I thought my blog readers would enjoy this 2.5 minute interlude video from the Heart Math Institute. The Music alone is worth the viewing, and the information is enlightening. Enjoy!
Tag Archives: Heart health
“Vitamin E” and Prostate Cancer ~ The Whole Truth
Here’s what JAMA reports on the subject:
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.
To your health and healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
Your Teeth are Alive!
A colleague of mine was in pain with a toothache the other day so I asked her to let me muscle test her to see what her body had to say about its tooth that was aching. She, of course, was glad that I asked, so I did a CRA (Contact Reflex Analysis) test to see what was going on. Well, there was an infection in the tooth and a lack of nourishment. The tooth simply was not healthy enough to handle the infection on its own. I put her on a wholefood supplement and next day her toothache, much to her surprise, was gone! “How did you do that?!” she exclaimed. Well, to start with, I didn’t “do” anything except give her wholefood supplements to support her body’s immune system and to feed her teeth. Her body did it all on its own. Her body healed itself.
Cavities fill themselves
As I explained to her, teeth are alive! They are living tissues. They heal and repair themselves just like any other tissue in the body. Give them enough nourishment and they will even fill their own cavities. “They will?!” she asked astonishingly. Of course they will. Cells replicate to fill the void when their neighbors die . . . actually they commit “programmed suicide,” a dying process called “apoptosis” whereby the cell dismantles itself when it can no longer repair itself. Their neighboring cells replicate to fill the vacancy. Amazing, isn’t it! It’s called the “healing process“ (click on it to read earlier articles in my blog on the life of the cell). The teeth cells are no exception. Give them nutritional support and watch them heal and thrive. (Email me for more information and supplement recommendation.)
Reduce your dental bill!
Order the supplements needed to heal teeth and prevent decay today and give some to your children. Feed their teeth and keep sugar away form them. The gums bathe the teeth with anti-bacterial fluid 24/7. But that fluid stops flowing the moment sugar is present in the mouth. Candy should be forbidden for children, and yet we give them tons of it on Halloween in their treat bags! How about tricking the kids and give them some fruits and nuts instead of candy?
There is no tissue in the human body that will not benefit from therapeutic wholefood supplementation. Your teeth are alive and need nourishment just like any other living tissue.
To your health and healing,
Dr. Palombo
Email me for supplement information and to place an order: tpal70@gmail.com
Visit my second blog Healing Tones for inspired writing and inspiring reading.
Walnuts Declared a Drug by the FDA
| WRITTEN BY MICHAEL TENNANT |
| THURSDAY, 21 JULY 2011 10:10 |
 SEEN ANY WALNUTS IN YOUR MEDICINE CABINET LATELY?
According to the Food and Drug Administration, that is precisely where you should find them. Because Diamond Foods made truthful claims about the health benefits of consuming walnuts that the FDA didn’t approve, it sent the company a letter declaring, “Your walnut products are drugs” — and “new drugs” at that — and, therefore, “they may not legally be marketed … in the United States without an approved new drug application.” The agency even threatened Diamond with “seizure” if it failed to comply.
