Category Archives: Cleansing Program

by

Understanding “Fibromyalgia” Part 4: The Chronic Stress Factor

THE HORMONE FAMILY

Before we talk about chronic stress, there’s something we need to understand about the endocrine system and hormones. So, let’s talk about hormones first.

Hormones, I’ve learned, are a family and cannot be isolated and treated separately.  This is likely why “hormone therapy” is the best we can come up with in treating the symptoms of hormone dysfunction.  In medical science, we do not yet know how to restore function to hormonal glands when they malfunction—or, if we do, we’re not taking that route. The sole approach we’re taking with medicine today is the prescribing and ingesting of synthetic hormones, and in some cases the surgical removal of the malfunctioning gland altogether.  Rather barbaric, I’d say, and a testament to our horse-and-buggy approach to sickness and health yet in this the twenty-first century.

Of course, “natural hormone replacement therapy” is now available. But we’re still putting the hormones into the body instead of correcting the malfunction. The old axiom can be applied here: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach him  how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”  You can give the body hormones or restore normal function to its own endocrine system. If you give the body hormones, the demand is taken away and the glands will not be called into action to produce their hormones.

FUNCTIONAL ENDOCRINOLOGY

Here’s were “Functional Medicine” comes into the health care arena to save the day—and our sacred endocrine system.  I’ve taken a few seminars in what is called “Functional Endocrinology” and, believe me, it’s a comprehensive and truly wholistic approach to balancing body chemistry. It also requires specializing, so I would encourage you to seek out an alternative practitioner who specializes in Functional Endocrinology and Clinical Nutrition, or a least uses muscle testing for system strength analysis, such as Contact Reflex Analysis or Quantum Reflex Analysis, in determining functional deficiencies and appropriate nutritional and herbal support.

THE STRESS RESPONSE AND THE “HPA AXIS”

In functional endocrinology we have what is called the “HPA Axis” (Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal).  These are the head coordinators of your endocrine family and are at the core of all hormonal activity, the most common of which is the “fight or flight” stress response.  Here’s how that works. The hypothalamus apprises the pituitary gland about conditions in the body and around it.  It’s the clearing house for information coming in through the five senses via the central nervous system.  It says if it’s hot or cold, dangerous or safe, turbulent or peaceful in your world—including your physical body, your closest and most personal world. The pituitary gland received the information via chemical messengers from the hypothalamus and proceeds to send out a hormone precursor to the adrenal glands (as it does to all the glands) for further hormone production.  The adrenal glands receive the precursors and squirts adrenalin into the blood stream to empower muscle cell activity.  The blood vessels contract and the muscles get ready to act on your command. This is so with all cellular activity in the body. Every cell in your body needs adrenalin to function properly—or to function at all. 

If the stress response is not shut off for a length of time—weeks and months—the stress becomes chronic. Chronic stress is a known contributor to fibromyalgia, as well as Chronic Fatigue (CFS), which is often caused by hypothyroid function. The adrenal and thyroid glands share a close relationship in the hormone family.  The stress response triggers the production of adrenalin to get the muscles moving for flight or fight in the face of a threat—real or imagined.  If a person doesn’t fight or flee from a threat and the threat is not removed, the adrenalin is not used up. 

Adrenalin, like all hormones, becomes a toxin if not used up or removed from the blood stream and muscle tissue.  It is used up in physical exercise.  It is broken down by enzymes and removed by the lymphatic system—which also depends on exercise to move lymph fluid through the tissues and on to its final destination at the left subclavian vein just above the heart where it enters the blood stream.  From there it is sent with the blood to the liver and kidneys to be filtered out and eliminated.  If this doesn’t happen and the adrenalin remains in the tissues, two things happen. One, the adrenal glands are shut down by the pituitary gland, which gets the message from the hypothalamus that there’s no need for more adrenalin as the muscle tissues are saturated with it.  Two, adrenalin, a steroid hormone called “cortisol,” is the bully of the hormone family if it doesn’t get its way.  It wrecks havoc in estrogen chemistry balance and interferes with thyroid function.  

There’s only one answer: deal with the stress factor.  Fight back or flee the situation.  Preferably, resolve it.  Now, you can’t always do that, especially if the stress factor is your job or your marital relationship.  You may need both—for a while anyway— so, denied a successful resolution, you stand or sit there in a state of quiet desperation while chronic stress sets in.  This sends a message to your hypothalamus that you’re not going to do anything about the stress.  A cascade of failures ensue:

  1. The hypothalamus gets confused and frustrated, or at best incoherent, and may simply shut down.
  2. This leaves the pituitary gland without clear and coherent instructions on what hormone precursors are needed by the family members of the endocrine system to make their hormones.  An incoherent pituitary gland spells confusion and depression for the brain.
  3. The thyroid gland falls off in its production of thyroid and parathyroid hormones, directly impacting your metabolism.  You gain weight and lose bone density.
  4. The thymus gland doesn’t get the feedback it needs about outside invaders and the possible need for an immune response.
  5. The Beta cells of the pancreas  (Islets of Langerhans) don’t know how much insulin to make to keep blood sugar balanced, resulting in hypo and/or hyperglycemia.
  6. The adrenal glands just shut down leaving you with restless nights and no stamina during the day.
  7. Finally, the sex hormone glands (the gonads) go haywire without the pituitary gland’s stimulating hormone precursors—the menstrual cycle loses its regularity and your libido shuts down in the absence of any desire to reproduce your stressed-out self.  Survival, not reproduction, growth and healing, is your body’s primary interest at this point.

You get the picture, I believe.  A family feud breaks out among your hormone glands—all because your hypothalamus is confused and your adrenal glands are exhausted. The result is pain and more pain and a complete lack of energy.  (I won’t repeat the diagnostic terms medicine has for these conditions so as not to re-enforce mental fixations that get in the way of healing.)

OXYTOCIN TO THE RESCUE!

There is one out.  Relax, throw your shoulders back, smile and be thankful for your circumstance . . . that you have a circumstance!   A thankful attitude releases oxytocin into the blood stream which disengages the stress response. So does a hug and a hand shake. So, find someone to hug—or just hug yourself— and shake hands with someone, anyone! Get that oxytocin flowing 🙂

CLINICAL NUTRITIONAL TO THE RECOVERY

While medicating for pain and and pep, consider this protocol as a general program until you can find a clinical nutritionist who can evaluate your need more specifically. This protocol will begin giving you back your life and your bubbling personality. The products are all by Standard Process and Medi-Herb. Divide dosages between morning and evening meals,  or between three meals if you’d rather.  

