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Synergy and The Dance of Energy

Leslie Kenton

Many years ago the brilliant Nobel Iaureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who isolated vitamin C, was prone to asking a peculiar question at dinner parties:” what is the difference between a living rat and a dead one?” According to the laws of classical chemistry and Newtonian physics there should be no fundamental difference. Szent-Gyorgyi’s reply to his own question was simple yet revolutionary: “Some kind of electricity.” Living systems are first and foremost energy systems. And the ‘electricity’ of which Szent-Gyorgyi spoke is the mysterious life energy, which distinguishes us from inanimate things in the universe.

When it comes to an understanding of just how this life energy can enhance energy, improve health, bring greater clarity and focus to human beings, there is nobody who understands it so deeply as the American healer and teacher Dr. Mitchell May. There is also no nutritional formulation which so perfectly embodies an energetic approach to health and nutrition as the one he created, Pure Synergy’. To get a real handle on just how important an energetic approach to health is, you first have to dive into the whole world of energetic mysteries. And when it comes to 21st century healing, life energy is where it’s at. Let’s take a look at the magic of life energy in relation to human health, and then we will come back to May’s fascinating research and the Pure Synergy’ formulation.

The Order of Energy

Your body is not just a collection of physical and chemical events. Like all living systems it is a unified collection of energy fields. Take action to alter the quality of these fields and you can change the way your body functions- for ill or for good. You can change how you feel or even how you think. In a living organism it is energy, not chemistry or physical form, which is primary. Shift it and the organism will in turn alter itself chemically and physically. This is how acupuncture works and why practicing certain martial arts can affect health and personal power so profoundly. This is also what lies at the core of energy medicine.

A great deal of the most advanced diagnostic equipment used today in orthodox medicine – from ECGs (electrocardiograms) for looking at heart function and EEGs (electroencephalograms) for examining brain function to MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and EMGs (electromyelograms) – already make use of the principles of energy medicine. Rather like Dr. McCoy’s approach to healing on Star Trek, the new energy medicine goes way beyond mere diagnostic techniques such as these. It promises to become the medicine of the 21st century.

Sometimes an energy approach to health and healing employs mind-shifting techniques such as meditation, and body movement like Tai Chi, to improve the way the body feels and functions. At other times it makes use of external energy carriers such as homeopathic remedies or space-age equipment which subject the body to external fields of some sort (magnetic, sonic, acoustic, electrical, light waves). Whatever its source, the aim of all forms of energy treatments, from the use of something as simple as the Bach Flower Remedies to the actions of advanced light beam generators, is to enhance life energy by restoring energetic order. Energetic order is the key to high-level well-being. It lifts vitality and intensifies mental clarity, enhances spiritual awareness, and triggers self-healing while at the same time improving the specific function of the body’s various organs and systems. Reestablishing energetic order improve the function of all our organs and glands including the liver, adrenals, pituitary, and hypothalamus (all of which are responsible for the vital health of the body and control our hormones) and improves the assimilation of nutrients and micro-nutrients from the foods we eat. To understand a little of how this energy dimension works, we need to move into the realm of high level physics – the interface between consciousness and material reality.

Negative Entropy

Two of the most important laws of physics are the laws of thermodynamics. Simply put, they are attempts to understand events in the universe by studying the kind of energy changes which accompany them. The First Law of Thermodynamics states that the quantity of energy in the world remains constant. Energy is neither created nor destroyed; it is simply transmuted from one form to another. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is central to an understanding of why energetic order lies at the core of physical and spiritual well-being, and how energy medicine can be used to enhance health. It is best formulated in terms of entropy, a measure of disorder. This Second Law is known as The Law of Entropy. It describes the way that, left to their own devices, all things in the world become disordered: iron rusts, buildings crumble, and dead flowers decay. In short, everything tends towards maximum entropy, a state of maximum disorder in which all useful energy has been decreased. What is remarkable about living organisms, including our own bodies, and something that continues to puzzles the world’s finest scientific minds, is that, despite the law of entropy, as long as we are alive, our bodies maintain themselves in a state which is fantastically improbable. In the words of Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who spent most of his life trying to penetrate this mystery:

Life is a paradox . . . the most basic rule of inanimate nature is that it tends toward equilibrium which is at the maximum of entropy and the minimum of free energy. The main characteristic of life is that it tends to decrease its entropy. It also tends to increase its free energy. Maximum entropy means complete randomness, disorder. Life is made possible by order, structure, a pattern, which is the opposite of entropy. This pattern is our chief possession; it was developed over billions of years. The main aim of our existence is its conservation and transmission. Life is a revolt against the statistical rules of physics. Death means that the revolt subsided and statistical laws resumed their sway.

