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DOCTOR YOURSELF Newsletter (Vol 3, No 5) January 20, 2003

Wed, 15 Jan 2003 21:14:04 -0500

 

 

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" The West was not settled by men and women who had taken a course in " How to

Be a Pioneer. "

 

(from Educational Wastelands, the 1953 bestseller by Arthur Bestor.)

 

The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol 3, No 5) January 20, 2003

 

" Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A. "

 

Written by Andrew Saul, PhD. of http://www.doctoryourself.com , a free

online library of over 350 natural healing articles with nearly 4,000

scientific references.

 

DO-IT-YOURSELF HEALTH maintenance is a tough idea to sell. Almost anyone

would agree that prevention is far easier than cure. But prevention is not

as interesting, as dramatic, or as well-funded as cure. There is little

motivation and less excitement about prevention, even though it is your very

strongest position against disease.

 

Cure, on the other hand, has everybody's attention, especially that of a

really sick person who is really and truly afraid of dying. Problem is, this

most highly-motivated of patients is in the weakest position against

disease.

 

We former Vermonters know that you have to fix the roof before the weather

changes, and you'd best do it now, because in 10 minutes, the weather is

sure to change. Kindergarten children can quickly grasp why squirrels gather

and store nuts for the winter. The most amateur of mechanics knows that

regular oiling prevents unnecessary breakdowns.

 

But preventive health behaviors are generally ignored. Nine out of ten

Americans do not eat even the paltry US government recommended five small

servings of produce in a given day. Over half of all Americans are obese.

One third of all Americans regularly drink considerable quantities of

alcoholic beverages. Nearly one-quarter of all Americans smoke. Who knows

the exact number of drug abusers, but the true figure is high. As if any one

of these risks is not enough, some people are guilty of several

simultaneously.

 

The widely accepted starting points to reverse our national un-health

problem consist of improved diet, increased exercise, and a reduction in bad

habits. These behaviors are also very cheap to implement. Exercises cost

nothing (see below). High fiber, low fat foods are the cheapest in the

supermarket, and the least labor-intensive to prepare. Opening a can of

beans is a perfect example. They are precooked, loaded with fiber, the

amount of fat is near-microscopic, and nothing could be more versatile, or

cheaper to buy.

 

So why, as Plato said, do " we make of ourselves living cesspools, and drive

doctors to invent names for our diseases " ?

 

Beats me. But whatever the reason, let's just knock it off and start afresh.

It has been said that today is a great gift to you. That's why it is called

" the present. "

 

SNEEZE OR SNIFFLE? COLD OR FLU?

 

There is a trick to almost everything, and the trick to really sensational

results with vitamin C is to use enough, and use it immediately. Linus

Pauling's advice stands as the best I've ever heard: at the very first

sniffle, cough or sneeze, take a big dose of vitamin C powder in water or

juice. When it happens to me, I head straight for the kitchen and take a

couple of teaspoons (about 10,000 milligrams). This is called a " loading

dose. " The intention is to promptly ingest as much vitamin C as you can

without having loose bowels. Everyone, even kids, can learn what their

particular " level " is. I have seen teens and even elementary-age children do

this easily. It works.

 

Here is another technique to try: " It may be worth while to help control a

cold by the topical application of a solution of sodium ascorbate, made by

dissolving 3.1 g (3,100 milligrams) of sodium ascorbate in 100 ml (under 2

ounces) of water. Braenden (1973), who has reported success in curing most

colds or markedly alleviating the symptoms by this method, recommends

introducing twenty drops of this solution into each nostril with an eye

dropper. He has pointed out that in this way a local concentration of

ascorbate a thousand times the value produced by oral administration can be

reached. "

 

(From Chapter 14, " Vitamin C, The Common Cold and the Flu " by Linus Pauling,

reviewed below.)

 

Sodium ascorbate is available for sale at most health food stores, and an

internet search will provide additional sources. You can also make sodium

ascorbate by taking plain ascorbic acid powder and neutralizing it with a

little sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, such as " Arm and Hammer " ).

 

By the way: If you intend to write to me concerning any lingering " vitamin C

danger " phobias you may have, please search at my website

(http://www.doctoryourself.com/supersearch.html ) before you email me. As

this is has always been one of my major " mail call " items, I have already

posted a great deal of material on vitamin C megadose safety. So please

press " Search " before you press " Send. "

 

Even better: take a look at the terrific collection of research summaries on

the safety and effectiveness of vitamin C posted at

 

http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/news.htm

 

Specialized and highly-detailed abstracts are posted at

 

http://www.vitacost.com/science/MedStudies/VitaminC.html

 

Remember that I do not endorse or recommend any product line, brand or

company.

 

BOOK REVIEW:

 

Vitamin C, the Common Cold, and the Flu, by Linus Pauling. (Freeman, 1976)

 

 

This is the book that so many have heard about and yet so few have read. Dr.

