Newsletter v3n10

ALGERNON MONCRIEFF: "The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live...so Bunbury died."

LADY BRACKNELL: "He seems to have great confidence in the opinion of his physicians. I am glad, however, that he made up his mind at the last to some definite course of action, and acted under proper medical advice."

(From Act III of "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde)

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 3, No 10) April 5, 2003

"Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A." Written and copyright 2003 by Andrew Saul, PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free online library of over 350 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000 scientific references.

THE BENEFITS OF WRETCHED EXCESS Hell has been described as having to endure endless, relentless repetition of what you like to do.

I am sincerely grateful to the Genesee Brewing Company of Rochester, New York. When I was a freshman in college, and my stomach had its first opportunity for utterly unsupervised indulgence in alcohol, it was "Jenny" beer that got there first. At a dorm party, my inaugural brewskis were from the very bottom of the room-temperature aluminum keg, and they tasted awful. Ever since then, I've never met the US RDA for beer.

When my previously-vegetarian daughter wanted some hot dogs, I bought her several pounds of the cheapest, worst tasting 79-cents-a-pound chicken-parts wieners I could find. Now don't panic: they were reasonably fresh, USDA Government Investigated, uh, Inspected, and lots of people eat them. Of course she ate a few too many, and doesn't like them too well any more. It is a bit like getting your first job in a donut shop: "Eat all you want," they tell you. That is possibly the best way on earth to reduce the amount the help will ultimately eat.

Try it with your kids. Dr. Abram Hoffer allows kids "Junk Food Saturdays," when a child can have unlimited amounts of candy and sugar-, chemical- and color- laced foods. Dr. Hoffer tells of one family that did so:

"Pretty soon every child in that family was sick with either headaches, nausea or vomiting. After that the little boy who had been so determined he would never give up sweets told me, adamantly, that he would never ever eat sweets again."

(Reprinted with the author's permission from the book "Dr. Hoffer's ABC of Natural Nutrition for Children," by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. Quarry Press, Kingston, Ontario 1999. ISBN 1-55082-185-7 )

MEAT OR DAIRY? Whenever I mention in a lecture that my student drink cow breast milk, they wig out. Then we talk about eating the muscles of dead animals, and I tell them the names of the specific muscles they eat on their chicken or cow. It's a lot of fun.

I personally think that cheese, yogurt, and some milk, has a place in a healthy natural diet for a child. To me, dairy is a better choice than meat. Speaking as a former dairyman, I'd rather milk a cow than kill one.

RAW MILK But that also means the milk should be fresh and raw, not the skimmed, pasteurized, hyperallergenic white water that passes for "milk" nowadays.

"Raw milk? Good heavens, man, is that safe?"

Remembering that I do not think that bacteria are the primary cause of most diseases attributed to them, I support the use of scrupulously clean, unpasteurized ("raw") moo juice. When I was a dairyman, my 4AM breakfast was utterly (udderly?) fresh milk, ten minutes old, right from the collecting tank. I raised my family on unpasteurized milk, from cows I knew rather intimately. I milked one hundred head, twice a day, three at a clip, with the help of a Surge milking parlor. I kept their quarters clean and their milk clean. Clean healthy cows give clean, healthy milk.

There are some farms that I would not knowingly drink milk from, cooked or not. Since most consumers have no choice and no information as to just whose milk is in the carton, pasteurization is an after-the-fact attempt to reduce bacteria count from the sloppiest farms. Pasteurization temperatures are not hot enough to do the job properly, and high-temperature autocleaving destroys nutritional value. I think we would do a lot better to focus on farm sanitation.

KIDS AND DAIRY I raised my kids ovolacto-vegetarian and they are now tall, strong adults. My no- milk critics are revving up their word processors even as they read this, so let me immediately add the following: Elephants never eat eggs or dairy. They are even taller and stronger.

Kids can get protein and calcium (the usual reasons, aside from taste, that people choose to eat dairy products) from foods other than milk and eggs. If you check a nutrition textbook or online nutrition tables, you will see that beans, whole grain breads, and even vegetables have significant amounts of protein.

