The Health Plus Letter
February 10, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 5
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher

Table Of Contents:
What’s New (Dr. Garry Gordon’s Nutritional Formulas Now Available from 1HealthyWorld)
Quote of the Day
Fast Facts
Medical Freedom Alert
Health News and Commentary
The AIDS Debate: The Most Controversial Story You’ve Never Heard (Part 1) by Liam Scheff
Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Hypothryoidism
The Power of A Human Spirit - A Tribute to My Sister Andrea (Part 12)
Reader Feedback: An Uplifting Story of Healing
Recommendations


Unabashed Plug

Both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble online are offering my newest book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium at a healthy discount. To order it, visit either http://www.amazon.com (which gave it 5 stars, its highest rating) or http://www.bn.com (Barnes and Noble). Simply type in the title or my name on their homepages and you’ll find it. Please tell others about it, too, because the information and self-care exercises it contains are important, and it’s the first book of its kind to contain such a range of topics related to the future of health and healing


What’s New (Dr. Garry Gordon’s Nutritional Formulas Now Available from 1HealthyWorld)

Last week I promised you some exciting news and he/re it is: I’m thrilled to announce that Dr. Garry Gordon’s entire line of nutritional products are available for purchase directly from 1HealthyWorld.com. As many of you know, Dr. Gordon is a member of 1HealthyWorld’s Medical Advisory Board, and an internationally acclaimed expert in the areas of cardiovascular health, anti-aging medicine, and the use of nutritional medicine to prevent and reverse chronic disease. He is also one of the most accomplished and knowledgeable physicians it’s ever been my privilege to meet, and the nutritional products he’s developed reflect his expertise. (His Beyond C formulation alone is the best of its kind that I’ve ever tried, and something I use religiously twice a day.) I will have more to share with you about Dr. Gordon’s work in this area in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can order his products by visiting http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthproducts/garrygordon 

Now for a correction. Last issue, I promoted the cancer resource website http://www.annieappleseedproject.org, writing that it was created and maintained by Ann Hafner. It is actually published by Ann Fonfa, founder and president of The Annie Appleseed Project. Both Anns are among my readers, and I apologize for any confusion I may have caused for them. Once again, I highly recommend this website.

This issue begins a multipart series by investigative journalist Liam Scheff on the subject of AIDS and HIV. For years we have been told that HIV is the cause of AIDS. Based on that hypothesis, billions of dollars have been spent to develop an anti-HIV vaccine and, beginning with AZT, costly and toxic drugs have been developed to keep HIV from progressing to flow blown AIDS. But what if everything underlying that hypothesis is wrong? That is precisely what many leading scientists have maintained all along. To find out more, read Liam’s interview below with three of the most accomplished researchers in this field.

Also in this issue is information on treating and preventing hypothyroidsim, a widely prevalent and often overlooked condition in this country. Plus more of my tribute to my sister Andrea.

Please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. In particular, let me know what you would like to see me continue doing with this newsletter, as well as things you would like to see me start. Also, let me know what, if anything, you would like to see me discontinue. You can email me at larry@1healthyworld.com.

And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.


Quote Of The Day

"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."
- Vivekananda


Fast Facts

Throughout the 1930s, when chemotherapy was considered quackery by the American medical establishment.

To this day, "chemotherapy has surprisingly meager proof to justify its widespread use."

Source: When Healing Becomes a Crime by Kenny Ausubel (see Recommendations below)


Medical Freedom Alert

Please do your part to ensure that the misleadingly named "Dietary Safety Supplement" Act (S. 722) is defeated. To become informed about S. 722 and to take action to help defeat its passage, please visit: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html

To stay informed of other developments related to medical freedom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical freedom.


Unabashed Plug

The Burton Goldberg eBook Library of Health is still on Sale! Currently, all 11 of the critically-acclaimed titles in this series are available for only $9.95, a savings of nearly 70% over their normal $29.95 price. This offer has been extended until February 15, and is my way of saying thank you to all my readers for the support and encouragement I’ve received from you since I launched The Health Plus Letter and 1HealthyWorld.com earlier this year. To learn more about Burton’s eBooks, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks


Health News and Commentary

CDC Data Confirms Autism/Vaccination Link

In a press release issued yesterday by the National Autism Association, it was announced that independent investigation of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)’s Vaccine Safety Datalink shows that "children are 27 times more likely to develop autism after exposure to three thimerosal-containing vaccines (TCVs), than those who receive thimerosal-free versions." Moreover, the CDC’s data "suggest autism via TCVs has a higher relative risk than that between lung cancer and smo/king, which according to the American Cancer Society is only 22 for men and 11 for women."

