The Natural Recovery Plan Blog

Alzheimer's & Autism: The Mercury Connection

2012-01-01T06:06:00.005Z

Having visited my mother over Christmas, the rapid advance of her Alzheimer's disease was shocking (her care is overseen by my brother). Both my parents have now ended their lives with a slow descent into the full throes of this terrible disease.

My father (who died some years ago) was also effectively deaf and blind, immobile and doubly incontinent at the end. My mother is still physically fairly robust at 92, but has finally completely disappeared emotionally, spiritually and mentally to leave no signs of the person she once was. And it is a painful thing - this grieving for someone who is still alive.

This article, by the UK Times newspaper columnist, A A Gill, who lost his father to Alzheimer's disease captures the heartache: Disease with Dreadful Sadness for Carers.

The massive explosion in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia has been paralleled by the rise in autism and behavioural disorders in children - and by the advent of 'mysterious' disorders and syndromes such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and autoimmune disease in the last few decades.

The question arises: Do they have a common cause?

Many think that they do and provide compelling evidence that the increasing use of mercury in both medicine and dentistry in recent decades is responsible for these conditions - coupled with an inherited ability or inability to detoxify mercury which has helped to confound making the link. The evidence and the issues involved are explored below.

Alzheimer's disease: The statistics

The allopathic world maintains that Alzheimer's disease is largely a genetic disease and (as ever) with yet more research money they will be able to find a 'cure'. But this is patently nonsense.

Over half the population in the developed world will currently end their days with Alzheimer's disease if they live to be 85 or over. The earliest recorded case is now in someone aged 28, and 40 and 50 year olds are now being diagnosed fairly regularly with the condition. One in ten people aged 65-75 years and one in five people aged 75-85 will also succumb to this living death.

More than 4 million Americans now have Alzheimer's disease and over 750,000 people in the UK have dementia according to the latest statistics. Which puts Alzheimer's disease in the epidemic category.

This is not remotely 'normal' - and it's not genetic. If it were, then there would be a long and overwhelming history of half the population ending their days with this paralysing dementia.

Others claim that this is an inevitable aspect of living longer, but even that oft quoted chestnut is not entirely true - because we are not really living that much longer than we were 150 years ago if you take out neonatal and child mortality. And many manage to live into great old age with all their faculties - so there is nothing inevitable about the decline into insensibility.

The first symptoms of this disease are difficulty concentrating and variable degrees of memory loss, leading ultimately to devastating mental deterioration. The brains of people with Alzheimer's disease shrink by 25 percent and have distinct pathologic hallmarks (neurofibillary tangles, amyloid plaques, and phosphorylation of tau protein).

"There is a peculiar and particular hammering sadness for those that love and care for an Alzheimer’s spouse or parent. It is a wearying and lonely obligation, but with the added cruelty that the person you’re looking after vanishes, escapes before your eyes. In the end, you’re caring for the case that someone came in."

A A Gill

Autism: The statistics

Autism was first identified by the author of Child Psychiatry, Leo Kanner, in 1931 in the USA and from these few early cases, it has grown to affect approximately 1 in 110 children today according to the US Centers for Disease Control. Asperger's Syndrome too was identified approximately ten years later by the Austrian paediatrician, Hans Asperger.

The difference between the two diseases is one of degree with both conditions being characterised by delays in the development of multiple basic functions including socialisation and communication. In addition to those diagnosed with autism and Asperger's syndrome, there are many more children who are unable to concentrate, and who are restless and have difficulty communicating normally.

Some suggest that the labels 'autism' and 'Asperger's syndrome' be abandoned and that all autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) be placed on a severity scale or that they be reclassified as Pervasive Development Disorders (PDD).

In the US, there are 100,000 new cases of autism diagnosed every year with more than one million children having been diagnosed over the last 30 years. There is no geographic or ethnic pattern to those affected, but all autistic spectrum disorders are 3-4 times more common in boys, and also occur more frequently in the first born and to children of older parents.

A typical case involves a healthy boy who stops developing and communicating some time prior to his second birthday. He starts to avoid eye contact, becomes strange and aloof and retreats into his own inner world. There are usually visual, coordination, gait, speech and digestive problems accompanied by immune dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and unprovoked emotional outbursts.

"It was as though he were in his own little world. It was like there was nobody home. He was a shell of the boy he had been before that had been energetic and had personality. It was like the movie 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'. He was gone. He was literally gone from us."

Lyn Redwood, mother of a recovered autistic child

Alzheimer's disease and autism: The similarities

For anyone who has spent any amount of time in the company of individuals suffering with Alzheimer's and autism, the similarities between the two diseases are striking - although they affect different ends of the lifespan. In fact, there are over 160 similarities between autism and Alzheimer's disease. Listed below are just some of the more obvious parallels. With both conditions there is:

A profound impact on memory making everyday functioning and recognition of faces and voices impossible
A lethargy, passivity, and loss of energy
A loss of intellect and an inability to concentrate, sequence and complete tasks coupled with a lack of comprehension which profoundly impacts everyday life
A sensory overload with sufferers having difficulty processing sensory information such that they withdraw from social contact, prefer being on their own and avoid eye contact
A catatonic state, with blank, emotionless expressions, and flat or monotone speech and a lack of comprehension of others feelings and/or meaning
Usually an ability to read, but not to understand what is read
Common physical markers include: poorly controlled insulin levels, sensitivity to gluten and/or casein, low levels of essential fatty acids, specific brain abnormalities, abnormal mineral and neurotransmitter levels, elevated homocysteine, characteristic immune system abnormalities, low glutathione levels, vitamin B and E deficiencies, etc.
Difficulties with balance and gait, poor coordination, restless constant movement, 'flapping' and grimacing
A stubborn attachment to routines and repetitive behaviours and odd and/or inappropriate behaviours
No understanding of orientation in time or space, indeed little comprehension of 'self' and 'non-self'
Changes in appetite and usually weight loss
Disrupted sleep
Aggression, agitation, hyperactivity, anxiety, fears, depression, mood swings, rages, and unprovoked and uncontrollable crying/laughter and
Digestive system problems with ultimate loss of continence.

Environmental factors: Mercury

Over the last 500 years there is estimated to have been a 1,000 fold increase in the amount of toxic metals stored within our bodies, primarily lead, cadmium, aluminium and mercury. And all these metals are highly synergistic with each other and also with other environmental toxins and biotoxins produced by microorganisms within the body.

These toxic metals are effectively 'mistaken' by the body for their innocent naturally occurring mineral cousins and incorporated into all body tissues and enzyme systems. Of all the metals, mercury is the most destructive of neural tissue being the second most toxic element known.

Although, as epidemiologists are fond of reminding us 'association is not causation', during the rapid growth in the prevalence of these disorders there has been the introduction - and the massive expansion - of the vaccination programme (with the use of the mercury-based preservative, thimerasol), and the universal introduction of high copper amalgam in the 1970s (which releases 50X the mercury of the previous formulation).

There are different forms of mercury, although all are highly toxic and infants are known to acquire between one-third and two-thirds of their mother's toxin load in the womb and via the breast milk. For the last few decades infants have then been subjected to repeated doses of the mercury based preservative (thimerasol) and aluminium (added as an adjuvant) via the vaccination programme. Thimerasol is the most toxic organic form of mercury and is, of course, injected directly into the body of a small child with an immature immune system.

Older individuals are most likely to have acquired most of their mercury burden from their dental amalgam fillings, and this is mostly in the form of elemental mercury vapour which is then converted within the tissues of the body into its inorganic mercurous and/or organic mercuric forms.

A secondary source of mercury exposure for adults is the vaccination programme and a tertiary source is fish consumption (WHO 1991). However, both of these sources provide mercury in its most toxic, organic form which has been shown to be at least 100X more toxic than elemental mercury.

"Early manifestations (of chronic mercury toxicity) are likely to be subtle and diagnosis difficult: Insomnia, nervousness, mild tremor, impaired judgment and coordination, decreased mental efficiency, emotional lability, headache, fatigue, loss of sexual drive and depression are often mistakenly ascribed to psychogenic causes”.

Medical text

For possibly obvious reasons, although public health bodies such as the US Environmental Protection Agency are happy to warn of the potential for neurological injury to an estimated one in six infants from fish consumption by the mother while pregnant, they overlook the greatest sources: amalgam fillings and vaccinations.

The foetus is known to accumulate mercury at up to twice the rate of the mother and the developing nervous system of the foetus is also sensitive to mercury at levels far below those considered toxic in adults. There are also known to be 'vulnerable periods' during development of the brain and central nervous system during which exposure to neurotoxins such as mercury can profoundly and possibly permanently affect neurological development processes.

Although mercury is known to inflict direct catastrophic neurological damage, it can also cause collateral damage via other mechanisms such as:

Disabling the immune system
Causing massive oxidative stress
Decreasing lithium (which is protective of the brain)
Depleting glutathione which is critical for mercury elimination
Destroying the enzyme required for conversion of the fatty acid, EPA, which results in widespread inflammation and impacts the development of both red and white blood cells thus decreasing oxygenation to the tissues (particularly important in the brain)
Blocking the production of digestive enzymes required to digest gluten in grains and casein in milk. This causes these foodstuffs to release neurotoxic morphine-like substances that can cause the psychosis associated with autism and ADHD.

Many suspect that thimerasol and aluminium in vaccines are responsible for the lion's share of the neurological damage witnessed in children. However, others such as the neurologist, Dr Russell Blaylock, suggest that it is the number of vaccines given and especially the live vaccines such as MMR which cause 'collateral' brain damage.

Of course, the authorities concerned (the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Public Health Service, and the American Academy of Family Physicians) famously claimed in a joint statement that there was “no evidence of harm” resulting from exposure to thimerasol in vaccines.

And in an article by the FDA advisory member, Paul Offit, in the medical journal Pediatrics in 2002 the good doctor estimated that each child could theoretically respond to 10,000 vaccines at one time without adverse effect. Which begs the question: if the immune system of a child is that robust, why do they need vaccinating at all?<

Mercury causation of Alzheimer's disease: The evidence

Listed below is just some of the more compelling evidence linking mercury toxicity to Alzehimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease was first described in 1906 - just a few decades after the widespread introduction of amalgam fillings.
Alzheimer's disease sufferers have 2-3 times the brain mercury levels found in unaffected people.
People with more amalgam fillings have been shown to have significantly more neurological, memory, mood, and behavioural problems than control groups.
Early life exposure to mercury has also been shown to cause subtle deterioration in neural development which may only become apparent in middle age - and exposures are cumulative throughout life (mercury has a half-life in the central nervous system of 27 years).
Experiments on rats exposed to the levels of mercury vapour found in the oral air of people with several amalgam fillings showed that brain mercury increased increased 11 - 47 fold (Pendergrass et al, Neurotoxicology, 1997).
Animals exposed to the amounts of mercury found in people with an average number of fillings developed all the biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (Pendergrass et al, Neurotoxicology, 1997).
Having regular mercury-containing flu shots for 3-5 years was shown to increase the odds of contracting Alzheimer’s disease by a factor of ten compared to those who had one, two or no shots (Fudenberg, Internat. J. Clin. Invest., 2000 & 2004).
Dr Boyd Haley has demonstrated that the signature changes in brain morphology associated with Alzheimer's disease can be induced by exposing neurons to the levels of mercury found in an adult with a large number of amalgam fillings.
The SPECT scans shown below show the massive neurological destruction of the central nervous system demonstrated in Alzheimer's disease and the images of the damage done to a single neuron 30 minutes after exposure to a dilute mercury solution.

Construction and repair of the nervous system requires the structural protein tubulin be created to provide support for the neuron. Mercury interferes with the ability of the proteins involved to dock together.
Dr Boyd Haley and his team have demonstrated that radioactively labelled mercury from dental amalgam fillings placed in sheep accumulates at very high levels in the areas of the brain associated with memory (the cerebral cortex and hippocampus).
Of all the metals, only mercury has been shown to cause the abnormal biochemistry and neurofibillary tangles typical of Alzheimer's disease, although aluminium has been shown to dramatically potentiate the destructive actions of mercury.
In patients diagnosed with chronic mercury toxicity (CMT), nearly 90% exhibited memory loss (Wojcik et al, Neuro Endocrinol Lett. 2006 Aug).

Mercury causation of autism: The evidence

Some of the evidence linking autism to mercury toxicity includes:

Autism was first described just a few years after thimerasol was added to the pertussis vaccine in both the US, and later in Europe.
Researchers at Stony Brook Medical School found that boys that had received the thimerasol-containing hepatitis B vaccination were 9 times more likely to be enrolled in special education services, and were 3 times more likely to have autism when compared to boys that had not (Gallagher and Goodman, J. of Toxicol and Env. Health, 2010).
A study in monkeys showed that a single thimerasol-containing Hepatitis B vaccine at birth has been associated with delayed development of innate reflexes (Hewitson et al, Neurology 2009).
A study conducted by the US Center for Disease Control identified an association between live thimerasol injections and autism and PDD (Verstraeten et al, 1999).
Autistic children appear to be unable to eliminate mercury and this was first revealed by hair analysis when ASD children exhibited lower than normal levels of mercury (0.47 ppm versus 3.63 ppm in controls) in their hair samples. Also, those with the lowest mercury levels in their hair samples were the most profoundly affected (Holmes et al, Int J Toxicol. 2003).
Mothers of autistic children were also found to have significantly higher levels of mercury exposure from a variety of sources than mothers of the control group.
Higher exposure to mercury and lead, especially in combination, prior to age 1 has been shown to correlate with a higher incidence of autism diagnoses (Schweikert et al, 2009).
Children with autism have been shown to have low levels of glutathione, an antioxidant that detoxifies the body against heavy metals (James et al, American J. of Clin. Nut., 2004).
The statistics relating to autism prevalence can also be explained by the toxicity theory. First, older parents have accumulated a greater toxin burden which the mother then passes to her first born. The fact that ASD are 3-4 times more common in boys is a function of the fact that the male brain matures more slowly than the female brain, and also the interaction with testosterone which greatly enhances the neurotoxicity of mercury.
Research on primates has shown that organic mercury can be converted into inorganic mercury within the brain where it accumulates causing the kinds of brain cell dysfunction and inflammation found in patients with autism (Burbacher et al, Env. Health Persp., 2005).
In a U.S. government funded study conducted in 2005 by the NIH, at least twice as much inorganic mercury was found to be retained in the brains of animals injected with ethylmercury (thimerasol) compared to those that ingested methylmercury.
Vaccinations were first introduced in 1910 with the smallpox vaccine. The first recorded cases of autism and Asperger's syndrome respectively occurred in the 1930s in the US and in the 1940s in Europe. In the 1950s there were 8 vaccines to 5 diseases and the autism rate was 1 in 10,000. In the 1980s there were vaccinations to 11 diseases and an autism rate of 1 in 2,600, and this rose to a total of 40 vaccinations recommended in the 1990s and an autism rate of 1 in 350. Now, the current US mandated vaccines have risen to 58 vaccinations to 15 diseases of which 33 vaccinations are administered before the age of 2 and an autism rate of 1 in 110. Although this is an association it fits with the theory of mercury causation of ASD.

"I think that the biological case against Thimerasol is so dramatically overwhelming that only a very foolish or a very dishonest person with the credentials to understand this research would say that Thimerasol wasn’t most likely the cause of autism."

Dr. Boyd E. Haley

Since thimerasol has been replaced in some vaccines as a preservative, autism rates have started falling.
Last, but not least, is the fact that chelation and detoxification of mercury has resulted in recovery for many ASD children as documented by Stan Kurtz on his website www.recoveryvideos.com and by Dr Rashid Buttar at www.drbuttar.com.