Diamond’s transgression was to make “financial investments to educate the public and supply them with walnuts,” as William Faloon of Life Extension magazine put it. On its website and packaging, the company stated that the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts have been shown to have certain health benefits, including reduced risk of heart disease and some types of cancer. These claims, Faloon notes, are well supported by scientific research: “Life Extension has published 57 articles that describe the health benefits of walnuts”; and “The US National Library of Medicine database contains no fewer than 35 peer-reviewed published papers supporting a claim that ingesting walnuts improves vascular health and may reduce heart attack risk.” This evidence was apparently not good enough for the FDA, which told Diamond that its walnuts were “misbranded” because the “product bears health claims that are not authorized by the FDA.” The FDA’s letter continues: “We have determined that your walnut products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs because these products are intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease.” Furthermore, the products are also “misbranded” because they “are offered for conditions that are not amenable to self-diagnosis and treatment by individuals who are not medical practitioners; therefore, adequate directions for use cannot be written so that a layperson can use these drugs safely for their intended purposes.” Who knew you had to have directions to eat walnuts? “The FDA’s language,” Faloon writes, “resembles that of an out-of-control police state where tyranny [reigns] over rationality.” He adds: This kind of bureaucratic tyranny sends a strong signal to the food industry not to innovate in a way that informs the public about foods that protect against disease. While consumers increasingly reach for healthier dietary choices, the federal government wants to deny food companies the ability to convey findings from scientific studies about their products. Walnuts aren’t the only food whose health benefits the FDA has tried to suppress. Producers of pomegranate juice and green tea, among others, have felt the bureaucrats’ wrath whenever they have suggested that their products are good for people. Meanwhile, Faloon points out, foods that have little to no redeeming value are advertised endlessly, often with dubious health claims attached. For example, Frito-Lay is permitted to make all kinds of claims about its fat-laden, fried products, including that Lay’s potato chips are “heart healthy.” Faloon concludes that “the FDA obviously does not want the public to discover that they can reduce their risk of age-related disease by consuming healthy foods. They prefer consumers only learn about mass-marketed garbage foods that shorten life span by increasing degenerative disease risk.” Faloon thinks he knows why this is the case. First, by stifling competition from makers of more healthful alternatives, junk food manufacturers, who he says “heavily lobb[y]” the federal government for favorable treatment, will rake in ever greater profits. Second, by making it less likely that Americans will consume healthful foods, big pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers stand to gain by selling more “expensive cardiac drugs, stents, and coronary bypass procedures” to those made ill by their diets. But people are starting to fight back against the FDA’s tactics. “The makers of pomegranate juice, for example, have sued the FTC for censoring their First Amendment right to communicate scientific information to the public,” Faloon reports. Congress is also getting into the act with a bill, the Free Speech About Science Act (H.R. 1364), that, Faloon writes, “protects basic free speech rights, ends censorship of science, and enables the natural health products community to share peer-reviewed scientific findings with the public.” Of course, if the Constitution were being followed as intended, none of this would be necessary. The FDA would not exist; but if it did, as a creation of Congress it would have no power to censor any speech whatsoever. If companies are making false claims about their products, the market will quickly punish them for it, and genuine fraud can be handled through the courts. In the absence of a government agency supposedly guaranteeing the safety of their food and drugs and the truthfulness of producers’ claims, consumers would become more discerning, as indeed they already are becoming despite the FDA’s attempts to prevent the dissemination of scientific research. Besides, as Faloon observed, “If anyone still thinks that federal agencies like the FDA protect the public, this proclamation that healthy foods are illegal drugs exposes the government’s sordid charade.” Well, there you have it! Here’s to your health!
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The Healing Process: Series Summary Finale
THE ROLE OF THE REDOX SIGNALING MOLECULES
We have been considering the healing process in a series of articles, reviewing atomic physicist Dr. Gary Samuelson’s booklet The Science of Healing Revealed. This final installation in the series will rap up our summary of the series and review the role of the Redox Signaling Molecules in the healing process. Enjoy!
Cleaning Up the Mess
Let us take a look once more at the cell’s clean-up crew and how important they are to the healing process. These special enzymes (proteases and antioxidants) are made to rip apart the molecules that make up the micro machinery, messengers and reactive molecules of the cell and recycle their pieces. Without them, garbage would build up everywhere inside and outside of the cells and the cells would soon die. Besides, the homeostatic balancing act in the cell absolutely depends on them. The cell is constantly manufacturing new molecules and requires a crew to take the old ones apart in order to maintain this balance.
The clean-up crew also has the job of cleaning up all of the “toxins” (left-over proteins) after the immune system or programmed suicide has kilted invaders or dysfunctional cells. In this sense, they form an essential part of the immune system also.
Regeneration of Lost Tissues
After the damage has been cleaned up and the oxidative stress condition has been corrected by eliminating the excess oxidants, there is still the job of replacing the cells that have been lost. You get the mental picture of many rows of ordered cells with holes and large gaps in them where cells have died and been cleaned up. The reconstruction is done by the cells that are surrounding the holes and gaps. Since cells are constantly sending messages back and forth between neighbors, they notice when one of their neighbors is missing. After the emergency distress condition is over in the neighborhood, the intercellular communication channels are reinforced and the holes become obvious to the neighboring cells. The cells are also free to divide and reproduce again.