  1. 4 Hypothalmex tablets – ($24/60 tabs)
  2. 4 Symplex F tablets (women),  Symplex M (men) – ($17/90 t)
  3. 4 Black Current Seed Oil pearls – ($15/60 pearls)
  4. 8 Drenamin tablets – ($11/90 t)
  5. 3 Adrenal Complex for adrenal exhaustion – ($21/40 t) 
  6. 3 Thyroid Complex for hypothyroid – ($26/40 t)

To that add these for general wholefood nutritional support: 

  1. 6 Catalyn – ($11/90 tabs) 
  2. 6 Min-Tran – ($6/90  t)
  3. 3 Trace Minerals B12 – ($15/90 t)
  4. 3 Tuna Omega 3 Oil pearls – ($20/120 pearls)

Drop me an email and I’ll have the products drop-shipped directly from Standard Process within a few days.*  The cost for a 30-day supply of the above products with a 10% blog-readers discount is $280.  You will feel so good after taking these therapeutic foods for a month that you will re-order every month for two more months.  After this 90-day intensive therapy period, dosages on most supplements can be reduced to maintenance levels for the next 9 months.  Stay with this program for a year if you want to reap its full benefits.  We’re talking balancing your body chemistry and not just treating the symptoms of hormone imbalances for the rest of your life.  

*Drop-shipping applies to orders within the USA.  Postage and handling for out-of-county shipping will apply.

TOTAL PROTOCOL SUMMARY

1. First, detoxify. Do a 21-day total body purification using the Purification Kit by Standard Process. The cost: $240.  Repeat this purification program every 4 months for a year, then twice a year thereafter.

2. For gouty arthritis and fluid retention, abstain from highly seasoned and high purine foods (turkey, pork, heavy beef, lentils, dried beans, avocados, and beer) and take the following: 

  1. AC Carbamide  – 3 capsules with a tall glass of purified or spring water three times a day to support the kidneys in removing uric acid from the blood and excess fluid from the tissues. ($18/90 caps)  
  2. Iodomere  – 2 tablets with meals (6 a day) for thyroid support and to help the kidneys take up fluid. ($19/90 tabs) 
  3. DermaCo herbal – one or two tablet per day to help maintain a normal level of uric acid in the bloodstream. ($28/40 tabs) 

3.  During and after the 21-day purification, support your lymphatic system with daily brisk walks or rebounding exercise and take the following:

  1.  Take 10 drops of Lymphapar sublingual 3 times daily for 7 days then once daily for 90 days. ($14/1 oz bottle. You’ll need 3 or 4 bottles.  Email me and I’ll send you some as this is not an SP product.) 
  2. Add to that 1 Cal Amo tablet with each meal for 30 days. ($12/90 tabs)
  3. Take 4 Allerplex capsules twice a day to help get rid of metabolic waste and histamines, particularly from the lungs and bronchial tubes. ($24/150 caps)

 4.  Next, support your immune system with the following supplements over the first 90 days:

  1. Echinacea Premium (2/day)
  2. Immuplex (6/day),
  3. Thymex (6/day),
  4. St. John’s Wort (2/day) – Contraindicated with life-dependent medicines as it detoxifies drugs in the liver.
  5. Astragalus (2/day)  

5. Support the stress-response and hormone system as detailed above.   

Take this in steps and stages, and don’t rush the process.  You didn’t get fibromyalgia or CFS overnight.  Allow one month of correction for every year of chronic illness after going through a 90-day intensive.  It takes that long to turn a deteriorating health pattern around and build an integrating health pattern. And, above all, be patient—and aim to maintain an attitude of gratitude! 🙂

This completes my consideration of  fibromyalgia.  I will resume my series “Seven Glands for Seven Spirits” with the next post.  Until then,

Here’s to your health and healing . . . and a happy and healthy holiday season.

Dr. Anthony Palombo

tpal70@gmail.com

Visit my second blog, HealingTones.org, for intriguing thought around the current cosmic event, “4th Density Apocalypse 2012, Part 3: The Ascension Process.” 

85 countries have visited my blogs:  ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BELGIUM, BOLIVIA, BOSNIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CANADA, CHILI, COLOMBIA, CROATIA, CYPRUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GHANA, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRAQ, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, LEBANON, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, KUWAIT, MALAYSIA, MALTA, MEXICO, MOLDOVA, MONTENEGRO, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, REUNION (Island), ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SAUDI ARABIA, SERBIA, SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SRI LANKA,SUDAN,  SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, TANSANIA (UNITED REP. OF TZ), THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UKRAINE, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, VIET NAM, ZIMBABWE (South Africa)

Welcome Iraq, Ukraine and Malta! And Sudan! And Moldova!  And Bosnia! Welcome All!

 

   

by

Understanding Fibromyalgia,Part 2: Its Etiology and Cure


THINK “OUTSIDE THE BOX” TO FIND ANSWERS

There’s a saying that we will not solve problems by thinking at the same level as the problem. We have to think at a level above that of the problem.  This saying is most applicable here.  We have to think outside the box of orthodox medicine, wherein the diagnoses of ill conditions originate, in order to find answers.  Not the conditions themselves, but the labels we’ve placed on them in medical science. So, let’s step outside this box to take a look at this condition called “fibromyalgia” and see if we can understand it and find solutions for healing.

So far we’ve established that the label of “fibromyalgia” is a “wastebasket” diagnosis, a catch-all for numerous symptoms, primary of which are pain and inflammation.  We’ve come to understand that pain and inflammation trigger a healing response in the body, the inflammation itself telling you that you are okay, even with the pain. Nothing is “wrong” with your body.  It’s working fine.  A healing process is underway.  All you can do is support it and try to discover what is inflicting the injury to your cells that’s creating the pain that’s triggering the inflammation and eliminate it.  

Inflammation is normal—as long as it doesn’t last a long time where it becomes chronic inflammation, which means the body has accepted it as part of the status-quo and adapted itself to its necessity. . . mainly because the triggers of pain have not been eliminated.  When the triggers of pain have been removed, those things that are bringing on the assault to your body’s cells, the necessity for your immune system’s inflammatory response and the subsequent need for a healing process has also been removed.  This essentially is what the “cure” of “fibromyalgia” entails.

DEALING WITH THE PAIN

Before you shut off the pain with pain pills, consider this. If you shut off the pain you stand the risk of shutting down the healing process as well.  Deal with the triggers of the pain, what is assaulting your body cells and injuring them and making them holler “STOP!”  Your body’s healing process may not kick in if the brain isn’t getting the pain signal.

You can deal with the pain using natural solutions that also address the condition and support the healing process.  Here are a few you can start applying as you back off your pain medication:

  1. Boswellia Complex by Medi-Herb, a great anti-inflammatory, especially effective with inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract.  It comes out of Australia where world-renown master herbalist Kerry Bone developed the very finest line of herbal preparations and brought them here via Standard Process Labs, its affiliate company.  It’s a bit pricey at $55.50 for a 90-tablet bottle, but well worth it.  Medi-Herb products are only available through licensed health practitioners.  I offer my readers a 15% on all Standard Process and Medi-Herb product orders.
  2. Tuna Omega 3 Oil—Oil, especially fish oil, is nature’s coolant and insulator.  Omega 3 oil insulates the cell against oxidation and will cool down inflammation. The quality of the oil is critical as oil easily goes rancid during processing where heat is used.  Standard Process takes great care in processing their oils.   Their Tuna Omega 3 Oil is the very finest of all fish oils on the market. 
  3. Calamari Omega3 Liquid—A natural anti-inflammatory oil especially effective with joint pains and arthritis.
  4. Nopalea (“No-pah lay’ uh”)—a tasty wellness drink sourced from the fruit of the Nopal cactus that thrives in the Sonoras Desert of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.  It contains nutrients that can help the body reduce inflammation, detoxify, relieve many types of pain, promote optimal cellular health and energy.  You can obtain it from me or order it online at www.sonoranbloom.com/14348092 . ($40 for a 32 oz bottle plus S&H)
  5. AC Carbamide —another remarkable Standard Process product for dealing with pain caused by acidic body fluids, such as in gouty arthritis, because it acts as a buffer for uric acid.  What carbamide actually does is enhance the flow of fluid through the tissue cell walls. Therefore it acts as a natural diuretic which does not leach out Potassium, which pharmaceutical diuretics do.  It’s reasonably priced at $18 for 90 capsules and $48 for 270 capsules.