Inherited capacity for mercury detoxification

A critical determining factor in susceptibility to not only autism and Alzheimer's disease, but also schizophrenia, autoimmune disease and fatigue syndromes appears to be one's genetically programmed ability to rid the body of mercury.

The brain has a protein (apolipoprotein or APO) which is responsible for removing dangerous waste products including mercury, and which comes as either APO-E2, E3 or E4. APO-E3 can carry 1 atom of mercury out of the brain, APO-E2 can carry 2 atoms and AOP-E4, no atoms.

Our genetic inheritance determines which combination of genes we have. For those that have inherited two APO-E4 proteins, there is an 80 percent chance of acquiring Alzheimer's disease. Both Alzheimer's disease sufferers and autistic children have also been shown to have a huge preponderance of APO-E4 protein in their brains. Whereas, the APO-E2 allele - being the most efficient - may have a protective effect.

If both your parents got Alzheimer's disease (as mine have), then there is a very high probability that you have had the misfortune to have inherited APO-E4 from both parents. Putting aside concerns about Alzheimer's disease, this allele is also responsible for 15 years of additional brain ageing according to a study conducted by Dr Stephanie Debette at Boston University. And this may account for the memory lapses in mid-life that have been associated with the later onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Old Order Amish are often studied when it comes to environmental and genetic factors because the older Amish have eschewed the vaccination programme and because their lineage can be clearly documented.

Both Alzheimer's disease and autism are rare amongst Old Order Amish. A study which examined the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease and apolipoprotein E allele frequencies in this group concluded that the lower rates of incidence were not due to a reduced frequency of the APO-E4 allele (Pericak-Vance et al, Ann Neurol., 1996).

In addition, inherited traits relating to the ability to detoxify mercury via the methylation pathway in both the liver and the cells may play a role and impairment of this pathway has been shown to be associated with mood disorders and depression.

Preventing Alzheimer's disease and autism

Both these illnesses brings into question the whole concept of consciousness and the nature of reality since the robotic body 'suit' seems to live on while the unique individual disappears.

Many millions more are destined to suffer for lifetimes entirely unnecessarily because of allopathic medicine's refusal to concede that illness in general is caused by toxicity. And many more lives will be dashed on the iceberg of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias caused ironically by the deployment of the second most toxic substance known to man - mercury - in healthcare.

A A Gill mentions in his article his daughter's fear that he too will be claimed by Alzheimer's disease, just like his father. And he says that there are no guarantees - which, of course, is true. However, there is a lot you can do - and the time to do it is long before the diagnosis. For a self-help programme of mercury detoxification please refer to Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan.

Furthermore following this toxic metal detoxification programme prior to pregnancy and being fully conversant with the dangers inherent in vaccinations and making informed choices for your child(ren) may help to reduce the chances of your child's entire life being lost to an autistic spectrum disorder.

Further resources

For a self-help programme of metals detoxification refer to Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan and for more about problems associated with the vaccination programme refer to Evidence of Harm by David Kirby. For more details go to Amazon UK or Amazon US.

For print media articles, videos and podcasts on the topic refer Mercury and Dentistry and Mercury and Medicine sections on the associated website or use the search facility.

Alzheimer's & Autism: Article summary

This article examines the similarities between autism and Alzheimer's disease and looks at the scientific and circumstantial evidence linking them both to mercury acquired through the vaccination programme and the use of dental amalgam - and particularly the introduction of high copper amalgam in the 1970s.

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Illness IS Toxicity

2012-01-01T06:04:00.000Z

In a recent edition of the UK television series The Food Hospital, the physician, Dr Pixie McKenna investigated the effectiveness of detoxification products.

Click to watch the report here (3 mins).

Turning to the nutritionist and biochemist, Dr George Grimble of Reading University, he advised that all detoxification diets were effectively 'fad diets' and contained the two time-honoured elements of self-sacrifice (no coffee, alcohol, etc) and purification.

Selecting one particular product, he identified the key ingredient as being magnesium sulphate and any therapeutic effect this product may have had he attributed to a laxative effect.

They then examined a pig's intestines and he pointed out the pancreas, gallbladder, and small intestine which he described as a formidable detoxification plant.

His advice was that there was no need to detoxify the body which 'can look after itself' and that 'detoxification couldn't turn the clock back or rejuvenate'. The report concluded with the admonition 'not to binge' from Dr Grimble and Dr McKenna wrapped up the report up by saying that there was little additional benefit to be gained from detoxification products above and beyond a healthy diet.

They offered absolutely no support for their assertions other than their credibility as highly trained medical health professionals. And we were left in no doubt that they were scientists because they were both wearing white coats and standing in a large technological laboratory.

Admittedly this was a short report, but between them they managed to dispatch the whole concept of the importance of diet and detoxification in just 3 short minutes.

I'm puzzled. Dr Grimble is evidently a nutritionist. And whilst some of what he said was true, it was irrelevant to the topic under discussion and some of what he said was downright misleading.

There was so much wrong with this short segment that I didn't know whether the participants were being deliberately disingenuous, can't see the elephant in the room or whether they genuinely believed what they were saying.

I respond below point-by-point to this short but nonetheless damning indictment of the value of detoxification

Issue 1: Digestion not detoxification

Dr Grimble didn't address detoxification so much as the processes of digestion. He pointed out the pancreas, small intestine and gallbladder, which admittedly all play a role in breaking down the large molecules found in foodstuffs into smaller molecules that can be absorbed and used by the body.

The contents of the intestines are technically outside the body but are held in close approximation with the lining of this long tube in order that the body can secrete digestive enzymes onto the foods and also absorb nutrients from the foods consumed.

As such, the intestines are one of the biggest portals for the entry of various toxins, microbes and parasites and therefore 75% of the immune system is to be found in and around the intestines.

Issue 2: No mention of the liver or kidneys?

Surely in a segment examining the processes of detoxification the liver and kidneys deserved a mention?

The kidneys act as the major route of excretion for water soluble toxins by filtering 180 litres of fluids out of the blood each day of which 99% is then recovered under hormonal instructions as to what the body needs to retain and what can be excreted.

As such, the kidneys are very vulnerable to water soluble toxins and, according to the work of Murray Vimy et al at the University of Calgary, kidney function can be decreased by half within one month of placement of an amalgam filling as the body excretes the mercurous and metallic salts via the urine.

The liver too is one of the body's most under-rated organs, but your health and wellbeing are intimately tied to the health or otherwise of your liver.

The liver performs at least 500 different functions including producing bile which is then released into the small intestine after eating. The bile serves the dual roles of aiding the digestion of fats and also acting as a route of excretion for fat soluble toxins and particulate matter such as yeasts and parasites.

And many of the toxic chemicals to which our bodies are currently exposed are fat-soluble including PCBs, benzopyrenes, chlorinated pesticides, heavy metals, flame retardants and fluoride and these accumulate in the cell and mitochondrial membranes and the fat deposits of the body.

Fibre in the foods consumed should both aid passage of the intestinal contents and also act to absorb bile and the toxins it contains so that they can be eliminated in the stool. However, for most people eating a high-fat, low-fibre Western diet, these fats and toxins are reabsorbed into the body to steadily accumulate over time.

In addition, all substances absorbed from the intestines are routed directly to the liver which then detoxifies any toxins and apportions any nutrients. When the liver is working efficiently, it can clear 99% of the bacteria and other toxins during the first exposure or 'pass'. However, this ability can decrease dramatically as the liver becomes damaged, leading the body to store the toxins that it cannot detoxify.

The process of detoxification in the liver occurs in two steps. Phase I makes the substances water soluble (and potentially more toxic). And phase II (which is known as conjugation) combines the products of phase I with another molecule which render it harmless and enable it to be excreted from the body in either the bile or urine.

Significant quantities of free radicals are generated during phase I liver detoxification and these can cause damage to the liver cells. If the antioxidants required to mop up these free radicals are lacking or the toxin exposure is high, liver damage will result.

Also, if the nutrients required to process toxins through phase II are lacking then the toxic metabolites of phase I can accumulate and this is thought to be one of the causative factors in tumour formation. People who can process toxins through phase I but then have a sluggish phase II are known as pathological detoxifiers and this can be the root cause of a wide variety of chronic illnesses.

Conditions that have been proven to be linked with a failure to detoxify include inflammatory conditions (Rooney 1990), rheumatoid arthritis (Smith 1985), Parkinson’s disease (Steventon 1990), Alzheimer’s disease (Steventon 1989), cancer (Heerdt et al 1995) and CFS (Racciatti et al 2001).

Inherited differences in the effectiveness of the different detoxification pathways have been shown to account for a five-fold difference between 'healthy' people. This may account in large part for the difference between some who seem to have strong constitutions that appear to take a lot of abuse without adverse effects and those who suffer a lifetime of low grade health.

The body requires a wide variety of vitamins and minerals for the processes of liver detoxification including the B vitamins, vitamins C and E, the minerals selenium, copper, magnesium and zinc and a variety of amino acids. If any of these are lacking then the associated detoxification pathway(s) will become sluggish or blocked.

The processes of detoxification also tend to decrease with age for a variety of reasons including the fact that most people accumulate gallstones with age which block bile flow, the activity of the enzymes involved decreases, the blood flow to the liver may be compromised and the fact that decreasing activity is often combined with an increasingly nutritionally deficient diet.

Issue 3: The sources of toxins

Dr Grimble seemed to assume that all toxins were consumed, but many toxins are either absorbed through the skin, or inhaled. There are 600,000,000 pounds of pollutants pumped into the air every year which we are all collectively inhaling. And women have been shown to apply 168 toxins in 12 personal care products daily on average, while men apply 85 toxins in the 6 products they use every day.

The incidence of Parkinson's disease, for example, correlates almost exactly with areas of high pesticide use. Whether this is through inhalation or absorption through the skin of the pesticides or consumption of the crops produced is less clear.

Pharmaceutical drugs too are a major source of toxins and can be are delivered in inhalers, via skin patches (HRT, nicotine, etc) and injected in addition to being consumed.

Issue 4: The majority of toxins are generated within the body

75% of the toxins the body is required to detoxify are produced internally through:

The processes of normal metabolism which generate breakdown products such as ammonia, urea, uric and oxalic acids.
The creation of energy as ATP in the mitochondria which produces large quantities of free radicals.
The intestinal microflora where inhabitants such as the yeast, Candida albicans are known to produce large quantities of a wide range of noxious toxins including alcohols and aldehydes.

So the vast majority of toxins with which the body has to deal are not consumed in any form.

Issue 5: 'The body can look after itself'

Indeed it can and it has been doing so for millions of years.

But here's the thing: We are not living the lives that even our great grandparents lived with unadulterated foods and a fairly clean environment. Our generation are exposed on a daily basis to the hundreds of thousands of toxins that have been released into the environment, included in our foods and household and personal care products without any meaningful safety testing - many of which are highly synergistic once within the human body.

Extraordinarily enough, the body has processes that are capable of dismantling a vast array of synthetic compounds created in laboratories that it would never have encountered during the course of evolution, but for this it needs serious nutrition. And whilst some of the food may look and taste the same, the nutritional value of our diet is at least half of that of just 50 years ago due to modern farming practices and food processing.

So that what we are seeing is a confluence of a massive overload of toxins combined with a deficiency of the nutrients needed to process them leading to the body steadily accumulating a toxin burden.

Issue 6: No mention of burgeoning toxin levels of synthetic chemicals

In 2004 the US Environmental Working Group (EWG) conducted tests on the cord blood of 10 babies. They ran $10,000 worth of tests per sample testing for 413 chemicals. What they found was an average of 287 chemicals per sample. Worryingly, 212 of these chemicals were industrial chemicals that were banned 30 or more years ago.

Click to watch part 1, part 2 and part 3 of EWG: 10 Americans on the associated website.

The chemicals found are listed below (note that many chemicals have multiple effects and so are listed more than once):

209 chlorinated biphenyls
186 chemicals known to cause infertility
158 neurotoxins
154 hormone disrupting chemicals
151 chemicals associated with birth defects
134 cancer causing chemicals
130 immune system disruptors
76 volatile & semivolatile organic compounds
70 polychlorinated naphthalenes
36 organochlorine pesticides
18 polyaromatic hydrocarbons
17 chlorinated dioxins and furans
13 metals
9 perfluorchemicals
7 herbicides
6 phytoestrogens
5 pyrethroids
4 phthalates
3 insecticides
3 polybrominated diphenyl ethers
1 tobacco smoke

By definition, these babies had acquired this toxin burden over a the period of just a few short months after their mother's bodies had detoxified many of the chemicals to which they had been exposed. The results of this study are particularly concerning because these toxins are merely the ones that were able to cross the placental barrier and that had been directly tested for.

And also because of the vulnerability of the development of the baby whose blood-brain barrier is not fully formed so that these toxins are able to affect neurological development.

These toxins are thought to account for the massive increases in diverse childhood conditions including malformation of the penis, acute lymphocytic leukaemia, brain cancers, autism and precocious puberty.&

Issue 7: No mention of nutrition

Other than a blanket conclusion that we should eat healthily, there was practically no emphasis on the importance of nutrition or the advice as to what to eat in order to obtain all the many vitamins, minerals and cofactors required for detoxification.

Some people's diets contain many more of the nutrients required for detoxification than others and many people have diets that are woefully inadequate leading to multiple nutritional deficiencies. Not only that, but many of their food choices are actually anti-nutrients in that they consume more vitamins and minerals in digestion that they yield leading to chronic deficits. The consumption of foods high in additives also taxes the processes of detoxification and leads to toxicity.

In addition, some foods such as the brassica family (cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts) contain chemical constituents that stimulate liver detoxification and other foods such as grapefruit juice inhibit the processes of detoxification.

Issue 8: 'You can't turn the clock back or rejuvenate'

Allopathic medicine insists that - other than occasional acute mostly accidental exposures - toxicity is not an issue in health. However, it also singularly fails to explain the causation of disease, and the increase in morbidity, birth defects and decreasing fertility with age which are all factors associated with toxicity.

In fact, both ageing and illness are functions of toxicity and whilst allopathic doctors may not witness rejuvenation, naturopaths certainly do!

The images below show wrinkling before detoxification using EDTA and after. As you can see there has been a dramatic 'turning back of the clock'. This is because almost everything we think of an the inevitable consequences of ageing ie: deteriorating hearing, eyesight, stiff joints, achy muscles, poor memory, age spots, etc are the consequence of toxicity.

WRINKLING BEFORE AND AFTER CHELATION THERAPY

In addition, there are tens of thousands of documented cases of recovery from all sorts of conditions with effective detoxification and probably millions more undocumented cases. Refer to the Research page for documentation of recovery from a wide range of conditions with effective mercury detoxification.

Most allopathic doctors will never have seen a cure and when confronted with one either typically show a remarkable lack of curiosity or dismiss it as spontaneous remission, but people practising natural medicine see recoveries every day.

An example of this was a television interview I saw featuring Isobel Lloyd Webber, the daughter of the composer Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber. She had suffered with hypothyroidism in her early twenties after her degree and wanted to publicise this overlooked problem.

She had been to see a natural medicine practitioner and had successfully managed to rehabilitate her thyroid gland. The doctor who had been invited on to the programme to comment patently couldn't understand this concept, and dismissed her recovery as 'luck'.

She interrupted him to explain that it hadn't been luck and that she had taken a lot of nutrients including a lot of 'green' supplements and had worked hard at recovery over a period of a couple of years. At which point he reiterated that she had been lucky again and she obviously abandoned her attempt to convince him that such a thing was possible.

Recovery from such conditions is indeed beyond most doctors' experience or comprehension - which is why they dismiss the possibility out of hand. They will never witness it, because they are never addressing the cause and so they think it is not possible which is also why natural medicine practitioners are not allowed to talk about 'cures'.

