet in 1753, a surgeon in the Royal Navy proved it could be cured with consumption of citrus fruit. In fact, it was a vitamin C deficiency. The British navy took to bringing limes on sailing expeditions, which was the source of the slang name “Limies” in referring to Brits.

This is but one example.

The medical literature is also full of evidence of the immuno-suppressive effects of drugs, recreational or otherwise. So, why wasn’t this hypothesis – the lifestyle hypothesis – more strenuously pursued back in the early days of AIDS?

The answer would seem to be finance. The discoverers of HIV have made huge fortunes developing and marketing tests, and the big pharmaceutical companies have made fortunes in the selling of highly toxic drugs that are supposed to kill viruses, or keep them from replicating.

Even though those drugs have been implicated in immune suppression themselves, they continue to be marketed to people testing HIV positive.

For additional information, I suggest the reader go to http://www.rethinkingaids.com and read the articles and links on those sites, and keep an open mind!

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine - A Completely Different Approach to Health

Last year I enrolled at Emperors College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Los Angeles.  It happened mostly by accident.  I had been getting treated at the Clinic there, and the students kept assuming that I was also a student (I'd been reading a book on Chinese Medicine so I knew some of the principles).  

Well... next thing I knew I was enrolled in the Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine class.  My analogy for my experience with this is that it was like dipping a toe into a puddle, only to find that it's really an ocean.

The view of human health in the Chinese Medicine approach is completely unlike the view of health in Western Medicine.  This is its real value, I think.  But, that is also its challenge.  It can be hard for the Western mind to conceive that there is something of value there, because what is there is so different from the way we think in the West.  It is so much more than herbs, or acupuncture.  It is a different way of looking at health and illness, which comes from a different way of looking at the world.

Ultimately, the real value in Chinese medicine is the largely Taoist philosophy that underlies this system of medicine.  While Western Medicine seeks to break the living body down into its parts, Chinese Medicine strives to see patterns that unify seemingly unrelated symptoms.  Traditional Chinese Medicine (or TCM) looks inside, at the body, much in the way that the Taoists looked at the world outside - they saw a cycle of seasons and changes that followed one to another.  And, looking inwardly, one can see the same cycles, and can see where the cycle has gotten stuck, or overbalanced.  This is a disharmony that will eventually lead to disease.

For example, in Western Medicine, one would never conclude that ringing in the ears, weak knees, and cold hands and feet - all stem from a single, underlying source.  Yet, any trained Chinese Medicine practitioner would immediately recognize the symptom pattern which I just made up for this example, and be able to classify it as stemming from Kidney weakness.

Not Kidney weakness in the way that we think of it in Western Medicine, requiring dialysis or surgery or medication, but a fundamental weakness in that organ system that would most likely escape the notice of a Western practitioner entirely, or perhaps eventually manifest as more serious symptoms that would then show up in Western testing.

The beauty of Traditional Chinese Medicine is its subtlety, and ability to recognize lack of harmony in the organism, perhaps before the individual has really recognized it for him or herself.  

Some of the diagnostic techniques used in TCM include pulse and tongue diagnosis.  

Pulse diagnosis involves a perception of the strength and quality of many different pulse points found on the wrists of both hands.  By feeling these pulses, the practitioner can detect fine qualities of the pulse that reveal information about the conditions of different organ systems, and treat those that may be weak, or overactive, using herbs, acupuncture, or other types of treatment to strengthen organs or calm overactive organs and areas of the body.

Tongue diagnosis uses a basic principle of TCM, namely that the parts can be used to give one an idea of the condition of the whole.  This concept is explained in Western terms in the book The Holographic Universe.  The analogy of a hologram is made, for example the one used in the famous scene in Star Wars where R2D2 plays a hologram for Princess Leah.

As contrasted with a conventional photograph, in a hologram, one piece of that image contains all of the information of the entire image.  Similarly, in the body, one section or even one cell of the body can be seen to contain all of the information for the entire body.

This is a completely different way of looking at the body, but has been used in TCM for many centuries to diagnose accurately and effectively.  The ears, the feet, and the tongue can reflect changes in the entire body.  With tongue diagnosis, the practitioner can determine if the person is producing excess heat, or is deficient in heat or energy.  They can see where the body is weak, and where it is perhaps overstraining.  Patterns of disharmony can be revealed, and treated.

Another aspect of TCM is its inclusion of emotions and mental reactions in the overall diagnostic picture.  These kinds of things - sleep difficulty with or without dreams, emotional upsets (fear, grief or anger) can help the practitioner identify a pattern as these become associated with different organ patterns, and the emotions themselves can have a role in weakening the organs.

The diagnosis arrived at may be very different from anything a Western doctor would diagnose.  While a Western doctor might arrive at a description of a condition that cannot easily be treated, the goal in TCM is to identify a pattern that can be treated, and indeed, there are conditions in TCM that can be treated that will not be treatable in Western Medicine - a notable example being the common cold.

In fact, there are many types of patterns in Chinese Medicine that would correspond to a "cold" and each would be treated differently.

Also, two patients appearing in a clinic with the same apparent cold symptoms might be treated completely differently depending on the entire symptom package, what their constitutions are, and what kinds of conditions precipitated the "cold."

Thus, TCM makes distinctions where Western Medicine does not.

None of this is to say that there isn't a very clear time and place for treatment with Western Medicine, and practitioners are trained to refer to M.D.'s when that is called for.  But many conditions can be treated with TCM, either alone of in conjunction with Western Medicine, to produce a result that Western Medicine alone could not produce.