POSSIBLE CAUSES AND TRIGGERS

1. Toxicity:  from chemicals and food additives, the most common and offensive one being aspartame, present in all diet drinks. (Click on the word to read my blog post on it.)  Get it out of your diet altogether. Use Stevia instead.  I use Green Leaf because it doesn’t leave an aftertaste.  There’s nothing wrong with raw sugar and honey in moderation, unless you have a weight problem and/or a sugar issue, as sugar and honey do spike insulin. Insulin carries glycogen to cells for energy, which is stored as fat when not burned up by physical exercise.  Other food additive, such as preservatives, color and flavor enhancers, are toxins that become “free radicals” in the body.  Free radicals are molecules with atoms that need an electron or two to stabilize them.  They’ll get what they need from your cell walls, making the cells vulnerable to oxidation and invasion by bacteria and viruses. You can hardly get away from these free radical toxins, but you can protect your cells from damage by consuming food rich in antioxidants and supplementing with fish and wheat germ oils and other antioxidant supplements. * (See footnote below for details and a list of foods.)

2.  Food sensitivities: sometimes erroneously called “food allergies.”  The most common ones are wheat and corn gluten and dairy.  “Gluten Intolerance” is widespread, as evidenced by the increasing number of gluten-free products in the marketplace. It’s the protein in these foods that get into the blood stream through an intestinal wall that has become eroded and “leaky,” as it is often characterized.  A “leaky gut” can be the way that undigested proteins get into your blood stream and trigger an inflammatory response.  The gut can be repaired. 

You can rule out food sensitivities quite simply by eliminating suspect foods from your diet for a couple of weeks and then adding them back in to see how you feel eating them as opposed to how you felt abstaining from them.  If you notice a difference, then you can be sure that your intestines are permeable.  Eliminate those foods that make you feel bad until your gut is repaired.  

The gut can be easily repaired with enzyme therapy and a wonderful herbal product by Medi-Herb, Gut Flora Complex.  There’s no fast fix. This takes time, sometimes up to a year, depending on the extent of the erosion. Raw okra provides mucous digesting and tissue repair enzymes.  Mucous is made of undigested protein that has become acidic and eats away at the lining of the intestines.  Standard Process Labs makes an effective product called Okra Pepsin E3. The Vitamin “E3” part is the healing aspect of this product, so I emphasize the uniqueness of this wholefood formula. Enzyme therapy consists of taking enzymes on an empty stomach so that the enzymes are used up repairing the intestinal wall rather than in digesting foods.  Proteolitic enzymes in Multizyme  and Zymex II from Standard Process will complete the digestion of the protein in the mucous and digest any parasites, another cause of “leaky gut.” Standard Process and Medi-Herb products are available through my office.

3. Insulin can trigger inflammation if there’s more in the blood stream than the cells of the body can use in a day’s time, a condition called “hyperinsulism.” Cells have receptor sites (parking spots) for insulin molecules to deliver their packages of glycogen (blood sugar) to the cells for energy.  When those receptor sites get filled up, the insulin molecules can’t park, so they stay in the blood stream where they can irritate and erode the walls of the blood vessels. This causes inflammation that triggers a healing and repair process to keep the blood vessels from leaking.

The Cholesterol Patch vs Statin Drugs

The body uses fat to plug the leaks until the vessel wall can be properly repaired.   Cholesterol is the name given to this fat, and plaque is what the patch is called. With a little critical thinking one can see how by removing the trigger for the excess insulin you remove the necessity for the cholesterol patch and the extra cholesterol production by your liver, which we are not wise in preventing with Statin drugs. The body does not make mistakes and produce cholesterol for no good reason.  Adding Statin drugs is an insult to the body’s innate intelligence . . . and it damages the liver and causes leg pains with extended use.

A 30-day Cure for “Type II Diabetes” 

Insulin is spiked by sugar and starches, so one can back away from these spikes.  By the way, what I’ve just described is what is labeled “type II diabetes” or “insulin-resistance.”   This can easily be remedied by abstaining completely from insulin-triggering foods for 30 days: all refined carbohydrates, white rice, pasta, white flour products, Irish potatoes (red new potatoes are okay), sugar, and sweet fruits (red grapes, prunes and plums are okay).  This will free up insulin receptor sites on the cells.  After 30 days you can resume eating all of these foods—except refined carbohydrates, which should be avoided by everyone. This is simple and doable by anyone with the will and determination to take an active role in one’s healthcare and wellness.

Chromium and Gymnema Sylvestri 

Another factor can be a lack of receptor sites due to a deficiency of chromium, a trace mineral used to create insulin receptor sites, found in few foods we consume on a regular basis.  It’s in Brewer’s Yeast.  It wouldn’t hurt to simply take a chromium supplement, such as Cataplex GTF by Standard Process (the GTF stands for glucose tolerance factor derived from nutritional yeast, a very important distinction to look for in choosing a chromium supplement).  

The herb “gymnema sylvestri” is used plentifully in Australia to manage blood sugar, and Medi Herb again comes to the rescue with its product simply called Gymnema.  Support to the pancreas is easily administered with the supplement Diaplex by Standard Process. Include some whole food Cataplex B to insure the production of insulin if you are insulin deficient.  “Insulin dependence” is another limitation altogether, but then, again, you can control the level of blood sugar with Gymnema and thereby reduce your daily dose of insulin.  Do this only with your doctor’s supervision.  He may not approve, so you may need to assert your preference and autonomy by saying “I want to do this.  Will you help me?”  If your doctor will not participate with you, then simply find a doctor who will. 

Here, again, it is necessary to be bone honest about how important of a role the label “diabetes” is playing in your life, defining your very sense of self.  If your body is having a problem handling sugar, that does not make you a “diabetic.”  You are still a human being with a free will and spirit.  Why settle for anything less—a medical diagnosis, of all things—for your identity? It does make a difference in your consciousness how you perceive yourself. Here’s where the primary changes can take place in order to change your reality. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” 

Heal Dis-ease in Consciousness First 

Miracles happen when changes occur in consciousness, and one of the limitations in consciousness preventing the “cure” of diabetes and other so-called “incurable diseases” is the very belief that they are entities in themselves and that they are incurable.  No disease is incurable! Diabetes, like Fibromyalgia, is not an entity, except in someone’s consciousness, which means that it is an illusion.  It doesn’t exist, except as a diagnostic term, a word that describes a condition of deficiency and malfunction in the body. Deficiencies and malfunctions can be corrected.  “Diseases” cannot be “cured” because they are not entities in themselves, no more than darkness is something. Darkness is nothing.  It’s the absence of something—light!  In exactly the same way, disease is nothing.   It’s the absence of something—health!    

