Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2021 i What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

A few weeks ago, when interviewing ecological medicine pioneer Dr Damien Downing for our company’s Get Well online intensive on gut healing, we were completely floored by the implications of something he said. He was showing a slide from the scientific journal Autoimmunity Reviews with a title that could well set off nothing less than a revolution in medical thinking.1 The paper had the ponderous title, “Changes in Intestinal Tight Junction Permeability Associated with Industrial Food Additives Explain the Rising Incidence of Autoimmune Disease,”and Dr Downing had highlighted a section of the abstract where Aaron Lerner, a respected pediatric gastroenterologist from Israel, and his coauthor Torsten Mattias from a scientific institute in Germany, laid out their thesis, implicating the main culprits of intestinal damage: “Glucose, salt, emulsifiers, organic solvents, gluten,…

Just as Popeye said, eat your spinach if you want to keep yourself strong. Eating leafy green vegetables every day is good for your muscles and will help reduce your chances of a fall as you get older. It’s the nitrates in vegetables such as spinach, lettuce and kale that are doing all the good work; eating the equivalent of just one cup a day is enough to keep up muscle strength and function. Eating your greens every day for 12 years will boost lower limb strength by an average of 11 percent, and your walking speed will be 4 percent higher, say researchers from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, who tracked the health of 3,759 people. These benefits were achieved independent of exercise; just eating your greens every…

A typical pregnant woman has 109 environmental chemicals—from pollutants, cooking utensils, cosmetics and food containers—in her body. They have been discovered in the women’s blood and in their newborn children, which means they are passing through the placenta. But although it’s very worrying, it’s not clear what damage the chemicals are causing to the mother and child, say researchers from the University of California at San Francisco. It’s equally worrying that the researchers can’t identify the source of 42 chemicals or what they do, although they are assuming that these chemicals are derived from consumer products and industrial processes. Of the chemicals that were identified, most are used in food packaging, cosmetics, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and fire retardants. “It’s very concerning that we were unable to identify the uses…

Why do some people suffer badly from a Covid-19 infection when others hardly show any symptoms? It could all be to do with proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that try to deactivate our immune response, new research has discovered. A research team at the Cleveland Clinic has for the very first time identified this mechanism, involving the SARS-CoV-2 enzyme PLpro (papain-like protease), and they think it plays an important role in determining the severity of a Covid infection. PLpro can block the body’s immune response to the infection, and so understanding how it works—and how it affects people differently—could be an important way forward in treating Covid-19. “Our findings offer insights into a never-before characterized mechanism of immune activation and how PLpro disrupts this response, enabling the virus to freely…

Covid-19 isn’t a random killer. People who have one of four chronic health problems are far more likely to die from the virus, a major new study has confirmed. The ‘big four’ are heart disease, lung and kidney problems and cancer—and these risks are magnified if the person is also obese or is suffering from several of the diseases at the same time. Age also plays a part, but again only if the patient has one of the four health problems. Researchers from the University of East Anglia reviewed 52 studies—involving more than 100,000 Covid patients—to discover that the four diseases were common in the most serious Covid cases, either needing intensive care, ventilator support or involving the death of the patient. People with more than one of the chronic…

A compulsory vaccine passport seems less likely after the Council of Europe has ruled that vaccinations will not be mandatory in the 27 countries of the European Union. The council, which monitors human rights, has also told the leaders of the 27 member states they should be actively telling citizens that vaccination is a matter of choice, even when it comes to the new Covid-19 jabs. Although the ruling doesn’t mean that some vaccine passport won’t be introduced, it will never be mandatory, and tests that demonstrate whether someone has a Covid infection will always be an option. The ruling, contained in Resolution 2361 (2021), “Covid-19 vaccines: ethical, legal and practical considerations,” calls on all member states to tell citizens that vaccinations are not compulsory, and that nobody should be…

Rob Verkerk The Politics of Health An article by Lisa Schonhaar and Gisela Wolf in the UK’s Independent newspaper entitled“5 Habits of Stupid People that Smart People Don’t Have”gives us something of a framework that might help in our efforts to extract ourselves from our current predicament. The predicament I’m talking about is the one we’re left with as we emerge from a pandemic, where the societal devastation we’ll witness over the coming months and years will almost certainly outweigh the direct effects—as traumatic as they’ve been for those affected—of the new coronavirus itself. These five habits, turned around so that we can focus on the attributes of supposedly intelligent people, are:  • Own your mistakes, don’t blame others • Accept that others might be right •Don’t react to conflict…

