This former drug sales rep says it better than I ever could. Pharma doesn’t want to cure any disease. It doesn’t dare to. Business is just too good. Listen to what Gwen Olson, a 15-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry, among the “best of the best” in her field, has to say about the truth of what the drug industry is up to.
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We will continue this revolutionary topic in my next post, looking a alternative options and sharing some insightful thoughts on changing perception and consciousness. Until then,
To your health and healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
Email: tpal70@gmail.com
Visit my Healing Tones blog for inspirational reading on the Significance of the Pineal Gland and other articles relating to the 2012 theme.
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.
I never dreamed I’d see the day when a drug company would actually come out and expose the sheer ignorance and stupidity of medical science and its so-called “doctors” the way one has recently. Yes, I said “so-called doctors” because if gastrointerologists actually believe what the company that manufactures Nexium is “teaching” (the real meaning of the word doctor) the public about how to handle and avoid “acid-indigestion,” then they have stopped being doctors and have become drug technicians.
Believe it or not, however, there it was on my television screen a few days ago, before God and everyone, blatantly proclaiming their ignorance, all the while taking us for fools. The “Purple Pill” ad shouted out: “BLOCK THE ACID . . . FROM THE START!” or something to that effect. I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Was I actually hearing correctly. Did he say “Block the acid” to avoid “acid-indigestion?!” OMG! It’s come to that! I wonder how many people saw through the fallacy of that ad, and how many of those expensive purple capsules this ad sells on a daily basis. And we wonder why we have so much colon cancer! (I’ll explain.) I have a close relative who actually raves about the wonders of this drug that “shuts off acid pumps” in the stomach. Now the makers of Prilosec are touting the same message.
NOW, LET’S PUT ON OUR THINKING CAPS
How does the stomach digest meat, dairy, eggs, nuts, and grains? Right! With digestive acid — betaine hydrochloride to be exact. Where does this acid come from? Right again! The stomach — the parietal cells lining the stomach wall, to be exact. What causes so-called “acid indigestion?” If you answered “too much acid,” as the ad leads one to believe, you’d be wrong! It’s not too much stomach acid. It’s not enough stomach acid. That’s right. So-called “acid indigestion” is actually “lack-of-acid indigestion.”
The essential condition of indigestion is a failure of the food to digest due to a lack of digestive juices. Now, what happens when the food stops digesting? It ferments. What does fermentation produce? GAS — hot, acidic gas, the kind that makes you burp fire so hot that it burns the stomach and the cardiac valve, making them so limp that the valve can’t close tightly. The result? You guessed it! GERD — Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.
Of course, as medicine will do, they’ve made a “disease” out of this condition so they can treat it with a drug. That’s what they do. They’re drug dealers. They deal in drugs. They don’t teach us, as doctors are supposed to do, how to eat properly so that the food digests as it is designed to do in a stomach that was made to withstand its own secretions of digestive juices – which, by the way, include hydrochloric acid. If fact, they tell you to go ahead and eat what and how you want because you can just block the production of digestive acids with the Purple Pill. Horror of horrors! It doesn’t get any more deplorable than that! It’s a slap to the face of the Creator Himself who made the stomach to produce acid . . . and it’s an insult to our common sense and intelligence.
THE CURE OF INDIGESTION IS . . . DIGESTION!
Now, let’s think this through. The cure for in-digestion is digestion. Isn’t that logical? If the food you ate stops digesting, you need to start up the digestive process again, get it going in the right direction so that the food doesn’t ferment . . . and, to the purpose of eating at all, so that your body can get the nutrients it needs to be healthy. And just how shall you accomplish that? Well, if the food you ate needs hydrochloric acid to digest it, you’re going to have to add more hydrochloric acid to the contents of your stomach. You obviously do not want to block the stomach from making its own betaine hydrochloride — nor neutralize the acid with antacids. Oh, Tums and Rolaids will buffer the acids of fermentation, but they also neutralize the hydrochloric acid needed to digest the meat. So, instead of antacids, you can take some betaine hydrochloride.
