CANADA, BRITAIN, NORWAY: SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM IS DISASTROUS

Lots of Americans praise single-payer healthcare in other countries. But @ManhattanInst’s @CityJournal’s @CPopeHC showed me that it’s not what most of us think it is. pic.twitter.com/jyds8nySt1

— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) August 3, 2019

Rely on preventative medicine, meaning your anti-aging nutritional compounds.  

Vitamin D for headaches and restless leg syndrome, and traumas.  

Vitamin C, not aspirin, for headaches.  Vitamin C strengthens capillaries, rebuilds collagen for blood vessel repair and overall immunity.  

Zinc to help regrow the Thymus gland to its original size.  

Magnesium is important as a co-factor for all other nutrients.  It's an excellent muscle relaxer and nerve tonic.  Key to the effective use of magnesium is absorption.  Make sure you're getting enough.  You'll need more than 105mgs per day. See the bottom of this page.

Allithiamine, which crosses the blood-brain barrier where benfotiamine does not [though still protects against Alzheimer's disease], to protect your autonomic nervous system.  Magnesium and zinc help to make Allithiamine more absorbable.  Dr. Derrick Lonsdale writes that

It is hypothesized that the massive consumption of empty calories, particularly those derived from carbohydrate and fat, results in a high calorie/thiamine ratio as a major cause of disease. Because mild to moderate TD results in pseudo hypoxia in the limbic system and brainstem, emotional and stress reflexes of the autonomic nervous system are stimulated and exaggerated, producing symptoms often diagnosed as psychosomatic disease. If the biochemical lesion is recognized at this stage, the symptoms are easily reversible. If not, and the malnutrition continues, neurodegeneration follows and results in a variety of chronic brain diseases. Results from acceptance of the hypothesis could be tested by performing erythrocyte transketolase tests to pick out those with TD and supplementing the affected individuals with the appropriate dietary supplements.   

Read more by Derrick Lonsdale here. 

Hyaluronic Acid for joints, spine, eyes, and mobility.

PROLONGED SITTING AND BRAIN ATROPHY. GET UP, GET MOVING, & TAKE RESVERATROL

I got sick of sitting.  Literally.  In those Memorial Day, Twilight Zone marathons, one could easily get sick of sitting.  One, two, maybe three episodes, and I got to get up.  And I did, often to find more productive activities.  

I got sick of sitting, too, when I drove for a transportation outfit in Denver, hauling supplies to hardware and other stores in the mountain towns of Vail, Carbondale, and Aspen.  The schlep from Denver to Carbondale was 3 hours.  That's three hours of straight sitting, and after a handful of stops in the area, I'd have to drive it back . . . another 3 hours sitting.  My legs cramped.  Circulation caused pin-like needling.  It was awful.  And still, I stuck it out.  I needed the money.   

Turns out now that there is scientific proof now for the unpleasant experience of sitting for hours on end.  Today, I sit too much, too, because I work on the computer most of the day.  I've switched that out, however, for a desk of sorts where I can type while standing up.  Find a way to get up.  If you don't have that avaiable to you, then find a way to take breaks at 30-minute or 60-minutes intervals.  Further, we're not just talking about folks who sit for so long but also folks who've handed over too much power to their handheld devices and to sensitive individuals, who used to get tagged as "Emo's."  One should not abscond themselves to the dark recesses of their bed, lights off, blinds closed, with earplugs being their only connection to sensient life.  First, you don't want any part of your body to atrophy.  Zero.  Don't rationalize a foreboding outcome in favor of laziness or somehow justify that because things aren't going your way or you aren't being loved enough.  Remember the title of that Yes song, "Owner of a Lonely Heart"?  Great song.  Not my favorite, but great.  But those lyrics support your strength, since so many times we make emotional decisions based on neediness.  Not good.  

According to the study, the news pertains to middle-aged folks.  That in middle-aged folks, sitting for prolonged periods of time frays the lining of the medial temporal lobe, the Hippocampus being the major brain structure in that lobe.  Think truck drivers, taxi drivers, call-center workers, dispatchers, computer operators, and others.  This affects a lot of people not to make this information alarming news.  But I am not alarming you because you already know this.  But I don't think that UCLA suddenly exercised its empathetic or do-gooder's muscles.  I think that with the number of digital products available to people that American society is losing some brain and brain power.  Kids and adults sit and lie down a lot more now either to bounce around on social media, email, or something fun and interesting on Netflix, Hulu, or Kindle.  More people are on their backs or arse a lot more.  And given how the major media outlets have been bleeding, they are definitely upping their game to grab more and more of your attention.  Some people simply can't put these devices down for fear that they would stop learning something new.  And THAT IS the addiction.  

Prolonged periods of sitting in middle age is tied to brain atrophy, new research shows.

Using MRI, investigators found sedentary behavior is a significant predictor of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) thinning and its substructures and that physical activity, even at high levels, does not offset the harmful effects of sitting for extended periods.

What's at stake is brain volume.  Like so many organs in our bodies, they do give way to age.  Our Thymus, the immune system's master gland, shrinks on average about 1% per year.  Zinc regrows it to its original size, a fact ignored by almost everyone, but the point is that our organs undergo annual shrinkage.  Knowing that, would you still pursue risky behaviors that accelerate this shrinkage or impede their repair and regrowth?  One wonders.  

The LA Times reviewed the UCLA study and pointed out that 

The study did not find any correlation between subjects' exercise habits and the thickness of either their medial temporal lobe or its constituent structures. That surprised the researchers since other work has found that brain volume is generally greater — and cognitive performance is better — in people who work out more. 

Get that?  The greater the brain volume, the better its function.  And though the point is made

Even for people who are physically active, sitting a lot seems to be bad for your brain,

neither the review nor the study offer nutritional solutions to offset or reverse the damage from long-term sitting.  According to the study, no amount of and no kind of exercise reverses the damaging effects of sitting for prolonged periods of time.  You just can't rebuild brain volume.  Or can you?  And the study, apparently, only looked at the results of long periods of sitting but not what it is about long-term sitting that causes the thinning of the Medial Temporal Lobe where your Hippocampus is located.  Is it the deleterious effects that sitting has on your metabolism?  Is it poor circulation?  These are important questions to ask to measure the seriousness of the condition.  So far, the cause of brain thinning is a mystery.  And the study only shows a correlation . . . and a strong causation as well.  Toward the end of her LA Times review of the study, Melissa Healy does hint that the thinning may, in fact, be caused by poor metabolism.  

