The Health Plus Letter
September 28, 2005, Vol. 3, No. 12
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
Quote of the Day
Fast Fact
Medical F/r/e/edom Alert
Health News and Commentary
The Importance of pH to Your Health (Part 4)
Self-Care for Tips for Preventing and Reversing Gallstones & Other Gallbladder Problems
Reader Feedback
Recommendation


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. 


What’s New

Hello. Back to normal health topics this week, including a return of the News and Commentary section, as well as Part 4 of The Importance of pH to Your Health, and self-care tips for dealing with gallstones and other gallbladder problems.

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.


Quote Of The Day

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
-- Mahatma Gandhi


Fast Fact

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates approximately one-fourth of the United States’ entire economy.

Source: Reuters News, Sept. 26, 2005

 
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

Alliance for Natural Health – http://www.alliance-natural-health.org (The leading organization fighting to preserve health f/r/e/edom in England and the EU.)

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

To stay info/rmed 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 th/e/re.


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.


Health News and Commentary

Food and Drug (FDA) Commissioner Abruptly Resigns

On Friday, September 23, FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford abruptly resigned from his position, offering no explanation for his doing so. To replace him, President Bush appointed Andrew von Eschenbach as acting commissioner. Eschenbach currently serves as Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and position he intends to keep will fulfilling his responsibilities as the FDA’s acting a commissioner. His appointment by President Bush was immediately applauded by former congressman Billy Tauzin, President of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

[Comment: It’s hardly surprising Crawford stepped down-some are suggesting he was forced to resign-given the abysmal track record he had as the FDA’s head, and the increasing criticism the FDA is facing, even within the conventional medical field. What is interesting about this story is the appointment of Eschenbach by Bush as Crawford’s replacement.  Why? Because of Eschenbach’s role at the NCI, an agency that routinely lists all alternative, non-surgical, drug (chemotherapy) or radiation-based cancer treatments as “unproven,” thereby dooming them to obscurity and more, regardless of how viable some of them may actually be (as many of them are). Moreover, the NCI, in the past, has willfully been complicit in sabotaging research into such non-mainstream cancer treatments, such as they did with hydrazine sulfate, which I wrote about in Vol. 3, Issue 9 of The Health Plus Letter. So it’s little wonder Tauzin and the Big Pharma lobbyist group he heads are thrilled about Eschenbach’s new, dual position as head of both the NCI and the FDA. (In his statement praising Eschenbach’s appointment, Tauzin cited him for being “industry friendly,” meaning of course that he’s friendly to Big Pharma. Given the Bush administrations blatant tendencies to appoint other industry favorites to positions of power in the very government agencies charged with regulating those industries, Bush’s appointment of Eschenbach is hardly surprising. Nonetheless, it still smacks very much of the wolf guarding the henhouse.

Given the FDA’s blatant bias against alternative medicine and medical freedom of choice, not to mention its long-standing tendency to look the other way when Big Pharma brings toxic, death-causing drugs to market, rather than appointing a successor to Crawford, I suggest abolishing the FDA instead.]

Unions of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Call for Moratorium On the Use of Fluoride in Drinking Water, Charging That Fluoride Can Cause Cancer

Earlier this month, 11 unions of the Environmental Protection Agency, which represent over 7,000 environmental and public health officials, called for a moratorium on the practice of adding fluoride to public drinking water across the U.S., and asked that EPA management recognize that fluoride poses a serious risk of causing cancer. The unions acted after evidence surfaced of a cover-up by officials at Harvard School of Dental Medicine that sought to suppress evidence that linked fluoridated drinking water with an increased risk of fatal bone cancer in boys. In addition to sending a letter calling on EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, the unions also sent letter to key Congressional committees, calling on Congress to ban further fluoridation of municipal drinking water until a proper scientific review can be made of the risks and benefits associated with fluoride.

