Never Be Sick Again (41 page)

Decisions about whether to be vaccinated before a trip to a foreign country, or whether to vaccinate your children, should be based on accurate information. Unfortunately, the public has had little access to research questioning the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations.

Compulsory vaccination laws exist in every state. However, there are legal exemptions. Learn what the exemptions are in your state and obtain an appropriate one. All states have a medical exemption that a doctor can sign, and many states have religious exemptions, which do not require affiliation with any specific religion.

Regarding the common flu shot, consider this study published in
Lancet:
Absenteeism of more than one hundred thousand employees was noted each winter for three years, and the conclusion was that flu shots did not confer any protection. What about tetanus? Probably the single most important factor in preventing tetanus is thorough cleansing of the wound by removing all foreign bodies and dead tissue. On rare occasion, “tetanus-prone” wounds might justify a booster vaccine for those individuals already immunized, and immune globulin in those who never have been vaccinated.

To avoid an infectious disease, you don't need to have vaccinations; you need to keep your immunity strong. From the beginning, breastfeeding protects against many infections. Avoid allergenic foods like milk and wheat. Allergies lower immunity and predispose the body to infections. Nutritional status is critical to immune competence. Refined sugars are well known to depress immunity. Regular exercise, a good diet, and avoidance of allergens and toxins help to maintain a healthy immune system. Moreover, a high-quality supplement program is essential.

Give Credit Where It Is Due

While a dramatic decline has occurred in mortality during the last century, this decline has little to do with the “advancement” of our health-care system. Researchers at Harvard University and Boston University have determined that drugs, vaccines and other medical measures contributed a mere 1 to 3.5 percent to the decline in U.S. mortality since the turn of the century. This data appeared in a 1977 article (published in the summer edition of the
Milbank Memorial Fund
Quarterly
), which concluded that increased life expectancy was due to improvements in sanitation and living conditions rather than advances in medicine. That view was supported in a study reported in the September 1977 issue of the
Journal of
the American Medical Association,
concluding that “the most dramatic improvements in the health of our people as a group have been from cleaning up the water supply: sanitation, not medical care.” The decline in mortality is primarily attributable to the decline in killer epidemics such as tuberculosis, scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria and others. The development of city sewer systems, water purification systems, pasteurization, refrigeration and food hygiene have done far more to prevent infectious disease than all modern medical treatments combined.

Watch Out for Your Dentist, Too

Dentists contribute to toxic loads and chronic disease just like physicians do—primarily through the use of local anesthetics and toxic metals (mercury amalgams and metal crowns). Mercury amalgams have been in use for more than one hundred years, and we have always been told they are safe. A “silver” amalgam is actually 50 percent mercury, and this mercury does not stay only in your mouth; the mercury is absorbed by the body and poisons cells. Almost everyone knows that lead is toxic, and lead-based paints have been outlawed since the 1970s. No one would think of putting lead in their mouth and sucking on it twenty-four hours a day, yet mercury is five thousand times more toxic than lead, and dentists use it in amalgams as if it were harmless.

Since 1988, the Environmental Protection Agency has classified scrap dental amalgams as a hazardous waste. Putting amalgams down the drain or in the trash, or burying them in a landfill, is illegal—but the FDA still says they can be put in our mouths! Fortunately, things are changing. In 1992, the German government banned the sale and manufacture of dental amalgams. Metal crowns are another problem, and even “porcelain” crowns are usually made with nickel—a toxic metal and a known carcinogen.

If you already have these toxic metals imbedded in tooth tissue, consider having them removed but only by someone highly skilled in such removals. Gold is a high-quality metal, and the only one acceptable for the mouth, but even gold is not perfect because it is mixed with other metals to make it harder. While no perfect dental material is available, new plastic materials, when properly installed in fillings or as crowns, appear to be the most acceptable choices for now. As with all health-related problems, prevention is best. Eat a good diet, free of refined sugar, and be sure to brush and floss. Be particular about what type of toothpaste, too (see appendix C).

In addition to being toxic, putting different metals in the mouth in the presence of saliva, which is electrically conductive, generates subtle electrical currents that corrode the metals in the mouth. Once metals begin to corrode and degrade, they become biologically active and begin circulating around various bodily tissues, leading to toxic accumulation. In addition, the subtle electrical currents can also affect other body functions and cause numerous problems, including hearing loss, insomnia, and difficulties with memory and concentration.

Local anesthetics (including lidocaine) are commonly used by dentists and may be substantial contributors to our cancer epidemic. These anesthetics break down in the body into cancer-causing compounds called anilines. In 1993, the FDA found that lidocaine, when exposed to human tissue, breaks down into 2, 6-dimethylaniline, a compound that is known to cause virtually every kind of cancer in animals, and it does so more than 99 percent of the time. In September 1996, as a result of these findings, the FDA removed from the market all over-the-counter painkillers containing these local anesthetics and required that a warning be placed on all new prescription pharmaceuticals containing them. Unfortunately, existing prescription anesthetics were not required to carry the warning, and most health professionals are still unaware of this problem.

Work with your dentists and doctors to minimize exposure to local anesthetics. Local anesthetics are given more often than necessary—usually for the dentist's convenience. Use these products only when absolutely necessary, and use the minimum dose necessary. Do not keep requesting more anesthetic because of the fear of “not quite being numb.” Alternatives include: acupuncture, hypnosis, rubbing oil of cloves on the gum.