Did you see what I just did? I did a “thought-interrupt”—a flip in perspective— a consciousness update.  Did you do it with me? That’s what really counts and what gives this blog its value as an educational medium.  Now, I wonder what would happen if we were to remove the illusion of disease from our consciousness? Stopped giving health conditions diagnostic labels?  Do you see where we might actually be able to start reading symptoms in terms of deficiencies and malfunctions and understand what we might do to correct them if we were not preoccupied shadow-boxing “disease”?

DETOXIFY, DETOXIFY, DETOXIFY. . . AND MOVE!

I highly recommend a total body detox and purification at least three times during the year, preferably every three months.  Standard Process offers a 21-day Purification Product Kit which includes all the products you will need plus a comprehensive guide booklet.  Your cells are swimming in their own acidic metabolic waste.  Little wonder they hurt.  They are in so much pain that they are committing suicide.  It’s called “apoptosis” but it’s nonetheless suicide. Dying and decaying cells add to the toxic waste.  Lymph glands become congested with too much to handle.  Lymph depends on muscle movement for its circulation and pain is making exercise difficult.  But just a 20 to 30 minute walk four times a week and preferably every day would suffice.

Write me for the full-body detoxification program and the Purification Kit. It’s very easy to do and absolutely required at the onset of your adventure in restoring your health.  You’ll lose ten to twenty pounds as a bonus.  Just do it. 

We have a little more to cover on possible causes and triggers and this post is already long and dense enough. So, we’ll continue next week and complete this special then return to our Seven Glands for Seven Spirits series.  Until then, here’s to your health and healing, 

Dr. Anthony Palombo

Visit my HealingTones.org blog for an engaging consideration of “Fourth Density Apocalypse 2012” 

Write me at tpal70@gmail.com for personal attention to your situation.  My consultation fee is very reasonable, and product acquisition easy and fast.

*An antioxidant is a molecule that inhibits the oxidation of other molecules. Oxidation is a chemical reaction that transfers electrons or hydrogen from a substance to an oxidizing agent. Oxidation reactions can produce free radicals. In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When the chain reaction occurs in a cell, it can cause damage or death to the cell. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates, and inhibit other oxidation reactions. They do this by being oxidized themselves, so antioxidants are often reducing agents such as thiols, ascorbic acid [Vitamin C ], or polyphenols…. For example, honey; most legumes; fruits such as apples, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, pomegranate, cherries, cranberries, grapes, pears, plums, raspberries, aronia berries, and strawberries; and vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, celery, onion and parsley are rich in polyphenols. Red wine [resveratrol], dark chocolate, white tea, green tea, olive oil, argan oil, bee pollen and many grains are sources. Ingestion of polyphenols occurs by consuming a wide array of plant foods.  (Wikipedia). 

78 Countries now visiting my blogs: 

ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BAHRAIN, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CANADA, CHILI, COLOMBIA, CROATIA, CYPRUS, CZECH REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, LEBANON, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, KUWAIT, MEXICO, MALAYSIA, MONTENEGRO, THE NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, REUNION (Island), ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SAUDI ARABIA, SERBIA, SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SRI LANKA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, TANSANIA (UNITED REP. OF TZ), THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, VIET NAM, ZIMBABWE (South Africa)s

Welcome Lebanon! And Bahrain!! And Guatemala!!!

 
by

The Thymus Gland, page 2: Purification in the Heart

THE CRUCIBLE OF THE HEART

I’ve known my heart all of my life as a secret place where calm waters run deep bearing passionate feelings and dark mysteries.  Mostly it’s been a crucible for the clarification of “busy thoughts and troubled feelings,” to borrow a poetic line from my spiritual mentor.  At times intense heat has been required to burn away the dross and separate out the gold of authenticity.  The end result, hopefully, is a purer heart of gold . . . but that doesn’t just happen without work, mostly the work of holding still and seeing the “salvation of the Lord.”

I watched a NOVA program on PBS yesterday about an ancient Viking Ulfberht sword that was made of iron tempered and purified by a fire of intense heat.  A modern-day swordsmith reverse engineered this ultimate weapon of the Middle Ages—“a sword both prized and feared.”  The hand-made furnace used to purify and extract the iron from the ore was heated up to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. A side visit to a foundry showed molten iron flowing through a trough on its way to being cooled and formed into raw materials for various industrial purposes.  I noted that on the surface of this rolling molten iron flow was carried a thin layer of dross, stuff that was separated out from ore.  I was struck at how little dross there was compared to the huge mass of red-hot iron metal.  The metal of this sword had to have a minimal amount of impurities or else it would be brittle and snap under pressure.

What came to mind was the purification of the human heart, a healing process that reveals the “gold in the wound” contemporary health and transformation authors write about. The human race is in the throes of such a purification process today, violently apparent in the turmoil of the Middle East.  The furnace of the human heart is being heated “seven times hotter than it is want to be heated,” as in the Biblical story of Daniel and his three friends who were thrown into the fiery furnace only to see their bonds burned and nothing more.  Love’s fire has to be hot enough to burn the impurities in our hearts if they are not to be brittle and snap under pressure. 

The Spirit of Purification is dominant today as the gold is being separated from the dross in the heart of Humanity.  Yet, as with the molten iron, there is just a little surface dross compared to the gold being purified.  Judging by the volatile surface activity of war and violence reported on by the daily news media alone, our world seems doomed and coming apart . . . and so it may well be doomed—to failure.  It needs to fail.  What we’ve created on the surface of this planet is not a world based on love, as the planet herself is.  It will come apart to free up space and substance for a new creation. We’re at odds with our natural habitat and the Earth’s immune system has kicked in big time to rid itself of our parasitic activities.  

But look at what the radar of the media ignores for its lack of violence and political drama.  You don’t have to look very hard to see authentic and caring people all around you.  There’s a lot more gold than dross coming out of people’s hearts. Satchmo (Louie Armstrong) had it right when he sang . . .

 “The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people passing by. I see friends shaking hand, saying ‘How do you do?’  They’re really saying ‘I love you.’  I hear babies cry, I see them grow, they’ll know much more than I’ll ever know.  And I say to myself, ‘What a wonderful world!'”  

Another Biblical passage about gold tried in fire also came to mind. So I looked it up and here’s what John of Revelation wrote:

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.  (Rev. 3:15-22) 

I love this passage.  Just reading it I can feel the current of the author’s spirit moving in my heart as a cleansing and soothing fire.  

IT TAKES PERFECT LOVE 

Things come up daily into the human heart from out of the subconscious, triggered by external events, to be cleansed out of the life-blood of the Body of God on Earth—which Humanity is, and in which we as body cells each play our vital roles.  Our hearts are crucibles for the purifying fire of Love—stepped down by the endocrine gland of the Thymus to a lower voltage by the Spirit of Purification so as not to fry our flesh—and Love would indeed evaporate our flesh were it to move through the body in its purest essence.  This is the essential role of the seven endocrine glands as transformers that step down the high-voltage current of Love so that it can move through the body in a creative way without burning the cells of the body.

