Magnesium, Nature’s Natural Stress Buster.

Stress is the number one cause of illness the world over. But what is stress? We all need some to get out of bed in the morning and embrace the process of living! That sort of stress is probably of the positive variety. It’s negative pressure that causes problems. It comes in various forms. Not eating, not drinking sufficient water and exposure to extremes of heat and cold all constitute physical stress. Without doubt, many people are affected by these stressors. However, it’s emotional stress that probably does the most harm.

What then is emotional stress? I would like to describe it as resistance; pushing against the current or fighting what is. Austro-Hungarian born researcher Hans Selye working from McGill University in Canada and then the “Universite de Montréal “was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1949 for the work he did on “General Adaptation Syndrome”. He called negative stress “distress” and positive stress, "eustress". It was Langley who first coined the term “Autonomic Nervous System” in 1903, and was the earliest proponent of flight and fight. When exposed to “distress” the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body to either get angry and resist or nervously run away. To do this successfully, some changes take place, triggered by the hormone adrenaline. These, increase blood pressure; divert blood flow to deeper muscle, improve eyesight amongst myriad other changes which better prepare individuals to cope. When the danger has passed, there is a switch to the parasympathetic state; this allows the body to rest and recuperate. The ANS was designed to help humans, when wild animals roamed the forests and early man was continually faced with life threatening crises.

Today, the crises are of a different sort. In the past, when confronted by a fierce saber tooth tiger, you could run away or fight it and get the meat back to the cave to feed the family. Now, saber toothed tigers are extinct and threats are generally less hostile. However, when confronted by an irate bank manager, which is not a life threatening situation, we regress and treat it as if it were! Adrenaline is switched on and the body goes through the same changes as if it were fighting for survival. Besides in the past, the threats were less frequent, having returned to homeostasis, several weeks could pass before the next dangerous situation emerged. This gave the system ample time to rid itself of the toxins that prompted the original stimulus response. Today, the situation is vastly different. Many people can be confronted by perceived threats several times per day. There is no time to relax and recover. It is little wonder that chronic ill health is on the rampage.

Nature has an extraordinary “destressor”. It is the mineral Magnesium. This alkaline metal plays a vital role in the production of ATP (Adenosine-5-triphosphate). This has been described as the dynamo, producing body energy. It works with Calcium to maintain the free flow of energy to the cells. To achieve this Magnesium keeps its opponent, Calcium in balance. When Calcium is overabundant there is a scary prospect of tics and muscular cramps occurring. These can cause heart conditions like angina and high blood pressure .Both increase the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke. Today, Calcium gets all the publicity; there is negligible talk about Magnesium lack, but it exists in, perhaps, the majority of people. Gall bladder removal is a common intervention, but in my opinion gall stones don’t form if Magnesium levels are sufficient.

This alkaline mineral soothes the body, calming the nerves whilst promoting sound sleep. This is the natural way of being. Stress is an emergency situation that should occur infrequently. Magnesium combats over acidity, which is the pH level where illness occurs. The substance now occurs less often in soils depleted by the over use of NPK artificial fertilizers, which like Calcium are antagonistic to Magnesium. The deficiency was noted by the US Senate as long ago as 1936, yet, nothing has been done to alleviate the problem!

It would be a good idea for everybody to increase Magnesium in the diet. The understated RDA for Men is 400 and Women 310 mg per day. If encountering stress this could easily be increased significantly. 1000 mg would not be too much. Spinach, black beans, halibut and pumpkin seeds provide good sources, but you have to eat a lot to get anywhere near the recommended daily dose. If in doubt it is a good idea to buy a good quality nutritional supplement and take a high daily dose for three months to overcome any deficiency. As in all cases going to see a health care practitioner like Health Ambit Consultancy will help you find the solution best suited for your individual needs.
This article first appeared in the Samui Gazette of April 4th 2012

“Iodine if you don’t know where, what and why, prescribe ye then K& I.” (old medical saying)

"In clinical practice, the number of women easily identifiable as thyroid deficient has grown to epidemic proportions. Many have gone to their Doctors, have had the standard test; are re-assured they are fine, but are not. It seems the test is unreliable. Dr. David Brownstein in his book; “Iodine why you need it, why you can’t live without it”, quotes from a NHAES study showing iodine levels in the USA have dropped by 50% over the thirty years spanning from 1970 until 2000. Iodine plays a key role in thyroid health. More frighteningly he also points out low iodine levels in pregnant women have increased by 690%. Something is wrong, and we need to ask what!

In spite of massive spending on health care; money that mostly goes on pharmaceutical products, overall health is declining. True, acute disease has lessened significantly, but chronic illness has risen. Maybe, many of the things we are told that are beneficial for us, are not! As a population, we have been misinformed, but why? Most people have never heard of the Georgia Guidestones. The structure, also known as “The American Stonehenge”, is located in Elberton, Georgia. The center cluster of the stones was erected in 1980; the site is dedicated to, “The Age of Reason”. On the tablets are written ten guidelines in eight different languages. The first principle states: “Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.” Today, the world’s population is a little over seven billion; to reach half a billion requires culling six and a half billion! Conspiracy theorists tell you this is the intention of the Illuminati or New World Order. As I consider the drastic consequences of poor health, it seems that the conspiracy theorists might be right after all!

We were told the thyroid problem was solved by the introduction of iodized salt in the 1920s. Women, who lived remote from iodine rich soil, usually found near the life-giving influence of the sea, suffered thyroid enlargement. As the deficient gland had to overwork it increased in size producing a strangulating goiter. They found adding a 5% potassium iodine solution to table salt, gave just enough iodine to prevent goiters growing, but not enough to remedy more subtle thyroid dysfunctions. Sadly, the refining also removed most of the minerals in sea salt. Table salt is now found widely around the world. Seventy-nine percent of households in Thailand, for example, use it.
Until 1950 underactive thyroid was treated with iodine supplementation. No, this is not the product you buy in the pharmacy to dab on wounds! This form is poisonous because it contains alcohol which must never be ingested. Instead, Iodine and its relative iodide are available in liquid and tablet variety. The popularity of iodine, hit a brick wall when the “Wolff-Chaikoff” study emerged from the University of California, Berkeley in 1947. It flew in the face of contemporary thinking; stating any iodine intake in excess of 2 mgs was excessive and potentially harmful. They claimed greater amounts caused hypothyroidism. This was not a scientific fact because hormone levels were never measured to support the argument. This warning then entered the annals of medical knowledge. So Doctors stopped prescribing iodine for thyroid conditions.
The other successful treatment option is by means of protomorphogens this translates as a substance taken from an animal source, normally porcine. Armor Labs have been producing their animal derived extract from as early as the 1930s. When the pharmaceutical companies started producing synthetic thyroid extract in the late 1950s, they swamped the market. Physicians stopped prescribing the natural thyroid extract: now it is pretty difficult to find.
At the same time, bromide ingestion has grown tremendously. Bromide is an iodine antagonist. It is to be found in soft drinks, white bread, toothpaste, fluoridated drinking water, beauty products and hair dyes. Up until the 1970s potassium iodide was added to bread, thanks to Wolff-Chaikoff the practice ceased; it was replaced by potassium bromide. No wonder the thyroid problem has blown up like a balloon. Oh, I haven’t mentioned increased radiation levels either! There is also the question of fluoride and chlorine added to drinking water. These halogens are iodine antagonists, too!
In view of all of this information, everybody needs to increase iodine intake. Eating Wakame seaweed is an excellent remedy, as is eating mussels and seafood. But you require quite a lot as a recommended daily dose to prevent low thyroid and excessive radiation, would be in the region of 30mg. If you have any doubts, it is never recommended to self-prescribe but instead go and see your health care practitioner who will check the problem out for you."