The Healer Within Yourself

Regardless of which medical treatments you choose, understand how the treatments actually work and how they affect your cells. Treatments designed to optimize or balance the function of your cells generally are safer and more effective than treatments designed to mask symptoms. Take medicine only when you need it (you definitely want to question taking drugs every day as a part of life), and only after you have compared (and attained second opinions on) benefits and possible side effects. Remember that you are in charge and you must take responsibility for your own health by supporting your body's natural abilities to repair and regulate itself.

John Lee, M.D., wrote in his 1993 book,
Optimal Health
Guidelines:
“Going to the doctor these days can be risky business. In generations past, the basic tenet of medical care was ‘Primum non nocere' (above all, do no harm). Today that dictum has been modified to ‘do as little harm as possible.' Even that . . . is becoming operationally impossible. The patient must now learn to look out for himself.”

Physicians do have their place, but one has to know what that place is. For example, anyone with acute health problems, such as a stroke, a bleeding ulcer or chest pains, should seek immediate medical attention. However, people who are suffering from chronic disease problems (cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, depression and so forth) are best advised to avoid modern conventional medicine and to seek competent alternative care. Traditional healers typically worked to balance the body, both physically and energetically, thereby promoting health. That remains the underlying approach of many alternative practitioners and alternative treatments, including a growing number of enlightened M.D.s, naturopaths, homeopaths, acupuncturists, chiropractors, energy healers, massage therapists and others.

Conventional medicine is a powerful moneymaking bureaucracy that is incredibly resistant to change, but there is also a growing movement in this country to pass medical freedom laws that would bring more competition and creativity into the medical marketplace. (Physicians would then be free to pursue treatments that are not only safe, but more effective, such as treating heart disease with diet and supplements rather than surgery; treating cancer with nutrition, detoxification and herbs; and treating stroke with hyperbaric oxygen.) About half of all patients in America now seek at least some form of alternative treatment; people are putting the power of health into their own hands. This statement shouldn't suggest that alternative treatments are always safe and effective—indeed, many are not—but the growing discontent with our conventional health-care system is a reality that we can no longer ignore. Optimizing your position on the
medical pathway
requires being aware of the hazards of modern medicine as well as its miracles. You, not your doctor, are responsible for your health.

11
A S
HIFT IN
P
ERSPECTIVE

“This pattern of high resistance and freedom from degenerative
disease is seen wherever people live beyond the reach of
modern civilization and are not suffering from famine.”

Charles McGee, M.D.
How to Survive Modern Technology

P
erspective is everything. By reshaping our understanding of disease, we are empowered to create health. Are you ready to take charge of your health and experience a state of well-being that even your doctors may doubt is possible?

As you have read this book, you have discovered ways in which you must change your life in order to get better and in order to stay well. Perhaps you are fighting a disease with little success, and now you see hope. Or perhaps you have considered yourself “healthy,” only to recognize that your body already is showing early warning signs of disease.

Do you have a general feeling that your body is struggling to keep up? Are you confused or frustrated by your medical doctors or their recommended treatments? Are you distressed by the number of prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicines you take in order to keep going, even if you have no sense you are getting better? Are you suffering a variety of symptoms that no doctor has been able to help you with? Are you making unhealthful choices in the foods that you eat, in the products that you use on yourself or in your home, and in other aspects of your life?

Before I got so sick and almost died in 1985, I lived a different life from the life I live today. I thought I was healthy and that I was living a healthful lifestyle; in reality I was encouraging sickness. I suffered from a number of diseases— allergies, colds, flu, tooth decay, joint pain, abdominal pain and fatigue. I went to physicians and dentists. I took antibiotics for infections, NSAIDs for pain and antihistamines for my allergies. I occasionally took vitamins, but I did so whimsically, without commitment and consistency, and certainly without a scientific understanding of which vitamins I should be taking and why. I ate most of my meals in upscale restaurants and spared no expense. My food choices, however, were based mostly on taste and enjoyment. I neither knew much nor thought much about nutrition.

When I did develop digestive problems and allergies, I was unaware that my food was causing the problems or that it would be possible to avoid them if I paid closer attention to what I ate. I am now aware of my allergy to dairy, but back then I ate ice cream, milk and other dairy products almost daily. I developed itchy eyes, mucus and sneezing fits after I ate them, but still I did not recognize the connection. I had grown accustomed to these “minor nuisances” and never imagined life could be so much better without them.

I used to eat far too much meat and dairy—at one or two meals every day—unaware that most of the pesticides we are exposed to have bioaccumulated in the animal products we consume. Although I don't recommend a meat-free diet, I recommend eating meat only a few times a week and only that which has been organically produced. The animal products I consumed back then contributed to my toxic load, as did the volumes of sugar, white flour and processed oils that were a regular part of my diet. In addition, both as a graduate research assistant at MIT and in my first job as a chemist, I was exposed to extraordinary amounts of toxic chemicals. Chemicals that are used today only in small amounts and with protective equipment we used to slosh around in the lab as if they were water. Back then, we were unaware of the full extent of their toxicity, and the manufacturers were in no rush to study the toxicities.