The “fire of kundalini,” for instance, released without knowledge and wisdom can do that if one plays with this fire for personal gain and gratification.  Released wisely, however, in a current of upward worship with unconditional love and utter abandon to the Father within, this fire burns the dross of shame and guilt quickly and painlessly at its hot outer edges. At its core, however, burns a cool, blue flame.  In this uplifting, rapturous current one could linger forever.

One needn’t be in such an ecstatic state, however, to experience the purification of gold in one’s heart.  Opportunities present themselves throughout the day.  How many times does fear grip the heart during these days of economic uncertainty and threats of terror?  It is easily said that “perfect love casts out fear,” but what is perfect love and how can one maintain it in today’s toxic and turbulent world?  

We might say that perfect love is simply love for that which is perfect. You might ask “What in this world is perfect?”  Well, life is perfect and prevails yet in its myriad forms in the natural world—blossoming even in the wild flowers along side the concrete highways.  

You might then ask “What in me is perfect?” Again, the answer is life.  You’re still breathing, aren’t you?  The Master Jesus pointed to the Father within as being perfect: “Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as you heavenly father is perfect.”  He didn’t say “strive to be perfect” but “be” perfect.  BE that.  

How do I become perfect.  I become what I give my heart’s response to.  If I give my heart over to the issues of the troubled world, then I become cynical and bitter, critical, angry and resentful.  How often do you find yourself saying “That just burns me up” when someone says or does something that irritates you? Well, it may burn up something in your heart but not you.  Good reason to give thanks. But when I give my heart’s response to love and appreciation, patience and forgiveness, and express these qualities through my words and actions, then that is what I know, and that is perfect love.  THAT is what I am.

ENERGY GOES WHERE OUR ATTENTION GOES

In the Creative Process we are by our very nature constantly engaged in creation.  Our creative energies always go toward that to which we give our attention.  Everything is energized by love.  There’s not anything outside of love.  Love is all and all is love.  Troubling thoughts and feelings that come into my mind and heart daily from out of what is called the “collective unconscious” are nothing more than erratic energy seeking its return to Source through me—for purification and transformation.  What I do with them is crucial to my experience of life as a human being and cell in the larger body of Mankind.  I can either go down and out with the thought and feeling, identify with it and claim it as my own, even defend it, or I can let it come in and see it as simply passing through me on its way to be recycled, the energy of it to be reclaimed and absorbed back into the creative cycles of life.  Emotions play an important role in this process.

Here’s where the heart comes in to play its role as a caldron in times of agitated activity.  That’s a very apt description of the thymus gland’s role as well. The heart is for holding the things of spirit so they can be purified and either lifted up or sent forth (emoted) as creative passion to achieve one’ s purposes and intentions.  That energetic emotion will go toward whatever it is I give my attention, to energize it and give it life.  That’s what we do as creator beings. We create, and that’s how we do it—consciously and responsibly or, as the case may too often be, unconsciously and irresponsibly.  It’s so much more fun to live and create consciously . . . for everyone!

We can and do have our own thoughts that come out of heaven, to use a familiar term.  Inspired thoughts, intuitive feelings and gut instincts are initially subtle energies carrying messages from within.  We can best receive them in the quiet space of stillness and meditation, when we’ve managed to shut out the noise of the world, enter our “closet” and pray.  Given space in our heart of hearts, they become compelling energies with the force of love for the truth behind them that carries with it our undeniable authority as divine beings.  

Eckhert Tolle says it all ever so gently in a letter posted recently on Facebook by my life partner and friend:  

Dear Friends, The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (a true Philosopher-King), wrote: “Welcome every experience the looms of fate may weave for you…” So, instead of resenting your experience of the present moment, accept it the way it is. I call it: dropping all unnecessary baggage (irritation, anger, complaining, being the victim…). There is then a beauty and aliveness to each moment. Also: the good deepens, the unpleasant dissolves more quickly, and any action you take is more effective. And above all, there is a background of inner peace to whatever you are experiencing.  With love, Eckhart

May that inner peace be with you always for your health and healing,

Anthony Palombo, DC

  Visit my HealingTones.org blog for some interesting reading about “Pyramid Power.”

71 countries now visit my blogs:  ALBANIA, ARGENTINA, AUSTRALIA, AUSTRIA, BAHAMAS, BANGLADESH, BARBADOS, BELARUS, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CANADA, CHILI, COLOMBIA, CROATIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, FINLAND, FRANCE, GEORGIA, GERMANY, GREECE, HONG KONG, HUNGARY, ICELAND, INDIA, INDONESIA, IRELAND, ISRAEL, ITALY, JAMAICA, JAPAN, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, KUWAIT, MEXICO, MALAYSIA, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NORWAY, PAKISTAN, PANAMA, PERU, PHILLIPPINES, PORTUGAL, PUERTO RICO, ROMANIA, RUSSIAN FEDERATION, SAUDI ARABIA, SERBIA SPAIN, SINGAPORE, SLOVAKIA, SLOVENIA, SOUTH AFRICA, SYRIAN ARABIA, REPUBLIC OF (SOUTH) KOREA, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TAIWAN, TANSANIA (UNITED REP. OF TZ), THAILAND, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, TURKEY, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, UNITED KINGDOM, USA, VENEZUELA, VIET NAM, ZIMBABWE.

Welcome BOLIVIA!  

by

An Alternative to Drugs: A Change in Perception and Consciousness, Part 1

My wife, who is a master’s level professional counselor,  just brought to my attention an interview in the current issue of The SUN magazine by Arnie Cooper of Christopher Lane, “Side Effects May Include – On What’s Wrong With Modern Psychiatry.” In the interview, Lane, an English professor specializing in Victorian literature and intellectual history, exposes the hard facts about how mental “diseases” are reportedly multiplying. Apparently new disorders are being added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) every year.  

In his tenacious endeavor to find answers as to why so many of his own students were on anti-anxiety and anti-depressant drugs, and as to the emergence in 1980 of dozens of new mental disorders in the third edition of the DSM — such “curious-sounding” diagnoses as “‘social phobia'” and “‘avoidance personality disorder'” — and especially as to “how and why those new disorders had been approved for inclusion [in the DSM] and whether they were really bona fide illnesses,” Lane found, to his dismay but not surprise, an active involvement of Pharmacia & Upjohn, the drug company who makes the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, “especially in the promotion of ‘panic disorder.'”  He also found evidence of sloppy research and “dismissal of nonmedical approaches to psychiatric problems, and a degree of inventiveness with terms and symptoms that struck him as playing fast and loose with the facts.”

