Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2023 i What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

COMMENT Camilla Sherr has an extraordinarily green thumb. When her mother's apple tree became infested with moths, she and her husband Jeremy prescribed a treatment that not only removed the moths and their caterpillars but also resulted in the tree producing its first season of edible, delicious fruit. Their treatment didn't include nasty pyrethrin-containing chemicals. In fact, there were no chemicals at all. Camilla is not a plant doctor but a renowned homeopath, and her treatment of her mother's apple tree consisted of a single remedy: Lac Caninum. This is not as farfetched as it seems. A few good studies show that homeopathy can help plants, even those that start life as seeds planted in toxic soil laced with aluminum (see page 46). Although both Sherrs treat humans and teach…

Blueberries are a super fruit—but they become extra-super when you exercise. Eating a cup of blueberries every day—or 25 g of the freeze-dried variety—helps your body burn fat faster when you exercise. The berries are high in anthocyanins, which reduce oxidative stress—when free radicals and antioxidants get out of kilter—and encourage fat burning. Anthocyanins are antioxidants that give the fruit its bluish color. Researchers from the California Polytechnic State University gave 11 male cyclists 25 g of freeze-dried wild blueberries, which contain around 375 g of anthocyanins, for two weeks before monitoring their rates of fat oxidation, or “fat burning,” while they did moderate cycling exercises for 40 minutes. They had also carried out the same exercises after avoiding all anthocyanin-rich foods for two weeks. After eating the berries, the…

A powerful cancer-causing compound has been discovered in 10 prescription drugs. More than 70,000 people who believe they developed cancer while taking one of the drugs— the heartburn remedy Zantac—have filed lawsuits in US courts. The compounds are nitrosamines, identified in the 1970s as the most potent carcinogens yet discovered. They have been found in batches of some of the world's most prescribed drugs, including the antihypertensives Avapro (irbesartan) and Cozaar (losartan), the antidiabetic medication Glucophage (metformin), and the stop-smoking aid Chantix (varenicline). Nitrosamines were detected in batches of the antihypertensive Diovan (valsartan) in 2018, and a year later, the same online pharmacy discovered high levels of NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine), a form of nitrosamine, in every batch of Zantac (ranitidine) it tested. It alerted the US's drug regulator, the Food and…

When it comes to body fat, there's fat and there's fat. We all know about the calorie-storing white fat that seems to accumulate around our stomach and thighs, but biologists have recently discovered the body is also made up of another fat, and it's completely missed by the BMI measure. Brown adipose tissue (BAT), or brown fat, burns fat and helps maintain a healthy body temperature. Babies have plenty of brown fat, and it keeps them alive when they're born, but biologists had assumed we lose it as we grow older. In fact, we retain brown fat, although some of us have more of it than others. In one study, the fat was detected by PET (positron emission tomography) scans in just 10 percent of people—however, those with detectable amounts…

Dr James Greenblatt has found over decades of integrative psychiatry practice that the most reliable way to test zinc levels is a simple taste test, based on the premise that taste is reliant on having adequate zinc levels in the body. Do not eat, drink or smoke for at least an hour before the test so that no competing tastes will interfere with the results. Bring an unflavored 1 percent zinc sulfate solution to room temperature for at least two hours before using it to test. Take a sip (5 to 10 mL) of the solution and hold or swirl it in the mouth for 10 seconds before spitting or swallowing. 1 If there is no taste or it tastes like plain water, this indicates significant zinc deficiency that will…

ALTERNATIVES Just before my 30th birthday, when I was studying to become a dietitian, I suddenly experienced excruciating pain low down in my abdomen. I struggled to even stand up straight, let alone walk. It lasted for a few days, and then I was able to resume some sort of normal activity. My doctor put it down to IBS, but when it happened again a few weeks later, I sought private help, and I was told it was likely endometriosis. I ended up having a laparoscopy, during which endometrial tissue was removed. But it grew back a few years later and I had a repeat procedure. My husband and I had no problems conceiving our first child when I was 27. But after two years of trying for another baby…

Though fluoride and chlorine (see page 45) enter the body from many sources, we can take steps to lower our exposure, including filtering the water we use, avoiding certain products and eating organic foods. Filter your drinking water “The best thing to do is to filter the water in your home and carry your own water with you at all times so you don't have to drink tap water in restaurants, et cetera,” says Dr Kristin Neumann. “Of course, the best water to drink is fresh water from the mountains.” Unfortunately, unless you go to the source, fresh water from the mountains is almost impossible to obtain. And although bottled waters advertised as natural spring water are free of fluoride and chlorine, many bottled waters, because they are simply filtered…

