Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Margaret Durst on Losing Weight

Cranberry Juice: "5 times a day . . . helps cleans out the lymphatic system and cellulite."

  Margaret Durst explains, "Fat burning foods help keep metabolism high. These are grapefruit, lemon and lime juice, unsweetened cranberry juice, green tea and celery. One of my favorite diet plans requires drinking unsweetened cranberry juice 5 times per day because it also helps cleans out the lymphatic system and cellulite."  


See the post on using organic apple cider vinegar for losing weight.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Magnesium

Magnesia phosphorica in the 6X potency.

“Our current protocol includes a once-daily use of the magnesium oil. I add ionic magnesium drops to our drinking and cooking water, as well as to every pot of soup, pan of sautéed vegetables, tray of stuffed peppers. I call this ‘microdosing’ and it is in addition to using sea vegetables and plenty of bone broths. Along with the Magnesia phosphorica, Alex takes the tissue salt Kali phosphorica (potassium phosphate) which is indicated for all conditions of nervous debility; the two together make a very good heart tonic. At bedtime, Alex has a single dose of magnesium citrate with a food complex vitamin C powder. This is a relaxing evening ritual and now causes no intestinal upset.
DON'T AGREE TO HAVE YOUR DENTIST POISON YOU
Ramiel reviews the different Rall aspects of possible dental interventions, including root canals, amalgam fillings, fluoride, sealants, whitening, x-rays, conventional vs. biological dentistry and dental visits in general. Wait, what?  What does that last one mean, "dental visits in general"? Even for a cleaning?  He mentions that he still has mercury amalgam fillings following the advice of “a wise person who suggested that he not get the fillings replaced.” One of the biological dentists I work with believes that this is not the best health advice and that all mercury-based fillings and other dental metals such as metal with porcelain or gold crowns should be replaced with less toxic composite or pure porcelain  crowns. I personally like what Ramiel says, “Fillings, regardless of the material used, can block the energy currents in the tooth”. 

"Block energy currents in the tooth"?  Hmm.  What kind of energy exists in the tooth?  And why is that the energy that these gurus talk about is always energy that one cannot feel to begin with even with healthy teeth? At what age do people feel the energy in their teeth, and is that energy different from energy in other parts of your body?  If it is, prove it.  But no, we don't get these proofs.  We only get the credentials of the messenger.  

Not everyone gets ill from amalgam fillings nor does their replacement always make people well. “Again, this demonstrates how the most ideal solution to cavities is to heal and prevent them with nutrition.”  So food is a more powerful healer of the mouth than any metal or porcelain molds inserted into the mouth?  
THE SORROWS OF DENTISTRY
I.  Mercury.  Mercury Amalgams.  Mercury amalgams are not good. The metal degrades over time and slow drips into your blood disrupting key organs and their fluids, like hormones.  Amalgams are bad for your brain and other nervous systems.  And amalgams weaken your immune health.
Charlie Brown and Joseph Mercola talk about the boycott of Henry Schein.
Henry Schein says that dental manufacturing is a major seller and distributor of dental mercury and amalgam in the United States. Okay . . . and?
To get you on the right dental track, he directs you to more information--to the Mercury-Free Dentistry's Facebook Page and their website.

DENTAL CARE

Weston Price Foundation maybe the best place on caring for your teeth. Don't miss it.

DENTAL DEFINITIONS
1.  Premolar.
2.  Canines, Cuspids, Dog teeth, Fangs, Eye-teeth.
3.  Incisors.
4.  Molar Wisdom teeth are molars.  Their removal is not necessary.  It's better to keep all of your teeth.  Do not let dentists persuade you that they have to be removed.  Extraction of teeth is a surgical procedure that dentists charge you for.  Your mouth is not a dentist's ATM machine. 


ANATOMY OF YOUR TOOTH


Enlarged View
Your Tooth 

II. ROOT CANALS: WHAT ARE THE OPTIONS? 
1.  DO NOT DO ROOT CANALS.
2.  Extraction leaves you with 3 options: one, a partial; two, implant (not recommended); best and most elegant solution, but also most expensive, is the bridge. 



This video offers some pretty good advice on how to repair your teeth.



CALIFORNIA HOLISTIC DENTISTS HERE.

DENTAL IMPLANTS: YES OR NO?

III.  HOW DO I KEEP MY TEETH?
1.  A balanced diet of greens and meat.
2.  Oil-pulling.  Take a teaspoon of olive oil after eating and suck it to the back of your throat without swallowing.  Repeat this several times in the courser of 90 seconds.  Suck up the oil through your teeth.  Then spit the oil out.  Do not swallow the oil please.  Oil-pulling serves as an anti-biotic and anti-viral.  As bacteria and viruses build up in your mouth, one of the best ways to keep your mouth infection free is oil-pulling.  I use olive oil; some recommend other kinds of oils.  The recommendation on oil pulling is to do it for 20 minutes each time, three times per day.  Apparently, the 20-minute mark is when the oil should turn white in your mouth, indicative of all the bacteria in your mouth being collected.
3.  Floss.
4.  Consistently brush after a meal.
5.  How to remineralize your teeth?