I use ZYPAN by Standard Process Labs ($13/90 tabs). It works every time. Actually, I take it with every meal simply because after 45 we make less betaine hydrochloride. And if you’re under stress, you make none at all. People who have chronic stress do not digest their food very well and are usually popping antacids after meals.
Watch this short video clip:
The body isn’t interested in nourishment when it’s geared up to fight or flee from a threat. As Dr. Bruce Lipton points out, we’re either in growth or protection and defense mode. We can’t be in both at the same time.
WHAT ARE SOME CAUSES OF INDIGESTION?
Eating “fast food” on the run and under the duress of a deadline you have to meet or a tight schedule. Being totally present with your meals, savoring the taste and enjoying the brief break away from your job or routine go a long way toward healthy digestion.
Combining foods that don’t digest well together. A typical example is meat and potatoes, a protein and a starch. They require opposite chemistry to digest – meats need acid and starches need alkaline digestive juices. Acids and alkalines neutralize one another. The result is that neither digest but sit in the stomach and ferment causing “acid indigestion” and “heart burn.” (It’s not the heart that actually burns but the area of the stomach and esophagus that’s close to the heart.) The rule of thumb for compatible food combining is eat meats with vegetables and fruit with starches. Meats and sweets don’t digest well together.
Drinking cokes and other sweet beverages with meals. Again, the chemistry doesn’t mix. Drink water with a squeeze of lemon.
Ulcers. The body is wise. It won’t secrete hydrochloric acid into the stomach when it’s ulcerated. That’s why a bland diet is required. So, you don’t want to take ZYPAN if you have ulcers. First, heal up the ulcer. That can be done in three days with chlorophyll and okra pepsin. CHLOROPHYLL COMPLEX PERLES and GASTREX by Standard Process Labs (SPL) are what I use with my clients. Drop me an email and I’ll send you a bottle of each, which is all you’ll need . . . provided you start eating properly. If you have a duodenal ulcer, you likely have gallbladder trouble, which requires attention and a different nutritional protocol. If you have GERD or a hiatal hernia, you’ll need to supplement with manganese to tone up the valve and herniated tissues. I use LIGAPLEX II (SPL) (150 caps/$25), a wholefood formula with high concentrations of food-based manganese and other synergistic factors for proper utilization in toning up weak ligaments. Write me for guidance and help with these conditions. They can all be corrected with nutrition.
Eating too fast. Chewing allows activating enzymes of pepsin and ptyalin to mix in with the food. Without these enzymes the digestive juices cannot be activated. Chew your food well before swallowing it . . . and don’t wash it down with coke or sweet beverages. Water with a little ice and lemon juice is the only fluid one needs to clear out the mouth and esophagus.
Notes:
Pepsin is the powerful enzyme in gastric juice that activates hydrochloric acid to digest proteins such as those in meat, eggs, grains and seeds, or dairy products.
Ptyalin is a form of amylase in the saliva of humans and some animals that catalyzes the hydrolysis of starch into maltose and dextrin.
COLON CANCER ALERT
When undigested meat gets into the bowels where nutrients and water are taken up into the blood stream, it gets putrid and rots, creating conditions in which cancer can develop. When undigested fats get into the lower bowels they go rancid. Rotting meat and rancid fats irritate the lining of the intestines causing inflammation that leads to colitis (IBS), diverticulitis, leaky gut syndrome (the underlying cause of many food allergies), crohns disease, even cancer. Safeguard your digestive tract. Eat sensibly. Take digestive enzymes, especially if you’re not eating enough enzyme-rich raw vegetables.
For personal consultation, drop me an email to set up an appointment for a private telephone consultation. If you want the products mentioned in this article, simply drop me an email with your order. (Gastrex is $21 for 90 capsules and Chlorophyll Complex $23 for 60 perles.) I’ll give you a phone number to call with your credit card information. Postage will be added to all orders. Consultation fees are $45 for a half-hour and $65 for an hour. I also offer health coaching for a reasonable fee.
Until my next post, here’s to your health and healing!