At that point, the healthy neighboring cells start to divide in order to fill in the gaps, reconstructing new tissues as they go. If ample blood supply is not available for the new cells, they send out distress messengers that will cause new blood vessels to grow to supply them. The job is done when each of the cells is surrounded by their regular group of neighbors. This same simple reconstruction condition also applies to growing tubular blood vessels that supply the cells, the ring of leading cells will continue to divide and build the vessel until it encounters another blood vessel to link into.
Oxidants Play Central Roles as Messengers
How interesting it is when we can trace all of the complex mysteries of the healing process back to a simple set of rules that each of the cells follow. How interesting it is to discover the huge and important role that oxidants and antioxidants have in this healing process. When damage occurs, the oxidants become the red flags that mark out where and how much damage has been done. What would happen if the oxidants were not there to flag the damage?
Toxins, radiation, infections, cuts, scrapes, bruises, oxygen starvation and any other form of damage would go undetected and neglected without oxidants. Healing would be Impossible. It is this continual balance between the production of oxidants and reductants and their eventual elimination by the antioxidants that allows the cells to react to the damage. It is the response to the resulting imbalance of oxidants (or oxidative stress) that allows the cells and tissues to respond and heal themselves.This is the new picture emerging from the biosciences on healing.”
This completes our series on the Healing Process. I trust you have a better understanding of and a deeper appreciating for the healing process and the essential role the Redox Signaling Molecules play in it. Enough, anyway, to motivate you toward ordering a couple of bottles of ASEA and keep a supply on hand throughout the year. Just 2 oz a day, served up in a glass container (not metal or plastic) and taken on an empty stomach, will supply your body-cells with ample signaling molecules throughout the day. Click HERE to place your order.
I want to thank you for your business and for following my blog. We’re off to Colorado for three weeks vacation. This will give you a chance to catch up with articles you haven’t had time to read or finish yet. I apologize for their length, but I wanted to be as thorough and comprehensive as possible. I’ll be back with a new post shortly. Until then,
My best to you, your health and your healing,
Dr. Tony Palombo
Visit my second web blog for a meditation on Your Sacred Heart and Attunement with Sacred Sound
The Healing Process: The Cell, Part 3 Communication
The Signaling Messengers
We’ve been entertained and edified by the inner life of the cell — how it’s “micro machinery” makes protein molecules from amino acids in the ribosomes and produces its own energy (ATP) in the mitochondria. We will now move on to learn how these inner parts of the cells communicate with one another, as well as how the cells communicate among themselves and with the various systems of the body. Again, I will call upon Dr. Gary Samuelson to help tell the story from his booklet The Science of Healing Revealed – New Insights into Redox Signaling.
Looking at the simple molecular keys that control the kinase fuel gates that energize the machinery in the living cell gives us a first glimpse at a very important class of molecules and proteins that act as messengers that are sent off to make sure specific things happen or do not happen. As can be imagined, these signaling messengers serve a very important role in the working of the cells. They send signals between the machinery in the cell that determines how the cell’s machinery operates and responds to the normal changes in its environment as well as drastic alarms like threats, damage, lack of oxygen, changes in temperature, the arrival of a nerve signal, etc. They can also be sent as long distance messengers to send signals between cells and tissues, as well as general messengers released into the blood and lymph that affect the working of whole systems throughout the entire body, like adrenaline for example. A few of these are listed below. The rest of this booklet, however, is focused on the emerging science that explains, in part, how signaling messengers do what they do and the processes that keeps them controlled and balanced when the body is healthy.