Of the Highest Order

In a way which no one has ever been able to explain, unlike things in the inorganic world, living organisms are superbly equipped to maintain energetic order. This in turn supports physical and biochemical well-being. It is something which makes virtually no sense within the paradigms of chemistry and Newtonian physics. By rights, there should be little difference in the chemical and physical processes taking place within a living body and those that occur in a corpse; in reality there is every difference in the world. Living systems create a high degree of negative entropy for themselves – despite the fact that events in the universe appear to be running wild to destroy it. Despite the innumerable destructive processes continually going on in and around us, we have the power to resist entropy and to maintain energetic order. Indeed, there is every indication that, so long as we live, we are continually involved in the process of creating even more order. We do this both individually in the repair functions of our cells and enzymatic systems, and also evolutionarily since living organisms continue to differentiate into ever more complex and highly structured organisms as time passes. The better the quality of order in our bodies, the healthier and more vital we remain, regardless of age.

Negative Entropy Means High Level Health

From an energetic point of view, aging is the process that transports our body from an internal state which is highly ordered to one of maximum entropy, i.e., death. There are two ways in which this can happen. Either the energetic order or the biochemical harmony which depends on it is steadily eroded so that the body and mind slowly but surely degenerate (as they do in most people these days). Alternatively, we can take informed action to support energetic order and maintain negative entropy to the highest degree.

By taking the second route, we are able to die young late I life. Such a goal can never be accomplished entirely by manipulating chemistry alone. One of the first scientists to recognize this was another Nobel Iaureate, the physicist Erwin Schrodinger. He took a close look at the scientific contradictions implicit in the living state and concluded that as long as the human body is alive, it resists entropy and avoids decay via the metabolism – by eating, drinking and assimilating various kinds of information from the environment. In 1944, schrodinger wrote:

Every process, event, happening – call it what you will; in a word, everything that is going on in Nature means an increase of the entropy of the part of the world where it is going on. Thus a living organism continually increases its entropy – or as you may say, produces positive entropy – and thus tends to approach the dangerous state of maximum entropy, which is death. It can only keep aloof from it, i.e., alive, by continually drawing from its environment negative entropy . . . What an organism feeds upon is negative entropy. . . which is in itself a measure of order. Thus the device by which an organism maintains itself stationary at a fairly high level of orderliness really consists in continually sucking orderliness from its environment.

From an energetic point of view, our body is an open, living system. As such, it is constantly processing energetic and chemical information which comes not only through the kinds and combinations of foods we eat, the way we prepare and process them, but also from the air we breathe, the ideas on which we allow our minds to play, and the electromagnetic environment in which we live. As Schrodinger believed, and as long traditions of natural medicine in Europe and the Orient have taught, to ensure a high degree of vitality and to protect ourselves from degeneration, we need to “suck order” from our environment. To maintain the kind of energetic order that best fosters health and spiritual development, we need a constant supply of the living “information” from the outside world.

Biophotons and Quantum Magic

Long ago, quantum physicists established that wave particles such as electrons, atoms and molecules, behave in living systems as biophoton energies. These energies appear to help regulate and control enzyme activities, cell reproduction, and other activities in living systems. Experiments such as those reported in an article by Brumer and Shapiro (in Scientific American, March 1995) has established the existence of these particle/ wave reactions in organisms. Like light bulbs, atoms give out radiant bio-energies which can either act constructively or destructively on the molecules in the body. Scientists are beginning to define how interference wave forms generated both by toxins manufactured internally and by environmental pollutants act destructively on the body interfering with the harmonious biophoton energies- an-other name for life energies – on which health, vitality, and protection from premature aging depend. Within the next decade, we are going to hear a lot more about these biophoton energies and their effects on our health. For now, we can still make practical use of the knowledge we already have to influence them for healing and regeneration.

Energy Consciousness

From the point of view of quantum physics, as human beings we are not only immersed in energy fields, our bodies, our minds, our selves, we are energy fields. These fields are constantly expanding, contracting and changing as our thoughts, diet, and lifestyle change. The aim of any form of natural treatment, be it dietary changes, detoxification, hydrotherapy, exercise or meditation, is first to enhance positive bio-energies in an organism and second, to help balance them and create order. Many researchers now work with bio-energies and the kind of transformations they can bring about.

