Super Magic Fix-Everything Formula!!

One of my apprentices walked into my office a few years ago and asked if I had seen a recent article about a new wonder-mix that would pretty much fix anything that ailed you. She was surprised when I responded that I had not, but asked if it included apple cider vinegar and honey or molasses. Astonished, she asked how I had known. Easy. Whenever there is a slow day at the tabloids it’s released again with another startling ‘new’ cure claim-most of which are right!! The newest version is at http://www.householdmagicdailytips.com/index.php/homemade-fat-burning-formula?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=2014-05-29%20HDM%20NL%20%281%29&utm_content=&utm_source=Newsletter&cid=45957880&spMailingID=45957880&spUserID=NTE4NTcxNDc1ODES1&spJobID=442781247&spReportId=NDQyNzgxMjQ3S0, where the former two ingredients are mixed with grapefruit juice for a “fat-burning” miracle.

So what’s the deal? Real apple cider vinegar (Best is still Bragg’s) is a live, cultured product that contains three principal properties. First is live enzymes to aid in the digestion and assimilation of whatever you eat in any kind of reasonably near time frame; live cultures also are essential for immune function and intestinal health. I keep a bottle of Bragg’s on a rack near my stove, which generated enough warmth for the culture to grow into kombucha-style mushrooms in the bottle. I use it to add a splash of flavor on or in just about everything I prepare, and frequently drink it mixed with water and maple syrup. If I was home and more organized I would separate some of the babies into bottles of diluted fruit juice or coconut water to create Kevita-like beverages (

Sparkling Probiotic Drink | Master Brew Kombucha

).(I don’t drink regular kombucha because I avoid caffeine; great article at http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/03/25/kombucha-myths-vs-truths/). The benefits promoted for kombucha are essentially the same for raw vinegar! Most vinegars are not live, and ONLY live, fruit based vinegars have the benefits we are discussing-white vinegar is usually corn or wood-pulp based-and has no health advantage whatsoever.

Second, the breakdown of the fruit base (usually apples or grapes)retains all of the trace minerals found in the source, in a form that has increased bio-availablity. The  magic mixtures, whether credited to a long-lost family recipe or aliens (yes, they have been given full credit in several articles) often include molasses, which has even more trace minerals, one of the most-lacked nutrient groups in our modern diet. Trace minerals are critical for glandular function, feeding the pituitary and ancillary glands including the thyroid. Alfalfa and Spirulina tend to particularly support the pituitary, while dulse and kelp are higher in the iodine needed for thyroid function. Since the pituitary governs when all other glands kick in or up their function, and the thyroid regulates metabolism and calcium uptake you can see that just about everything would work and feel better with the “magic” combo. Minerals are part of what alleviate spasms, so the “magic” vinegar mix is correctly touted for relieving leg cramps; use vinegar alone topically or in baths.

The malic acid that also helps reduce cramping is part of the third benefit, which is that vinegar supports balanced acid levels in the body. I am NOT a fan of ph balancing programs as a rule; proper ph changes constantly and manipulating it can be dangerous in the long run. A couple of basic rules DO apply. Your stomach needs to be highly acidic to break down protein properly, regardless of whether the protein is plant or animal based. Too little good acid results in excessive bad acid in the blood, joints, etc.. Drinking vinegar or another acidic beverage in small amounts may be helpful when eating by increasing the stomach’s ability to work properly. I don’t encourage drinking much of anything with meals, since it encourages people to flush food down with something more alkaline than stomach fluid, like water, rather than chewing.  Your skin should also be somewhat acidic, which is why vinegar is an effective body splash (the smell dissipates rapidly), especially for people who have  some types of skin irritation. The high acid level breaks down the cell walls of bacteria and other organisms; in the 1990’s vinegar was found more effective against HIV and related  viruses than bleach or any antibacterial product, and it’s the best thing I know for ringworm.  Together, these properties are also the basis for recommendations for a (diluted) vinegar douche for vaginal infections.

“Colorful” Behavior?