Spring is in the air. The trees are budding, grass is growing, and you’re wheezing and sneezing with your nose streaming. The world is beckoning, but your eyes are itching and watery. You want to go back to bed because your immune system is having a maddening hyper-response to tree pollen that makes you feel like you have a head cold. Or maybe you’re affected like this any time of year by cat dander or dust, or you break out in hives when you eat something you like but your immune system doesn’t, such as strawberries, peanuts or pineapple. Join the club. Allergic conditions including food allergies, skin allergies (such as eczema) and respiratory allergies (such as hay fever) are among the most common medical conditions in Europe and the…

In the summer of 1816, Mary Shelley visited the British Romantic poet and satirist Lord Byron, taking part in a literary gathering at his villa in Geneva. As the story goes, Lord Byron challenged his guests to each write a ghost story. Inspired by the recent discoveries of two Italian physicists, Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta, revealing the electrical nature of the human body, two years later, Shelley finished her ghost story, titling it Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. In the meantime, “galvanism” jolted Western imagination. Giovanni Aldini shocked spectators throughout Europe using his uncle’s recently invented voltaic pile (the first crude battery) on the bodies of dead dogs and the cadavers of convicts, appearing to bring his subjects back to life by running a direct current through their bodies.…

According to the Budwig Center, an alternative cancer clinic in Málaga, Spain, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy can be used to treat the following conditions (and more): • Avascular necrosis• Ankylosing spondylitis• Rheumatoid arthritis• Osteoarthritis• Frozen shoulder• Calcaneal spur• Plantar fasciitis• Tennis elbow• Fracture malunion• Duchenne muscular dystrophy• Limb girdle muscular dystrophy• Stroke• Cerebellar disorders• Urinary incontinence• Intervertebral disc prolapse• Stenosis• Cervical spondylitis• Sacroiliitis• Psoriasis• Polyarthralgia• Post-polio syndrome• Spinal muscular atrophy• Bicep tendonitis• Non-healing wounds and ulcers• Enlarged prostate• Prostatitis• Temporomandibular joint pain• Gangrene…

Quantum-Touch stimulates the body’s capacity to heal itself through a practitioner’s use of intention, body energy awareness and breath work. Quantum-Touch founder Richard Gordon developed the practice based on techniques originated in the late 1970s by Bob Rasmussen, a hands-on healer. Foundational to the Quantum-Touch technique is the understanding that it is not the practitioner doing the healing, but rather the recipient. “Given the right energetic, emotional, nutritional and spiritual environments, the natural state of the body is perfect health or homeostasis,” says Richard Gordon, author of Quantum-Touch 2.0: The New Human (North Atlantic Books, 2013). “The body has an extraordinary intelligence and ability to heal itself. Our favorite definition of a healer is someone who was sick and got well. A great healer is someone who was very sick…

“I’ve known Paul for a long time, and over the years he’s been really helpful with health issues. I’ve been having conversations with him about nutrition and supplements for decades. “In 2020 my little boy was two years old and quite big for his age—30 pounds! I was really feeling the effects of having to constantly pick him up and carry him on my hip. “I felt something change in the way I was feeling. I had this new energy, I felt better. . . Then I got his message that he’d done the healing” “Paul could tell that I wasn’t standing right and asked if I was feeling okay. When I admitted I was in pain he suggested that he’d do some core distortion work. “Frankly, I went in…

For treating an active infection, herbalist Meilyr James, owner of the Herbal Clinic in Swansea, Wales (www.herbalclinic-swansea.co.uk), recommends making an herbal tea with the following herbs. A tea is the best way to take the herbs, says James, as the additional fluid assists with flushing and cleansing the bladder. Just remember to see a doctor if your symptoms don’t improve after a few days or get worse. Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) contains the glycoside arbutin, which has antimicrobial properties, and tannins, which tighten and tone the mucous membranes of the bladder wall, helping to reduce inflammation and prevent microorganisms from attaching. Corn silk (Zea mays). This soothing, diuretic herb contains a healing mucilage that calms inflammation and helps to relieve sensations of burning when urinating. Buchu (Agathosma betulina). This herb has…