Sheer Radiance

At the Parapsychology Research Laboratories at University of California Los Angeles, Dr. Thelma Moss experimented with Kirlian photography to examine, record and analyze the unique energetic patterns living things emanate. Kirlian photographs are extraordinarily beautiful and are just one of the ways non-visible force fields around and through living and non-living things can be recorded visually and studied. Researchers have found they get consistent results when working with the Kirlian method to photograph plants and foods in order to compare cooked foods with their raw counterparts, for instance, or the leaf of a healthy plant with the leaf of a damaged one. The luminescent energy corona recorded on film of a living thing such as a healthy plant, or one of the superfoods, such as organically grown herbs, wild-crafted algae, organic green juices, plant enzymes, is significantly stronger, more radiant, and more expansive than that of a processed food. The corona produced by well-harvested spirulina or an organic raw carrot or cauliflower is dramatically reduced when these foods are cooked or processed. Uncooked vegetables and fruits radiate brilliant spikes of light, harmoniously surrounded by geometric shapes whereas cooked and processed foods show only the dimmest evidence of corona discharge. Foods, plants, and herbs with a wide corona carry a lot of the life energy useful for rejuvenation.

Etheric Forces

Chromatography is another tool useful for studying energy. It is widely used in chemistry, biology, medicine and industry to analyze complex substances such as the amino acids in a protein or to detect impurities in a compound. The use of chromatography to measure energy differences between living things, and between natural and synthetic substances, was originally developed by European chemist Ehrenfreid Pfeiffer.

Early on in his career, Pfeiffer was asked by the German mystic Rudolph Steiner to find a chemical reagent that could be useful in charting the quality of life energy in living forces – what Steiner called the formative etheric forces in living matter. After experimenting with many different substances, Pfeiffer discovered that when he added extracts of living plants to a solution of copper chloride and let it evaporate slowly, it would produce a beautiful pattern of crystallization typical of the species of the plant used. Radiant form and shape consistently correlate with the life strength of the plant. Pfeiffer established that strong crystallization patterns indicated health and vitality, whereas weak ones indicated poor health.

Nowadays, scientists working with techniques like chromatography, Kirlian photography, photomicrography and polarized light field photography confirm that certain foods, herbs and plant products carry high levels of harmonious bio-energy. These tools can be used to enhance our perceptions of the beauty of a living organism’s energy patterns. So can techniques of breathing, meditation and deep relaxation as well as the laying on of hands or spiritual healing, hydrotherapy, body work and autogenics. All of these things can be helpful to the rejuvenation process.

Healing the Impossible

Some of the most interesting research in the area of life force are the energy treatments for healing and regeneration of the American healer Dr. Mitchell May. At the age of 22, May was in a car accident that rendered him profoundly damaged. He lost several inches of bone from his legs, and the tissue and nerve damage was extensive. He lay in extreme and unrelievable pain. His physicians told him he would never walk again and they insisted that it was necessary to have his right leg amputated (which he refused to do). They also informed him that his immune system would be permanently compromised and that his health would be severely restricted for the rest of his life. May was fortunate enough to have been hospitalized at one of the most important medical research centers in the world, the University of California Medical Center at Los Angeles. There he became part of a special study involving ongoing experiments into life force healing and extra-sensory perceptions using skilled spiritual healers working under strict scientific controls. He met and worked with a very gifted healer named Jack Gray. Gray had the ability to activate powerful and natural healing life force energies within a person. After only a week of Gray’s treatment, May discovered he was able to turn off and on his experience of excruciating pain using what Gray taught him.

Energy Healing

May became fascinated with the whole area of life force healing and became an apprentice to Gray. He developed an interest in states of consciousness, subtle energies, and in discovering ways to enhance life force through the use of spiritual healing, and plant foods and biological compounds which have a particularly high quality of energetic radiation. May’s own story is one of the most well-documented studies of impossible recovery in medical annals. Not only did his body heal, he was able to learn to walk again and now, almost 25 years later, he has full use of his body. In the process he has become one of the most respected and acclaimed healers in the world

During the period of his recovery, May worked intimately with Gray and with Dr. Thelma Moss in her Parapsychology Research Laboratory at UCLA, photographing energy patterns around foods and other nutritional substances. He also carried out wide searches in scientific literature and conferred with physicists, health professionals, doctors and practitioners of natural medicine, both those trained in Western science and in Oriental health traditions. He set out to discover, test, and record information about specific foods and plant compounds that could enhance human health – not only chemically by supplying an abundance of vitamins, minerals, phyto-antioxidants and immune enhancers, but also by providing an abundance of life force. May wanted to find ways to help people achieve their fullest energy, vitality, wholeness, and maximum health and well-being.