Get out of the moldy environment and get tested. In the meantime, take the following steps. Diet An anti-inflammatory, organic diet is your best bet when dealing with mold toxins. Avoid: • Sugar and sugary products • Sugary drinks • High-glycemic fruits and dried fruits • All grains • Processed foods • Fermented foods • Seeds and nuts • Cheese • Alcohol, especially beer and wine • Coffee • Chocolate Detox “The body very quickly gets into a very wicked entero-hepatic circulation cycle,” adds Mitchell, “which is why binders are so necessary to get rid of the toxins.” Binders are ingested substances that grab toxins stuck onto the mucosal lining of the GI tract and escort them out, helping to detoxify the body. Binders that pull out toxins from bile…

Science is still relying on women's diaries or apps to collect information. Women often report feeling their strongest and most energetic during days 7-14. This may have to do with better insulin sensitivity during this phase than in the luteal phase. The female body is primed to burn fat and gain muscle during this time. A 2021 study showed no physiological evidence to support training timed relative to the menstrual cycle.1 In other words, there's not enough data to show whether it works because data hasn't been collected consistently or in large enough amounts. But there is enough evidence to show a need to conduct more research. Still, by understanding the known metabolic changes that occur with hormone fluctuations (as relayed in this article), a woman can better adjust her…

THE ECO DOCTOR Lola, age 14, came to see me distressed about her hair loss. She had lost some 40 percent of her hair over the preceding year. She was also suffering from severe, debilitating headaches and had been seen in the pediatric migraine clinic at her local hospital. Even the strongest migraine-specific painkillers didn't help much, and Lola had taken a great deal of time off school, needing to lie down in a darkened room for days on end. For the hair loss, Lola had been referred to the pediatric dermatology clinic, where the doctors— correctly—suspected autoimmunity. They referred her to the Pediatric Rheumatology department, where the doctors initially said she had the autoimmune disease SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus, also known as lupus), but after repeating their blood tests,…

After more than 30 attempts, the medical goon squad finally got their man (or, in this case, feisty woman). Dr Sarah Myhill, the “people's doctor,” has been banned from practicing medicine for nine months after she made statements during the Covid pandemic that “undermined public health.” The UK's Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service—the executioners to the General Medical Council's policemen—passed judgment recently in Manchester. Although Sarah may appeal, the verdict is somewhat moot as she deregistered herself last November, and so a woman who doesn't have a license to practice has, er, had her license to practice removed. But people shouldn't be going around “undermining public health”—so what on earth has Sarah been up to? She uploaded a series of videos and articles between March and May 2020 that questioned the…

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…

No matter what your age is, start exercising, even a little—it is one of the best safeguards against dementia. People who have remained active throughout their adult life are the least likely to develop dementia in later years, but even those who take up light exercise after they retire will reduce their risk of cognitive decline. Researchers from University College London tracked the health and activity levels of 1,417 participants in the British Birth Cohort who were born in 1946. Those who were active throughout their lives, from the ages of 36 to 69, were the least likely to develop dementia, even after the researchers had stripped out other risk factors of poor education, cardiovascular disease and mental health. But if that ship has sailed, don't worry. The researchers said…

Ten pharmaceuticals have been banned or had batches recalled due to levels of nitrosamines. Since the problem was recognized in 2018, drug companies have recalled more than 250 batches of their drugs. Zantac (ranitidine) The FDA banned the popular drug in 2020 after amounts of the nitrosamine NDMA four times above safe levels were found in tested batches. Sanofi's heartburn remedy, Zantac 360, has not been banned because its active ingredient is famotidine. Avapro (irbesartan) Batches of the antihypertensive were recalled in 2021 after high levels of the nitrosamine N-nitrosoirbesartan were found. The supplier, Lupin Pharmaceuticals, announced that it had stopped marketing the drug. Cozaar (losartan) Batches of the antihypertensive were recalled in 2018. The source was traced back to a manufacturing plant. Glucophage (metformin) The FDA detected high levels…

Generation Z isn't interested in health advice or tips—they're into health hacks. There are even conferences and exhibitions devoted to health hacks, which are essentially simple things you can bring into your everyday life to improve your health. One of the first hacks was the idea of putting butter in your morning coffee. Like butter itself, the idea spread—although it's not something WDDTY has tried. But if that doesn't sound quite like your cup of coffee either, there are plenty of other simple hacks you can try instead. Stand on one leg Sounds a little strange, but it strengthens your core muscles and abs. Supplement There are some vital nutrients your body needs, including vitamins C and D, magnesium, omega-3 and zinc. You need others, of course, but these are…

