Why I Stopped Taking Prescription Drugs

My mother was the first in our family to question conventional medicine. When I was a four, I was diagnosed with severe ADHD and learning disabilities. While the doctor insisted that Ritalin was the only viable treatment and was urgently needed, my mom researched alternative treatments and successfully managed my symptoms through diet alone. Unfortunately, she did not learn about alternative treatments for the asthma, bronchitis, sinus infections, and ear infections that plagued her, my brother, and me for many years. Removing dairy from our diet helped, but each of us still took antibiotics four or five times a year for many years.

Our slow change from conventional medical treatment to alternative medicine was made through a combination of excellent care from a chiropractor who practiced Contact Reflex Analysis with supplementation and my mother’s health crisis. After so many years of antibiotic treatments, she developed chronic autoimmune disease and refused the only treatment offered—steroids. Due to our chiropractor, she had learned enough about supplements to know that they could treat the cause, not just the symptoms. And since my aunt suffered from lupus, my mother had seen, firsthand, the damage done by conventional treatment.

After my mother (with the help of our chiropractor) treated both strep throat and pneumonia with supplements, healing faster than she ever had with antibiotics, she was determined the she and her children would never use antibiotics again unless an illness was life threatening and there was no alternative.

The last time I took antibiotics

Our immune systems slowly healed. Within a few years, serious yearly respiratory infections were a thing of the past. When I caught a cold, it was just a cold. It didn’t develop into asthmatic bronchitis or pneumonia anymore. And then, I no longer caught colds. But one day I came down with a nasty case of impetigo—a staph infection with pus filled sores erupting all over my body. Yes, it was gross. Squeeze on of those suckers and pus squirted all over the place.

When my mom found out about it, she panicked. She figured that I had staph in my blood and this infection was her exception to the rule of no antibiotics. Sepsis can kill. She didn’t even consider treating it with supplements. She took me straight to the emergency room for IV antibiotics.

For some reason, the doctor refused to treat me with IV antibiotics, simply prescribing oral medication. I promptly had an allergic reaction to the medication, so it’s a good thing I didn’t get that IV. I immediately stopped taking the antibiotics and visited the chiropractor. The right supplement cleared it up very quickly. It’s been seventeen years since that day, and I have never taken another antibiotic. Neither has my mom.

My immune system is incredibly healthy due to my diet and lifestyle. I don’t get sick. I now know how antibiotics destroy the bacteria in the gut—the very bacteria that comprises 80% of our immune system. At the same time it disrupts the balance of good bacteria to bad bacteria and allows Candida to overgrow.

Antibiotics are chemotherapy. We tend to reserve that word for the worst, most destructive pharmaceuticals, but the reality is, all pharmaceuticals (including all antibiotics) are chemicals used for therapeutic purposes—chemical therapy. They are used to kill the invading pathogen. None of them are used to support and aid the immune system, to help it do its job. This is the primary difference between alternative and conventional medicine.

If your immune system has been compromised by  antibiotics, checkout the first article below.

Further Reading:

Recommended Supplements:



After Taking Antibiotics, This Is What You Need To Do To Restore Healthy Intestinal Flora

Antibiotics kill bacteria. The problem is, our bodies are filled with bacteria, and those microbes are essential to our health. Our gut is home to 300-1000 different species of bacteria that help us digest our food, create and synthesize vitamins, repel invading pathogens, create neurotransmitters, and more. Antibiotics are indiscriminate killers. They do not just target the one pathogen that is causing an infection in our body; they kill off the good bacteria in our gut as well.

If we take an antibiotic, especially a broad spectrum antibiotic, we need to replenish the good bacteria in our gut as quickly as possible. Not only do we need it to do its daily work, we need to maintain the delicate balance between bacteria and fungi. Candida is opportunistic. Given a chance, it will quickly mass-produce, wreaking havoc in the digestive tract and, in time, the entire body.

So what can you do to repopulate the good bacteria that antibiotics have destroyed?

First, you feed and house the good bacteria that remain in your colon and encourage them to multiply. They need prebiotics–raw, preferably organic, vegetables and fruits. Insoluble fiber provides food for good bacteria while giving it a structure upon which to multiply. Eat at least one big salad a day with a large variety of vegetables. Raw vegetables and fruits (more vegetables than fruits) should always comprise 80% of your diet. After antibiotics, following this 80% rule (with mostly vegetables) is essential to regain the proper bacterial balance in your gut.