The brain, of course, relies on adequate supplies of oxygen and nutrients to maintain itself and resist the depredations of aging. If sitting too long is compromising those supplies, then it stands to reason that our delicate cortical structures will have trouble maintaining the volume and density they had when we were young, Siddarth said.

So the message is clear.  Prolonged sitting is bad.  So get up.  Prabha Siddarth, Ph.D, lead author of the UCLA study, and LA Times' reviewer, Healy, both insist that you get up.  And if you sit long hours during the day, set hourly alarms or email notices on your computer to remind you to get up off your arse. 

For those looking to keep their brains plump and their memories sharp, Siddarth said the message is clear: Get up. Pace while talking on the phone, dance with your headphones on, take a walk at lunch. And if you're at a computer all day, set hourly alarms that remind you to stand and march around.

Okay, so we know that prolonged sitting is bad for our health.  But we already knew this.  Remeber those cross-country treks in the old station wagon in mid-August.  Yeah, that one through Yuma, Arizona, where after driving for 2 hours in the Sonoran Desert, you asked to stop at any gas station or rest stop . . . just to stretch your legs.  There still is one point made in the study that bothers me.  It's "that physical activity, even at high levels, does not offset the harmful effects of sitting for extended periods."  Really?  Exercise cannot replenish brain volume?  Is she sure?  Is she positive?  What about stroke victims?  Don't doctors recommend exercise and better nutrition to get them back to work or to function?  Ditto with brain injured folks, like athletes.  

Now for the good news.  Took you long enough. 

Your brain volume changes through your lifetime.  It's not a one way trip to Hell in a handbasket or as a basket case.  Now the first sentence of the first article I find at NCBI on brain volume states this

Physical exercise has been shown to increase brain volume and improve cognition in randomized trials of non-demented elderly.

Which fits in with the lead author's recommendation to "Pace while talking on the phone, dance with your headphones on, take a walk at lunch."  

DANCE, WALK, TAKE A HIKE
But the study on prolonged sitting was done independent of examining mitigating factors, like exercise and diet, and instead relied on patient reporting.  But that in no way diminishes or devalues the importance of her finding and the lesson drawn from the study: GET UP AND GET MOVING.  That same NCBI report on brain volume concludes

On the basis of published findings showing growth of brain volume with a physical exercise intervention [20], we hypothesized that the Walking [aerobic exercise] and Tai Chi [non-aerobic] exercise groups would demonstrate increases in brain volume when compared with the No Intervention group. We further hypothesized that those who walked faster would benefit more than those who walked slower.

So increases in brain volume COMPARED TO . . .  the non-intervention group.  When I walk in the mornings, I see several large groups of Chinese men and women in red T-shirts and white slacks stepping, moving through the air, reaching, and choreographing Tai Chi moves on the morning lawn accompanied by Chinese renditions of mid-century American and English rock-n-roll.  

A word on Tai Chi from that same article. 

The finding that a presumably less aerobic form of exercise, Tai Chi, had the greatest effect on brain growth and cognitive performance was unexpected, although modest gains in aerobic fitness have been demonstrated in clinical trials comparing Tai Chi participants to no intervention [36]. Tai Chi, which has been described as a type of moving meditation [37], requires continuous and sustained attention to maintenance of posture.

What does the Medial Temporal Lobe do that makes it so important? 

It's "essential for declarative memory (conscious memory for facts and events)." 

The medial temporal lobe includes a system of anatomically related structures that are essential for declarative memory (conscious memory for facts and events). The system consists of the hippocampal region (CA fields, dentate gyrus, and subicular complex) and the adjacent perirhinal, entorhinal, and parahippocampal cortices.  [. . . ] this system (a) is principally concerned with memory, (b) operates with neocortex to establish and maintain long-term memory, and (c) ultimately, through a process of consolidation, becomes independent of long-term memory, though questions remain about the role of perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices in this process and about spatial memory in rodents.

Notice how your brain is almost shaped like a mushroom cloud.  It's explosive.  

NUTRITIONAL REPAIR
Yes, there is hope; in fact, beyond hope, antidotes to this reduction in size.  I don't know how many times I've written here about Benfotiamine.  You can see its benefits here and here.  And two, I would get started on an exercise program that targets the brain.  If your joints are a bit crippled, try IP6 to loosen them up.  Benfotiamine should be considered part of a daily brain regimen.  

Here's why there's hope.  The hippocampus-based relational memory [is] sensitive "to the effects of nutrition."

 And this

Long thought of as the top of the body’s food chain, the brain has been shown in recent research to be sensitive to processes occurring elsewhere in the body. Lifestyle factors such as dietary intake, body mass, and physical fitness that affect bodily health can also influence brain structure and function in both humans and animals. 

This is good news.  As is this:

Hippocampal size is also known to increase in response to lifestyle factors including aerobic exercise, education, and intensive cognitive training, such as that experienced by London taxi drivers in training or medical students studying for a certification exam (7–10). Interestingly, as further discussed below, components of dietary intake have beneficial or detrimental effects on hippocampal health (11). 

Folic acid is excellent for the brain and the spine.  Seems to me that if you nutritionally support these structures, knowing that a feedback loop exists, that the nutritional support for one organ will support others nearby and distal.  Think of exercise.  When you do some squats notice how the strength in your haunches and legs transfers to other areas, like your lower back and your spine.  The same thing happens with nutrition. 

Finally, Bill Sardi says that you have to be crazy not to be taking Resveratrol for brain health.  The evidence is clear, in fact, it's visually clear: Resveratrol reawakens your brain.  See for yourself.  Find his Longevinex here. 

CHONDROITIN SULFATE REVERSES HEART DAMAGE

"heart and blood vessel disease could be reversed and prevented with natural molecules, particularly chondroitin sulfate."

I started this blog as a way to learn how through food to maximize daily intake of nutrients.  I did so because I thought that all of the claims about supplements were hype, and that too much of the supplement ingredients were either synthetics and substitutes and not something particularly nutritionally valuable.  But I was wrong.  It doesn't mean that my original intention to learn about how to maximize my daily nutritional profile was wrong.  On the contrary.  But there are just too many factors that play a role in getting the best nutrition you can.  

