Category: For your Health

It is known that being physically active is one of best ways people with arthritis can improve their health. However, a new study shows that more than half of women and 40 percent of men with arthritis are mostly sedentary.

Researchers asked more than 1000 people with radiographic knee osteoarthritis to wear an accelerometer in order to measure their physical activity for one week. Participants were deemed inactive if they failed to sustain a 10-minute period of moderate-to-vigorous activity over the entire week of wearing the accelerometer.

According to Science Daily:

“A substantial 40.1 percent of men and 56.5 percent of women studied were found to be inactive. While more than half of men engaged in significantly more moderate-to-vigorous activity than women, the majority of men who didn’t fall into this category were spending their time in no to very light activity.”

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

An estimated 27 million U.S. adults suffer from osteoarthritis, according to the latest statistics available from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that usually affects your distal joints, or the joints at the end of your fingers and toes, and is generally attributed to wear-and-tear on your joints due to lifestyle, diet and aging.

Contrary to popular belief, if you have osteoarthritis exercise is absolutely crucial to your well-being. Unfortunately, many people with joint pain shun exercise, and a new study found that the number of exercisers with osteoarthritis is even lower than was thought.

If You Have Osteoarthritis, Buck the Trend of Being Inactive

A new study from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine outfitted over 111 adults with knee osteoarthritis with an accelerometer to measure their activity for one week. Over 40 percent of men and 56 percent of women were deemed inactive, which means they did not engage in even one 10-minute period of moderate-to-vigorous activity all week. The recommended physical activity guidelines — 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity, low-impact activity — were met by only 12.9 percent of men and 7.7 percent of women.

The lead researcher told Science Daily:

“The fact that so many people with arthritis are inactive should be a wake-up call to physicians.”

Indeed, if physicians could instill the importance of exercise to their arthritis patients, many would benefit immensely.

How Does Exercise Benefit Osteoarthritis?

Most people have little appreciation for how powerful exercise can be in preserving bone density and joint function, which can help prevent and alleviate osteoarthritis as you age. The notion that exercise is detrimental to your joints is a misconception; there is no evidence to support this belief. It’s simply a myth that you can ‘wear down’ your knees just from average levels of exercise and/or normal activity.

Instead, the evidence points to exercise having a positive impact on joint tissues — if you exercise sufficiently to lose weight, or maintain an ideal weight, you can in fact reduce your risk of developing osteoarthritis.

Arthritis rates are more than twice as high in obese people as those who are normal weight, because the extra weight puts more pressure on your joints. This can not only lead to osteoarthritis, it can also make the condition exponentially worse. You will want to jumpstart your weight loss by eating a healthier diet based on the principles of my nutrition plan, and then continue with appropriate exercise. (Making proper dietary choices is also one of the most profound ways to reduce inflammation, which is important if you have osteoarthritis,)

Whether you need to lose weight or not, however, exercise can help by reducing your joint pain and making it easier for you to perform daily tasks. This is important, as the pain of osteoarthritis has a tendency to lead to decreased activity, which in turn promotes muscle weakness, joint contractures, and loss of range of motion. This, in turn, can lead to more pain and loss of function, and even less activity.

Exercise can help you to break free from this devastating cycle.

How to Exercise Safely With Osteoarthritis

Your program should include a range of activities, just as I recommend for any exerciser. Weight training, high-intensity cardio, stretching and core work can all be integrated into your routine. My most highly recommended form of exercise is Peak Fitness, and this program can be used by virtually everyone. However, if you’ve already developed osteoarthritis in your knee, you’ll want to incorporate exercises that strengthen the quadriceps muscle at the front of your thigh. And, rather than running or other high-impact exercise, you may be better off with non-weight-bearing exercises like swimming and bicycling.

People with arthritis must be careful to avoid activities that aggravate joint pain. You should avoid any exercise that strains a significantly unstable joint.

If you find that you’re in pain for longer than one hour after your exercise session, you should slow down or choose another form of exercise. Assistive devices are also helpful to decrease the pressure on affected joints during your workout. You may also want to work with a physical therapist or qualified personal trainer who can develop a safe range of activities for you.

What Can You do for Pain?

Pain during movement is one of the most common and debilitating symptoms of osteoarthritis. Typically this is a result of your bones starting to come into contact with each other as cartilage and synovial fluid is reduced. If you don’t take action it can become progressively worse until you are unable to carry out your normal daily activities.

You’ve probably heard that glucosamine and chondroitin (two animal products marketed as food supplements) can help relieve symptoms of osteoarthritis. However, the results from studies evaluating these supplements have been mixed, and many do not appear to be getting any significant relief from either glucosamine or chondroitin.

Further, while generally considered to be free of side effects, some people do experience gastrointestinal upset from it. Chondroitin molecules are large, making it difficult for your body to digest, which could be what causes problems for some people. It’s also not clear, even after many studies, whether glucosamine affects blood sugar levels. In my opinion, people with diabetes or hypoglycemia should be cautious about taking glucosamine, and should carefully monitor their blood sugar levels if taking it.

Also, only a small fraction of the glucosamine you take is actually utilized by your body. In the case of pills and capsules, the studies demonstrate that only about 15-20% is absorbed.

As such, there do appear to be much better options for osteoarthritis pain, namely:

Eggshell membrane: The eggshell membrane is the unique protective barrier between the egg white and the mineralized eggshell. The membrane contains elastin, a protein that supports cartilage health, and collagen, a fibrous protein that supports cartilage and connective tissue strength and elasticity.

