Rheumatoid arthritis yields to the power of nutritional medicine

Anyone who doubts the efficacy of nutritional medicine hasn't taken the time to learn about it. Skeptics certainly have never spoken to someone like Gloria, a retail clerk in Temecula, CA, who appears to have made a full recovery from medically diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis because of properly applied nutritional medicine.

Gloria has a long and painful medical history, although her primary complaint to Dr. Wes Youngberg, a nutritionist in Temecula, was chronic pain associated with advanced rheumatoid arthritis. Gloria had watched her mother suffer endlessly with the pernicious autoimmune disease and was worried that one day she would no longer be able to work because of it.

Rheumatoid arthritis was diagnosed in 2006 by a local rheumatologist, one year after the beginning of an ongoing, significant family challenge. Gloria's rheumatologist had her on Methotrexate and Plaquenil, which were not sufficient for her pain, and was considering adding Humira, which scared Gloria due to recent FDA reports showing Humira's side effects to include increased risk of rare cancers and other immune problems.

Why wasn't she healing even when on very strong medication?

While the medicines she was taking did initially help decrease her pain, they were not addressing the original causes of the pain and inflammation. Gloria's gallbladder surgery in 2000 was a major clue that she may not be effectively digesting and absorbing adequate nutrients. Most chronic disease can be traced to an inadequate level of key nutrients getting into the cells and therefore a lack of the very elements that allow for healing to take place.

Dr. Franz Ingelfinger MD, a gastroenterologist and late editor of the New England Journal of Medicine estimated that 85% of all human illnesses are curable by the body's own healing mechanisms.As the most prominent GI physician of his day, he recognized that poor digestion would, in time, undermine every other aspect of our health.

With Dr. Youngberg's, encouragement, Gloria chose to test for signs of imbalance in her body and had comprehensive blood tests including vitamin D, thyroid profile, glucose tolerance testing, hormones, cardiac CRP and others.

Further testing indicated that she had significant hypoglycemia both before meals and three hours after eating. She also had very large blood sugar spikes at one hour and two hours after carbohydrate intake. These tests not only documented her strong tendency toward reactive hypoglycemia and adrenal fatigue, but also indicated that without addressing the underlying causes of her problems, she was also at risk of developing diabetic and cardiovascular complications in the future.

Gloria also had a very low vitamin D

Studies show that low vitamin D levels greatly increase the risk of autoimmune diseases that include type 1 diabetes, RA and lupus.

After discussing the meaning of her labs and nutritional strategies to remedy them, Gloria set out to do her best with a balanced diet rich in whole, plant based food. She started nutritional supplements that would specifically address her lack of a gallbladder and gastric function. She balanced her meals with foods and nutrients that would optimize blood sugars, support restoration of adrenal and thyroid function, lower inflammation naturally and she took enough vitamin D to optimize her blood levels within three months.

Dr. Youngberg explained to Gloria that her condition had developed over a long period of time and would likely take many months for the healing process to noticeably impact her pain and that, with careful attention to comprehensive nutritional medicine strategies, her rheumatologist may be able to reduce her medication over the following six to twelve months.

Much to his surprise, within one month, Gloria reported Dr. Youngberg that the "vice grip" of her rheumatoid arthritis had already improved by 50%. Gloria was referred back to her rheumatologist and able to discontinue her medications. Two months after her comprehensive testing and lifestyle change and after one month without her Methotrexate and Plaquenil medications, Gloria was 90% free of her joint pain.

One month later she excitedly reported that her pain was now completely gone. At this writing Gloria has been free of medications for nearly a year. Cicero once said, "Old age must be resisted and it's deficiencies supplied." The body does indeed have the capacity to heal itself! Our job is to determine what's missing and then supply its need. If Gloria persists on her current path, she will continue to benefit in health of body, mind and spirit.

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Beat the heat with these dairy-free chocolate pudding

Sweet frozen treats are perfect for hot summer days! Unfortunately, the lack of nutrition and over-abundance of chemical ingredients in most commercial varieties is far from ideal. This summer, try making your own. It's a great way to control the quality of your ingredients! Even a novice in the kitchen can easily whip up the simple homemade recipe included here. This dairy-free version of chocolate pudding pops contains natural ingredients and a raw healthy fat that you may not expect to find in a dessert!

Bananas are one of the natural ingredients in this recipe, and they add a good dose of potassium to these pops. Avocados are the surprising star of this dairy-free delight. They are packed with raw healthy fat that gives these pops their dairy-like creaminess. Avocados are also loaded with fiber, and they contain 60 percent more potassium per ounce than bananas!

Unlike commercial varieties, these pudding pops are sweetened with natural raw honey - a sweetener that actually contributes to your health. Raw honey is full of vitamins and minerals; it contains high levels of antioxidants and it actually reduces the inflammation associated with many conditions (e.g., allergies, infections). Make sure you purchase honey that is truly raw because heating (i.e., pasteurizing) honey destroys its natural health benefits! You will most likely find raw honey at your local farmers market, natural food store or health section of your regular grocery store. It is generally thicker and less clear than regular pasteurized honey. In fact, it often must be scooped out of its container rather than squeezed or poured

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Meditation technique repairs the brain processes that aspartame destroys

Research has shown that with as few as 11 hours of mindful meditation, the white matter of the brain that aspartame destroys, can begin to grow back. Research into the brain damage that aspartame causes, has revealed lesions to the nerve fibers known as white matter. This is due to the by-products created when aspartame is ingested, namely methanol and formaldehyde. The effects of ingesting these chemicals are so serious that they cause symptoms often mistaken for multiple sclerosis. Other artificial sweeteners such as neotame, which have the same by-products, have the same effects.