Commenting on the findings,, Jo Pike, president of the National Autism Association says, "This absolutely confirms what parents have been saying for years." Thousands of parents have reported pronounced regressions in their children following a TCV, with many of them subsequently being labeled autistic. According to Pike, this is "an easy mistake to make since the symptoms of autism and mercury poisoning are almost identical."

(Source: "CDC Vaccine Safety Data Leads Scientists To Shocking Discovery" February 19, 2004 Press Release from the National Autisms Association. For information, visit http://www.nationalautism.org.)

[Comment: It will be interesting to see how the CDC spins these findings, given the fact that the federal government has long maintained the safety of vaccinations. Regardless of whatever rebuttals may be issued regarding the data, this is an issue that won’t go away.]

FDA to Conduct Hearings to Investigate Suicide Risk in Children and Teens Who Use Antidepressants

U.S. regulators last month announced that they will conduct hearings to determine whether popular prescription antidepressant drugs (Paxil, Zoloft, Celexa, Luvox, Remeron, Effexor, Serzone) can increase the risk of suicide when administered to children and teenagers. Concerns about this issue were raised when regulators for the Food and Drug Administration, while reviewing clinical trials conducted on Paxil, noticed that "in some studies patients who took Paxil were more likely to report emotional problems that may have been suicidal thoughts or attempts." The FDA has asked the manufacturers of the antidepressants "to look again at their data and classify which events did indicate a suicidal thought or behavior."

For more on this story, see: http://snipurl.com/4e41

[Comment: Talk about trusting the fox to guard the hen house! He/re we have a potential risk of suicide caused by a class of drugs which are increasingly prescribed for children and teenagers, and the FDA is relying on the manufacturers of same to determine whether or not the risk actually exists. See what 600 lobbyists in the nation’s capital can get you? (That’s number of lobbyists employed by the pharmaceutical industry to insure favorable treatment within the halls of Congress and elsewhere in Washington, D.C.) This lax approach on the part of the FDA isn’t simply ludicrous, it’s unconscionable, given what’s at stake. Especially since it’s entirely due to the PR campaigns by the drugs’ manufacturers that has led to the dramatic increase in their use among children and teens. What a whitewash!]


The AIDS Debate:The Most Controversial Story You’ve Never Heard (Part 1) by Liam Scheff

[Note: This article was originally published May, 2003, in Boston’s Weekly Dig. I feel the information it contains is very important and so I am reprinting it with its author’s express permission. I have long been aware of and accept the basic premise expressed by the scientists Liam interviews below and wish to help share it with a wider audience.]

Prologue

In 1984, Robert Gallo, a government cancer-virologist, called an international press conference to announce that he'd found the probable cause of AIDS. He claimed that a retrovirus called HIV was destroying the immune systems of young gay men and IV drug abusers, leaving them open to a variety of both viral diseases and cancer.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, AIDS is not a single disease, but rather a category of 29 unrelated, previously-known conditions including herpes, yeast infections, salmonella, diarrhea, fever, flus, TB, pelvic cancer in women, pneumonia and bacterial infections. The CDC also designates HIV- positive people who aren’t sick, but have a T-cell count below 200, as AIDS patients (T-cells are a subset of white blood cells). The only thing that separates an AIDS diagnosis from any of these conditions is a positive HIV test, which itself is based on Robert Gallo's research.

Gallo's HIV theory, however, was not the only AIDS theory, and according to a growing number of concerned scientists, researchers and activists, it wasn’t the best. For 70 years before Gallo, retroviruses were known to be a non-toxic part of the cell; moreover, no single virus could simultaneously cause a viral disease like pneumonia, in which cells are destroyed, and a cancer like Kaposi's Sarcoma, in which cells multiply rapidly.

These scientists argue that Gallo's unified HIV/AIDS theory is flawed and that treating 29 unrelated diseases with extremely toxic AIDS drugs like AZT and protease inhibitors is at best irresponsible and at worse medical genocide.

