Wound Healing with Food Remedies and Beyond

When it comes to surface or external wound healing, Vitamin E may be your best bet.  As a topical I myself have witnessed surprising and remarkable acceleration of healing a skin wound with Vitamin E.  So for surface stuff or cosmetic wounds, absolutely, grab a Vitamin E capsule, pierce it with a lance, and ooze out the oil onto the wound and watch the magic happen over the next few days.  I've also seen remarkable recovery of a viral skin wound on an 89 year old woman who used a Barry Sears' Zone Diet product called cellular serum.  The key ingredient in that is Hydrophobic GLA.  So in my immediate experience I have seen both of these products accomplish impressive results. 

But what about internal injuries, the kind we hear about from sports or accidents?  Well, we either rely on doctor prescribed medicine or food remedies.  And perhaps the most important consideration when it comes to repairing internal tissue is time, er, ah, timing.  You cannot wait.  But nor should you or do you rush into things.  Remember, this is a primarily a blog on food remedies.  So the non-professional recommendation here is to begin internal wound healing with the right foods.  If you wait and hem and haw, what you're doing is transferring the healing of your body over completely to your body to heal itself.  And certainly it will. Your body is remarkable in that it thrives on healing.  But will the body's own healing mechanism restore full function to a specific muscle, joint, or organ?  Ah, there in lies the rub.  So when treating an internal wound, you need to get on it as soon possible.  By which I mean you start on the nutritional regimen immediately.

Abbey Housefield asks:

   . . . is there anything you can do nutritionally during this “waiting period” to help decrease healing time and get back on the run?

 YES! Your body is built to heal from the inside out and nutrition plays a dynamic role in the healing of injuries. If you provide the right foods and nutrients to your body during the time of healing the duration of an injury can be shortened.  

 Okay, so we know that the "right foods" play a role in accelerating wound healing.  But what are those right foods?

George Mateljan writes:

Virtually all vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and macronutrients like protein, fiber, and essential fatty acids are going to help with the healing process.

That statement is general enough that I cannot disagree with it.

A low quality diet that has few whole, natural foods is going to work against healing, and a nutrient-dense diet filled with whole, natural foods is going to be supportive.  

Okay, this I can get on board with as well.  Food provides comprehensive options for getting all of the nutrients you need for wound healing.

Some nutrients have taken center stage in the animal research on healing, and these nutrients include vitamin C, flavonoids, vitamin A, protein, and zinc. Rich sources of vitamin C and flavonoids include fruits and vegetables such as broccoli, bell peppers, cauliflower, and berries. 

So far so good.

When it comes to vitamin A, some of these same foods will also be very helpful since they will provide you with rich amounts of beta-carotene, a "pro-vitamin A" nutrient that can be partially converted into fully active vitamin A. Other foods that can provide you with preformed, fully active vitamin A include dairy products and eggs, and calf's liver, which will also provide you with the protein important for healing. Zinc is especially concentrated in red meats as well as nuts and seeds. 

Did you read that?  ". . . dairy products and eggs, and calf's liver . . ." are those "right foods."  Those along with grassfed butter, chicken liver, cod liver oil, cold water fish.  These are the right foods.  Animal sources are the healing foods.  I would not rely exclusively on a vegetarian diet to heal internal wounds.  You need animal fats.  Mateljan's  subordinating position of the meat source of Vitamin A, Retinol A, to the vegetable source, beta carotene, was disheartening.  Yes, you can get water soluble Vitamin A, or beta carotene, from the reliable vegetables sources like carrots, bell peppers, and others.  But Retinol A from cheese, eggs, chicken liver and, yes, calf liver, is by far more readily absorbed than foods containing beta carotene which your body has to convert to Retinol A.

And then the author adds the silly recommendation to be sure and get the very leanest cuts of meat.  This is just not helpful.  It's proven that that beef stock and tallow are great sources to build collagen.

(If you're increasing red meat to support the healing process, however, make sure that you stick with the very leanest cuts of red meat such as top round, bottom round, eye of round, or ground beef made from them as high intake of total fat and saturated fat are not going to help your healing process, and you'll be at risk in these areas unless you stick with very lean meats.)  