Issue 9: Increasing stress and trauma

We are also under an unusual amount of stress and pressure to be active and do not take the periods of down-time that are required to restore the body. And traumas - both large and small - also temporarily suspend the processes of detoxification and over time this too leads to an accumulation of toxins.

Remember that emotions, thoughts and relationships can be toxic too and stress is probably the most underrated toxin of them all.

Issue 10: Detoxification products are worthless

I can't speak to all detoxification products and I don't know which products they had selected, but a good detoxification product will provide a balance of the all the nutrients that have been shown to be required in order to detoxify efficiently.

A bit like having got into financial debt, to not only learn to live within your means but also to pay off your credit cards takes a concerted and sustained effort. And so it is with these liver detoxification products. Once you have actually accumulated a significant body burden of toxins, it takes a serious long-term campaign of use to not only maintain daily health and prevent further toxin accumulation but also to clear the toxic debt.

The problem is that most of us are very toxic and it will take more than the occasional half-hearted three day detox to make serious inroads into our condition. Which is why some people - including members of the allopathic medical profession - may conclude that detoxification doesn't work.

The symptoms of toxicity

Symptoms of toxicity include:

General malaise
Headaches
Muscle and joint pain
Fatigue
Digestive problems including constipation
Irritability and mood swings
Depression
Mental confusion
Flu-like symptoms
Allergies and chemical sensitivities
Cardiovascular irregularities and
Hormonal problems such as premenstrual syndrome

These are all early warning signs of growing toxicity that will eventually manifest as some diagnosable disease. Allopathic treatment of all these conditions will most likely involve pharmaceutical treatment which does nothing to address the underlying toxicity, instead further burdening the body with toxic chemicals.

I know that the refusal of allopathic medicine to look at the true cause of disease has personally caused me untold suffering and deprived me of the ability to lead a 'normal' life. When I started training as a naturopath I was genuinely shocked - and not a little angry - when I first witnessed people recovering from chronic ailments that allopathic medicine had insisted (and I had believed) were incurable.

Look around you. None of what we are witnessing is 'normal'. The obesity, the depression, the cancer, the childhood disorders. None of this is found in societies where they live according to nature's principles and none of it was found just a generation or two ago in the West.

Now, many of us descend into chronic illness in mid-life such that 60% of the population have at least one chronic illness and from there it is a slow decline into debilitating conditions and an early death. Our babies are being born with a significant toxin burden too which is only set to increase throughout life.

The advice from allopathic medicine is not to try and do anything about this massive toxic overload.

It is perhaps worth remembering that it was those who trusted and obeyed the authorities in the 9/11 disaster and aboard the Titanic that perished. And those that trusted their own instincts and common sense that survived.

So, as the band metaphorically plays on, it is important to think for yourself. There are massive vested commercial interests in you and your children becoming and staying sick. You have to take personal responsibility for your own health and that of your family.

Further resources

For more information about common sources of toxins and a self-help detoxification programme refer to Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan.

For more information about the Environmental Working Group and their Human Toxome Project see www.ewg.org.

Or watch the videos entitled Barrel Analogy for Toxicity and Illness is Toxicity on the associated website.

Illness is Toxicity: Article summary

This article is a response to a short television report dismissing the value of detoxifying. The various processes by which the body becomes steadily more toxic and the toxins found in the human body that are the common pathway to both ageing and illness are outlined.

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Book Review: Molecules of Emotion

2012-01-01T06:02:00.000Z

Why You Feel The Way You Feel by Candace B Pert PhD, Pocket Books 1999

This book was first published nearly 15 years ago and whilst some of the ideas it expounds have been embraced by the natural healing professions, they are generally still not accepted by allopathic medicine.

For me this book was instrumental in producing a paradigm shift in my understanding of the oneness of the bodymind, the way emotions are generated and memories stored, and the overarching importance of cell receptors in regulating all body processes.

The author, Dr Candace Pert, was involved in much of the groundbreaking research relating to receptors and also in making the issue accessible through this and other books and lecturing internationally on the subject.

Having gained her PhD in pharmacology from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, she spent 14 years working at first the US National Institute of Health and later at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) before setting up her own biotech laboratory.

Conceptual differences: Natural v allopathic medicine

Dr Pert's research into receptors is of particular importance in the natural health world, which maintains quite simply, that bodily health ultimately comes down to the health of each individual cell. So that if every cell is getting all the nutrients it requires to function and is not unduly hampered by the presence of toxins, health and wellbeing will be the result. However, if the cell is not adequately nourished and/or is exposed to toxins then a slow deterioration in health along a common pathway will result.

In contrast, the allopathic world has developed many complex explanations for the aetiology of what it regards as being tens of thousands of different diseases.

It also impacts upon another difference between the two schools of thought which is that the emphasis in allopathic medicine is very much upon the genetic code contained in the nucleus of the cell being the most important factor determining health and disease. This is the genetic hand we have been dealt and cannot be altered and the hunt is on for the genes that are thought to code for various diseases. This thinking also leads to practises such as the 'propylactic' removal of breasts in someone with the 'gene for breast cancer'.

Whereas, the newer understanding articulated by both Dr Pert and the biologist and author, Dr Bruce Lipton PhD, points to a dynamic interplay between the information the cell membrane is receiving from the environment via the cell receptors and which parts of the DNA are expressed or suppressed. This concept has given rise to the field of epigenetics and is a source of much enquiry at present. This understanding means that an enormous amount of control can be exerted over the expression of the genetic code by controlling environmental factors and that no one is inevitably pre-programmed for a particular disease.

Cell receptors

Cell membranes may contain up to 70 different types of receptor of which each cell may have 10-50,000. They float in the oily cell membrane like lily pads - and like lily pads they have roots which snake back and forth through the fluid membrane and reach deep into the interior of the cell.

Opiate receptor molecules are some of the most elegant, rare and complicated molecules. Compared to water which has a molecular weight of 18 units, some receptors have a molecular weight of 50,000 or more units. Opiate receptors were first identified in the 1970s although this information was mostly only of interest to pharmacologists initially.

A ligand is the name given to any natural or manmade substance that binds selectively to specific receptors and they are generally much smaller molecules than the receptors to which they bind. The word ligand comes from the Latin ligare meaning 'that which binds' and shares this same root word with religion.

Cell receptors are effectively 'sensing molecules' which are stimulated to respond when a particular ligand docks on. This makes the process sound more physical than it is, and in fact it is more like the ligand and receptor strike the same note. The cell receptors respond to the energy of the ligand by vibrating and can change between 3 or 4 different shapes or conformations. When this occurs it is like a doorbell being rung within the cell and this brings about a change of state.

A CELL RECEPTOR

The cell membrane is shown in blue with the extracellular cell receptor with ligand (shown in purple) and the 'tail' within the cell shown bottom

Activation of the cell receptors can cause new proteins to be made, cell division to occur, or ion channels to open or close. What the cell does is determined by its receptors which are highly specific so that opiate receptors only bind with endorphins, morphine and heroin.

The author likens the cell to the engine which drives life and the receptors as acting like the control panel for the engine. In this analogy, the ligand is the finger which pushes the buttons.

In evolutionary terms, the ligand-receptor system is much more ancient than the nervous system and can also act over longer time scales and greater distances. It serves to provide communication across systems and integrates structure and function and is common to all creatures.

The psychosoma or bodymind

The term 'psychosomatic' derives from the word psyche referring to the mind or soul and soma referring to the body. However, in the eyes of many - lay people and doctors alike - introducing the concept of mind into the equation threatens the legitimacy of an illness and is seen as being unscientific.

This split dates back to the French philosopher, Rene Descartes, who made a deal with the Pope of the time in order to acquire the human bodies he needed for dissection. Descartes is often described as the Father of Modern Medicine and, as part of the deal, he contracted not to have anything to do with the soul, mind or emotions which he agreed were the jurisdiction of the Church.

This deal set the scene for all that was to follow and determined the direction of modern medicine to the present day. However, the utility and limitiations of this model are now being exposed, although many stubbornly cling to this concept of separation between the body and mind. This model is now confronted with a holistic model of a bodymind where virtually all illness has a major psychosomatic component.

In this book, Candace Pert examines the molecular basis of emotions and how these mechanisms cannot be separated from the physiological since they run every system of the body. In fact they are a demonstration of the bodymind intelligence - an intelligence that seeks wellness - and one that can keep us healthy and disease-free without modern high-tech medical intervention.

As the author states, truly original, ground-breaking ideas are rarely welcomed at first no matter who proposes them. These new ideas are subjected to more nitpicking scrutiny than those that are already accepted and it is almost impossible to get such scientific papers published. It generally takes about three decades before these ideas become the new status quo with the very people who had done so much to obstruct the new truth eventually touting the new idea.

The basis of emotions

Some still regard the concept of there being a biochemical basis to emotion as an outrageous assumption. Mainstream science regards emotion as being controlled by a part of the brain, but others regard this neurocentric assumption as being either wrong or incomplete.

In particular they regard the limbic system containing structures such as the amygdala, and hippocampus, as being the seat of the emotions. This is partly because direct stimulation of the amygdala during open brain surgery on conscious patients has been shown to induce a variety of profound emotions.

In contrast, the philosopher, William James, thought that emotions originated in the body and that we then created a story to explain them. So that there was no such entity as an emotion - simply perception and response - and the pounding heart or knot in the stomach were the emotions.

According to Pert's understanding, both these theories may be partly true.

What she proposes is that what we experience as emotions is a mechanism for activating a particular neuronal circuit simultaneously throughout the bodymind which serves to generate behaviour affecting the whole being. She even regards the term neuropeptide is a misnomer since these molecules of emotion actually work on a body-wide basis but are particularly rich in parts of the brain implicated in emotion such as the limbic cortex.

The flooding of specific receptors throughout the bodymind with ligands serves to either retrieve or repress emotions and behaviours by altering the probability of an electrical impulse travelling across the membrane. This means that memories are stored and encoded throughout the bodymind at cellular level.

Pert also maintains that memories which cannot be drawn to conscious awareness ie: repressed memories are stored in the body which effectively is the unconscious mind and can result in these traumas being expressed physically in a number of ways we label disease.

Further, this holistic vision means that the endocrine and nervous systems aren't discrete systems at all in the way allopathic medicine understands them. She regards the immune system as acting like a floating endocrine system - and all the receptors that can be found in the brain can also be found on the immune cells.

This means that there is a system in which emotions influence the activity of the immune cells via neuropeptides and also in which the immune cells both make and store neuropeptides with which they can intercommunicate.

Dr Pert also posits that cancer cells are mutated macrophages which had come to the site to clean up toxicity and this accounts for why they have opiate receptors and can communicate with the brain and other cells of the immune system.

What this leads to is a holistic understanding of mechanisms that work simultaneously throughout the bodymind rather than the separation of systems and organs that allopathic medicine regards as existing. It also reveals the incredible dynamism of a system in which receptors in the cell membrane are up-regulated (increased in number or made more sensitive) or down-regulated (decreased in number or made less responsive) in response to factors such as whether we have smoked, taken any drugs, what we have eaten, and the emotions we have experienced in the last few hours.

The politics of science

Throughout the book, Candace Pert describes her work and delight in being at the centre of a hub of feverish research activity. As a young researcher she had been keen to please her charismatic and powerful boss and in this capacity had co-athored many scientific papers on the subject of receptor science with him.

Which, as anyone who has worked in these circles knows, means that the researcher has the ideas and does all the work and their superior gets to have their name on the scientific paper and to be able to list it in their publications and solicit departmental funding. And, perhaps being somewhat politically naïve, she also describes how her superiors ultimately took the credit for her work.

At the time this occurred, she was reading the story of the work of Dr Rosalind Franklin. It told of how the discoverers of the structure of DNA, John Watson and Francis Crick, got the missing piece of the puzzle by persuading the caretaker to let them into Franklin's laboratory where they stole the ideas contained in her research. Incensed by this act, Candace also noted that Franklin died of cancer at the young age of just 37 just a few years later.

Watson and Crick later openly admitted to the deception, but won the Nobel prize and their place in history for their work and Dr Rosalind Franklin's name is largely forgotten. Franklin, Pert felt, had made the discovery of the century and been hoodwinked by the old boys' network and excluded from the scientific prizes and had ultimately paid with her life.

When Pert's superiors were nominated for a Lasker prize (regarded as being a forerunner to a Nobel prize nomination) for her work, she knew she could not remain silent. Her colleagues all counselled her to accept the situation and hope that her boss would reward her in some way if she played the game.

The author bemoans a system in which women are excluded from nomination for - and selection for - the scientific prizes where the committees are almost exclusively male.

Slowly it emerged that her omission from the application for the Lasker prize hadn't been some misunderstanding as her boss had initially claimed, but that he had been deliberately excluded from the nomination. When she found that she was not to be mentioned in any capacity, she asked her boss to make a statement or donate half the prize money as a scholarship in her name. He refused.

Aware that such treachery had possibly sent Rosalind Franklin to an early grave, she thought that it might kill her too. She chose to make a stink about the matter and to publicise the deception in this book and through other avenues and obviously became regarded not only as a maverick, but also as a trouble maker. This may have been, in part, what inspired her to set up her own biotech research company.

Further resources

Molecules of emotion: Article summary

This article offers a book review of Molecules of Emotion by Dr Candace Pert PhD which looks at how our emotions and health are governed by the dynamic interplay of cell receptors and the substances they bind (known as ligands).

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Electrosmog

2012-01-01T06:00:00.001Z

In the two videos that accompany this article, the electrosmog expert, Professor Olle Johansson of the Karolinska Institute, Sweden talks about the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) on health.

Click to watch part 1 and part 2 of Electrosmog: A Wake-Up Call (15 mins total) on the associated website.

His particular area of expertise is neuroscience and he states that there is now overwhelming evidence from in vitro, animal and human studies to show adverse biological and biomedical effects of electromagnetic radiation at very low exposure levels - well below the current exposure guidelines.

Up until recently, the main focus of concern has been the potential carcinogenic effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation. However, he states that as serious as this is, this is likely to affect only a small proportion of the population. Of greater concern he feels is the effect on the entire population of being subjected to whole body irradiation, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on a scale that is of 'Biblical' proportions compared to natural background radiation levels.

The adverse effects of EMR have been largely assumed to be related to the thermal or heating effect, but concern now centres around the nonthermal effects. These are subtle and include disruption of ionic channels (these are proteins embedded in all cell membranes which help to maintain a small voltage gradient across the plasma membrane by controlling the passage of ions) and the release, uptake and degradation of transmitters (which is how neurons communicate chemically with each other and is also governed by the balance of electrolytes).

The nonthermal effects of electromagnetic radiation are often evident much earlier that the thermal effects - even within minutes, hours or days and include:

A compromised immune system
Decreased fertility
Headaches
Decreased sleep quality and quantity
Compromised mental function and concentration
Deterioration in short term memory and
Decreased learning capacity.

Professor Johansson feels that it is high time to put a 'foot on brake' of the widespread deployment of these technologies since many of the adverse effects may not be evident for generations by which time it will definitely be too late to address the problem. He admits to being surprised that politicians feel able to take chances with the health of the whole population and that by and large, the people have notably not been informed about the potential perils of these technologies.

Since ALL of the research papers printed in peer-reviewed journals are indicating that there is a cause for concern, he requested that the former Swedish government send him the relevant scientific papers documenting the safety of EMR - and received no reply.

The 2007 Bioinitiative Report

According to the industry-funded research into the safety of electromagnetic radiation, there is no risk to health whatsoever. However, Professor Johansson and others mindful of the 'tobacco science' of the 1950s were concerned about the lack of independent research and decided after one particular conference to look into the issue themselves.