Dr. Tony Palombo
Email address: tpal70@gmail.com
For inspired writing and inspiring reading, visit my Healing Tones blog.
In my last post we considered the process of bone remodeling. We saw how old bone is literally nibbled away by osteoclasts preparing the way for osteoblasts to come behind and lay down a collagen matrix for new bone with a fresh supply of calcium. We also saw how estrogen regulates this process by helping osteoclasts die (apoptosis) as they complete their jobs of resorption, thereby maintaining the ratio between these two bone workhorse cells. We looked at the roles Vitamin D and the Parathyroid hormones play in stimulating osteoclast activity and the release of calcium and phosphorus from the bones into the blood, and how they facilitate calcium resorption in the kidneys.
So, there’s a whole lot of activity in the bone remodeling process going on daily in your body completing a cycle in 100-day, yet taking seven years to completely rebuild every bone in your skeletal system. Basically, we have a new frame and muscular system every seven years, which is quite amazing! I’ve now been through nine bodies and starting on my tenth one.
We also looked at how osteopenia and osteoporosis occur when the net rate of bone resorption exceeds the rate of bone formation, resulting in a decrease in bone mass, and the role that estrogen and testosterone deficiencies play in this degenerative process. Then we reviewed the medical approach to this condition with drug intervention. Fosamax (alendronate) is the drug of choice. However, its mechanism of action is deceiving, to say the least, and debilitating at worst, often causing brittle bones that fracture and jaw bone necrosis in the long run. Hormone replacement therapy is also popular, but not without some risks.
A MORE NATURAL APPROACH
This brings us to the subject of this article: Supporting Bone Remodeling. As we saw is a previous article, bones are made up of a lot more than just calcium. They’re made of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals and protein. Taking calcium tablets alone, then, is not enough to feed your bones, especially if you’re taking calcium carbonate, the cheapest and most useless form of calcium on the market.
By the way, there’s plenty of calcium in the blood stream just from the process of bone resorption, if you stop to think about it. The key is to get it out of the blood and into the tissues and bones. We’ll talk about that shortly. What isn’t used up as muscle fuel is recycled back into the bones. What cannot be used at all is thrown out through the hair and nails giving them their white color. As we age the hair turns white with calcium as bone resorption is accelerated faster than the calcium can be used, as well as other reason related to mineral ratios and balance. I talk about this ratio in an earlier blog post. But I’ll cover the subject again in a future article.
Borrowing from a previous post to refresh our memories and to show that bone building is not all about calcium . . .
Minerals present in bone are: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, silica, iron, zinc, selenium, baron, sulphur, chromium, and dozens of others. In order for bones to absorb the minerals Vitamin D must be present. Collagen is also part of the bone and provides a matrix for bone formation.
MY RECOMMENDATION FOR BONE REMODELING SUPPORT:
1.) First, stop the leaks. Then start getting calcium into the bones. I use Biost by Standard Process Labs (SPL). Biost is a bone protomorphogen (nucleic protein molecule of bone cells). It supplies the enzyme phosphatase which the body needs in order to metabolize the raw materials that compose bony tissue. Phosphatase also transports calcium from the blood into the bones.
Note: For men with enlarged prostates, (prostate hypertrophy), I use Prost-X because it contains phosphatase which also gets calcium into the prostate gland as well as the bones. The prostate will enlarge if it lacks calcium.
2.) Feed your bones. And what better to feed them with than raw bone meal . . . not dead and cooked commercial grade bone meal which is calcium carbonate (good for your lily bulbs but not for your bones). Raw bone meal has all the ingredients for bone remodeling. I use Calcifood Wafers (SPL) when I want immediate support of raw material in severe cases of osteoporosis. Note: Dentists have used Calcifood and Biost for loose teeth with fine results because they rebuild the bone around the teeth.
