The Health Plus Letter
September, 30 2004, Vol. 2, No. 32
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher,
http://www.1healthyworld.com

If you prefer to read this issue online, you can read it, along with all other back issues, at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine.


Table Of Contents
What’s New (I Jumped Out of a Plane at 9,000 Feet)
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical F/r/e/edom Alert (The Most Recent Threat to Your Health Freedom)
How Do I Learn About My Risk For Osteoporosis?By Susan Brown, PhD
The Mystery of Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne by Jeremy Geffen, MD
Recommendations


Unabashed Plug

Amazon.com continues to offer my newest book, Health on the Edge: Visionary Views of Healing in the New Millennium at a healthy discount. To order it, visit http://www.amazon.com.  In it, you will learn:

How to quickly and easily restore relaxation throughout your body using hand warming, an easily mastered biofeedback technique you can do without any equipment.

How to increase your IQ by 20 points or more in less than a week’s time.

How to permanently eliminate long-standing fears, phobias, and traumas using energy psychology.

How to create a bioscalar energy wave within your body for rapid healing.

Take the next step in your healing, and order Health on the Edge today.


What’s New

It’s late, but here’s this week’s issue. My apologies for its delay, as well as the fact that there was no issue last week. It’s been another eventful time in my life, starting two weekends ago, when my girlfriend and I both jumped out of airplanes at 9,000 feet to experience our first tandem skydive. I’d previously done a static line jump years ago. This was the first time that either one of us experienced freefall, though. It was an incred/ible experience, and I recommend that anyone interested in following suit che/ck out Mohawk Valley Skydiving if you live in the northeast. For more information, visit http://www.mohawkvalleyskydiving.com. The guys there all have thousands of jumps under their belts, and do a great job providing what is unquestionably a fantastic thrill.

That said, this week’s issue is largely written by friends of mine, starting with Dr. Susan Brown, one of the most kn/o/wledgeable clinical nutritionists in the world, and an expert in how to treat and prevent osteoporosis safely and naturally. Please read her article about how to go about determining your risk for this condition (it doesn’t just strike women) and be sure to visit her websites listed below.

Susan’s article is followed by a very moving and inspiring email I received today from another de/ar friend (and former grade and high school classmate), Dr. Jeremy Geffen, a pioneering integrative oncologist who has dedicated his life to bring an understanding of Spirit to the healing profession. Jeremy lives in Vero Beach, Florida, where both hurricanes Francis and Jeanne recently struck. His meditations on these events inspired me and so, with his kind permission, I’m sharing them with you. I also recommend that you seek out and read his excellent, most helpful book, The Journey Through Cancer.

Turning to other topics, in the next few weeks, bureaucratic decisions will be made that will directly affect your ability to readily procure nutritional supplements. Please read the information about this that I’ve posted in the Medical Freedom section below. My thanks to Health Plus reader Anthony White for passing it on to me.

Finally, this is the last week that you can obtain any and all titles in our BurtonGoldberg eBook Library of Health for only $9.95 each (a savings of nearly 70%). The wealth of health-related information in this series is unrivaled and has already helped thousands of people to live healthier, more productive lives.  This offer will end at the end of the month and will not be repeated. For more information, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks Your orders help support this newsletter and 1HealthyWorld.com and are greatly appreciated.

As always, please continue to send me your comments and suggestions. And please spread the word about The Health Plus Letter by passing it along to your friends and inviting them to subscribe.

I’ll be back next week with a full issue, including more of my ongoing series, Learning To Heal.


Quote Of The Day

"The most startling fact about 2002 is the combined pro/fits ($35.9 billion) for the 10 drug companies in the Fortune 500 were more than the pro/fits ($33.7 billion) for all the other 490 businesses put together...When I say this is a profitable industry, I mean really profitable. It is difficult to conceive of how awash in mo/ney big pharma is. . . In addition, the doctors themselves are manipulated by the same ads, and also by what amounts to bribery from the drug companies. "

-- Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor of the New England Journal Of Medicine


Fast Fact

70% of all illness in the United States is of a chronic, long-term nature. Such illnesses typically are not resolved by conventional medical care.