Pauling's interpretive review of the medical literature on vitamin C has had

so great an impact that it may be quite some time before it is fully

appreciated. Pauling has reexamined studies which originally concluded that

vitamin C was of no benefit and then shows that the authors failed to catch

the statistical significance of their own work. For example, Cowan, Diehl

and Baker's famous 1942 study actually showed that persons taking just 200

milligrams of vitamin C daily experienced fewer days of illness per cold,

and fewer sick days per person per year. Other studies, with larger doses,

were even better. Even shortening most colds would add up to a savings of

dozens of billions of dollars annually, not to mention the savings in

discomfort to patients. Vitamin C as a treatment for influenza is even more

important, as it can save lives.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of the book is a six-page passage (Chapter 3) where

Pauling traces the history of severe vitamin C deficiency, or scurvy. He is

one of very few authors who can pull this off and keep the reader

interested. I refer to this chapter often. Another outstanding section

(Chapter 8) draws several sources together to show that humans should, and

primitive humans did, consume several thousand milligrams of vitamin C each

day. Next, Pauling shows that animals, especially those most closely related

to humans, either eat or make between 1,750 mg and 10,000 mg per human body

weight per day. Even the U.S. Government's Subcommittee on Animal Nutrition

thinks that monkeys need a human body weight equivalent of 1,750 to 3,500 mg

of vitamin C every day. Yet the U.S. Recommend Daily Allowance for humans is

just 60 milligrams, less than two to four percent as much! Dr. Irwin Stone

agrees in his even more extensive review of vitamin C entitled The Healing

Factor (Grosset and Dunlap, 1972, Chapter 10).

 

If you suspect that something is rotten in Denmark (or Washington, for that

matter), you will especially appreciate Pauling's sharp criticism of medical

politics and propaganda. If you have been scared off of vitamin C by a

poorly informed physician, Chapter 11 will acquaint you with vitamin C's

side effects, which are few, and its safety, which is extraordinary. Dr.

Pauling has not made this all up; what he has done is to use his good name,

and risk his good reputation, to bring this knowledge directly to the

people. For this, he may even have deserved a third Nobel Prize.

 

FOR WILL ROGERS, IT WAS THE NEWSPAPER. But you can get some good material

from TV, such as these goodies from an evening or two of Animal Planet:

 

DID YOU KNOW that from 1942 until the 1980's, uranium was added to the

materials in dentures?

 

No doubt this was to help Grandpa find them if he wanted a midnight snack.

My dentist has the first pair of dentures he ever made dangling from his car

mirror. I guess the dental school bookstore was out of the giant stuffed

dice. I'll now consider bringing my Geiger counter next time I catch a ride

with him.

 

DID YOU KNOW that to equal the caloric intake of a hummingbird, a human

would have to eat 100 pounds of sugar a DAY? Thank heaven for the American

food processing industry, which is doing all they can to promote this

figure.

 

While, of course, doing nothing to help us burn it off and try to keep our

figure.

 

DID YOU KNOW that Americans spend $10 BILLION annually on exercising?

 

Good goal; waste of cash. Why? Because cutting out sugar, sensible dieting,

walking, turning over a garden, yoga, cutting wood, isometrics, and a

borrowing a friend's Richard Simmons tapes are all free. There is at least

one on this list that everyone can do. Save your money: try my cheapskate

exercise hints at

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/aerobics.html

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/cheapheal.html

 

And, of course, there is my own story of Board-of-Education-sanctioned

skinny-dipping:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/exercise_avoid.html

 

RELATED READING:

 

Weight Loss:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/weight_loss.html

 

and how (I think) we should diet:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/dieting.html

 

CHEAP HEALTH HINTS

 

** Want to juice vegetables but cannot afford a juicer?

 

Juicing Alternative Number One:

 

Try Fletcherism, the practice of over-chewing your food so that it is nearly

liquid when you swallow it. This process might also be called " drinking your

foods and chewing your liquids. " Grandma might have told you to chew your

food 35 times; try for 100. Practice with nuts or celery. The goal is to

mechanically (with the molar teeth) and, in the case of carbohydrates,

chemically (with saliva) break down foods into the very smallest, most

digestible particles possible.This may assist in weight loss.