His recommendation for fiber is excellent:

While less directly connected to the specifics of healing, fiber is one additional nutrient that deserves special attention in healing. When healing from a surgery or wound, it's especially important to have food flow healthily through the digestive tract, allowing for optimal digestion and absorption of nutrients. A healthy digestive tract can be one of the secrets for optimal healing. Dietary fiber plays a key role here, and should not be overlooked. In addition to the fruits and vegetables already discussed, legumes and beans and whole grains will often be essential in getting your fiber intake up to a level that can promote optimal healing.  

 Okay, so we know what we need to heal wounds:  Retinol A from eggs, chicken and beef liver and fish.  Not convinced?  Check out the Weston A. Price Foundation's recommendations on the importance of fat in the diet. Remember, fats are stored energy.  So when you begin consuming fish oils, cod liver oil, eggs, grass-fed spring butter, olive oil, beef, and fish, you will be getting adequate fat into your diet.

I do like Mateljan's emphasis on zinc:

Some nutrients have taken center stage in the animal research on healing, and these nutrients include vitamin C, flavonoids, vitamin A, protein, and zinc. Rich sources of vitamin C and flavonoids include fruits and vegetables such as broccoli, bell peppers, cauliflower, and berries. When it comes to vitamin A, some of these same foods will also be very helpful since they will provide you with rich amounts of beta-carotene, a "pro-vitamin A" nutrient that can be partially converted into fully active vitamin A. Other foods that can provide you with preformed, fully active vitamin A include dairy products and eggs, and calf's liver, which will also provide you with the protein important for healing. Zinc is especially concentrated in red meats as well as nuts and seeds. (If you're increasing red meat to support the healing process, however, make sure that you stick with the very leanest cuts of red meat such as top round, bottom round, eye of round, or ground beef made from them as high intake of total fat and saturated fat are not going to help your healing process, and you'll be at risk in these areas unless you stick with very lean meats.)  

Another source explains the value of zinc:

Zinc helps the body synthesize proteins and develop collagen, so it is an important mineral for wound healing. As long as you are taking in sufficient amounts of protein from meats, you should be getting enough zinc in your diet

Follow the prescriptions laid out by the Weston A. Price Foundation for wound healing here.  

Want to Treat Gastric Ulcers? Try ZINC CARNOSINE

The world of disease is complicated, unknown, with so many receptors, binding proteins, epithelial cells on membranes that it's quite difficult to make sense of it all.  Sometimes the best we can do is rely on the old standbys, like vitamin D3, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, and others to keep ourselves free of pathogens--viruses, bacteria, etc.  And oftentimes the fearmongering around diseases seems interminable.  You find out one thing about a pathogen, and you panic.  Doctors love it when they can cause you to panic when they give you or a loved one a diagnosis of cancer or some other progressive, degenerative, even debilitating disease.  For this reason, medical doctors have lost me.  Recently, I'd learned that the spike proteins that are invading our bodies via the vaccines or transmission of exosomes are recking havoc on our cells and cell membranes, and the quality of our blood.  And given this nightmare, I don't see how folks are still worried about COVID.  COVID seems to be the last of our worries. Was recently reading about prion disease, proteins that cause other proteins to fold and malfunction.  The kinds of conditions caused by prion disease are Parkinson's, Mad Cow Disease, Alzheimer's [I thought this was caused by amyloid plaque], and others.  John Hopkins Medical reports that

A prion is a type of protein that can trigger normal proteins in the brain to fold abnormally. Prion diseases can affect both humans and animals and are sometimes spread to humans by infected meat products. The most common form of prion disease that affects humans is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Which is frightening enough.  Science can be fascinating, but if you get a talented scientist placed under the influence of mass murders, like Ralph Baric of North Carolina University, then the world is doomed.