Entranced by Beauty

Before long, May became totally fascinated by the beauty of energy patterns certain foods and plants emitted. He also became convinced – as had many researchers before him and since – that the fundamental processes of healing and rejuvenation depend on intensifying the life force within an individual and then helping to bring about a harmonization and balance of its movements within the individual’s living system. He saw that there was great potential to help people by working with their energies. He also discovered (as have practitioners of natural medicine) that it is not just food and plants that can enhance the life force. He experimented with many forms of meditation and breathing, shifts in attitudes of mind, various healing modalities, and energy-shifting exercise which enable us to awaken the life force within.

Most of all, he loved working with plants. Slowly and painstakingly, he identified plants, algae, mushrooms, sprouted seeds and grains that carry an abundance of this life energy. He also found they could be used to intensify a person’s life energy and help to create coherent and harmonious patterns of energy within. As early researchers into the healing effects of living foods, such as Dr. Max Bircher-Benner and Dr. Max Gerson, had insisted, plants are holders and emitters of quantum sunlight – life force which we can use to our advantage. When we consume these plants either fresh and live or after proper harvesting and drying, the life force of these plants is actually transferred to us.

Perfect Balance

May’s highly practical experiments were carried out over 20 years ago. Having identified foods and plants with a particular abundance of life force, May furthered his research by looking for a synergistic balance that would heighten their powers for healing so that the energies of each balance and enhanced the energies of the others. Out of his work came what I believe to be the most remarkable and potent nutritional supplement that I have ever come across. It contains 62 of nature’s most potent and nourishing components including organically grown freeze-dried herbs, organically grown immune-supporting mushrooms, plant enzymes, freeze-dried royal jelly, wild-crafted algae, organic green juices and many other natural ingredients. It is called Pure Synergy’ because its ingredients are combined in such a way that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Because Pure Synergy’ is so well-balance, it can be safely taken each day. In order to ensure that Pure Synergy’ is at its most lively energetic state, May flash-cold dries ingredients so that they are not robbed of nutrients during heat processes, and then packages them in hermetically-sealed glass bottles so that oxidation and degradation are prevented. To my mind, it is the finest superfood made (see resources).

Energetic Rejuvenation

Dr. May, and others like him, such as Dr. David Peat and Dr. Robert O Becker (nominated twice for the Nobel Prize), have delved deeply into the field of subtle energies. Their work is helping to build bridges between orthodox, chemically based, allopathic medicine (which, until recently, paid little attention to the energetic aspects of healing) and the ancient traditions of medicine which have always viewed healing as an energy art. Breathing, movement, thoughts and dreams, as well as the foods that we eat, all contribute to active energy “information” or life “intelligence” which is capable of bringing about a continuous circulation of harmonious energy to transform and heal the body. Energy medicine will undoubtedly become the medicine of the 21st century. Products such as Pure Synergy’ may prove to be essential tools for all of us who want to live richer, more vital and aware lives.

Resource

For more information about Mitchell May’s products, such as Pure Synergy TM and Bliss de Light TM superfood formula, Vita Synergy TM supplement and other life enhancing products, pls contact Lapis Lazuli Light (Singapore) at 62876268 (11.30 – 7.30p.m., Tue – Sat) or The Synergy Company TM  at www.synergy-co.com.

How to Choose Your Physician on Your Quest for Total Health

Standards Of A Good Physician (And How To Choose One)

Glenn D. Wollman, MD, FACEP
Things change and things stay the same. From the beginning our species has enjoyed times of good health; plagued by illnesses and suffered physical injuries. Throughout time someone in the clan or tribe was there to administer healing with herbs, plants and poultices, and there is even evidence of surgical procedures being performed from pre-historic times.