An example is the destruction of the white matter in the anterior cingulate region which causes a lack of nerve activity in this area. This is associated with mental problems such as ADHD, ADD, dementia, depression and schizophrenia. Test subjects reported reduced feelings of anger, depression, anxiety and fatigue and had reduced levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. The changes include the improvement of mood, which in turn is consistent with self regulation being a core feature of many mental health problems.

The meditation and body movement training used in the tests is known as integrative body-mind training (IBMT). It is a form of meditation and mindfulness training adapted from Chinese medicine. By activating the areas of the brain that lack sufficient white matter, the brain grows new nerve fibers as a response. It gives a new perspective on how brain function can be improved with the use of inexpensive therapy instead of using expensive drugs.

The value of meditation is being recognized by mainstream mental health research

With meditation therapy gaining greater recognition among doctors in the field of mental health, more studies are being commissioned. These studies and research projects are currently exposing some interesting and exiting effects, some of which are the cures for traditionally incurable conditions. Children with autism spectrum disorders, ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and ADD (attention deficit disorder) benefit from the nerve fiber generating effects of meditation, allowing them greater control, better mood and improved social response.

With so many people consuming greater quantities of aspartame and other brain destroying food additives and vaccines, it is no surprise that there is such a rise in depression, behavior disorders and violent behavior. The studies that have proven the link between aspartame and the destruction of brain nerve fibers, raise very serious questions as to the long-term health and social effects of drugging the population through the food supply. However, the studies that have proven the effects of meditation in re-growing these nerve fibers give hope to those who have been affected. By abstaining from aspartame-containing products, and using meditation, the damage can be reversed. This would allow affected people to become less aggressive, more thoughtful and be much more emotionally stable. This would result in reduced need for the dangerous and expensive drug treatments such as Ritalin and Prozac.

It is only a matter of time before the pharmaceutical industry release a "study" which "proves" that only drugs can be proven effective, and meditation is all mumbo jumbo. But this will be because they are defending the one thing they care most about, profit

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Sun exposure reduces pancreatic cancer risk

The health benefits of vitamin D are almost becoming too numerous to count, with yet another new study presented at the recent American Association for Cancer Research Pancreatic Cancer Conference in Lake Tahoe, Nev., shedding light on the hormone's specific anti-cancer benefits. According to the groundbreaking research, individuals exposed to natural sunlight, which is the most abundant source of natural vitamin D, are nearly 50 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than others who are not exposed.

Dr. Rachel Neale, Ph.D., and her colleagues from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia, conducted a case-control study in which 704 patients with pancreatic cancer, and 709 healthy individuals with no history of pancreatic cancer, were evaluated based on blood serum levels of 25-hydroxy vitamin D, the hormonal marker of vitamin D in the body. Each individual's birth location, skin cancer history, skin cancer type, tanning ability, and predisposition to sunburn was also taken into account.

The team then used NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer to assess each participant's level of ultraviolet (UV) radiation exposure to his or her birthplace, the data of which was used to place participants into various tertile groups for average UV radiation exposure. At the end of the day, researchers found that participants who lived in areas with the highest amount of sunlight exposure were 24 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than individuals who lived in low sunlight areas.

Additionally, individuals with the most sun-sensitive skin, who are typically lighter-skinned individuals, were found to be roughly 50 percent less likely to develop pancreatic cancer than individuals with the least amount of sun sensitivity. Overall, there was a direct correlation between high sunlight exposure and low rates of pancreatic cancer in the study, a result that suggests vitamin D plays a critical role in pancreatic cancer prevention.

"High levels of vitamin D are associated with a lower risk of pancreatic cancer based on both observational studies of individuals and geographic studies of populations," writes the Vitamin D Council on their website. "Based on studies of breast, colon, and rectal cancer, vitamin D levels above 40 ng/mL (100 nmol/L) reduce the risk of cancer. Thus, maintaining vitamin D blood levels above 40 ng/mL may reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer."

Why vitamin D is crucial for vibrant health

Vitamin D, which is actually a pro-hormone, actually plays an important role in regulating the entire human genome. 1,25-dihidroxyvitamin D, also known as calcitriol, is responsible for unlocking the more than 2,700 genetic binding sites specifically designed for it that are located throughout the human body. And every single one of the genes affected by calcitriol plays a role in the onset of most major human diseases.

What this means is that vitamin D deficiency can cause all sorts of illnesses, including everything from simple colds and influenza to chronic diseases like heart failure and cancer. And since vitamin D can really only be obtained in adequate amounts through natural sunlight or supplementation with high doses of vitamin D3, it is crucial that every individual pay close attention to his or her vitamin D levels.

The best way to obtain vitamin D is through natural sunlight exposure. A fair-skinned person can produce enough vitamin D from about 15 minutes of direct sunlight exposure during the peak summer months, while a darker-skinned person may need as much as an hour-and-a-half of sunlight exposure. Sunscreens are designed to block out the UV rays responsible for vitamin D production in the skin, so it is important not to wear sunscreen when trying to obtain vitamin D from the sun .

Another option is to supplement with vitamin D3. The government's recommended daily amount (RDA) for vitamin D is still too low, as most people need to take anywhere from 1,000 - 10,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D3 every day to maintain adequate blood levels. If you are unsure about your vitamin D levels, you may wish to have a blood test taken to determine what is an appropriate amount of vitamin D with which to supplement

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