IV.  BRUXISM, a.k.a., TEETH-GRINDING

V.  TREATMENTS FOR HEALTHY TEETH
Cure Tooth Decay Naturally?
Fat-soluble Vitamin A called Retinol helps fight tooth decay.

Here is an added resource from Weston-Price Foundation on holistic care of teeth.  Good luck.  If anyone has fillings or crowns or root canals, we end up spending too much time and money trying to get back what we've lost while we lose more out the side door in the mean time.  I hate dentists.  I hate dentistry.  How many deadly institutions and murderous organizations exist today to make lives for human beings miserable?   

VI.  EAT YOUR TEETH TO HEALTH
Mark Sisson has some suggestions.

YOUR TEETH LOSING MINERALS?  HERE ARE A FEW REMEDIES
1. Acidic foods and drinks, like coffee and tea, rob your teeth of minerals.  Stop drinking these drinks for a while and watch your teeth remineralize.
2.  Start drinking water with minerals.  Distilled water does not have the minerals found in spring water.   
3.  My frugal friends like to argue that tap water is just as clean as bottled water.  I'm not convinced.  Tap water has fluoride, but so does bottled water.  The only water that may not have fluoride is distilled water.  And if you can manage it, the other thing you'll want to avoid is plastic containers for the PBCs.  I like the bottled spring water Mountain Valley.  It comes in a glass bottle, so you win there.  And the water tastes clean, like real mountain spring water.







Remineralize tooth health.  Mike Adams and tooth health.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Skinny on Coffee

I love coffee.  I love the taste of coffee.  I love the smell of coffee.  I love the memories of coffee, like the one where my dad is pouring me out a cup at 5 am from his thermos on a road trip along the dramatic California coastline.  Coffee is opaque liquid love.  Its memories warm us.  Its heat consoles our loneliness, like a late-night cup in Ed Hopper's Nighthawks.



Coffee is riddled with memories.  Seeing my mother enjoy a delicious cup of hot coffee was one of my greatest pleasures.  My cousin's wedding held in a San Diego harbor was celebrated at a restaurant that served a deep, rich coffee.  The coffee was perhaps my greatest memory of his wedding; that and the actual church ceremony.  Coffee is so good and consumed in such delicious company that the cups themselves become discussion on coffee.  When was the last time that you were in a diner, enjoying coffee from a thick mug or fine china?


Or when a friend or family member wants to make an impression and serves coffee in decorative china?

 

Coffee occupies such an integral part in most cultures.  In our teenage years, we were instructed how to ask a girl out on a date--ask them if they'd like to go out for a cup of coffee.  Coffee was neutral that way; it was our wing man, that dark beverage behind which two strangers could be protected.

It would be nice to drink fine brewed coffee, organic coffee that I roast in my own home in a frying pan on the stove.  The coffee that I drink is NesCafe instant and Whole Foods instant.  James Wesley Rawles, who used to own and operate a coffee bar, states that most store-bought instant coffee is stale before it is vacuum-sealed that results in a tasteless beverage.  Another reason that I drank coffee, even endure the tastelessness of instant coffee, was because I love cream in my coffee.  No sugar.  I would not put sugar in my coffee; the cream was enough to enhance the flavor. 

But I write today on coffee because I may have to limit my intake.  Finding a recent post on coffee's effects on hydrochloric acid made me realize that my excessive consumption of it is harming the health benefits of the stomach acids.  Shannon Marks over at Livestrong.com reviews the health benefits of coffee and caffeine.  Citing naturopathic doctor Julia Gonen, Marks reports that "coffee can injure intestinal tissue by speeding up the process of gastric emptying, which can cause contents of the stomach that are highly acidic to dump into the small intestine too rapidly."  Caffeinated coffee has been implicated in malabsorption conditions, says Stephen Cherniske, a nutritional biochemist and author of Caffeine Blues: Wake Up to the Hidden Dangers of America’s Number 1 Drug.

These images of coffee and caffeine wreaking havoc inside our gut goes counter to our images of a cowboy being refreshed on an open plain at dawn or a patient being revived by the stimulate after days or weeks of illness or a friend being comforted by a hot cup of joe.  But we've also lost sight maybe of the prevalence of coffee.  There are Starbucks on every corner, coffee that comes in every size and every flavor imaginable and even in ones that we can't.  Coffee shops are the new, or is it the old, local watering hole.  So people attend them even though they're getting a cookie or a milk shake.  The pressure to drink coffee is immense; to resist is futile.  Then there is all the talk about anti-oxidants.  Well, there are anti-oxidants in life, in chocolate, in sugar, somewhere, in some amount, I am sure.  It may be true that coffee has anti-oxidants.  But that point is often used to justify its consumption, not necessary to treat a condition.  We take Vitamin C or Vitamin D3 to overcome a cold or a flu; coffee is not that kind of an anti-oxidant.  So although the claims that the anti-oxidants in coffee can fight cancer, perhaps, but not in the doses that you would find in a cup of hot joe.  In the last couple of years, McDonald's, the hamburger joint, has marshaled rave reviews of their Arabica bean coffee.  And it's true--their coffee is good.  Ultimately, we have to pay attention to its health effects.  Claims about the benefits of coffee will persist and they will be true.  But you've got to take personal stock.  What is that coffee doing to you?