This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in the Samui Gazette of March 7th 2012

The Calcium Myth Exploded!

"We are told the best source of calcium comes via cow’s milk. Like many stories, this one was put out by the publicists employed by the dairy industry to sell their products. The power of advertising is such that people begin to believe the propaganda in time. Cows produce milk from eating grass. This is excellent as we need to get out vitamins and minerals from a vegetable source, too. For the body to absorb nutrients like calcium, they have to come via a photosynthesis process. The nutrient is in the soil; it passes to the vegetables, we eat the vegetables and gain the benefit. A mineral that has been photosynthesized is said to be organic. One that hasn’t is in-organic. Limestone deposits are a rich source of calcium, but they are useless for humans, as we cannot break down the rock into a substance that can be digested and then metabolized.

Cows get their calcium from their food, which is fresh and grassy because it has gone through photosynthesis. That means the nutrients can be digested. Vitamins also need to be present in the ground to enable this process to take place. The animal needs lots of calcium, because it has large bones. Cow’s milk is produced to support young cows and not humans! Calves grow up to become cows which weigh on average between 700 and 1000 lbs. Seven hundred pounds converts to 318 kilos, and that’s a small cow! How many humans do you know of this weight? Cow’s milk is a superfood designed to feed a large animal, so it grows up quickly. It is not the same as mother’s milk. When humans start drinking the recommended three glasses of milk per day, they begin to put on weight, just like the calf. Many people find milk is hard to digest. This is true of Asians who often lack the digestive enzyme, lactase. Milk produces much mucus in the system that clogs up the digestion. Let's return to the calcium issue. Calcium and magnesium are antagonists, but in order to digest calcium, you need magnesium in the correct ratio which is 2:1. Here’s the problem, the cow absorbs these things for itself or the calf, but not for the human; there is a deficiency in magnesium, which makes cow’s milk an inadequate calcium source.

Another factor is the earth factor. To absorb the essential vitamins and minerals means they have to be in the soil in the first place. Old farming methods demanded the field be left fallow to rest between crops, whilst the preferred fertilizer was cow manure. This has stopped because it does not suit the industrialized nature of large scale farming. Cow dung has been replaced by chemical fertilizers, usually of a petrochemical nature. The industry says artificial fertilizers are necessary because of the need to increase crop yields. This is not true. In the current situation, where factory farms separate livestock from plant crops; it is just too expensive to move the methane rich animal manure to the plants themselves. This has reached such a serious problem that most land is now so depleted, that it won’t produce anything without the aid of these artificial stimulants. Six micronutrients and 7 macro are required in the production of the popular nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. This artificial nitrogen is causing immense problems; it is a leading source of nitrous oxide. This far outstrips Carbon Dioxide as a purported cause of the greenhouse effect.

To resolve the issue they have to put the vitamin/ mineral mix back into the soil, but there is a serious problem. The new petrochemical products are inert, whilst the old waste form, coming from an animal origin is organic. It’s the old story of natural versus un-natural. The soil is becoming nutrient short because we are feeding it un-natural substances. This disturbing trend did not start yesterday. As evidence sperm counts in males, in the US, have been declining since the 1930s. A study that appeared in the Journal “Environmental Health Perspectives” showed a sperm density count of 113 million per deciliter in 1940 which had dropped to 66 million in 1990. This is a reduction of almost 50%. The Journal attributed this to environmental factors already mentioned. In short don’t depend on milk as a source of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Eat fresh, green leafy vegetables from an organic producer. These still hold adequate amounts of essential nutrients. For calcium, eat tuna and sardines because the bones of such fish provide an excellent, digestible, source. Also, take a superior quality, non-synthetic food supplement just to make sure you have got the equation right."
This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in the Samui Gazette of 22nd February 2012

“The Gift In Me!”

"As the New Year dawned an astonishing article in the Australian press proclaimed that cancer had outstripped heart disease as the number one killer in the country. This is quite astounding. What has been going on to cause such a turnaround? “Why”, is a very important question, yet it is seldom asked!
Many believe the diagnosis of cancer is an automatic death sentence. This is simply not true. In its estimations for 2012, the American Cancer Society named prostate cancer as the most common type and projects that there will be 241, 740 cases during the year. Of all of these 28,170 men are expected to die as a result. That means 213,570 will survive. That gives a survivability rate of approximately 80%. This is a far cry from an automatic death sentence! True, the chances of death from some other types of the disease such a pancreatic cancer are considerably greater.
Martin Silverman was diagnosed with testicular cancer when he was seventeen. His gonads swelled to the size of an orange, overnight. His mother acted promptly, so he was seen by a specialist within two days. An aggressive terratoma was diagnosed resulting in surgery two days after that. This was followed by a course of radiation and he was then fine!
Two years ago, or 37 years after the original event Martin went for a blood test to screen for diabetes that ran in his family. In Britain, the Health Service also performs a battery of additional tests from the blood sample. He did not have diabetes but instead had a PSA reading of 63. PSA stands for “prostate specific antigen”; a level in excess of four suggests the possibility of prostate cancer. Martin was almost 16 times over that limit. When faced with the side effects resulting from the conventional medical treatment for prostate cancer, he was hesitant about entering allopathic care. However, at the outset his oncologist talked him into taking hormone pills but he alarmingly found himself developing breasts. He stopped treatment and embraced a holistic route instead.
He realized his diseases both developed within two years of a break-up of an intimate relationship. This he saw was no coincidence on realizing that it was the reproductive system that was affected. This coincides with the findings of Dr. Gert Hamer, the founder of “Germanic New Medicine”. Dr. Hamer developed testicular cancer two years after his son was murdered. After years of investigation and many CT scans to back his thesis, he stated that “all illness” was the result of a stressful event that caused a lesion to develop in the brain. The area of the brain affected, impacted directly on a specific place in the body. In this case, the relevant area involves the testicles in men and the ovaries in women. The stressful event itself involves a profound loss conflict.
Martin worked to quell the resulting emotional issues, but the first major change on his route to holism was a radical alteration in diet. He fully grasped that the average western nutrition and lifestyle pattern were a means of committing slow suicide. Out went the staples of bread and meat and in came living raw foods. His journey was much influenced by the Hippocrates Health Institute located in Florida. This was co-founded by the late Anne Wigmore who cured herself of cancer by taking what grass juice and enzyme rich raw foods. Martin feels wheatgrass juice tastes awful but all pet owners will have noticed that their dog or cat goes off and eats grass when feeling unwell. Nobody taught the animal to do this, it’s instinctual. The same impulse applies to humans but we have all been educated away from natural cures.
Aside from the juices, Martin includes sprouted seeds and good quality nutritional supplements into his eating program. He adds coconut water to this, saying it is like drinking hemoglobin. He eradicates fruit as it is too sugary. Sugar is believed to be the main food for cancer cells. Such a diet provides him with all his nutritional requirements and he is now a picture of glowing good health.
Martin is in the process of writing a book called “The Gift in Me”. He is doing this because most men are hugely out of touch when it comes to health issues. This is particularly true in the realm of the emotions. Women are much better at dealing with these issues and so he decided to produce a book written by a man that reaches out to other men confronted by similar challenges. If you feel that this will help, you can contact him via his website…www.thegiftinme.com. The book with the same title is scheduled to launch this summer."
This article first appeared in the Samui Gazette of 25th January 2012

“The Cooking Oils War”.