It also contains transforming growth factor-b – A protein that supports tissue rejuvenation, along with other amino acids and structural components that support the stability and flexibility of your joints by providing them with the building blocks needed to build cartilage.
Hyaluronic acid (HA): Hyaluronic acid is a key component of your cartilage, responsible for moving nutrients into your cells and moving waste out. One of its most important biological functions is the retention of water… second only to providing nutrients and removing waste from cells that lack a direct blood supply, such as cartilage cells.

Unfortunately, the process of normal aging reduces the amount of HA synthesized by your body. Oral hyaluronic acid supplementation may effectively help most people cushion their joints after just 2 to 4 months.
Boswellia: Also known as boswellin or “Indian frankincense,” this Indian herb is one treatment I’ve found to be particularly useful against arthritic inflammation and associated pain. With sustained use, boswellia may help maintain steady blood flow to your joints, supporting your joint tissues’ ability to boost flexibility and strength.
Turmeric / curcumin: A study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found that taking turmeric extracts each day for six weeks was just as effective as ibuprofen for relieving knee osteoarthritis pain. This is most likely related to the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin — the pigment that gives the turmeric spice its yellow-orange color.
Animal-based omega-3 fats: These are excellent for arthritis because omega-3s are well known to help reduce inflammation. Look for a high-quality, animal-based source such as krill oil.
I suggest you avoid anti-inflammatory drugs like non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) and analgesics, like Tylenol, which are often recommended to osteoarthritis patients, as chronic use of these types of medications is associated with significant, and very serious, side effects such as kidney and/or liver damage.

One More Essential Tip if You Have Osteoarthritis …

Low levels of vitamin D are associated with cartilage loss in your knees, and this is one of the hallmarks of osteoarthritis. The remedy, to make sure your vitamin D levels are optimized, is simple. It involves getting your blood levels tested, then optimizing them using safe sun exposure, indoor tanning on a safe tanning bed, supplementation with vitamin D3, or a combination of the above.

I’m thrilled to share this interview with you as Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride presents a truly fascinating and elegant description of the foundational conditions that contribute to autism, along with a pragmatic approach to help circumvent and stem the autism epidemic, which has been a perplexing puzzle for most of us.

Dr. Campbell is a medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in neurology. She worked as a neurologist and a neurosurgeon for several years before starting a family. When her first-born son was diagnosed autistic at the age of three, she was surprised to realize that her own profession had no answers…

Back in 1984, when she graduated from medical school, autism was an exceptionally rare disorder, with a prevalence of about 1 in 10,000.

“By the time I graduated from medical school I had never seen an autistic individual,” she says. “… To be honest, the first autistic child that I encountered was my own… Five years ago we were diagnosing one child in 150, which is almost a 40-fold increase in incidence. Now in Britain and some countries, we are diagnosing one child in 66.”

The rates are similar in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand as well. She quickly delved into research, looking for an answer for her son, and ended up getting a second postgraduate degree in human nutrition. As a result of her work, her son fully recovered and is no longer autistic.

Although originally from Russia, where she received her medical training, she moved to the UK about 20 years ago, and now has a clinic in Cambridge, England, where she treats children and adults with autism, learning disabilities, neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, immune disorders, and digestive problems.

Early Treatment is Key

The treatment she developed is simply called the GAPS Nutritional Program, and as Dr. Campbell explains, the younger the child is when you start the treatment, the better the results.

“When we start the GAPS treatment at the age of 2, 3, 4, up to 5, you give your child a real chance to completely recover from autism, from ADHD, ADD, dyslexia and dyspraxia—and that larger group of children who do not fit into any diagnostic box… These are the children with whom doctors usually procrastinate. They ask the parents to bring the child in six months and again in six months to observe the child in order to just give the child a diagnosis and a very precious, very valuable time gets wasted that way while the child could have been helped,” she says.

It All Starts in the Gut…

Dr. Campbell is convinced that autistic children are in fact born with perfectly normal brains and perfectly normal sensory organs.

See Dr. Natasha Campbell-
McBride and Me Speak
in November

We are both scheduled to speak at the Weston Price Foundation Conference Nov 11-13th.

Please click here for more details.

Hurry! Early bird discount expires August 1st.
“What happens in these children [is that] they do not develop normal gut flora from birth…” she says. “Gut flora is a hugely important part of our human physiology. Recently research in Scandinavia has demonstrated that 90 percent of all cells and all genetic material in a human body is our own gut flora. We are just a shell… a habitat for this mass of microbes inside us. We ignore them at our own peril.

…As a result, their digestive system—instead of being a source of nourishment for these children—becomes a major source of toxicity. These pathogenic microbes inside their digestive tract damage the integrity of the gut wall. So all sort of toxins and microbes flood into the bloodstream of the child, and get into the brain of the child. That usually happens in the second year of life in children who were breast fed because breastfeeding provides a protection against this abnormal gut flora. In children who were not breastfed, I see the symptoms of autism developing in the first year of life.

So breastfeeding is crucial to protect these children.”

Brain Toxicity Leads to Symptoms of Autism

Children use all of their sensory organs to collect information from their environment, which is then passed to the brain for processing. This is a fundamental part of learning.

However, in children with Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), the toxicity flowing from their gut throughout their bodies and into their brains, clogs the brain with toxicity, preventing it from performing its normal function and process sensory information…

“Sensory information turns into this mush; into a noise in the child’s brain, and from this noise the child cannot learn. They cannot decipher anything useful,” she explains.