One is age.  I am over 50 now and my body is not producing certain fluids or hormones that I did when I was 22.  Stomach acid, meaning Hydrochloric Acid, is less.  That means that digestion is reduced.  And absorption of nutrients also declines.  What's the answer?  If nutrient absorption is a problem, it can't be easily or readily resolved simply by eating more or doubling down on the servings of carrots or broccoli for example.  We've got to account for calories.  And it should be known by now, for anyone who's read nutritional literature at all over the last 20 years, that calorie restriction is one of the main paths to living longer.  Now these paths toward life extension are not the same paths toward looking good or doing well. Something else or something other is required for that.  So how does one proceed? Well, to repair the first problem of absorption a few things should be considered.  One is betaine hydrochloride.  Zinc Carnosine also works.  But there is a single product that perhaps resolves low stomach acid as well as a host of other gastro-intestinal issues.  And that product is Garligest.  

Okay, so there is one problem solved or at least managed with a great deal of effectiveness and satisfaction. 

What else? 

Well, it depends.  It depends if you're a woman, a man, a woman of 32 or a man of 91.  It depends if you live in Toronto or in Los Angeles.  So lots of things to consider.  Having said that, you can check this list to see what kind of deficiencies that might need correction for you.  You'll notice that I am not recommending food choices in this article; instead, I am recommending supplements as advised by Bill Sardi.  I just think that these products do better.  

Several months ago I read up on zinc and could not believe what is it is capable of doing and how a zinc deficiency can wreak havoc on so many parts of our biology.  See here and here.  It's that latter article where I learned of Abram Hoffer, M.D. Ph.D and his use of zinc in his Vitamin C cancer treatments.  Linus Pauling is the guy who is most noted for observing the positive benefits of Vitamin C on cancer.  The irony is that Pauling didn't have the success that Hoffer did, the doctor who added zinc and other nutrients to his Vitamin C treatments.  So zinc is important. It helps regrow the Thymus Gland.  So there's that.  But it also helps with blood vessels: all of them--capillaries, veins, and arteries.  So take zinc.  I tried zinc acetate early last year and my chest swelled with vigor and health.  I thought "Is that the zinc that's doing that?"  Turns out yes!  For zinc repairs the Thymus gland which sits right in front of the heart.  

Vitamin C is excellent when you're under stress. 

Vitamin D should be taken everyday.

Vitamin E is excellent for blood vessels. 

The preferred form of Selenium is Seleno Excell.

Want to stave off Alzheimer's disease and keep your brain from shrinking?  First, stay off anti-depressants and take the fat soluble B1, Thiamine, called Benfotiamine.

Chondroitin Sulfate repairs heart tissue following a heart attack, stroke, or ischemic event.  See Dr. Lester Morrison's excellent efforts in that regard. And that's Chondroitin Sulfate, divorced from Glucosamine.  Bill Sardi tags Morrison as "The Man Who Cured Heart Disease Naturally."  And as one of the most astute and specific writers, Bill Sardi does not use words lightly.  Sardi writes

His name: Dr. Lester Morrison.

His qualifications: Director and Research Professor, Institute for Arteriosclerosis Research, Loma Linda University, School of Medicine.

Author: Coronary Heart Disease and the Mucopolysaccharides (1974, Charles C. Thomas)

In 1982 Dr. Morrison wrote: "I am Lester Morrison MD, and I have been a doctor for over 50 years. Much of that time has been devoted to finding a way to stop heart disease, which killed my mother, my father and several other members of my family and remains the number one killer in the U.S. and other developed countries."

Dr. Morrison provided compelling evidence in the 1960s that heart and blood vessel disease could be reversed and prevented with natural molecules, particularly chondroitin sulfate. This was over 20 years prior to the advent of the first cholesterol-reducing statin drug, Mevacor (1987).

Dr. Morrison writes that his ideas involving heart disease went back as far as 1942. He first began is his research using natural molecules to heal damaged hearts and arteries.

Dr. Morrison’s research was published in no less than 8 different medical journals. He began his studies in the 1940s, working with choline, a natural component of lecithin.

Here are the results (below) of an early study published in the American Heart Journal. Lecithin was later to become an important component in Dr. Morrison’s Heart Saver Program. (Dr. Morrison’s book for the lay public by this title can still be purchased.)

Comparison of Survival Rates: Choline (Lecithin) Patients with coronary thrombosis (blood clots in the heart) after 3 years 115 patients Deaths with choline 115 patients Deaths without choline 14 35 Source: American Heart Journal, July—August, p. 729, 1949
He later conceived of the idea that gelatinous material, then known as mucopolysaccharides, today known as glycosaminoglycans, could heal damaged hearts and arteries. His work involved chondroitin sulfate, a molecule that is a normal component of the connective tissue in the body. Dr. Morrison calls it "the glue of life."

He noted that chondroitin is the "coronary artery’s first line of defense against invasion by foreign substances," such as cholesterol, bacteria and tumor cells. Chondroitin contributes to the elasticity of the blood vessels.  

I find this stuff fascinating if for no other reason than this healing mechanism was known when my parents got married way back in the 1940s.  And yet people are trying to figure out what works, what doesn't, and what causes the greatest risks.  It's known already.  For heart muscle, take Chondroitin Sulfate.  

Find Chondroitin Sulfate here. 

Food is certainly more pleasurable.  But due to stress at work, environmental stresses, biological stresses, or stress of any kind, if we are running deficiencies it seems to me prudent to supplement with something more than an extra serving of broccoli.

VITAMIN B3, NIACIN

"One of the most potent forms of vitamin B3 stops the aging process of organs"

Having grown up active and sport-minded, looking to drugs or medicines to enhance one's ability was the greatest offense to tenacity and talent I'd ever known. And though into middle age, I can still bring a game of basketball even to youngsters; I am grateful, however, to the value of restorative medicine that comes in a pill, er, capsule.  Vitamin E is remarkable for wound healing.  I witnessed this first-hand with a cut on the back of my hand.  I cut open the E capsule and squeezed its contents onto my hand and in two days the wound had almost healed.  Incredible.  Truly.  