To read the full text of the unions’ letter (and I urge you to do so), see www.fluorideaction.net/epa-unions1.pdf

[Comment: This story has significant ramifications. The health threats posed by fluoridation have been cited by many health experts for many years, only to be dismissed by the EPA and the fluoride industry. Moreover, there exists more scientific evidence pointing to fluoride as a cancer-causing agent than that cited by the unions, all of which has also been ignored by the EPA, etc. Finally, thanks to the unions, there exists a chance that things may change. However, it’s doubtful the unions’ call alone will result in positive action. For that to happen, we the people need to support them.

To find out more about the dangers of fluoride to your health and what steps you can take to support the unions’ call, visit www.fluorideaction.net and http://www.powalliance.org/petition/index.html. And do all that you can to avoid drinking and showering in fluoridated water, including the use of water and sho/wer filters.]
 

Unabashed Plug

Sharry Edwards, a leading pioneer in the use of sound for healing, is making available her computerized vocal profiling technology for f/r/e/e for 30 days. The technology is available via downloadable programs that you will find at Sharry’s website – http://www.vocalprofiling.com. Once there, cli/ck on the link in the upper left of the homepage, entitled Nutritional Consultant Fr/e/e Trial Software Flyer. From there you will be guided through the registration and download process. By installing the Nutrition Consultant software onto your computer you will be able to accurately assess your health and learn which specific nutrients you require for that day. (You will need to purchase a computer micropho.ne if your computer doesn’t already have one. Sharry recommends an inexpensive model from Radio Shack; the info.rmation about it can be found one her website.) For more info.rmation, contact Sound Health at 740-698-9119 or visit  the websites www.vocalprofiling.com and www.sharryedwards.com.

(Note: I receive no remuneration, financial or otherwise, from Sharry or Sound Health. I’m simply bringing this to your attention because I know it works.)


The Importance of pH to Your Health (Part 4)

DETERMINING YOUR pH

N/o/w that you understand the importance of pH to your health, you might wish to know the state of your own inner environment. This can be done by determining your own pH levels. While there are a number of tests available for measuring pH levels in the body, let’s focus on two testing procedures. The first is the venous plasma pH test which can provide you with an accurate reading of your blood’s pH level. The second is a self-test that can be easily done at home. It involves the use of pH strips. Although it does not provide specific pH measurements, it offers a strong indication of your acidic-alkaline balance.

Venous Plasma pH Test: The venous plasma pH test accurately measures the pH of your blood. It requires that you see a physician. The doctor withdraws a vial of bottle from the vein in your arm, and then sends the blood to a licensed laboratory for testing. Should you decide to have this test performed, be sure that you request that the measurement be made to the nearest one-hundredth of a percentage point, for example, 7.36 or 7.25, not 7.3 or 7.2. This will provide a more precise reading of your blood pH than if the measurement is only to a tenth of a percentage point.

Because of how important blood pH levels are to your overall health, I recommend that you consider making the venous plasma pH test part of your annual physical check-up. Since it is not commonly administered as part of such check-ups, be sure to ask your physician for it when you schedule your appointment. The additional cost is nominal (less than $100 depending on the lab your physician uses), and the information the test provides can literally be life-saving.

The pH Strip: Although I have emphasized the importance of blood pH throughout this book, you can also perform a simple home pH test using pH strips, which are usually available at your local drugstore. Some health food stores may also carry them. pH strips are made of litmus paper, which changes color when it comes in contact with alkaline and acidic substances. Included with your purchase will be a color chart that will help you to gauge your pH.

The strip will turn one of three shades of color when you perform the test: yellow, which indicates over-acidity, blue (or red, depending on the manufacturer of the strips), which indicates over-alkalinity, and green, which indicates a neutral or balanced pH reading. The color shading is important. The deeper, or more intense, the shading is, the more extreme is your pH reading. For example, a light yellow shade is an indication of less serious over-acidity, whereas a deep shade of yellow indicates a more serious problem. In actuality, both shadings indicate that the pH is out of balance and overly acidic, but the brighter shade of yellow is a sign of a more serious imbalance.