“That’s why they don’t learn how to communicate. They don’t learn how to understand language, how to use language, how to develop all the natural instinctive behaviors and coping behaviors that normal children develop. The second year of life is crucial in the maturation of the brain of the baby. That’s when communication skills develop and how instinctive behaviors develop and play skills develop in children and coping behaviors develop.

If the child’s brain is clogged with toxicity, the child misses that window of opportunity of learning and starts developing autism depending on the mixture of toxins, depending on how severe the whole condition is, and how severely abnormal the gut flora is in the child.”

GAPS may manifest as a conglomerate of symptoms that can fit the diagnosis of either autism, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), attention deficit disorder (ADD) without hyperactivity, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, just to name a few possibilities…

How has Children’s Gut Flora Become so Drastically Altered?

If the epidemic of autism and other learning disorders originate in the gut, what has changed in the past 25 years to alter children’s gut flora into such an abnormal state?

Dr. Campbell explains:

“As far as science knows, the baby inside the mother’s womb during nine months of gestation is sterile. The baby’s gut is sterile. The baby acquires its gut flora at the time of birth, when the baby goes through the birth canal of the mother. So whatever lives in mom’s birth canal, in mom’s vagina, becomes the baby’s gut flora.

So what lives in mom’s vagina? It’s a very richly populated area of a woman’s body. The vaginal flora comes from the bowel. So if the mother has abnormal gut flora, she will have abnormal flora in her birth canal. Fathers are not exempt because fathers also have gut flora, and that gut flora populates their groin and they share their groin flora with the mother on a regular basis.

… I always collect health history from the mother, the father, and preferably even grandparents of the child. I find that we have a growing and a deepening epidemic of abnormalities in the gut flora, which began since Second World War when antibiotics were discovered. Every course of broad spectrum antibiotics wipes out the beneficial species of microbes in the gut, which leaves the pathogens in there uncontrolled.”

The Massive Importance of Fermented Foods and Probiotics

This is why it’s so important to ‘reseed’ your gut with fermented foods and probiotics when you’re taking an antibiotic. If you aren’t eating fermented foods, you most likely need to supplement with a probiotic on a regular basis, especially if you’re eating a lot of processed foods.

“In parallel with beneficial microbes in the healthy gut, scientists have found thousands of different species of downright pathogenic disease-causing microbes; bacteria, viruses, fungi and other microbes. But as long as the good ones predominate in your gut, they control all the pathogens… They keep them in small colonies and they don’t allow them to proliferate.

Every course of antibiotics tends to wipe out the beneficial bacteria and that gives a window of opportunity for the pathogens to proliferate, to grow uncontrolled, and to occupy new niches in your gut. The beneficial flora recovers, but different species of it take between two weeks to two months to recover in the gut and that’s a window of opportunity for various pathogens to overgrow.

What I see in the families of autistic children is that 100 percent of mom’s of autistic children have abnormal gut flora and health problems related to that. But then I look at grandmothers on the mother’s side, and I find that the grandmothers also have abnormal gut flora, but much milder.”

In essence, what we have is a generational build-up of abnormal gut flora, with each generation becoming ever more prone to being further harmed from the use of antibiotics—and vaccines as well, which I’ll discuss in a moment.

Bottle-Feeding and Antibiotics Exact a Heavy Toll

Adding injury to insult is the significant decrease in breastfeeding. We now know that breastfed babies develop entirely different gut flora compared to bottle-fed babies. Infant formula never was, and never will be a healthy replacement to breast milk, for a number of reasons; altered gut flora being one of them.

Dr. Campbell discovered that a large percentage of the mothers of autistic children were bottle-fed. Then, as they received many courses of antibiotics throughout their childhood, the abnormalities in their gut flora further deepened.

“Ever since antibiotics were prescribed, particularly from the 50s and 60s, they were prescribed for every cough and sneeze. They really over-prescribed antibiotics. And with every course of antibiotics, the abnormalities in the gut flora would get deeper and deeper in these girls.

And then, at the age of 15, 16, these ladies were put on a contraceptive pill… [which] have a devastating effect on the gut flora. Nowadays ladies are taking it for quite a few years before they’re ready to start their family.”

So, to recap, bottle-feeding along with over-use of antibiotics and use of the contraceptive pill set the stage for increasingly abnormal gut flora with each passing generation. Then, add to that a diet of processed junk food and excessive consumption of high fructose corn syrup and you have a prescription for disaster in terms of intestinal health.

It’s important to realize that processed foods and sugar almost exclusively feed pathogens in your digestive system, allowing them to proliferate.

“Many of these modern factors created a whole plethora of young ladies in our modern world who have quite deeply abnormal gut flora by the time they are ready to have their first child. This is the abnormal gut flora that they are passing through their children,” she explains.

“So these babies acquire abnormal gut flora from the start and while the baby is breastfed the baby is receiving protection because whatever is in the mother’s blood will be in her milk. Women who have abnormal gut flora would have immune factors in their blood, which they have developed against their own gut flora to protect them. These immune factors will be in their milk.

While the baby is breastfed, despite the fact that the baby has acquired abnormal gut flora from the mom, there will be some protection. But as soon as the breastfeeding stops that protection stops as well. That is the time when the abnormalities in the gut flora really flourish and the child starts sliding down into autism or ADHD or ADD or any other learning disability or physical problems such as diabetes type 1, for example, and celiac disease or other autoimmune conditions, or… asthma, eczema and other physical problems. That’s where this epidemic comes from.”