Medical F/r/e/edom Alert

Our health f/r/e/edom remains under siege. Please support the following organizations, which are at the forefront of those working to protect our rights:

Citizens for Health - http://www.citizens.org (Sing their online petition to safeguard health supplements.)

Institute for Health F/r/e/edom – http://www.ForHealthF/r/e/edom.org

International Advocates for Health F/r/e/edom (IAHF) – http://www.iahf.com

Health Lobby (Monica Miller) – http://www.healthlobby.com

Also, 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 f/r/e/edom, please visit http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org the website of Dr. Mattias Rath, a leading crusader for medical f/r/e/edom.

To see to what depraved lengths people will go to persecute practitioners of alternative medicine in the U.S., please read the following report by noted medical f/r/e/edom advocate Tim Bolen at http://www.quackpotwatch.org/opinionpieces/Suster2.htm

And to learn how corrupt and extensive Big Pharma’s monopoly is, visit http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/online/research/index.html the website for the Campaign Against Fraudulent Medical Research. In particular, read their in-depth report The Pharmaceutical Drug Racket that you will find there.

New!Do your part to help preserve the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which safeguards your right to readily access nutritional supplements without interference from government bureaucracies.

Take action! Ask the U.S. Codex Delegation to protect your right to readily purchase nutritional supplements and to protect the . Visit http://www.healthactioncenter.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=21232

Then write to Dr. Barbara Schneeman and other key official U.S. Codex delegates to let them kn/o/w that we are confident that the U.S. Delegation won't let us down at the Codex conference tables in Bonn, Rome, Geneva and h/e/r/e in the U.S.

This message reflects a collaborative effort between Citizens for Health, http://www.citizens.org and The  Alliance for Natural Health, http://www.alliance-natural-health.org.


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, featuring the contributions of Dr. Garry Gordon, Dr. Stephen Sinatra, and many other leading heart specialists. To order or to find out more about this potentially lifesaving guide, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Heart-Book-Info.cfm.


How Do I Learn About My Risk For Osteoporosis? by Susan E. Brown, PhD., CCN, Director, Osteoporosis Education Project

If you are concerned about being "at risk" for osteoporosis the next step is to seek medical testing aimed at further defining your likelihood of suffering a bone fracture. The two most important medical tests for defining one's risk of experiencing an osteoporotic fracture are direct bone density measurements and urinary markers of bone breakdown.

Bone Density Tests

The tests for measuring bone density include broadband ultrasound attenuation (Ultrasound); single-photon absorptiometry (SPA); dual-photon absorptiometry (DPA); quantitative computed tomography (QCT); and dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).

Ultrasound is a simple technique using sound waves to estimate density of certain bones such as those of the heel, wrist, shinbone or finger. Ultrasound measurements are best seen as "screening tests" which reveal the possibility of low bone density. However, there is not always a direct correlation between ultrasound measurements of the heel, finger, wrist etc. and density of the hip or spine.

SPA is a simple radiation scanning technique used to measure "appendicular" bones, such as the wrist, finger or heel. As with Ultrasound, measurements of the wrist, finger or heel do not necessarily tell us about the density of the bones most likely to fracture, the hip and spine.

The DPA, DEXA and QCT are all radiation-based technologies which directly measure the "central" bones such as the spinal vertebral bodies and the hip. Since the spine and the hip are common sites of osteoporotic fracture, the direct measurement of these bones is of most clinical significance.

The DEXA bone density measurement is the most precise. It is the most widely used of all existing tests and the current "gold standard" for bone density testing.

The DEXA test, and any of the other bone density measurement tests, can be ordered by your physician.

All bone density measurements report their findings in absolute terms (actual grams of bone per square centimeter) and relative terms (standard deviations from an ideal youthful level). The "T-Score" estimates how far one is above, or below, the theoretical youthful bone density. The "Z-score" calculates how far one is above, or below, the average bone density for persons of one's age group.

