Today, I think we should start with a short review. In the previous newsletters, I had a rant about labels and the words used in them. What a word means to them is not necessarily what it means to you, and they are counting on you misunderstanding what they said. This translates to so many other areas of your life, as you might notice from some future rants (oh, I have so many of those to share). J

We also covered, briefly, the working of the major organs of your body and how all the pieces fit together. Most of all, you need to remember that all organs and glands in your body take directions for their functioning from your brain. Some of these autonomic functions can be overridden by conscious thought but most cannot (e.g., you can consciously slow or increase your breathing rate, but if you try to stop it entirely, your brain will shut down your consciousness [make you pass out – usually from lack of oxygen] and attempt to return to its standard programming). You should note here that this minor control is a great use in areas like the stomach’s demand for certain food types (more on how that happens later). Sometimes you should listen to your cravings, but mostly you should ignore them and eat what you know is right.

You might also remember that all organs and glands, muscles, skin, etc. is connected to your blood supply. Some organs insert things into the blood (e.g., intestines insert nutrients, lungs insert oxygen) and some organs remove things from your blood (e.g., liver and kidneys take out toxins). Some, like your nasal cavity, are intended to filter things out before it is inserted into the system (i.e., breathe in through your nose, not your mouth). Other organs, like the skin, serve multiple functions, both resisting accidental insertions as well as disposing of some toxins (via sweat).

All of these organs and glands are intended to work in harmony. When things are not in harmony, when we are out of balance, we get sick. That is what we need to focus on: preventing that state of being “out of balance” that our modern life causes too easily.

We also have an immune system that is supposed to help us stay in perfect harmony, but our lazy eating habits and the lack of knowledge of what is in our food and how it affects us seem to have defeated (or at least weakened) this system in most of us. I have been doing a lot of snooping lately into this particular area and have found hundreds of scholarly papers, but this one says it simply:

“The innate immune system evolved several strategies of self/non-self discrimination that are based on the recognition of molecular patterns demarcating infectious non-self, as well as normal and abnormal self. These patterns are deciphered by receptors that either induce or inhibit an immune response, depending on the meaning of these signals.” - Ruslan Medzhitov,^* Charles A. Janeway Jr., Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Section of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

In other words, your body knows what belongs in it and is beneficial to it and what shouldn’t be there. Note the word “signals” in the above. Again, your brain is receiving a message and will then attempt to correct the imbalance by adding more of some substances or subtracting others.

Here’s where I have to ask you a question. Are you more likely to believe in your own body’s intelligence and ability to fix things, or do you want some doctor to tell you to take this purple pill and bring your wallet back once a month for the rest of your life? Ah, I hear your objections already (I have listening devices installed in all your homes J ): “I don’t understand what my body is asking me to change!” Of course you don’t, so I will do my best to help you. Which leads to an obvious question you are probably asking right now:

Q: What makes you think you know more than my doctor?

A: That’s a pretty easy one to answer. I don’t know more, but I do know some things your doctor doesn’t have a clue about. And oddly enough, it was incredibly easy to find this information.

Q: Wait a darn minute. MDs go to school for at least six years. Some PhDs have 12 years of college and all of these guys have many years of experience practicing on their patients.

A: Practice is a good word. I sure like being a guinea pig for a doctor to try a new pill on. And, hey, if it kills me, it’s no skin off his nose, is it? But back to the main topic here. Your doctor did spend many years in school. During that time he/she was very effectively programmed to believe exactly as academia wants them to. They are not taught any alternatives to what they learned in school. Anyone who deviates (witness Dr. Hulda Clark) will be categorically proclaimed to be a quack and thoroughly ostracized by the AMA and most of their peers. What is a quack? Anyone who does not toe the agency’s line. Being labeled a “quack” doesn’t mean these people do not know what they are talking about (it also does not mean they do, so take each case on its own merits).

Q: Why doesn’t Academia teach all types of healing? And who pulls academia’s strings?

A: Guess! Simply follow the money trail. Who pays the colleges to do what they do? Who supplies them with books? Who sponsors certain classes? Good grief, folks, everyone in this country who is in any business is in that business to make a profit. There are no charities who do not take care of themselves first, so forget the silly idea that anyone is in business to help others exclusively. (Even I am doing this work for a type of profit: I want all of you healthy and if what I write here causes even one of you to take the action necessary to get healthy and stay alive longer, then I profit by having your company just that much longer.) The colleges get money from the pharmaceutical corporations as well as their wealthy alumni (those who have most profited by that school’s teachings and who stand to make even more by their donations). Who runs the research labs? The pharmaceutical companies. Who pays the doctors big bucks each time they prescribe a new trial drug? The pharmaceutical companies. Who doesn’t want you to have access to unregulated vitamins, minerals, or herbs? The pharmaceutical companies. Who is it that stands to profit by you not ever getting healed? The pharmaceutical companies and the doctors. Let’s keep them on pills forever, and when the side effects start ruining them even more, we’ll sell them some more pills of a different color. You can take that one to the bank. There is no business that has any intention of curing you and, therefore, losing you as a repeat customer.

Q: So what is it that you know about that the doctors don’t?

A: Nutrition and what is in your food today that is ruining your health. Yes, it goes deeper than that (fungi producing mycotoxins – more on that later), but the basic gist is that doctors are not trained on nutrition in school. My favorite MD, Dave Holland (who also has a PhD in microbiology), who lives in Amarillo, Texas, spent 12 years in school and says that he did not get even one day of nutrition studies. A nurse practitioner I know claims that she did get two whole weeks of nutrition training, but it was so cursory that it wasn’t of much use, and, she added, it was sponsored by McDonald’s (some attempt to convince nurses that their pig slop is actually good for you?).