Changes are Urgently Needed

Unfortunately, all the factors that create abnormal gut flora are getting increasingly more prevalent, across the globe. This means that the next generation of young women having children will have even worse gut flora than their mothers, so the proportion of GAPS children being born predisposed to develop autism will be even higher!

“Our authorities need to understand that, and they need to be ready for that,” Dr. Campbell warns.

The Role of Vaccines

As Dr. Campbell explains, babies are born not only with a sterile gut, but also with immature immune systems. And establishment of normal gut flora in the first 20 days or so of life plays a crucial role in appropriate maturation of your baby’s immune system. Hence, babies who develop abnormal gut flora are left with compromised immune systems.

“Vaccinations have been developed, originally, for children with perfectly healthy immune systems,” she says. “GAPS children are NOT fit to be vaccinated with the standard vaccination protocol.”

Her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome contains an entire chapter outlining what health care professionals need to do to improve the vaccination strategy, because the standard vaccination protocol is bound to damage GAPS babies.

“It’s a matter of the last straw breaking the camel’s back,” she explains. “So if the child is damaged enough, the vaccine can provide that last straw. But if it doesn’t provide that last straw in a particular child, then it will get the child closer to the breaking point.”

She also points out another risk factor of vaccines:

“What we also have to understand is that the pharmaceutical industry cannot patent natural viruses, natural bacteria or any microbe that nature has created. They have to genetically modify them before they can patent them,” she says.

“So these vaccines contain genetically modified viruses, genetically modified microbes. We still haven’t got enough data to know what exactly they’re doing to the human body, and what exactly these genes are doing to our gut flora in these children.”

How to Identify GAPS

Fortunately, it is possible to identify GAPS within the first weeks of your baby’s life, which can help you make better informed decisions about vaccinations, and about how to proceed to set your child on the path to a healthy life.

One of the KEY issues is to screen all children BEFORE they are immunized, and if they have the metabolic characteristics of GAPS, they should NOT be immunized until that is reversed. This simple measure could prevent unnecessary and tragic trauma in hundreds of thousands of families. In all likelihood there are far more children being harmed by vaccines than being helped at this point. By simply modifying the process one could radically reduce the risk of a child developing an illness on the autism spectrum.

Dr. Campbell describes the entire process in her book.

In her practice, she starts out by collecting a complete health history of the parents, and their gut health is assessed. Then, within the first few days of life, the stool of the child can be analyzed to determine the state of her gut flora, followed by a urine test to check for metabolites, which can give you a picture of the state of your child’s immune system.

“Now we have excellent tests that find chemicals produced by various species of microbes in the gut,” she says. “… So by analyzing urine, indirectly we can say what kind of species of microbes are sitting in the gut of the child, or what kind of chemicals they are producing.”

“… If the child has abnormal gut flora we can assume that the child has a compromised immunity, and these children must not be vaccinated with the standard vaccination protocol because they simply get damaged by it. They should not be vaccinated.”

The non-invasive tests described in her book are now available in most laboratories around the world, and typically run around $80-100 each in the US. This is peanuts compared to the incredible expense of treating an autistic child once the damage is done.

“Our children are being used as a market for selling vaccines,” Dr. Campbell says. “The children are vaccinated in our Western world, I’m afraid, not for the sake of saving the child but for the sake of making money… It’s an extremely sad and worrying situation.”

Siblings are Also at High-Risk for Vaccine Damage

Another group of children that may also over-react to vaccinations are siblings of children with autism, severe hyperactivity, obsessive compulsive disorder, mental conditions, or type 1diabetes.

“Younger siblings of autistic children, and younger siblings of children with all these disabilities should not be vaccinated with the standard vaccination protocol,” she warns.

“The immune tests that I was talking about can be repeated every six months or every year for these children. Whenever the child is considered to be perfectly healthy and the immune system shows itself to be perfectly well functioning, only then can a vaccination be considered for these children because we simply cannot take the risk.”

Strategies to Restore Health to Children with GAPS and Autism

Dr. Campbell has developed a very effective treatment for GAP children, called GAPS Nutritional Protocol. It is described in great detail in her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, which is designed to be a self-help book.

“[P]robably tens of thousands of people now, around the world, are saving their children with this program,” she says. “… The majority of these people just bought the book, read it, followed the program, and got fantastic results.”

In summary, the protocol consists of three elements:

Diet—the GAPS diet consists of easily-digestible foods that are dense in nutrition, including fermented foods.

According to Dr. Campbell: “On average, people adhere to the diet a couple of years. It takes two years to drive out the pathogenic flora, to reestablish normal flora in the gut, to heal and seal the damaged gut lining in these people and turn the gut back to being a major source of nourishment for the person instead of being a source of toxicity.”
Food supplements, including: probiotics and vitamins D and A in the form of cod liver oil, although sun exposure is also an important part for GAPS patients, for proper vitamin D production.
Detoxification—The GAPS nutritional protocol will naturally clear out most toxins. Dr. Campbell does not use any kind of drugs or chemicals to remove toxins as it can be too drastic for some, and can produce damaging side effects. Instead she recommends juicing as a gentle but effective way of removing toxic build-up, as well as baths with Epsom salt, sea salt, seaweed powder, apple cider vinegar, and baking soda.
Dr. Campbell discusses many additional and priceless details relating to this protocol, so please, set aside some time to listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.