They may have a point. Ninety-four percent of all AIDS-related deaths in the US occurred after the introduction of AZT, according to CDC statistics through the year 2000. And according to the Univ/ersity of Pittsburgh, the number one cause of death in US AIDS patients today is liver failure, a side-effect of the new protease inhibitors [the new generation of drugs used to treat HIV].

The questions arise: Did Gallo truly solve the AIDS riddle, and are we treating AIDS humanely and effectively?

To answer these questions, I spoke with three prominent AIDS researchers.

Dr. Peter Duesberg is a chemist and retroviral expert. Duesberg discovered the Oncogene (cancer gene) and isolated the retroviral genome (of which HIV is one) in 1970. He is professor of molecular biology at UC Berkeley.

Dr. David Rasnick is a protease specialist and has been in AIDS research for 20 years. He and Duesberg work in collaboration on cancer and AIDS research. Both Rasnick and Duesberg were advisors on President Mbeki's South African AIDS panel.

Dr. Rodney Richards is a chemist who worked with Amgen and Abbot labs in the 1980s, designing the first HIV tests from Robert Gallo's HIV cell line.

The interviews were conducted separately and integrated into a dialogue. Individual points-of-view belong to individual speakers. – Liam Scheff

How did you get involved with AIDS research?

Rasnick: I’m a chemist and protease enzyme researcher. I design and synthesize inhibitors to stop tissue-destroying viruses and cancers. When Robert Gallo announced HIV caused AIDS, I wanted to work on inhibitors that would stop it.

In ’85 I was at a research meeting where HIV was being discussed. An AIDS specialist was asked how much HIV was present in an infected AIDS patient. He was asked, "What’s the titer of HIV?"

What’s a Titer?

Rasnick: The titer is the number of infectious virus particles in a blood or tissue sample. A titer of live virus is easily obtainable from the particular tissue that the virus infects. A sample from this infected tissue contains mil/lions of infectious virus particles. If you have herpes, the sample comes from a cold sore; if it’s polio, from the intestine; if it’s smallpox, from a pustule; if it’s a cold, from the throat.

When you’re infected with a virus, it infects and kills about 30 percent of the specific tissue that it targets before you get any symptoms. You can take a titer of any infected area, put it under a microscope and see mil/lions of living viruses.

So, the virologist was asked, "What’s the titer of HIV?"

He answered, "Undetectable. Zero."

I thought, how is that possible? How can you be made sick from something that isn’t there? With polio, researchers threw away a hundred viruses before they found the right one. I assumed Gallo had simply gotten the wrong virus, and we’d have to start over.

By 1987, there were 30,000 cumulative AIDS cases. Numbers were not growing as predicted; and AIDS hadn’t left its original risk groups. Six years after the first AIDS cases, 95 percent of infections still occurred exclusively in men – 2/3 gay men, and 1/3 IV drug users. Additionally, each AIDS risk group suffered from specific diseases.

Viruses don't cause different diseases based on gender, sexual preference or lifestyle. Viruses have unique but limited genetic structures, which manifest in a limited but identical set of symptoms in all patients. The herpes virus makes herpes lesions, but ne/ver a sore throat. The chicken pox virus always produces skin sores, but never paralysis.

Viral epidemics spread exponentially in the first months and years, killing everyone who can’t survive long enough to develop immunity to it. HIV wasn't growing; it remained in its original risk groups, and it caused different diseases in each. It clearly wasn’t acting like a contagious virus.

In 1988, I came across an article written by Peter Duesberg in the science journal Cancer Research. The article was on retroviruses in general, and HIV in particular. Duesberg was the world’s preeminent retrovirologist. He’d studied and mapped the retroviral genome in the ‘70s. Duesberg’s knowledge of retroviruses was unparalleled. In the article, he laid out, point for point, what retroviruses are, and what they can and can't do.

HIV is a retrovirus; what are retroviruses?

Rasnick: Retroviruses are a subset of viruses that are not toxic to cells. They were discovered in the early 20th century. They're one of the first identified cellular particles. There are about 3,000 catalogued retroviruses. They exist in every animal: dogs, cats, whales, birds, rats, hamsters and humans. Retrovirologists estimate that one to two percent of our own DNA is retrovirus.

Retroviruses are RNA strands that copy themselves into our DNA using an enzyme called Reverse Transcriptase. Retroviruses are passed down matrilineally – from mother to child. They're not sexually transmissible. Lab animals do not exchange retroviruses with each other, no matter how much they mate. But babies always have the same retroviruses as their mothers.