"You would have to be blind not to notice the number of coconut palms on Koh Samui. In fact the same has to be said for the remainder of Thailand. Samui has been dubbed “the coconut capital’ of the country because it sends more than 2,000,000 nuts to Bangkok each month.

The ubiquitous coconut has played a healthy role in the staple diet of tropical dwellers for as long as time itself. In 1939 an American dentist called Dr. Weston A. Price published a book called “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,” His thesis was that the standard American diet high in sugars and flour caused nutritional deficiencies that were the root cause of poor dental health. In order to write his book he travelled the world examining the teeth of people in what were considered to be more primitive cultures who had not been exposed to poor American eating habits. He went to the South Pacific and found island inhabitants eating a staple diet built around coconuts. These people enjoyed overall good health and had reasonable body fat in spite of a diet high in saturated fat. A further study releasing similar findings from the same area was published in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” in 1981.

The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 so beginning the US participation in World War 11. They invaded the Pacific islands and occupied coconut growing areas like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Prior to hostilities these countries had exported their products to the West where coconuts had played an important role in food production. Suddenly this supply ceased and the producers had to look for substitutes. This was how the polyunsaturated oil story began!

Soya beans had been introduced to the USA from China as long ago as 1770. The product was used at first as animal feed, but in 1904 the noted scientist George Washington Carver noticed the beans had high protein content making them suitable fodder for humans. In spite of Henry Ford’s effort to make a car from soya beans, production did not really take off until the war years. Soya oil became a major substitute for the tropical saturated varieties. The Soya Bean Growers of America invested a lot of money in this crop and when the war ended they were not happy to see their industry dwindle because of the re-importation of coconuts and palm oil. The Association hired a powerful public relations company whose job it was to extol the virtues of soya and denigrate the benefits of coconuts. Soya became a health product and coconut was portrayed as a danger to heart health. The largest producer of Soya beans was the United States!

In the 1950s the medical profession was spurred on by this propaganda to claim that saturated fats like coconut oil were the main cause of heart disease because they stimulated the production of cholesterol, whilst polyunsaturated oils like sunflower, soya, corn, sunflower and Canola worked to protect the body from the ravages of LDL, otherwise known as “bad” cholesterol. This was blatantly untrue, but the world came to believe the spin put forward by the Soya Producers and their allies. Saturated fats were demonized and cast aside!

Coconut Oil contains medium –chain fatty acids (MCFAs). Most other vegetable and seed oils are composed of long-chain fatty acids. These LCFAs are difficult to digest; they stress the digestive system and put additional pressure on the liver and pancreas. As they don’t break down easily excess is stored as body fat, thus perpetrating another myth that all fats make you fat! Conversely the MCFAs contained in coconut oil are considerably healthier because they are smaller and can be digested easily. They go directly to the liver where they are released as energy; there is no need for them to be stored as body fat. Experts have found that coconut oil stimulates the body’s metabolism and supports blood sugar levels. This results in weight loss and not gain!

Frying is not the healthiest way of preparing food. It is dangerous because it destroys the anti-oxidants present in the oils. This oxidizes it making it rancid. Olive oil is monounsaturated. It is a healthful oil which is great for preparing salads but has a low burning point that causes it to smoke at relatively low temperatures. This means it is unsuitable for frying. The one oil that resists heat induced damage is coconut. Use this instead; throw out all the other oils and start cooking with extra virgin coconut oil which is plentifully available on Koh Samui. The brownish heat treated versions are usually rancid, avoid them for cooking but go instead for the clear, clean smelling variety sold by many shops. Please note that frying oil should not be re-used. Once it has been heated toss it out and use a fresh batch for the next cooking foray."

This article by Alister Bredee first appeared in the "Samui Gazette" of December 14th 2011

High Blood Pressure the Silent Killer.

"Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the rest of the body. Veins, on the other hand, carry the de-oxygenated blood from the rest of the body to the heart. The arteries themselves when healthy are smooth and flexible; this insures blood flow is unobstructed. This flow puts pressure on the elastic arterial wall. The measurement of this force is what is known as blood pressure.
The pressure is not recoded as a single number, but as two, double figure digits. The higher number is known as the systolic pressure. This records the pressure in inches of Mercury when the heart beats and sends blood forcibly to the arterial wall. The lower number is known as the diastolic pressure. This is the pressure exerted in the space between the heartbeats. This is the resting phase and thus registers the relaxing pressure. A normal blood pressure would be 120/80. Higher readings such as 135/86 indicate a warning that something might not be quite right and deserves further attention. A one off reading is seldom to be trusted as blood pressure can fluctuate. For a more accurate picture, readings need to be taken over a few days to show a more precise trend. If the blood pressure is drifting off to the high side, then remedial steps need to be taken.
High blood pressure can damage the arterial and venous system and this puts the individual at increased risk of stroke, kidney failure, and heart disease and can sometimes predict a heart attack. The alarming fact is that high blood pressure is rarely discernible, and that’s why it is referred to as “the silent killer.” As a safety precaution it is necessary to have the numbers verified on a regular basis You can do this by going for check-ups with your Doctor or health care professional and to make matters even easier many pharmacies now offer blood pressure testing as an over the counter service. If you find that your blood pressure is on the high side, say 150/90 then you need to make some positive changes and you need to make them quickly!
If you are a smoker, stop a.s.a.p. Chemicals in tobacco, and there are over 600 of them can raise blood pressure. When you inhale cigarette smoke you adrenal glands get a huge kick. This shifts you into “flight or fight mode”. In sympathetic dominance your blood pressure automatically rises. Another factor is being overweight, as this has a tendency to increase blood pressure. If you are carrying a few extra kilos introduce a healthy eating program and start an exercise regime. Begin easily, and if you are very heavy seek advice so you don’t overdo things! In any case a regular brisk walk is probably good for everybody.
Another sign is “ormentum fat”, namely a spreading waistline which often becomes an unsightly beer belly. If weight piles on easily and becomes difficult to shift there is an indication you might well have a blood sugar issue. This condition is known as metabolic syndrome and warns you that insulin is beginning to lose the ability to enter cells and scoop up glucose. Alcohol is a sugar and can often lie at the root of this condition. If you find yourself experiencing some of these symptoms coupled with irritability and mood swings, go and have you blood sugar levels checked. A fall off in the production of insulin will see blood sugar levels rising and with them an increase in blood pressure. Don’t despair all of this can be addressed by altering the diet and introducing a regular exercise e regime. Oh, and it might be a good idea to reduce alcohol consumption!
Another blood pressure increaser is stress. Again the story goes back to the “flight and fight syndrome”, If we are either angry or afraid there is an adrenal response that puts our bodies in a perceived better state to deal with the increased stress, just like smoking this will result in increased blood pressure. If you find yourself getting increasingly wound up by the vagaries of life, then that is a good indication you are negatively stressed. It also warns you that the time has come to do something about the problem. There are many people qualified to help you discover techniques to bring the stress levels down. Yoga, meditation, bio-feedback, are some answers, but so are a host of therapies designed to root out the cause and bring you back on an even keel. Health Ambit Consultancy is very happy to offer advice to achieve this end, use the website to get in touch." This article appeared in the Samui Gazette of 28th October 2011
Alister Bredee
Koh Samui, October 2011

“Beware the Sodium Fluoride Myth!”