Q: How did you find out about these mycotoxins?

A: Ranchers, actually. At least that is what sparked my curiosity. It seems that cows that are fed stored grains have a 50% lower impregnation rate than cows who eat fresh pasture grass. I figure that if cows’ systems are so adversely affected by stored grain, what about people? And what is it in these grains that needs to be looked at? The answer was incredibly easy because USDA has published a couple books specifically aimed at ranchers that tells exactly this problem. And if you do a Google or MSN search on the word “mycotoxins,” you’ll get over 60,000 hits. Biologists are routinely taught about mycotoxins in college, so why not human doctors? Again, follow the path of the money.

Q: What the heck is a mycotoxin?

A: Mycotoxins are metabolites produced by fungi to give them a competitive edge against other microorganisms. There are over 200 recognized mycotoxins. Many are harmful to humans and animals when inhaled, ingested, or brought into contact with human skin.

Mycotoxins can produce a variety of short-term as well as long-term health effects. Symptoms can include dermatitis, cold and flu symptoms, headache, sore throat, fatigue, diarrhea, impaired immune function, infections, coughing, asthma, nose bleeds, breathing problems, Hyper-sensitivity Pneumonitis, Pulmonary hemosiderosis, cancer and even death (to name just a few).

So let’s define some words that might come up in future newsletters.

Fungus/Fungi: Mold or Yeast.

Aflatoxin: one of the most potent carcinogens known to man and has been linked to a variety of health problems. Aflatoxins are primarily produced by Aspergillus.

Ochratoxin: primarily produced by Aspergillus and Penicillium. This type of toxin damages the kidneys, liver, immune system, and is a suspected carcinogen.

T-2 Toxin: a tricothecene produced by Fusarium and Stachybotrys and is one of the more deadly toxins. T-2, if ingested in sufficient amounts, can severely damage the entire digestive tract, causing rapid death due to internal hemorrhage. T-2 has also been implicated in toxic aleukia and pulmonary hemosiderosis (bleeding of the lungs).

Fumonism: a toxin associated with Fusarium. Fumonism causes leukoencephalomalcia or liquefaction of the brain in animals. In humans it has been linked to esophageal cancer.

Vomitoxin: associated with Fusarium, which can cause acute gastrointestinal illness.

Citrinin: produced by Penicillium and Aspergillus. This toxin can cause renal damage and bronchial constriction.

Satrotoxin H: mainly produced by Stachybotrys charturum and Trichoderma viridi. High doses or chronic low doses are lethal.

Gliotoxin: an immunosuppressive toxin produced by Alternaria, Penicillium, and Aspergillus.

Patulin: a mycotoxin produced by Penicillium and Aspergillus that causes hemorrhaging in the brain and lungs.

Sterigmatocystin: produced by Aspergillus versicolor and is considered to be carcinogenic.

Q: And this crap is in my food?

A: Some of it is in your food, some of it is in the air you breathe (especially in older houses, like my damp basement), and some of it is picked up through the skin by touching moldy objects. A WARNING here that will be fully explained later: DO NOT use antibacterials cleansers to wash up after touching fungi-infested objects. Antibacterials do not kill fungi; they kill bacteria. Antibacterials (also called “antibiotics” for internal use) do not discriminate and they will kill the good bacteria that have a symbiotic relationship with your body, which is your first line of defense against fungi and the problems they cause you. Using antibacterials/antibiotics in this war guarantees you will lose because you are then giving the mycotoxins free rein to take over and reprogram your systems to their own benefit, which eventually will make you a corpse. We will talk in detail about using antifungals in a later issue.

Q: And doctors don’t know about this?

A: Some of them do. Most don’t. Again, they are not bad people; they simply were not taught about this stuff, so as far as they are concerned, this is a non-issue. And any “continuing education” they might participate in is almost invariably sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, so you know they won’t hear it there.

Those doctors who do know are usually those who work (or have once worked) in research laboratories (e.g., microbiologists and technicians). Most of those who do know will never do anything about it because they will be ostracized by their peers and employers and you know what that usually means… yeah, it cost them a coupe hundred thousand dollars to get educated and get where they are and they are not going to give up their current high-paying jobs just to tell you how you are being hustled by the AMA, FDA, and the pharmaceutical corporations.

There are a few, however, who have risked their reputations to bring you the truth. Some of those are still intent on making large profits, so beware them. If they come across as “I’ve got a secret that will cure you and I’ll let you in on it if you buy my product” then you should run away fast. There are also a few who appear to be genuinely concerned for your health. They only write books, which you can buy of course, but leave the spendy product sales to others. These people are worth listening to. Dave Holland is one of the latter. He often appears as a guest on a TV show, hosted by Doug Kaufmann, who has been fighting this war for the last 35 years. Lannie found this show on the Health Network TV channel a couple months ago. It is called Know the Cause and, if you can, I encourage you to tune in. It is a one-hour program, Monday through Friday, and they have all the information you’ll need. I’ll try to convey some of their information as well as the things I have discovered in my own research.

That ought to be enough for this newsletter. Next issue, we’ll talk about the history of medicine, how we got to this point in our failing health system, and maybe answer a few more questions.