Category Archives: Health

Measuring your nutrient levels

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I have found that detecting and then correcting nutrient deficiencies is a very important aspect of treating a number of otherwise “resistant” health conditions. Accurate measurement of your current status is the first step.

Measuring nutrient levels is complicated by the fact that enzymes and molecular pumps in cell walls selectively create concentration gradients between the plasma and the inside of the cell for some nutrients. In general, measuring the level inside red blood cells, as opposed to in the plasma, results in the measurements that most accurately reflect functional ability. However, there are exceptions—for example magnesium, for which there isn’t really a good blood test (a loading test is the best measurement).

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Fatigue, mental illness and diet

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Based on years of personal experience, I’m increasingly convinced that some forms of fatigue and mental illness, particularly things like depression, anxiety and insomnia, are caused in large part by not getting enough animal products in your diet — especially Vit B-12 and saturated fat.  B-12 is directly involved with many aspects of brain and nervous system function, and saturated fats are precursors for a number of hormones that affect mood and energy.

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Treating a cold

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I hate going to the doctor, particularly for an illness like a cold that normally falls short of needing prescription medication. One thing I do on my own is to take some vitamin D3 when I first feel cold symptoms coming on. It’s a powerful immune system booster, even better than vit C. You can take up to 50,000 IU per day for a few days, or, better yet, get out in the sun, provided it’s not winter or overcast.

Another important thing to do is to stay hydrated. With a runny nose and coughing up lots of phlegm, it’s easy to get dehydrated. Water will help keep the mucus thin, which in turn helps prevent stagnation and infection.

For a sore throat, I’ve also found zinc lozenges to be effective about half the time.

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Definition of processed foods

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When should you consider foods to be “processed”? One suggestion I’ve heard is that processed foods are those whose character has changed from the original. However, I think that’s misleading.

Some foods can undergo a change of character, and yet still be perfectly healthy. The creation of butter by whipping cream for an extended time is one example. Even most cooking processes will change the character of the original foods in some way.

One type of food processing that’s not healthy is when it’s natural shelf life is over-extended through mechanical or chemical treatment. One way that’s done is by removing some of the key nutrients that potential pests like to eat. For example, potassium can be replaced with sodium (salt); unfortunately, many micronutrients are removed at the same time. The final result is that while the caloric content of the food may remain, much of the nutritional content does not.

Another type of food processing is when food is combined with non-foods. For example, chemicals galore, for purposes that range from changing the food’s texture or color to changing its taste or enhancing shelf-life.

How about this definition: I consider foods to be “processed” when they either have essential nutrients removed from them, or when they are combined with non-foods.

Organic or not?

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Pesticide residues are found in the flesh of fruits and vegetables, not just on the exterior–some foods are more susceptible to retaining residues than others.

Although many pesticides are initially sprayed on the surface of the plants, they are eventually rinsed off by rain or irrigation; they then flow into the soil and are absorbed by the plant’s roots.  Some “systemic” pesticides are applied directly to the soil, and not to the surface of the plant at all.  There are also gas “fumigants,” which can be applied after harvesting to help speed up ripening and to control rot and hard-to-kill pests; they generally need to penetrate the plant material deeply to be effective.

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Is fructose really that bad?

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Here are links to a couple of papers about fructose:

Fructose consumption as a risk factor for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18395287

Fructose overconsumption causes dyslipidemia and ectopic lipid deposition in healthy subjects with and without a family history of type 2 diabetes
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19403641

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Managing toxic overload

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Organohalides (including pesticides) and many other organic toxins are lipid soluble, both in animals and in man — and some of those chemicals are thryo-toxic (the thyroid gland is particularly sensitive to many xenobiotics); some are also carcinogenic.

So, when you eat more fat, everything else being equal, you are also increasing your intake of fat-soluble toxins.  Eating organic helps, but it isn’t a cure-all, due to the prevalence of toxins in the environment.

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Safety of MRI tests and contrast agents

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Are MRI tests safe?

The usual MRI contrast agent is Gadolinium-based, and is not radioactive. MRI machines themselves use magnetic fields and not radiation. Fortunately, it’s not possible to have an “overexposure” of magnetism. CAT or PET scans are a much different story, though, since they do use radiation.

I’ve had a number of MRIs, and I consider them to be the safest of the available imaging technologies. If you are having symptoms that warrant the test, then in my opinion it would be foolish to deny the use of a contrast agent if the study was ordered using one. I’m not saying contrast is zero-risk, but the risk of misdiagnosis without contrast (when needed) seems to me to be much higher than the risk of the contrast itself being a problem. I asked a radiologist about the risks once, and he said that although they have everyone sign a liability waiver form due to the theoretical risk, that he personally had never seen anyone react adversely to the contrast agent, nor had any of his co-workers.

The issue is that without contrast, many physical structures and details simply aren’t visible. That also means that a more correct response to not seeing anything with a non-contrast test would be to order one with contrast, not to just say that you’re all done. And if they do see something without contrast, they would have generally seen more details and therefore know more about what’s happening if it had been done with contrast.

However, not all exams require contrast; it depends on which part of the body is being imaged.

Managing allergies

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I went through a number of years of having severe allergies. However, I was eventually able to largely cure myself; today I’m 90% better than I used to be.  A few things I learned along the way that might be helpful:

  • Allergies are, of course, an immune system issue; immune system support is therefore essential. In addition to avoiding allergens, it’s also critical to reduce your exposure to toxins.  Even micro amounts that wouldn’t bother a healthy person can be very damaging to the immune system.  This includes things like pesticides, formaldehyde, perfumes, cleaning compounds, etc.

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