The official reason that fluoride was introduced into the water supply in the majority of the English speaking world post World War 11 was something called “Colorado Brown Stain.” This was a mottling effect of the teeth which is now referred to as fluorisis. It was claimed that people with this condition resisted tooth decay. It was also curious that one of the communities tested for this phenomenon was an aluminum producing town called Bauxite, which was literally owned by the ALCOA Company.
The idea of potassium fluoride supplements to counteract tooth decay was not new. It was first put forward by a German public health officer called Carl Erhardt in 1874. His findings were backed up by British physician, James Crichton Brown a little bit later.
The Great Experiment of adding sodium fluoride (not potassium fluoride) to water began in Grand Rapids Michigan in 1945. The nearby community of Muskegon did not fluoridate the water in order to act as a control study to scientifically evaluate the effects. In truth sodium fluoride does not exist on its own in nature it is a toxic by-product of the gas fluorine. The study with duration of 15 years was supposed to give a true picture of the effects of adding 1 pp of industrial sodium fluoride to the water supply. Curiously it was never completed because all of a sudden a rash of other communities wanted to join the bandwagon without a proper clinical trial. The FDA approved the process in 1950 again with scant scientific basis. How as this possible? Already people knew this was a toxic chemical and European doctors had been treating parents with the pharmaceutical grade to counteract the effects of hyperthyroidism. There was also some evidence from a chemist called Perkins who had been in contact with German pharmaceutical giant IGFarben that the substance had been introduced into the water in areas where the population was considered to be volatile. Was it true that the Nazis were using fluoridation to mind control the population? We don’t really know, but it is interesting to note that thyroid hypo function has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and the drug “synthyroid” was the second most prescribed medication in 1999.
It is now 66 years since this experiment was initiated and in view of the risks involved one would expect to see amazing results in the dental health of the countries that have embraced the program. Sadly bad teeth are not a thing of the past in participating countries like Ireland, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand. Sadly research has determined that dental health has declined significantly. Now the practice is also to add sodium fluoride to most brands of toothpaste. Many western products now carry a health warning stating that medical attention needs to be sought if it is swallowed.
In Thailand water is not fluoridated but thanks to the "Borrow Foundation" milk and yoghurt are. Beware dairy products and we can all stop buying fluoridated toothpaste, too. Fluoride does not prevent acids from eating away enamel and forming cavities. The best and simplest course of action is to rinse away the decay forming acids with good, plain water. Technically, water has a pH of 7 and this is a neutralizer. Sadly, most toothpaste contains glycerin which creates an oily barrier around the teeth themselves. This interferes with the calcium phosphate uptake in the diet from strengthening the enamel. How then, you may ask do you clean your teeth? The answer is amazingly simple. The best agent for tooth cleaning is good, old fashioned soap. Scrape your brush along the bar a couple of times and then brush thoroughly. The soap will wash away acids, and dissolve the oils that prevent enamel re-growth. It will clean the gums and sweeten the breath, it does not usually taste very nice, and so you need to rinse your mouth very thoroughly with water after the cleaning process. Don’t however; use liquid soap as that will unleash another set of problems.
This article written by Alister Bredee, first appeared in the Samui Gazette of July 22nd 2011

“Neem the Panacea for all Diseases!”

In Thailand they call it “Saddow”; the trees can be found growing in dry locations. It is itself a member of the mahogany family and is native to India and S.E. Asia. You can ask your garden centre to source a sapling for you; it just might be a valuable addition to your garden!
“Azardirachta Indica” to give the plant its proper name has played an important role in ayurvedic medicine for more than 3000 years. Ayurveda is a term than comes from the combination of two Sanskrit words which translate as “life science”. Similar to the ancient tradition of Chinese medicine this Indian system believes an imbalance of body, mind or spirit is the root cause of all disease. Bring harmony to the system and wellness returns.
Neem has so many medicinal uses that it has been described as “the village pharmacy “in Ayurvedic literature, where it is depicted like this: ‘Neem bark is cool, bitter, astringent, acrid and refrigerant. It is useful in tiredness, cough, fever, loss of appetite, worm infestation. It heals wounds and vitiated conditions of kapha, vomiting, skin diseases, excessive thirst, and diabetes. Neem leaves are reported to be beneficial for eye disorders and insect poisons. It treats Vatik disorder. It is anti-leprotic. Its fruits are bitter, purgative, anti-hemorrhoids and anthelmintic’. (The Neem Foundation.)
This wonder tree has recently come to the attention of western medicine. Curiously the American pharmaceutical company W.R. Grace tried and was successful in obtaining an European patent on it. Sensibly the Indian Government objected, correctly claiming that the medicines derived from the tree had been a part of the ayurevedic pharmacopeia for several thousand years. Grace lost their patent but still had the arrogance to contest the ruling. They lost again and so the case closed! What they were trying to do was patent a fungicide derived from the tree.
Neem’s anti-mold, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties are well known in oriental medicine. In Thailand they place “saddow” leaves in rice stores to protect the crop from spoilage. In the humid tropical climate of southern Thailand mold is an ongoing problem as many will attest after the recent rains. Ceilings and walls developed black blotches and the sickly sweet smell of mildew seeped from cupboards, book shelves and even bed sheets. Mildew is a minute fungus which needs moisture to survive. Bathrooms with damp air trapped between four walls are a prime location for these molds. The spores settle in the mucous membrane of the human body and some strains contain mycotoxins which are hazardous to health. Washing down moldy walls with a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution usually kills the fungus. If you don’t do this you stand a chance of developing allergic reactions and sometimes illnesses like asthma, coughs, a build up of mucous, sinus conditions whilst irritations can break out in the eyes and throat. Mold also forms on spoiled food. Once you detect mold on food, don’t eat it, throw it out, it can be quite poisonous.
If we do develop symptoms like the common cough, taking Neem capsules is an excellent way of addressing the problem. Mycotoxins include an advanced form of yeast which mutates and becomes a fungus. This often happens in Candida albicans. We all have yeast in our system and it plays an important role in quelling disease, but when it changes to a fungus it can grow rhizomes or roots that penetrate cell walls and cause toxins to spread. Neem capsules are an efficient antidote to Candida problems. The plant is native to Thailand and the capsules are readily available. Supplies can be purchased from Ms. Ta’s shop, located opposite Spa Samui in Lamai. Whilst there, stock up with some of the probiotic coconut drink and coconut cheese. These products are rich in natural bacteria which help the immune system work more efficiently by providing the ammunition it needs to fight off disease. Take a look at their website at www.thaiorganiclife.com."
This article by Alister Bredee appeared in the Samu Gazette of 10th June 2011

Remedies: Chewing Gum for Heartburn By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times What alternative remedies belong in your home medicine cabinet?

More than a third of American adults use some form of complementary or alternative medicine, according to a government report. Natural remedies have an obvious appeal, but how do you know which ones to choose and whether the claims are backed by science? In this occasional series, Anahad O’Connor, the New York Times “Really?” columnist, explores the claims and the science behind alternative remedies that you may want to consider for your family medicine cabinet.