An interesting segment on NPR this week (http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2014/03/28/artificial-dyes-candy) pointed out the hypocrisy of American companies, who make their products with artificial colors in the US and natural colouring agents in Europe. Six years ago the British government released its studies of artificial colourings, proving that they have a clear and significant negative impact on children’s behavior and encouraging manufacturers to switch to plant dyes. Since EU legislation now requires warning labels pointing out the impact they have virtually disappeared even from brightly coloured candy, replaced by plant extracts. Most people are surprised to find out that it’s not just junk food that uses dye; even foods like mayonnaise and pickles often have artificial colour added.

Food dyes were the tipping point that led to my now thirty-plus years in natural health care.  My oldest son was two and a half when he had yet another sinus infection. Since this had been a two-year battle the Doctor prescribed a new medication -Ceclor- which was expected to be the “next penicillin” in effectiveness. Micah began acting really strange, stopping in the middle of walking across a room and just screaming, or turning around and suddenly punching me in the middle of a bedtime story, all of which was really unlike him. I called the pediatrician, who told me I was “still a new mother” , that his behavior was normal, and that he probably just didn’t “feel good”. This was NOT my kid “not feeling good”. This was not my kid! On day three he had been acting normally all evening and I thought that the Doctor had been right, and that Micah was finally “feeling better”. Shortly thereafter I realized that I had forgotten his evening dose and gave it to him; within a half hour he was screaming again.

I called the pharmacist this time rather than the Pediatrician, and explained what I was seeing. He said it sounded “like a classic reaction to red dye” and asked if he was taking any of a list of medications, second or third of which was the Ceclor. He suggested a switch to another antibiotic since Ceclor “has a really high dye load”. The behavior problems did not recur after the change of antibiotics. My approach to health care did, when two full courses of the second antibiotic after the four days of Ceclor still did not resolve the infection and I decided to look into natural alternatives. (Three days of Christopher’s Sinus Support formula, garlic, and alfalfa resolved the infection, though he continued to need smaller amounts of the supplements for about a year before we replaced enough cells to make a permanent difference.)We have known about the effect for years but the FDA says it has not seen a proven “causal link” so does nothing.

Dyes aren’t the only additive for which American manufacturers have double standards. Last year I ordered pineapple coconut water from ONE, which I had been purchasing since its inception; the outer case had two ingredient lists with a box to check for which product it contained based on destination.  The company is now owned by Pepsico and includes sugar and “natural flavor” in the US, while the Canadian export product still contains just coconut water and pineapple juice. Replacement product for me is Evolution Fresh coconut water, which is also raw and has a fabulous flavour! As consumers, we need to speak up. Let manufacturers know that you are OK with strawberry products that aren’t bubble-gum pink, and not OK with artificial dyes in anything. Read your labels, eat real food, and take charge of your behavior!

“Certified” Organic Herbs??

I get lots of questions about whether the herbs I use are certified organic. Following is the quick answer I send to those questions:

Some of my herbs are organic, some are not, for a variety of reasons. Organic certification can be applied only to commercially farmed herbs, which very often do not have the same medicinal properties as those which are wild-crafted. Organic certification standards vary from country to country and even from state to state. Certification is expensive, so many small growers whose standards and practices would qualify do not apply. As far as processed herbs (extracts, salves, etc) go, the quality of water, which cannot be “organic”, affects the quality of the final product. When my children were very small I remember one brand of organic baby food testing very well while another was awful; the ingredients were identical, so the difference had to be the water or the vessels in which they were prepared. It’s not unusual for some organic vegetables at some supermarkets to not test as well as commercial items; they may be older, come from further away, be irradiated for longer life, or be transported or stored in fumigated areas. I use muscle testing to evaluate quality. Labels can lie!

Fluoride Fools?

Time magazine for Valentine’s Day features an article about-surprise-the possible links between pollutants and brain function. Small wonder, given that many are neuro-toxins (have you ever seen the bugs lying on their back partially paralyzed but still alive?). Especially “shocking” was the factoid that  exposure to fluoridated water, which does not include the additional exposure from toothpastes and dental rinses, is linked to a seven point drop in IQ. Continental Europe has banned it for years.