When asked “Are we getting sicker, or is something else at play?” Lane’s answer reminded me of the phenomenal growth in size of the Physicians Desk Reference (PDR) over the last 50 years I’ve been in practice.  I used to be able to hold the book in one hand and turn the pages with the other.  Now, I have to place it on a table or desk to even handle it. It grew in thickness from about two inches to six, and much of that growth is due to the increase in new drugs that treat the side effects of drugs, what are called “iatrogenic (doctor-caused) diseases.”  Are we getting sicker or have we become a drug-addicted and drug-damaged society?  Lane’s answer is worth excepting from the interview:

The way psychiatrists define mental illness has itself changed radically.  The first two editions of the DSM focused on observable traits and behaviors in patients, which were often described as “reactions” to particular incidents or stressors.  When the third edition came out in 1980, it defined virtually everything as a “disorder,” which connotes an innate, lifelong malfunctioning of the brain rather than a moment of psychological distress that might be due to a brief change in circumstance.  This new method of defining mental disease has completely transformed the way mental-health professionals and the general public think about it.

When asked again if it is possible that we are in fact getting sicker, he responded with alarming words about how the industry is viewing our children: 

I think it’s difficult to gauge that accurately. If you follow the APA’s line [American Psychiatric Association], then most definitely we’re seeing epidemic rates of social anxiety disorder and bipolar disorder, with the latter expanding by an eye-popping 4,000 percent.  But how did that massive increase come about? It’s due almost entirely to the fact that the DSM-IV formalized bipolar as a mental disorder among children.  Before that, bipolar disorder was understood to be exclusively an adult phenomenon. Psychiatrists like to revise everything backward, to rewrite the past in terms of their current terminology.  Doing so makes their new terminology seem natural, even inevitable. There are more than a hundred more mental disorders in the DSM today than we had in 1968, including incredible new ones such as “sibling-relational problem” and even “partner-relational problem.”  But I’m not convinced that the introduction of new illnesses means that more people are actually sicker.

Lane then goes on to say this about the quality of the APA’s trials in determining the criteria for mental illness:

I have extensively researched the APA archives and can attest that their judgments were often flimsy and their rationale for including new disorders questionable, based as they were on anecdotal evidence, ambiguous clinical research, and highly inconclusive trials.  One of the consultants for the DSM-III, Theodore Millon, admitted to The New Yorker in 2005 that there was little systemic research; much of it, he said, was inconsistent and hodgepodge.  He was an active participant on the DSM committee.

Lane’s research seeded and spurred the authoring of his book in 2007, Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, in which he shares his observations of the evolution of the understanding of mental disorders which gradually began to include normal reactions to one’s environment and upbringing.  Such normal behavior began to be seen as “innate conditions of brain chemistry, resulting from problematic levels of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin.”  Under the expanded guidelines of the DSM, anyone who is shy stands the risk of being diagnosed as mentally ill.

GOOD NEWS TO THE DRUG INDUSTRY 

“The new disorders were obviously music to the ears of drug companies,” he says, “insofar as they massively increased the market for their products, which the media greeted with incredible enthusiasm.” Of course the media would be enthused. In 2000 alone GlaxoSmithKline spent $92 million on direct-to-consumer advertising on a single drug, Paxil, a drug that has so many side effects and such dubious results that the company seriously considered shelving it only to turn around and make a blockbuster out of it with an annual revenue surpassing $1 billion. As Lane points out, they have to create and sell the disease to the public before they sell the drug.  The expectation is that we will self-diagnose and hurry to our local pharmacy to buy their new product.

Are we going to continue allowing the drug industry to invent diseases and determine what behaviors and symptoms are to be included in the DSM as illnesses based on what new drugs they’ve developed that need a disease to treat and a shelf to fill in the drugstore?

“EMOTIONAL BLUNTING” A SIDE EFFECT  

One of the side effects of all this massive consumption of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs is described as “emotional blunting,” a widely noted and studied phenomenon where people on these drugs may show little if any strong emotion in the face of catastrophes and environmental crises, such as the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or sensitive enough moral and ethical judgement that allowed space for risky bank practices and real estate speculation. Lane decries the lack of resistance on the part of Americans to Bush’s $4 trillion illegal and ill justified Iraq war, an economic setback that conservatives among us appear to have conveniently forgotten as they blame our present economic crisis on our Democratic President.  Are we as a nation over-drugged to the point of emotional numbness where we can’t think clearly or feel compassion and consideration anymore?

IS THERE A RISK TO PUBLIC HEALTH?  TO OUR CHILDREN? 

Traces of Lithium are showing up in municipal drinking water, not to mention the homeopathic coding of our drinking water by the mere presence of these traces of antidepressants, antibiotics and other prescription drugs in the water.  Mass medication is taking place without public awareness, much less outcry. There’s no public outcry either against the forced drugging of our children with amphetamines (Adderall and Ritalin – read my blog on this) instead of giving them a healthier alternative to sugar and caffeine laden soft drinks and refined carbohydrate snacks, although there is finally some movement in that direction by our school system.

Lane says that undergraduates are taking “neuroenhancers” . . . in large numbers . . . apparently not recognizing the difference between caffeine and what is essentially refined amphetamines.  To the extent that real learning and deep efforts in creativity are being replaced by adjustments in brain chemistry — potentially involving tens of thousands of students across the country — I would consider that a risk to public health, to say nothing of a phenomenon that should raise concerns about academic integrity and cheating  

A CHANGE IN PERCEPTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS NEEDED

I’ve cited this interview as an example in the healthcare industry of how the field of professional medical providers will gladly accommodate our demand for drugs to alleviate our pain, be it physical pain or mental anxiety and depression.  That demand arises largely out of the way we perceive ourselves, our pain and mental anxiety, and the state of consciousness in which we form our perceptions, most of which are based on beliefs we’ve held since childhood.

 An example that readily comes to mind is the automatic assumption, when pain arises, that something is wrong and a doctor is needed to tell us what’s wrong and give us something for the pain, preferable find and correct the cause of the pain so that we won’t need the pain killer — which is what I do as a holistic physician and people respond favorably to that kind of rationale.

NOTHING IS WRONG! EVERYTHING MATTERS!

My approach to pain and illness is that nothing is wrong but the symptoms do matter. The symptoms of pain and anxiety are important messages from the body that a change is needed in the way I’m living life.  They matter, in other words, and we are not wise in our rush to turn off the symptoms with drugs, or high potency vitamins and herbs, for that matter, and thereby miss the message.  For unless the message is properly perceived and duly heeded, the symptoms will return, only next time louder and more attention grabbing, for which the doctor will prescribe yet stronger medicine and/or more invasive procedures.  So, while dealing with the pain for relief, let’s discover what the pain alarm is about so we can address the underlying cause.

A typical example of what I’m saying occurs in my practice on a regular basis. The patient presents with a chronic back pain for which various doctors, including chiropractors, were consulted and treatments rendered with no lasting results.  Being a chiropractor, I naturally look for a structural problem, such as a hip or spinal vertebra out of alignment irritating a nerve root.  But that’s already been done, so I listen more deeply and broaden my perception while tracing the symptoms back to uncover a deeper and perhaps more obscure and subtle cause. Invariably, upon muscle testing and a comprehensive investigation into the patient’s case history and life style habits, a bladder infection more often than not reveals itself.  So we treat the bladder infection for a period of time with herbs and nutritional protocols and the chronic back pain goes away for good.  