The Remedy: Chewing gum.

The Claim: It relieves heartburn.

The Science: It may be hard for most people to think of chewing gum as a remedy for anything other than a case of bad breath. But several studies in recent years have shown that it can in fact help alleviate the symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease, better known to most people as GERD or heartburn.

Chewing on a piece or two of gum, it seems, helps force fluids back into the stomach and flood the esophagus with alkaline saliva, neutralizing acids that cause the characteristic burning sensations.

One independent study demonstrating this, published in 2005 in The Journal of Dental Research, involved 31 patients who were recruited for testing after they showed up at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London with symptoms of heartburn. The scientists conceded that their hypothesis going into the study “was that chewing gum does not have any effect on the clearance of reflux from the distal esophagus.”

Ultimately, they were surprised. On two separate days, they asked subjects to fast for four hours, then fed them a “refluxogenic” lunch that would give just about anyone heartburn: two bars of full-fat cheddar cheese, green salad with two tablespoons of mayonnaise, 15 large chips and half a pint of full-fat milk. On both days, some of the subjects were then randomly selected to chew sugar-free gum for half an hour after the meal.

After monitoring the subjects for two hours after the meals, they found that acid levels were significantly lower when the participants chewed gum. The study was financed by King’s College London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Another study, this one in 2001, involved 36 people, some of them with diagnosed cases of GERD and others who were healthy controls. The study found that chewing sugarless gum for an hour after a large breakfast reduced acid reflux in both groups for up to three hours, particularly in the heartburn group. The study was carried out by gastroenterologists at Veterans Affairs hospitals in New Mexico and Illinois, and financed by the American Digestive Health Foundation.

The Risks: Frequently chewing sugary gum may damage tooth enamel and increase cavities. But sugar-free varieties containing xylitol — which helps inhibit tooth-eroding bacteria — can have a protective effect.

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Some tips on Olive Oil

From Dr. Mercola

Extra-virgin olive oil is a good monounsaturated fat that is also well-known for its health benefits. It's a staple in healthful diets such as Mediterranean-style diets.

However, it's important to realize it is NOT good for cooking. It should really only be used cold, typically drizzled on salads and other food.

Due to its chemical structure and a large amount of unsaturated fats, cooking makes extra-virgin olive oil very susceptible to oxidative damage. However, during this interview I learned that extra-virgin olive oil has a significant draw-back even when used cold – it's still extremely perishable!

As it turns out, extra-virgin olive oil contains chlorophyll that accelerates decomposition and makes the oil go rancid rather quickly.

In fact, Dr. Moerck actually prefers using almost tasteless, semi-refined olive oil rather than extra-virgin olive oil for this reason.

If you're like most people, you're probably leaving your bottle of olive oil right on the counter, opening and closing it multiple times a week. Remember, any time the oil is exposed to air and/or light, it oxidizes, and as it turns out, the chlorophyll in extra virgin olive oil accelerates the oxidation of the unsaturated fats.

Clearly, consuming spoiled oil (of any kind) will likely do more harm than good.

To protect the oil, Dr. Moerck recommends treating it with the same care as you would other sensitive omega-3 oils:

• Keep in a cool, dark place
• Purchase smaller bottles rather than larger to ensure freshness
• Immediately replace the cap after each pour

To help protect extra virgin olive oil from oxidation, Dr. Moerck suggests putting one drop of astaxanthin into the bottle. You can purchase astaxanthin, which is an extremely potent antioxidant, in soft gel capsules. Just prick it with a pin and squeeze the capsule into the oil.

The beautiful thing about using astaxanthin instead of another antioxidant such as vitamin E, is that it is naturally red, whereas vitamin E is colorless, so you can tell the oil still has astaxanthin in it by its color.

As the olive oil starts to pale in color, you know it's time to throw it away.

You can also use one drop of lutein in your olive oil. Lutein imparts an orange color and will also protect against oxidation. Again, once the orange color fades, your oil is no longer protected against rancidity and should be tossed.

This method is yet another reason for buying SMALL bottles. If you have a large bottle, you may be tempted to keep it even though it has begun to oxidize.

The Worst Cooking Oils of All

Polyunsaturated fats are the absolute WORST oils to use when cooking because these omega-6-rich oils are highly susceptible to heat damage.

This category includes common vegetable oils such as:

• Corn
• Soy
• Safflower
• Sunflower
• Canola

Damaged omega-6 fats are disastrous to your health, and are responsible for far more health problems than saturated fats ever were.

Trans fat is the artery-clogging, highly damaged omega-6 polyunsaturated fat that is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.

I strongly recommend never using margarine or shortening when cooking. I guarantee you you're already getting far too much of this damaging fat if you consume any kind of processed foods, whether it be potato chips, pre-made cookies, or microwave dinners...

Trans fat is the most consumed type of fat in the US, despite the fact that there is no safe level of trans fat consumption, according to a report from the Institute of Medicine.

Trans fat raises your LDL (bad cholesterol) levels while lowering your HDL (good cholesterol) levels, which of course is the complete opposite of what you want. In fact, trans fats -- as opposed to saturated fats -- have been repeatedly linked to heart disease. They can also cause major clogging of your arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems.

Personally I don't cook very much but when I do I use our Pure Virgin Coconut Oil as it is the most resistant to heating damage, but also a great source of medium chained triglycerides and lauric acid.

Hot Yoga Oils the Joints.

Hot Yoga Oils the Joints.

Bikram yoga emerged out of Calcutta in the 1970s. This was shortly after Bikram Choudhury went to Japan to teach and found that too many of his yoga students hurt themselves during practice. This had not happened in his hometown, so he decided he would re-create the conditions of Calcutta and see if that made a difference. So he heated the yoga room to 37 C or body temperature and upped the humidity factor to 65%. The injury rate decreased and he fashioned what is known as Bikram or Hot Yoga.

Traditionally the classes are 90 minutes in duration and consist of 26 postures or asanas plus two breathing exercises. According to Polish born Tomasz Goetel who runs the “Hot Yoga Studio” in Phuket, “the sweat is cleansing because it removes toxins from the body.” “The joints are nicely oiled up to encourage stretching!”

Choudhury himself claims that his system considerably enhances blood circulation by two processes referred to as extension and compression. He says this transports oxygen to every system in the body. We know that oxygen both energizes and detoxifies, so his claim sounds to be of immense benefit to health.

“You must also have mirrors, so that you can see yourself.” What sort of voyeuristic activity is this? It looks to be a long way from early morning asanas in a wooden sala, situated meters away from the gently lapping swell of the sea.

“No mirrors are important. You can admire yourself! They make you look good,” says Tomasz. That’s fine if you have a sylph like figure shining with the polish of youth, but as age takes its inevitable toll this initial bloom gives way to bulging stomachs and flabby muscles, not at all a pretty sight!

“No you don’t understand. Mirrors help you align the body. You can see what you are doing and this simplifies the instructions”, asserts Tomasz who is the founder of “Hot Yoga Evolution”. This is really his take on the teachings of Jimmy Barkan one of the world’s most respected hot yogainstructors.

Tomasz’s classes are for everybody. “This is fun and I practice a sweet and friendly approach. This is a gentle way and all are welcome.” This take was very far from my own views on the subject. Yoga means union of mind, body and spirit, and it was developed as a spiritual form of exercising. It always seemed that this new fad was simply a trendy way of getting fit. A gym workout dressed up in yogic clothes seemed a very far cry from getting in touch with a power greater than ourselves.