But maybe, just maybe there are some small, insignificant interventions that people can take to either prevent disease or outright cure it into non-existence.  Zinc is one such powerful compound as to elicit respect for what it can do to restore and maintain health.  Here is what PubMed has to say about zinc: 

Zinc (Zn) is abundantly present in the brain, and accumulates in the synaptic vesicles. Synaptic Zn is released with neuronal excitation, and plays essential roles in learning and memory. Increasing evidence suggests that the disruption of Zn homeostasis is involved in various neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, a vascular type of dementia, and prion diseases. Our and other numerous studies suggest that carnosine (β-alanyl histidine) is protective against these neurodegenerative diseases. Carnosine is an endogenous dipeptide abundantly present in the skeletal muscles and in the brain, and has numerous beneficial effects such as antioxidant, metal chelating, anti-crosslinking, and anti-glycation activities. The complex of carnosine and Zn, termed polaprezinc, is widely used for Zn supplementation therapy and for the treatment of ulcers. Here, we review the link between Zn and these neurodegenerative diseases, and focus on the neuroprotective effects of carnosine. We also discuss the carnosine level in various foodstuffs and beneficial effects of dietary supplementation of carnosine.

The complex of carnosine and Zn, termed polaprezinc sounds interesting.  What is that exactly?  It's Zinc Carnosine, and it's used to heal gastric ulcers.   

OYSTERS: THE MOST NUTRIENT-DENSE FOOD BEHIND LIVER?

If you are deficient in zinc, you could potentially develop something called hypogonadism.  Your gonads actually shrink because you don't have enough zinc.  Testosterone is made by the gonads.  Some say that we shouldn't be consuming shellfish because of the microplastics.  One point on that is that if you eat Pacific Oysters, you'll have the lowest amount of microplastics.  But so is the lack of nutrition in our diet.  And the lack of nutrient-dense food, so we kind of have to balance things out.  Remember, there are no solutions, only trade-offs.  But oysters are literally at the top of the list of nutrient-dense foods.  And when you're trying to build up testosterone, it's not just about increasing that one hormone, it's about supporting the entire endocrine system, all the hormones in the right balance, so this could help you on many different levels.  Oysters are loaded with zinc and copper in the right ratios, tons of B12, iron, vitamin D, B6, omega 3 fatty acids, and choline.  [Sounds like oysters would be a better option than sardines maybe.]  There are other things, too, that can negate or nullify your results.  For example, if you're on a statin drug that blocks cholesterol, which is needed to make cholesterol, that can nullify any foods that you eat or supplements that you take to boost your testosterone.  

FOODS THAT LOWER TESTOSTERONE IN THE BODY:

Soy decreases testosterone. 

Grains, or the phytic acid in them, decreases testosterone.  Phytic acid blocks zinc.  

Low Hydrochloric Acid.  HCL is necessary to absorb trace minerals, especially zinc.  How do you know if you have low HCL?  Well, . . . heartburn, Gerd, indigestion, acid reflux, all are indications of low HCL. 

Sugar: too much sugar, too many refined carbohydrates will kill testosterone. 

Stress.

Lack of sleep is a really big one.  And the more fat you have in your body, the more estrogen that you'll make and the less testosterone that you'll make.  In fact, your body will start converting testosterone into estrogen.

Iron.  Too much iron can really damage the liver and leave you with very low testosterone levels.  Even though oysters are high in iron, 

THINGS YOU CAN DO TO INCREASE TESTOSTERONE

HARDCORE EXERCISE with a lot of SLEEP.  The hormone pathways of testosterone follow the hormone pathways of growth hormones.  If one is higher, the other is higher.  Consuming enough fatty foods: this is why eggs are good, this is why red meats are good.  Butter, too, is good because it's made of cholesterol. 

From a Friend . . .