Another example is the chronic neck ache, the crick in the neck that just won’t go away, even with chiropractic adjustments.  So we listen and look deeper for less obvious causes and invariably a lymphatic congestion reveals itself as the cause, resulting in lymph node swelling and tenderness in the neck  So, we treat the lymphatics with herbs and homeopathic solutions and the crick in the neck, as well as the recurring or lingering headache, clear up.  An adjustment wasn’t needed after all . . . nor muscle relaxers.  

Often a stiff neck is simply a physiological response to emotional stress, the body asking for deeper issues to be dealt with and resolved. Here is where true counseling is needed.  I offer BioEnergetic Synchronization Technique (BEST) as a non-invasive treatment for emotional and mental stress issues.  Basically it’s a way of desensitizing emotional “buttons” that are being pushed by triggers in one’s environment and social setting. 

We will continue with this theme next blog post with a consideration of some alternative approaches to depression and mental illness, as well as a look at how we can go about changing our perception and consciousness around health issues in general. Until then, consider a drug-free life style.  

To your health and healing,

Dr. Tony Palombo

Visit me on the Web at www.healingandattunementl.com and visit my Healing Tones blog for inspirational reading. We are considering the significance of the Pineal Gland and Galactic Orientation as we travel through space on our planet.

Reference: The SUN, March 2012 – Issue 435

 

by

Bone Remodeling and Osteoporosis

To understand osteoporosis and the popular medical “remedy” Fosamax, it is necessary to understand the process of bone remodeling.  And, yes, bones do remodel themselves.  The cycle takes 100 days.  It occurs throughout life through a regulated process of osteoclast-mediated bone resorption coupled to osteoblast-mediated bone formation.

BONE REMODELING

Now, let me walk you through the process in terms easily grasped by the layman.  Bone is a dynamic tissue that is constantly being resorbed and remodeled.  As with all organs and tissues of the body, muscular and skeletal included, the cells that compose them die and are replaced, resulting in a renewal of these organs and tissues in cycles that are determined  by their use, wear and tear.  For example, the hardest working muscle in the body, the heart, is replaced cell by cell, on an average, every thirty days.  The next most used organ, the stomach, is replaced over a period of ninety days; the remaining organs approximately every twelve months.  Your skeletal and muscular systems, however, take much longer to replace themselves — seven years on an average.

What happens is simple: bone cells and the collagen that holds them in place are dissolved and the minerals that comprise the bone cells are reclaimed in a process called “resorption.”  This is done by little workhorses called “osteoclasts.” These demolition cells, literally bone-breakers by derivation, are regulated by estrogen in women and estrogen converted testosterone in men.

Osteoblasts are cells that lay down the collagen matrix for bone remodeling. In a word, they replace bone cells after they are demolished by the osteoclasts.

THE ROLE OF ESTROGEN (Estrodiol)

In simple terms, the estrogen hormone estrodiol brings on the death (apoptosis) of the osteoclast cell once its role is completed.  It simply attaches a protein molecule called Fas Ligand, that is programmed to kill cells that fail to perform their function. This allows a balance between the breaking down process and the rebuilding process of bone tissue by “osteoblasts.”   In this sense, estrogen plays a protective role in bone health.  In technical terms, estrogen induces a paracrine signal (endocrine hormone messenger) originating in osteoblasts that leads to the death of pre-osteoclasts, thereby regulating bone resorption and remodeling.

THE ROLE OF THE PARATHYROID GLANDS

The Thyroid Gland’s production of hormones is activated by the Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH) produced by the Pituitary Gland. Parathyroid hormones (PTH) produced by the 4 parathyroid glands, located on the backside of the thyroid gland, stimulates Calcium and Phosphate release from bone, thereby increasing blood calcium and phosphate levels.   It also stimulates osteoclasts, thus breaking down bone tissue, then stimulates Calcium resorption in the kidneys, where it also stimulates activated Vitamin D3 production.

THE ROLE OF VITAMIN D3

Vitamin D3 is a steroid hormone that plays an important role in regulating mineral metabolism.  The target tissues of D3 are the intestines, bone, kidneys, and parathyroid glands.

OSTEOPOROSIS & OSTEOPENIA

Simply stated, when bone absorption gets ahead of bone matrix production and replacement, bones begin to get thin.  This typically occurs in postmenopausal women and in men as they age.  With women it’s a reduction is estrogen that results in a reduction in osteoclast apoptosis (cell suicide).  With men it’s a reduction in testosterone and its conversion to estrogen that results in the same reduction in osteoclast apoptosis.  So bone resorption continues at a higher rate than bone replacement, resulting in a thinning of the bones (osteopenia) which leads to osteoporosis if left untreated.

ENTER FOSAMAX (ALENDRONATE)

The bisphosphonate alendronate and conjugated equine estrogens are both widely used for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. Acting by different mechanisms, these two agents decrease bone resorption and thereby increase or preserve bone mineral density (BMD).

Alendronate’s mechanism of action is to inhibit osteolast activity and thus slow down the resorption of calcium. This has both favorable and unfavorable consequences.  While Fosamax slows down bone resorption, it prevents bone turnover and renewal.  This doesn’t sound very wise to me.  Basically, old bone is not replaced by new bone.  Bone matrix continues to be laid down by osteoblast activity, however the new bone is  formed on top of the alendronate which is then incorporated into the bone matrix where is ceases to be pharmacologically active.  This creates the necessity for continued administration of the drug to suppress osteoclast activity.  The end result is the creation of a thin veneer of bone matrix laid down on the back of the drug, which looks white on x-ray film giving the impression that bone density has been increased.  But it has only been increased at surface levels and not at deeper levels.

The problem with this is that the bone tissue underneath this veneer is not being replaced leaving the bone hallow inside and brittle. This is particularly so with the more spongy bone that comprise vertebral bodies and femur heads, as well as the jaw bone.  Compression fractures in the spine, along with hip fractures, are prevalent in older women who have been taking Fosamax for a lengthy period of time.  The femur head breaks off the femur  causing the elderly person to fall down.  It isn’t the fall that fractures the hip in most cases, but rather the hip fracture that causes the fall.  Necrosis of the jaw bone is a more devastating side effect of Fosamax drug therapy.

OSTEONECROSIS OF THE JAW BONE

A more notorious problem with Fosamax administration is the incidence of osteonecrosis, deterioration of the jaw bone, a disease for which there is no known remedy for reversal.  Fosamax has a half-life of ten years, so its presence is long lasting.  Go to the link above and read more about this detriment before you consider taking Fosamax or any of the other alendronate products.  For more information, simply Google Fosamax Problems or go to www.fosamaxproblems.com.

A MORE NATURAL AND SENSIBLE APPROACH 

Basically, a more natural and sensible approach to preventing and reversing bone-loss is to support the bone remodeling process with nutritional protocols, as the video clip demonstrated. In postmenopausal women, estrogen replacement therapy is favored over Fosamax administration. Testosterone replacement therapy is available for men.   I will save a discussion of the natural alternative to hormone and drug therapy for my next blog post.  So, stay tuned . . . .

To your health and healing,

Dr. Anthony Palombo

Visit my second blog Healing Tones for more of my views and perspectives on health and on vibrational healing.  Feel free to leave your comments and to contact me by email at tpal70@gmail.com.