SPECIAL REPORT While there are many different types of HBOT chambers, the principle is the same: the person breathes oxygen in a mask while sitting or lying in a pressurized chamber. The pressure ranges from “mild”—just above sea level, which is 1 atmosphere absolute (ata)—to 2.0 or 2.5 ata and should never exceed 3.0 ata. “Soft” chambers typically reach a pressure of only 1.3 ata, and these are most common in private clinics and homes. They can be rented or purchased in the US and don't require extensive training to use. Hospitals and many clinics use “hard” chambers that provide pressure of 2.0 to 2.5 ata. The number of “dives” that a patient is advised to take varies based on their condition, from one or two for an acute problem…

SPECIAL REPORT Psychiatry is in crisis. Among the problems plaguing the profession are soaring mental health statistics, patient recovery rates that have flatlined for decades, and a growing stack of evidence that the primary tools of the trade—psychoactive drugs including super-selling antidepressants—don't work so well and are linked to an expanding litany of damaging side-effects that are increasingly hard to ignore. Depression remains the number one cause of disability in the United States, as it is across the Western world. Younger adults and adolescents are most affected, and increasingly at younger ages; suicide is now the second leading cause of death for youths aged 10 to 19.1 Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in children, outpacing physical disabilities like cerebral palsy or Down syndrome. A staggering 2.7 million…

ALTERNATIVES Homeopathy can bring amazing results not just for humans and animals but for plants too. When my mother's ornamental apple tree became infested with ermine moth, my husband, Jeremy, a homeopath like me, prescribed the remedy Lac Caninum (Lac-C) for the tree, based on its symptoms. Caterpillars had appeared in clumps and secreted a sticky white weblike substance over the tree's branches. Four days after my mother tried the remedy, there was not one caterpillar left on the tree. When the apples next came into season, for the first time, they were sweet and juicy. It turns out it wasn't an ornamental apple tree after all; it had just been underperforming. Agrihomeopathy, or agrohomeopathy as some call it, is the use of homeopathy to treat soil and plants. It's…

The phrase plant-based diet can have several meanings. It can imply that you still include animal products but in lower quantities so that your diet is based on plant foods. It can also mean you have eliminated all animal products and consume a diet based purely on plants. Most studies examining plant-based diets have looked at plant-predominant diets, meaning small amounts of animal products are still consumed. The most studied diet in these terms is the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes a variety of fruit and vegetables, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, olive oil and fish, with lower amounts of meat and dairy. It would be wrong to say the evidence is clear that following a whole-food, plant-based diet will give greater benefits in terms of fertility compared to following a…

Chlorine is a greenish-yellow gas with a strong, irritating odor used to bleach wood pulp and make other chemical compounds. It is so toxic, it may be fatal if inhaled. Skin contact can cause blisters and burns. Inhalation can cause chronic lung conditions, including bleeding. Symptoms of acute exposure include tachycardia (rapid heart rate), hypertension (high blood pressure) followed by hypotension (low blood pressure), and cardiovascular collapse. Dizziness, anxiety, nausea and vomiting are other symptoms of exposure.1 To remove it from the body, try sweating it out in a dry sauna and take vitamin C, which neutralizes chlorine and chloramines. Chlorine kills bacteria in the gut, so taking a daily probiotic is vital. REFERENCES 1 CAMEO Chemicals, “Chlorine,” accessed April 25, 2023, CameoChemicals.noaa.gov…

Our world is glittering with natural ingredients. Botanicals have been used for millennia as remedies without damaging side effects for us or our planet, but in recent times they have been overlooked in favor of commercial, convenient and synthetic products, and so the health of our ecosystem and its biodiversity have been impacted. Originally created for me and my family to thrive in optimal health, these are the ways I've found that we can enlist the natural world to help—a holistic approach from the inside out and the outside in. From tonics that aid sleep to balms for anxiety, from syrups for avoiding seasonal lurgies or coping with a sick bug to fizzing bath bombs, from edible face masks to lickable kitchen sprays, they have proven their efficacy time and…

Dentists have long recommended brushing and flossing daily to prevent tooth decay. But there may be an even more pressing reason to clean up your oral health: it may help prevent the development of certain cancers. Researchers at Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health reviewed two extensive studies of more than 150,000 men and women. Following up after 22–28 years, they found those who had gum disease were 43 percent more likely to be diagnosed with esophageal cancer and 52 percent more likely to develop stomach cancer.1 More studies are needed to confirm the link between gum disease and cancer, but it certainly makes sense. The mouth is the start of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, and oral health issues can trickle down into other areas if left untreated.…

Ban All Relatives. Hope you like our new campaign and will join BAR in getting rid of them. No, we're not planning to usurp uncles or mount an attack on aunties; we all love those relatives, and they make a mean Victoria sponge when we visit. BAR is campaigning to ban the use of the relative risk ratio (collective sound of comatose people slumping into their armchairs). But hold! It's the rocket fuel of the pharmaceutical industry, it drives the sale of new drugs—where much of Big Pharma's profits are to be made—and it gives the mass media exciting new things to talk about. The relative risk ratio makes it seem that we're all very busy being brilliant and pushing back the boundaries of disease, when actually we're not, of…