Bone density tests are helpful. You can see if you have more or less bone than others your age, and you can learn how your bone density compares to that of you/ng folks. These tests are used to make the "osteoporosis" diagnosis. A T-Score of -2.5 or more standard deviations below you/ng adults is considered the beginning point for osteoporosis. Also, the risk of fracture increases by some 50-150% with each standard deviation decrease in bone mass.

Bone density measurements, however, cannot predict if you will experience an osteoporotic fracture. There is a wide overlap in bone density measurements of those who develop osteoporotic fractures and those who do not. Thus, roughly half of all persons in this country with "osteoporotic" low bone density, in fact, ne/ver fracture.

Bone Resorption Tests

While the bone density measurement tells us the mineral content of bone at any given time, these tests do not reveal what is currently happening within bone. For example, your DEXA might say you have lost bone and that you n/o/w have only 80% of the bone mass you might have had in your youth. This bone density measurement cannot distinguish, however, if you are currently losing bone and thus experiencing on-going and ever-increasing bone reduction.

The new urinary markers of bone breakdown (kn/o/wn as markers of bone resorption) are simple urine tests which can fill this gap and help determine if you are currently losing bone or not. These tests can also indicate if your bone building program is effective.

As bone is broken down certain bone protein by-products are excreted in the urine. Measurement of the amount of these bone breakdown by-products can determine the rate of bone breakdown. A high rate of bone breakdown is strongly suggestive of current, on-going bone loss and a greater risk for osteoporotic fracture.

The two most widely used bone resorption markers are the Deoxypyridinoline Crosslinks (kn/o/wn as Dpd) and the N-telopeptides (kn/o/wn as NTx) Both are simple tests done on a second morning urine sample. Your physician can order either of these tests. Also, consumers can order the Dpd test for bone resorption directly from Body Balance, 1-888-891-3061, www.bodybalance.com.

At the Osteoporosis Education Project, we use these urine markers of bone resorption, along with the more expensive and somewhat invasive DEXA bone density measurements, to determine the effectiveness of our bone building programs. We look for stabilization or increases in bone density over a two year period. We test the urine markers of bone resorption at baseline, and after a few months to see if our program is reducing bone breakdown. With both urine tests we look to reduce bone breakdown by at least 30% or to bring the rate of bone breakdown at, or near, the you/ng adult range.

It is ne/ver too early or too late to begin building and rebuilding bone and these tests can help assure you are on the right path.

Note: The Osteoporosis Education Project is a public-interest, non-profit organization dedicated to exploring human potential for natural bone health maintenance and regeneration. We give you permission to print and distribute this document, requesting that it is printed in full, ackn/o/wledging its source. Those intersted in bone health would benefit from our book Better Bones Better Body, A Comprehensive Self-Help Program for Preventing, Halting & Overcoming Osteoporosis (Keats, 2000) as well as our Better Body Better Bones Alkaline Way pH Test Kit. Information on both of these items can be found in our Better Bones Better Body Store and can be obtained by calling 315-432-1676 or by e-mailing drsbrown@earthlink.com. We invite you to also visit our websites: http://www.betterbones.com and http://www.susanbrownphd.com.

Copyright © 2004 by Susan Brown, Ph.D. All rights reserved.


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.


The Mystery of Hurricanes Frances & Jeanne by Jeremy Geffen, MD

Dear Friends,

Thank you for all your kind and heartfelt calls, emails, and expressions of concern surrounding the extraordinary back-to-back hurricanes which struck Vero Beach, and my home directly, over the past month.

To say the least, these events have been an unsettling, surreal, and transformative experience for everyone affected by them.  As the dust is n/o/w beginning to settle, I felt inspired to write and share some thoughts, feelings, and insights about what I have been through and observed.

As you are probably aware, Hurricane Jeanne (which landed this past weekend) was a full-blown Category 3 storm, with sustained winds of 120 mph.  It caused very significant damage throughout the central coast of Florida and beyond.  Many homes and businesses were completely destroyed.  Frances was a Category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 100 mph.  It too caused extensive damage, but not as severe as Jeanne.