 

( http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/diet/obesity.htm )

 

" Most unusual about Fletcherism, however, was that you were supposed to chew

each bite of food for a very long time before swallowing. Furthermore, you

were to swish milk and other liquids around in your mouth for at least

fifteen seconds before swallowing. The leader of this fad, Horace Fletcher,

was quite healthy. In 1899, when he was fifty years old, he could outperform

athletes less than half his age. For instance, he could ride a bicycle two

hundred miles in a single day. And not a sleek ten-speed bike, but the

machine of the day, a single-speed machine. " (from

http://members.aol.com/oddwonder/foodhis.htm , a delightful collection of

unusual and sometimes weird food facts.) For a list of books on Fletcherism:

 

http://js-catalog.cpl.org:60100/MARION?A=FLETCHER+HORACE+1849+1919

 

Juicing Alternative Number Two:

 

Eat " blended salads. " Yes, that's just what you think it is. You make your

favorite veggie salad, and fling it about in a blender. You end up with a

raw, baby-food-like meal that tastes infinitely better than it looks. The

famous New York naturopath Dr. Christopher Gian-Cursio used to prescribe

these to his patients. This is a very good way to add raw vegetables to the

diet of a person with impaired digestion. Try the doctor's own recipe,

printed in the Doctor Yourself Newsletter (Vol 2, No 9, March 10, 2002

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n9.txt )

 

Or, you could just go for it and spring for a juicer. There are lots of

juicing hints posted at http://www.doctoryourself.com , and a search from

the main page will grab them all for you.

 

** For a cheap, easy iodine supplement, just add one drop of plain old

iodine tincture in every half-gallon of fruit juice you open, prepare or

drink.

 

**Whole grain baking works best if you keep the loaves small. " Johnny

cakes, " thin unleavened flatbreads, cook quickly on an oven rack. Make them

out of whole grain flour, water, and salt. No recipe needed; just mix, try

and taste. Delicious!

 

**Crush mineral supplement tablets for better absorption. General rule for

purchasing mineral supplements: Select the " citrate " or " gluconate " form,

instead of sulfate or oxide.

 

** You've heard it, and it is true: drink more water. Try for eight glasses

a day. You will feel better. Does vegetable juice count? Sure does.

 

** Is your family resisting your attempts to reform their diet? Try

" relentless and incessant compromise. " In other words, meet them half way on

everything. . . at least for now. Mix commercial sweetened yogurt half and

half with plain, unsweetened yogurt. Make half-whole grain, half-white flour

bread. Serve a mixture of half whole wheat pasta, half regular pasta. To get

them to eat more nuts, mix health food store unsalted nuts half-and-half

with good old Planter's salty and oily nuts. Like the tide coming in,

progress is often one step back and two steps forward.

 

POBODY'S NERFECT

 

Lifestyle change, the only sure way to prevent or cure anything, is not

easy. Working on yourself requires flexibility, humor, and frequent renewal.

If you fall off the wagon, just climb back on. We are in this for the long

haul. Better you should be 80% vegetarian for a decade than 100% vegetarian

for a week.

 

THREE REASONS TO BECOME (MORE OF) A VEGETARIAN

 

1) Real meat-eating is neither easy nor is it any guarantee of longevity.

The cheetah is just about the fastest land predator there is. Fewer than

half of all cheetahs reach adulthood, and those that do live only about 7

years. Vegetarian elephants and tortoises live between 70 and 150 years.

Please pass me the peas, dear.

 

2) Spend a while with a baby calf. Once one of the little critters sucks on

your finger, you will think twice about your next pot roast.

 

3) Here's what really did it for me. Back in 1974, I was watching a flock of

blood-soaked vultures attack an enormous pile of intestines and skin at an

African open-air meat market. The smell was pretty memorable, too.

 

READERS ASK:

 

MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

 

B. D. writes: " I have a cousin who has MS and she is confined to a wheel

chair. If she would drink juiced vegetables and take vitamins, would that

help her to start walking, even if it was with a walker or cane? "

 

I see no down side to her trying. Detailed information on natural approaches

to Multiple Sclerosis, and an encouraging case history or two, will be found

at:

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/ms_2.html

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/calcdef.html

 

http://www.doctoryourself.com/news/v2n13.txt

 

C AND JUICING

 

" You often recommend vegetable juicing, and you also recommend vitamin C

megadoses. How do they compliment each other? "

 

The answer is, Very well. I suspect that some overlapping reasons why both

approaches work is that both are enormously good sources of antioxidants,

and that both provide a beneficial and much-needed laxative effect. Our

over-oxidized, under-nourished, thoroughly constipated population has much

to gain from this highly effective one-two punch.

 

HAIR CARE

 

L. S. writes:

 

" What shampoo is the best for dry hair and dry scalp? "

 

The best is to simply use less. Cheapest, too. I recommend only shampooing

once a week, regardless of your brand preference. When's the last time a

mink or a chinchilla shampooed? My water-hating cat never shampoos. It is

not in any beauty product, folks. Soft hair and skin comes from natural body

oils which any detergent will dissolve. Yes, keep yourself clean. Comb and

brush. But try shampooing a lot less and see for yourself.

 

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industry. We do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for Dr.

Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.

 

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AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered as

prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or

physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program

necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one

should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from

a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision.

 

" DOCTOR YOURSELF " " DoctorYourself.com " and " Doctor Yourself Newsletter " are

service marks of Andrew W. Saul. All rights reserved.

 

Copyright c 2003 and prior years Andrew W. Saul drsaul

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