Redox messengers – Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Reduced SpeCies (RS) — The smallest and most fundamental universal signaling molecules in the body are the simple but extremely important reactive molecules that are formed from combinations of the atoms (Na, CI, H, 0, N) readily found in the salt water bath that fills the inside of the cells (cytosol). All of life’s players mentioned so far float around in this bath and can be surrounded by a balanced mixture of these reactive molecules…. “
Dr. Samuelson lists a few of these reactive molecules, such as Superoxide, Hydrogen Peroxide, Hypochiorous Acid, Nitric Oxide, only four of some 20 of them. Then there are these players:
Charged metal ions – Their movement alone makes the electric current that carries signals along our nerves and muscles. They also play signaling roles in hundreds of different life processes. Three examples or these are the Calcium ion (Ca2+), the Potassium ion (K+) and Sodium ion (Na+).
Cytokines – The messengers that activate and regulate the immune system, controlling inflammation, white blood cell movement and natural cell death; Interleukins (regulate immune cells); Interferons (identify invaders,viruses).
Then there are the Endocrine messengers that control and regulate digestion, metabolism and organ function: Adrenaline, Insulin, Gastrin. And the Hormone messengers that determine tissue growth and reproductive function: Testosterone, Estrogen and Progesterone.
Another group of fascinating players in the life of the cell are what are called the “Transcription Factors.“ These messengers cause the DNA inside the nucleus to call for increased production or reduction of certain specific proteins: NF-kappaB calls for inflammation; NRF2 calls for antioxidants; and TNF calls for tumor death.
Enzymes – the “break-it-down clean-it-up and recycle-it crew.”
There are enzymes in the cell that are assigned to the clean-up and recycling crew. They speed up the elimination of the cell’s “garbage,” breaking down the unneeded or excess molecules into smaller useful components. Without these enzymes we would quickly die from the accumulation of excessive and possibly harmful unneeded molecules inside the cells. They also protect the cells by breaking down toxins that come in from the outside environment.
In a very real sense, these enzymes are more than just the garbage disposal crew, they form an indispensable part of the system that maintains the chemical balance needed to sustain all of the life-critical processes that take place inside the cells. In the cell, molecules (large and small) are constantly in the process of being built up from smaller pieces and then torn back down into smaller pieces again.
Antioxiants – “The clean-up crew that is placed strategically in the cell, like guardians, to break down and eliminate the oxidants that would otherwise accumulate and cause damage.” They are: Glutathione Peroxldase (GPx) that breaks down various oxidants (free radicals), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD) that breaks down superoxides, and Catalase that breaks down hydrogen peroxide.
Proteases– The large protein break-it-down crew, used as digestive enzymes to break down food and used by cells to break down unneeded or defective proteins. They are Trypsin, Chyotrypsin and Pepsinogen.
Other “Staff Members” are: Collagen, Cholesterol, Glucose, Triglycerides, Prostaglandin, Quinine, Oleic Acid, Cocaine, Caffeine, Levidopa, and Histamine.
As we can see, there are many and varied types of “actors” playing various and sundry roles to make life possible in our bodies so that we can live and serve in this earthly plane of existence. It’s helpful to have them placed in a context the way Dr. Samuelson does in his booklet.
In my next post we will learn how all these actors work together via the signaling messengers, whose crucial role it is to keep all the actors in touch with one another and all the systems of the body well-informed on what’s going on with each part and within the whole body. Then we will be prepared to study and learn the important role chemical balance plays in the healing process, and how the body keeps everything balanced. Until then, if you haven’t viewed it already, take the time now to enjoy David Bolinsky’s “Fantastic Voyage Inside the Cell” (10 min).
My best to your health and healing,
Dr. Tony Palombo
The Healing Process: Chemical Balance
CHEMICAL BALANCE AND HEALING
I trust you are enjoying these articles exploring the the anatomy and physiology of the cell in the context of The Healing Process.Now that we know how the cells make protein and generate their own energy (ATP), let’s look at what role chemical balance plays in the Healing Process. Dr. Gary Samuelson explains it in layman’s language in his booklet The Science of Healing Revealed – New Insights into Redox Signaling.
The Chemical Balance-How the Body Keeps it all Balanced
Once a protein messenger has delivered its message, it does not “live” very much longer to continue sending more messages. The cells manufacture enzymes (protease “break-down crews”) that quickly disassemble the messenger proteins and recycle their parts (Amino Acids). Thus an adrenaline “burst” lasts only as long as it takes for the protease crews to break down the excess adrenaline in the blood; after which the normal adrenaline balance in the blood is restored. In the body, the phrase, “kill the messenger,” takes on a whole new meaning.