Dr Damien Downing, a specialist in allergy, environment and nutrition, is current president of the British Society for Ecological Medicine, on the editorial board of Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Chief Medical Advisor of cancer charity Yes to Life (www.yestolife.org.uk), and author of numerous books including The Vitamin Cure for Allergies. Dr Michel Odent, a French-trained surgeon and obstetrician, is a pioneer of the natural birth movement, emphasizing home and water birth. Founder of the Primal Health Research Centre in the UK, he has written some 50 scientific papers and 11 books. Dr Sarah Myhill has worked in the UK National Health Service and private practice since 1981. Honorary Secretary of the British Society for Ecological Medicine for 17 years, she is a frequent lecturer and author of Sustainable Medicine and…

Want your kids to do well on their exams? Then get them running—the fitter they are, the better their grades are likely to be, a new study has found. There’s a link between cardiorespiratory fitness and improved mental powers, and that, in turn, improves a child’s grade levels, say researchers at the University of Geneva. They assessed the fitness and mental sharpness of 193 schoolchildren between eight and 12 years old, and had them do some running exercises to test their cardiovascular fitness levels before asking them to complete nine cognitive tasks. The tasks measured three key functions: inhibition, when we can blank out distractions and irrelevant thoughts; cognitive flexibility, otherwise known as multitasking; and working memory, our ability to retain information. The children who were the fittest also scored…

Forget powerful drugs or even vaccinations, one of our most powerful allies against Covid-19 could be the common cold. The human rhinovirus, which causes the cold, wipes the floor with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, biologically speaking. It triggers an interferon response that blocks the Covid virus, and stops it spreading through the body. Researchers from Glasgow University have discovered that the cold virus—one of the most widespread infections in the world—is stronger and faster than the Covid-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus, and always wins the battle for survival in our cells. It’s great news on several counts. Anyone who has a cold is extremely unlikely to get Covid-19, as is anyone who still has high levels of rhinovirus after a recent cold. There’s also the possibility that the cold virus could be used…

Google owns shares in a biotech company that developed the controversial AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which has been banned in several countries because it carries an increased risk of life-threatening blood clots. Its venture capital arm, Google Ventures, has a 6 percent holding in Vaccitech (UK) Ltd, the developer of the AstraZeneca/ Oxford University vaccine, which has been banned or had its use restricted in most countries in Europe. Health agencies have also changed their safety advisory and recommend people under the age of 30 should be offered an alternative vaccine. The risk has been estimated at around one case per 100,000 people vaccinated, similar to blood clotting risks with the contraceptive pill. Google’s interest in Vaccitech came to light when the company issued its prospectus to raise $125 million on…

Want to lose weight or overcome a chronic health problem like type 2 diabetes or heart disease? The answer is simple, but painful: go swim in a cold lake or run out into the snow just wearing a bathing suit. Crazy? Perhaps, but sudden exposure to extreme cold kickstarts a biological process that burns fat and helps the body fight chronic disease. It’s all to do with a major discovery about the way the body uses energy. It was only in 2009 that researchers discovered our bodies retain a type of fat biologists had believed we shed in early childhood. In fact, the fat—called brown adipose tissue (BAT), or simply brown fat—stays with us throughout our lives, and its main function is to burn calories to maintain a healthy body…

You know the official story: Covid-19 is a highly contagious and deadly infection that can be stopped only by social distancing, frequent handwashing, lockdowns, masks, mass testing, contact tracing and ultimately vaccines. But in reality, Covid-19 appears to be a highly contagious, dangerous, lab-manufactured “trigger” for the preexisting conditions of an aging and increasingly chronically ill population. The virus itself isn’t the primary cause of most Covid-19 hospitalizations and fatalities. Rather, the virus exploits other serious diseases with high mortality that are widespread in the population and dangerous in and of themselves. It’s these comorbidities, along with rampant medical malpractice, that are the main drivers of Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths. To put it simply: People are dying w ith Covid-19 as opposed to dying from it. To understand the truth…

To be fair, the official story and statistics have reported that underlying health conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes are key factors in Covid-19 fatalities. Yet the data show they’re more than contributing factors: they’re the primary drivers of hospitalizations and deaths. In one study, more than 99 percent of people who died from Covid-19-related complications had underlying medical conditions. Among those fatalities, 76.1 percent had high blood pressure, 35.5 percent had diabetes and 33 percent had heart disease.1 Another study revealed that among 18- to 49-year-olds hospitalized due to Covid-19, obesity was the most prevalent underlying condition, just ahead of hypertension.2 What’s more, investigations reveal that most Covid-19 patients have more than one underlying health issue. A study looking at 5,700 New York City patients found that…