More Information

See Dr. Natasha Campbell-
McBride and Me Speak
in November

We are both scheduled to speak at the Weston Price Foundation Conference Nov 11-13th.

Please click here for more details.

Hurry! Early bird discount expires August 1st.
I have always found that the best health strategy is prevention, and I’m sure many would agree. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Now that we’ve identified a way to help prevent autism and related neurological and physical damage from manifesting, I can’t urge you enough to take this information to heart, and to pay close attention to your gut health well before planning your pregnancy, and to take the simple and relatively inexpensive precautions described by Dr. Campbell that can significantly reduce the chances of your child being harmed.

The avalanche of autism must be curbed—and quickly! And for now the burden rests on you, the parent, to take control of your and your child’s health, and to arm yourself with information that can have life-altering ramifications.

If you’re pregnant, planning a pregnancy, or know someone who is, I can’t recommend Dr. Campbell’s book enough. Buy it for yourself, or as a gift.

You can also find more information on Dr. Campbell’s website: www.GAPS.me, and on her blog at www.doctor-natasha.com.

“We have an absolute epidemic of GAPS – Gut and Psychology Syndrome and Gut and Physiology Syndrome, and the number of sufferers are growing,” she says. “I’m completely overwhelmed by demands for consultations, and people all over the world need GAPS practitioners…

So I am preparing a training course for medical practitioners and health practitioners. The first wave of training will be done in September-October in Seattle, Chicago, New York and Dallas.

We will cover the U.S. with a good number of GAPS trained practitioners. This will be people who will be able to take you through the diet, through the whole protocol, and they will run local GAPS groups where all the patients and other GAPS people will be able to come weekly or fortnightly to exchange recipes, exchange news, help each other, give each other moral support and learn more about GAPS.”

Once she’s done the trainings in the US, she will continue on to Europe and other parts of the world. If you’re a doctor, nutritionist, dietician, osteopath, homeopath or other health practitioner and you’re interested in becoming a certified GAPS practitioner, please see this link for more information.

mercola.com

Important! The producers of this powerful film are allowing a full and FREE preview
through August 13th in celebration of Fluoride Awareness Week (Aug 7 – 13)! You can support Fluoride Action Network by purchasing the Professional Perspectives DVD at a special price of $10 during Fluoride Awareness Week.
Visit the Mercola Video Library
By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Mercola Recommends…

Every “Like” Helps Support This Cause
Did you know there’s an “invisible” drug that a majority of Americans consume on a daily basis—a drug so harmful it’s been proven to cause serious health issues, including damage to your bones and teeth, as well as your kidneys, thyroid, pineal gland, and even your brain. This drug is so pervasive that over 40 percent of all American teens between the ages of 12 and 15 show visible signs of having been overexposed to it, and, shockingly, recent international studies indicate that even small doses of this drug can lower the IQ in children.

What is this drug?

Fluoride.

You are Being Drugged Without Your Consent…

Many do not realize that fluoride is indeed a drug. In fact, if you decided you wanted to take it, you’d have to get a prescription for it. Yet it’s added to municipal water supplies reaching more than 180 million Americans, including infants and the elderly. This is a significant problem, because once you add it to the water supply, you have no way of gauging how much of the drug any particular person will consume on any given day.

Consider this: It is illegal and unethical for a medical doctor to give you a drug without specifying dosage, and to fail to monitor your health for side effects from the drug. Yet, your water authority is not only allowed, but encouraged to add a toxic drug—fluoride—to your drinking water without your consent and without any way of knowing who in your household is drinking it, how much, and the effect it is having.

The Science Incontrovertibly Opposes Water Fluoridation

Water fluoridation began in the mid 1940’s as a solution to fluoride pollution generated by the Atomic Bomb Program and the aluminum industry, but it was cleverly “sold” to dentists and the general masses as a preventive strategy for reducing tooth decay… It has been heralded as one of the top 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.

Alas, it may actually be more accurate to describe it as one of the greatest mass poisonings in our history. Sodium fluoride, which is a far simpler toxin than the fluoride compounds used for most water fluoridation, has been used for rat and cockroach poisons, so there is no question that fluoride is highly toxic.

In a sane world, public health policy would be based on sound and conclusive science. Unfortunately, that is not the case when it comes to water fluoridation. In fact, despite overwhelming evidence demonstrating that fluoride is not an effective preventive strategy against tooth decay and may be causing significant health problems in many individuals, the practice of adding fluoride to municipal water supplies continues unabated. A majority, 64 percent, of all drinking water in the United States still receives this ill-advised treatment.

Why does this practice continue when it flies in the face of all the current research?

The answer to this question is just one of the countless shocking revelations featured in Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation. The film, which features a Nobel Laureate in Medicine, scientists, dentists, medical doctors, and leading researchers in the field, reveals the science behind fluoridation, the effects it has on your health, and why there is no logical or rational reason to continue fluoridating ANY water supply.

Would You Drink Shampoo to Clean Your Hair?