Tomasz smiled at this cynicism. “No. it is a supportive endeavor. I work on a multi-level basis by offering individual tuition to the beginners until they can catch up with the rest of the class. Beginners are encouraged to join the classes. True this makes the teacher’s job more challenging but it also lets the advanced students inspire the less able.”

I had met some of his students during “Hot Yoga Evolution” trainings at Absolute Sanctuary in Cheong Mon. Some were stunners, radiating youth and fitness but others I could relate to. Here were men who had passed their forty mark, they carried a bit of weight and did not appear to be super fit.

“It is these people who feel they are in the right place. Once that starts happening they begin swimming with the rest of the class.” That’s one of Tomasz’s claims that seemed to hold water.

Apparently it “takes five classes to get used to the heat and then participants begin to realize that hot yoga is a perfect environment for the non-yoga person. Men begin to relate to the cardio-fitness and ladies understand calorie burn for weight loss.”

Was I convinced? Yes, the exercise related benefits were plainly evident and the talks and lectures that comprised the practical side of the Hot Yoga Evolution training brought out the more philosophical and spiritual elements and so this removed some of my remaining prejudices.

Hot Yoga is available on Koh Samui at Absolute Sanctuary and at Bikram Yoga in Chaweng. Tomasz Goetel holds twice yearly retreats on the island usually at Absolute Sanctuary, so perhaps there is an opportunity to learn from the horse’s mouth. It’s usually the best way. Oh, to track him down, you could try Mr.Google!

Alister Bredee is a freelance author living on Koh Samui. He is a health care practitioner, trainer and a partner in The Health Ambit Consultancy. He also works as a Detox Consultant and Locum. You can find him and the Health Ambit Consultancy on Facebook.

This article first appeared in "The Samui Gazette" of 3rd December 2010

This Will Change the World as We Know It" by Dr. Al Sears

This had such an impact on me, I still remember it: I was sitting at my desk almost 20 years ago. I like to stay abreast of non-medical scientific literature. So I picked up my issue of Scientific American and something jumped off the page at me.
Elizabeth Blackburn had made a truly revolutionary discovery. I'll never forget it.
When I read that she'd found a solution to aging already in our genes, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down something that I still have today. It says, "This will change the world as we know it."
Now, finally, it seems other people think so, too. Elizabeth Blackburn won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Why all the fuss? Let me explain why this discovery is so powerful…
She and her colleagues had discovered the enzyme telomerase that allows you to rebuild the end part of your chromosomes called the telomere.
Telomeres are like the plastic caps on your shoelaces … only at the ends of your DNA. They keep your chromosomes from unraveling.
But here's the rub…
Each time your cells divide, your DNA copies itself exactly. And every time that happens, the telomeres get a tiny bit shorter. When telomeres get too short, the cell stops dividing. This is because there's not enough of the "cap" left to stop the DNA from unraveling.
In other words, it's the length of your telomeres that let your chromosomes know they can't make good copies any more. It's like an auto-shut-off mechanism so you don't make damaged DNA.
What this means is that telomere shortening serves as your genetic clock. This in itself is a huge discovery, but there's even more to it. After years of research and testing, scientists have found a way to stop your telomeres from shortening.
How? The enzyme that can turn back your biological clock: telomerase.
Telomerase is in all your cells, but it's usually turned off. The key to slowing or even reversing the aging process is activating it.
Telomerase's job is to make a blueprint so your telomeres can rebuild themselves when your DNA makes copies. This way, your telomeres don't get shorter. Sometimes they even get longer.
In fact, Blackburn discovered that telomerase is so important, even healthy, growing cells can have "catastrophic telomere shortening" without the enzyme. And when it's active, telomerase rebuilds telomeres that have suffered shortening.
Eventually, this discovery could lead to immortality. But activating your telomerase has benefits for you, right now.
Old Cells Can Be Young Again. When you get sick, your immune system makes copies of its disease-fighting white blood cells called T-cells. These cells divide over and over again to fight off the bacteria or virus that's invading your body.
The more often these cells reproduce, the shorter their telomeres become until they stop copying. The older you get, the fewer active T-cells you have because they've fought off as much sickness as they can. The bottom line is that when your telomeres are short, your immune system looks and acts old.
This makes your risk for infection and disease much higher. One study looked at about 150 people from 60-75 years old. The ones who had shorter telomeres were three times more likely to die from heart disease. And they were eight times more likely to die from an infectious disease.
Shortened telomeres also appear to be the mechanism for many chronic diseases like:
• Diabetes. When you eat too many carbohydrates, your pancreas is asked to create more insulin than it's supposed to. And to get the job done, the pancreas has to create more of a factory to create the insulin it needs by making more cells. If the pancreas is continually challenged to produce more and more insulin, the cells have to continue to divide. When their telomeres are too short, they can't reproduce anymore. And your body can't make the insulin you need. This is what causes diabetes.
• Atherosclerosis. One study I read looked at men with high blood pressure. Those with shorter telomeres in their white blood cells were more likely to get heart disease.
• Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's patients' glial cells, the maintenance cells to the brain, have short telomeres. Some kind of toxic environmental hazard caused those cells to replicate to defend themselves.
But you don't have to let your immune system grow old. When telomerase is activated, you strengthen your cells by keeping the telomeres long, strong and young. And the younger your cells are, the more powerful they are at fighting sickness and disease.
In fact, for most of the people in a brand new study, telomerase activation therapy reduced the percentage of immune cells with short telomeres by 10-50 percent. And the amount of older immune cells decreased by 10-20 percent.7 This represents an "apparent age reversal of 5-20 years!"
Grow Younger Naturally
Tons of research is going on every day and you'll be reading more and more about telomerase in the coming months. But in the meantime, you can help slow the aging of your cells with nutrients.
One of the best nutrients for activating your telomerase is trusty omega-3. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association followed about 600 people over a full five years. They found that daily supplements of omega-3 significantly increased telomerase activity.
Luckily for you, there are lots of foods you can eat to bulk up on omega-3 right now. Cold-water, high-fat fish like mackerel, wild salmon, lake trout and herring are good sources. Also, you can eat plenty of raw nuts and seeds. Walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds are some of my favorites.
The good news doesn't stop there, though. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently looked at telomere length in about 600 women. Those who used vitamins had telomeres that were on average 5 percent longer than those who didn't supplement.
Three vitamins your telomeres need are B12, C and E. You can get these in a variety of foods.
Unfortunately, in most circumstances, you might not be able to get enough of these vitamins from what you eat. If you can't, supplementing is a good option.
• Vitamin B12 – I recommend taking at least 100 mcg per day. But, you can take as much as 500 mcg per day to help improve your brain function and boost your energy levels.
• Vitamin C – Based on my own experience, taking up to 3,000 mg per day is a good amount if you're currently in good health. And in times of stress or sickness, you can take up to 20,000 mg.
It's very important to make sure you're getting a natural form of vitamin C, not a synthetic form. Natural vitamin C is over 100 percent more effective than the synthetic form. And it can stay in your system longer.
• Vitamin E – There are eight different types of vitamin E. And they get divided into two different groups: tocopherols and tocotrienols. Most multivitamins you find have only synthetic alpha tocopherol. Make sure you get a vitamin with a natural E complex. That way, you get all four tocopherols. Plus, natural E has twice the bioavailability of the synthetic form, so your body can absorb it better.
Vitamin D is called the "sunshine vitamin" for good reason. But it might soon be renamed the "telomere vitamin." That's because a separate study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition looked at more than 2,000 women of all ages. The more vitamin D they had in their bodies, the longer their telomeres were. On top of that, people who supplemented with vitamin D had longer telomeres than those who didn't.
To get some vitamin D in your system, go out in the sun for 20 minutes each day. Your body will use sunlight to make tons of the stuff. If you don't live in the Sunshine State, like I do, you might need to eat some of those same cold-water fish that give you omega-3s. There's also vitamin D in egg yolks and orange juice.
If you need to take a vitamin D supplement, I recommend 2,000 IU a day.
___________________________________________
1 Cong, Yusheng, Shay, Jerry W., "Actions of human telomerase beyond telomeres," Cell Research June 2008; 18:725-732
2 Simon, R., Chan, W. L., Blackburn, Elizabeth H., "Telomeres and telomerase," Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 2004; 359, 109-121
3 Cawthon, R.M., Smith, K.R., O'Brien, E., et al, "Association between telomere length in food and mortality in people aged 60 years or older," Lancet 2003; 361(9355): 393-395
4 Sampson, M., Winterbone, M., et al, "Monocyte Telomere Shortening and Oxidative DNA Damage in Type 2 Diabetes," Diabetes Care 2006
5 Benetos, A., Gardner, J., et al, "Short Telomeres are Associated with Increased Carotid Atherosclerosis in Hypertensive Subjects," Hypertension 2004
6 Farfara, D., Lifshitz, V., et al, "Neuroprotective and neurotoxic properties of glial cells in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease," Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 2008
7 Harley, C., Weimin, L., et al, "A Natural Product Telomerase Activator as Part of a Health Maintenance Program," Rejuvenation Research 2010
8 Ibid.
9 Ramin Farzaneh-Far, M.D., "Association of Marine Omega-3 Fatty Acid Levels with Telomeric Aging in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease," JAMA 2010; 303(3):250-257
10 Xu, Qun, Parks, Christine G., DeRoo, Lisa A., et al, "Multivitamin use and telomere length in women," Am J Clin Nutr March 2009; 89: 1857-1863, 2009
11 Richards, J Brent, et al, "Higher serum vitamin D concentrations are associated with longer leukocyte telomere length in women," Journal of Clinical Nutrition Nov. 2007; Vol. 86, No. 5, 1420-1425
Dr. Al Sears

