The Health Plus Letter
August 26, 2003, Vol. 1, No. 8
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher

Table Of Contents:
What’s New
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical Freedom Alert
Health News and Commentary
Illness Is Your Teacher by Jesse Hanley, M.D.
Self-Tests for Detecting Food Allergies
Recipe of the Week
Reader Feedback
Recommendations


What’s New

I wish to thank those of you who contacted me to share your condolences about my sister. Your caring means a lot to me.

This week, we cover the subject of food allergies, which are very widespread in this country, and often go undiagnosed. Our feature essay, written by Dr. Jesse Hanley, a member of 1HealthyWorld’s medical advisory board, illustrates how food allergies can affect health and also highlights the importance of paying attention to the messages our bodies send us during times of illness. Then I provide you with a series of self-assessment tests you can use to help determine if food allergies are playing a role in your own life. I hope you put them to good use.

You can email me at larry@1healthyworld.com.


Quote Of The Day

“An mistake cannot become true however many times you repeat it. The truth cannot be wrong, even if no one ever hears about it.”
- Mahatma Gandhi


Fast Fact

“Each human cell contains about 2 meters (6.6 feet) of DNA supercoiled on itself such that it fits within the cell nucleus.”

Source: The Cambridge Factfinder – David Crystal, Editor


Unabashed Plug

Learn the Truth about Heart Disease, Stroke and Hypertension. Most of what conventional medicine has to offer for treating these conditions is based on faulty and potentially dangerous assumptions. Discover the real causes behind these diseases and learn what you can do today to prevent and reverse them using safe and natural alternatives that have been scientifically proven to be effective. Read the critically-acclaimed eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Heart Disease. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.


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 and http://website.citizens.org/showpage.cfm?pageid=10962.


Health News and Commentary

White House Lied About Health Risks to New Yorkers After 9/11

According to a story reported by the Associated Press this weekend, “At the White House's direction, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave New Yorkers misleading assurances that there was no health risk from the debris-laden air after the World Trade Center collapse, according to an internal inquiry.” Within ten days after 9/11, the EPA issued five statements reassuring New Yorkers about the safety of lower Manhattan’s air quality, followed by an additional four statements throughout the rest of 2001 that made the same assurances, yet it was not until June, 2002 “that the EPA determined that air quality had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels - well after respiratory ailments and other problems began to surface in hundreds of workers cleaning dusty offices and apartments.”

The EPA statements were issued because “The White House ‘convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones’ by having the National Security Council control EPA communications in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, according to a report issued late Thursday by EPA Inspector General Nikki L. Tinsley.” As a result, the EPA statements omitted “guidance for cleaning indoor spaces and tips on potential health effects from airborne dust containing asbestos, lead, glass fibers and concrete.”

“President Bush's senior environmental adviser on Friday defended the White House involvement, saying it was justified by national security.”

To read more on this story, see: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/082403B.shtml

[Comment: These days, it seems that whenever the government invokes the term “national security,” it’s a signal that lies and obfuscation are taking place. Nor is the current administration the first to be guilty of this. But for an eloquent overview on how endemic lying is to the Bush White house, I recommend a recent column by Jimmy Breslin, which you can read at http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/printer_082503H.shtml.]

White House Poised to Weaken the Clean Air Act

Also over the weekend, The Guardian reported: “The Bush administration plans to open a huge loophole in America's air pollution laws, allowing an estimated 17,000 outdated power stations and factories to increase their carbon emissions with impunity.

“Critics of draft r^gulations due to be unveiled by the US environmental protection agency next week say they amount to a death knell for the Clean Air Act, the centrepiece of US regulation.

"The rules could represent the biggest defeat for American environmentalists since the Bush administration abandoned the Kyoto Treaty on global warming two years ago.”

You can read the full story at http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1028090,00.html

[Comment: More business as usual for the Bush gang and their friends in the energy lobby. Fortunately, at least 13 states, including New York, intend to challenge the r^gulations should they be passed.]

Research Finds That Nearly All Risk for Heart Disease Is Due To Bad Habits

According to recent research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “The vast majority of heart attacks strike people who either smoke, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes, debunking the perception that heart problems can strike anyone.

“Roughly nine out of 10 patients surveyed suffered from one of the four risk factors, often for years, before experiencing a heart problem, according to a pair of reports that analyzed accumulated data from previous studies.”

For more on this story, see: http://snurl.com/25i1

[Comment: This story simply confirms the view of holistic physicians that in the majority of cases heart disease can be prevented and reversed when a healthy lifestyle is followed. Which is why I continue to recommend 1HealthyWorld’s eBook on heart disease. (See the Unabashed Plug above.)]