This process of continuous production and subsequent elimination of molecules is not restricted only to the messenger proteins. A careful chemical balance is maintained for hundreds of thousands of types of molecules in every cell that depends on a stable condition where the rate at which the molecules are being produced is the same as the rate that they are taken apart elsewhere. This kind of a balance is called a homeostatic balance. The secret behind almost all biological processes lies in how the body works to maintain this balance.
When the homeostatic balance inside any cell is disturbed, there is either a build-up or a depletion of certain types of molecules. This growing unbalanced condition triggers the cell to respond. If there is a deficiency of a certain type of molecule, the cell can respond by increasing production of this molecule. If there is an excess amount of a certain molecule, it can increase the production of the enzymes that break down this molecule, thus helping to eliminate the excess. The cell can also take a more complex course of action and send out messengers that will help correct a possible problem, or it can even signal for a series of more complex processes that will help the cell adjust to adverse conditions. If the action is successful, then the normal balance will be restored and all is well.
One example of this balancing act is “blood sugar” levels. If the blood sugar level goes up, then the pancreatic beta cells respond by producing more insulin. These insulin messengers speedup the sugar metabolism machinery in the body, causing it to burn some sugar and store the rest as fat. As the blood sugar level decreases, the rate of insulin production also decreases. The elevated amount of insulin in the blood triggers the production of the insulin clean-up crew enzymes. The blood insulin level will eventually go back to normal levels as the excess insulin broken down and removed by these enzymes.
It is interesting to note that if too much sugar is placed in the blood all at once (due to eating easily digestible carbohydrates and sugars, such as white breads and candy bars), the pancreatic beta cells are stressed to work extra hard and they end up producing too much insulin. Since the gross excess of insulin takes a while to clean up, it often happens that too much of the blood sugar is processed and blood sugar levels drop well below normal. This deficiency in blood sugar triggers the production of “hunger” messengers. If this cycle is continued, [and consumption of sugar and carbohydrates is how one alleviates one’s sugar cravings], it may cause obesity and may also lead to over stressing and killing the pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin, causing diabetes (insulin dependent Type I). The body is not built to handle too much blood sugar all at once.
Type II diabetes occurs when the receptor sites of the cells for insulin messengers become saturated, creating the condition of “insulin resistance.” The only way to free up the insulin receptor sites is to stop the production of insulin by fasting from insulin spiking carbohydrates and sugars completely for 30 days, then ease back on a moderate intake of such foods as white rice, white bread, candy, sugar, Irish potatoes, pasta, bananas and other sweet fruit (plums, prunes and blueberries are okay). Refined carbohydrates the body can do without altogether as they simply do more harm than good. Click here for proof this works.
The key to health is to make sure the cells have the raw materials they need to maintain a healthy chemical balance in the machinery that keeps them alive. If the cells are healthy, consequently the whole body is in good health. Good health then lies in being able to sustain a healthy chemical balance.
Of course, it is not possible to maintain perfect health all of the time. Eventually, some of the cells that make up the body will be damaged by injuries, infections, age, the sun, radiation, cold, heat, external toxins and even physical exertion. In fact, the cells in the body are undergoing damage all of the time; thus the body has developed methods to heal itself and thereby restore and maintain healthy balance throughout the whole organism.
Our next consideration will be “Redox Regulation of the Healing Process — New Science.” Enjoy this video clip on covalent bonding before leaving my blog which will help you understand the chemistry involved in free-radical damaging to healthy cells and the process by which they are neutralized by antioxidants. Until next week, then, my best. . .
to your health and healing,
Dr. Tony Palombo
The Healing Process: Introduction
WE LIVE, HEAL AND DIE AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL
My primary job as a doctor is to teach health as I administer healing of dis-ease. Teaching is what I most enjoy. This blog is all about teaching health. The more you understand your body and how it lives at the cellular and molecular levels, the better equipped you are with the knowledge and wisdom to manage your health.