It’s Raining Oil in New Orleans:

Unfortunately, we live in a very toxic world. Yes, this is a toxicity of the mind, body and spirit, because we cannot really look at one of the headings without taking into account another. We all know, although the full story has not been revealed that millions of liters of crude oil are flowing from the rupture at the sea bed out into the Gulf of Mexico. This threatens to destroy wildlife, sea life and the environment in a huge swathe of destruction that will spread its web deep over the Atlantic Ocean unless swiftly stopped. As the sun heats the water of the Gulf, it will vaporize and eventually fall to the land as rain. This rain will contain oil which will damage plants and animal life far inland from the actual site of the spill. The Gulf Stream starts in the Gulf of Mexico so vast globs of this poisonous crude will be transported across the Atlantic to Europe. They are trying to mop up the spilt oil with toxic chemicals which simply compound the problem and to make matters even worse; much of this is under-reported by a compliant media.

Other than the oil presently spewing into the Atlantic Ocean we are bombarded by toxins on a daily basis. There are pesticides in vegetables and fruit, there are noxious chemicals in the cleaning products we use in the home and the beauty products we slather onto our skin contain potent poisons like glycol and sodium laurel sulphate. It is little wonder that good health is on the decline and diseases like cancer have reached epidemic proportions. The manufactures tell the public that a little of this and a little of that poison is perfectly OK and harmless in such small amounts. They have a blinkered view as a little of this and a little of that in one product is probably relatively all right but when the problem is viewed cumulatively, it definitely is not acceptable. We are looking at the straw that broke the camel’s back type scenario.

In order to survive the body has to detoxify these poisons. The principal organ of detoxification is the liver. Nobody is safe from mass contamination and the liver needs a lot of help so that everybody can stay as healthy as possible. The picture grows a little less bright, on realizing that most if not all pharmaceutical medicines and over the counter drugs are in themselves poisonous. These have to be cleared by the liver. Stress surrounds everybody. The autonomic nervous system has a design fault. It emerged at a time when very real threats like saber toothed tigers lived just around the corner. On encountering a tiger the choice was either to run (fear) or fight (anger). To activate these responses adrenaline is needed. The adrenal response floods the body with hormones that switch us into accelerated, sympathetic mode designed to increase strength, stamina and alter blood flow amongst many other changes which are there to improve coping skills in a dangerous situation. Hans Selye called this the “flight or fight” response. These hormones are poisons, too. It is the liver’s function to neutralize them so they pass safely out of the system.

The liver has an unenviable job. It generates enzymes that convert these poisons, including alcohol, into harmless carbon-dioxide and Oxygen. Too many toxins overwork the liver and cause it to harden. This is what cirrhosis is. However, the liver, which is the largest organ in the body, is fully able to regenerate itself. It deserves a break, because if the it wasn’t working properly your system would be overwhelmed by all these toxins and you would die. Silymarin or Milk Thistle is nature’s remedy for an overloaded liver. This is the supplement to take with you when you are marooned on a desert island and can take no other with you. If cash is an issue this is the one supplement to buy. It replaces a myriad of other supplements, saving you a lot of money in the long run.

Milk Thistle is a tall spiky plant which grows best in regions with a Mediterranean type climate. It can be found growing in Spain, Italy and the South of France. The legend goes that the white milk like substance that flows from the leaves is “milk” from the Virgin Mother herself! It is not a new remedy. Historically it has been used to treat liver problems since Roman times. However, in much more recent times it was found that Milk Thistle could neutralize the poisonous effects of carbon tetrachloride, which can cause live failure. Carbon tetrachloride is a cleaning agent and a component of Freon gas used in refrigerators and air conditioners. However, when the dangers of this chemical became apparent its usage was severely reduced. In the USA it served as a pesticide until banned in 1970.

Milk Thistle protects the liver by, firstly, forming a protective shield around the organ itself. This keeps toxic invaders out and helpful nutrients in! Secondly, Milk Thistle is a very powerful anti-oxidant, thus is acts as a free radical scavenger which gives added protection to the beleaguered liver. When Oxygen molecules lack an electron things go a little crazy! Lone electrons have to find a partner at all costs. Whilst they do this they rip through cell walls and cause a lot of serious damage. Milk Thistle gives up an electron of its own to halt this destructive process. Thirdly, Silymarin or Milk Thistle serves as a powerful detoxificant due to a process called conjugation. Molecules attach themselves to silymarin. In essence what occurs is the invasive non-polar compounds are dissipated because they make water soluble metabolites which then can excreted in the usual way.
If you want to protect the liver which is a very necessary precaution to take in today’s world, a regular intake of Milk Thistle will help the liver cope better with today’s toxic world. The suggested dosage is 200mg first thing in the morning and another 200mg last thing at night. Milk Thistle might not stop the Louisiana oil spill but it will help protect your body’s responses to the all pervasive toxic overload to which it is constantly being exposed!