Compound In Red Wine Shown To Extend Life

Resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, has been shown to extend the life span of single cell organisms, including yeast cells, by as much as 80 percent, leading researchers to speculate that it may provide similar benefits in “multi-cellular organisms like worms, fruit flies and, perhaps, humans.” The finding, according to scientists, could potentially lead to the development of drugs that “lengthen life and prevent or treat aging-related diseases.”

For more on this story, see: http://snurl.com/25je

[Comment: Salud!]


Unabashed Plug

Ensure the health of your gastrointestinal tract with CaprobioticsTM, a natural therapeutic whole food probiotic blend of six strains of health enhancing bacteria cultured in fresh goat milk. These microorganisms remain viable in the stomach in route to the intestinal tract, to optimize digestion and the immune system. To find out more, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthProducts/Caprobiotics.cfm.


Illness Is Your Teacher by Jesse Hanley, M.D.

Who would have ever thought that being ill was a good way to learn about being healthy? Yet it is one of our/my/your greatest teachers. Although I am supposed to be the "medical expert" and tell people just what to do, I learned a long time ago that many people already know a good deal about what 's really wrong with them. Only no one else ever listened to them or validated their insights into their health condition. Unfortunately, in the average doctor's office today, time is no longer allowed for the luxury of good history taking (listening) and explaining.

All too often, I meet people who were told that what they eat makes no difference to their health! That their arthritis, asthma, chronic respiratory infections, abdominal pains, canker sore and rashes are unaffected by their diet. It is just not true and scientific literature is full of studies to prove it.

The wonderful field of psychoneuroimmunology, also called mind/body medicine, that Dr. Deepak Chopra made famous reveals the power of your state of mind (conscious or unconscious). Have you ever awakened from a bad dream to find your heart pounding, and perhaps a generalized feeling of anxiety? Whether or not you remember all of the details of that dream, it is easy to recognize its influence on your biochemistry/body. Often even recalling the dream will lead to a re-experiencing of some of the same physical upset that originally accompanied it. Science teaches us that each and every thought and feeling we have generates a biochemical counterpart that is simultaneously affecting our health. For example, if you are scared in your job, or of your mate, you are creating panic biochemicals in your body that adversely affect your health. Just imagine how bad feeling anger, fear, shame or hate most of your day and night would be for your body! The following are examples of this from my own case files.

Suzanne was diagnosed with lupus in early adulthood; she had joint pain, rashes and kidney problems. After taking prescribed medicines she developed a different set of symptoms that she equally disliked. So, being brave and wise, she went looking outside conventional medicine for help. Twenty years ago she was put on a very strict diet of a bland vegetable soup and several other very limited food choices by the famous Dr. Bieler, after whom Bieler’s Broth, a therapeutic soup, is named. Within three weeks she was dramatically better and was eventually able to again eat most foods. Even her abnormal blood tests returned to normal. But when I met her she was having a serious relapse and couldn't seem to make herself go back on the stringent diet for very long. She believed that what she ate made a difference but wanted help in figuring out the best way to find the answer and have the least unnecessary restrictions. Although she didn't want to see it at first, her careful history unveiled several signs of wheat allergy. While we waited for her food allergy blood test results I asked her to eliminate wheat and dairy from her diet for just two weeks, and to make sure her vitamin supplementation was complete, and loaded with antioxidants.

Suzanne returned with 50% less pain in her joints and a nearly healed rash. Her lab tests verified that these foods were her main allergens and to avoid beef. Her DHEA blood test was also very low so I added a modest amount to her supplements since it has been shown to support in healing from autoimmune diseases. Within two months since her first visit to me Suzanne was not only feeling her best in years but her regular doctor advised her that all of her abnormal labs had recovered and encouraged her to keep up what ever was working. (Unfortunately he n^ver asked what that was!)

Geena had always been very healthy and active. In 1991 she went to Italy to study and work for two years. After her first year there she began to notice more and more pain in her large joints and felt less like being active. Eventually even walking became painful and she didn't like taking medicines for her pain.

Geena was scared, wondering how could she suddenly be so sick at age 24. Except for a signs of inflammation in her blood tests, her other tests were normal. We explored her health history and diet at great length. To our delight, a positive family history for allergy to nightshade plants was revealed. Obviously, anyone going to Italy has an infusion of tomato based cuisine. Reluctantly, Geena agreed to suspend her new affair with Italian food and tomatoes, peppers and potatoes for three weeks. The results were like magic. Her pains resolved completely. Fortunately, today she can eat tomatoes once or twice a week without recurrence.