Dozens of concerned independent scientists scrutinised the 2,000 plus peer-reviewed studies which had been published on the topic and each took subjects covered by their area of expertise. The result was the 600 page Bioinitiative Report published in 2007 and available to view at: www.bioinitiative.org.

For his part, Professor Johansson agreed to examine the effects of EMR on the immune system and thinking this would not be a very large topic also agreed to make a study of electrohypersensitivity. He confesses that he later came to regret this action since he had not appreciated at the time the vast amount of scientific research just addressing the topic of adverse immune effects.

What the studies show with regard to the effects of electromagnetic irradiation on the immune system is that there appears to be an initial activation of the immune system in same way as would occur with any intrusion by a foreign agent such as bacteria. However, there is then a decrease in immune activity which falls below the initial baseline suggesting that the effect of EMR exposure is long-term compromise or fatigue of the immune system.

Cancer is ultimately regarded by many as an immune deficiency disease since the immune system has either not recognised or mounted a defence against cancerous cells and this may be the mechanism behind the link between EMR exposure and an increased incidence of various cancers.

Other topics examined in the Bioinitiative Report include the effects of EMR on:

Gene and protein expression
Genotoxic effects ie: DNA damage
The stress response
Effects on neurology and behaviour
Brain tumours and acoustic neuromas
Childhood cancers such as leukaemia
Melatonin production
Alzheimer’s disease and
Breast cancer promotion.

Tips for reducing exposure to electromagnetic radiation

To help you best protect yourself from EMR, Lloyd Burrell of www.electricsense.com offers his top video tips for protecting yourself from computer radiation as follows:

Be aware that the radiation emitted by laptops is higher than that generated by a desktop computer and that laptop computers are best used on their battery rather than mains electricity supply.
Avoid using a laptop computer on your lap as the electromagnetic radiation emitted will be adjacent to your reproductive organs. He suggests a variety of protection devices including the Harapad to shield your body from the radiation.
Use a radiation filter over the screen on your desktop computer and ensure that the electricity supply is earthed.
Sit as far away as possible from the CPU.
After extensive research, NASA concluded that the best device for absorbing EM radiation were Cereus cacti - preferably with 5 heads. This is thought to be because they have evolved self-protective mechanisms to defend themselves from the harsh radiation of the desert (see illustration right).
The use of salt crystal lamps (see right) helps to maintain a normal ionic balance in the office.
Take regular breaks every 15-20 mins and look out over the horizon if possible to reduce eye strain.
Eat bananas which are high in potassium which helps to alleviate eye irritation.
Ensure you eat a diet rich in antioxidants including foods such as tomatoes, cherries and broccoli which are high in vitamins A and C which help to protect your body from the free radical damage caused by EMR.
Washing your face occasionally helps to remove particles of radiation which attach to the skin.
If you work in an office with others, then it is not just your computer that poses a risk. Depending upon the age of the equipment and the model, some of the older types of monitors emit most radiation from the rear - so avoid sitting too close to the back of anyone else's computer if possible.

Click to watch videos in which Lloyd demonstrates the radiation emitted by cell phones and cordless phones (where the base acts as a mini mast constantly emitting radiation) or for his tips on protecting yourself from cell phone radiation which are as follows:

Do not let children have or use cell phones. Their organs are still developing, they are smaller, have a thinner skull and their blood-brain barrier is much more susceptible to cell phone radiation.
Limit cell phone conversations to a minimum.
Use the speaker phone as much as possible.
When taking or making a call do not put the cell phone to your ear until the connection has been established as the radiation is highest when the device is seeking a signal.
Avoid carrying your mobile phone on your body near to your heart, kidneys, or gonads.
Only use your cell phone in optimum reception areas (which can be judged by the number of bars depicted). Do not use in poor reception areas such as elevators or basements.
Do not use your cell phone in a moving vehicle as the phone will be scanning all the time for the nearest mast.
Do not use your phone in a car at all. The car creates a Faraday's cage or electrically insulated box and the cell phone acts as a radiation emitting device with your body acting to absorb the EMR it produces.
Never sleep with your cell phone switched on. In fact, do not even have it in your bedroom. Sleep is important - it is when your body recharges and repairs.
Avoid using a cell phone if you are ill, rundown or elderly. Pregnant women and their babies are also at higher risk since the amniotic fluid does not provide any EMF protection.
When buying a cell phone buy one with the lowest SRI. Although imperfect, this provides an indication of the likely amount of radiation exposure.
Use your cell phone to send and receive texts where possible.

The answer has to be to take sensible measures as outlined above and also to protect your body since electromagnetic fields are now inescapable. This video examines the effectiveness of the Q link device and other EMF shielding devices are listed at www.lessemf.com (US) and www.emfields.org (UK).

What I suspect most overlook is the effect of electromagnetic radiation upon toxic metals in the body at a cellular level, metal implants such as prosthetic hips and the effect on dental amalgam fillings which have been shown to emit more mercury vapour as a result of exposure to EMFs.

Further resources

For related videos on the associated website refer to Taming the Microwave Dragon, and part 1 and part 2 of Protect Your Health From Electromagnetic Radiation, and for a podcast refer to Potential Hazards of Cell Phones listed under Natural Recovery in the Audio hub.

Electrosmog: Article summary

This article accompanies a two-part video interview with the electrosmog expert, Professor Olle Johansson, in which he expresses his concerns about the population wide effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) at levels well below the current guidelines. Whilst the current focus of concern appears to be the cancer-causing potential of EMR, he says that there are immediate recognised effects on fertility, the immune system and cognitive function which could be of greater long-term significance since the entire population is being irradiated 24/7.

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Hearing & Balance Problems: Iatrogenic Causes

2011-12-01T06:06:00.002Z

This article addresses several disorders relating to the ears including problems with hearing, balance, vertigo, tinnitus (ringing or tones in the ears), problems understanding what has been said and Ménière's disease.

As someone who has had lifelong 'infections' in one ear, is deaf in that same ear and a veteran of 16 ear operations I now consider that practically all the no-doubt well intentioned treatment I received over the decades has not only been useless but in most cases counterproductive or destructive.

I now believe that most of the problems I suffered were a direct result of mercury toxicity and effective toxic metal detoxification has managed to resolve many of the longstanding and ongoing issues.

The fact is that the age-related hearing loss many of regard as being 'normal' is not inevitable at all, but the result of toxicity due to the use of dental amalgam fillings and the mercury based preservative, thimerasol which is included in many vaccines, along with exposure to other toxic agents including pharmaceuticals.

In order to explain the different ways in which medicine and dentistry may adversely affect hearing and balance, you first need to understand a little about how the ears work.

How the ears work

In terms of hearing, sound waves are funnelled down the outer ear canal where they cause the eardrum to vibrate. A series of small bones or ossicles in the middle ear then transmit this vibration to a membranous window in the cochlea. The cochlea looks like a snail shell and contains a membranous structure which is filled with fluid within the bony cavity. The cochlea and the adjacent vestibular apparatus are part of the inner ear which is encased in bone.

The cochlea is divided along its length into three compartments of which the upper and lower compartments are continuous and filled with a fluid known as perilymph. As the ossicles vibrate the membranous window, this in turn creates vibrations within the perilymph which travel the length of the cochlea in the upper compartment and then back in the lower compartment to be discharged by another membranous window within the middle ear.

The vibrations set up within the perilymph are transmitted to a middle membranous compartment filled with endolymph which contains the organ of hearing known as the spiral organ of Corti. The spiral organ of Corti contains groups of approximately 100 hair cells arranged in rows and supported by pillar-like cells and the vibrations detected by these cells are converted into signals by the vestibulocochlear nerve and transmitted to the brain. The frequencies at which these cells are stimulated depends upon their position within the cochlea. As you can see from the scanning electron microscope images below, this is a complex and exquisitely organised system.

The middle ear contains air and communicates with the throat via the Eustachian tube or auditory canal. At rest this tube is collapsed to prevent the ingress of bacteria from the nose and mouth, but four small muscles open the tube when you swallow or yawn allowing pressures to equalise and the middle ear secretions to drain. A functional and patent Eustachian tube is necessary for the mechanics of both hearing and balance.

The tubular tonsils guard the pharyngeal end of the Eustachian tube and these form part of the ring of lymphoid tissue in the nasopharynx known as Waldeyer’s Ring. Enlargement of the tubular tonsils or of the adjacent pharyngeal tonsils (also known as adenoids) can cause blockage of the auditory canal. Animal experiments have shown that the inner and middle ear are independently connected to the lymphatic drainage system.

In relation to balance, there are three semicircular canals organised in different planes of space that again have a fluid filled membranous structure encased within a bony cavity. These canals known as the vestibular apparatus and the cochlea are continuous and meet in a central chamber known as the vestibule.

These canals are lined with groups of sensory hair-like cells that are attached to otoliths or little stones. As the stones and fluid move the hairs are stimulated and send information about 3 dimensional position and movement in space to the brain.

This information is coordinated by the brain with proprioceptive feedback from the joints and muscles (which gives information about the relative position of body parts to one another) and to vision to coordinate balance and movement. In total, six neurotransmitters are involved in generating and transmitting the signals produced by the organs of balance and hearing.

Ear problems

Otitis media

Otitis media or inflammation of the middle ear is the most common diagnosis in sick children in the developed world. It involves ear pain which may be accompanied by fever, a feeling of fullness in the ears, temporary hearing loss and distress.

Infection, allergy, toxicity or inflammation from any source causes lymphatic fluid to build-up in the middle ear. Enlargement of either the tubular tonsils or the adenoids may block the Eustachian tube. Food intolerances and particularly the consumption of dairy products are considered to be a prime suspect as they are known to induce mucus membrane inflammation and mucus production in many people.

Hearing loss

Hearing loss can be caused by a variety of toxins (see below), infections including measles, mumps, and meningitis, physical trauma, central nervous system disorders (such as tumours) and exposure to loud noises.

Individuals with a history of head injury are particularly vulnerable to later hearing loss or tinnitus which may be temporary or permanent. An example is King Jordan who lost his hearing as a result of sustaining a skull fracture in a motorcycle accident when he was 21 years old.

Tinnitus

Tinnitus is the perception of ringing or whining tones within the ear. It can be genetic or caused by exposure to loud noises, infections, allergies, and some medications particularly benzodiazepine withdrawal.

It can vary in intensity from occasional and mild to continuous and loud disrupting sleep and normal activity. It is very common with one in five people between the ages of 55 and 65 reporting some symptoms of tinnitus.

Vertigo

Vertigo is the sensation of motion while being stationary that induces dizziness. It may be associated with other symptoms such as vomiting, blurred vision, hearing loss, difficulty speaking, standing or walking, and a lowered level of consciousness. In particular the eyes may jerk rapidly in attacks of what is known as nystagmus.

Episodes of vertigo may last anywhere from a few moments to a few days or may become permanent. Sufferers often need to sit or lie still during an attack, but the sensation of movement may continue even though they are not moving at all.

Inflammation and infections including the common cold and influenza can cause transient vertigo, as may exposure to toxins and physical trauma (eg: skull fractures). Vertigo can also be due to disorders of the auditory nerve, brain or brain stem. Sometimes collections of the otoliths in particular locations can cause positional vertigo when the head is moved in particular ways especially in older people.

Ménière's disease

Ménière's disease affects about 2 people per 1,000 and involves sudden, episodic attacks of vertigo which may be accompanied by noise in the ears (tinnitus), progressive hearing loss (usually lower frequencies and in one ear), a sense of fullness or pressure in the affected ear, nystagmus and severe nausea and vomiting. Sometimes sounds can be tiny or distorted and sufferers may become unusually sensitive to sounds.

Attacks can last from minutes to hours. Sudden, severe attacks known as 'drop attacks' can cause the person to fall. Ménière's disease can range in intensity from being a mild annoyance to being a total, lifelong disability.

Critically, individuals suffering with other conditions including some autoimmune diseases, dysautonomia (dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system), multiple sclerosis (MS), thyroid disorders and migraines may present with Ménière's-like symptoms - many of which are probably caused by the same underlying toxicity (see below). Like the autoimmune diseases, CFS and fibromyalgia, Ménière's disease tends to affect more women than men and onset is typically in adulthood with prevalence increasing with age.

The consumption of salt, alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco, can all aggravate symptoms of Ménière's. Allergies may also play a causative role.

Medical approaches include giving drugs for the nausea and vomiting, using cyclizine patches worn behind the ear to alleviate symptoms, and benzodiazepines for the anxiety induced by the unexpected attacks. The drugs used all have side-effects, especially in older people and should be avoided if at all possible.

Surgery is recognised to compromise hearing and some treatments aim to chemically destroy or surgically remove the vestibular apparatus or to sever the nerves. Even then, recovery is often accompanied by nausea and vomiting as the brain learns to compensate.

Causes of ear damage

Toxic causes of ear damage

Hearing loss due to exposure to toxic chemicals tends to start in the high frequency range as toxins create areas of damage within the cochlea and also degrade central portions of the auditory system. Ototoxic substances known to cause balance or hearing problems include:

Solvents such as toluene which is used in gasoline, paint thinners and removers, and correction fluid
Other solvents including styrene, xylene, p-xylene, n-hexane, ethyl benzene, white spirits, carbon disulphide, perchloroethylene, and trichloroethylene
Asphyxiants including carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide
Toxic metals including lead, mercury, and organotins (trimethyltin)
Pesticides and herbicides including paraquat, and organophosphates and
The artificial sweetener, aspartame.

Exposure to these toxins has an additive effect along with exposure to noise.

Pharmaceutical causes of ear damage

This issue first came to light when tuberculosis patients were given the newly developed antibiotic, streptomycin in 1944 and many subsequently developed irreversible hearing loss. The later development of other aminoglycoside antibiotics led to a great deal of research into the mechanisms of ototoxicity.

Over 100 classes of drugs have now been associated with causing toxic damage to the structures of ear or the associated brain centres leading to hearing and balance problems, and tinnitus. The following drugs have all been shown to be ototoxic:

Aminoglycoside antibiotics including gentamicin
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and aspirin
Anti-angina nitrate drugs may cause immediate balance or hearing problems
The chemotherapy drug cisplatin
Various antihypertensive drugs
The sedative phenobarbital
The anticonvulsant phenytoin
The antipsychotic chlorpromazine
Antimalarial drugs including quinine
Certain diuretics including furosemide and
No surprises - excessive consumption of alcohol can also cause temporary vertigo.

Rush Limbaugh, the American radio talk show host was diagnosed with an autoimmune inner ear disease and within three months lost all his hearing. He has subsequently had a cochlea implant fitted and now has some measure of hearing. Some have speculated that his hearing loss was due to his admitted addiction to narcotic pain killers, in particular Vicodin and OxyContin.

Dental causes of ear damage

There are several ways in which dental procedures in general and dental restorations in particular may cause problems with hearing or balance. Many dentists especially in Germany, Scandinavia and Denmark have documented improvements in balance and hearing loss after the safe removal of amalgam fillings (Mat Hanson, M. Daunderer, D.K. Lichtenberg, R.L. Sibelrud, D. Melchart, and Dr. Harald Hamre, and the Marburg study).

Mercury toxicity and ear problems

The majority of the mercury vapour given off by dental amalgam fillings is inhaled into the lungs from where it passes in the blood to the rest of the body. Being highly lipophilic (fat-loving) and neurophilic the mercury is absorbed into the nerve endings particularly of the autonomic nervous system (the automatic system that governs functions below conscious awareness).