Current research strongly indicates that they're simply a naturally occurring part of us. In 50 years of modern lab research, no retrovirus has ever been shown to kill cells or cause disease, except under very special laboratory conditions.

Peter Duesberg: In 1987 I was invited by Cancer Research to discuss whether retroviruses, including HIV, could cause disease or immune deficiency. I was invited because of my technical experience with retroviruses.

In 1970, I was working in UC Berkeley‘s virus lab. The big program in virology at the time, which we were part of, was to find a virus that caused cancer. There was also a large government cancer-virus program at the National Institutes of Health. Robert Gallo was one of the scientists working on that project.

We began looking at retroviruses because of their unique qualities. Typical viruses kill cells. Their strategy is to enter the cell, kill it and move on to the next one. However, with cancer, cells aren’t killed; in fact, they multiply very rapidly. Therefore a virus couldn’t cause cancer. Retroviruses, however, don't kill cells. This quality made them an outstanding candidate for a cancer virus.

In 1970, I made a discovery that got a lot of attention. I isolated a retroviral gene from a cancer cell, and infected other cells with this gene. The cancer virologists were very excited. They thought this might be the thing they’d been looking for – a retrovirus that could infect other cells and cause cancer. I was suddenly famous. There were job offers; I was given tenure at Berkeley and admission into the Academy of Science.

Of course, if a virus, or a unique retrovirus, caused cancer in the real world, then cancer would be contagious. But nobody "catches" cancer. A "case of cancer" doesn’t go around the office. However, such fundamental thoughts were not on the minds of the virus hunters. Scientists like impressive-sounding proofs, regardless of what we know is true in the real world. The retroviral cancer-gene was just a lab artifact. It didn’t exist in humans or animals in nature. We created it in the lab, and that’s where it stayed. It was purely academic.

As part of the cancer-gene experiment, my associates and I mapped the retroviral genome. We made the maps that today are used as the blueprints for all retroviruses, including HIV.

What do retroviruses do?

Duesberg: In terms of disease, they do nothing. They’re transcribed into the DNA in a few cells, and they hang around there for the rest of your life as part of your genome. Nevertheless, cancer-virus hunters continued to look for a cancer-gene using the technology we created and the retroviral maps we made.

Rasnick: In the mid-‘70s, Robert Gallo claimed he’d found a cancer-retrovirus in the cells of a leukemia patient. He called it HL23V. He found it the same way he would later find HIV – not by finding the retrovirus in the blood – but by looking for antibody and enzyme activity that he claimed stood in for the actual retrovirus.

By 1980, his claim was refuted by both the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center and the National Cancer Institute. Gallo's supposed HL23V antibodies weren‘t the result of a cancer-virus, but rather the result of "exposure to many natural substances" which create antibodies in humans. Today nobody, not even Gallo, claims HL23V ever existed.

In 1980, he tried again. Gallo claimed to have a new cancer retrovirus called HTLV-1, which caused a kind of leukemia in which T-cells multiplied into fluid tumors. T-cells are one of many subsets of white blood cells. Once again, the proof was less than convincing. Less than one percent of people who tested positive for HTLV-1 ever developed leukemia. It was a less-than-successful validation for his theory.

How did Gallo move from cancer to AIDS research?

Rasnick: In the early ‘80s, gay men were showing up in emergency rooms with a variety of simultaneous illnesses and infections. At the time, medical journals speculated that the diseases were drug-related. Gay men had been abusing toxic, immune suppressing and even carcinogenic drugs like poppers, cocaine and amphetamines on a daily basis for the better part of the ‘70s.

In 1983, Luc Montagnier, a French scientist at the Pasteur Institute, claimed to have found a new retrovirus in AIDS patients. But nobody paid attention, because he hadn’t isolated a virus, and he hadn’t found a single viral particle in the blood – remember the titer was zero, undetectable. Seeking some academic support, Montagnier sent a cell sample to Robert Gallo at the NIH. Gallo took the cell-line Montagnier sent him and modified it slightly. Then he did something strange. He stole it.

In 1984 Gallo called an international press conference and together with Margaret Heckler, the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that he’d discovered the "probable cause" of AIDS. It was a new retrovirus called HTLV-III, (later re-named HIV). Later that same day, he patented the modified cell-line he’d originally gotten from Montagnier. He hadn’t published a single word of his research. Robert Gallo, a government-backed scientist, simply announced that a retroviral-epidemic was on its way.

