LEMON JUICE HELPS PREVENT GOUT & KIDNEY STONES

"lemon juice . . . prevent[s] . . . uric acid crystals, . . . the precursor for gout and kidney stones."

Start here.

How Do Your Kidneys Work?  

The answer is, constantly! 24 hours a day, your two kidneys filter your blood somewhat like an aquarium filter filters the water in a fish tank. The functional unit of the kidney is the nephron, a tissue unit that not only filters, but also recycles and excretes. 

The nephron filters blood (except red blood cells and protein); maintains the body's acid-base ion balance; recycles needed substances (water, minerals); and excretes wastes in a concentrated urine. In a manner of speaking, urine is filtered blood, or more exactly, blood is filtered urine.

Kidney Diseases and Problems: Inflammation and Infection
The role of massive doses of vitamin C is profound in this case, providing prevention and treatment at saturation levels. Since vitamin C is filtered and "wasted" through the kidneys, it is a virtually custom-made therapy.

Degeneration (resulting from inflammation, etc.) A chronic excess of dietary protein almost certainly taxes the kidneys and leads to gradual degeneration. (Williams, SR  Nutrition and DietTherapy, page 856, "The Aging Western Kidney"). Vegetarianism is a virtually automatic solution to our nation-wide pattern of protein abuse. Protein restriction is generally considered to be an important treatment for progressed glomerulonephritis. Reducing protein intake is obviously an ideal way to prevent a protein-breakdown induced nitrogenous overload in the first place.

Increasing carbohydrates is recommended. “Carbohydrates should be given liberally. This will also reduce the catabolism of proteins and prevent ... ketosis." (Williams)  Again, a regular vegetarian diet, which is high in complex carbohydrates, will assure just this.

from Susan Kaye at Livestrong . . . 

The kidneys play a pivotal role in clearing the body of toxins and waste matter as well as helping to regulate blood pressure. According to the National Kidney and Urologic Disease Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC) website, healthy kidney or renal function can be compromised when the kidneys suffer an injury, are damaged by disease such as diabetes or hypertension or polluted through poisoning from various ingested chemicals. You can include some of the best supplements and foods in your daily routine to restore and maintain kidney health.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C supports the kidneys and helps keep them clear of kidney stones, especially urate stones which form as a result of uric acid crystal deposits, says DoctorYourself.com. It recommends consuming oranges, grapes and carrots as well as their juices, all high in vitamin C. Buffered vitamin C ascorbate supplements, available in health food stores, are also helpful in maintaining kidney health.

On Vitamin C, Linus Pauling wrote

I started using vitamin C in massive doses in-patients in 1969. By the time I read that ascorbate should cause kidney stones, I had clinical evidence that it did not cause kidney stones, so I continued prescribing massive doses to patients. To this day (2006) I estimate that I have put 25,000 patients on massive doses of vitamin C and none have developed kidney stones.

Vitamin B

Adding a vitamin B complex supplement to your diet, one that especially has B6, is important to prevent kidney stones, points out the DoctorYourself website. B6 deficiency has been shown to contribute to the development of kidney stones.

Lemon Juice

High in potassium, lemon juice may be added to the diet to prevent the formation of uric acid crystals, which contribute to the formation of uric acid, the precursor for gout and urate kidney stones, according to Health911.com. The potassium in lemon juice helps create calcium carbonate, a chemical that alkalizes the body causing the system to neutralize acids. Potassium is a mineral and one of the electrolytes needed to help the kidneys balance blood pressure, heart function and electrical impulses in the body according to the University of Maryland 

Medical Center (UMMC).

Apple Cider Vinegar

Organic apple cider vinegar is recommended by Dr. Theodore A. Baroody in his book, Alkalize or Die, as a method to help keep the body in a slightly alkaline state. Baroody explains, although an acid, it has the ability to create an alkaline-forming state in the system by neutralizing acids in the digestive process. He goes on to explain that the body is able to maintain good health when it is slightly alkaline. This applies to the kidneys because when the urine is alkaline, they are protected from damage formed by uric acid.

L-Carnitine

L-carnitine also referred to as Carnitine is an amino acid and a nutrient that helps the body and convert fat, especially in the liver and kidneys to energy. Sometime the body needs supplementation with L-carnitine according to the UMMC, because it is produced by the kidneys. If there is kidney malfunction, L-carnitine supplies may be greatly diminished. Speak to your doctor before starting this supplement.   

As to the worst foods for your kidneys, I would watch out for coffee and caffeine.   This site also cites dairy products.  But I would add a caveat of completely doing without dairy.  Yogurt is a healthy dairy food for many of your organs, including your intestines.  

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, 1948: an excellent drama that shows behind the scenes how institutional bureaucracies exert diabolical control upon their hired staff.