Today the villages are bigger; the herbs and plants are in little capsules, some diseases have been eradicated and some new ones have emerged. We have many types of healers and physicians. We also have medical specialists that only treat specific organs, systems and diseases. As the world is becoming more integrated, so are the healing arts and sciences. In conjunction with Western, allopathic medicine, the partial list of healing modalities includes: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurvedic, Shamanic, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Energy Medicine, Touch and Movement therapies and Mind and Emotional therapies.

The good old-fashioned family doctor is approaching the status of the vinyl record. The needs and criteria for choosing a physician are different from the past. But again, some things remain unchanged. The morals, ethics, integrity, intelligence, honesty and compassion will always remain on the list of required qualities.

Now, in our “instant society” it is often more about access, fast and accurate service: “How quickly can I be seen and treated?” It may actually be unnecessary to ask these questions because in the modern era, people can go to urgent care centers, walk-in clinics and of course, Emergency Departments, all with a minimal amount of waiting and no need for appointments. Others are getting involved in “boutique medicine” where doctors are accepting a specific, limited number of patients willing to pay an upfront annual fee. This gives the patient access to their doctor (initially by phone) twenty-four hours a day.

The first decision to make in health and healing is to be your own healer   and avoid unnecessary doctor visits. This means taking an active interest in your own body’s wellbeing. Learn the basics about anatomy and body functions. Discover the benefits of proper nutrition, proper exercise, including stress and sleep management. Although these four topics seem obvious and have been discussed in many articles, new scientific information is constantly updating what we know and how we can benefit or be harmed by old beliefs.  For example, certain foods high in omega 6 fatty acids can cause inflammatory responses and may lead to serious chronic illnesses such as degenerative arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and possibly heart attacks. This is contrary to what we were lead to believe before, that all omega fatty acids are good for our health. We need to keep up with the current information in health and healing.

There is now more evidence that exercise, stress reduction and improved sleep play extremely important roles in our health and our illnesses.   I will cover these specific areas more fully in future articles.

Learn about first-aid and simple methods to prevent illness and injury and to promote healing. Along with this it is important to know the right time to make a decision to be seen by a physician. This decision is based on a combination of common sense, experience and the knowledge you have attained in anatomy, illness, injuries and first-aid.

Here are some suggestions for what to look for in a doctor for general purposes such as for yearly check-ups, occasional illnesses and or for a specific specialty:

1. Speak with friends that are happy with their doctor and find out why.

2. Make sure the doctor practices relatively close to where you live and holds admitting privileges at a hospital near you. In case you have to be hospitalized, you can be near home and family and also have the doctor that knows you best, taking care of you. This is also important when specialists they know and trust are required for your care.

3. You can research the doctor through the local medical or national associations, like the American Medical Association, and also through the state and national licensing boards. Do your research.

4. If you have an interest in alternative healing therapies in combination with western medicine, find out your potential doctor’s opinion and willingness to work with other healers

5. Make sure that your doctor is willing to talk and explain things in a way that you understand. This will help you in making clear decisions

6. In choosing a specialist, especially for difficult diagnostic purposes and or for surgery, the skills of the doctor should take some precedence over the personality. If you have a chronic or recurrent medical issue, then it may be equally important to balance the skills and personality as part of the equation.

7. In this day and age, finances are an important part of the decision; make sure that your insurance covers your personal physician.  Most insurance companies are helpful in providing lists of local practitioners and providers under their specific plans. If you choose not to carry health insurance, create a health care savings account. Have some kind of financial plan for your health care. If you live in a country where your health   is covered through the government and you are happy there, remain in that country.

8. Something very rarely discussed in choosing a doctor is his/her comfort zone regarding “second opinions”. Most doctors feel a second opinion is appropriate in complex cases, and may even suggest and encourage other medical opinions. On the other hand, if you as a patient ask for a second opinion on every decision, (“Is it really broken?”, “Do I really need this antibiotic?”) then you may either want a different doctor or you need to examine your own issues.

9. If you are still having a problem choosing the right physician, call a Medical Guide for help. A Medical Guide is a Physician who is dedicated to working with you to make sure that you are getting the best medical care that is in harmony with your values and concerns. Especially in cases where there are conflicting medical opinions and recommendations, a Medical Guide can steer you to the appropriate care for you.

10. I would like to say a few words about choosing a non-allopathic healer. They should have a working knowledge of anatomy, physiology and clinical pathology in order to refer appropriately to an allopathic (western) physician in case of need. The morals, ethics, integrity, intelligence, honesty and compassion apply to this type of healer as well as the first nine points above.