Then I learned of E's internal benefits.  It improves circulation and heals vessels and organs internally.  To what degree, how much is needed, whether it repairs all organs and vessels is hard to know . . . at least for me since I am no doctor. 

Then I leaned of B17's anti-cancer effects.  

Then I learned of zinc's ability to regrow the Thymus, the master gland of our immunity that sits right behind the heart.  You can learn all sorts of things on the internet!

Now I read about the power of B3.  What can it do?  Stop organs from aging.  Seriously.  What doses, what form of B3 is required has yet to be known, but I would definitely give this a try at least. 

HealthySustainableLiving has this to say: 

One of the most potent forms of vitamin B3 stops the aging process of organs and can only be described as restorative. Nicotinamide riboside is naturally produced in our bodies and studies continue to validate its effectiveness in preventing disease and regenerating cells.

When I read that I thought, okay, prove it.  I've heard terrific things about Nitric Oxide too as well as Benfotiamine.  Anytime distinctions are made concerning prevailing wisdom, either to debunk or illuminate I am all for. HealthySustainableLiving offers this in its review of the study.   

B3 is one of eight B vitamins. It is also known as niacin (nicotinic acid) and has 2 other forms, niacinamide (nicotinamide) and inositol hexanicotinate, which have different effects from niacin.

B Vitamins are good for us.  We all know this.  But what forms of B do we get on a daily basis through our food or supplement industry?  Do you know?  Not everyone does.  

An earlier study reviewed at Cell.com involved researchers at Harvard University and the University of NSW, Sydney. Published in the scientific journal Cell, the landmark paper was one of the first to provide valuable insights into Nicotinamide's brain performance and anti-aging.

Okay, now that's promising.  Nicotinamide provides enhanced brain function as well as anti-aging abilities.  Nicotinamide riboside is a chemical precursor to B3.  

Nicotinamide riboside is naturally produced in our bodies. It’s a chemical compound which acts as a precursor to vitamin B3.

WHY THE FUSS OVER NICOTINAMIDE RIBOSIDE?

Here's why.  

Nicotinamide riboside has been linked to a number of surprising and powerful benefits. Foods high in Nicotinamide include Brewer's Yeast, Sunflower Seeds, Raw Peanuts and Beets. Interestingly Beet Juice & Yeast have been shown to have remarkable cancer killing attributes. Possibly due to the sugars in the beets causing a beneficial form of fermentation to occur with the B vitamins in the Brewer's Yeast.

Read the rest of the article below.

Now a team of researchers at EPFL's Laboratory of Integrated Systems Physiology (LISP), headed by Johan Auwerx, has unveiled even more of its secrets. An article written by Hongbo Zhang, a PhD student on the team, published in Science and describes the positive effects of NR on the functioning of stem cells. These effects can only be described as restorative.

As mice, like all mammals, age, the regenerative capacity of certain organs (such as the liver and kidneys) and muscles (including the heart) diminishes. Their ability to repair them following an injury is also affected. This leads to many of the disorders typical of aging.

Mitochondria: also useful in stem cells

Hongbo Zhang wanted to understand how the regeneration process deteriorated with age. To do so, he teamed up with colleagues from ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and universities in Canada and Brazil. Through the use of several markers, he was able to identify the molecular chain that regulates how mitochondria -- the "powerhouse" of the cell -- function and how they change with age. The role that mitochondria play in metabolism has already been amply demonstrated, "but we were able to show for the first time that their ability to function properly was important for stem cells," said Auwerx.

Under normal conditions, these stem cells, reacting to signals sent by the body, regenerate damaged organs by producing new specific cells. At least in young bodies. "We demonstrated that fatigue in stem cells was one of the main causes of poor regeneration or even degeneration in certain tissues or organs," said Hongbo Zhang.

This is why the researchers wanted to "revitalize" stem cells in the muscles of elderly mice. And they did so by precisely targeting the molecules that help the mitochondria to function properly. "We gave nicotinamide riboside to 2-year-old mice, which is an advanced age for them," said the researcher. "This substance, which is close to vitamin B3, is a precursor of NAD+, a molecule that plays a key role in mitochondrial activity. And our results are extremely promising: muscular regeneration is much better in mice that received NR, and they lived longer than the mice that didn't get it."

Scientists have long used NAD+ as a powerful anti-aging tool. While trying to find a cure for aging, scientists increased the levels of NAD+ within the mitochondria. The mitochondria responded by increasing their performance and energy, which effectively neutralizes the effects of aging.

Specifically, nicotinamide riboside effectively delays early- and late-stage disease progression, by robustly inducing mitochondrial biogenesis in skeletal muscle and brown adipose tissue, preventing mitochondrial ultrastructure abnormalities and [mitochondrial DNA] deletion formation.

A breakthrough for regenerative medicine

Parallel studies have revealed a comparable effect on stem cells of the brain and skin. "This work could have very important implications in the field of regenerative medicine," said Auwerx. "We are not talking about introducing foreign substances into the body but rather restoring the body's ability to repair itself with a product that can be taken with food." This work on the aging process also has potential for treating diseases that can affect--and be fatal--in young people, like muscular dystrophy (myopathy).

So far, no negative side effects have been observed following the use of NR, even at high doses. But caution remains the byword when it comes to this elixir of youth: it appears to boost the functioning of all cells, which could include pathological ones. Further in-depth studies are required.

Further reading here and here.

It's hard to sift through the amazing assortment of foods on the market and figure out which ones serve our health and which ones compromise it.  

We've all heard how important fruits and vegetables are for our health.  But is this true or is the grower's public relations that we're being fed?  Man cannot live on spinach alone.  And we're always told that the most nutrient dense foods are green leafy vegetables. Yum.  If you love salads, yum.  If you're Popeye, yum. But what if you're trying to restore, rebuild, and remineralize?  That was a mouthful.  I ask this question to put a mild damper on the categorical truth that all vegetables are good for you.  Maybe in small portions perhaps.  But what about vegetarians?  I'll get to them later. But are all vegetables good for us?  

Carrots help our eyesight, right?  But what about their sugars? 

Spinach builds strong muscles, right?  But what about its oxalates?

Broccoli fights cancer, no?   