3.) A simple and daily supply of nutrient-rich whole foods that have the vitamins and minerals needed to build bones, especially dark green leafy vegetables like fresh raw spinach. This would include vegetables organically grown in mineral-rich soil. You can tell that if they’re sweet. It also includes at least 15 – 20 minutes of sunshine on the skin daily for Vitamin D, along with plenty of essential poly-unsaturated fatty acids (EFA’s) in the skin to give the sunshine something with which to make Vitamin D and carry calcium into the tissues. For those who don’t get enough sunshine, you can supplement with Cataplex D (SPL).
To supplement I use SPL’s multiple wholefood formulations of Catalyn, Organic Bound Minerals, Trace Minerals B12, and SUPER-EFF, a converted form of essential polyunsaturated fatty acids essential to the transportation of calcium from the blood into the tissues.
Note: EFA’s need to be converted in the liver to arachidonic acid to be of benefit. A person with a degenerative disease has a bad liver or else he wouldn’t have a degenerative disease. So he can’t convert EFA’s to arachidonic acid. SUPER-EFF fills the need here.
For severe degenerative conditions in all tissues, including nerve degeneration in multiple sclerosis, muscle degeneration in muscular dystrophy, and bone degeneration in rheumatoid arthritis, even in cancer, SUPER-EFF is a converted form of polyunsaturated fatty acids and therefore readily useful in rebuilding these tissues.
4.) Support for the four major endocrine players in female and male hormonal chemistry. They are the pituitary gland, the thyroid and parathyroid glands, the adrenal glands, and, last but not least, the gonadal glands (ovaries and testes). I use Symplex F and Symplex M by SP with superb results.
5.) Probably of utmost importance these days is support for the stress-response system’s central regulator, the hypothalamus. I use Hypothalmex (SPL) for support. More about this below.
6.) Support the Thyroid and Parathyroid glands with iodine from organic minerals and Cal-Ma-Plus (SPL) which has parathyroid desiccate to enhance the absorption of calcium. (Note: Soy products slow down the thyroid.)
7.) If you’re over 45 years of age, you would be wise to supplement with Betaine Hydrochloride tablets (SP). We seem to produce less of it as we age. Hydrochloric acid, besides being necessary for digestion of proteins in the stomach, is essential in the assimilation and absorption of calcium, which needs a more acidic condition in the colon for proper absorption. Betaine Hydrochloride provides that pH factor for calcium. If you’re having “acid indigestion” take 2 Zypan (SPL) with meals and take care of those “heart burns” after meals while getting your Betaine Hydrochloride at the same time.
8.) Herbal support for remodeling ageing bones, particularly in mature women. I use Bone Complex by Medi-Herb (SPL subsidiary).
9.) Weight bearing exercise to stimulate bone cell growth and calcium absorption into the bones. Exercise at least 4 days each week.
Watch this short video clip:
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HYPOTHALAMUS AND ADRENALS IN STRESS MANAGEMENT
Situated beneath the brain, the hypothalamus regulates the homeostatic relationship between you and your environment, starting with the most immediate environment, your physical body with its myriad organic functions and complex chemistry that changes with every emotional upset, mental stress and physical activity. This critical connection between your central nervous system and your hormonal glands is crucial to homeostasis, and I am deeply concerned that this singular link between environmental stress and our ability to adapt is being overlooked in our healthcare.
Thanks to our ability to “talk” with the body through kinesiology (muscle testing), the functional health of the hypothalamus can be easily monitored. Interestingly enough (I notice these things), since the bombing of the World Trade Center and the subsequent activation of our Homeland Security Alert system, I have noticed an increase in the incidence of hypothalamus issues in my practice. There’s good reason for this. It’s a consequence of chronic stress.
Fear of terrorist attacks has been hanging over our heads for ten years and we’ve become frozen in a chronic fight or flight stress response. In chronic stress, the hypothalamus becomes frustrated confused and the adrenal glands exhausted. Basically, we have a stress factor that won’t go away. The hypothalamus tells the adrenal glands to pump adrenaline into the blood stream so we can fight the threat and eliminate it or else run away from it. When we can’t personally do either, the system becomes frustrated and the glands overworked to the point of exhaustion. Our blood stream becomes saturated with cortisol, the stress hormone, throwing our hormonal system out of balance. When hormone chemistry becomes imbalanced, nothing is going to function normally in the body because every cell of every organ and tissue in the body depends on adrenalin. Malnutrition and severe vitamin and mineral deficiencies themselves can trigger and maintain a stress response.
