The Health Plus Letter
August 12, 2003, Vol. 1, No. 6
By Larry Trivieri, Jr. – founder & publisher, http://www.1healthyworld.com

If you prefer to read this issue online, visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/Vol1No6.cfm.

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Table Of Contents:
What’s New
Quote of the Day
Fast Facts
Medical Freedom Alert
Health News and Commentary
Classical Homeopathy – An Interview with Dr. Kathleen Fry, M.D. (Part 2)
Recipe of the Week
Reader Feedback
Recommendations


What’s New

Nothing new to report this week, but I would like to thank all of you who took the time to spread the word about The Health Plus Letter and 1HealthyWorld.com. I’m also very grateful to those of you who purchased our eBooks and other products from the web site. Your support and patronage is greatly appreciated.

If you’d like to email me, you can reach me at larry@1healthyworld.com. And, as always, if you like The Health Plus Letter, please forward it to your friends.


Quote Of The Day

“All truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
- Schopenhauer


Fast Facts

The United States annually spends more on health care (over $1 trillion/year) than the combined Gross National Product (GNP) of 124 other nations. Yet the U.S. still has the highest rates per capita of heart disease, diabetes, and prostate, breast and colorectal cancers of any country in the world.

Americans 65 years or older ingest an average of 15 or more medications per day (prescription and over-the-counter combined). Typically, only 1 or 2 of these drugs are actually prescribed for their original health problem; the others are used to minimize negative side effects caused by the initial drugs and the interactions of all the other drugs they are using.

Source: Lessons From the Miracle Doctors by Jon Barron


Unabashed Plug

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Medical Freedom Alert

Our unencumbered right to access to nutritional supplements is once again under attack, and could very well become law if we don’t get involved. I’m talking about a bill that has been introduced in the U.S.Senate called the “Dietary Safety Supplement” Act (S. 722). It’s title is wholly misleading, since the primary thrust of this bill is not consumer safety at all, but another attempt to severely undermine our freedom of choice when it comes to nutritional supplements. S. 722, while purporting to protect American consumers, in actuality, should it be passed, would:

Increase health care costs and decrease consumer choices.
Allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restrict access to supplements currently used by growing numbers of Americans for better health.
Potentially restrict access to any dietary supplement that receives even one complaint, whether factual or not.
Provide no more protection for consumers than the current law- the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA)- already provides.

I urge all of my readers in the U.S. to become informed about S. 722 and to take action to help defeat its passage before it is too late. To do so, please visit the following web sites:

http://capwiz.com/nnfa/S722.html and http://website.citizens.org/showpage.cfm?pageid=10962.

As mentioned above, all of the consumer protections S. 722 claims to provide are already in place because DSHEA, which was passed in 1994. Moreover, the FDA, in my opinion, cannot be trusted to protect the American consumer, given the fact that its ongoing approval of pharmaceutical drugs results in a minimum of 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each and every year when those drugs are properly prescribed. (How long would a company in the private sector be allowed to remain in business with a similarly abysmal safety record?)

On a different but related note, according to my friend Alan Gaby, M.D., one of our nation’s foremost experts on the scientific basis for the use of nutritional supplements to treat disease, for the past number of years, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) has “apparently hired an expensive New York public-relations firm for the specific purpose of making nutritional supplements look bad.” If true, it would not surprise me at all, knowing as I do how determined Big Pharma is assume total control of the nutritional supplements industry. You can read Dr. Gaby’s essay on this issue by visiting http://www.townsendletter.com/Dec2002/gabyeditorial1202.htm.


Health News and Commentary

Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments Found to Benefit Diabetic Foot Sores

A recent study reports that French researchers have found that the use of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) chambers can double the healing rate of chronic foot ulcers in diabetic patients and potentially shorten their hospitalization time. Normally, when persons with diabetes develop such foot sores, they are extremely difficult to heal. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are most commonly used to treat deep-sea divers suffering from “the bends,” severe burns, and for some cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.

The study involved 28 diabetic patients, all of whom had foot ulcers that were at least 2 millimeters deep. The patients were divided into two groups, with 15 of them receiving 90-minutes sessions inside the HBO2 chambers five days a week for two weeks. At the end of that time, the HBO2 groups showed an average reduction in ulcer size of 42%, compared to an average of 22% among the control group. Moreover, two members of the HBO2 group achieved complete healing within a month, compared to none within the control group.

Source: Diabetes Care (Aug, 2003).