The only science that mildly supports the use of pharmaceutical-grade fluoride as a preventive against dental caries is topical use of fluoride (although even that is debatable, based on more recent findings). There is really no scientific basis at all for ingesting fluoride to protect your teeth! In fact, when fluoride is taken internally, it actually damages your teeth, causing a condition known as dental fluorosis; the pitting and discoloration of teeth. Today, 41 percent of American children between the ages of 12 and 14 have dental fluorosis. But that’s not all. When you swallow, fluoride it can also cause:

Weakened bones, and fatal bone cancer (osteosarcoma) Impaired mental development, lowered IQ, and dementia Gastrointestinal problems
Hyperactivity and/or lethargy Arthritic symptoms Kidney issues
Lowered thyroid function Chronic fatigue Disrupted immune system
This is what the science is telling us about the ramifications of fluoride ingestion. And, yet, rather than taking the precautionary approach and stopping fluoridation until we know more, our policymakers continue to blindly forge ahead; refusing to give the scientific evidence the attention it deserves.

The CDC and ADA Advise Against Fluoridated Water for Infants

In November of 2006, the American Dental Association (ADA) sent out an email to alert its members of their recommendation to parents to not use fluoridated tap water to make infant formula.

Why?

Because an average glass of treated water contains 250 times more fluoride than breast milk. A few days later, the CDC followed suit. But neither of them openly informed the public!

As a result, millions of parents are still using tap water to make up formula, completely oblivious of the fact that the agencies that promote fluoridation in this country have also issued a specific warning against using fluoridated water for this purpose. Not only that, but by fluoridating the municipal water supply, you doom many low income families to fail to protect their young children from this dangerous drug, even if they have this information.

The evidence suggests that minorities and low-income families are being disproportionately harmed by water fluoridation, and two Atlanta Civil Rights leaders, Andrew Young and Reverend Dr. Gerald Durley, recently requested that Georgia legislators repeal the state’s mandatory water fluoridation law based on this fact.

African American children have been found to consume significantly more total fluids and plain water, and thus receive more fluoride than white children. African American mothers are also less likely to breastfeed than most other racial groups, and since breast milk contains very low levels of fluoride, babies fed formula made with fluoridated water could receive up to 200 times more fluoride than a breast-fed baby. Thus African American children have a higher risk of being overexposed to fluoride from infancy on.

Get Informed; Get the Facts…

Knowledge is power, and you have the power to not only protect yourself, but also to help protect others once you know the truth. The United States is one of the few remaining developed countries in the world that still fluoridates a majority of its water supply.

Don’t you agree that it’s time for our policymakers to stop putting your and your family’s health at risk? I strongly recommend viewing Professional Perspectives on Water Fluoridation. We can eliminate this harmful practice, but it’s going to take people like you to make it happen—so please watch the film to get the cold hard facts, and share it with everyone you know.

How You Can Help END Water Fluoridation

The Fluoride Action Network has a game plan to end water fluoridation in both Canada and the United States, and this Fluoride Awareness Week will hopefully bring us a lot closer to that goal by spreading mass awareness. Our fluoride initiative will primarily focus on Canada since 60 percent of Canada is already non-fluoridated. A few weeks ago the city of Calgary stopped fluoridating over a million people and last October the citizens of Waterloo, Ontario voted it out in a referendum. If we can get the rest of Canada to stop fluoridating their water, we believe the U.S. will be forced to follow. Please, join the anti-fluoride movement in Canada and United States by contacting the representative for your area below.

Contact Information for Canadian Communities:

If you live in Ontario, Canada, please join the ongoing effort by contacting Diane Sprules at diane.sprules@cogeco.ca.
The point-of-contact for Toronto, Canada is Aliss Terpstra. You may email her at aliss@nutrimom.ca.
Contact Information for American Communities:

We’re also going to address three US communities: New York City, Austin, and San Diego:

New York City, NY: With the recent victory in Calgary, New York City is the next big emphasis. The anti-fluoridation movement has a great champion in New York City councilor Peter Vallone, Jr. who introduced legislation on January 18 “prohibiting the addition of fluoride to the water supply.” A victory there could signal the beginning of the end of fluoridation in the U.S. If you live in the New York area I beg you to participate in this effort as your contribution could have a MAJOR difference. Remember that one person can make a difference. The point person for this area is Carol Kopf, at the New York Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Email her at NYSCOF@aol.com . Please contact her if you’re interested in helping with this effort.
Austin, Texas: Join the effort by contacting Rae Nadler-Olenick at either: info@fluoridefreeaustin.com or fluoride.info@yahoo.com, or telephone: (512) 371-3786
San Diego, California: Contact Patty Ducey-Brooks, publisher of the Presidio Sentinel at pbrooks936@aol.com.
In addition, you can:

I’ve known Dr. Doris Rapp for almost 20 years now, and she’s a true pioneer in the treatment of allergies. She’s also a prolific writer and educator. Here, she shares her insights on molds, and how to protect yourself and your loved ones from the health hazards of this pervasive problem.

A lot of people end up just treating the symptoms of mold exposure and never get to the root of the problem. Oftentimes they don’t even know that mold is the cause of their allergies and skin problems.

While mold is “normal,” it shouldn’t be part of your living environment as the spores can be quite toxic. Unfortunately, many homes have water leaking in through their roof, cracked foundations, or plumbing leaks, allowing the mold spores that are pervasive in every home the ideal environment get a foothold and start producing a toxic home environment.

You might not realize that mold spores are universal. They are outside and the moment you open your window or door they come inside. As long as the levels are low they present no problem. But when you have high indoor humidity and areas of high moisture the mold can grow to ten, or a hundred and even a thousand times higher than outdoor levels and this will clearly cause problems.

I recently had some problems with mold in my own home and I share them on a separate video I recently did in which I also address what types of filters are best from my experience.