Prescription for “total health”

A healthy body and sound mind are common goals for everyone. First let me focus on the physical body. At the most basic level we are all made of cells, and these cells usually operate to keep the body in a state of “ease”. Through a balanced program of nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep management, and spirituality we will tend to stay in the state of “ease”. When our patterns of behavior lead us in the direction of bad diet, lack of exercise, poor sleep etc, our lives and cells go into a state of imbalance or “dis-ease”.

In Western Medicine our main focus is in the physical plane and on the physical body, things that we can see, touch, measure and analyze. Diagnoses and treatments are based on a history, physical examination, laboratory tests and various forms of imaging (x-rays, special scans, ultrasound). Most of the other healing methods look at the “being” in relation to nature and the universe. The diagnoses and healings are focused on the energies flowing through “subtle’ bodies, meridians and Chakras.

If you don’t already have an awareness, understanding or belief in these concepts of energies, then may I suggest that you consider this a metaphor. For example, let us look at emotions. We have all had experiences with joy, happiness, sadness, anger and fear .We all can accept that they exist even though they can’t be measured specifically. Emotions cause the nervous and endocrine systems to produce neurotransmitters and hormones that cause certain physiologic changes throughout the body. These changes may be desirable and life saving at the time but if they become chronic or inappropriate they cause harm and disease. New research is revealing connections between the neuro-endocrine system and the body’s immune system .This will certainly change our priorities when it comes to stress and sleep.

It is easy to make a diagnosis of a gastric (stomach) cancer once it has presented itself in the physical form in the stomach. It can then be treated by surgery or sometimes it can be healed through various medications. The cancer does not just appear one day. It must start somewhere. Consider the possibility that long before it manifests in the physical body; it begins with a disruption energetically in the body. Through repeated stresses and imbalances, cellular changes occur. A gene that normally prevents the growth of a cancer cell (tumor suppressor gene) may mutate, thereby allowing a cancer cell to grow unabated. This dis-ease eventually shows up in the physical body. Tune in to your emotions and other subtle energies and observe and correct the imbalances before they move out to the physical body.

This brings up the prescription for “total health”. Actively choose to live a daily life style that includes balance between the physical body, the mind and emotional and spiritual energies. We need to follow healthy nutrition, exercise regularly, manage stress, get adequate sleep, and understand the power of good and bad patterns of behavior. Achieving this balanced lifestyle includes incorporating relaxation, meditation and balancing the subtle energies that are flowing in and around us.

 

Glenn D. Wollman, MD practices as a Medical Guide assisting people in making medical decisions through an integrative, holistic approach. He also provides private consultation in life balance. Throughout his renown career, Dr. Wollman has effectively used a combined scientific and holistic method of treatment. He founded and was the Medical Director of a hospital-based Integrative Medicine Program at Saint Francis Medical Center in Santa Barbara, California. This Program was based on Harvard’s Integrative Medicine Programs combining the best of western and eastern medical practices. He is a professor at the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine where he teaches Cellular Pathophysiology and courses on bridging Eastern and Western Medicine. He is also the composer and a musical artist on the international selling healing musical CD, Sleep Suite. He can be contacted through www.LivingSuite.net

The Magic of Selenium

Walt Woods and Mardi Gieseler

We are taking a slight detour from reporting on subtle energy as related to healing in order to present some very interesting research on nutrition.
At the Canadian Society of Questor’s Conference in 100-Mile House the keynote speaker was Dr. Harold Foster, University of Victoria Professor of Geography. He gave one of the most astounding lectures we have heard in a long time. He is a medical geographer who looks geographically where diseases occur, or do not occur, and studies the reasons why.

AIDS: A Nutritional Disease

In his research, Dr. Foster noted that AIDS is epidemic in most sub-Saharan African countries except one, Senegal.  Why would Senegal have such a low AIDS rate (1-2%) when in all of the surrounding countries it is so high, sometimes in excess of 25% of the population?  After many years of research, Dr. Foster has evidence that a deficiency of the trace-mineral selenium and three amino acids can cause all of the symptoms of AIDS, with or without the HIV virus.  In sub-Saharan Africa, only Senegal has abundant selenium in the soil and water and adequate nutrition (amino acids).

These nutrients are not a cure for HIV infection. However, research studies found that high doses of selenium and the three amino acids (cysteine, glutamine, and tryptophan) given to AIDS patients, some bed ridden, eliminated most of the AIDS symptoms.  Sometimes in as little as two or three weeks patients were symptom free and some  returned to work in as little as one month.