A brief comment on acupuncture.  Often people have a concern about the needles.  I think that this is a fear based on the needles used in Western Medicine.  I find the needles used to be mostly painless.  They are hair-thin, and for the most part cannot be felt when they are inserted.  Where there is pain, it isn't really from the needle, itself, but usually from the stagnant energy that is being moved by the needle.  In TCM, stagnation is a principal cause of pain and illness.  This is analagous to a sore muscle.  If one had a massage, at first it might be a bit uncomfortable if the muscle is very tight and painful... but that is really an indicator that circulation is poor and that the muscle needs to be worked on more.

Similarly, in TCM, there is a saying:  "If it hurts, stick a needle in it."  One of the things a practitioner is looking for is pain, which indicates areas and organs where there is stagnation.  The solution is to get things moving.  This, itself, is a bit of a departure from Western thought... where we consider pain something to be suppressed, or avoided, or a signal to avoid contact with that part of the body.  Sometimes, it is just the opposite which is needed, and it may not even be the painful area that needs treatment in order to resolve the pain.  Sometimes the needle can be inserted at a point which is remote from the pain, and the pain will resolve.

But, acupuncture is just one method of treatment used in TCM.  There are many other types of treatment.  Depending on the person's condition, one or more may be recommended, and some practitioners specialize in herbs, or acupuncture... and there are specialists who are expert in particular conditions (reproduction and pregnancy, endocrine, pediatrics, etc.)   

As in any field of healing, you want to look for a practitioner who works with you to get the results you are hoping for.

Vitamin B12 - Critical for Nervous System Health

I've had many people ask me about my recent experience with Vitamin B12 deficiency, and so I want to put together a summary of that information for friends.

My experience with this subject began when I suddenly developed some odd neurological symptoms... numbness in my fingers and toes, then in my mouth (felt like Novocaine), and eventually numbness in areas of my torso and legs.  At first I thought it was due to a chiropractic adjustment, as the symptoms worsened a few days after seeing a chiropractor.  

I had a bunch of blood work done with nothing abnormal showing up.  My B12 levels actually tested higher than normal.  A chiropractor/acupuncturist I went to see thought that I had a viral infection in the brain, and also commented on the fact that I had mercury fillings in my mouth.

As I researched this, I discovered a few interesting things.  My symptoms exactly matched a list of symptoms on the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) site for mercury poisoning.  There is a wealth of information on the Internet on mercury toxicity from amalgam fillings.  As I looked further, I realized that the symptoms of B12 deficiency also matched many of my symptoms - including extreme muscle weakness, exhaustion and weight loss.  A full list of symptoms can be found here:  http://www.mercurypoisoned.com/symptoms.html

The M.D. I had seen suggested that I might have Multiple Sclerosis, and was suggesting I get additional tests - like a Cat Scan or MRI.  

The more I read about B12 deficiency, the more I discovered that it might well be implicated in conditions like MS and Alzheimer's.  I discovered a book on Amazon, Could It Be B12:  An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses.  And then I ran into some information on the internet that correlated the symptoms of B12 deficiency with those of mercury toxicity.

The correlation was this:  When mercury is present in the body (which it shouldn't be, at all, as it is toxic at any dose) - it can interfere with the uptake of vitamin B12 by the central nervous system... it's role there is to help maintain the myelin sheath which forms the insulation on the nerves and allows transmission of nerve signals to be uninterrupted.  See these links for research articles on the mercury/B12 connection: http://www.ever.ch/medizinwissen/b12hg.php

http://www.goodshape.net/MoreB-12.html

Suddenly, it made sense.  I also recalled that I had made some immediate progress when first seeing my alternative medical practitioner.  In addition to giving me some herbs and homeopathic remedies - he had given me a B12 shot!  I decided to find out if my symptoms improved with another B12 shot.  It was a weekend, so I found a local emergency care center and told them I felt I needed a B12 shot.  They didn't have a problem with giving me one - B12 is very benign and adverse reactions to it are extremely rare.  They gave me a shot, and within hours my vision - which had been doubled for weeks - began to clear up!  I knew I was onto something.

I took all of my internet information to another M.D. I'd seen in the past, whose specialty was anti-aging medicine.  The recommended form of B12 for the nervous system is methylcobalamin and it is widely used in some European countries and Japan.  (I also learned that the blood level of B12 which is considered low is 2.5 times the level that we consider low here in the U.S., and consequently they have much lower incidences of diseases such as Alzheimer's in that country).  Fortunately, my doctor knew of methylcobalamin, and prescribed daily injections for me.

When I first saw that M.D., half of my face was paralyzed.  I could barely lift my legs.  I was wearing special glasses to correct my otherwise double vision.  I had lost about 20 lbs. over the previous 4-6 weeks and I was very weak.  All of these symptoms had developed in a matter of a month or so.  

Within a week on daily B12 shots, my symptoms were enormously improved, much of the paralysis already gone and the other symptoms soon followed within weeks.

Neurological symptoms are not the only ones that are seen in B12 deficiency, in fact, by the time these appear the deficiency is probably long progressed.  The tests for serum B12 levels can be misleading, as they were in my case.  Apparently the serum can be high but the body tissues are not absorbing B12 or converting it into the form that the body can use.  And, although B12 can be supplemented in tablet form, the body doesn't easily absorb it through the gut and various gastrointestinal infections and lack of digestive fluids can impede its use.

More sensitive tests for deficiency include the MMA test, which must be done before B12 is supplemented to give an accurate picture.  See more information about the test at http://www.b12.com.

Since B12 is so benign, a trial of B12 injections is one way to determine if symptoms respond.

B12 deficiency is certainly worth looking into for anyone with neurological symptoms, including suspected MS or Alzheimer's.