What to do?
Well, there is something we can do. First we can put a filter on our perception of the world through the eyes of the media. Next find your centering in love and be at Home in your skin. Home is safe. No one can touch you there. Even if your body got blown up you would remain safe at Home. Home is within you, not around you. That’s your house.
Finally, increase your production of oxytocin, the feel-good “hormone of love,” produced in the hypothalamus with hugging, laughter and other pleasurable experiences such as listening to beautiful music and toning the vowel sound “AH,” touching and being touched by another, giving and receiving a massage, spinal adjustments and manipulation of the joints by a chiropractor or osteopath, erotic play and sexual orgasm, breast feeding if you’ve just delivered a newborn – which itself produces oxytocin and makes childbirth a pleasurable, even orgasmic, experience. Oxytocin turns off the flight or fight stress response to calm you down. Oxytocin spray is also available, but read about its side effects online first. It appears to increase one’s trust in people, but not everyone, just those in your clan. ” Psychologists trying to specify its role have now concluded it is the agent of ethnocentrism.” Too much of anything good seems to always have a dark side. Less is more in most cases.
CONSULT FOR DOSAGES AND HEALTH COACHING
One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to nutritional supplementation, so I highly recommend professional guidance. I am available by phone or email for a modest coaching fee. My cell phone is (337) 802-5510 and my email address is tpal70@gmail.com. Call or email me. I’ll even supply you with supplements tailored to fit your needs – and if you are a subscriber you’ll enjoy a 10% discount on supplements. Let’s get your bones back to health and keep them dense and strong.
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.
There is more calcium in the human body than all the other minerals combined. More calcium supplements are sold than any other mineral, but most of them are not absorbed from the GI tract. Once absorbed, calcium has to be ionized before it can be utilized. Not all forms of calcium can be easily ionized by the body. Let’s take a look at how this works from a functional standpoint.
Calcium Functions
Calcium serves many functions. It forms the foundation of bones. It provides fuel for muscle contraction. It is essential for blood coagulation and nerve impulse. It is used by the immune system in “fighting” infections. In a deficiency of sodium, it is used to buffer acid and maintain normal pH in the body fluids and tissue.
Calcium does not stand alone, however, even in the formation of bone. Calcium is balanced proportionately by magnesium (5/1) and by phosphorus (10/4). Magnesium controls calcium absorption and provides lubrication for muscle contraction. Phosphorus opposes calcium and holds it in solution where it is needed in liquid form. It’s also a systemic acidifier, which is important to the absorption of calcium in the GI tract.
Bone Composition
Your body needs a lot more than calcium to manufacture bones. Bones are made of protein, minerals and vitamins. Minerals present in bone are: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, manganese, silica, iron, zinc, selenium, baron, sulphur, chromium, and dozens of others. In order for bones to absorb the minerals Vitamin D must be present. Collagen is also part of bone connective tissue and provides a matrix for bone formation. As you can see, if you’re concerned about your bone health, you’ll need to take a full spectrum organic mineral supplement and trace minerals. I will cover this topic in my next blog post.
The Role of Phosphorus
Phosphorus holds calcium in solution. If the ratio between calcium and phosphorus becomes imbalanced, problems will arise. If there is not enough phosphorus to hold the calcium in solution, the extra calcium will start precipitating out of the body fluids. If it precipitates into your kidneys, it forms kidney stones. If it precipitates onto your teeth, it is called tartar. If it’s in your bones, it’s called arthritis. If in your blood vascular system, it’s called arterial sclerosis or calcified arteries. If in your eyes, it’s called cataracts. All of these conditions are symptoms of phosphorus deficiency. We need to take a phosphorous supplement that does not contain calcium to raise the phosphorous level. If the calcium level is low, then we have conditions like dental caries, the erosion of the teeth. Looking at it from the dentist’s standpoint, this is the systemic cause of dental caries: high phosphorous, low calcium. This does not mean we have too much phosphorous. It just means we don’t have enough calcium to buckled the phosphorous.