He sold the cell-line to Abbot Labs, a pharmaceutical company that makes HIV tests. The French government demanded that all patent rights be returned to Montagnier. Gallo refused, claiming it was all his work. In 1987, Gallo and Montagnier were forced by President Reagan and French Prime Minister Chirac to meet in a hotel room to work out the HIV patent rights. In 1992, Gallo was officially convicted of theft by a federal scientific ethics committee.

Rodney Richards: At first Gallo claimed he invented the whole process. Now he claims his sample might have been "contaminated" by Montagnier’s.

Duesberg: The NIH itself ran a two-year investigation of Gallo’s HIV claim, and they couldn’t come up with any convincing evidence that he came up with it on his own.

What did Abbot labs do with Gallo’s cell line?

Rasnick: Abbot labs makes HIV-antibody tests out of it. Abbot’s made billions selling HIV tests, and Gallo’s made millions from his patent.

So when we’re given an HIV-antibody test, we’re tested based on what Gallo and Montagnier claim to have found. How did Luc Montagnier find HIV?

Richards: First he looked in his patients’ blood, but he couldn’t find it there. In fact, no one has ever found HIV in human blood.

Right, the titer was zero – so where did he look?

Richards: Montagnier took tissue from the swollen lymph node of a gay man who was a suspected AIDS patient. In an infected person, the lymph tissue will presumably be littered with infected cells.

Montagnier attempted to perform a cell culture with that tissue. This is the lab technique used to isolate viruses like herpes and mononucleosis. In a cell culture, infected cells are mixed with uninfected cells in a petri dish. Separated from the body’s immune system, viruses that are being suppressed can surface. The virus travels from the infected cell to the uninfected cell through the liquid in the dish. The scientist collects this liquid, concentrates it, and spins it through a sucrose density gradient to isolate the virus.

A sucrose density gradient is a tube of layered sugar solution of specific densities. The layers become thicker from top to bottom. The cell liquid is gently placed on top of the sugar solution. This is spun in a centrifuge for many hours to force the viral particles to descend through the density layers. Cellular particles, including retroviruses, have known densities. The known density corresponds to a layer in the test tube. The descending particles stop when they find a density equal to their own. This layer is photographed with an electron microscope. In cultures from virally-infected patients, the photo plate is filled with millions of identical viral particles.

Finally, a new cell culture is performed with the isolated viral particles to see if they are indeed infectious. Once again, the cell fluid is separated, spun and photographed to verify that the same virus appears. This is what’s known as viral isolation.

Is this what Montagnier did?

Richards: He tried to, but it didn’t work. Montagnier took lymph tissue from a suspected AIDS patient, mixed it with cells from a healthy blood donor and performed a cell culture. He removed the liquid and spun it in a centrifuge, but he found no virus. But that didn’t stop him. Montagnier repeated the experiment but added a crucial new step.

He took the suspected AIDS tissue and mixed it with a variety of cells in a culture, including cells from an umbilical cord. Then he added powerful chemicals called Mitogens that artificially force cells to replicate. He found, after 2 or 3 weeks, evidence of an enzyme called reverse transcriptase, a sign of possible retroviral activity.

But he hadn’t found any virus?

Richards: No. He found an enzyme that retroviruses use. But reverse transcriptase is found in many other microbes, cellular components and processes, including umbilical cells, and forced replication. Montagnier then separated the mitogenically stimulated fluid from the culture and poured it into another dish of healthy cells and again found reverse transcriptase activity.

He put this through a sucrose density gradient and found reverse transcriptase activity at the density layer where retroviruses were known to purify. What he did not find was a virus. When he looked through the electron microscope at that same density gradient, he found nothing – but he didn’t acknowledge that until years later.

That's what’s known as isolation of HIV.

How does this prove that an infectious virus was making people sick?

Richards: It doesn’t. This is insufficient evidence to prove that HIV or any infectious virus exists, let alone that it causes disease.

How did Gallo use Montagnier’s cells to prove HIV existed and caused AIDS?

Richards: Gallo cultured the cells, but didn’t find enough reverse transcriptase activity to convince him that Montagnier had found a retrovirus. So Gallo added another step. He mixed cells from 10 AIDS patients together; then he added those to leukemia T-cells from his HTLV-1 retrovirus experiment. At that point, Gallo found enough reverse transcriptase activity to convince him that there was indeed a retrovirus. That's how he claims to have found HIV.