It's the destruction of the intestinal chemical and structural composition that have me concerned.  Now, coffee is not the only culprit or perhaps the most wicked of them by itself.  But if you're a coffee lover, like myself, you might point to the fact that coffee, as much as you don't want to point the finger at such a trusted companion, is not all that good for digestion.  For comfort, yes; for reviving wonderful memories with those we love, absolutely.  But the fact is that coffee does deplete important hydrochloric acid that is so important at keeping our guts running healthy.  One can take supplements to rebuild the depleted hydrochloric acid.  But at what point does someone stop relying on enzymatic supplements to provide the digestive juices that coffee purportedly has robbed us of?  And what is so bad, honestly, about losing a little digestive juices to a great tasting cup of joe?

What happens when hydrochloric acid is depleted?

This author, Stephen StitelerL.Ac., O.M.D., goes even further to blacken coffee.  This statement was disconcerting, "Caffeine forces the liver to release glycogen (sugar) into the blood stream.  The pancreas responds to the sudden increase in blood sugar by releasing insulin, the hormone which causes excess carbohydrates to be stored as fat.  Within the span of an hour or so, the result is a sharp drop in blood sugar.  This creates a condition known as hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar.  That's when another cup of coffee seems like a good idea and the cycle repeats itself."  I wonder if heavy coffee drinkers end up with diabetic symptoms after so many years and so many cups?  

 I like Sally Fallon, so I googled her name and coffee.  And she concludes that coffee exhausts the adrenal glands.  How much coffee exhausts the adrenals, at what time coffee is drank actually exhausts the adrenals, and what type of coffee exhausts the adrenals, she did not say.  Her comment, which I greatly appreciate is here:  "Caffeine jolts the adrenal glands and eventually leads to adrenal exhaustion.  My own health did not begin to improve until I quit coffee–the hardest thing I ever did."

In her review of Kristina Amelong's book Ten Days to Optimal Health, Fallon advocates Amelong's findings that ". . . caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar, and artificial sweeteners contribute to chronic disease, citing a study in the Journal of Natural Medicine which found that one teaspoon of refined sugar paralyzes fifty percent of the body's white blood cells for five hours."  50% is stunning.  I didn't realize that sugar consumption was so bad.  I guess that the sugar industry's assault on corn syrup have helped to legitimize sugar as the healthy sweetener.  Paralyzing 50% of our immune system does not seem healthy.

More on coffee herehere, and here.

COFFEE AND TOOTH HEALTH
It's true, too, that coffee stains your teeth.  More than that, coffee contains oxalic acid, which promotes tooth decay, according to Rami Nagel.

IS COFFEE A DIURETIC?  IN MOST CASES, YES.
This is an interesting fact on coffee.  We tend to think of coffee as a diuretic, which it is, and that as a diuretic it will help to eliminate food.  What it can do to a bowel stool is that it can dry it out because the coffee leaches out fluids from your body.  eHow has this to say, "Since coffee also works as a diuretic, which essentially means that it can remove some liquid from the body, it can leach liquid from a stool and further dry out it out, making it even more difficult to pass. So if you are constipated, drinking coffee could ultimately worsen the condition."  The article is here.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Anti-Oxidants for Specific Conditions

Finally, what supplement to take for which ailment.  Stephen Byrnes at the Weston A. Price Foundation writes:

Studies have shown that antioxidants work best in combination. Although there is value in supplementing with extra amounts of one or two antioxidants, better results are always obtained when a "cocktail" is administered. The reason for this is simple logic: different antioxidants neutralise different free radicals. If you take a combination, then more free radicals will be neutralised. You can, however, "slant" the antioxidant effect towards a particular ailment or organ if the nutrient has a particular affinity to them. For example, glutathione would be recommended for hepatitis, Parkinson's, AIDS and liver disease; vitamins E and C would be recommended for arteriosclerosis; CoQ10 would be recommended for heart disease; and alpha lipoic acid would be recommended for diabetes. See your health care professional to help you select the best antioxidant combination for you.

Staying on top of oxidative stress is a necessity in our increasingly toxic world. Taking care to avoid those toxins as much as possible and to enrich our diets with life-giving antioxidants is a wise step to take in our endless quest for wellness."  End quote. 

To summarize: 
1.  Concerned about hepatitis, Parkinson's, AIDS, and liver disease?  Take glutathione.
2.  Concerned about arterioschlerosis?  Then take vitamins E and C. 
3.  Concerned about heart disease?  Take CoQ10.  Ubiquinol is a more-absorbable form of CoQ10.
4.  Concerned about diabetes?  Alpha lipoic acid is the anti-oxidant for that condition.