So, yeah, vegetables are good for us.  But they're also bad for us.  Amy Kubal explains how:

Let’s think about this logically. Animals have ways to make sure they don’t become some other animal’s dinner (including a human being’s). They can run away, or they can stay and fight with claws, horns, or teeth. If they win, great. If not, fire up the BBQ! Plants aren’t so lucky. Since they can’t defend themselves physically, they’ve evolved multiple insidious ways of warding off predators biochemically. Plants produce a variety of harmful substances collectively known as antinutrients. (Not harmful to the plants, but harmful to the poor saps who eat them.) They’re exactly what they sound like: they work against you absorbing nutrients from those foods.

Oy, vey!  Wish people would make up their minds.  Are they good or are they bad?  Well, both.  Vegetables do contain enzymes that help us digest other foods we eat like meat. They contain Vitamin C which allows our bodies to make the ever important gelatinous protein collagen to help repair our muscles and joints.  

So why are they bad for us?  Oxalic and Phytic Acids.  Some acids are good for us, while others not so much.  Essential fatty acids are good for us, even essential.  Citric acid helps prevent scurvy and protects our gums.  So not all acids are bad.  But Phytic Acid and Oxalic Acid are not recommended. Why?  Because they can block the absorption of important minerals.  Minerals don't always get the press that vitamins and oils and herbs do but they're every bit as important if not more important since we tend to use them up. Recently I found Bill Sardi's article on how Zinc, which is a vital mineral for men, can actually rebuild the Thymus gland back to its original size.  Talk about your miracles.  In the medical journals Zinc gets better represented as a remedy, but in your popular press and commercial ads, it's not zinc that gets air time.  It's usually calcium.  And Calcium isn't even the most important mineral, yet the manufacturers of it have scared people into believing that if they don't get enough their bones will break.  One mineral by itself is not the answer, though that report on zinc is impressive.  Even Linus Pauling didn't realize the importance of zinc.  Not all of his treatments with Vitamin C succeeded.  It wasn't until Abraham Hoffer in Canada who was mixing Vitamin C with zinc that the nutritionists community took notice.  Sort of.  

So Oxalic and Phytic acids you should avoid.  Actually, the reports on Pytic acid are mixed because so many healthy foods contain some levels of phytic acid. Realfoodsforlife writes

Foods that contain significant amounts of oxalic acid are ( in order from highest to lowest): buckwheat, star fruit, black pepper, parsley, poppy seed, rhubarb stalks, amaranth, spinach, chard, beets, cocoa, chocolate, most nuts, most berries, and beans. If you had to really avoid oxalic acid that would be difficult.

Okay, so it's the chelating function of phytic acid that prevents absorption of zinc, magnesium, and calcium, which is not good.  But this chelation is beneficial, according to Bill Sardi, when it chelates excess iron from your body.  And this is especially beneficial for men, since women have a built-in biology that eliminates blood monthly.  

Phytic acid—also called inositol hexaphosphate, or IP6—is comprised of six phosphorus molecules and one molecule of inositol. It has been mistakenly described for decades as an "anti-nutrient" because it impairs mineral absorption. However, in the 1980s food biochemist Ernst Graf, Ph.D., began to tout phytic acid for its beneficial antioxidant properties achieved through mineral chelation. [32]

Phytic acid in foods or bran should be distinguished from supplemental phytic acid, which is derived from rice bran extract. In foods, phytic acid binds to iron and other minerals in the digestive tract and may interfere with mineral absorption. As a purified extract of rice bran, taken between meals so it will not bind to minerals in the digestive tract, phytic acid is readily absorbed into the bloodstream, where it acts as a potent mineral chelator. [33] Phytic acid binds to any free iron or other minerals (even heavy metals such as mercury, lead and cadmium) in the blood, which are then eliminated through the kidneys. Phytic acid removes only excess or unbound minerals, not mineral ions already attached to proteins.

So maybe nuts and chocolate and berries and beans are still worth eating.  I do recall my dad warning me as a kid not to eat raw rhubarb.  It was because of the phytic and oxalic acids but he couldn't articulate that reason but that's what it was. Not because it's particularly poisonous--I mean people made rhubarb pie (delicious) for Godssakes--but because he knew of the wisdom of cooking certain vegetables.  Here are the facts on rhubarb:  

From an MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) for Oxalic acid, LD50 (LD50 is the Median Lethal Dose, which is the dose of a drug or chemical predicted to produce a lethal effect in 50 percent of the subjects to whom the dose is given) in rats is 375 mg/kg. So for a person about 145 pounds (65.7 kg) that’s about 25 grams of pure oxalic acid required to cause death. Rhubarb leaves are probably around 0.5% oxalic acid, so that you would need to eat quite a large serving of leaves, like 5 kg (11 lbs), to get that 24 grams of oxalic acid. Note that it will only require a fraction of that to cause sickness.  – The Rhubarb Compendium

If those foods listed don't fit neatly into the Mediterranean Diet that we're all supposed to worship, then I don't know what does.  Not that these foods if eaten are going to kill us, right?  Maybe not but there still are problems with oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid poisoning symptoms include weakness, burning in the mouth, death from cardiovascular collapse, on the respiratory system, throat – burning in the throat, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, convulsions, and coma.

In addition, there is this.  Realfoodforlife again:

Oxalic acid binds with some nutrients, making them inaccessible to the body. To eat large amounts of high oxalic foods over a period of weeks to months  may result in nutritional deficiencies, most notably of calcium.

This is the real concern, because the oxalic acid, along with phytic acid, blocks mineral absorption, like calcium, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus which is essential for teeth.  Is this the reason why so many Americans are mineral deficient, particularly in magnesium and zinc?  Probably not.  The NCBI states that vegetable sources are minimal in the Amerian diet and the main way that Americans anyway get oxalates is through coffee and tea.  That's what I feared.  I love my joe.

The main sources of oxalate in diets were regular tea and coffee (80-85%). Only 15-20% of oxalate was derived from other plant foods. Patients did not adhere to high fluid diet and, what is more, as common beverage they chose rich-oxalate black tea. Patients' daily intake of calcium was low and didn't exceed 520 mg. Vitamin C consumption was higher than Polish Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) and vitamin B6 lower than DRI.

What does it all mean?  It means you're going to have to forego coffee and tea.  It means you're going to have to find something else hot to drink, like hot lemon water.  