1. Whenever you take any supplement, always, always, always include Magnesium.  Magnesium always makes things more effective.  So always take magnesium whenever you’re taking anything.  Magnesium Glycinate comes highly recommended.  2.  You need a foundation: start with a multi-vitamin, called Molecular Multi.  https://bit.ly/3urhwCI.  Take it with 1 of your meals.  3.  Fast occasionally. 4.  Start TODAY with these: Multi-vitamin, 10,000IU D3, Zinc 50mgs/day, 800-1,000mgs magnesium glycinate, 500mgs vitamin C every 4 hours.  5.  Create shoebox-sized plastic containers where you place all of the brain nutrients into one box, the heart nutrients in another, and label each one.  It has to be this organized, otherwise, she’ll be confused and not know what to do or where to go to get relief for this or that.  Something like this but in white, https://bit.ly/3v4KmYU.  And with labels writ large so that she can read it from across the room.
Brain	Vitamin D Magnesium Fish oils, the Zone Diet fish oils came advertised as the cleanest.  Take with a vitamin E. Benfotiamine, this is fat-soluble B1 Ubiquinol, the absorbable form of COQ10
Immunity	Beta-Glucans.  Wellmune is a specific type of beta-glucans and the superior form.  https://bit.ly/3OcTDXF. Vitamin D, 10,000 to 20,000IU/day Zinc, 50mgs/day. Zinc [Acetate, or zinc lozenges] helps regrow the thymus gland back to its original size.  Start on this immediately.  Magnesium Glycinate Glutathione, 1 capsule per day.
Gut immunity	Garlic prevents H. Pylori.  https://bit.ly/3JuXUBQ. Zinc carnosine prevents intestinal ulcers. Anti-parasitic, Artemisinin. https://amzn.to/3OcUTtR.   Dandelion Root kills 95% of colorectal cancer cells in 48 hours.  https://bit.ly/3Js42ej.
Heart	Ubiquinol Resveratrol (Longevinex is the only resveratrol anyone should be consuming).  Resveratrol has lots of anti-aging compounds, like fisetin, found in strawberries.  https://longevinex.com/. Magnesium
Arthritis	Hyaluronic Acid IP6
Beauty	Hyaluronic Acid Niacin is excellent for the skin.
Leaky Gut	Apple Pectin
Circulation Vascular system	500mgs every 4 hours Vitamin C.  Vitamin C is extremely important for the eyes. Niacin [FYI, Niacin cures schizophrenia and more.
Sleep	Melatonin, 20mgs.  Shortages of this compound is problematic.  Doesn’t hurt to go up to 20mgs.  Cancer patients are recommended to take up to 30mgs/night.

FOODS HIGHEST IN ZINC

So you zinc you don't need zinc, eh?  Zinc again.

Oysters top the list.  Six oysters gets you 42grams of zinc.  Wow!  That packs a punch.  

1 Rib Eye filet nets you 129grams.  

See the others in the other 8 items in the link above.

Have a Cold? How to Feel Better

Mark Sisson has penned what I would deem an excellent guide for treating the common cold.

No one likes a cold, and various colds of one origin or another are going around this winter season. One of the worst parts of the common cold is that it’s unpleasant enough to make daily life annoying but mild enough to force you to still go out into the world and maintain a normal schedule.

But you don’t want to have to do that. You don’t want to get anyone else sick, and you want to feel better—fast. How do you do it? How can you speed up your clearance of a cold, whether through actually expelling the virus from your body, getting rid of the symptoms, or both?

Let’s talk about that.

How to Feel Better Quickly When You Have a Cold

These are the basic, research-backed things to do when you have a cold and want to get over it fast.

• Get enough selenium
• Get enough zinc
• Eat a bunch of garlic
• Drink raw golden milk
• Try nasal irrigation
• Try povidone-iodine gargling and nasal rinsing
• Drink bone broth
• Eat spicy food

Get Enough Selenium

Almost every upper respiratory tract infection I’ve ever studied has selenium deficiency as an enhancing variable. Most viruses, for example, sequester selenium and utilize it to replicate and to weaken the host, leaving them wide open for further, deeper infection. The common cold is likely no different.

Eat Brazil nuts (one to three per day) and oysters and wild salmon. It is possible to overdo selenium, so don’t go overboard with supplementation. Just eat selenium-rich foods while you’re experiencing symptoms.

Get Enough Zinc

Zinc is the most important mineral for immune function, especially regarding upper respiratory tract infections. Depending on the virus, zinc has been shown to inhibit replication, lower binding, and block various physiological processes many viruses use to attack and ingratiate themselves with the host (you). And this isn’t just theoretical or based on cell culture studies. The best evidence we have shows that zinc supplementation reduces the duration of common colds in adults.1

Eat Lots of Garlic

Garlic is a potent superfood lurking in plain sight. Garlic and its components can improve immune function, reduce the occurrence of common colds, and block viral entry into host cells.234 If I feel a cold coming on, I’ll crush and dice up an entire head of garlic and lightly simmer it in a big mug of bone broth. I find I am usually able to ward off whatever’s headed my way. Of course, that’s just an anecdote and the available evidence is more equivocal.5

Drink Raw Golden Milk

Ayurveda is the traditional Indian system of medicine. Although talk of chakras and levitating gurus lets rational skeptics dismiss it entirely, modern science has vindicated many Ayurvedic therapies, herbs, and concepts. Golden milk is one, and it’s really simple. Add turmeric and black pepper (plus other spices) to milk and it turns gold. In Ayurveda, golden milk is used to fight sore throats, colds, and flus. Does it work?