[Comment: HBO2 treatments provide benefit for a number of other conditions as well, including stroke and cerebral palsy. These benefits are typically overlooked by conventional medicine, however. Two of the most innovative physicians in the field of alternative uses for HBO2 are David Steenblock, D.O., and Richard Neubauer, M.D. For more information about HBO2, visit http://www.oceanhbo.com, home of the American College of Hyperbaric Medicine.]

25% of All Prescription Drug Users Suffer Side-Effects

“Side effects from prescription medicines plague one in four patients, and when they surface, most doctors fail to act,” stated Reuters Health when it reported this story last April, commenting on a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (I only discovered it this week). According to the article, “Some 3.34 billion prescriptions were dispensed in the United States in 2002, according to IMS Health, a provider of pharmaceutical and health care data… The drugs that posed the greatest risk of side effects were the serotonin-reuptake inhibitor class of antidepressants, the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs often given for joint pain, and calcium-channel blockers used to treat high blood pressure.”

To read the full article, see: http://website.citizens.org/showdoc.cfm?id=63404.

[Comment: See the Medical Freedom Alert above.]

Immune Cells Tied to Fatigue in Breast Cancer Patients

Researchers have found that elevated T cell levels play a role in the long-term fatigue that affects nearly a third of breast cancer survivors who receive conventional treatment (chemotherapy, radiation and/or surgery). Previously, research has found that blood levels of chemicals related to inflammation are also elevated breast cancer patients, as well. The new research found that “the more T cell numbers rose, the greater the increase in levels of an inflammatory marker linked to fatigue.”

For more on this study, see: http://snurl.com/20w1.

[Comment: The lead author of this study adds that her findings could lead to “treatments, such as drugs that block inflammation chemicals, for this type of fatigue.” If so, you can bet these drugs will not be without side-effects. More importantly, the long-term, debilitating fatigue experienced by many patients with cancer in general (not just breast cancer) can usually be minimized or avoided altogether with the proper use of nutritional supplementation, herbs, homeopathy, acupuncture, and other alternative medicine practices when used in conjunction with conventional cancer treatments, making the need for such new drugs potentially unnecessary. Such measures are a hallmark of integrative cancer treatment facilities, such as Cancer Centers of America, for example.]

Anthrax Vaccine Cited As Possible Cause of Mysterious Pneumonia-like Illness Affecting U.S. Soldiers in Iraq

Last week, Dr. John L. Sever, medical professor at George Washington U. Medical School, co-author of a 2002 government-sponsored study that found that the anthrax vaccine was the "possible or probable" cause of pneumonia is two U.S. soldiers, suggested that the U.S. Army should investigate whether the vaccine was also a factor in the outbreak of the pneumonia-like illness that has afflicted at least 100 U.S. soldiers currently stationed in and around Iraq. "As physicians, I would think they would be looking at all possible causes. I would think vaccines would be part of that," Dr. Sever told United Press International (UPI), which reported the story. Following his comments, however, call to the Army Surgeon General’s office asking if the Pentagon was investigation the possibility of a vaccine link went unanswered.

Source: “Vaccine link raised in U.S troops' deaths.” Mark Benjamin, UPI Investigations Editor, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5 (UPI).

[Comment: Shortly before he passed away, I had a conversation with Dr. Theron Randolph, the modern-day founder of environmental medicine, in which he warned that the “cocktail” of vaccinations given to our troops prior during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 would soon result in, quote, “devastating consequences for many of our soldiers.” A few years later, the public began to learn of Gulf War Syndrome, which has indeed devastated the lives of many of the troops who were involved in that conflict. One little-known fact about Gulf War Syndrome is that it does not seem to have affected French soldiers who were part of the U.S.-led international coalition of forces. As it happens, France’s Ministry of Health had rejected the vaccine cocktail for its troops for the very reason that Dr. Randolph explained to me – taken together, the various vaccines were contraindicated with each other and, moreover, not proven to be safe.

I take Dr. Sever’s concerns very seriously. For more on the health risks posed by vaccines, see Recommendations below.]


Unabashed Plug

Ensure the health of your gastrointestinal tract with CaprobioticsTM, a natural therapeutic whole food probiotic blend of six strains of health enhancing bacteria cultured in fresh goat milk. These microorganisms remain viable in the stomach in route to the intestinal tract, to optimize digestion and the immune system. To find out more, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/healthProducts/Caprobiotics.cfm.


Classical Homeopathy: An Interview with Kathleen K. Fry, M.D. (Part 2)

[What follows is the first part two of an interview I did a few years ago with Dr. Kathleen Fry, past-president of the American Holistic Medical Association, a leading expert in women’s health issues, and a very skillful homeopathic physician. If you missed part one, you can read it at http://www.1healthyworld.com/ezine/vol1no5.cfm.]