The general heading of this and the next several articles is “The Healing Process,” and I promise that you will understand what it is and how it works at the cellular level when you finish reading the next few blog posts, and it will take several posts to cover the subject matter.
Our subject is the cell. Our objective will be to gain an understanding and deepen our appreciation for the individual cells that make up our body: how they live, facilitate the healing process, and give their lives to maintaining the integrity and homeostasis of the whole body. We stand to learn much about life and about how we might give our lives, dedicate our living, to the healing of the body of mankind, which is, in reality, the Body of the Creator on this planet, and to the building of a healthier community on Earth.
To help tell the story of the life of the cell, I will call upon Dr. Gary L. Samuelson, who holds a Ph.D. in Atomic and Medical Physics from the University of Utah. He has dedicated his career and knowledge to the advancement of promising technologies addressing the major health issues facing mankind today. His study of the science of healing takes him deep into the microcosm of life itself, beyond mental judgement and labeling. Through his eyes we can see clearly the truth of all the elements that go to make up our bodies – the “good” and so-called “bad” – all of which are essential to the healing process and the maintenance of balance in our body’s chemistry. In truth, there isn’t “good and bad,” but simply what is, and it is all good.
The deeper we go into the micro structures of the fabric of creation, where there is yet pristine terrain untouched by human hands, the clearer is the design and function of the creative process . . . and that’s my keen interest. For if we understand the ways of life and the processes by which life brings about creation, we may better understand how we, as creator beings, can work together to bring about a healthier world.
I invite you to sit back and allow your mind to relax its effort to grasp meaning and simply settle down and go deep with me, and with Gary Samuelson, to enjoy a fascinating journey and molecular tour of the human cell. I promise this will be a most enjoyable book review and reading, presented in sections over several blog posts so as to give the reader time to fully digest and process the material. Enjoy the tour!
The Science of Healing Revealed — New Insights into Redox Signaling, by Gary L. Samuelson, Ph.D.
Dr. Samuelson has found a way to take a complex and difficult subject and make it lucid and understandable to the lay reader. It is very rare that someone can convey concepts in science with such clarity and still maintain a degree of accuracy and precision. Dr. Samuelson possesses this unique talent; he explains the body‘s natural healing process on the molecular level in a way that conserves the precision of the science, and yet exposes the technical terms and underlying concepts in clear language able to be understood by any interested reader.
The reader stands to gain a much better view of the science of healing and a good understanding of the basic concepts of how the body‘s healing process works. (Chase N. Peterson, MD, Former President of the University of Utah)
FORWARD
I have always been fascinated by the process of life. How does a blade of grass grow, what determines its shape and function? If it is chopped off, how does it know to grow back? I was sometimes accused of being a strange child, yet my inquiring mind turned me toward the study of science. This love of truth and science stayed with me into my adult life. I soon realized that the mystery of life is one of the most fundamental questions facing us. Shortly after obtaining my Ph.D. in Atomic and Medical Physics, I was set on a path that would ultimately lead me to find the answer to some of these questions and to better understand the overall framework of life processes, approached on the most basic atomic level.
The purpose of this booklet is to help the reader explore and understand this newly emerging science about healing, in a clear, concise, straightforward manner, one that sets a framework around the fundamental principles of the inner workings of the body: explaining how the micro machinery of the body allows the body to thrive when it is well and to heal itself when it is not well. This topic is approached from a first-principles basis, the science is explained as best my language will allow. This book also outlines some emerging cutting-edge science related to the role that redox signaling plays in the healing process.
It is my hope that the reader will be able to follow and comprehend some of the basic, yet incredible, processes that allow us to live and then be motivated to apply this new-found knowledge toward living a healthier every–day life.
INTRODUCTION
Imagine what would happen if our body suddenly lost its ability to heal itself. Within hours, our body would age several years, tissues would degrade, infections would take hold and our body would quickly wither and die. The root of the word “health” is “heal” [to make whole]. The body is constantly healing itself. The body’s ability to heal is one of the most fundamental and essential principles of life. Since conception, our body has been abundantly endowed with this ability. In order to better understand how it does this, we must start by looking at the smallest components of life, the workings inside the living cells that make up our body.