Some people do much better with no dairy or eggs whatsoever. For example, pasteurized-milk allergies appear to be very common in children. They have been linked with sinus problems, constipation and diarrhea, chronic ear infections, behavior problems, and asthma. (Dr. Julian Whitaker's Health & Healing; October 1998 Vol. 8, No. 10)

Having worked with real people for nearly 30 years, I think in many cases, the previous symptoms are often due to overall lousy diet and vitamin deficiencies, and are more aggravated by milk than caused by milk. Constipation is easy to cure (http://www.doctoryourself.com/constipation.html ) and uncomplicated diarrhea can be kept in check with initial fasting, judicious use of cultured milk products (cheese, yogurt), and plenty of daily fiber. My unpopular take on allergies is posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/allergies_2.html and at http://www.doctoryourself.com/allergies.html . I wish behavior problems were as simple as to be milk-caused, but I think they need modification and megavitamin therapy, heavy on the niacin. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/kidraise.html and http://www.doctoryourself.com/hoffer_imbalance.html ) Earaches and ear infections can be obliterated with vitamin C. (More on this later in this Newsletter.)

An unusually restricted diet for your kids can backfire on you. I have seen a few scrawny vegan children in my time. True, I have also seen a very large number of obese meat-fattened children. You simply must keep a reasonable eye on your kids' diet.

This next sentence is going to sound a bit strange. To be a health homesteader, you need to be an extremist, but moderately so. This does not mean "In all things, moderation" but rather means "In unimportant things, flexibility." Both over-compliance and under-compliance can get you a sick child. You have to know when to hold, and know when to fold. Hold to what is important: eating right pretty much everyday; exercising regularly; taking supplements; avoiding chemical additives and pesticides; reading, learning and seeing for yourself; and especially, taking charge of your own health.

Stick to the main points; compromise on the minor points. Health is, and always has been, and always will be about balanced living.

ELIMINATING EARACHES Many medicines for earache are ineffective even though still commonly prescribed. Back in 1983, the February 10th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reported that a three-year study of decongestants and antihistamines commonly prescribed by ear specialists showed that they are no better than nothing at all. Putting tubes in a child's ears is hardly a pleasing alternative. When your child (or adult family member) has pain in or around the ear, here are some other approaches to consider.

1. Simple earache is likely to be a symptom of an ear infection. Almost anything you do to fight the infection will fight the earache as well. Very large doses of vitamin C are especially effective. At high levels, vitamin C is a natural antibiotic and antihistamine. It will also reduce inflammation and fever, and is safer than pharmaceutical drugs. HOW TO LIVE LONGER AND FEEL BETTER by Dr. Linus Pauling, THE HEALING FACTOR by Dr. Irwin Stone, and CLINICAL GUIDE TO THE USE OF VITAMIN C edited by Lendon Smith, M.D. will substantiate this. These are very important books for you to read. I do not sell them; your library can get them.

2. Check and see if the upper neck bones are misaligned. If one or more of these cervical vertebrae are "out," the resulting stressed nerve or strained muscle can lead to an earache. To check this out, find the place where the neck, skull and jaw meet. This spot is just under the ear. If gentle pressure on this spot is painful, you may have an earache that a chiropractor may be able to help. It is worth it to find out.

3. Warm, damp compresses are a traditional earache treatment. A washcloth moistened in warm tap water works fine, and feels good.

4. To help relieve pressure and encourage natural drainage, you can try a simple massage technique. Gently press right under each ear. Now continue pressing, moving downward and forward along and just under the edge of the jawbone. You have just massaged the eustachian tubes. Eustachian tubes are internal passages connecting each inner ear to its own opening inside the upper throat. Repeatedly massaging like this aids in relaxing, dilating and clearing this tube. Before resorting to artificial tubes, let's try the ones we were born with.

5. Naturopaths believe that ear aches and infections are caused fundamentally by improper diet. Many kids are fed meat, white bread, sugar and chemically- doctored foods daily. This must stop, or the earaches won't. A near-vegetarian diet with lots of fruit, vegetable salads, whole grains, and non-meat protein results in healthier children. Think that your kids won't accept these good foods? Consider the powerless alternative of medicines that are no better than a placebo. Start them eating right early, and it will pay dividends for a lifetime.

TODAY'S TABLET-TAKING HINT: Simply crushing a mineral supplement tablet, and dividing the dose up among your three meals, will greatly improve absorption.