Absorption
Calcium requires an acid environment in the GI tract for proper absorption. People who have an alkaline GI tract just can’t absorb and assimilate calcium well. Standard Process Labs makes a Calcium Lactate which is comprised of five grains of calcium and one grain of magnesium citrate. This makes the pH of the total product 5.2, which is on the acid side. Seven is neutral, which straight calcium would be.
A word of caution about iron supplements: Too much calcium in the GI tract prevents the absorption of iron. Therefore iron and calcium supplements should not be taken together.
Ionization
Calcium has to be ionized before it can be utilized in the body. To ionize is to give an electrical charge to a molecule being ionized. This is accomplished in the blood stream by our body’s enzyme system. The ionization of minerals makes them functional in our body tissues. If calcium is not ionized, for example, it stays in the fluid. The only kind of calcium you can ionize in your body is calcium bicarbonate. Calcium lactate changes to calcium bicarbonate in just one step. Whereas, limestone (calcium carbonate) goes through about a dozen changes to become calcium bicarbonate. Don’t confuse calcium bicarbonate with calcium carbonate.
Calcium bicarbonate cannot be taken in a tablet form. It is present in spring water, but if you put that same spring water in a tea kettle and boil it, the soft organic calcium bicarbonate changes to hard inorganic calcium carbonate, which is insoluble. It precipitates to the bottom of the tea kettle in the form of limestone.
Calcium carbonate cannot be easily ionized in the blood stream and therefore is not readily available for use in the body. It is circulated around and eventually deposited in muscles and on bones or turned into kidney stones for elimination. Most commercial calcium products, including TUMS and ROLLAIDS, are calcium carbonate. Some calcium products are formulated with calcium citrate which can be ionized, although not as easily as calcium lactate.
Chelated Organic Calcium
Inorganic calcium becomes organic when chelated by the organic acids produced by plant roots, which absorb the calcium along with other minerals in a slightly acid soil. That’s why soil pH is very important in the vegetable garden. Humus soil is very conducive to mineral chelation and absorption. This is one of the benefits of organic gardening.
Getting back to calcium bicarbonate, you can’t make calcium bicarbonate tablets because as soon as you start drying the bicarbonate it changes to calcium carbonate. So the closest that we can come to calcium bicarbonate is calcium lactate.
For specific supplement recommendations and to order product, email me.
In my next blog post, I will explain bone resorption and remodeling and how drugs like Fosamax disable this process in a futile attempt to reverse osteopenia and osteoporosis.
Here’s wishing you a Healthy and Happy New Year!
Dr. Tony Palombo
tpal70@gmail.com
References: John Courtney, former head of Research & Development for Standard Process, Inc. for thirty years, now deceased. His comments on products in the Clinical Reference Guide manual are adapted for use in this blog.
DR. NED HALLOWELL, child and adult psychiatrist for 30 years, treats children with “learning disabilities” as having “traits” rather than disabilities. Author of eighteen books on various psycological topics, including his national best sellers on ADD, Driven to Distraction, Answers to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction, says in an interview featured in the current issue of The American Chiropractor:
I have both ADHD and dyslexia myself, and over the course of three decades of working with individuals who have it, I’ve come to see these conditions more as traits than disabilities. Depending upon how you manage them, they can disable you or, quite the opposite, they can actually have beneficial aspects that prove to be assets. Therefore, I now say to people, ‘I don’t treat disabilities, I help people unwrap their gifts.’
Thank God for this man’s dedication to true health care, especially for these youngsters with ADD and ADHD, so many of whom are being drugged with Ritalin to help them focus. Here’s a 12-minute clip on Changing Education Paradigms you’ll want to take the time to watch what was posted on Facebook today by my daughter-in-law up in Oregon.