Avoid all processed sugar. Processed sugar feeds Candida and “bad” bacteria (including the pathogen you are trying to destroy with the antibiotic). Processed foods, heavy starches, and chemicals (sugar substitutes other than stevia, artificial colors, flavorings, and preservatives) should be completely avoided. This includes the healthier variety of sugars such as agave, brown rice syrup, fruit juice, etc. They should be avoided while trying to rebuild healthy flora as well. This is the time to eat a perfect diet. Even varieties of fruit with higher sugar content should be limited at this time.

A Note About Probiotics

Probiotics are the next step to help you repopulate the gut with good bacteria. Probiotics are foods or supplements that contain beneficial bacteria. But note, probiotics are not all equal. Don’t eat flavored, sugar-filled, commercial yogurt. It will do more harm to your gut than good.

There is a problem with probiotics. Getting the good bacteria past the stomach acid and into the gut is not easy. Stomach acid kills off a lot of the probiotics we ingest in any form. So eat a lot of them.

Fermented vegetables like homemade sauerkraut and kimchi, kombucha, coconut kefir, and other fermented foods do deliver live beneficial bacteria into the gut along with nutrition and enzymes. Supplements also help, though you must choose high-quality probiotic supplements that are specifically formulated to get past the stomach acid. While a store-bought probiotic supplement has only a fraction of the beneficial bacteria that a good homemade sauerkraut has, the truly high-quality probiotic supplements have bacteria strands much more able to bypass the stomach acid.

If you do not have your appendix, it’s a good idea to supplement your diet daily with a quality probiotic.

The beneficial bacteria in fermented foods is weakened and killed by stomach acid. There are lots of benefits to fermented foods, but they don’t make for a therapeutically powerful probiotic.

Most probiotics are worthless. Two that work very well are Floramend, available at Green Lifestyle Market, and Bio-K , which can be found at most health food stores including Whole Foods. There are other probiotics that are good, too; these aren’t the only good ones, but I am very familiar with the quality of Bio-k and Floramend. I use them regularly, and 98% of the other products are a waste of money. Bio-K is great for anytime you need a probiotic right now, provided you can find it locally. If you can order online, FloraMend is much cheaper in the long run.

But remember, prebiotics are the most important. Eat right, load up on healthy greens and others veggies and fermented foods. Your body will thank you. It is also good to note that 80% of our immune system is contained within our gut, and those bacteria your antibiotic killed off are the foundation of that immune response. Feed them right and they will help you avoid getting sick in the future.

Here’s My 10-Day Routine to Balance My Gut Flora, Step by Step:

Days 1-5 – or as long as symptoms last:

  1. 80% of the diet should be raw produce, mostly vegetables.
  2. Drink lots of cranberry lemonade (most should do a gallon) and eat a large salad every day (mine are 9-11 cup salads).
  3. Meals should all be made at home, from scratch, with no overly refined, processed ingredients such fruit juice, white rice, or any sweetener (stevia is the exception).
  4. Snack on produce.
  5. Eat stir-frys with lots of veggies, brown rice, quinoa, soaked and sprouted beans (be careful, may need to wait a week on these), add a little Braggs amino acids (it’s essentially a healthy soy sauce), and lots of turmeric and garlic and ginger.
  6. Shillington’s Intestinal Cleanse. Start with one a day. Build up as instructed. Take with meals.
  7. Take 15 SF722 a day, 5 per meal.
  8. Take 3 Undecyn, 1 each meal.
  9. Take 2 FloraMend upon waking up and 2 FloraMend when before sleep. Don’t take these at the same time as the other supplements; they can weaken each other’s effect.

Days 6-15, or once symptoms are under control:

  1. Take 3 Abzorb Vitamin & Nutrient Optimizer and 2 FloraMend with each meal.
  2. Take 5 Olive leaf extract upon waking and before sleep at night.
  3. Continue with the same diet.

Check out the lemonade and salad recipe in Detox Cheap and Easy Without Fasting – Recipes Included and see Gluten, Candida, Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Autoimmune Diseases for an in-depth look at gut health.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:


Shiitake Mushrooms Can Help Prevent Cervical Cancer, Study Finds

(NaturalNews – Michael Ravensthorpe) For centuries, shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes) have been utilized as a medicine in their native East Asia. Traditional Chinese medicine, for instance, would commonly prescribe shiitake for people suffering from upper respiratory disease, poor blood circulation and fatigue. In Japan, shiitake were beloved for their anti-aging properties. And Europeans, who have rigorously studied shiitake under the microscope since they first arrived on the continent, appreciate their impressive cholesterol lowering and weight loss properties.