But Gallo had already found reverse transcriptase activity in the leukemia cells. How did he prove that there was a new retrovirus – HIV?

Richards: Many scientists don’t believe that he did prove it.

(Part 2 of this interview will appear next issue.)


Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Managing Hypothyroidism

Hypothyroidism refers to a condition caused by insufficient thyroid function in the body, due to either decreased production or increased breakdown of thyroid hormone.

Symptoms-Fatigue, weight gain, slowed heart rate, constipation, irritability, sensitivity to cold, mental depression, slowness or slurring of speech, drooping and swollen eyes, swollen face, recurrent infections, increase in allergic reactions, headaches, hair loss, brittleness of hair, female problems (such as heavy menstrual flow, painful periods, and premenstrual tension), decreased immune functioning, and calcium metabolism problems. In childhood, hypothyroidism can cause a retardation of normal growth and development.

Occurrence-This is a very common health problem. Hypothyroidism is recognized by medical doctors. However, unusual cases of hypothyroidism, such as borderline cases of underactive thyroid or individuals who have normal laboratory levels of thyroid hormone but in their case respond best and function optimally when supplemented with thyroid nutrients, are often unrecognized. Thus, they often go untreated. Undiagnosed thyroid problems can be the underlying cause in many reoccurring or nonresponsive health problems.

Consider-Food allergies, deficiencies of B vitamins, iron, or digestive enzymes, liver disease, hormone imbalances, or parasites.

Special Notes-In Hashimoto’s disease, the body becomes allergic to its thyroid gland and forms antibodies against it, causing low thyroid.

Home thyroid test-Keep a thermometer by the bedside. In the morning before arising, lie still and put thermometer under the armpit and hold it there for 15 minutes. A temperature below 97.5 degrees F may indicate a problem with the thyroid gland. Take the temperature in this manner for three days, except for the first few days of the menstrual cycle and the middle day of the cycle, and calculate the average temperature. If it is consistently low, it is a suggestion that low thyroid may be a problem. The lower the temperature, the greater the degree of hypothyroidism.

Self-Care Treatments

Diet: Consume foods that are naturally high in iodine such as fish, kelp, vegetables, and root vegetables (such as potatoes). Avoid foods that naturally slow the functioning of the thyroid such as: cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard greens, broccoli, turnips, kale, spinach, peaches, and pears. Avoid sulfa drugs and antihistamines, which aggravate this problem. If you are on thyroid medication, increase calcium supplementation, as studies show that the drug increases bone loss significantly. Also, increase daily consumption of foods high in vitamin B complex, such as whole grains and raw nuts and seeds, and foods rich in vitamin A, such as dark green and yellow vegetables, avoiding repetitive consumption of the ones mentioned above.

Nutritional Therapy: 1) An organic thyroid glandular extract, given under the supervision of a doctor, can help restore normal thyroid function. 2) Tyrosine (an amino acid). 3) Iodine. 4) Vitamin B. 5) Calcium/magnesium. 6) Essential fatty acids. 7) Vitamin A. 8) Zinc. 9) Kelp is one of the best natural sources of iodine.

Herbs: Mild cases sometimes respond to herbal bitters such as gentian or mugwort. Kelp has been used in the past, but is only specifically helpful where an iodine deficiency is present. Associated constipation may be alleviated with yellowdock, butternut, or cascara sagrada. The antidepressant herb St. John’s wort can be helpful.

Lifestyle: Aerobic exercise is important.

Professional Care: The following therapies have been shown to be effective in treating hypothyroidism, but should only be provided by a qualified health professional: acupuncture, detoxification therapy, environmental medicine, homeopathy, magnetic therapy, naturopathic medicine, osteopathy, traditional Chinese medicine.

Note: The information above was adapted from Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, 2^nd Edition, co-authored and edited by Larry Trivieri, Jr. (Celestial Arts, 2002).


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To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm. On sale for only $9.95, a savings of nearly 70%!


The Power of A Human Spirit - A Tribute to My Sister Andrea (Part 12)

[The first 11 parts of this article appeared in issues 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of Volume 1, and issues 1, 2, 3, and 4, Volume 2 of The Health Plus Letter, all of which are archived at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.]