In its entire recorded history, Vero Beach has ne/ver experienced even a single hurricane of the magnitude of either Frances or Jeann—let alone two in less than a month.  Experts also say they are unaware of two hurricanes, of any magnitude, ever before striking in virtually the same place in less than a month as these two did—let alone two of this strength.  So all of this is inscrutable and a bit mind-blowing.

From a personal perspective—quite miraculously—my house survived both hurricanes amazingly well.   This is truly remarkable, and completely unexpected, as my house sits directly on the ocean in VeroBeach and thus received the full-on, direct impact of both storms.

There was, of course, severe damage to plants, trees, dunes, and a beach-front deck which occurred with both hurricanes, but no trees were actually lost or power lines downed.  Jeanne also caused some relatively minor roof and water damage upstairs.  But these can be repaired, and the house is insured.  Otherwise, the house itself and all my possessions are intact.   In addition, my office in Vero (which is also very near the beach)—including computers, papers, and all aspects of my decade of biomarker research—were unscathed.

So, it is clear that I was extremely fortunate throughout all this. Very interestingly, the two hurricanes also struck on weekends that I had previously planned to be out of town.  On both occasions, I was able to make my airline flights out just before the storms struck and was embraced by loving friends in Boulder, CO and Santa Fe/Taos, NM. As a result, I was spared the horror of sitting in the middle of the actual storm landfall and the many scary hours of howling winds and driving rain which so many people endured, not to mention the hot, uncomfortable, and difficult aftermath of both hurricanes. Nonetheless, boarding up my house, packing a suitcase with a few precious belongings, and being ordered to evacuate along with 2.8 million people—twice in less than a month—was something I will ne/ver forget, and hopefully will ne/ver have to experience again.  It   revealed both the best and the worst in human nature, and the angst and drama involved in a mass exodus.

Going through all this, watching the events unfold on TV, on the Internet, and in newspapers, and then returning home to see the damage was, without a doubt, a "graduate-school level" course in surrender and letting go.  Facing the very real possibility—twice in less than a month—that my home, my office, my community, and everything I own and so much of what I have worked for, for years, could be literally   blown away before my very eyes, starkly and indelibly revealed the impermanence of life, and the fact that life can, indeed, be stranger than fiction.  The forces of nature which battered Florida were so massive, so huge, and so overpowering there was nothing else to do except to prepare as best as possible, pray for blessings for everyone involved, and hold a vision that everyone, and every thing, in their path would be spared.

This lesson was in some ways an uncanny mirror of what I encountered countless times in my years as an oncologist, helping patients and their families confront and deal with tremendous turmoil, upheaval, and uncertainty in the face of cancer.  But this time the upheaval was occurring on a massive scale, affecting mil/lions of people at once.

One additional remarkable aspect of this whole experience for me was to realize and appreciate, more fully than ever before, that events like this have, in fact, happened to countless others in the world throughout history.  At numerous moments over the past few weeks I found myself asking, "Why is this happening to me?  Why is my life being so completely upended in this way?"  And then, each time, I  realized, "Why not me?"  It is an illusion to think that we are somehow separate from anyone else. This experience helped me to see and feel, more fully than ever before, how much we are all truly part of the majestic and infinitely mysterious web of life.  We are all profoundly strong and capable spiritual beings—and yet we are also, simultaneously, infinitely tender and vulnerable creatures for whom pain and suffering or loss are an unavoidable dimension of living. The events of the past month have made these truths viscerally more real and alive for me than I could have imagined.  My prayer is that everyone who has been touched by pain and suffering and loss from these events, and continues to suffer from them, may find whatever blessings may be hidden inside the trauma, and move toward greater healing, wisdom, and compassion for themselves, their loved ones, and all beings.  This, indeed, is perhaps a metaphor for the spirit in which we might wish to approach the great challenges and opportunities that we all face at this time, in so many areas of our lives and world.