However, an American study published in the Cancer Prevention Research journal has also found that a compound present in shiitake mushrooms can suppress the rate of cervical cancer growth, making them a viable alternative for aggressive and unnatural allopathic cancer treatments.

AHCC vs. HPV

According to the study authors, shiitake mushrooms contain an alpha-glucan called active hexose correlated compound (AHCC), which is a mixture of amino acids, polysaccharides and minerals. This compound, which appears to be unique to shiitake, is well known for its anti-tumor benefits. With this information in mind, the researchers sought to determine whether AHCC could also eradicate human papillomavirus (HPV), an extremely common sexually-transmitted infection which, if left untreated, can cause women to develop cervical cancer.

For the study, the researchers treated two cervical cancer cells (SiHa [HPV 16/18 positive] and C-33A [HPV negative]) in vitro with a 0.42 mg/mL dose of AHCC, then incubated them for 72 hours. Two additional trials followed: one in which the same AHCC dose was repeated once every 24 hours for one week, and another in which mice suffering from HPV were fed a 50 mg/kg dose of AHCC daily for the same period.

The results showed that AHCC suppressed HPV in all three trials. In the first trial, the AHCC suppressed HPV expression during the first 24 hours, but the HPV came back with a vengeance during the next 24 hours. Fortunately, continuous in vitro exposure — such as that experienced in the other two trials — resulted in sustained HPV suppression. Specifically, sustained AHCC treatment resulted in an overall 15.9 percent decrease in HPV activity compared to the control groups.

“[T]hese data suggest daily dosing of AHCC will eradicate HPV 16/18 infections and may have a role in the prevention of HPV-related cervical cancer,” concluded Dr. Judith Smith, lead researcher, and scientist at the University of Texas. “Furthermore, there is a potential for the addition of AHCC to primary treatment regimens for cervical cancer, which may potentially improve response rates and prevent recurrence.”

Dr. Smith’s findings were presented at the Society of Gynecological Oncology’s 45th Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer in Tampa, Florida in March 2014.

Sources for this article include:



Vitamin B6 and What You Should Know About it

Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxa, pyridoxamine) works with other B vitamins to change carbohydrates into glucose, to help form hemoglobin, to create neurotransmitters, maintain normal nerve function, to break down protein, to maintain normal blood sugar levels, and to make antibodies.

B6 is not stored in the body. Therefore, it is important to eat a healthy diet that supplies the daily need for this essential nutrient.

Foods Rich in Vitamin B6

Natural food sources high in vitamin B6 include the following: sweet potatoes, potatoes, spinach, cabbage, turnip greens, garlic, winter squash, bok choy, bell peppers, avocado, green peas, tuna, chicken, turkey, beef, salmon, lentils, lima beans, pinto beans, banana, and sunflower seeds.

Vitamin B6 Deficiency

Deficiency causes depression and cognitive problems, skin inflammation, burning feet, sore tongue, anemia, and chronic inflammation of the body. Severe deficiency can lead to convulsions. B6 is important for liver detoxification and immune system function. Severe deficiencies are rare, however, mild deficiencies are common.

How Vitamin B6 Is Used Therapeutically

B6 has been proven to be a successful treatment for morning sickness, to lower homocysteine levels, and to treat tardive dyskinesia. The best known use of B6 is to treat PMS, however, double blind studies have not confirmed its efficacy. (But try telling this to any woman who has received immediate relief from raging hormones by taking B6, and any man who knows to give them to her ). Studies have proven its aid in treating children with asthma in reduction of medications, but studies on adults with asthma have not shown the same result.

Evidence is incomplete or contradictory in regards to benefits in treating depression, vertigo, dermatitis, schizophrenia, prevention of kidney stones, HIV, photosensitivity, and diabetes during pregnancy.

In reading the literature it appears that many studies have been conducted with small groups and many of the studies have not been set up properly. It is also suspect that none of the studies have been conducted with B-complex vitamins since B vitamins always work together.

Remember, if supplementing B6, it is best to take B6 along with the other B vitamins in a B complex, because any long-term use of a singular B vitamin will cause an imbalance in the others. B-complex formulas are available with higher B6 that maintains a working balance of these precious vitamins.