LETTERS GET IN TOUCH: Share your views on What Doctors Don't Tell You AU/ NZ via email or Facebook. Address: What Doctors Don't Tell You PO Box 230 Double Bay NSW 1360 Australia Email: info@wddty.com.au Facebook: facebook.com/wddtyaunz I did it your way I was diagnosed with terminal multiple myeloma and even lymphoma … 13 years ago! But I had no chemo, no radiation, no marrow replacement. I used all-natural, real remedies at every level of my being. It's still lurking because I am naughty enough not to follow protocols to the nth degree, so I am living with a “stable” condition, monitored every three months. But I've never felt healthier, and my biological age is 16 years younger than my almost 77-year-old body. And I'm in charge of my own…

Have that last piece of pizza. You know you want to, and anyway, medical science tells us it might even be good for you. People who are a little overweight—pleasantly plump, perhaps—have the greatest protection against a range of chronic health problems and could even live longer, we've been told. It's known as the obesity paradox. According to BMI (body-mass index) measures, obesity is defined as any score over 30. But those who are merely overweight—with a BMI of 25 to 29.9— are at the lowest risk of an early death, so it seems as if that little bit of fat around the middle helps you live longer. In a U-shape of risk, the overweight enjoy the same protection as the slim, who have a BMI score of 18.5 to…

Withdrawal and depression have a lot of shared symptoms, and many doctors don't distinguish between the two. These are some strategies to differentiate withdrawal from relapse: •Identify whether you are experiencing physical symptoms of withdrawal that are not likely characteristics of depression, such as sensory disturbances, muscle pain or nausea. •Think about when symptoms began. Withdrawal typically begins within days of stopping antidepressants (except in the case of fluoxetine, which has a longer half-life), whereas relapse into depression takes weeks to months. •Does reintroducing the drug rapidly reduce the intensity of the symptoms? If so, it is more likely withdrawal syndrome than depression or anxiety relapse since these usually take weeks to improve with antidepressants.…

The rule of thumb Add two drops (or globuli) to 1 L of water—rainwater preferably. Tap water is fine, but no sterilized water. Do not use a watering can Once you use a container for a remedy, it is very hard to clean the remedy out of it. If possible, keep a spray bottle or water bottle exclusively for that remedy. If this isn't possible, the container needs to be thoroughly washed in hot water and then allowed to fully dry between remedies. Always wear rubber or latex gloves Protect your skin when handling remedies, or you could end up getting a dose as well as the plant. With homeopathy, less is more One to two sprays on a plant surface are sufficient. Be aware of the wind Spray downwind…

FAMILY HEALTH When Bill Osmunson was in dental school back in the 1970s, fluoridation of water and the use of topical fluoride on patients’ teeth were heavily promoted. “There was only one instructor who had reservations,” says Osmunson. “He said one of the reasons people developed goiters in some places was because people were not getting enough iodine, but also because they were getting too much fluoride, which also affects the thyroid.” In the face of vast medical and public approval of water fluoridation, Osmunson dismissed the information, going on to establish a dental office in Canada and eventually moving his practice to the state of Washington (smilesofbellevue.com). Because city water was fluoridated, but not the water in outlying areas, he decided to make a game of trying to guess…

Once fluoride is ingested, most of it is stored in four main regions of the body: the teeth, bones, brain and pineal gland. The highest concentration is found in the bones and shows up as a condition termed skeletal fluorosis. Not much research has been done, but some studies show that methionine (an essential amino acid), combined with vitamin E, may prevent the accumulation of fluoride in the skeletal system. Taurine is another supplement that seems to help because it enhances thyroid gland function. Choline, a nutrient similar to vitamin B, helps mitigate fluorosis by supporting energy production and brain function, both of which fluoride suppresses. Pomegranate juice protects against fluorideinduced liver damage in rats. No dosages have been determined for any of these supplements at this time.1 The following…

Helena, 33, had been suffering from premenstrual syndrome (PMS) for several years. From about mid-cycle (day 14 or 15), she would begin to get sore, swollen breasts, and would feel tearful, irritable and anxious. By day 27 or 28, just before her period began, these symptoms had become so bad that she couldn't go to work. She snapped and yelled at her partner constantly and even felt suicidal. She recovered a day or two after her period started, but within a fortnight, the whole nightmare would begin again. To get to the bottom of things, I went through Helena's diet diary with her. She needed to eat much more fruit and veg and some whole grains, pulses and nuts, none of which she usually ate at all. She also needed…