Symptoms that Indicate You May Have a Mold Problem

One of the factors that make diagnosing a mold allergy problematic is that mold can affect your body in a number of different ways. Some start having memory problems, while another may be experiencing a sudden change in disposition, such as agitation, anger, panic, or aggression. Headaches are common but don’t affect everyone exposed to mold. Other symptoms can include:

Coughing and wheezing
Sinus problems and post-nasal drip
Itchy rashes
Joint pain
Dr. Rapp has a video on her website www.DorisRappMD.com showing how just one drop of mold extract on a patient’s arm causes her to have trouble walking. Within minutes, the woman’s joints and sinuses swell up.

“Most people don’t realize that some people can be very, very sensitive,” Dr. Rapp says. “… The most astounding thing in relation to mold that I’ve noticed is the changes that it can affect and in your behavior. Children can’t write. If you look at any of my books on my website, you’ll see that their writing is fine and I put a drop of mold allergy extract in their arm and they write upside down. They put their pencil on the paper and rip it in half.

They write very, very tiny. They write real large. They’re all over the place.

Teachers don’t know this. If a youngster is going to a moldy school for example, you may find that a child is fine at home but at school, they can’t learn a thing. They can’t remember a thing. They can’t write. They can’t draw. They can’t walk. Any area of the body can be affected. The teachers, educators are not aware of the fact that molds — and in fact, dust and chemicals and pollens and foods can affect any area of the body.

I don’t know how to get this message out, but those of you that are listening, if you’re fine or your child is fine and suddenly something is wrong… Whatever it is, ask yourself,

What did they eat?

What did they touch?

What did they smell?

Most allergies occur within 15 minutes to an hour. Some reactions—the food related ones that cause colitis or bed wetting—can cause trouble right away.”

Your Body’s Silent Alarm System

Dr. Rapp shares an interesting fact about your body’s inherent intelligence—a “silent alarm system” that you can tap into simply by checking your pulse.

“Put your wrist in your palm and put your fingers along the edge of your wrist and you can easily feel your pulse.

Is it regular?… Is it irregular?… If it’s irregular or abnormally fast… it’s frequently an internal warning and your body is [saying] ‘my goodness what did this individual get into? … [T]he body is going to get sick so I have to get the blood rushing around in a hurry to try to take care of this problem.’

… You can pick up this hidden alarm system by merely learning to take your pulse. If you eat the wrong food, some people’s pulse gets irregular, other people’s pulse shoots up to 200. You have to figure it out. What did I eat? What did I touch? If people get into a moldy place, their pulse can suddenly increase.

If you’re going to buy a new house and when you go into the house your pulse shoots up 20 points, I can tell you right away, don’t buy that house.”

I recommend using an electronic heart rate monitor, such as the ones you’d use for Peak 8 exercises, because they’re incredibly precise and take the hassle factor out of measuring your pulse. This takes all the guess work out of the measurement, and you can use them for Peak 8, which I believe virtually everyone benefits from.

Another test you can use is to check your handwriting after being in the space for about 15 minutes to an hour. If it’s altered, it could be an indication that something’s wrong.

If you have asthma, Dr. Rapp suggests blowing into a peak flow meter while standing in different rooms of your house (or whatever area you need to check). If you blow 400 in one room but only 300 in another, it could be a sign that something in that room is affecting you. You can also do this before and after eating different foods, to get an indication of a potential food allergy. (If you do not have asthma, checking your breathing rate will not be useful.) Keep in mind that different types of allergies tend to go together, so for example, if you have a mold allergy you may also be allergic to certain foods, such as soy sauce, mushrooms, or any grain that has been stored in a moldy place.

Deciphering Your Body’s Signals

Other physical signs and symptoms you can use as early indicators include:

Red cheeks or ear lobes
Dark under-eye circles
Bags under your eyes
Restless legs
At that point, ask yourself what you’ve just come in contact with within the last 15-60 minutes. Write it down, and start looking for patterns.

“Become a detective, pay attention,” Dr. Rapp suggests. “Where do you get sick? When do you get sick? How do you get sick? Why do you get sick? If you ask these questions, you’ll come up with answers that doctors may miss.”

What to Do Once You’ve Established that Mold is a Problem

According to Dr. Rapp, first and foremost you want to get away from the problematic area. Move if you have to.

“I’ve seen people try to stay in a moldy house when their child is very sick or they are very sick. They try to clean the place up. They take out the moldy carpet and decide to paint the moldy walls. But they can become so desperately ill that it is very hard to treat them in the future,” she warns.

If you can’t move, here are other remedial steps you need to take to cure the problem:

Remove the mold. NORMI (National Organization of Remediators and Mold Inspectors) has books that explain exactly what to do and what solutions to use. For suggestions over the phone, call them at 877-251-2296.
Get a high quality air purifier to control mold toxins. In addition to the mold itself, you also need to make sure you get rid of any mold toxins. If a mold breaks down, it disintegrates and every little particle contains mycotoxins that have the capability of making you very sick. One way of controlling it is to get a quality air purifier and I provide my guidelines in the video above.
Another option is the photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) unit. I personally like it because it works for the whole house (up to 3000 square feet), requires little maintenance, and is relatively inexpensive. A machine that produces ozone at biological levels is also safe and can be very effective in removing odors.

If you end up with mold in your car or home make certain you get it professionally evaluated. This may not be cheap but it is better than the alternative. If you catch the problem early on you can save yourself tens of thousands of dollars in extra clean up expenses. Trust me as I made this mistake and wouldn’t want to see anyone else go through it.