Dr. Foster now has ongoing studies in Uganda and Zambia to study the effects of selenium and these three amino acids on large numbers of AIDS patients. Recently Dr. Foster wrote about a double-blind clinical study; “The news from the Ugandan 300 patient trial is very good. Many are recovering rapidly.”

Why Does HIV Infection Become AIDS?

Selenium and the three amino acids are necessary for the body to produce  glutathione peroxidase which is essential for the human immune system to be healthy, and is also important for many other vital body functions.  Research  indicates that the HIV virus needs selenium and the three amino acids in order to make viral proteins.  The HIV virus is very good at robbing these vital nutrients from the human body it has infected, leaving the body malnourished.  Thus, infection with HIV leaves the human body with a depressed immune system. Unless there is a replacement of nutrients, it leaves the body unable to fight off infection with the opportunistic diseases which characterize AIDS.

Cancer and Other Diseases

HIV I and II are not the only viruses that rob these nutrients from the human body. The viruses of Hepatitis A, B, and C, Coxsackie B (thought to be responsible for ¼ of heart attacks ),  and other viruses  (which encode for a glutathione peroxidase) leave the human body  depleted of the necessary nutrients to keep the immune system healthy and functional.  Selenium deficiency is also implicated in many cancers, thyroid malfunction, senility, and depression.  Some researchers have estimated that as many as 1/3 of the patients in hospitals for depression are simply selenium deficient.

In the 1970’s and 80’s before many of us had even heard of HIV/AIDS, researchers were studying the relationship of selenium deficiency to cancer.  Dr. Foster noted that Senegal, the African country with such high levels of selenium and low rates of HIV/AIDS infection, is also one of the lowest places on earth for cancer.

In one cancer study by P.D. Whanger, patients were given 200 mcg/day of selenium for 4.5 years with a 6.4 year follow up.  Selenium supplementation not only reduced cancer mortality, but also decrease total mortality.  The significant reductions in cancer  mortality were: prostate cancer 64%, colorectal cancer 58%, and lung cancer 46%. (P.D. Whanger, Selenium and its Relationship to Cancer: an Update, British Journal of Nutrition, 200491, 11-28.)

The Disease Belt

In China, there is a large area from the northeast to the southwest that is called the “Disease Belt”. The Chinese government added selenium  to the soils, table salt, and animal feed-stocks  and subsequently found a significant reduction in Hepatitis B and C and Keshan’s disease (a heart disease caused by Coxsackie B virus).  In one study of 21,000 people given selenium in their table salt, the hepatitis infection rate dropped more than 50%.

Selenium Bio-availability

We get our necessary amount of selenium from the foods that we eat or from supplementation.  Food grown on selenium-deficient soil and animals fed selenium-deficient food-stocks are contributing to a decrease in selenium in the food chain.

Atmospheric pollution in the rainfall, such as mercury and sulfur, combine with selenium to form insoluble compounds which are unavailable to plants and animals.

In recent years acid rain has changed the pH of the soil decreasing the bio-availability of selenium. Soil acidification lowers the abundance of selenium in the global food chain which may be contributing to the rapid rise of cancers and HIV/AIDS.

Toxic Levels of Selenium

Many people think that selenium is highly toxic. While an overdose is possible, a healthy person needs about 200 mcg/day, however  an HIV infected individual may need 10 times that amount for a while to bring selenium to a healthy level.  The first indications of toxicity are garlic breath and yellow finger nails which occur in some people at about 900 mcg/day.

We have tried to make a very complicated subject readable for most everyone. We have only  touched the tip of the iceberg concerning the health effects of selenium and the three amino acids, as well as the environmental reasons of why selenium is being depleted in the food chain world wide.  If you are interested in more information there are many sources on the Internet.

More Information

Dr. Foster has a web site where three of his books are available to buy or FREE to download.  Look at www.hdfoster.com for “What Really Causes AIDS”, “What Really Causes Alzheimer’s”, and “What Really Causes Schizophrenia”. He is now working on a book which will probably be out in April 2006, “What Really Causes Multiple Sclerosis”.

For the dowsers, remember to use your Hormesis Curve found in the back of “Letter To Robin, A Mini-Course in Pendulum Dowsing” available from ORI.

 

Reprint with permission from Journal of The Ozark Research Institute, Volume 11, No. 1