The history of fluoride development explains it pretty clearly: “Sodium monofluorophosphate was first described in 1929 by the German chemist Willy Lange, who was then with the University of Berlin. His fruitless attempts to prepare the free monofluorophosphoric acid led him to check the stability of its esters. Together with Gerda von Krueger, one of his students, Lange thus synthesized diethyl fluorophosphate and some analogs, which proved to be quite toxic, being related to nerve agents. In the 1930s, Gerhard Schrader, working for the German company IG Farben, tried to develop synthetic insecticide. His work focused on esters of phosphoric acid and resulted in an accidental discovery of some other nerve agents such as DFP (diisopropyl fluorophosphate), Tabun, Soman, and Sarin. In the meantime, Lange, who was married to a Jewish woman, emigrated from Germany to the United States and started work for Procter and Gamble Company. In 1947, he and Ralph Livingston of Monsanto Company published the preparation of the free fluorophosphoric acids and mentioned the use of some toxic esters of monofluorophosphoric acid (like DFP) in the treatment of glaucoma and myasthenia gravis. The well known toxicity of these esters led to fears that the simple salts might also be toxic, and such fears precluded any large scale commercial use of the salts. In 1950, under sponsorship of the manufacturer of the compounds, Ozark Chemical Company, the toxicity of sodium monofluorophosphate was studied by Harold Hodge at the University of Rochester who included anti-cavity testing. In 1967 Colgate-Palmolive filed several patents on the use of sodium monofluorophosphate in toothpaste.^[1]”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_monofluorophosphate, emphasis added). WebMD considers fluoride to be a drug, lists its cautions and potential side effects, and emphasizes that children may be more sensitive to the risks. One of those risks, ironically, is yellow teeth resulting from excessive use, which has happened to friend’s children who had used only fluoridated toothpaste twice a day with no additional treatments.

The premise for fluoride treatments has been that the fluoride “strengthens” tooth enamel, a claim that comes because enamel consists largely of apatite, a form of calcium, which degrades in the presence of acids from oral bacteria feeding on starches and sugars in our foods. HOWEVER, saliva provides the materials necessary for the re-forming of apatite! In other words, we are fixing a problem that we were designed to correct ourselves anyway. I have a mouth full of fillings but grew up religiously brushing with fluoride and was among an experimental group of military dependents who received fluoride treatments at school. (Maybe that’s why I developed osteoporosis so young!) My kids have not only never used a fluoridated toothpaste, but also drank only reverse-osmosis purified water so did not have fluoride in their water. Only one of my first three children ever developed a cavity. The youngest, who decided that tooth-brushing was optional during the teenage braces years, was the only one to have multiple cavities (he has also eaten more sugar than the other three combined, since his father considers it one of the primary food groups). Aside from a generally healthy diet, we don’t use sports drinks, dilute any fruit juice we drink, and rarely consume soda, which not only has the acid-forming sugars (artificial sweeteners are even more acidic, so one more reason not to use them) but phosphoric acid, which disintegrates calcium. If I really felt like I need more fluoride, I’d add black walnut to my diet!

More good info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_controversy

EAT CLAY??

The title question was sent to me by a client, along with the bottom link below.

A: Yep. Hydrated Bentonite (you can do the same thing with other clays) internally is a standard recommendation for intestinal distress such as food poisoning. My personal favorite is the Redmond Clay, from central Utah; in the kitchen I use almost exclusively Real (Redmond) Salt, which is pink from the clay content. Lots of kids who eat dirt do so because they are deficient in trace minerals. People ate dirt and clay in part via their earthenware dishes and lack of running water-maybe that’s why we feel so good at Alafia (our 10 day 18th century rendezvous)….!

Clay packs and baths are traditional in all kinds of detox programs, in virtually every culture. My favorite Russian bathhouse sells little cups of dried black clay to rub on yourself while you sit around and sweat.  Interesting thing about zeolites, shown below the video link you sent,  is that they are used primarily in laundry detergents and as catalysts-they help increase oxygen availability. Remember to breathe while eating your clay! Downside to commercial zeolite products? According to the United States Geological Survey, “it is likely that a significant percentage of the material sold as zeolites in some countries is ground or sawn volcanic tuff that contains only a small amount of zeolites.” They are easy to synthesize so there is another pretty good chance you may not be getting the real thing; the artificial ones have a much larger crystal size so would not be as effective at adsorbing waste matter. That is correct spelling-adsorbing means that toxins attach to it for easy elimination rather than being absorbed into it. Activated charcoal works the same way.

 http://www.redmondtrading.com/product-category/redmond-clay/

  http://www.longevitywarehouse.com/Articles.asp?ID=342