Human cells are generally very small. In a cell’s-eye view, the wrinkles in the palm of your hand are huge cavernous canyons with cliffs and ledges, stretching on for miles. A single hair on the back of your hand is a huge towerinq column of proteins jutting far up, out-of-sight. And yet, even on this tiny scale, the cell is very large compared to the micro machines that perform the processes of life inside the cell. If we were to now dive down inside the cell with a camera that is small enough to see a single strand of DNA, we would see a bustling metropolis of thousands of different types af molecular actors floating around in the salt water, full of activity, extending for hundreds of yards in all directions; proteins being manufactured and folded, delivery systems on microtubules taxiing these proteins around to where they need to go, receptors receiving and transferring messages from inside and the cell and factory-like organelles, hubs where the most complex manufacturing takes place. In the center would be the nucleus containing the DNA spitting out the instructions needed to manufacture and transport all of these micro machines and messengers. Within this thriving buzz of activity is found the mystery of human cellular life.
Our knowledge of these life processes is doubling in less than five years time now. In fact, the emerging science and framework contained in this small booklet have been mostly developed in the last five to ten years and is the result of literally thousands of investigators who have devoted their lives to build such knowledge. The state of our understanding is constantly changing and evolving. Our understanding of the role of oxidants [free radicals] and antioxidants, for example, has done a turn-about in the last five years. The oxidants (made naturally inside the cells) were thought of as an unfortunate toxic by-product of our metabolism, and the antioxidants (also made in the cells) were thought of as the heroes that were made to clean up these evil oxidants and save us from their toxic grip. Our present understanding, however, is more enlightened. We now have come to see that the oxidants, themselves, play a crucial and essential messenger role to maintain basic chemical balance inside and outside of our cells and, in truth, we cannot live without them.
The picture gradually becomes clearer and clearer as time goes along. As scientists put together the edge pieces, the whole puzzle starts to take shape. In this booklet, we will look at some of these pieces and how they fit together. However, the major emphasis of this booklet will be to take an overview of the whole puzzle and set up a framework that will help us understand how the bigger picture is taking form and how we can use this knowledge to make a future of better health and a better life for all.
The first 4 chapters in this booklet will introduce you to basic cellular biology and function; this part is helpful in order to familiarize yourself with the microscopic workings inside your cells and the basic concepts. Some of these concepts will be useful. including the chapter on the immune system, in order to get the big picture. The last 2 chapters, however, contain the real heart of the material and new insights on the body’s natural healing precess. These last chapters should be read carefully in order to comprehend the huge potential benefits offered by emerging technologies.
Tune in to my next blog post for a continuation of the story of the life of the cell and our ongoing exploration into “The Healing Process.” We will take a journey inside the cell. Click on this link for a YouTube video preview: Journey Inside the Cell
To your health and healing,
Dr. Anthony Palombo
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MD Admits to “Great Cholesterol Lie”
This is what I and other alternative healthcare doctors have been saying for years! My own cardiologist couldn’t afford to change his approach . . . and here’s why!
(This is long, but read it if you want to fully understand coronary heart disease.)
Seven years ago I had by-pass surgery due to clogged coronary arteries. My cardiologist and surgeon said the culprit was cholesterol and that it was hereditary. The real culprit turned out to be chronic inflammation due to several factors, primary of which was an allergy to high fructose corn syrup and corn products in general – all of which I found out visiting a colleague in Houston, Texas, Dr. Stuart White. The hereditary factor is only 5%. My dad died of coronary heart disease at age 61. I was 62 when I had my bypass.
Against my cardiologist’s strong recommendations, I opted not to take the Statin and other drugs and instead addressed my condition naturally with dietary and lifestyle changes, which included therapeutic dosages of critical nutritional supplements. I am, non-the-less, eternally grateful to my cardiologist and heart surgeon for my second lease on life – which, ironically, allowed me to pursue my search for the real cause of coronary heart disease and to be alive today to tell my story and report on my findings.