In February, 2003, three weeks after learning that her cancer had returned, Andrea came home to celebrate our mother’s 70^th birthday. It was a family affair that packed my Mom’s home to overflowing. Andrea was already there when I arrived, and as soon as I entered, she rushed up to hug me, exuding joy and positive energy despite the now obvious toll that her illness was taking on her body. As usual, her energy was infectious, and I found it easy to celebrate being with her in that moment, rather than succumb to grief over the thought of her passing. My Mom also set the tone that night, lending all of us strength to be happy, even though we all knew that this would be Andrea’s last year with us. We also knew that her own heart was broken by this fact, yet her lifelong acceptance of God’s will - which to her last breath Andrea always said inspired her own strength and acceptance – left her radiant with peace and happiness. It was a family gathering I will always cherish the memory of. Never had I felt prouder of my family, nor more grateful to be a part of it.

Late in the evening, as goodbyes started to be said, Andrea broke down as she embraced our sister Cindy, with whom she was very, very close. Cindy lives in North Carolina and as Andrea held her, she suddenly began to cry. Then, in an outpouring of all the emotions she normally kept to herself, she confessed how sad she was, knowing that her time was coming to an end. "I’m going to miss you," she told Cindy, then turned her gaze on each of us. I’m going to miss all of you so much." And then all of us were crying, telling her how much we loved her and were going to miss her too.

And then my Mom rose from her chair to kneel before Andrea and gently massage her feet. Holding Andrea’s gaze, she told her, "Andrea, there’s nothing to fear. When your time comes, God will take you and you’ll go in peace. And you won’t suffer, either. You won’t feel any pain at all." And not a one of us doubted her words, so powerful was the conviction of her faith as she knelt before her daughter, grateful to be able to serve and nurture Andrea in this fashion. The rest of us witnessed this powerful demonstration of Love in silence, knowing that it extended to us as well, emanating from our mother to each of our hearts, and flowing back to her and Andrea. As I experienced this, time seemed to slow and reality shift to a heightened awareness of the Soul’s knowingness. An awareness my mother has always been able to access when it matters most. Then normalcy resumed and, our sorrows transmuted back to Joy, the party went on for a few hours more.

The next morning, Andrea returned to her apartment, ready to resume her fight with cancer.

[Continued next issue.]


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Reader Feedback

The following email from Cosette T. inspired me and I’m sure it will inspire you, as well. She writes:

"I want to share some incredible news with you, I know you will appreciate this. I just had a mastectomy with reconstruction. My original biopsy diagnosis was Paget's Disease of the nipple and high grade intraductal carcinoma, possibly invasive, deep within the breast by the chest wall.

"Since the diagnosis 6 months ago, I have employed many of the cancer treatments written up in the Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer, among other holistic cancer publications. My goal was to strengthen my immune system because I knew this was my only real defense.

"Incredibly, the mastectomy patholgy report I just received has revealed that the high grade cancer deep within my breast by the chest wall simply vanished! No remaining cancer cells were found. All that remained was an area of inflammation, apparently the battleground of my powerful white blood cells and the cancer cells that lost the battle. Although the Paget's on my nipple remained, my body successfully encapsulated it, preventing invasion.

My conviction that, given the right nutrients, environment and mind-set, my body could rid itself of cancer has been proven beyond a shadow of doubt. I cannot, however, take all the credit. I know the power of God's hand of protection."

Cosette’s attitude and approach to her health challenge for me epitomizes what is possible when we combine faith, knowledge and commitment to our own healing. Bravo, Cosette! And thank you for sharing your story with us.


Recommendations

Website:
http://www.buildfreedom.com - This website, created and maintained by Frederick Mann, challenges just about every assumption most of us have made about how much freedom we can achieve in our lives. From everything I know about him, Mann is proof that the information he shares works. You may not agree with him on every point, but you’ll certainly be challenged to reexamine your own thoughts about them.

Book:
When Healing Becomes a Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies by Kenny Ausubel. Still not convinced there is a conspiracy to suppress safe, nontoxic, cancer therapies? Then read this book. The documentation it contains is extensive and irrefutable.


See you next week.

Health and Blessings!

Larry Trivieri, Jr. (larry@1healthyworld.com)


Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com) 1514 Genesee Street, Suite 52, Utica, NY 13502. It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.

Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, February 10, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 5. Copyright © 2004 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

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