I regularly meet and listen to people daily with symptoms of recurrent illness, immune suppression, severe sugar cravings, depression, mood swings, fatigue, foggy memory, and years of antibiotics and/or birth control pills, etc. Many have read books on "the yeast connection.” I get excited because that means to me that these people have started paying attention to themselves, listening to their internal wisdom and paying caring attention to their body's language. They are often the ones that get well the fastest. With them, I serve as a sort of coach or experienced safari guide, helping them to stay on their path and to develop their own sense of self-knowing.

This moment is a good time to ask yourself for clues, answers and insight to your own body’s symptoms. Ask yourself, What can I do to help myself? Pay attention until you get responses. Ask again - What am I doing to hurt myself? Although the response to this question is sometimes harder to acknowledge, the message is usually loud and clear. Make notes and lists until your patterns become obvious. And ask for help and be willing to receive it.

Listening to yourself can be the greatest gift you give to yourself. You already have most of the answers. The gift of illness often is the time to stop, look and listen, to rediscover your inner wisdom and power to heal.


Self-Tests for Detecting Food Allergies
(adapted from Health Self-Assessment Tests, available at http://www.1healthyworld.com/freeReports)

Food allergies are quite common, yet very often are not considered, let along detected, by conventional physicians when treating chronic health conditions. The following questionnaire can help you assess whether you have food allergies, and the pulse test that follows it can provide further evidence as to whether or not you are allergic or sensitive to the foods you eat.

Food Allergy Questionnaire

Developed by naturopathic physician Leon Chaitow, N.D., D.O., of London, England, this series of queries can help you determine if you have a food allergy. If your answer is “no” or “never” to any question, give yourself a score of zero for that particular question; the other scores are provided with the remaining questions.

Do you suffer from unnatural fatigue? (Score 1 if occasionally, 2 if regularly, meaning 3x/week or more.)

Do you sometimes experience wei∼ght fluctuations of four or more pounds in a single day, accompanied by puffiness of the face, ankles, or fingers? (Score 1 if infrequently, 2 if more than once a month.)

Do you have hot flashes (apart from menopause) or find yourself sweating for no obvious reason? (Score 1 if infrequently, 2 if several times a week or more.)

Does your pulse race or your heart pound strongly for no obvious reason? (Score 1 if infrequently, 2 if several times a week or more.)

Do you have a history of food intolerance, causing any symptoms at all? (Score 2 if your answer is yes.)

Do you crave bread, sugary foods, pasta, milk, chocolate, coffee, or tea? (Score 2 if your answer is yes.)

Do you suffer from migraine or severe headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, depression, asthma, or muscle aches? (Score 2 if your answer is yes.)

The most anyone could score on this test would be 14. “If your score is 5 or higher, there is a strong likelihood that food allergies are part of your symptom picture,” Dr. Chaitow says.

The Pulse Test

This is a relatively simple test developed by Arthur Coca, M.D., a pioneer in the field of environmental medicine. Dr. Coca based his test on many years of clinical observations of patients, during which he noticed that a common symptom of many food allergies is increased heart rate. Although the pulse test can help identify food allergies, you should not conclude you are allergy-free if the foods you test do not affect your pulse rate. The problem is that not all food allergens will increase heart rate. “The weakness of this particular approach lies in the frank possibility that not every allergic reaction will necessarily produce the biochemical responses that result in a faster heartbeat,” says Ralph Golan, M.D.

The pulse test is easy to self-administer and involves simply recording your pulse rate before and after meals. Stephen Langer, M.D., observes that “certain of my patients who use the pulse test have seen their heartbeat rise from 72 to as high as 180 after they have eaten an allergenic food.” To take the test, follow these simple instructions:

Find the pulse point on your wrist by placing the second finger of the opposite hand on the inside of your wrist.

Count the beats (pulses) for six seconds and multiply the number by ten; this is your resting pulse.

Record your resting pulse first thing in the morning before getting out of bed.

Record your pulse 30 minutes before each meal, then 30 minutes and 60 minutes after each meal.

If the difference between the morning pulse and either of the two after-meal rates is more than 12 to 16 beats, chances are you have a food allergy. Once you have identified a meal that triggers a rise in your pulse rate, you can begin testing individual foods eaten during that meal. However, in some cases, you may find that your resting pulse is higher than your after-meal pulse or that your before-meal pulse is higher than your after-meal pulse. If you observe such a pattern, it is possible that dust or some other airborne allergen is interfering with your test.