Imagine eating a raw vegetable diet.  All that oxalic acid is not doing your teeth any favors.  But there is a way around this and still get the nutrients locked inside vegetables.  Cook your vegetables.

Eating oxalic acid foods together with calcium-containing foods such as yogurt, milk and other dairy products may reduce the risk of kidney stone formation, advises the University of Maryland Medical Center. In addition, a study published in 2005 in the “Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry” reported that several cooking methods help lower the oxalic acid content of vegetables. The researchers tested nine raw and cooked vegetables and found that boiling and steaming significantly reduce oxalic acid in vegetables with a high content of the compound, such as spinach.

Now it's time to turn the tables.  Are all oxalic acids bad, or do they provide any or some kind of health benefit?  Let's read Realfoodforlife:

It has been assumed that black tea due to its high oxalate content increases kidney stone formation but recent research has shown it to have a preventive effect.

Victoria Boutenko of the Raw Food Family cites research on how high oxalic acid foods actually reduce the formation of kidney stones.  The true cause of kidney stones is not oxalic acid but actually animal protein.

Oxalic acid linked to the cure or prevention of cancer:When cancer is diagnosed there is always a low level of oxalic acid in the blood. It is important to have the enough oxalic acid in our blood because this eliminates all abnormal cells without harmful side effects.

Every alternative cancer cure that is successful is filled with foods, herbs, grasses, and teas that are full of high amounts of oxalic acid.

American Cancer Society conducted tests over 50 years ago using oxalic acid in the treatment of cancer and the results in papers and evidence were positive.

“When oxalic acid is in our blood; in foods & beverages we eat and drink, and testimonials confirm oxalic acid kills cancer cells, virus, bacteria, and decalcifies the material in plaque in arteries; and is in the blood of all warm blooded mammals”. From booklet.“ Questions and Answers About E- M- F, Electric and Magnetic Fields Associated with the Use of Electric Power.

Radiation will decompose oxalic acid in the blood. This usually weakens the immune system so the body is unable to fight off viral or bacterial disease.  Is this why many cancer patients die from cancer related to viral pneumonia.

So, where does that leave us?  Cook your vegetables. Cooking them lowers the amount of oxalic acid while still getting enough for prevention of bad things.  Nothing is simple.  Biology is not simple.  Knowledge of biology is certainly not simple.  Here is what I mean.  How many times have I read that Vitamin C is vital for health?  I've posted articles and videos to that fact.  Think of Linus Pauling Abraham Hoffer and their curing of cancer patients using high dose Vitamin C.  Maybe Vitamin C should only be taken in large amounts over short periods where you are fighting something serious.  Anyway, give this a read from Dr. Andrew Saul:

Ascorbate (the active ion in vitamin C) does increase the body's production of oxalate. Yet, in practice, vitamin C does not increase oxalate stone formation.  Drs. Emanuel Cheraskin, Marshall Ringsdorf, Jr. and Emily Sisley explain in The Vitamin C Connection (1983) that acidic urine or slightly acidic urine reduces the UNION of calcium and oxalate, reducing the possibility of stones. "Vitamin C in the urine tends to bind calcium and decrease its free form. This means less chance of calcium's separating out as calcium oxalate (stones)." (page 213) Also, the diuretic effect of vitamin C reduces the static conditions necessary for stone formation in general. Fast moving rivers deposit little silt.  

It appears that the biggest risk from oxalates are kidney stones.  

And I am sure they serve their purpose, whatever that is. But what is that purpose?  I've read claims that green

One of the features of nutritional articles on the web is that they're laid out in the positive.  In other words, they're often promoting Vitamin C for skin and hair and eggs to reduce stroke.  Try this, get plenty of that, make sure you're taking enough of magnesium. Which is all very helpful if we're living in a deficient world. And some of us may be doing just that.  But deficiencies are a real thing and their cause is multiple.  Yes, big-agra with its monoculture crops can depleted the nutrition in food.  I don't know for sure, but that's what I've read and heard.  Also, people just don't know what to eat.  We often eat what is put in front of us regardless of what it is or ignorant to what is inside it.  But there is another factor that causes deficiencies.  And that's the interaction of foods.  

O, Complication!

Maybe it's not as complicated as you think.  See there are chemicals in plants that help plants survive.  Just as there are thorns on a rose bush and needles on cactus, these are all features that help the plant survive even after it gets eaten.  I believe that there are desert animals whose digestion has adjusted to eating cactus and are not harmed by the spiny vegetation.    

"ZINC IN OLD MICE FACILITATED A COMPLETE RECOVERY OF THYMUS GLAND FUNCTION AND REGROWTH OF THE ORGAN WITH GREATER IMMUNE EFFICIENCY

". . . zinc [in old mice] facilitated a complete recovery of thymus gland function and regrowth of the organ with greater immune efficiency."

Spinach has a high zinc content.

Maybe there isn't a master mineral.  Maybe all essential minerals are masters of health.  I recently wrote about the magic of magnesium.  But why are minerals in general so important?  Is it just general, good maintenance?  Maybe.  Or is it that minerals are essential in digestion, like breaking down proteins?  Maybe it's not the class of nutrients that's so important as how well any single nutrient interacts with our biology to produce desired outcomes.  

For example, I recently read Bill Sardi's "Reassessment of Vitamin C Therapy and Cancer," published at his site and picked up by Lew Rockwell.  What astonished me wasn't actually the benefits of Vitamin C or the benefits of Vitamin C therapy on cancer.  What struck me was the study by Abram Hoffer.  

Enter a forgotten investigator in the war against cancer — Abram Hoffer MD, a nutrition-minded psychiatrist based in Canada who was known for his use of high-dose niacin therapy to treat schizophrenia.  Vitamin C therapy for cancer could easily be dismissed except for Dr. Hoffer’s strikingly successful use of oral vitamin C (12,000 mgs/day) to achieve prolonged survival times.