BRAIN STARVATION
Actually, Ritalin is speed and not an anesthetic. ADD and ADHD have a very significant nutritional-deficiency factor. Dr. Hallowell wants to team up with chiropractors because of the fact that parents are turning to chiropractic care and other alternative therapies in a desperate effort to get their children off drugs such as Ritalin. Over the years I have treated enough children with these “learning disabilities” successfully enough to know that when the brain is starved for nutrients it doesn’t even have enough energy to shut down and rest from cogitation long enough to re-energize. Ritalin simply provides the brain with artificial energy so that it can focus and concentrate on what’s right in front of it in the moment. Inositol will do the same thing, and it’s natural.
A NATURAL SOLUTION
Inositol is a sugar produced by the liver to run the brain. Your brain runs on sugar, but not the kind of sugar in soda pops and candy. In fact, when too much sugar is consumed, inositol production is compromised and the brain begins to run out of fuel for energy. It finally runs down so low that it cannot even shut down mental activity. Give the person a daily dose of inositol . . . and cut out the sugar in the diet . . . and concentration and focus will return instantly. It’s the natural answer to ADD and ADHD.
To that regimen, add a whole food nutritional supplement like CATALYN to feed the brain some vitamins, and TRACE MINERALS B12 along with an organic mineral tranquilizer like MIN-TRAN daily, and watch the child’s “gifts” reveal themselves as they begin to be able to focus and concentrate without Ritalin. As the doctor puts it to his patients . . .
‘You’re very lucky, you’ve got a Ferrari engine for a brain. You’ve got a race car up there, an incredibly powerful brain. The problem is you’ve got bicycle brakes, so you crash into walls, you run through stop signs, you miss things you’d like to see. Well, I’m a brake specialist. I’m going to help you learn how to stop; I’m going to help you learn how to control the incredibly powerful engine you’ve got.’ And that’s really what ADHD is all about, it’s essentially a condition of disinhibition. You can’t inhibit incoming stimuli, hence you’re very distractible, and you can’t inhibit outgoing impulses, hence you’re impulsive and sometimes disruptive and hyperactive. So the trick is — without sacrificing the power of the engine — to help children or adults learn to control the race car, learn how to modify and modulate their central nervous system so they are able to win races instead of crashing into the wall.
We’ll soon be able to Google Dr. Hallowell’s website and watch a video he is currently preparing to teach parents and teachers his method of unwrapping children’s and adults’ gifts locked in their creative minds and imaginations. I look forward to it and to ending the drugging of our children in school.
In the meantime, if you want immediate help, drop me an email and I will help you put together a nutritional program to support brain starvation in your child and get them off drugs.
A recent Journal of the American Medical Association study found that vitamin E is not effective in preventing prostate cancer and in fact also raised the possibility that it’s tied to prostate cancer. That report is the latest ding to a dietary-supplement business that saw its industry revenues fall to $350 million in the U.S. last year from $650 million in 2004, according to Nutrition Business Journal estimates.
It may well be that the so-called “vitamin E” people are taking is not really Vitamin E and therefore is not functioning as Vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant. But whole Vitamin E is a lot more than an antioxidant. Read on. . . .
Let’s talk about Vitamin E . . . and Vitamin C while we’re at it.
KNOW YOUR VITAMINS
—Patients are always telling me that they are taking “Vitamin C” and “Vitamin E,” and I’m always quick to correct them. “No, you’re not taking Vitamin C nor Vitamin E because the so called ‘vitamin E’ you’re taking is NOT Vitamin E, and the so-called ‘vitamin C’ is NOT Vitamin C,” and here’s the reason why.”
The Food and Drug Administration has allowed “ascorbic acid” to be called Vitamin C and for “d alpha tocopherol” to be called Vitamin E. As we can clearly see from the diagrams below, there is a lot more to Vitamin C than “ascorbic acid” and to Vitamin E than “d alpha tocopherol.” These fractions serve as part of the envelope surrounding the delicate essences and co-factors of the nutrient complexes – the very essential ingredients that make the vitamin complex work – protecting them from oxidation. They are all that’s left after commercial food processors get through extracting them from foods with the use of heat and pressure that destroy the rest of the complexes. In the case of Vitamin E, only one of the four antioxidant tocopherols – alpha tocopherol – is left, and the “d” in front of it tell you it’s a synthetic product.