Managing PMS with B6

With a healthy diet, good whole food multivitamin/mineral supplementation and balanced fats (these are necessary for proper B vitamin assimilation), and a complex B vitamin that’s heavy on the B6, many people have been able to manage their PMS symptoms down to almost nonexistent. Your gut also needs to be balanced in order to properly assimilate b vitamins, and consider Shillington’s Female Balance Formula.

Recommended Supplements:
Further Reading:
Sources:

 



Triglycerides in Junk Food are the Chemical Equivalent of ‘Hard Drugs’ for the Brain

(NaturalNews – Ethan A. Huff) Millions of Americans who claim to be opposed to drug use are actually heavy drug users themselves, according to a new study out of France. Researchers from the University of Paris’ Functional and Adaptive Biology laboratory recently found that triglycerides, a type of fat often found in junk foods, act on the brain in the same manner as many street drugs, exposing an epidemic of inadvertent drug addiction via the standard American diet.

Serge Luquet and his team, publishing their findings in the April 15, 2014, issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry, tested the effects of triglycerides on mice. Having previously learned that these lipid compounds stimulate certain areas of the brain associated with pleasure and reward, the team decided to see how mice reacted to having a steady supply of triglycerides infused directly into their brains.

A body conditioned to high fat intake will constantly seek it out like a drug fix

Compared to mice not receiving the triglycerides, the test mice were less motivated than control mice to seek out more food, indicating a dose-response effect from consuming the fats. All the mice were allowed to access special levers that dispensed various food rewards, but those mice given the triglycerides were less likely to have brain activity telling them to eat more.

On the flip side, the mice not given triglycerides were found to be much more compulsive when it came to getting their food. Much in the same way that drug addicts have to constantly seek out their next “fix” in order to function, the control mice, who like all mice naturally desire high-fat, high-sugar foods, tended toward obsessively craving the food rewards.

“[T]riglycerides, fatty substances from food, may act in our brains directly on the reward circuit, the same circuit that is involved in drug addiction,” reads a summary of the report.

Brain responds to fat intake the same way it responds to hard drugs

Using a fluorescence microscope to analyze the mice’s individual brain activity, the research team was able to ascertain a specific enzyme in the brain that decomposes triglycerides, producing feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. When this enzyme is removed or deactivated, as the researchers did with the test mice, the desire for fatty foods becomes insatiable, much in the same way that a drug addict goes through withdrawals when cut off from his preferred substances.

Interestingly, the infused mice tended toward reduced physical activity and decreased likelihood of balancing a diet of both high-fat foods and simpler foods, compared to control mice who were obsessed with trying to gain access to the fats.

Many obese people are ‘drug’ addicts to triglycerides, unhealthy foods

In the end, this constant desire for fatty foods can lead to binge eating and gluttony, which in turn results in obesity for many people. Not surprisingly, obese individuals tend to have excessively high levels of triglycerides in both their blood and brain, and are typically more sedentary than the average person.

“[W]ith obesity, blood (and therefore brain) triglyceride levels are higher than average,” reads a ScienceDaily.com summary of the study’s outcomes. “So obesity is often associated with overconsumption of sugary, fatty foods. … At high triglyceride contents, the brain adapts to obtain its reward, similar to the mechanisms observed when people consume drugs.”

You can read a full press release of the study here:
http://www2.cnrs.fr.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.sciencedaily.com
http://www2.cnrs.fr



Five Best Fruits and Vegetables for Heart Health

When talking about best foods for heart health, most people tend to focus the discussion on fat, saturated versus trans-fat or healthy omega-3s. Of course, the type of fat in your diet does make a difference in the health of your heart, but there are a lot of other foods that can also help keep your heart healthy in slightly different ways. Fruits and vegetables contain no fat, but provide powerful nutrients, antioxidants, and fiber to improve cardiovascular health. Here are the five best fruits and veggies to keep your heart healthy.

1) Strawberries. Two recent studies have found that consuming fresh strawberries may reduce cholesterol and oxidative stress that lead to cardiovascular disease. Both studies required participants to consume a diet rich in strawberries before testing different factors in their blood to determine the effect of the increased strawberry consumption. One of the studies, from the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, required that participants eat 500 grams of fresh strawberries daily for 30 days. During that time the participants’ LDL cholesterol fell an average of 13.7% and triglycerides were reduced by approximately 20%. The reason for this drop may be the anthocyanins in the strawberries, a group of phytochemicals that reduce free radicals.