So Hoffer produced astounding results in his cancer therapy, but no third party ever tested or examined his results to find out why he was successful.  And to show you just how successful he was, check out this chart:

Here is Dr. Hoffer’s 5-year survival data:

Oral Antioxidant Therapy & End-Stage Cancer

Abram Hoffer MD, Journal Orthomolecular Medicine, Volume 15, 2000

No. of patients treated/vitamin C: 441

No. of patients in control group (chemo, radiation): 54

SURVIVAL CONVENTIONAL CANCER TREATMENT [i.e., chemo-therapy]
Year 1: 28%

Year 2: 15%

Year 3: 15%

Year 4: 13%

Year 5: 11%

VITAMIN C TREATMENT*

Year 1: 73%

Year 2: 56%

Year 3: 48%

Year 4: 44%

Year 5: 39%*

Consisted of 12,000 mg oral vitamin C as ascorbic acid, mega-dose niacinamide, beta carotene, zinc.

What is equally astounding is that no one checked his work.

Steven Hickey and Hilary Roberts, researchers from Manchester, England, also report on Abram Hoffer’s exceptional results with oral vitamin C in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine. [Journal Orthomolecular Medicine 2013]  Reasons for the astounding effect of oral vitamin C were not explored, however.

Sardi found that in addition to the oral Vitamin C, that Hoffer also administered Zinc.  But which kind.  There are different kinds of zinc, 7 different zinc supplements in all [actually, there are more]:

• 
  

1.  Chelated Zinc.

2.  Zinc Orotate (some claim that this is the best form)

3.  Zinc Picolinate.

4.  Zinc Gluconate.

5.  Zinc Acetate.

6.  Zinc Oxide.

7.  Zinc Sulfate.

So at least from Sardi's article it's not clear which zinc was used.  And though the benefits of zinc are reported almost everywhere, take a look at very specific, very important organ that responds nicely to zinc.  That organ?  Your Thymus gland.

Dr. Hoffer treated his patients with an array of other nutrients including zinc.  Zinc is the key nutrient that primes T-cells in the thymus gland that shrinks with advancing age.

Shrinkage of the thymus gland, located below the chest plate (sternum) is progressive with advancing age.  The thymus gland is responsible for activating T-cells that are essential for immune system maintenance.   The thymus gland shrinks at a rate of about 3% per year till middle age and then 1% per year thereafter.  [Frontiers Immunology 2013]  There are no present therapies offered by physicians to regenerate the thymus gland even though they are widely documented and available.

This information should spike everyone's radar.  More on the thymus gland and zinc. 

Remarkably, zinc supplied to old mice facilitated a complete recovery of thymus gland function and regrowth of the organ with greater immune efficiency.  Researchers conclude that age-related thymus gland shrinkage and immune system dysfunction are not intrinsic and irreversible and largely depend upon zinc adequacy.  [International Journal Immunopharmacology 1995]

Imagine folks who've suffered childhood diseases and have had to endure chronic conditions their whole life.  If only they'd known about the combination of zinc and Vitamin C. So there's that.  Then there's this. 

A recent study is instructive.  Vitamin C, aspirin, and zinc were administered to laboratory rats given a chemical to induce colon cancer.  Aspirin and vitamin C maintained normal colon cells in 87.5% of the animals whereas zinc showed a 100% reduction in tumor incidence. [Asian Pacific Journal Cancer Prevention 2013]

All this to prove that Vitamin C as a cancer therapy works but works mainly because of the pair.  When used alone Vitamin C didn't always perform.  It still did better than chemo, or conventional therapies, but it performed off the charts in the presence of zinc.  One more note on cancer therapy.  Check this out.

When vitamin K3 is combined with vitamin C therapy, cancer cells die by autoschizis – that is they are split and utterly destroyed. [Ultrastructural Pathology 2010]

The synergistic use of vitamin E as alpha tocopherol succinate and synthetically made vitamin K3 plus ascorbic acid is also proposed as a further enhancement of vitamin C cancer therapy. [PLoS One 2012]

Not surprisingly, the addition of quercetin to vitamin C + vitamin K was more effective in killing cancer cells than the two vitamins alone in a lab dish study. [Alternative Medicine Reviews 2010; British Journal Cancer 2010]

This is hopeful stuff.  It was upon this recommendation that I tried Zinc Orotate. 

Zinc orotate is a chelated form of zinc that is more readily absorbed by the body than any other zinc supplement available. Manufacturers of it will usually boast about having this type, because they have good reason to. Zinc orotate passes through the membranes of cells easily, and it pulls the highest amounts of accompanying minerals into the cells, which leads to higher tissue concentrations of zinc and other beneficial nutrients

But I felt nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Was that nothing feeling the result of that powerful absorption?  Who knows? Then I read this article by Sardi on zinc acetate.  I could not believe what an energetic rush I got.  And it centered around the heart and the spine.  I thought "Wow! This stuff is potent."  Turns out that the zinc acetate was waking up my thymus gland.  

Given what I read on the internet, Sardi outstrips most in his details and exhaustive research, that exhaustive work to compare stories, and find out what was missed and why.  Talk about dedication.  

The other form of zinc I have taken is Chelated Zinc.  See, the nice thing about Sardi is that he explains which organ responds so well to a specific nutrient.  In the case of zinc it is the thymus gland.  Then he does background study on it and finds out that with age people's thymus gland shrinks.  And when that shrinks, you're going to have lowered immunity. All the other articles on the web tell you that zinc is good for immunity, which sounds good but is no where near the specificity of Bill Sardi.  Amazing, really. 

There are essential minerals for health, then there are trace minerals.  Both equally important, one more than the next? FitDay sums it up:  

Five percent of your diet typically includes macro minerals and trace minerals. Macro minerals are minerals that you need in quantities greater than 100mg/day and make up about 1 percent of your total body weight. These include sodium, chloride, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and calcium. Trace minerals are elements that are needed is smaller amounts, 1-100mg/day by adults and are less than .01 percent of totalbody weight. These include Copper, Chromium, Fluoride, Iodine, Iron, Molybdenum, Manganese, Selenium, and Zinc. Trace Minerals are inorganic matter that cannot be destroyed by cooking or heat and are essential to the body for a variety of processes.

Macro Minerals

1.  Sodium.

2.  Chloride.

3.  Potassium.

4.  Phosphorus.  [despite this being a macro mineral, people's teeth are a mess today.  What's causing that?  Lifestyle?]