More "supplemental" hints are posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com/tabtaking.html Ways to get kids to take vitamins: http://www.doctoryourself.com/kidsvit.html Basic forms of supplements: http://www.doctoryourself.com/tabtable.html Supplement ingredients and label-reading: http://www.doctoryourself.com/labels.html

KIDS EAT TOO MUCH FLUORIDE, STUDIES SHOW Paul Beeber, nyscof@aol.com,

Kids ingest excessive fluoride, studies show, not just from toothpaste, but from their foods, making water fluoridation unnecessary and unsafe. University of Indiana researchers analyzed foods typical three- to five-year-olds eat and found diet significantly contributes to children's daily fluoride intake. This and many other studies show, children risk dental fluorosis from their food, alone. "...because the prevalence and severity of dental fluorosis (white spotted, yellow or brown permanently stained teeth) appear to be increasing, there is a need to quantitate all potential sources of fluoride exposure," report Jackson, et al, in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.

Jackson found fluoride in McDonald's french fries, Aunt Millie's Homestyle Buttermilk White Bread, Iron Kids Bread, Lay's Baked and Ruffles potato chips, Heinz and Hunt's Ketchup, 12 different soda brands and fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, dairy products, nuts, seeds, fats, oils, sugars and sweets.

Excluding fluoridated water, toothpaste, treatments or other sources, three- to five-year-olds in fluoridated Richmond, Virginia, average over 1/2 milligram (.05 mg) fluoride daily. Some eat one milligram daily -- higher than American Dental Association recommendations. Between ages 15 and 36-months, children's front teeth are most fluorosis-prone. To avoid fluorosis in all teeth, the National Academy of Sciences advises the following daily-fluoride-intake from all sources (food, air, water, toothpaste, medicines, and supplements):

* infants up to 6 months old - less than 0.01 mg (one hundredth of a milligram) * babies from 6 - 12 months - less than 0.5 mg (half a milligram) * children from 1 to 3 years old - 0.7 mg (seven tenths of a milligram) * children from 4 to 8 years old - less than 1 mg

Children's toothbrushing introduces 0.8 mg fluoride into their mouths, averaging 0.6 mg swallowed or absorbed from two brushings. One quart of fluoridated water contains approximately one milligram fluoride. (Editor's note: That is a prescription dose.) Despite the scientific evidence that America's children are fluoride overdosed, dentists via well-organized political fluoridation action campaigns convince trusting legislators to promote fluoridation and dose children with even more fluoride, wasting precious tax dollars and endangering children's health.

References: http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1364E000000F3FBD1E46AD4659BF1

(If this link is broken, it will not work. Please copy/paste or carefully type it into your browser and try again.)

Fluoride Web Sites: http://www.orgsites.com/ny/nyscof http://makeashorterlink.com/?D18721943 http://www.fluoridealert.org

IF NOT YOU, WHO? IF NOT NOW, WHEN? If you wait for the government to save you money on your health care bills, you are in for a long wait indeed. If you want to avoid doctors and drugs, you need to know how (and if you are sick, you need to know now) to use vitamins and other natural methods to get well and stay well. Generalities will not cut the mustard. You need specifics.

This means you have to read. You, not your doctor, but you.

You might think that you could expect your physician to do the learning for you. I think that is like expecting to be served chow mein in a French restaurant. When is the last time a medical doctor told you to NOT pick up a prescription? And when is the last time your doctor told you exactly what to do instead?

You might think that you could ask me your questions, but I do not provide such a service. The service I provide is material. Material must be read. Hitting the books and reading the papers is our privilege and our job.

Short Reviews of Many Recommended Health Books http://www.doctoryourself.com/bestbooks.html http://www.doctoryourself.com/morebooks.html

Short but important list of recommended papers: http://www.doctoryourself.com/vithall.html

THE INFORMATION LANDFILL Why do movie complexes have upwards of eight screens, when it is tough to find one good film? Cable TV: 65 channels and nothing worth watching. With computers, it is GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. You even need intellectual hip- boots to wade through the useless volumes that crowd our libraries. And then there is the Internet. Our information superhighway is fast becoming an information landfill, resulting in a lot of people being over informed and under educated. This is especially true with health information. During ground school, my flight instructor bluntly summed up the number one principle of teaching, which he called the "Kiss" rule: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

He had something there.

Wisdom is the reduction of a complex jumble of theories down to the simple, effective, economical, and life-supporting. Never be distracted from what simply works.

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AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

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