You can use pH strips to test the pH levels of both your urine and salvia. However, since the pH of saliva can have a wide variance, I recommend testing your urine instead. As mentioned above, your kidneys are one of the organs used by the body to eliminate acids. When your body is in or near a state of acid-alkaline balance, urine pH will normally be 7.0 to 7.5 (pH strips do not measure pH values as closely as a blood pH test does). This indicates that your kidneys are excreting normal levels of acids. But when higher than normal amounts of acids are being eliminated, it means that your body is overly acidic. This will be reflected in the measurement shown on the pH strip. Similarly, if less than normal levels of acids are being excreted, the pH reading will indicate over-alkalinity.

Since urine pH values can change during the day in reaction to the foods you eat, the best time to measure urine pH is in the morning soon after you’ve awakened, and before your have your morning meal. It is easy to perform the test. Simply take a pH strip and moisten it with your urine as you urinate. A quick dip into your urine stream is all that is necessary. As the acid content of your urine reacts with the pH strip, it will change color according to how acidic or alkaline your urine pH is.

Remember, a urine pH test does not provide as accurate an indication of your body’s internal acid-alkaline balance, but it can help you get a better sense of how acidic or alkaline your body is. To get a better idea of the state of your body’s pH, I recommend that you perform this test for five mornings in a row. If your reading is consistently within the range of 7.0-7.5, your body is in a fairly healthy state of acid-alkaline balance. Consistent readings below 7.0 are a good indication that your body is overly acidic.

Interestingly, consistent readings above 7.5 do not necessarily mean your body is overly alkaline. Consistent pH readings above 7.5 can mean one of three things. The first possibility is that your body’s internal environment is in a healthy state of acid-alkaline balance or is only slightly alkaline. This is likely to be the case if you regularly consume foods that have an alkalizing effect on the body, and limit your consumption of acid-producing foods, such as meats and dairy products. (More information about both classes of foods is provided in Chapter 5.) Or the reading could be due to supplementing with alkaline mineral supplements that your body has little use for. In this first case, a urine pH reading above 7.5 does not indicate imbalance or disease.

Nonetheless, some precautions are advisable. For example, if you are following a vegetarian diet, you should be careful to avoid dietary deficiencies that can be caused by lack of protein from animal products (as well as vitamin deficiencies, such as vitamin B12, which is a common hazard of a strict vegetarian diet). If you are supplementing with alkalizing supplements, it might also be advisable to reduce your intake of them, or to stop taking them altogether.

The second possibility for urine pH readings consistently above 7.5 is far more serious, especially if you are not following an alkalizing diet or taking alkalizing supplements. Such high readings could indicate an imbalance in your endocrine system, which governs the manufacture and regulation of hormones. In particular, a higher pH reading might indicate adrenal or parathyroid gland problems. Or it could be an indication that another type of illness is present. Though such occurrences are rare, it would be wise to consult with your physician to determine if you are at risk for such problems if your pH readings are consistently above 7.5.

In what might seem to be a paradox, the third possibility for consistently high pH readings is that your body is still acidic. If this is the case, it is very likely that you also have difficulty digesting and metabolizing acids. This makes it difficult for your body to oxidize these acids, thus preventing them from being eliminated through respiration. As a result, your kidneys are faced with a greater burden, since more acids are left for them to excrete.

You will recall that your kidneys can only eliminate a certain amount of acids each day. Once this capacity is met, excess acid stores start to accumulate in your body, forcing it to draw upon its alkaline reserves to neutralize it. Residues of these alkaline minerals get deposited in the urine, thus accounting for the higher pH readings. If this is the case, it is vital that you do all you can to restore your body’s internal acid-alkaline balance, because you are most likely on the road to disease.