5.  Magnesium.

6.  Calcium: good for teeth and bones.  You know where to get it--milk and meat products.

Trace Minerals

1.  Copper.

2.  Chromium.

3.  Fluoride. 

4.  Iodine.

5.  Iron.

6.  Molydenum.

7.  Manganese.

8.  Selenium. 

9.  Zinc.

10.  Cobalt.

Together, I count 16 minerals in all.  But the lists that I have found range from 11 to 17 to 19 as in the list I compiled below, so there seems to be some debate as to which minerals are trace or macro or necessary for health.  And here I thought I was going to add or organize information into bite-sized, manageable tidbits.

1.   Lithium orotate.

2.   Reacted calcium

3.   Calcium-Magnesium

4.   Chromium

5.   Iron

6.   Magnesium

7.   Magnesium-Potasium

8.   Selenium.

9.   Phosphoros.

10.  Zinc.

11.  Stromium.

12.  Sodium

13.  Copper

14.  Manganese

15.  Molybdenum

16.  Iodine.

17.  Sulfur

18.  Fluoride. 

19.  Cobalt

Also, almost all the articles I read at sites like NCBI, KnowledgeofHealth, Natural News, and others point out deficiencies.  Why are Americans deficient in these nutrients?  Isn't this knowledge built in the local culture, local wisdom of its people?  You would think.  But one reason that Americans are deficient is precised because of what we consume, like alcohol, or people turning Vegan to for lifestyle or eating too many nuts or vegetables.  There are nutrients in daily foods called anti-nutrients that actually block minerals from getting absorbed into our system.  Is it entropy?  

My guess is that if you eat beef, cheese, milk, yogurt, eggs, and green leafy vegetables that you're getting the best multivitamin known to man.  Some folks recommend nuts for Vitamin E, but nuts contain an anti-nutrient called phytic acid, which blocks the absorption of calcium, zinc, magnesium, and others.  If a population is experience a deficiency in these minerals, it doesn't seem like a good idea to eat foods that block their absorption.  And why are nuts so prevalent in our stores and diets?  Is it because of the Mediterranean Diet craze?  Who knows?  But definitely pasteurized nuts have grown in popularity since I was a kid.  And the only packaged nuts we ate were sunflower seeds, peanuts, and corn nuts.  Stores used to have a bin of assorted nuts in shells.  Yeah.  At Christmas time my dad would buy bags of walnuts that we'd shell on the dining room table and pick from.  It was never the kind of thing where we open a bag and start eating them like, well, peanuts.

The latest mineral on my Top 5 List is zinc.  Wow!  This stuff is restorative.  I mean if you're in to taking supplements and all, I would definitely make zinc a priority.  You can find zinc in foods, of course, with oysters having the highest level of zinc than any other food.  So you want lots of zinc through food, eat your oysters. But if you're shell fish averse, you'll want to supplement.  

So I go to the internet not so much to prove as much as I do to corroborate my claims and findings.  We all know that zinc is good for us, but how good?  Where is it best served and what organs are best served by adequate zinc or zinc supplementation?  

John Phillip reports at Natural News that . . . 

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaborated to study the effects of zinc on brain function. Scientists experimenting with mice used a chemical that binds with zinc to eliminate it from the brain of the test animals. They found that in the absence of the mineral, communications between neurons was significantly diminished and that zinc is vital for controlling the efficiency between nerve cells in the hippocampus.

For more than a half century, scientists have understood that high concentrations of zinc are deposited within nerve cells; called vesicles, they package the transmitters which enable the nerve cells to communicate. The highest concentrations of brain zinc are found among the neurons of the hippocampus that control the high functions of learning and memory.

Clearly, if you're looking for brain support, zinc is the way to go. But we're always hearing about fish oils or gingko biloba and others as brain food.  And they are.  But these lowly minerals tend to take a back seat in the miraculous department until you're deficient in them.  And how does one become deficient in zinc, magnesium, and calcium?  Phytic acid is one way, one of a series of anti-nutrients available to us in our stores that end up in our diet. Nuts are a big one. The phytic acid in nuts blocks the absorption of minerals in our system.  Does the phytic acid deplete the minerals? I don't know, but I would say that blocking is no picnic either. We want magnesium in our bodies.  We need calcium for bones and teeth.  One of the things that phytic acid does is block or deplete phosphorous, which is the essential mineral for our teeth.  You want to keep those bones in your head for a lifetime?  Then consume foods high in phosphorous.

Then the question of which kind of zinc.  And there are several. The first zinc supplement that I took was Zinc Orotate on the recommendation of an online article.  In fact, I went through 2 bottles of them, thinking that this was the best of the zinc forms. I really did not feel anything.  Even overdosing on Zinc Orotate, nothing.  The next zinc I tried was Zinc Acetate on the implied recommendation of Bill Sardi.  

But for best absorption, Sardi recommends Zinc Gluconate and Zinc Methionine:  

SUPERIORLY ABSORBED FORMS OF SUPPLEMENTAL NUTRIENTS: VITAMINS, MINERALS, & TRACE MINERALS

1.  Zinc gluconate: Zinc methionine.

2.  Inorganic selenium as selenite, selenite: Organically bound selenium in a natural full array of protein-bound forms (Seleno Excell®).

3.  Iron as ferrous sulfate: Iron as carbonyl iron (Ferronyl).

4.  Magnesium oxide: Magnesium chloride, carbonate, malate, glycinate, gluconate, threonate, others. 

Further, Sardi lists some conditions that zinc improves

       Zinc deficiency is associated with a low sperm count. 

Zinc deficiency increases the prevalence of dental caries. 

Zinc deficiency in the skin is associated with psoriasis and acne.  Patients with these skin conditions are likely to have normal blood serum levels of zinc.

Zinc supplementation is associated with 14% reduction in preterm birth.  

Zinc is only recently appreciated as an essential nutrient to prevent age-related bone loss, a.k.a, osteoporosis.

A skin rash condition (acrodermatitis enteropathica) which emanates from an inherited disorder of zinc absorption is resolved by zinc supplementation.Zinc carnosine is a remedy for H. pylori infection and gastritis.

Crohn’s disease results in poor zinc absorption.  Researchers successfully used 110 milligrams of zinc sulfate (providing 75 mg of elemental zinc) to quell recurrence of symptoms of Crohn’s disease (10 of 12 patients experienced resolution of their “leaky gut” problem).  

Resolution of a leaky gut!  That is news, incredible news.