It then travels up the autonomic nerves to the central nervous system in a process known as retrograde axonal transport disrupting function and eventually causing death of the neurons involved. Some of the mercury vapour emitted by amalgam fillings is absorbed directly into the mucosa of the mouth, pharynx and sinuses where it may directly disrupt function (eg: of the tonsils).

Mercury poisoning is recognised to cause hearing loss, deafness, vertigo, tinnitus and also to change perception of sound so that the individual's ability to understand what they hear is diminished. They may also experience sharp pricking pains in their ear canals.

Mercury rapidly damages the organs of excretion - the liver and kidneys - and so the cargo of mercury is stored in body tissues. More mercury may be launched into the system as a result of a variety of factors including exposure to electromagnetic fields, dental work, chewing, grinding teeth, and drinking or eating hot or acidic foods.

Mercury also seems to be moved from organ system to organ system according to factors including stress, the nutrients available, the time of day, in/adequate sleep and rest, etc.

Being fat soluble, mercury accumulates in the lymph and may well concentrate in the perilymph and endolymph of the inner ear. From there absorption into the sensory cells of the organ of Corti or balance may cause destruction as shown in the images below.

Ultimately this destruction may cause progressive degeneration of the vestibulocochlear nerve or the parts of the brain responsible for processing aural information. Mercury accumulating in the lymph of the ear may also disable the tubular tonsil so that lymph backs up within the ear becoming toxic.

Mercury also disrupts the biochemistry of the neurotransmitters and given that there are 6 different neurotransmitters involved in the process of hearing there is plenty of opportunity for blockade of one or more neurotransmitters thus disrupting nerve signals.

Many people presenting with Ménière's-type symptoms also have disorders known to be associated with mercury poisoning including 'autoimmune' diseases, multiple sclerosis (MS), thyroid disorders and migraines which may all be caused by the same underlying toxicity. As may the nystagmus which also often occurs during an attack.

And the greater prevalence of Ménière's in women and onset in midlife also ties in with the fact that women are more vulnerable to mercury toxicity. Added to which Ménière's disease was first diagnosed in the 1860s - just a few decades after the introduction of dental amalgam.

Galvanic currents from dental restorations and ear problems

The conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, Dr Benjamin Zander, recently gave testimony to the FDA hearings into the safety of dental amalgam.

He stated that 7 years previously he had developed Ménière's disease, which had caused violent bouts of vomiting, vertigo and massive hearing loss. Because of the violence of these attacks, he had had to cancel or stop in the middle of several performances and visits to Ear, Nose and Throat specialists throughout the world had yielded no results.

Eventually, the Paracelsus clinic in Switzerland suggested he have all his metal dental restorations removed as a result of which he describes his recovery as 'extraordinary'. All symptoms of the Ménière's disease suddenly disappeared and have not reappeared in the intervening 7 years.

Since the improvement appears to have been fairly immediate and he makes no mention of any extensive detoxification, his symptoms may well have been a result of the galvanic currents created within the moisture of the mouth by the various metals and he specifically mentions amalgam fillings and nickel-containing crowns.

The electromagnetic currents generated by the different metals used in the mouth can be 1,000X those in the brain and ear which are just centimetres away and which may disrupt either the generation or transmission of the nerve impulses.

Dental restorations disrupt meridian flows

All the energy meridians pass through the teeth and any metal restorations may block these flows. Removal of such restorations may also result in immediate improvements in many kinds of conditions.

Also, according to the dictates of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the Kidney meridian 'opens into the ear' so that tinnitus and other symptoms may be a sign of kidney stress. In animal experiments by Murray Vimy et al at the University of Calgary, the mercury from dental amalgam fillings has been shown to compromise kidney function by 50% within a month of placement of the first filling. So the kidneys are known to be under enormous stress in individuals with amalgam fillings. Removal of toxic metal restorations may enable the kidneys to repair and restore thus alleviating the associated ear symptoms.

The muscles of the body all relate to the meridians and effectively act as safety valves for the function of the internal organ systems. Such that muscles become weak or hypertonic (tense) depending upon the status of the associated meridian. The relationships of at least 42 of the bilateral muscles to the meridians was established by the founder of Kinesiology, Dr George Goodheart some 40 years ago. Doubtless the tiny muscles governing the drainage and functioning of the ear may have relationships to energy meridians which to the best of my knowledge have yet to be established.

Temperomandibular joint dysfunction and ear problems

Although temperomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJD) is regarded as being the province of dentists, the function of this joint may be related to, or may be the cause of, balance or hearing problems. Half the motor cortex of the brain is devoted to the TMJ, so the body regards this joint as being very important for reasons that aren't entirely clear.

TMJ problems are a common finding in the fatigue syndromes caused by mercury toxicity and almost all dental procedures have the potential to alter the bite causing TMj problems which may affect the functioning of the ear.

As a veteran of detoxifying mercury, I can tell you that a prickling sensation in the hands and tinnitus are some of the more reliable signs that mercury is being mobilised from storage and excreted. I have also experienced episodes of hearing loss and vertigo related to detoxifying mercury.

For information about a comprehensive metals detoxification programme using natural methods please refer to Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan.

Further resources

For videos watch Ben Zander's Mercury Poisoning Testimony and Part 1 and Part 2 of CFS and Fibromyalgia Explained on the associated website.

Hearing and balance problems: Article summary

This article looks at possible dental causes of hearing loss, tinnitus, balance problems including vertigo, and Ménière's disease including mercury toxicity from dental amalgam fillings, the generation of galvanic currents between dissimilar metals, and the blocking of energy meridian flows with metal restorations.

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Postnatal Depression: The Causes

2011-12-01T06:04:00.003Z

Joanne - or Joe - Bingley was a nurse with 20 years experience. She longed for a child and had experienced problems with conceiving, and had at least two known miscarriages. She had also been turned down for both IVF and adoption because she was overweight.

So she was overjoyed to eventually gave birth to a daughter, Emily Jane, in February 2010. However, efforts to breastfeed were not successful and Emily was losing weight. So Joe began to bottle-feed and her daughter started to thrive, but this perceived failure appears to have been the trigger for a severe bout of postnatal depression.

Joe was only sleeping a couple of hours a night, had a 'glazed' look, and expressed the belief that she was a bad mother and that Emily would be better off without her. She repeatedly requested help and felt that her pleas were not being taken seriously. And then, 10 weeks after Emily was born she announced early one morning to her sleepy husband, Chris, that she was going out for a walk and proceeded to throw herself under a train.

An independent report based upon the evidence available concluded that she should have been hospitalised at least 3 days prior to her death and that if this had been done she would probably have made a full recovery.

Her widowed husband, Chris, is now focusing on publicising this issue and de-stigmatising postnatal depression.

So what IS postnatal depression?

Symptoms of postnatal depression

Up to 80% of women suffer with some form of postnatal 'baby blues' with symptoms such as tearfulness, irritability, sleeplessness, headaches, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of isolation - all of which may last for a few days. However, this is not the same as postnatal depression or postpartum depression (PPD), nor is it a precursor to the more serious postnatal psychosis.

According to the MIND report (2006) one in six women are known to be affected by postnatal depression either during pregnancy or following childbirth. Symptoms of PPD can occur anytime in the first year after giving birth and include, but are not limited to, the following:

Feeling low, despondent, and hopeless
Feeling overwhelmed, unable to cope or inadequate
Disrupted sleep patterns including insomnia or sleeping all the time
Loss of appetite – or feeling hungry but not being able to eat
Low or no energy or exhaustion
Feeling empty and lacking pleasure in activities that would normally be enjoyable
Withdrawing socially and having little interest in the outside world
Impaired motor skills such as speaking and writing
Difficulty in concentrating or making decisions
Physical symptoms such as stomach and chest pains, headaches and blurred vision
Feeling anxious or getting panic attacks
Feeling guilty about being a bad mother
Being irritable and hostile towards others
Feeling sad and tearful, crying easily or without reason, and being unable to be comforted
Feeling hostility towards - or a lack of interest in - the baby
Obsessive fears about the baby’s health and/or wellbeing and
Thoughts about death, self-harm, suicide or harming the baby.

Curiously, a small but significant proportion of men also suffer postnatal depression. Men have been shown to experience a drop of a third in their testosterone levels when they become fathers. This is thought to reduce the aggression the man feels and to increase their frustration tolerance in order to protect the baby while they are very vulnerable.

Several factors have been shown to make postnatal depression more likely including:

Being a single parent, being in a poor relationship or the pregnancy being unplanned or unwanted
A previous history of depression, or depression related to a pregnancy
Low socioeconomic status. Women in the lowest income brackets are more than twice as likely to get postnatal depression as those in the highest.
Bottle rather than breast-feeding
Being a smoker
Having low self-esteem
Stresses relating to a lack of social support or childcare
Anxiety and stress relating to life or the pregnancy
Problems with the baby's temperament or health including colic
Being lesbian, bisexual or of African origin.

Furthermore, some of these factors have been shown to be additive.

Postpartum psychosis is less common than postnatal depression and involves a complete break with reality involving thought disturbances, delusions, hallucinations and/or disorganised speech and/or behaviour. Whereas postnatal depression will eventually spontaneously resolve, postpartum psychosis will not and needs intervention.

Given that this problem afflicts one in every six women, many public figures have spoken openly about their experience of postnatal depression as shown below.

The medical approach to postnatal depression

Allopathic medicine defines postnatal depression as a psychological or psychiatric problem and treats the symptoms with antidepressant drugs and/or psychotherapy.

This approach is based upon the theory that depression is caused by a deficiency of neurotransmitters and specifically serotonin (the 'feel good' hormone) and noradrenaline (norepinephrine). These neurotransmitters are fundamental to health because they transmit nerve impulses throughout the nervous system, and have a profound effect on mood and self-esteem, in addition to having many other important functions within the body.

In truth, medicine and psychiatry have no idea what mental illness is and they have created an artificial division between the mind (which is assumed to be the brain) and the body. Whereas natural medicine regards depression as a symptom of an underlying disorder and considers that there may be many different causes which are currently all being lumped together under the same heading and treated in a one-size-fits-all way. Whatever the cause, allopathic medicine probably only alleviates the symptom until such time as the body can right itself.

Below are listed just some of the possible causes for postnatal depression.

Serotonin deficiency and PPD

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain that is often referred to as the 'feel good' hormone. In order to synthesise serotonin the brain needs a steady supply of the amino acid tryptophan and vitamin B6.

Most protein foods contain a very small percentage of tryptophan when compared with other amino acids added to which only about 3 percent of the tryptophan consumed is actually converted into serotonin in the brain.

Serotonin is the end result of a series of biochemical steps which convert the tryptophan in the diet into 5 hydroxy-tryptophan (5HTP) and on to serotonin. Each of these steps requires specific nutrients.

Iron and vitamin B3 (niacin) are required to convert tryptophan into 5HTP along with sufficient other B vitamins and magnesium (which is required to convert vitamin B6 into its active form pyridoxyl-5-phosphate or P5P). Without enough 5HTP and P5P available in the brain, serotonin cannot be synthesised at adequate levels.

The adrenal stress hormone cortisol, also causes tryptophan to be converted into kynurenine rather than serotonin. In addition, drinking coffee, smoking, drinking alcohol, and eating chocolate, all promote the release of cortisol and may reduce the amount of serotonin produced.

The antidepressant drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) artificially increase the amount of serotonin available to the neurons. However, another kind of postnatal depression can be caused by low levels of noradrenaline (norepinephrine) and this kind of depression will be resistant to - or may actually be made worse by - taking SSRIs.

The depression experienced by women with low serotonin levels is usually accompanied by a great deal of anxiety, whereas that induced by low noradrenaline levels feels like they are in a deep, dark hole. Women with low noradrenaline levels often improve dramatically in response to effective treatment of underlying thyroid and adrenal gland disorders (see below).

Postnatal adrenal gland exhaustion

Our adrenal glands are responsible for producing the stress hormones adrenaline (epinephrine), noradrenaline (norephinephrine), cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), in addition to oestrogen and aldosterone.

It is estimated that the levels of stress most of us face on a daily basis are now 100 times higher than those faced by our grandparents. Added to which the adrenal glands also have a very high requirement for nutrients including vitamins C and B and most people's diets are now deficient in these essential nutrients.

These factors combine to produce underfunctioning or exhaustion of the adrenal glands and this may be precipitated by the nutritional and physical demands of pregnancy and childbirth. There are also dramatic changes in the balance of hormones after birth (see below) which can also cause the adrenal glands to crash.

In addition, the brain synthesises serotonin and dopamine in line with levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline, so underfunctioning of the adrenal glands may affect the amount of serotonin produced in the brain.

There are several tests that can be used to diagnose adrenal fatigue and effective treatment might include injections of vitamins, ginseng and/or liquorice supplements, specific adrenal support complexes and the use of desiccated bovine adrenal glands. It is also important to allowing enough sleep and rest for the adrenal glands to recover and for the diet to be optimal.

Postpartum thyroiditis

Postpartum thyroiditis (PPT) is the development of a transient postnatal thyroid disorder which normally spontaneously resolves within a year. However the problem often recurs after subsequent pregnancies and a quarter of women who have had postnatal thyroid disorders will go on to develop permanent hypothyroidism in the 10 years after giving birth.

One in every 13 women will develop postpartum thyroiditis which is an autoimmune disorder. Up to half of women who test positive for antithyroid antibodies in the first trimester will develop thyroiditis in the postpartum period. In addition to which such women stand a 70% chance of experiencing PPT in subsequent pregnancies.

A quarter of women who tested positive but did not go on to develop PPT during the first pregnancy will develop it during subsequent pregnancies. And for those women that have experienced PPT once, nearly half will go on to experience it in at least one more pregnancy.

Suboptimal maternal thyroid function has serious implications for the developing embryo too - especially in the first trimester. In consideration of this, in 2002 the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) recommended screening all women considering conception and/or all pregnant women in the first trimester for thyroid dysfunction.

Subclinical hypothyroidism (ie: blood tests are returned as being 'normal') and/or the presence of thyroid peroxidase antibodies has been found to be associated with subfertility and infertility, miscarriage, preterm delivery, gestational hypertension during pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, postpartum thyroiditis and postpartum depression.

Effective treatment for PPT may include short term use of thyroxine combined with nutritional support of the thyroid gland using either blends containing the amino acid tyrosine which is the main nutritional precursor for all the thyroid hormones and the mineral iodine, or desiccated bovine thyroid glands to help regenerate the thyroid gland.

The fact that Joe Bingley was overweight, had problems conceiving, had experienced multiple miscarriages and finally had severe postnatal depression may indicate that thyroid problems may have been the root cause of her PPD.

Low progesterone and postpartum depression

Progesterone is so named because it is the pro-gestational hormone, supporting conception, survival of the fertilised egg, maintenance of the endometrium which nourishes the fertilised egg and embryo, and a full-term pregnancy. It also governs the synthesis of the adrenal hormones including adrenaline, nor-adrenaline and cortisol as well as the sex hormones.

At ovulation, progesterone levels rise tenfold from 2-3 mg per day to approximately 22-25 mg per day. This progesterone surge is the source of increased libido at this time. If fertilisation of the egg does not occur within ten or twelve days, progesterone levels fall dramatically triggering the shedding of the endometrium as menstruation.

If the egg is fertilised, the empty egg casing in the ovary (the corpus luteum) starts to produce progesterone until production is taken over by the placenta which secretes an ever increasing supply, reaching 300-400 mg/day during the third trimester - 100X preovulation levels! If progesterone levels drop during the pregnancy or the progesterone receptor sites become blocked then this may result in miscarriage as the endometrium is shed.

After birth, there is a major shut down of progesterone production and this may be associated with the loss of adrenal and thyroid gland function, and the development of postnatal depression. For this reason, some physicians administer high doses of progesterone by injection after birth for 8 days and the woman then uses progesterone pessaries until menstruation resumes.