Kidney and bladder stones have plagued humanity since time immemorial. For thousands of years—at least since 10 A.D. when the first surgical removal of bladder stones was recorded—the only treatment was to make an incision near the perineum toward the bladder (without anesthesia), then inserting a metal hook and pulling the stone out through the incision. The wound was not sutured, and the operation was frequently fatal. This gruesome method didn’t change much until the nineteenth century, when Bavarian doctor and astronomer Franz von Paula Gruithuisen proposed the practice of destroying stones through other means, from mechanical force to an electric current—so-called “lithotripsy”—thus allowing patients with all but very large stones to avoid surgery. There were many incremental improvements to this approach over the next century, but it still required…

In October 2008, Don Skelton, 73, fell and hurt his back. He went to the hospital in Gloucestershire to have a checkup, and when they ran a blood test it came back showing an elevated level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen). “They sent me off to have a biopsy, and it came back that I had early-stage cancer,” says Skelton. “The urologist said since it was early, they’d just do watchful waiting—which is what I did for years.” Gradually, his PSA level rose to over 10, and another biopsy was done under anesthetic. This time the doctors advised that he have hormone treatment and then radiotherapy. “I had hormone therapy for about two months, and it was just awful,” he says. “It’s basically chemical castration, for lack of a better term.…

According to Don McCann, founder of Structural Energetic Therapy, after 37 years of work and research, the following are just a few of the health benefits that he attributes to correcting core distortion. For the professional athlete, after clearing core distortion, peak performance is a true possibility, along with fewer injuries and a longer athletic career. Recovery time from injuries that do occur is minimized, while overall stamina, endurance, strength, flexibility, organ function efficiency and energy are maximized. This goes for non-athletes as well. A partial list of the more than 200 health conditions McCann has found respond well to the balancing of the cranial twist and the core distortion pattern include: scoliosis, neck pain, herniated and bulging discs, shoulder pain, frozen shoulder, degenerative disc disease, arthritis, back pain, sciatic…

“Pyometra is a life-threatening infection of the uterus” Q Our vet has advised us to get our five-year-old dog, Lucy, spayed. We wanted to have her puppies but never got around to breeding her. The vet says she may end up with a serious condition called pyometra. Can you suggest any holistic options? A.B. via email APyometra is a life-threatening infection of the uterus that typically affects older, intact (unspayed) female dogs. It can occur in cats too, although it’s much more common in dogs. The name literally means pus in the uterus (womb). It’s not unusual for dogs to get a bacterial infection in the uterus from time to time, but if there is a buildup of the uterine lining without a pregnancy, the infection can persist and become…

1. Choose natural sunscreen The chemical filters used in most sunscreens to protect your skin from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays could be seriously bad for your health. Oxybenzone, for example, also known as benzophenone-3, is a known hormone disruptor that’s recently been found to cause DNA damage in mice—at surprisingly low concentrations.1 In humans, it’s been linked to low birth weight in girls, as well as endometriosis, a leading cause of female infertility.2 Other sunscreen chemicals of concern include octocrylene and avobenzone, both associated with high rates of skin allergy, and homosalate, another hormone disruptor.3 Safer alternatives are the natural mineral filters zinc oxide and titanium dioxide—and there are now plenty of brands offering chemical-free sunscreens made with one of these ingredients, or a combination of the two. Both…

Cholesterol and Covid I found the article“Your Great Immune System Reset”in the Apr/May 21 issue very informative and helpful, but was surprised that there was no mention of the vital role that an adequate supply of cholesterol plays in the successful synthesis of vitamin D. I feel it would be interesting to know if records were kept of the level of this vitamin in the people who have sadly died of Covid, and how many of them had artificially lowered their cholesterol with statins. Patricia Smart, via email A refreshing read I am a chiropractor in Australia who only discovered your magazine last week. I must say it is refreshing to find a health magazine that is not full of conspiracy theories. It’s also good to see a reference for…