Well, turmeric is absolutely rife with potent pharmacological effects. It may be able to relieve cough and clear up excess mucus, at least according to animal studies.67

Milk might actually be a bigger aid. Research has shown that a combo of two milk components—whey protein and lactoferrin—is able to reduce the incidence of the common cold in people.8 That was a concentrated supplement, however. Your standard glass of milk doesn’t have nearly as much whey or lactoferrin. Raw milk may be a better option, as it contains more lactoferrin than pasteurized milk, and raw whey provides more glutathione-boosting effects than heat-treated whey. To preserve these benefits, you’ll have to drink your golden milk unheated, of course. Here’s how I’d make it:

Fill a blender bottle with turmeric, black pepper, raw milk, and extra whey protein. Add a sweetener if you prefer. Shake vigorously. Drink. Maybe chase it with a lactoferrin or colostrum (the “first milk” that’s highest in lactoferrin) supplement.

Try Nasal Irrigation

In Sanskrit, “neti” means “nasal cleansing.” The neti pot is a exactly what it sounds like. You fill a tiny kettle with warm saline water, tilt your head over a sink, and pour the water into one nostril. It flows out the other one, clearing your nasal cavity and letting you breathe again. The scientific term is “nasal irrigation,” and it really does work against the worst part of a bad cold: the stuffy nose that keeps you up at night, gives you dry mouth, and makes food taste bland.9

Also, it’s better than antibiotics in kids with rhinosinusitis.10 It even improves symptoms in infants with bronchiolitis, another kind of viral infection.11

Gargling and Nasal Irrigation with 1% Povidone-Iodine

Make a 1% solution of povidone-iodine (1.5 tablespoons 10% povidone-iodine/betadine into 250 mL nasal irrigation bottle and fill the rest up with sterile/distilled water) and gargle with that at the first hint of a sore throat and spray it into your nasal passages. Betadine is intensely virucidal when applied topically. One study even found that COVID patients who gargled with 1% betadine had quicker clearance of the virus and its associated symptoms.12 Since the common cold is often a coronavirus, it’s also probably susceptible to betadine.

Worth a try.

Bone broth/chicken soup

People call it “Jewish penicillin,” and they’re not lying: evidence has confirmed that chicken soup eases nasal congestion, improves the function of the nasal cilia protecting us from pathogen incursions, and reduces cold symptoms.

Does it have to be chicken? As most cultures include soup in their list of effective cold remedies, I suspect it’s the goodness of the broth that’s important and any true bone broth-based soup will work. Hell, in a pinch pure collagen peptides might even do the trick, though I’d opt for the real bone broth if you can.

Spicy Food

Some people, when ill, swear that spicy food helps them “sweat it out.” Maybe, but a better bet lies in its effect on our nasal cavities. Capsaicin, the chili pepper component that produces a burning sensation in mammalian tissue, reduces nasal inflammation. When your nasal blood vessels are inflamed, the walls constrict; the space gets tighter and you have trouble breathing. Studies indicate that capsaicin is effective against most symptoms of nasal congestion.13

My Cold Remedies

The foundation for my resistance and response to upper respiratory tract infections isn’t any specific food or supplement, of course. It’s everything. It’s my sleep, my stress, my training, my play. And yes, my food. As I said about my experience with COVID, I’d been training for it my entire life. But it does happen to the best of us, and it’s the worst. We shouldn’t accept being sick. I never do.

I’ve mentioned my common cold medicine: an entire head (yes, a head) of crushed garlic lightly simmered in a mug of bone broth spiked with cayenne, hot sauce, or fresh chilies. If I feel a cold coming on, I’ll drop whatever I’m doing and prepare it. This is a potent combination of three of the cold-busting ingredients with the most support in the literature (broth, garlic, and spicy food). Lately, I’ve been including black garlic, a delicious fermented variety that tastes like molasses and has increased pharmacological activity.