I am presently back in Boulder, staying with friends, where I likely will remain for at least another week or two.  My home in Vero Beach, along with many others on the barrier island where I live, still has no power or running water, and no-one kn/o/ws how long it will take for these basic services to be restored.  Until then, I am staying put, breathing and feeling grateful to be alive, doing all I can to send love and support and encouragement to my friends and colleagues who are in Vero Beach and the surrounding areas, and watching to see how everything unfolds.

Again, thank you for your love and support and prayers, which I gratefully continue to welcome and receive on behalf of myself and all others.

Jeremy

PS:  If you are curious to see some photos of what happened in Vero Beach and some neighboring towns, see the following: http://www.jonpine.com/proofs/jeanne/index.htm

PPS:   Please remember to get out and vote next month, and encourage as many others as you can to do the same.  Many people believe that these hurricanes are both the result and harbinger of worsening global warming (see today's New York Times for more info on this: http://nytimes.com/2004/09/30/science/30hurricane.html.)  It is clearwhere the priorities of our current administration lie, and, sadly, they do not include love and concern for the environment.  These are obviously critical and very significant times, and as we learned in 2000, every vote is important.

Copyright © 2004 by Jeremy Geffen. All rights reserved.

[To find out more about the work that Jeremy is doing, I encourage you to visit his website, http://www.geffenvisions.com, where you will also find contact information. As I also encourage you to read my interview with Jeremy, which you will find in my book, Health on the Edge (see above). In it Jeremy shares a model for health care that truly is a “vision of the future.”]


Reader Feedback

Ien Van H. writes: “Thanks for an excellent e-zine. I like the honesty and the balanced approach: Mind, soul, and body. Good stuff!”

My thanks to Ien and everyone else who’s written me in recent weeks commending the tone and direction The Health Plus Letter is going in. I’m gratified to kn/o/w how well-received it is. My thanks, too, to all of you who are forwarding it on to others and encouraging them to subscribe. Due entirely to satisfied, word-of-mouth recommendations (as I am entirely too busy to properly promote it; something I intend to rectify soon), its circulation continues to increase, and I truly appreciate it.

Dayna H. asks: “I really enjoy your newsletters. I kn/o/w you’re not a doctor, but can you offer an opinion or website where I can get information about migraines?”

For anyone who suffers from migraine or other types of headache, I strongly recommend the eBookBurton Goldberg’s Definitive Guide to Headaches, which is currently on sale for only $9.95 and available at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Headache-Book-Info.com - the information it contains is second to none, and I’m not just saying that because I sell it.

Marilyn M. writes: “The doctor my husband and I see has fallen into the barrel with the others who are falsely accused. His license has been suspended for one year, with four years probation.”

Unfortunately, what happened to Marilyn’s doctor is not an isolated experience. Innovative, holistic and integrative physicians continue to be targeted by the medical establishment (often through state medical boards, which are notorious for such attacks) solely for the fact that they are achieving results outside of the normal box of prescription drugs and surgery. To anyone whose physician(s) may be so targeted, I urge you to become involved. A good way to start is to visit the organizations listed above in the Medical F/r/e/edom section. But you can also write your local, state, and federally elected representatives, and get others to join you in creating petitions, etc. Like any other f/r/e/edom, medical f/r/e/edom will not be ours until we claim it.


Recommendations

(I’m repeating my recommendations from last issue because of how valuable I find both of the websites below.)

Website:
http://www.ahealth.com - This website of my friends, Drs. Michael Galitzer and Janet Hranicky is an excellent resource for anyone interesting in longevity and anti-aging medicine, and stress relief and innovative mind/body medicine techniques. Michael and Jan are pioneering new developments in all of these fields, helping to usher in a new era of health care.

http://www.scorecard.org - You can use this website to determine how well (or badly) local industry is doing with regard to the well-being of your local communities. Highly recommended.


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.

The Health Plus Letter is fully compliant with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003.

Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be f/r/e/ely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, September 30, 2004, Vol. 2, No. 32. Copyright © 2004 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

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