Nitrate-rich foods such as lettuce, spinach and celery keep your blood vessels and brain healthy. These foods promote ‘good’ bacteria in the mouth, which help regulate blood vessels and neurotransmission, or chemical messaging to the brain. The diet becomes more important as we get older and our natural ability to produce nitric oxide declines, say researchers from the University of Exeter. The foods—together with beet juice, which the researchers used for their experiment—are rich in inorganic nitrate, and bacteria in the mouth convert this to nitric oxide, which helps maintain good vascular and cognitive health. The researchers gave beet juice to 26 healthy adults for 10 days before switching to a nitrate-free placebo juice. They drank both juices twice a day. After drinking the beet juice, the participants had higher…

Eating just one slice of bacon every day is enough to increase your risk of dementia by 44 percent—and that’s true for any processed meat. The damaging effects of processed meats have been revealed by researchers from Leeds University, who analyzed the eating habits and health of nearly 500,000 people who participated in the UK Biobank survey. Eating just 25 grams (0.9 oz) of processed meat—the equivalent of a single rasher of bacon—every day increases the risk of dementia by 44 percent. Conversely, those who ate unprocessed red meat—such as beef, pork or veal—reduced their risk by 19 percent. Nearly 3,000 people in the survey developed dementia during the eight years they were tracked, and they tended to be older, less educated, poorer, more likely to smoke and less physically…

If a rapid lateral flow test has detected you have Covid-19, you probably don’t; up to 72 percent of cases identified by the test are false-positives, a new review has discovered. The lateral flow is the quick, on-the-spot test that’s being used to get children into school and adults back into the workplace—but it’s hopelessly inaccurate and doesn’t do the job, say researchers from the independent Cochrane Collaboration. It’s producing up to 72 percent false-positive results and is picking up true cases in just half of people who are asymptomatic. The results are forcing schools to close and thousands to self-isolate needlessly, the researchers say. Along with the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test, the lateral flow is at the heart of government initiatives to get society open again. But it’s…

It wasn’t much more than a year ago that most solutions proposed to fix broken healthcare systems, whether in the US, the UK or elsewhere, were down to people taking greater responsibility for their own health. This is because the biggest burdens on our healthcare systems were from aging populations with chronic, preventable diseases like heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s. They’re viewed as preventable because they’re linked to diet, lifestyle choices and other factors associated with the poor adaptation of our hunter-gatherer genes to our modern, technology-dominated lives. In the US, this idea was spearheaded through the National Academy of Medicine’s Vital Directions program. The UK’s premier medical journal, The Lancet, developed a Global Health spinoff that in 2018 called for a revolution in health care. It…

Vitamin D. It plays a key role in the healthy functioning of our immune system, and especially on antigen-presenting T and B cells. One major study discovered it reduces the risk of respiratory infection by around 11 percent. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with more than 100 diseases. Multivitamins. These contain vitamins, minerals and trace elements that support the immune system. Deficiencies in zinc, selenium, and vitamins A, D and E can make viral infections more severe, and one meta-analysis discovered that multivitamins reduce the chances of respiratory infection. Omega-3 fatty acids. They are anti-inflammatory, and they can also help support the immune system, especially the antigen-presenting T and B cells. Probiotics. These help the gut microbiome and generate antiviral metabolites. This can improve immune response, and there’s evidence…

The PCR swab collects RNA from your nasal cavity. This RNA is then reverse-transcribed into DNA. Due to its tiny size, it must be amplified to become discernible. Each round of amplification is called a cycle, and the number of amplification cycles used by any given test or lab is called a cycle threshold (CT). The higher the CT, the greater the risk that insignificant pieces of viral DNA end up being magnified to the point that the test reads positive even if your viral load is extremely low or the virus is inactive and poses no threat to you or anyone else. Many scientists have noted that anything over 35 cycles is scientifically indefensible.1 Even Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading proponent of gain-of-function experiments and mandatory vaccines, has admitted…

“I’ve always been very active. In 2004, hiking up a mountain, I took a fall and ended up with a really badly torn meniscus. I went to physical therapy and ended up injuring it even worse and couldn’t do anything with it. I was always in pain and limping. I had trouble going up and down stairs. “Because nothing else was working I thought, ‘Why not?’ The treatment was very quick and painless, and I walked out pain free” “Fourteen years later I went back to physical therapy. They did extensive x-rays and told me it was already bone-on-bone in my knee and that there was nothing they could do except try to strengthen the muscles around my knee, and that eventually my only recourse was surgery. “The second round…