2) Raisins. These tiny dried grapes may be a great snack for people looking to lower their blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease. A paper recently presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Scientific Sessions found that when raisins were eaten as a snack participants’ blood pressure was about 4.8-7.2% less than participants who ate other snacks. It is believed that the potassium, fiber, and antioxidants in the raisins helped lower participants’ blood pressure.

3) Broccoli. This cruciferous vegetable contains a sulfur-based compound called sulforaphane, which has been shown to reduce blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease risk factors. Sulforaphane is a isothiocyanate, a group of compounds responsible for the health benefits found in all cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower. This group of compounds has been shown to reduce inflammation, help improve blood pressure, and may even reduce the damaging effect of free radicals on the heart.

4) Garlic.  Garlic, onions, chives, and shallots are all part of the allium family of vegetables and have shown extensive health benefits, especially when it comes to cardiovascular disease. Garlic, specifically, has been shown to decrease LDL, increase antioxidant levels, and reduce hypertension. It may also reduce enzymes involved in LDL formation and the synthesis of other types of fats in the body.

5) Yams/Sweet potatoes. These powerful potatoes are consistently on the list of “superfoods” due to their high fiber, beta carotene, vitamin B6, and potassium content. Fiber helps reduce the absorption of dietary cholesterol in the blood stream, by trapping cholesterol and fat in the digestive system so it is unable to be absorbed. Deficiencies in vitamin B6 have been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, which may be related to the role it plays in decreasing levels of homocysteine. Beta carotene is a powerful antioxidant which may help reduce inflammation and lower cardiovascular risk factors.



How To Make Your Own Natural Deodorant at Home – Recipe

When I am at my healthiest, I do not have body odor. I smell when I sweat, but it’s really not an unpleasant odor. People often ask me what kind of cologne I am wearing, and I do not wear cologne. But my natural smell does turn to body odor if I am not eating extremely well or if I am stressed out.

When I was in a relationship, my girlfriend and I became very aware of smell. In fact, when we got used to each other’s smells, we knew when we were irritated, overly stressed, happy, and even horny. We knew when we should leave each other alone, and when knew when we should get under the sheets, just by body aroma. It is subtle, but something well worth tuning into and practicing. Imagine how much better we as a society would get along if we all paid attention to each other’s natural pheromones!

I don’t always eat perfectly. And there are times when I get stressed. Unfortunately, in the outside world it’s not appropriate to let everyone know that I am not in a good mood via body odor.

I have tried many natural deodorants. Many of them that claim to be natural are not natural and/or are not healthy. Most of them do not work. In fact, I have only come across three that have worked. One is made by a multi-level marketing company called Miessence.  Erin Ely, an independent marketing distributor, sent me a sample. Her website is elyorganics.com. The deodorant roll-on I tried worked great! It lasted 6 to 8 hours and it is truly a natural healthy product. This is by far the best all natural deodorant that I have ever used.

Another good one is Herbal Magic Roll-On Deodorant by Home Health U.S.  I found this one at Whole Foods. It worked for 3 to 4 hours and did a fine job of keeping me odor free.

The third best all-natural deodorant I have tried was Terressentials Super Protection Deodorant. This deodorant is powerful, lasting as long as anything I have ever used, but it has one very significant drawback—it leaves a white residue on clothing. For this reason I rank it in third place.

You could try these deodorants or you can make your own deodorant at home!

All Natural Deodorant Recipe DIY

Heat the coconut oil and the cocoa butter until they are liquid and combine ingredients in a blender, or a food processor. Place into a container of your choice and refrigerate overnight.

There are a lot of ways you can adjust this recipe. If you want a powder deodorant you can decrease the amount of liquid ingredients and increase the baking soda and you can also add corn starch. (Corn starch feeds yeast. If you have any yeast problems, forgo the corn starch).

You can make a roll-on liquid or even a spray deodorant by using less coconut oil and less cocoa butter, leaving out the baking soda, and adding more aloe-vera juice and witch-hazel extract (consider ¼ cup of each).

Add more cocoa butter (I’m talking about the real, pure, super thick cocoa butter, not the creamy stuff with the additives) and it makes for a great stick deodorant that you can put into an old deodorant container.

Feel free to experiment with essential oils for fragrance. For a masculine woodsy scent try oil of oregano, which also adds to the odor protection with its anti-bacterial properties.

If you have any all natural deodorant recipes or variations of this one that has worked for you, feel free to share in the comment section below.