When I showed my cardiologist the evidence against cholesterol as a marker for coronary heart disease, his reply was that all the medical literature pointed in the direction of statin drugs to reduce the production of cholesterol by the liver. Now I know that he couldn’t, and probably still cannot, go against the literature without risking a malpractice suit. He has to follow the protocol dictated by the AMA and the pharmaceutical industry. Here’s an MD who fessed up to the big mistake medicine has made and is still making. Thank you Dr. Dwight Lundell!
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Turn stress into peace and calm!
THE CALM, CONNECT AND COORDINATE SYSTEM
You’ve heard of the “fight, flight or freeze syndrome,” haven’t you? That system is turned on by stress, or by reaction to stressors which makes you distressed. Well, the calm, connect and coordinate system is what turns it off, restoring you to a state of calm wherein you can sink back into your skin and reconnect with your body as well as your environment instead of fleeing from them. It also gets the cells of your body functioning as a well-coordinated whole once again rather than galvanized, or frozen, in an isolated state of self-defense. This syndrome is turned on by a rarely talked about and scarcely understood hormone: Oxytocin.
Produced in the hypothalamus–a part of the brain that coordinates pituitary hormone production with the central nervous system and with what’s occurring around you–and stored in the posterior pituitary where it is released as a hormone to circulate through the body, oxytocin functions by altering or modulating the activities in other major body systems. It can have very long-lasting effects as these major systems work in a feedback loop and stimulate more oxytocin production. New discoveries are showing oxytocin is produced in many different places, including the heart and blood vessel walls, ovaries, and testes.
The hormone, Vasopressin–which stimulates the stress syndrome–is also produced in the hypothalamus and is stored and released by the posterior pituitary gland. Also known as an anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), it functions to maintain the body’s fluid volume and balance. In addition, vasopressin acts to increase aggression, hyper-vigilance, and other fight or flight type reactions. Our understanding of oxytocin and the calm and connection system is in its infancy. Almost all study has been directed to the fight or flight or distress handling system. Most textbooks still state that oxytocin’s only functions are to simulate uterine contraction and facilitate lactation in females (along with prolactin).
In oxytocin producing cells the electric impulses do not occur one by one, but in a cluster. When the cells are powerfully stimulated, as in breast-feeding, (or other oxytocin stimulating behavior) the electrical activity becomes coordinated and the cells act in concert. This is part of the reason large amounts of oxytocin can be released in nursing women. Estrogen can activate the oxytocin system and prolong its effects. Therefore, at certain times oxytocin affects females more potently than males. Testosterone can activate vasopressin and sustain its effects. Therefore, at certain times, vasopressin affects males more potently than females. Neurons that contain serotonin stimulate the release of oxytocin. This may be part of the mechanism of action of SSRI drugs that affect mood and anxiety levels. (Dopamine and noradrenalin also stimulate oxytocin release.) As you can see by the following list, there are many ways we can foster the calm, connect and coordinate system.
So, next time you find yourself stressed out over something, start producing oxytocin!
What stimulates Oxytocin release?
Giving thanks, being thankful and grateful, coming into the present moment with unconditional acceptance of things the way they are as being perfect; feelings of security, sensation and pleasure; touch, stroking, rhythmic touch; friendship, closeness, bonding experiences; sexual behavior, sex and intimacy, childbirth (uterine contractions), nursing and sucking (thumb-sucking); thoughts, memories, feelings of all the above; and probably such things as . . .
Some types of massage, chiropractic spinal adjustments, acupuncture, and other body-mind-spirit based techniques; energy work, attunement healing (Reiki); laughter and random happiness, deep sleep (delta), deep rhythmic breathing, Yoga, tai chi, and other related practices; rocking, singing, meditation, certain types of music, dance, art, literature, poetry; giving and receiving unconditional love; interaction with animals; a job or activity well done, especially if it benefits many; play and other positive and meaningful experiences.
Isn’t it wonderful how our bodies look after us and respond to our every wish and intention! The body never makes a mistake. Everything it does is perfect. We have every reason to trust it.
To your health,
Dr. Tony Palombo
References: Dr. Janet Lang’s Nutritional Seminars, HealthLight Newsletter, Fall 2004
HealingTones.org 