To learn more about proven holistic approaches for detecting, treating, and preventing allergies, I recommend the eBook Burton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Allergies, which you can sample or purchase by going to http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Allergy-Book-Info.cfm.


Unabashed Plug

Discover and Gain Control of Your Human Energy Field. Read Dr. Valerie Hunt’s Mind Mastery Meditations: A Workbook for the “Infinite Mind,” the empowering guide created by one of the world's foremost researchers into the human energy field, energy medicine, and the relationship between consciousness and health. Each of the meditations this eBook contains is designed to give you mastery of your mind and to empower you to discover the answers to why you are the way you are, your soul's needs, your unique talents and capacities, and your self-designed destiny. By practicing and mastering these meditations, you will become able to live your life with greater ease and success, speed your self-healing, and dramatically increase your ability to manifest your deepest goals.

To order this life-changing guide, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.


Recipe Of The Week

Rice, Lentil, and Vegetable Salad

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked long-grain brown rice
1 cup cooked lentils (do not overcook)
1/2 cup finely chopped purple cabbage
1/2 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced zucchini or cucumber
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped scallion
2 tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp marjoram (dried)
1/4 tsp oregano (dried)
Add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
1 tbsp honey (optional)

In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients and mix well. Set the bowl aside, then in a smaller bowl, whisk together the Bragg’s, oil, lemon juice, honey and herbs. Drizzle the dressing over the rice, lentil and vegetable mixture with stirring. Chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Serves four.

This recipe comes from the eBook Burton Goldberg's Definitive Guide to Arthritis, available at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Arthritis-Book-Info.cfm

For additional healthy recipes, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/recipes, which features a new recipe each day.


Reader Feedback

Betsy N, who is suffering from fibromyalgia, asks: “Can you recommend a book or advice on treating this chronic problem without taking so many pills?”

Fibromyalgia is more a syndrome than an actual disease, meaning that there are numerous factors and symptoms which, when taken together, can lead to a diagnosis of the condition. Therefore, it is important that anyone suffering from fibromyaglia accurately determine the underlying causes involved. Some of the primary causes can be “leaky gut syndrome,” candidiasis (systemic yeast overgrowth), and food allergies. For an excellent guide to safely and naturally dealing with these and other related factors, I recommend the eBook I Was Poisoned By My Body, by 1HealthyWorld’s Dr. Gloria Gilbere (available at http://1healthyworld.com/ebooks/I-Was-Poisoned-Book-Info.cfm). For a more complete discussion of fibromyalgia specifically, I also recommend The Definitive Guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Lyme Disease, which I co-wrote with Burton Goldberg, and which will be published by Celestial Arts in November of this year.

As Betsy points out, conventional medicine offers little in regard to fibromyalgia beyond medications that, at best, only suppress symptoms, and, at worst, result in dangerous side-effects. Holistic medicine, on the other hand, can be very effective in resolving fibromyalgia, as well as many other chronic disease conditions, so working with a holistic physician is also highly recommended.

The key to healing is to be persistent in exploring all of your health care options and, as Dr. Jesse Hanley points out in her essay above, to explore the factors in your inner life that often hold the answers to what we need to be well.


Recommendations

Websites:
All of the following are excellent health-related sites.
www.dr-rath-research.org
www.heall.com
www.holisticstudies.org
www.altmedicine.com

Books:
Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul by F. Holmes Atwater. The autobiography of the man who initiated Stargate, the remote-viewing intelligence program, and who today serves as the research director of The Monroe Institute. His recounting of the events and methodologies behind Stargate are a bit dry, but I was definitely taken by his accounts of his early childhood spiritual experiences and the work he did with the late Robert Monroe, using the Hemic-Sync technology Monroe invented.

The Education of Oversoul Seven by Jane Roberts. Best known for her books that make up the “Seth Material” (which I also thoroughly enjoyed reading), Roberts was also a gifted novelist and this first book in the Oversoul Seven Trilogy is my personal favorite because of how delightfully is makes sense of our true unbounded, multidimensional Being.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. My Mom bought me an abridged version of this book for Christmas when I was 4 or 5 years old. It remains my favorite adventure tale and I say in all honesty that it is the book that, more than anything else, decided me to be a writer. One day, I hope, Hollywood will finally get Tarzan’s story right.

See you next Tuesday.

Health and Blessings!

And don’t forget your chance to receive a f*r*e*e* eBook of your choice from 1HealthyWorld. For details, see last week’s What’s New section (http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol1no7.cfm).

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). 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, August 26, 2003, Vol. 1, No. 8. Copyright © 2003 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

To Subscribe Or Unsubscribe to The Health Plus Letter, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/lists.