References:

MedicineNet.com (Webster’s New World Medical Dictionary),

Peter J. Millett, M.Sc., M.D., Matthew J. Allen, M.A., Vet.M.B., Ph.D., and Neil Rushton, M.D., F.R.C.S.

Medical Education, Hospital for Special Surgery, Cornell University Medical College, 535 East 71st Street, New York, NY, 10021 USA

Orthopedic Research Unit, Box 180, Level E6, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK

JCEM (Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism)

EMBOJournal.com, and WikiAnswers.com

by

21-Day Purification Program Clip

View only if you want to cleanse your body temple, loose weight and clarify your thinking and your skin.

To your health and healing,

Dr. Tony Palombo

Email me for more information about the program, personal support during it, and to order the products  for the program:  tpal70@gmail.com.

P.S.  As promised, we will continue our consideration around calcium in my next post.

by

Post-Purification Program

Fall colors at Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon

     Harvest time has come as we gather seasonal vegetables from our Spring and Summer gardens and prepare for Fall planting of winter crops: cruciferous vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale and kohlrabi; root crops such as carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips and radishes.  And don’t forget to plant some sweet pea snaps to pick and eat right off the vine . . . with an added bonus of lovely flowers.  Some of these are already available at farmers’ markets and grocery stores in your area as Fall gardens get planted in August here in the South.  (Click on picture to enlarge it)

If you followed my suggestions in the last post, “Fall Cleaning,” and went through the 21-day purification program, you may want to follow it with a post-purification program.  Standard Process offers some very excellent whole food supplements for this purpose.

SP’s Post Purification Kit ($157 + $13 drop-shipping) consists of the following whole food supplements:

Kit Includes (30-day supply):

Order today and receive a 10% subscriber’s discount.
    Prepare for the winter months by enhancing your immune system.  Remember, you immune system is not limited to a single organ or gland.  It’s more an “alliance” of many organs and glands, along with all the cells of your body. Liver, spleen, bone marrow, thymus gland with its lymph nodes, and, not the least important, your intestines which are lined with the lion’s share of your lymphatic glands.  The parotid glands of your mouth are your first line of defense.  Clean water, of course, is essential to toxin elimination and nutrient distribution – up to 8 glasses a day are recommended.  To insure strong first-line defense in the mouth, I recommend a maintenance dose of Parotid PMG byStandard Process Labs. 
 
I’ve had clients who hate water and drink diet sodas every day.  Diet sodas are sweetened with aspartame. Go to this website for a full report on this and other chemical sweeteners  http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html.  Here is an excerpt about the side effects:
Aspartame has been linked to various neuropsychiatric disorders, including panic attacks, mood changes, visual hallucinations, manic episodes, and isolated dizziness. A small, double-blind crossover study of patients with major depression revealed a higher incidence of reactions in these patients compared with nondepressed volunteers after administration of 30 mg/kg for 7 days; symptoms included headache, nervousness, dizziness, memory impairment, nausea, temper outbursts, and depression. 
 I do not wonder about the relationship between the nerve and muscle pain associated with fibromyalgia and the consumption of diet sodas with aspartame, not to mention an aversion to drinking water.  Drink water instead of sodas.  Pure water is allowed to go where adulterated beverages are not allowed in the body tissues.   A word to the wise.
To your health and healing,
Dr. Tony Palombo
Visit my second blog Healing Tones for inspired reading.
 
by

FALL CLEANING

Fall in Oregon - Click on picture to enlarge

We are all aware of the need for “Spring Cleaning” and we do it every year in our homes, many of us in the more immediate homes of our physical bodies.

But what about “Fall Cleaning” in the yard and gardens, even in our body temples?  We have to do that, too, just to clean up what’s left after harvest time and when the leaves and blossoms have fallen to the ground.  Likewise, our body temples can use a cleaning as the Fall and Winter months set in.

I recommend the “Purification Program” by Standard Process Labs for a thorough house cleaning – from the cellular level on out to the organs of elimination, including and especially the gastrointestinal tract that processes all the empty carbohydrate and fast-foods we tend to consume on the run, much of it still clinging to the lining of the gut in the form or mucous (protein) and undigested food (anywhere from 15 to 25 lbs. of it).  Wouldn’t you just love to be rid of those kind of toxic pounds?!

Here’s what the Purification Program by Standard Process Labs. looks like (click on the link for more details):

For 21 days you simply take a number of capsules containing cleansing and rebuilding nutrients and have a few healthy, meal-replacement SP Complete shakes during the day.  Add your favorite fruit or fruit juice to the shake mix and, voila!, you have a great and tasty meal in a glass.  For a little more cost, you can snack on protein richStandardBars during the day to help with extra protein and low blood sugar.  If needed, you can continue to eat your regular meals and have a SP Complete shake with them.  Just serve yourself smaller portions to make room for the body-purifying shake.  For a more healthy meal, click on Program Diet.  

Here’s a sampling of what two of the products alone afford you:

SP Green Food  provides a simple way for people of all ages to add vital phytonutrients to their diet.

  • Promotes healthy liver function
  • Provides antioxidants
  • Supports overall cellular health
  • Provides phytonutrients
  • Supports cholesterol metabolism, already within a normal range
  • Supports the normal elimination of toxins
  • Adds vital nutrients to any diet, and can be used as nutritional support in the Standard Process Purification Program†

Whole Food-Fiber provides soluble and insoluble fiber to support the digestive system.

  • Encourages a healthy intestinal environment to help maintain proper intestinal flora
  • Cleanses the lower gastrointestinal tract
  • Encourages a healthy gastrointestinal tract pH
  • Supports healthy elimination
  • Contains fennel, which helps relieve gas, abdominal cramps, and indigestion
  • Maintains healthy lipid and blood glucose levels already in normal ranges
  • Adds vital nutrients to any diet, and can be used as nutritional support in the Standard Process Purification and Post-Purification Programs†  Gluten Free & Vegetarian

The program comes with a user-friendly guide and recipe suggestions for the shake, so you’ll have all the information you will need to walk you through the program.  You always have me, of course, to answer any of your questions.

Now, you have to eliminate the refined carbohydrate foods all together.  Donuts and biscuits have to go, along with cakes, cookies and breads that are made with refined flour and sugar.  Eliminating sugar all together for the 3-week cleanse period alone will profit you in lbs lost and not added.

The cost?   $12 a day ($252 – postage included)!  Order through me and enjoy a purification-day-on-me blog-reader’s discount of $12!  [ For $40 more you can replace one of the SP Complete 28 oz. jars with 30 1-oz packets. That way you have the jar at home and packets in your purse or pocket to take with you to work or in your travels.  

Note: The StandardBars are not included in this price and cost $50/18 bars ($45 for blog-readers) with no extra shipping charge if included with your initial order.   

For details on the products and their function in the cleanse, simply visit Standard Process‘ website link provided here, then click on option Purification Program Products.  Visit other options as well to learn more about the program and the need for whole-body purification.

Let me hear from you with any questions you may have and for product orders.  I can have them drop-shipped to your doorstep by UPS in 3-5 business days.

To your health and healing,

Dr. Anthony Palombo

(Note: products cannot be ordered directly from the company but only from a licensed healthcare practitioner.)