This third possibility regarding a high urine pH reading is actually fairly common in our society. To help you better determine if you fall into this category, consider whether you are also suffering from the following symptoms, all of which are common in a state of chronic acidosis. If your are experiencing only one or two such symptoms, your body is not necessarily too acidic, but if more than a few symptoms are present, most likely you fall into this third category.

[Continued next issue. The above article is adapted from the book In Balance For Life, by Alex Guerrero, which I ghostwrote, and which was published earlier this year. Parts 1, 2, and 3 are archived at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol3no8.cfm, http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol3no9.cfm, and http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol3no10.cfm respectively.]


Self-Care Tips for Preventing and Reversing Gallstones & Other Gallbladder Problems

Gallstones and other gallbadder disorders affect the gallbladder, a small sac-like organ located beneath the liver that stores bile made in the liver. The liver sends the bile to the gallbladder through a small tube called the cystic duct. During digestion, the gallbladder contracts and delivers bile to the intestines to help break down fats contained in the food. The most common problem associated with the gallbladder is gallstones, round-shaped stones composed of cholesterol, bile, pigments, and lecithin.

Problems associated with gallstones include acute cholecystitis, an irritation and infection in the gallbladder that is caused by a gallstone becoming trapped. Symptoms of acute cholecystitis are the abdomen becoming extremely painful, even to the touch, and fever. Recurrent attacks of this are called chronic cholecystitis, which manifests the same symptoms.

The gallbladder rarely gets inflamed without the presence of stones. Gallbladder cancer is another possible disorder, but it is extremely rare, occurring in only three cases per 100,000 people each year. Gallbladder cancer usually causes jaundice (yellowing of skin) and pain in the upper-right abdominal area, but it too is sometimes present with no symptoms at all.

What To Consider

Only about 20 percent of people who have gallstones experience symptoms; the rest are unaware that they have any problem.  A common symptom of gallstones is pain in the right side of the abdomen and/or pain in or near the right shoulder or shoulder blade. Pain may also occur in the center of the upper abdomen, over the breastbone. In all cases, pain, wherever it manifests, is usually constant and progresses slowly. It rises to a plateau and then gradually decreases, usually within several hours after a meal and especially after meals containing large amounts of fat. Other symptoms can include nausea, a sense of fullness, belching, heartburn, flatulence, and vomiting.

Women get gallstones four times as frequently as men, especially women over 40 years old who are fair-skinned, and overweight. Twenty percent of adults over 65 years of age get gallstones that create problems and pain. Over half a million surgeries are performed each year to remove gallbladders due to gallbladder disorders, the most common being gallstones.

Constipation, food allergies (especially to milk products and eggs), digestive disorders (especially caused by a deficiency of hydrochloric acid), intestinal diseases, an excessively low-fiber diet, dental disturbances, parasites, rapid wei/ght loss, and stress can all cause or contribute to gall stones and other gallbladder disorders. For lasting relief of symptoms, all of these factors must be addressed if they are present.

In order to make an accurate diagnosis of gallbladder disorders, ultrasound may be required. If surgery is required, typically laser surgery is used, which does not need to cut into the abdomen, and allows healing to occur much more quickly. However, most gallbladder surgeries can be easily avoided through nutritional and natural intervention, with emphasis on identification, avoidance, and treatment of food allergies.

Self-Care Tips

Diet: Identify and avoid all foods to which you are allergic or sensitive, especially eggs, milk, and dairy products. Also reduce your overall fat intake, keeping it below 20 percent of the total foods you eat, and eliminate all processed and hydrogenated fats. But do not cut eliminate fat completely, as this can actually increase your chances of developing gallstones. Monounsaturated fats are the best fats to include in your diet.

Be sure to eat less, as well, since overeating places stress on the gallbladder. At the same time, don’t skip meals, and especially make sure to eat breakfast. Also increase your intake of dietary fiber to improve bowel movements, and avoid refined carbohydrates, which can cause gallstone formation. Overall, eat less animal foods and move toward a vegetarian-oriented diet. In addition, if you are overweight, lo/se the wei/ght, but slowly and sensibly.