The results of this therapy can be very dramatic - starting to work within hours and, according to research conducted by the Pope Paul VI Institute in 2004, decreasing symptoms to one quarter of those pre-therapy. Furthermore, 95% of women respond positively which makes this approach far more effective than either psychotherapy or antidepressants and one that some consider should be the first line of approach in the treatment of postpartum depression. Applying a natural progesterone cream to the skin can help to remedy these symptoms.

Progesterone and oestrogen are kept in balance and endocrine disrupting chemicals which mimic oestrogen and bind to oestrogen receptor sites may ultimately be responsible for progesterone deficits. The widespread use of synthetic sex hormones in the contraceptive pill, depot injections and hormone-releasing coils may also be responsible for creating an imbalance.

Also, according to a study at the University of California, Irvine, levels of placental corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) during the 25th week of pregnancy were a predictor of the likelihood of developing postpartum depression.

Low blood sugar and postnatal depression

Low or poorly controlled blood sugar levels (hypoglycaemia and dysglycaemia respectively) are known to be associated with depression and the dramatic changes in the functioning of the endocrine system at birth may cause compromised insulin production or there may be a blocking of insulin receptor sites on the cells. This can create functional hypoglycaemia where even if blood glucose levels are 'normal', sugar cannot enter the cells.

This produces depression and often results in attempts to remedy the low blood sugar by comfort eating which leads to weight gain. Treatment includes regular, small nutritious meals, eliminating all sugar and processed foods and possibly taking supplements to help support pancreatic function such as chromium or glucose tolerance factor (GTF).

Zinc deficiency and postpartum depression

Trace minerals are now very deficient in our soils due to modern farming methods and then they are further depleted by food refining, processing and preparation. The refining of wheat flour, for example, removes 80% of zinc. And in some areas of the world, zinc deficiency is thought to be responsible for learning disabilities in one-third of children.

Other factors that deplete zinc include stress (this can be physiological such as pregnancy and not necessarily psychological), viral infections, the consumption of sugar, coffee, alcohol and nicotine. In addition, the taking of corticosteroid drugs and/or the contraceptive pill depletes body reserves, and digestive problems such as low stomach acid (which may go undiagnosed) may prevent its absorption.

The levels of the trace minerals copper and zinc tend to be inversely related to one another. The developing foetus has a high requirement for zinc which is required for growth and development. Maternal blood levels of zinc are known to fall by about 30% during pregnancy, and then to decline further during breast-feeding as the mother’s reserves are used up.

Rising maternal copper levels coupled with zinc and vitamin B deficiency make postnatal depression much more likely according to the late orthomolecular medicine practitioner, Dr Carl Pfieffer MD, PhD. He also stated that he had never seen evidence of postnatal depression in patients treated with zinc and vitamin B6.

One Polish study found that the mother's mood postnatally was inversely related to their blood zinc levels and that the mothers who tested positive during pregnancy for mild depressive symptoms also had depleted blood zinc levels.

If you are positive for more than 3 of the following, consider the possibility of zinc deficiency:

Stretch marks
Irritability
Loss of appetite
Poor wound healing
Frequent infections
White spots on 2 or more nails
A baby who has reflux or colic
Poor sense of smell or taste
Pale skin
Acne or greasy skin
Creaky joints and
Hair loss.

Copper toxicity and postpartum depression

In a study by Crayton and Walsh published in the Journal of Trace Elements in Medicine and Biology in 2006, copper levels were found to be significantly higher in women that had a history of postnatal depression compared both to non-depressed women and to depressed women without a history of postnatal depression.

However, in this study it appears to be the balance between copper and zinc that is the key factor, as zinc levels did not differ across the three groups. Excess copper in the brain, is known to alter the balance of dopamine and noradrenaline (norepinephrine), two mood-regulating chemicals.

During pregnancy, a woman’s blood copper levels typically double, normalising again after childbirth. The authors of the study speculate that in women who develop postpartum depression, copper levels fail to normalise possibly because of a genetically determined flaw in the protein that regulates copper levels. Or it may be that as the body's resources are mobilised during pregnancy that copper appears in the circulation from storage or that the hormones of pregnancy cause elevated copper levels in some way.

Magnesium deficiency and postnatal depression

Magnesium serves several extremely important roles in the body. One is that it is involved in the synthesis of steroid and sex hormones. Another is that there is a reciprocal relationship between the macrominerals calcium and magnesium which act as electrolytes in the body with magnesium regulating the passage of calcium ions within neurons controlling nitric oxide production and enabling nerve conduction.

Deficiency of magnesium is well known to produce neuropathologies which could manifest as depression. Again, our diets have become deficient in magnesium with only 16% of the magnesium found in whole wheat remaining in refined flour. The heavy emphasis on eating calcium rich foodstuffs (especially during pregnancy) may also help to create a relative magnesium deficiency. Finally, magnesium deficiency can also be induced by stress hormones.

Pregnancy and childbirth are a huge physical, metabolic, and psychological challenge. Magnesium is important to muscle contraction and the powerful and prolonged contractions of labour will consume vast amounts of magnesium. The production of stress hormones may also compound this problem further exacerbating any deficiency.

Recoveries of less than 7 days from major depression have been demonstrated using 500–1,200 mg of magnesium per day.

Other nutritional deficiencies implicated in PPD

The fact is that a deficiency of any single nutrient can alter brain function leading to depression and the mother's body has just raided all its resources to make a small human being and so has been under the greatest nutrient stress of her life.

"Even in the absence of laboratory validation of nutritional deficiencies, numerous studies utilising rigorous scientific designs have demonstrated impressive benefits from nutritional supplementation."

Dr Melvin Werbach MD

Other nutrient deficiencies which have been implicated in PPT include:

Omega oil deficiency Omega 3 oils are critical to brain function as they form an important component of the cell membrane and help to regulate the passage of all molecules in to and out of the cell. Again, almost everyone is thought to have become deficient in omega 3 oils in recent decades due to dietary changes. The mother's brain may become massively depleted of omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy when the brain of the foetus is developing quickly - or may be depleted further during breastfeeding.

B vitamin deficiency Some of the most common deficiencies found in depressed individuals are folic acid, riboflavin, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6. Supplementing these B vitamins can result in dramatic improvements in mood. Taking the contraceptive pill is also known to deplete vitamin B6 which is essential in the manufacture of serotonin.

S adenosyl methionine deficiency S adenosyl methionine or SAM is a methyl donor which is important in the synthesis of brain compounds including neurotransmitters. Supplementing folic acid increases SAM.

Antidepressants and postnatal depression

Allopathic medicine treats postpartum depression symptomatically mostly using selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. These drugs work by preventing the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the synapses between nerve cells thus artificially elevating their levels in the brain. They also draw serotonin out of storage in the brain cells into the synapses.

Even where the depression is related to low neurotransmitter levels in the brain, the underlying cause is often a deficiency of the nutritional precursors that the body needs to make these neurotransmitters. So this approach depletes the body's reserves of serotonin and the serotonin precursors are used up more rapidly making the underlying deficiency worse.

Overstimulation of the neurons may also result in permanent brain damage or the downregulation of serotonin receptors thus compounding the original problem. SSRIs may also create dangerously low levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine in some people.

All of which means that once the woman has started to take antidepressants it can be difficult to wean off unless the underlying problems are addressed concurrently.

The other issue for the new mother is that whatever pharmaceutical drugs they take will be passed to the baby in the breast milk and appear to concentrate in the baby's brain. Some studies have linked the maternal use of Prozac to colic in nursing infants. And a baby with colic can push an already stressed mother to breaking point.

Some mothers choose to take antidepressants and bottle feed their babies. But this can deprive the baby of their intended nutrition and also deprives the mother of the oxytocin release associated with breastfeeding which calms her and aids bonding with her baby. This can in turn worsen the depression.

SSRIs can bring feelings of numbness, and of separateness from others and common side-effects include nausea, drowsiness, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, headaches, trembling, digestive problems and agitation. SSRI drugs also seem to disinhibit some people resulting in violence, suicide and the mother potentially harming her baby.

Many experts, including the psychiatrists and authors Joseph Glenmullen, M.D., and Peter R. Breggin, M.D., think that SSRIs are overprescribed and that their dangers are dramatically downplayed.

Their use needs to be tapered off gradually with the guidance of a knowledgeable physician. And the SSRIs may take weeks to take effect so they are not the immediate fix some imagine.

Finally, according to a study conducted by Appleby et al (1997), counselling proved as effective as antidepressant therapy over a 12 week period.

Suggestions for postnatal depression

Most of us are malnourished and this becomes particularly critical when trying to get pregnant, during the pregnancy and after the birth when the mother has to continue nourishing herself and her child. Consider the following suggestions.

Eat sufficient protein It is important to consume enough high quality animal protein to rebuild the body and to produce breast milk so make sure you include a portion of meat, fish, eggs or cheese at every mealtime or snack. You might want to consider including a protein shake in addition to protein consumed at meals.

Stay hydrated It is particularly important to maintain hydration levels if you are breastfeeding and it is suggested that nursing mothers drink ten tall glasses of water every day.

Avoid alcohol Alcohol is also best avoided for a variety of reasons including causing dehydration, making any depression worse and being passed to the baby in the breast milk.

Reduce caffeine and sugar consumption High caffeine and sugar intakes are associated with higher rates of depression and are best avoided.

Stabilise your blood sugar levels Eliminate sugar and refined foods and eat small amounts of complex carbohydrates such as whole grains regularly.

Avoid low fat diets Strict low fat diets have been linked to feelings of depression and even suicide (Nutrition Review, April 2000).

Eat and supplement omega 3 oils Include plenty of oily fish, nuts, seeds, grass fed meat, and eggs from chickens fed on high omega 3 seeds in addition to supplementing omega 3 oils throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Supplement a multivitamin/mineral Take a high quality multi especially formulated for preconception, pregnancy and/or breastfeeding.

Increase your zinc intake Especially if you identified with several of the zinc deficiency symptoms listed above. Good dietary sources of zinc include lean meat, poultry, fish, organ meats and whole grain bread. Supplement zinc at about 25 mg per day.

Increase your B vitamins Rich sources of B vitamins include brewer's yeast, wholegrains, green leafy vegetables, beans and wheat germ. In addition to which you may want to take a vitamin B complex supplement (containing around 50 to 100mg of the major B vitamins) and possibly 800mcg of folic acid and 88mcg vitamin B12 day (take together).

Increase your magnesium intake Magnesium rich foods include seeds, nuts, beans, dark green leafy vegetables and seafood. Supplement magnesium as glycine or taurine 125 mg with each meal and before bedtime.

Eat tryptophan-containing foods Foods that contain tryptophan (the serotonin precursor) include turkey, cottage cheese, eggs, lobster, mung beans, tofu, bananas, pineapple, spinach, asparagus, and sunflower and flaxseeds and their oils and/or supplement 5HTP.

Exercise and fresh air Do not underestimate the curative value of daylight and gentle exercise.

Consistent/healthy sleep patterns Try to go to bed at the same time every night and if you need to take a nap during the day.

Finally, postnatal depression is a physiological and psychological crisis and as such, requires serious, timely and meaningful intervention. If you need help, make sure that you ask.

Further resources

For more about postnatal depression please see the Joe Bingley Memorial Foundation website.

For related videos refer to What's Wrong With Psychiatry, Psychiatry: No Science, No Cures, Difference Between Medical Disease and Psychiatric Disorder, and Natural Mood Enhancer or for podcasts listen to Tryptophan and Your Health listed under Supplements and Nutrition and Is Depression Overdiagnosed? listed under Fatigue Syndromes and Toxicity in the Audio hub all on the associated website.

Postnatal depression: Article summary

This article looks at the recent tragic suicide of Joanne Bingley while suffering with severe postnatal depression. Whilst the allopathic medical world treats depression using antidepressants, the naturopathic world regards depression as a symptom of a variety of toxicities, deficiencies and hormonal disorders and seeks to identify and treat the underlying cause. The most common likely causes are detailed along with restorative treatment options.

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Book Review: How To Raise a Healthy Child ..

2011-12-01T06:02:00.000Z

.. In Spite of Your Doctor by Dr Robert S Mendelsohn MD Random House, 1984

This book was published nearly 30 years ago and its author died in 1988, but I review it here because the lessons it contains are as true now as ever, his message has not been heeded in the intervening decades - and because this book should be required reading for every parent.

The author was a paediatrician and taught at first Northwestern University Medical College, and then the University of Illinois College of Medicine over nearly a quarter of a century. He was also an outspoken activist, serving as president of the National Health Federation (NHF) and speaking and writing extensively.

The problems with medical school training

He absorbed the orthodoxies taught in medical school, but later - often when he came to teach medical students - found that most of what he had been taught didn't stand up to scrutiny. He came to believe that there was a great deal of bad medicine practiced in the United States and that the fault lay with the philosophy and teaching of medicine rather than the individual doctors.

He considered doctors and patients alike to be victims of a system which promotes intervention rather than prevention; pharmaceutical and technological approaches; egotistical attitudes; and a rigid and largely irrelevant medical school curriculum and training.

In particular, he considered the majority of paediatric training to relate to obscure or outdated diseases and that the students were taught very little about pharmacology despite the fact that as a practising physician they'll "hook more children on drugs than the most diligent pusher in town."

Combine this with the fact that doctors are taught nothing about the principles of nutrition as a basis for sound health and that they either deny or are unaware of the fact that food allergies are the primary cause of many childhood ailments.

During their training the would-be paediatricians will see hospitalised patients and this can make them overreact in practice to simple illnesses with dramatic interventions. They are also taught very little about the risks of such drastic treatments - the side-effects of drugs, the risks of surgery, the inaccuracy of tests, or the shortcomings of the technologies they use.

He feels that most doctors do not honour the first part of the Hippocratic oath "First, do no harm" and that they are desensitised to the harm that they do by their medical school education. He recounts the common finding that when doctors have gone on strike (in California, Saskatchewan, Israel, etc) the death rate has gone down! Furthermore, other countries with less paediatricians produce better health outcomes than the US because there is less intervention and fewer drugs are prescribed.

Most trainee paediatricians will also work on 'well baby' clinics where they will not see sick children. So they get relatively little experience dealing with the common complaints of childhood. And they are taught nothing about nutrition, allergy, and the psychological and emotional factors that affect the wellbeing of the children they will see. He recalls receiving a one hour lecture on breastfeeding during training after which the formula manufacturers deluge the doctors with self-serving information for the rest of their careers.

Young medics are taught to scoff at what they regard as 'quackery' - which is anyone who hasn't been indoctrinated/trained like them and who doesn't have an MD after their name. But, he states, there is an abundance of quackery within conventional medicine - including prescribing drugs which turn out to be massively damaging such as Thalidomide.

"Modern Medicine's treatments for disease are seldom effective, and they're often more dangerous than the diseases they're designed to treat"

Americans assume they are being protected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but virtually all drugs are released without appropriate or significant human trials. This means that the immediate short-term effects in some patients and the cumulative long-term effects are not discovered until years or decades later when they may have caused untold harm. Even when the adverse effects of a drug become apparent, the FDA has practically no authority to force withdrawal of pharmaceuticals once they have been released onto the market.

When he was a young doctor the treatment for inflamed tonsils, ringworm of the scalp, and enlarged lymph nodes or thymus gland was to use x-rays. The harm done only subsequently emerged over the decades as it became apparent that treatment had caused the permanent failure of these individual's thyroid glands. Added to which enlarged lymph nodes and/or thymus gland are not even ailments, but the body's inbuilt response to infections.