They are called “Vitamin C” and “Vitamin E,” but they are no more the whole vitamin complex than an orange peal alone is the whole orange or an egg shell the whole egg.
The key word here is “Functional.” Vitamin E functions as a whole component, as does Vitamin C. If you take them apart they don’t function. An analogy would be to take a Swiss watch and smash it with a hammer. You still have a watch, but it won’t function as a time piece.
Those of you familiar with muscle testing will understand that when commercial vitamin E was given to a test subject, the arm test was weak. But when a whole-food Vitamin E (Cataplex E by Standard Process Labs.) was given to him, he tested strong. That’s because Cataplex E functioned where the commercial vitamin E did not and could not because it isn’t Vitamin E.
But that’s not the end of the story. It gets worse. Read on.
These fractioned components are incomplete and, therefore, seek to complete themselves as whole nutrients when turned loose inside your body, and they will rob from it what they need to complete themselves.
For example, ascorbic acid leaches out tyrosinase (cooper), a mineral that is vital to the health of arteries and veins, leaving your blood vascular system susceptible to aneurism and the hormone estrogen without an activating mechanism. Alpha tocopherol (or the synthetic “d alpha tocopherol”) leaches out selenium, another mineral vital to your blood vascular system, leaving your blood arteries unprotected against plaque formation.
When you take these fractioned “vitamins” into your body, you are not giving it the vital essences of whole nutrients it needs. For example, the bioflavonoids and the “P” factors that strengthen vessel walls and connective tissues throughout the body, not to mention the cooper you’re not getting and losing when it is leached out.
Ascorbic acid has also been shown to scratch the inner lining of the blood vessels if taken in dosages of 500+ mg daily for more than eighteen weeks, contributing to atherosclerosis, plaque build up in the arteries. With alpha tocopherol “Vitamin E” you do not get all the fatty acids essential to heart health nor the natural chelators for your arteries and anti-oxidants to prevent your oils from going rancid.
Dr. John Courtney of Standard Process Labs explains it clearly.
The body is designed to utilize food in its whole form. If you eat incomplete foods, such as refined tocopherols, all the missing factors are borrowed from the tissue reserves in order to make the partial food usable. Sooner or later, depending on the patient’s past eating habits, there will be a deficiency of those nutrients, causing what’s referred to as a “reversal of symptoms.” This means there is a recurrence of the same symptoms, which were causing the problem in the first place, often to a more serious degree.
Bicknell and Prescott, in their book THE VITAMINS IN MEDICINE, talk about bone decalcification and other problems caused by the use of excessive alpha tocopherol. So high potency vitamins are similar to drugs in their effect. They cause a masking of symptoms, which eventually creates additional problems. Dr. Lee [Royal Lee is the founder of SP] used to say that using high potency vitamins was like whipping a tired horse; he would be stimulated to run faster but sooner or later he collapses because you never fed him.
Sometimes doctors call us for help with patients with cramps. This could be cramps anywhere in the body-the legs, abdomen, heart, etc. They will say, “I’ve tried everything I could nutritionally, calcium, magnesium, etc., and the patient still has cramps.” Then we ask if the patient is taking high potency vitamin E. Many times they are, and the cramps developed after they started taking the high potency vitamin E. Then, of course, we suggest the doctor take the patient off the high potency vitamin E product. Our approach is to give the patient the specific food factors which he’s lacking, along with the associated factors, which make it work.
It is clear that whole food nutrients alone will help you. The others will only hurt your body. Remember, if it isn’t a food it’s a toxin. If you want Vitamins C and E you have to eat whole foods that are grown organically. If you want them in organically whole food supplement form, drop me an email and I will gladly send some to you.
Cataplex E (90T) $17, (360T) $58
Cataplex C (90T) $14, (360T) $47
Shipping and handling is $7
Until my next post, take care of your house of being else it evict you.
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:
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.
HealingTones.org 