Good foods to include in your diet are black cherries, pears, beets (raw and cooked), fresh beet tops steamed with spinach leaves, kale, and plain organic yogurt, as well as more raw foods in general.

Gallbladder Flush: Flushing the gallbladder of stones is a common practice of holistic physicians and is quite easy to do. For your first gallbladder flush, continue to eat a whole foods diet with almost no animal products and no processed foods. Drink plenty of raw, fresh apple juice or eat organic apples as much as possible, between meals, for six days. On the afternoon of the seventh day, have 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil mixed with 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice. Drink all at once and skip your evening meal. Go to bed early (no later than 10 pm), and sleep with your right knee tucked up to your side. In the morning, you should eliminate the gallstones, which will appear greenish yellow.

Six months to a year after your first gallbladder flush, you can repeat the process.

Nutritional Supplementation: The following supplements can help relieve gallbladder symptoms: digestive enzymes with each meal, vitamin B complex, vitamin C, choline, inositol, lipotrophic factors, alfalfa tablets, acidophilus, lecithin, and the amino acid, L-taurine.  Peppermint oil sipped in water throughout the meal can also be helpful.

Herbs: Combine the tinctures of wild yam, fringetree bark, milk thistle, and balmony in equal parts and take one teaspoon of this mixture three times a day. An infusion of chamomile or lemon balm can also be taken regularly throughout the day.

Hydrotherapy: Apply a hot pack to your abdomen and low back for 10-15 minutes several times daily, followed by a short period of cold application.

Juice Therapy: The following juice combinations can help improve gallbladder health:  carrot, beet, cucumber, radish, and fresh dandelion roots, with a clove of garlic, or grape, pear, grapefruit, and lemon

Topical Treatment: Castor oil packs placed over the gallbladder can speed relief of symptoms.


Unabashed Plug

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http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.


Reader Feedback

In response to Jon Rappoport’s recent article on hydrazine sulfate that I included a few weeks ago, Ann  Fonfa, publisher of The Annie Appleseed Project, a wonderful online cancer resource for anyone interested in learning more about viable nonconventional cancer treatments, wrote to say:

“Dear Larry,

I attended an ASCO meeting in 2001 where I had the oppor/tunity to ask Charles Loprinzi, MD about the hydrazine sulfate trial.  He publicly stated that the PIs' "did not know that it was an MAO inhibitor".  I asked because he and his cohorts were stating at this meeting on CAM (co-sponsored by ACS and ASCO), that HS had failed to work.

I felt that this public statement clearly demonstrated that the trial had not been handled properly - regardless of whether they knew or not - it was not appropriate.

But subsequently Andrew Vickers, Ph.D., of Sloan Kettering, and others, have continued to publicly state (and in Vickers case write an article for Cancer Journal) that hydrazine sulfate failed.

See this: ASCO/ACS Symposium on Integrative Medicine, 2001”

The article Ann refers to above is available at her website. See http://annieappleseedproject.org/assymoninmed.html and be sure to explore everything else available at her site by visiting http://www.annieappleseedproject.org.

The point Ann makes above is par for the course when it comes to the cancer establishment’s spin on viable alternative cancer treatment. Whether willfully or from ignorance, the end result is usually the same. Much to the detriment of the American public.


Recommendation

Book
The Virtues of War by Stephen Pressfield. This novel of Alexander the Great, told in a first person narrative, is simply stunning. Pressfield seems to literally be channeling the spirits of the ancient Greeks he writes about, beginning with Gates of Fire, his first foray into this territory. If you enjoy history, you’ll love his books. Highly recommended.
 
 
That’s all for this week. More again soon.

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 info/rmation purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.

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Le/gal Notice: The info/rmation 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 28, 2005, Vol. 3, No. 12. Copyright © 2005 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

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