The movie, Behind Closed Doors, 1948, starring Lucille Bremer and Richard Carlson is an excellent drama that shows behind the scenes how institutional bureaucracies exert diabolical control upon their hired staff.  What did Hannah Arendt say about Nazis?  "The banality of evil." As a friend of mine says of managers overseeing other employees, "People with $.69 worth of power are used to control and degrade their underlings."  The movie is a rare, brilliant piece.  Steven Torrey in the comments below the show notes writes "A taut drama in sixty-one minutes." It is an excellent look into the ghoulish jailers who control patients with drugs, bullying violence, and locked wards.  Wow, that almost describes to a tee the kind of control that local administrators exert on high school students in your own backyard.  Schools enjoy the unique privilege of being appointed the purported centers for higher education.  They are not.  That "higher education" has always been a joke, at least an inside joke.  But it is Salman Khan and the home-school movement who are undoing the liberal control on schools.  This is revolutionary, a peaceful regeneration of society toward peace, prosperity, and individual freedom.  It's happening now.  

The movie was released in 1948, three years after WWII.  So the audience for sure was primed by stories of Nazi atrocities while told how virtuous the communist state of the Soviet Union was.   I particularly enjoyed hearing, in the movie, the doctors offended by having their reputation impugned as if it were gold.  Fool's gold maybe.

Some folks might be incredulous. But recall the classic books in the field of psychiatry, a "science" that has effectively been declared a farce by some of the most brilliant minds in psychiatry, like Dr. Thomas Szasz.  See also this list of his articles.

There is Mass Murderers in White Coats: Psychiatric Genocide in Nazi Germany and the United States, Lenny Lapon, 1986. 

There is Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl, 1942. 

Dr. Ray Sahelian seems like a health-conscious, ethically-centered physician who does a pretty good job of assessing the true effects of supplements.  I like his site because his language is thoughtfully circumspect.  If he doesn't know the benefits of a particular supplement, he'll state as much.  And his recommendations seem cautious or at least contingent upon specifics.  That is rare for the internet.  Below is a sample question and answer on the supplement Benfotiamine.

QUESTION

Vitamin Supplement Little More Than 'Snake Oil,' Researcher Claims. Science Daily (2008)  — A popular vitamin supplement is being advertised with claims that are demonstrably untrue, as revealed by research published in the open access journal BMC Pharmacology. Benfotiamine is a synthetic derivative of thiamine (vitamin B1). It is marketed heavily as a dietary supplement using a selection of unsubstantiated, 'not-quite-medical' claims that tend to characterize this field. A large part of this campaign has been built around the belief that benfotiamine is lipid-soluble and, therefore, more physiologically active. Scientific research led by Dr Lucien Bettendorff of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Liège, Belgium, has entirely disproved these claims. According to Lucien Bettendorff, "We suspect that those companies selling benfotiamine have poisoned much of the recent literature in an attempt to bestow it with properties that it does not have". Benfotiamine has been previously shown to prevent several diabetic complications in experimental animal models. The researchers carried out experiments in mice in which it was administered using several different techniques and the resulting levels of thiamine were measured in various parts of the body. Contrary to other claims about its solubility, the results show that it is only sparingly soluble in water under physiological conditions and cannot be dissolved in octanol or oils. As Lucien Bettendorff explains, "Benfotiamine is very often considered a 'lipid-soluble' thiamine precursor from the disulfide derivative family though it is neither lipid-soluble, nor a disulfide. Sometimes, it is considered to have more biological activity than thiamine disulfides, but our study shows that it does not even penetrate cell membranes, except in those cells containing an ecto-alkaline phosphatase. There is no evidence that benfotiamine would be more effective than other precursors as a therapeutic agent for complications of diabetes." Journal reference: Marie-Laure Volvert, Sandrine Seyen, Marie Piette, Brigitte Evrard, Marjorie Gangolf, Jean-Christophe Plumier and Lucien Bettendorff. Benfotiamine, a synthetic S-acyl thiamine derivative, has different mechanisms of action and a different pharmacological profile than lipid-soluble thiamine disulfide derivatives. BMC Pharmacology, 2008.     

ANSWER

As with many supplements or medications, it often takes many years of research from various centers to finally have a good understanding of whether the supplement or medication works or whether is is ineffective. We happen to be in the early stages in terms of benfotiamine research and it is not easy for me to predict the outcome.

Reverse Fatty Liver

The liver has 500 functions?  Never heard that before. 

It makes protein.  Controls blood sugars.  Controls detoxification.  It stores fat-soluble vitamins.  It makes certain hormones, growth hormone and Igf, and others.  It's a hub of health.  Thyroid uses the liver to convert T3 to convert to T4.

Folks with protruding guts have a fatty liver.  

How to heal it?  Consume bitter vegetables. You like spinach? That's bitter: eat spinach.

You like parsley? That's bitter: eat parsley too.

By the way, the same approach to reversing a fatty liver is the same for cleansing the liver--eat bitter green vegetables.  Radishes are good too.  I used to eat a lot of these as a kid.  Didn't like them so much then, but we'd add salt and that would make us happier.  

Ketone Bodies Protect the Brain

Fascinating interview on the value of living in high altitudes. Denver and Reno are two cities with high altitude. What are the benefits? Weight loss. Better recovery from injury.

Show notes:

Sustained exposure to hypobaric hypoxia results in cachexia. Muscle breakdown releases amino acids, whilst hepatic ketogenesis converts fatty acids and some amino acids into ketone bodies. These act as metabolic substrates, but also as metabolic modulators eliciting protective effects against hypoxic injury. In this video, Andrew J. Murray and Hugh E. Montgomery explain their hypothesis and propose that hypoxia-induced cachexia is protective.

Read the article here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...