You simply must identify the hidden sources of water that are increasing the humidity levels and allowing the mold to grow. Please understand that no filter in the world will take care of mold issue until you have the humidity under control and the mold properly cleaned.

One you do this you will need to have a professional remediator.Make sure they don’t use chemicals that you’re sensitive to. Again, you can check to see if the chemicals bother you by checking your pulse or breathing, and evaluating how you look, feel and act before and after exposure.

“It’s like when somebody has their ductwork cleaned because of molds or dust. If they spray chemicals in the ductwork to which you happen to be sensitive, you might never be able to live in that house again because you can’t clean the chemicals out,” Dr. Rapp warns.

That’s where ozone can be helpful as it dissipates quite rapidly. You can use it as an intervention and there is no residual ozone left when you’re done. One important caveat is that you must remove pets and plants from your home before using an ozone machine as it can be harmful to both. We also discuss other helpful tidbits in this interview, such as how to evaluate duct cleaning firms and avoid scams, so for more information, please listen to the interview in its entirety, or read through the transcript.

Using Allergy Extracts

This is a little-known treatment strategy that Dr. Rapp describes as “one of the best hidden secrets.”

“It’s called provocation neutralization allergy testing,” she explains. “You can put a drop of a mold mixture in somebody’s arm that looks perfectly normal. If they have asthma, you can produce asthma in seconds. Within eight minutes, they will be sick… That’s why they call it provocation. You would provoke the actual symptoms of the mold producers.

So if molds cause you to have a headache and fatigue, you put on a drop and you’re going to have a headache and feel tired. If it causes hyperactivity and asthma, you’re going to have those symptoms… Then, if you give that patient increasing dilutions — so you give them a 1 to 5 [dilution] and then a 1 to 25, and then a 1 to 125; one drop of that allergy extract in the right dilution will render the patient is entirely normal within eight minutes. The problem is that there aren’t a lot of doctors that know this technique, and your insurance may not cover it.”

Then, any time you experience your allergy symptoms, you can simply put a few drops on your tongue of the right dilution to eliminate your symptoms within a few minutes. That’s why it’s called neutralization; it neutralizes your symptoms. In my experience, provocation neutralization (PN) tends to be about 80 percent effective.

“The thing that amazes me is that some people will continue with medical care for 20 years, [even though] they know it doesn’t help,” Dr. Rapp says. “They are continuing it mainly because the insurance company pays for it. They don’t want to spend the money to get provocation neutralization allergy testing which could make them better. I have seen patients who could barely walk in the office and by noon, they are well… It can be that fast… Once you find that [correct] dose, it works like a miracle.”

If you want to see some actual videos of provocation neutralization being done, see Dr. Rapp’s website www.DorisRappMD.com.

“Remember when you have an allergy, it’s like having a nail in your shoe that’s causing a sore in your foot,” Dr. Rapp says. “You can put on a bigger bandage, you can take drugs… but the ultimate answer if you got a nail in your shoe is to take the nail out. This is what we have to convey to people; taking one pill after another is not resolving the problem!

Figure out why you are sick. What did you eat, touch, and smell? Get rid of the cause if you can. If you can’t, then get a treatment that works. If regular treatment works, fine. But if you’re relying on drugs, you’ll be taking drugs 20 years from now and you might just be sleeping on a feather pillow or drinking milk everyday and that’s what’s causing your symptoms! Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of the feather pillow or stop drinking or eating the foods that causing the problems?”

Identifying Food Allergies without Spending a Dime

Now, if you suspect you have a food allergy, but can’t afford provocation neutralization allergy testing, does that mean you’re doomed to a life of allergy meds? No! Dr. Rapp suggests going on a one-week allergy-elimination diet, described in detail in all of her books, as well as on her website.

“Basically, you take away the highly allergenic foods for one week. If these foods are causing allergies, the first one or two days, you might have headaches, feel tired, have a belly ache. But by day five to seven on that diet, you might feel better than you felt in 20 years.

The second week, you add one food back every morning on an empty stomach, then wait and see what happens… By the end of the second week, you know not only which foods cause trouble but which symptoms they cause.

The tip here is, if you develop symptoms with a food, take one to two teaspoons of baking soda… Many times the symptoms will disappear in a few minutes. This is a way of solving food allergies or diagnosing food allergies within a week or two weeks without costing you a penny.”

More Information

Dr. Rapp also delves into recommendations for detoxing and the importance of exercise, so for more helpful tips and guidelines, please listen to the whole interview. She has also authored half a dozen books on allergies and chemical sensitivities, with a focus on fast, effective, inexpensive, and safe self-help. In her latest book, 32 Tips that Could Save Your Life, Dr. Rapp tells you what common household items can cause cancer, diabetes, thyroid disease, and, of course, allergies.

“We have to start to emphasize what’s causing these terrible things and get rid of them,” she says. “That’s what my books do. They try to tell you what’s making you sick and offer sensible solutions to these kinds of problems.

… One of my books is, “Is This Your Child’s World?”… I challenge you to not find the answer in that book about allergies. …Until we start to emphasize prevention, we are going to continue to have these terrible illnesses. Every day I hear of somebody else — a friend of mine has developed cancer. I say, please Lord, start to wake them up. We can’t breathe, eat or drink. We have cancer-causing substances in the air, the food, the water, the homes, the schools and the workplace… We have to start eating organic food and drink pure water, and exercise and keep our bowels moving. If we don’t do this, we’re going to get these terrible illnesses.”

mercola.com