Royal Raymond Rife had a Cure for Cancer in the 1930s.

Royal Raymond Rife was, perhaps, the greatest medical scientist of the twentieth century and yet, sadly, very few people have ever heard of him. He died of alcoholism in obscurity in 1971. Royal Rife was the inventor of the "Dark Field Microscope" and this he did in the 1920s. His "Universal Microscope", magnified objects 60,000 times, and this made him the first man in history to view a living virus. Ironically most of today's scientists using powerful electron microscopes are viewing dead bio-organisms, because the powerful electric field of their equipment kills the virus. Rife, a brilliant inventor was the "Father of Electronic Medicine", which he used very successfully to treat cancer patients in his clinic in San Diego in the 1930s.He suggested cancer was a virus and was able to facilitate cures by killing the virus with an electronic frequency generator.
Rife realized that everything on the planet has a vibrational frequency. The wall that surounds the room in which you sit, is a) not solid and b) all the atoms that go to make up thast seeming solid wall are vibrating at a frequency or more precisely a frequency span.Thanks to his microscope, he was able to culture a variety of pathogens and then subject them to the frquencies generated by his beam.This killed the pathogens. The result was very successful according to Barry Lynes who wrote a book about Rife in the 1980s. It seems that many people had their cancers turned around by the system. He also claimed cancer was a virus and his "zapper" generated a frequency that killed the virus. The late Dr. Hulda Clarke took this a little further in the 1990s. She too subscribed to the frequency theory, but did not attribute cause to just one virus, but a series of factors including candida and other parasite that seemed to depend on ethyl-alcohol for their food source. The CoRe system is able to generate all the frequencies suggested by Rife and Clarke with interesting results.
The CoRe can be used to create the frequencies and then transmit them to the client by means of light or vibration. We did some work on this several years ago, when the frequency information was transmitted to the body by means of tapping on the acupoints a la EFT. The results were very satisfying. The CoRe system is now able to take this even fuirther, which promises to be exciting. Of course no one treatment technique is the answer in the healing of any malady. We can kill the pathogens on one hand, but it is also necesary to work on nutrition, stress control, emotional imblance and many other factors that go to make-up the whole of the disease state. The whole does comprise mind, body and spirit and let's never forget that!

Rife found, as we see with increasing frequency today, that toxins assault the body, and it seems the number of these are rising at an alarming rate. This gives some explantion to the almost epicdemic rise in cancer today. These poisons cannot be excreted effectively; as they build up they cause electrolyte imbalances within the cells. This accumulation prevents the absorbtion of nutrients and effectively gets rid of waste. Iranian Doctor F. Batmanghelidj in his book: "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" stresses the problem is further aggravated because most people drink far too little water. Thus dehydration and toxicity are the root cause of most of the congestive and degenerative diseases prevalent today.

Red Alert: Insider Study on Cell Phone Safety Seriously Flawed

Today's blog comes thanks to Dr. Joe Mercola.I feel that this is a very important and yet ignored topic. Daily I see people with cell phones plugged to their ears, who are totally oblivious of the dangers involved. Yes, these phones are wonderful devices but they ned to be used wisely and with a great deal of caution.
"The Interphone Study Group did finally acknowledge the increased risk of brain cancer among long-term, heavy users of cell phones. However, the International EMF Collaborative argues that the study still seriously underestimated the brain cancer risk".

"They found 11 key design flaws -- for example, individuals using cordless phones but not cell phones were considered 'unexposed' for purposes of the Interphone analysis, though exposed to the same radiation."

According to Electromagnetic Health, other issues with the Interphone study include:

* Results were only provided for brain cancers (gliomas) and meningiomas, but not tumors within the 20 percent of the brain's volume irradiated by cell phones
* Risk was not broken down by gender, which may have obfuscated even higher risk of meningiomas in women
* The 5-year old results are woefully inadequate as a gauge of risk today, as adults and children now speak on cell phones many hours a day compared to only 2 to 2 ½ hours a month at that time

Eileen O'Connor, Director of the Radiation Research Trust and member of the International EMF Collaborative, says:

"Four billion people own mobile phones worldwide, many of those users are children. Responsible governments must advocate for public transparency of risks so that an informed public may have more options to exercise precaution".

."YOGA & DETOX” A Good Way to Go says Health Ambit Consultancy.

Koh Samui is well known for being a haven for wellness with its plethora of resorts focusing on detox & rejuvenating program to cleanse and revitalize oneself. Many people think that to cleanse their bodies they need to go through fasting programs, a period of colon cleansing or taking supplements or detox shakes. However, our bodies actually have an in-built natural cleaning process and to aid that process a simple regular yoga practice can be done.

Yoga presents one of the best ways to detoxify your body as the key principle of yoga is working with your breath, and one of the ways to detoxify your body is to simply breathe. Yoga postures aid in detoxification by stretching & loosening muscles and joints which flush out “bad” blood and toxins whilst bringing a fresh supply of oxygenated blood enriched with nutrients. The practice of yoga also helps people feel better emotionally, physically and mentally thus promoting a positive flow of energy within that helps detox the body. Yoga breathing exercises known as Pranayama also help to release stored up toxins from the respiratory system. Styles of yoga such as Hot and Hot Flow Yoga involving Hatha Yoga postures done in a room heated to a temperature of 35 – 37 degrees are especially beneficial for detox. The heat-loss process at work during a hot yoga practice is stimulating and cleansing on many levels. The increase blood flow during a class speeds up the metabolic process of vital organs, and glands, mobilizing toxins for elimination. Many toxins are encapsulated in fat and stored in the body. Heat stimulates fat receptors, activating fat stores and facilitating fat loss and releasing these fat-soluble toxins. Naturally in a hot yoga class, one would sweat buckets and the skin being the largest organ in the body plays an important role in detoxifying through the process of sweating. In many traditions, inducing sweat for detoxification purposes is an ancient practice. Besides aiding in detox the heat has healing properties as it stimulates white blood cell production boosting one’s immune system and speeds up the healing of injuries. A regular hot or hot flow yoga class can certainly contribute in helping the body detox.

For those unable to stand long hours in the heat or can’t get access to a hot yoga class, some simple postures can help. Postures such as Bharadvajasana (Seated Side Twist), Lying Spinal Twist or Garudasana (eagle pose) that involve twists help squeeze out stale blood & when released help fresh blood flow in. Restorative poses such as Supta Baddha Konasana (Lying hero’s Pose), Viparita Karani
(Legs up the wall pose) & Child’s Pose that open up the chest, abdomen & back, help to massage the organs that detox the body such as the kidneys, liver & intestine. Breathing exercises such Kapalbhati breathing involving quick bursts of breath burns up toxins and stimulates the metabolic rate due to the rapid exchange of air in the lungs.


Yoga is not just limited to postures or breathing exercises, hand gestures or mudras are also part of a yoga practice and can also help in detoxifying the body. A simple mudra that can be done after a meal wherever you are is the “pushan mudra” which influences the energy currents that are responsible for absorbing and utilizing food as well as energies of elimination and detoxification. Sit comfortably with thumbs & index fingers touching, other fingers extended. Place back of palms on knees, close eyes, focus on your natural breath and relax for 1-2 minutes.

Wherever you are there is always a simple yoga posture, breathing exercise or hand gesture you can do to help in eliminating toxins from the body. However to reap the full benefits, a regular class will go a long way in helping your body detox itself.