Most things get better by morning

This is the title of his first chapter and he states that most paediatricians capitalise upon the fact that parents tend to be more concerned about the health of their children than their own health. He states that the vast majority of childhood illnesses do not require medical attention and that needless attention may do more harm than good.

He counsels that you avoid taking your child to the doctor whenever you can because at least 95% of childhood ailments heal themselves. He says that most of the time it is the parent who needs the attention and reassurance, but that the child gets needlessly treated anyway.

He estimates that at least 90% of the drugs prescribed by paediatricians are unnecessary and costly. And that since all drugs are toxic and therefore dangerous, pose a risk to the child.

He also estimates that at least 90% of surgery done on children is unnecessary and exposes the child to trauma, infection and the risks attendant with the anaesthetic.

Add to this the fact that doctors are taught nothing about nutrition and you may come to understand that as a parent you should take responsibility for helping your child to avoid illness using wholesome nutrition.

I know or know of several families that have raised their children 'outside the medical model' - no vaccines, no drugs, no doctors but good, healthy food, fresh air and activity. All have the most robust, best natured children you are ever likely to meet. And all their parents have faced massive pressure and judgement for being 'bad' parents from both the medical profession and society at large.

These parents often report that their children bounce back surprisingly quickly after some health drama, and often that their vigour is renewed after such episodes and that they might have a developmental spurt.

Parents know best

Dr Mandelsohn reflects fondly upon the days of the family doctor who knew their patients and their patients' family history often over a period of several decades. Often these doctors would provide reassurance but not intervene. However, times have changed and doctors now tend only to have a few minutes for a consultation and they haven't the time or interest to investigate the potential cause(s) of a problem.

He gives three basic rules to guide you as a parent:

Rule 1: If your child doesn't look, feel or act sick - they probably aren't sick.

Rule 2: Give the healing power of nature time to work before you expose your child to the treatment the doctor may want to administer.

Rule 3: Common sense is a useful tool. As parents you really are best placed to manage the health of your children, to spot changes in behaviour or appearance, and you are also familiar with their medical history and diet so can use detective work to identify the potential cause(s) of problems.

How doctors make healthy kids sick

>Although critical of the entire medical profession, he has particular concerns about his own speciality: paediatrics. First, because the paediatrician serves as the recruiter for the entire medical profession so that children are indoctrinated from birth into a lifelong dependency on medical intervention.

This starts with needless well baby checks and immunisations and progresses to routine annual physical examinations. Children learn that there is a 'pill for every ill' and this early conditioning is directly responsible for the dependency of many adults on pharmaceutical drugs and indirectly responsible for the millions who use illegal drugs to treat their psychological and emotional problems. The paediatricians also have the power to have your child taken from you if you don't comply with their recommendations.

The author counsels staying away from the doctor other than for emergency care or serious illness. He cautions you not to take your child in for regular check-ups - in fact, not to take a well child to the doctor at all. He suggests monitoring your child closely if they are ailing, but giving the body time to repair itself as almost everything the doctor will want to do will interfere with these natural processes.

Pregnancy and childbirth

Dr Mandelsohn counsels that the future wellbeing of your baby is affected by the choices you make before and during pregnancy. He identifies preconception exposure to x-rays as being cumulative and one of the main reasons there is a greater likelihood of older mothers having babies with health problems. He counsels avoiding x-rays whenever possible.

He states that childbirth is a natural process and that doctors tend to interfere in this process for a variety of reasons. The way the birth is managed has the potential to cause neurological damage in the baby and to affect the child psychologically, physically and mentally for the rest of their life.

There is no evidence that hospital delivery is safer than home delivery. In fact the restricted amount of technological options available during a homebirth makes intervention less likely. Birth injuries, resuscitation of the baby and neurological damage are all more likely to occur with deliveries that take place in hospital.

He also takes issue with the fact that many pregnant mothers are now put under pressure to restrict the amount of weight they gain during pregnancy. Of the weight the pregnant mother gains, 9lbs. is estimated to be consumed during breastfeeding and calorie (and nutrient) restriction during pregnancy may lead to a low birth weight babies.

When the baby is born it is usually taken away from the mother and various checks and 'standard procedures' performed.

These include putting drops of silver nitrate in the baby's eyes in case the mother is carrying a sexually transmitted infection such as gonorrhoea. These drops are irritant and cause conjunctivitis in 30-50% babies. This has fallen from favour somewhat since the time of writing this book, but is still part of routine practice or mandated in many areas.

In addition, many babies have a blood sample taken from their heel which is tested for the inherited defect phenylketonuria (PKU). This is done to assess whether the baby has an enzyme in their body which is required for normal growth and development. The results of this test are unreliable, testing before the baby has even started feeding may not be advisable and the test is usually repeated later. Only those with a history of this disorder in the family are actually at risk.

Then the baby will also be given a Vitamin K injection in order to prevent the rare disease of Vitamin K deficiency bleeding (1 in 10,000 babies affected). Some pregnancies (eg: to epileptic mothers taking anticonvulsants) and babies (eg: premature or with liver disease) are more likely to be at risk. According to Dr Mandelsohn this is only likely to be an issue in mothers who are severely malnourished and the Vitamin K can produce jaundice in the baby for which they are then treated with a light (phototherapy).

And so the medical interventions start ..

Advice on breastfeeding

Breastfed babies may not grow at the same rate as formula-fed babies. It is usually the manufacturers of the formula feeds that have helpfully provided the growth and weight charts. Even then, your child is being compared to a statistical norm which takes no account of whether you and your partner are tall or short, and your racial heredity.

The doctor compares your infant to these average values and then declares your baby to be abnormally short, tall, fat or thin. This is unscientific and like a lawyer they "seed doubts in the parent's mind that they can then resolved over long periods of time at great profit to themselves".

Breast milk provides the perfect nutrients for the growth and development of the baby in addition to creating a bond. Whereas formula milk can and historically has contained the wrong nutrients. Breastfed babies tend to grow more slowly than those that are bottlefed but this is normal and it is the bottlefed babies that are overweight.

In one study 60% of formula fed babies were overweight compared to 19% who were breastfed. Mothers who bottle feed are often encouraged to feed the baby the full bottle, but the child will feed until it is satiated and this practice can contribute to overfeeding too.

This recent love affair with formula feeding may be one of the factors in our growing obesity epidemic. It may also account for the growth in allergies and infections as babies immune systems are not primed in the way nature intended.

Cow's milk is deficient in iron and should not given to babies for 6 months. Even then the author estimates that approximately 15% of children are intolerant or allergic to cow's milk and that this is the cause of many childhood illnesses. Cow's milk and formula has 3.3% protein compared to the 1.3% of breast milk and this extra protein places a strain on the baby's kidneys and may cause them to retain water.

What to do about childhood fevers

We have been led to to believe that all fevers are dangerous, but unless they are accompanied by other symptoms - such as respiratory difficulty - a fever does not need treatment. Obviously where fever is combined with causes such as heat stroke, or consuming a poison, or where there is a change in consciousness, serious action needs to be taken, but by and large if the cause is internal then no action is necessary.

In fact, 98.6°C is not the normal body temperature for everyone but is an average. The body temperature particularly in children may vary by a few degrees and will also change throughout the day as a result of eating or as a side-effect of various medicines. The temperature also depends on how and where the temperature has been taken.

The vast majority of fevers are caused by bacterial or viral infections causing the body's own defence mechanism to produce symptoms such as a runny nose. There is no consistent relationship between the child's temperature and the severity of the disease.

Also the degree of fever is not a valid indicator of anything except the fact that the body is marshalling its resources to combat an infection. For reasons that aren't understood most fevers top out at 105°C and then start to fall. When you intervene to reduce a fever it does nothing to make the child well and is actively counterproductive.

If you must, sponging a feverish child may give you and them some comfort. But he counsels regarding fever as a component of the natural defence mechanism indicating that the body has switched into high gear in order to repair. He counsels doing nothing unless the fever continues for more than 3 days or the child is really sick. Fever in and of itself does not cause brain damage or convulsions.

Common childhood complaints

He covers these in some detail. In brief:

Headaches almost every abnormality can cause headaches including infections, allergies, metabolic disorders, and trauma. Some headaches are emotional, but these too are 'real' and the cause needs investigating.

Tummy aches are the leading cause of visits to the paediatrician. Dr Mandelsohn counsels that unless the ache is accompanied by other symptoms such as diarrhoea or vomiting, it is best not to seek professional help. In fact, most tummy aches are caused by food intolerances and especially lactose intolerance and addressing the diet and doing a bit of detective work will often help to root out the cause.

Colds and flus An in-joke amongst doctors is apparently that 'Without treatment a common cold lasts about 7 days; with treatment it lasts about a week'. The author says that one-third of patients attending their physician or paediatrician are given antibiotics (ie: antibacterial pharmaceuticals) mostly for infections the doctor believes to be viral. Actively resist giving your child antibiotics as they kill off the friendly bacteria in the gut and in truth, this probably never fully recovers.

Earaches Early in his career he held the orthodox line, but over the years he lost faith in administering antibiotics and inserting grommets (tubes inserted into the ear drum) and found that patients didn't subsequently lose their hearing as he had been warned. Recent research has shown that not only do antibiotics not improve the outcome of ear infections in children, they actually increase the chance of repeat infections.

Postural problems Many paediatricians intervene to correct 'pigeon toes' or 'bow legs' in childhood - but these are normal developmental stages (the bow legs of the baby become the knock knees of the toddler) and usually right themselves.

Asthma and allergies Doctors recognise the symptoms of airborne allergies including nasal symptoms, sneezing and wheezing. What they fail to recognise is the role played by food intolerances to foods such as cow's milk, corn, wheat, gluten, eggs, fish, tomatoes, garlic, citrus and sensitivities to food colourings, additives and stabilisers which make the immune system reactive. This can produce diverse symptoms including headaches, migraines, eye pain, blurred vision, hearing loss, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fatigue, muscle weakness, and bedwetting. Bottle fed babies are at least 20 times more susceptible to allergies than babies that have been breast fed.

Behavioural disorders Once a child has been labelled as 'hyperactive' they may be exposed to unacceptably risky counselling or drug treatments. None of the psychiatric labels have any scientific validity. And such children end up being prescribed depressive chemicals such as Ritalin which have a long list of dangerous side-effects including suppression of growth, and convulsions. He encourages parents to look for environmental factors including dietary intolerances and sensitivities if their children are hyperactive.

Immunisation

Of all the threats posed by childhood diseases, Dr Mandelsohn considered the greatest to be the dangerous and ineffectual efforts made by the medical profession to prevent them through mass immunisation. In America, doctors have successfully lobbied for laws forcing parents to immunise their children as a prerequisite for admission to school. He cites the following considerations:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that mass inoculation can be credited with eliminating any childhood disease.
The mass inoculation programmes in the US in the 1940s and 50s were thought to have eliminated polio in America, but the epidemic also ended in Europe where there had not been an extensive programme. The smallpox vaccination continued to be used 30 years after the there was no longer a threat of deaths and became the sole source of the illness. The same may be true of polio - that the vaccinations are actually maintaining the disease within the population.
There is a significant risk associated with every immunisation about which parents are usually not informed.
The long-term consequences of injecting foreign proteins into the body of a child are not known.
The immunisation programme is suspected by many of being responsible for the massive growth in autoimmune diseases.

He advises arming yourself with facts and figures and demanding that any health professional defend any immunisation they recommend.

And of all the vaccinations, he identifies the pertussis component of Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus (DPT) vaccination to be the most threatening of all. In particular two-thirds of the 2,500 US children who die of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDs) had been vaccinated using the DPT vaccine in the three weeks before their deaths according to a study in Reno, Nevada. Another study at UCLA found a third of SIDs deaths occurred within a month, and one-sixth within a week of the DPT vaccine.

Breastfeeding appears to offer some protection against SIDs.

Beware hospitalisation

There are 2 major categories of disease that pose a threat when you seek medical treatment requiring hospitalisation. The first is iatrogenic disease - that is, disease caused by doctors or other health professionals or the the treatments they prescribe. The second is nosocomial infections - that is, hospital acquired infections which pose a major threat.

At the time of writing, 2 million Americans admitted for one ailment ended up with another and these proved fatal in 20,000 people per year. Five percent of people who are admitted to hospital acquire infections and the mortality for patients with hospital acquired infections is 14 times greater than control groups. One in every six children admitted to hospital will acquire a respiratory infection.

The moral of this story is: Don't allow your child to be admitted to hospital unless they have a serious or life-threatening illness.

Further resources

For a copy of the book go to Amazon UK or US.

More information about the hazards of vaccination is available under Mercury and Medicine in the Print Media, Audio, Books and Video hubs. Click to watch Part 1 of Vaccine Nation listed under Mercury and Medicine in the Video hub on the associated website.

Book review of How to raise a healthy child: Article summary

This article looks at the comprehensive book by the late US paediatrician, Dr Robert S Mendelsohn MD. In it he questions many of the orthodoxies of medical and paediatric practice and offers a reassuring and commonsense guide to dealing with the majority of the childhood ailments most parents face.

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Problems With Root Canal Fillings

2011-12-01T06:00:00.005Z

This article accompanies a video of the same name. Click to watch part 1 and part 2 of The Problem With Root Fillings (total 23 mins) on the accompanying website.

The rise of root canal treatments

Could dental disease and commonly accepted dental procedures be at least partially responsible for the increasing incidence of serious, chronic and degenerative illnesses that we are witnessing in the developed world?

Some informed physicians, dentists and naturopaths think so and maintain that up to 90% of all illnesses may start in the mouth.

Amongst the suspect dental procedures are the use of metals in general and the use of mercury amalgam in particular and also the currently accepted method of tooth extraction which leaves behind the periodontal membrane which may act as a barrier to effective healing causing holes known as cavitations to form in the bone. These topics are addressed in the videos entitled The Trouble With Amalgam Fillings and Dental Cavitations.

This video examines the potential role of root canal treatments in causing seemingly unrelated health problems.

Root fillings are done to try and retain a tooth that has died either because of deep decay or a crack or fracture. Most patients now demand - and most dentists are taught - to try and retain as many teeth as possible for as long as possible.

This means that root fillings have now become a routine procedure with over 15 million root canal treatments being performed every year in the USA alone. This figure has risen from just 3 million in 1960 which represents an 80 fold increase in just 50 years. Other countries in the developed world are now following suit with the explosive increase in the use of this technique.

Dentists who undertake postgraduate training in root canal treatments are known as endodontists where ‘endo’ means within and ‘dont’ means tooth and this specialist field has developed massively during the last few decades too.

The benefit of root treatments is that people have been able to avoid extractions and the necessity of wearing dentures like many of their parents or grandparents. But what are the potential risks of endodontic treatment?

In order to understand why root treatments might be a fundamentally flawed procedure you need first to understand a little about the structure of the tooth and what a root canal treatment is.

The structure of the tooth

The bulk of the tooth is composed of dentine with enamel covering the visible part of the tooth above the gum line and cementum covering the roots of the tooth below the gum line. The enamel is the hardest material in the body and provides protection of the dentine within which is a living substance. Whereas the cementum which covers the roots is relatively soft and acts to anchor the ligamentous fibres that suspend the teeth in the jawbone. In the centre of the tooth lies the pulp which is a collection of nerves, blood and lymph vessels.

The dentine is not solid as was once supposed, but is in fact made up of millions of tiny tubules which radiate out from this inner pulp to the root surface and enamel junction. In health each of these tubules has a cell known as an odontoblast dwelling within it that has a process which extends most of the thickness of the dentine. These cells remain from the developmental process that created the tooth and they maintain the dentine and regulate the fluids within the tubules.