If I have a sore throat, heating up and drinking a blend of lemon juice (lime works too), water, and raw honey in a 4:4:1 ratio always makes me feel better. I tend to use a wild neem honey harvested in India. I’m not sure if the bees feeding on neem makes a difference, though the plant does possess antiviral and immunomodulatory effects. I’ve also heard great things about black seed honey, made from bees who feed on the black cumin seed flowers.

I also use these zinc acetate lozenges recommended by Chris Masterjohn. If you ever feel a sore throat coming on, suck on these and let them dissolve in your mouth. Each one takes about 30 minutes to dissolve, but it really does help.

How do you folks beat colds? What do you do?

Thanks for reading, everyone.

The Sweetener Splenda Breaks Up Your DNA. Zinc May Resolve It

Real nice https://t.co/7PHR68ixgi

— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) June 5, 2023

An excerpt: 

"Other studies have found that sucralose can adversely affect gut health, so we wanted to see what might be happening there," Schiffman says. "When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to gut epithelial tissues—the tissue that lines your gut wall—we found that both chemicals cause 'leaky gut.' Basically, they make the wall of the gut more permeable. The chemicals damage the 'tight junctions,' or interfaces, where cells in the gut wall connect to each other.

The paper, "Toxicological and pharmacokinetic properties of sucralose-6-acetate and its parent sucralose: in vitro screening assays," is published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B. The paper was co-authored by Troy Nagle, Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at NC State and UNC and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State; Terrence Furey, professor of genetics and biology at UNC; and Elizabeth Scholl, a former researcher at NC State who is currently at Sciome LLC.  

But should you really be too surprised at the toxicity of artificial sweeteners?  Or even natural sugar for that matter?  I mean we don't remain children or childlike, do we?  We know better than to consume endless sweets or to think that corporations work completely benevolent on our behalf.  I've got some Santa Claus stories if you're interested.  

Check this out: 

Perhaps you remember when the Coca-Cola company launched its ad campaign to fight obesity back in the early 80s? 

Wait, what!  A soft drink company wants to play doctor with your metabolism?  Oh, they want to doctor things alright.  No, thank you.

This was all part of a ploy to begin the use of aspartame, whose patent was once owned by none other than Monsanto! 

O, Irony! 

Ironically, there are numerous studies that show this stuff causes obesity. It doesn’t prevent obesity.

Before they started selling you Splenda, it was called NutraSweet. In 1985, Monsanto purchased G.D. Searle, the chemical company that held the patent to aspartame, the active ingredient in NutraSweet, as well as Splenda and many other artificial sweeteners. Is Splenda safe? It depends who you ask.

Let’s look at a little timeline, shall we?

• 1901: Monsanto Chemical Works is formed.

• 1976: When Ford loses the 1976 election, Rumsfeld returns to private business life, and is named president and CEO of the pharmaceutical corporation G. D. Searle & Company, during which time he leads the legalization of Aspartame.

• 1977: Monsanto stops producing PCBs.

• 1997: Monsanto businesses are spun off as Solutia Inc.

• 1999: John Hunter is named chairman and CEO.

• 2000: Monsanto’s Pharmaceutical Services Division is created. Monsanto also merges with the drug-maker Pharmacia & UpJohn Inc., which took control of the Searle pharmaceutical operations, and the current Monsanto Co. was incorporated as a subsidiary in October 2000.

• 2002: PCB trial results in a sharp drop in stock price.

Splenda shrinks the thymus gland, a key immune organ, by up to 40%.  Zinc reverses that; in fact, it regrows the thymus to its original size.  See some other valuable benefits of zinc.  

1.  Resolves white spots on the fingernails. 

2.  Resolves pale, rough skin, dry hair, and acne.

3.  Resolves unhealthy weight loss caused by appetite loss. 

4.  Resolves dandruff.  Jettison the shampoo to treat dandruff.  Take zinc.

5.  Resolves slow wound healing.  All of these resolutions come from Sarah Corriher.