The nerves, lymph and blood vessels of the pulp enter and leave the tooth via the root tips and many accessory and lateral canals to serve the living pulp within the tooth.

How teeth die

The reason why teeth present a unique problem within the body is because the pulp is contained within the rigid structure of the tooth.

If the pulp of the tooth becomes irritated in response to decay or a crack then just like tissue anywhere it becomes inflamed. However, one of the consequences of inflammation within the rigid tooth is that here uniquely it can cause compromise or strangulation of the blood supply to the tooth.

This combines with the fact that the bacteria that caused the decay or that have penetrated down the crack can spread within the pulp. These processes may happen seemingly suddenly or slowly over a period of years and may or may not be painful.

The next outcome is that bacteria that have flourished within the dead or dying pulp will produce pus which accumulates in the bone surrounding the tooth root causing an abscess. This may be painful and may produce swelling for which antibiotics are usually prescribed. If the affected individual wants to keep the tooth at any of these stages, a root canal treatment will be suggested.

What is a root treatment?

When a tooth is root filled the dentist hopefully places a rubber dam to isolate the tooth and then cuts an access cavity through the top of the tooth. The dentist then removes any decay and starts to instrument the canals using long fine files so that all the dead or dying pulp is removed.

They file the canals to create a smooth tapered shape whilst irrigating the canals with a sterilising solution. They may also seal an antiseptic paste within the canals temporarily before completing the root filling or may complete the treatment in one visit.

The canals are then filled with some kind of obturating material, most often gutta percha which is a kind of rubber along with a sealant. The tooth may then be filled – or because dead teeth become fragile – have a crown or overlay placed on top to prevent it splitting or cracking. In this way a dead tooth can be maintained in service.

Problems with root canal treatments

The problem being that this is effectively an embalmed tooth and this is the only example where such an approach of maintaining a dead body part in service would be countenanced.

This procedure has many implications only some of which are recognised by dentists and endodontists. The following issues that are acknowledged:

First, that teeth rarely conform to the idealised version with one canal per root. Instead they may have accessory canals or a complex interconnected multicanal system. These accessory canals may or may not be identified during treatment, and even if they are they may prove impossible to instrument.
Second, that there are an estimated 75 lateral canals per root where blood and lymph vessels and nerves communicate with the pulp of the main canal or canals through the sides of the root. It is impossible to thoroughly clean these out, but attempts are made using ultrasonic equipment and irrigation.
Canals are often irregular shapes and both canals and roots can curve and bend and this can present an obstacle to effectively cleaning out and filling these canals.
Another issue is that only a tiny minority of root canal treatments are technically perfect, that is instrumented and filled to exactly the right length for a variety of reasons. Not least of which being that this is very demanding work performed on a moving target. Like watch making whilst someone spits on your fingers as one dentist put it! So sometimes the entire length of the root canal is not instrumented and filled.
Finally, as the teeth become irritated by the advance of decay or by deep fillings, the tooth can lay down secondary dentine within the pulp chamber and this can occlude the access to the canals as the nerve retreats down the root and these canals can prove difficult or impossible to access.

So these issues are all recognised, and what most dentists believe is that if a sincere effort is made to clean out the majority of the infected pulp and the root system sealed that the immune system can then take care of any remaining bacteria.

However, the biggest and most insurmountable problem comes from the nature of the structure of the dentine itself. For if the tubules were laid end to end they are said to extend for up to 3 miles in a front tooth and about 10 miles in a back molar tooth.

Part of the problem in understanding the risks posed is that we tend to think of things on a human scale. So that a cell seems tiny to us, but it contains a universe of sorts where over 100,000 chemical reactions take place every second take place mediated by over 1,000 different enzymes.

So although the dentinal tubules are just 3 micrometres in diameter, this may still be fifteen times larger than the smaller bacteria at just 0.2 micrometres. In human terms this is the equivalent of standing in an 80 foot wide tunnel.

The problem being that once the circulation to the tooth dies or is severed the fluids in the dentinal tubules become stagnant and as there is no oxygen supply or immune system the conditions within the tooth are radically changed and the body’s normal natural defences have been removed.

As the inner environment of the tooth becomes deprived of oxygen, the bacteria which may have caused the decay and surface bacteria from the mouth mutate into their anaerobic forms.

The problem being that these anaerobic forms are many times more dangerous than the aerobic forms producing toxins known as thioethers which are 1,000 times more potent than botulinum toxin which is considered the most toxic organic substance.

According to research done by the German oncologist Dr. Josef Issels these toxins are closely related to the chemicals used in World War I to make mustard gas.

The bacteria also become smaller in size, and multiply more prolifically. When bacteria are cultured in a laboratory they are incubated at body temperature on a nutrient medium. This is exactly the environment a root filled tooth offers – a nutrient rich medium incubated at body temperature and with no immune system to keep the bacteria in check.

The way bacteria reproduce is that one splits into two, which split into four and so on and this happens every 20 minutes or so. Under ideal conditions this simple process can produce countless billions of bacteria within 24 hours.

The bacteria can grow unchecked within the tooth and then exit the tooth mostly it seems via the canal system and then travel in the circulation surrounding the tooth to other locations within the body setting up satellite colonies.

The immune system may be constantly trying to contain and control the source of infection and eventually this can result in exhaustion and immune disorders such as autoimmune disease and cancer.

But possibly more important than this is the fact that the toxins the bacteria produce constantly leach out of the tooth taxing the liver and kidneys and causing toxicity and disease.

In this way root filled teeth can act as what is known as a focus of infection.

Focus of infection theory

The fact is that none of this is news. The focus of infection theory was widely accepted in medicine and dentistry in the 19th and early part of the 20th centuries and led to the extraction of a great many teeth which caused problems with chewing for many people.

Other foci of infection can include the tonsils and gallbladder but the mouth is thought to be the most important source with bacteria and toxins produced by gum disease and cavitations.

Dentists already acknowledge that bacteria from the mouth can pose serious health consequences in vulnerable individuals and are required to provide antibiotic cover for any invasive dental treatment.

And research in the last couple of decades has categorically linked periodontal disease with heart disease, strokes, low birth weight babies and preeclampsia in pregnant women. So oral bacteria are acknowledged to pass to the rest of the body affecting health.

However, at present, the dangers posed by root canal treated teeth remain either unacknowledged or actively rejected by the majority of the dental profession.

Dr Weston Price's research into root fillings

A great deal of research into root fillings was done into this topic by the dentist Dr Weston Price about a hundred years ago.

Dr Price was a highly respected American dentist and researcher who conducted a lot of research into both root canals and the impact of the Western diet on jaw development and dental disease. He founded what was later to become the Research Section of the American Dental Association (ADA), and served as its chair for 14 years from 1914.

He conducted thousands of experiments over a period of 25 years on over 5,000 animals and published 220 scientific papers and 4 mighty books some of which were used as dental reference texts.

One set of experiments involved taking a small section of a root filled tooth that had been extracted from a patient with a known disease and implanting it under the skin of a rabbit. Invariably the rabbits contracted the same disease as the original owner of the tooth.

Not only that, he then implanted the same fragment in another rabbit and another up to a total of 33 times and all the rabbits contracted the same disease. So that if the patient had heart disease, the rabbit developed heart disease and if they had had kidney trouble, the rabbit contracted kidney disease. He also repeated these experiments with healthy teeth and no adverse health effects resulted.

We also know that microorganisms can be very specific to particular tissues as in the case of the herpes simplex virus which takes up residence in the nerve root which supplies the lips and mouth and occasionally reactivates producing cold sores. And so it may be with these bacteria which gravitate towards particular organs.

Most of the bacteria Dr Price identified were streptococci, but he also found staphylococci, spirochetes and fungi. He found that 90% of the patient’s acute diseases were caused by mutated streptococci and that two-thirds of the time they belonged to the faecalis family. Which certainly could account for why so many necrotic or root filled teeth smell so bad when opened up or extracted – and for why they tend to go brown over the decades.

He also found that if an individual had more than one root-canal treated tooth, that they could have different microorganisms infecting each one of the treated teeth. And that these could be causing a variety of ailments at the same time.

Dr Price also cultured the microorganisms he isolated from the root canal filled teeth and injected this broth and also centrifuged the mixture to separate out the bacteria and injected just the fluid produced. What he found was that while the mixture of bacteria and their toxins induced weight loss, disease and death in the experimental animals, when the toxins were injected without the bacteria that these produced even more profoundly fatal results. From this he concluded that it was the toxins rather than the bacteria that were producing disease.

He clearly photographed a variety of microorganisms dwelling within the dentinal tubules and showed that the bacteria that were growing inside the tooth could also be found in the periodontal membrane and bone surrounding the tooth.

Dr Price tested over 100 different disinfecting agents and found that none of them penetrated the dentinal tubules. Even when he heat sterilised teeth under laboratory conditions they still became infected within 24 to 48 hours.

He also found that if pus or infection was present that this was an indication that the immune system was successfully controlling the infected tooth and that such patients were healthy. However, the presence of condensing osteitis or a dense layer of bone surrounding the tooth was often an indication that the immune system was losing or had lost the battle and was attempting to wall off the offending tooth and these individuals suffered more serious consequences from their infections.

He also noted that about a third of patients who had strong immune systems appeared to tolerate root canal filled teeth fairly well. And that typically these people had no family history of degenerative disease. However, even these robust people could succumb to serious illness if exposed to other health challenges such as an accident, infection, pregnancy or other stressors.

Finally, he documented many improvements in the health of both humans and animals after extraction of root filled teeth.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the implications of Dr Price’s research were not popular within the dental profession and his painstaking research was disregarded – and some maintain that it was actively covered up by a small number of dentists and physicians and the professional bodies they belonged to.

His research has subsequently been confirmed by the dentists Dr Harold Hawkins DDS, and Dr Melvin Page DDS, and the physician and dentist Dr Emanuel Cheraskin MD DMD. But it was only to resurface some 70 years later after inquiry by the retired endodontist, Dr George Meinig DDS.

Dr George Meinig was an endodontist for 50 years and was a founder member of the American Association of Endodontics in 1943. After he retired he discovered Weston Price’s research and full of remorse, wrote the book Root Canal Cover-Up which was published in 1993. In it, he estimates that 75 percent of patients suffer chronic and degenerative illnesses due to their root canal filled teeth.

Dr Robert Kulacz DDS and Dr Thomas Levy MD JD have since taken up the cause with their book The Roots of Disease.

Dr Hal Huggins DDS MS has also written Root Canals: Saviour or Suicide?

Dr Josef Issels the late German oncologist, stated that in over 40 years of treating terminal cancer patients that 97% had root filled teeth. Furthermore, he found that he could not achieve a successful outcome until all the root treated teeth were extracted.

Dr Thomas Rau MD has confirmed this finding more recently. He checked the records of the last 150 breast cancer patients that had been treated at the Paracelsus clinic in Switzerland and found that 98% of them had one or more root filled teeth – and also that the root fillings were on the same meridian as the original breast cancer tumour.

Dr John Diamond MD has confirmed this connection which in the case of the breast involves the meridian which passes through the second premolar or bicuspid tooth.

Energy meridians and the teeth

Which brings us to another issue that is not yet widely accepted by allopathic medicine and dentistry and yet is very real and that is the existence of energy meridians within the body that animate and regulate different organ systems.

Many of these pass through the teeth and the retention of a dead body part let alone one which is spewing bacteria and toxins can have health consequences for the organs associated with the meridian. This is a two-way relationship so that disease in the organ system governed by the meridian may also have created the dental disease in the tooth in the first place.

However, some forward thinking physicians and biological dentists do acknowledge the importance of meridians and they have even been photographed using various techniques. Also, a root filled tooth will always test as being an issue as assessed by electroacupuncture.

And there are many instances where extraction of a root filled tooth alone has been documented to enable resolution of some tumours.

Recent research confirms Dr Price's findings

Dr Price’s findings have been confirmed more recently using modern techniques.

Dr Boyd Haley PhD the now retired Professor of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky has confirmed that 75% of the root filled teeth he tested contained high levels of toxins.

And Dr Hal Huggins DDS MS and his team at the Toxic Element Research Foundation have used DNA analysis to identify dozens of different anaerobic bacterial species taken from root canal samples. Each tooth tested to at least 10 and some to over 40 species of bacteria including:

Enterobacter
Veillonella parvula
Candida albicans
Capnocytophaga ochracea
Porphyromas gingivalis.
Gemella morbillorum
Actinomyces naeslundii
Neisseria meningitides
Escherichia coli
Staphylococcus aureus and
Streptococcus intermedius

Dr Huggins has also documented measurable changes in blood chemistry associated with root treatments including: a 58% increase in lymphocyte in humans and animals, a 33% decrease in polymorphonuclear leukocytes, a form of white blood cell, elevations in blood sugar levels and some patients and all experimental animals lost weight.

Conversely, improvements in blood chemistry have also been associated with extraction of root filled teeth especially in people with autoimmune diseases.

New thinking on root canals

It seems that the combination of retention of a dead body part, compounded by the presence of the bacteria the root filled tooth harbours and their toxins enhanced by the presence of the toxic metals used in dentistry may be the origin of many 'mysterious' and autoimmune diseases.

Also the old concept of a particular microbe causing a specific disease may not apply and these syndromes may be caused by overwhelm of the body’s defences by multiple microorganisms and their toxins. There are certainly thousands of documented cases of improvements in health after extraction of root filled teeth and possibly many more cases which have gone undocumented.

Some holistic dentists are of the opinion that some root canal treated teeth can be tolerated if the immune system of the individual is robust, but others feel that all root filled teeth should be extracted. X-rays are known to be a poor way of assessing the toxicity of a root filled tooth and various methods involving taking saliva samples have recently been developed although their effectiveness is not known.

Before making any decision make sure that you are fully informed and that you see a biological dentist conversant with the danger of developing cavitations after extraction. See the Dental Cavitations article and associated movie for more on this topic.

Needless to say, the official position of the American Association of Endodontics (AAE) is that root canal treatments are "safe and effective".

The whole concept of holistic care demands that the individual takes responsibility for their own health. However, because most dentists don’t accept the problem posed by root canal treatments they are not informing their patients of the potential risks and so they remain in the dark when subsequently confronted by a serious or chronic ailment as to the potential cause.

Also consider the possibility that any replacement of a root filled tooth is likely to involve the use of a variety of metals which may create their own problems as documented in my book Chronic Fatigue, ME and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan and on this website.

Further resources

For related articles refer to the book reviews of The Roots of Disease, Beyond Amalgam (about cavitations), Curing the 'Incurable', Whole Body Dentistry, and It's All in Your Head, and to the research PDF articles entitled Chronic Health Conditions and Dental Health and Dental Infections, Root-Fillings and Health.

Other articles include Dental Cavitations, The Causes of Cancer and Is Dental Amalgam Safe for Humans? and the external articles The Relationship Between Root Canals and Cancer, and Root Canal Cover-Up Exposed.

Click the relevant link to watch part 1 and part 2 of the videos About Dental Cavitations, Root Canals Are Extremely Toxic and Should be Removed, Extraction of Root-Filled Tooth Testimonial, Root-Canal Treatments Cause Cancer, or The Dental/Whole Body Connection or for video testimonials about improvements in Headaches, Infertility, Backache, Stiff Neck and a Pituitary Tumour after extraction of root filled teeth.

To listen to various different dental authorities on the topic refer to Mercury and Dentistry in the Audio Hub on the associated website.

Problems with root fillings: Article summary

This article accompanies a two part video of the same name which examines the problems inherent in the philosophy and practice of root canal fillings. Issues include bacterial contamination, toxicity and the blocking of meridian flows all of which may conspire to produce a variety of physical ailments.

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