LT: How do conventional medications interact with homeopathic formulas and what's the weaning process? Or is there one?

Fry: There is and that's the tricky part. The more medications you're on, the more actual symptoms have been suppressed, and the harder it is to determine the right remedy. When people come to me who are on a lot of medications, I'll give them a remedy in water and start with a relatively low potency. You give it to them every day or every other day to strengthen the vital force. Over time what will happen is that their symptoms will improve and they can wean themselves off of the medicines they're on. But it's a process, and of course it also depends on their age. Obviously somebody in her youth is going to be easier to treat than someone who's 90 and has been on medication for years.

LT: This brings up one of the laws of homeopathy, known as Hering's Law of Cure. Explain that.

Fry: Hering's Law of Cure states that cure happens from the inside out and from the top down, and that the symptoms you've developed most recently are the first to go away, and the symptoms you've had the longest are the last to go away. I think of it in terms of peeling an onion, in a sense. The other thing to remember in connection with this law is that the body in its wisdom tries to do the least amount of damage as it attempts to maintain balance when the vital force becomes depleted. So you'll develop a skin rash first, then problems in the bones and joints, and then you'll start seeing problems in the internal organs or in the mental sphere, such as depression or hyperactivity disorder. The body has a hierarchy of organs, with some organs being more important than others. So if you're just a little bit sick, you'll get the skin rash. But if you're big time sick, you may develop problems in the heart, lungs, or brain.

LT: Since a patient's symptom picture can be multilayered, during the course of treatment does the remedy change as well?

Fry: Yes, sometimes it can. The way you know is that you continue to give them the same remedy, starting with a low potency and then increasing it until their presenting symptoms are gone. Then you wait and see what happens. If the body needs another remedy it will ask for it by producing a different symptom.

LT: It seems to me that there needs to be a certain level of education on the part of your patients, so that they understand the way that healing occurs in homeopathy.

Fry: You're right. It's definitely an education of the patient. They have to have a willingness to understand that they're going to have to suffer with symptoms. If you have a patient who's been on Prozac because they're depressed, for instance, and you give them a remedy, after their depression lifts, they may develop a rash. To a homeopath, that means their healing process is still unfolding. So you've got to tell them they can't use steroid cream or anything like that on the rash, because if they do the depression will come back. And sometimes they won't believe you, so they'll ignore the recommendation and antidote the remedy, sometimes without even being aware that they're doing it.

LT: I imagine some patients would really struggle with this idea, especially those who are used to going to a doctor and saying, I've got this symptom, make it go away.

Fry: Oh, yeah. As a culture, we want a pill for everything. That's why we end up with people on 25 pills four times a day. Which is not health. By the same token, I don't think it's healthy that people are taking 25 different vitamins during the day, either. The homeopathic view of health is freedom. When you have as much energy as you want and sleep like a baby at night, and you're able to eat whatever you want and eliminate normally, and you're emotionally able to express yourself and spiritually you understand your place in your community and have a good relationship and rapport with God, then you're healthy. I've always been in good health, but since I've been on a homeopathic remedy I just feel so much better.

Let me give you another example. I saw a woman who 's been under homeopathic treatment with my teacher for two years. She's mentally retarded, married to another retarded man. Originally, she had an IQ of about 60 and was living on disability. My teacher started her on a small remedy of very low potency. I saw her recently as a follow-up. She came in and told me, "I've been on this remedy for two years and in that time I've learned how to read, I got off disability and got a job working in the school cafeteria, and I learned how to drive." I mean, her IQ is increasing. What that tells you is this works at the level of somebody's DNA. Even deeper than that. That's what's so fascinating about homeopathy and why it's a lifelong course of study.

LT: At the beginning of the 20th century, as many as 25 percent of all physicians in this country employed homeopathy in their practice, but then they dwindled down to very few in number due to attacks from the American Medical Association (AMA) and other organizations. What's the status of homeopathy in the U.S. today?

Fry: I'm not sure of the number of homeopaths who are currently practicing, but homeopathy is making a huge resurgence. There are more schools being started all the time. But where it's really making a big resurgence is among lay homeopaths who don't yet go to medical. The big problem is that there's no real system for licensing and determining who's competent and who isn't. Plus, there's a lot of other nonsense that's being done in the name of homeopathy that isn't homeopathy at all. Like combination remedies, for example. Hahnemann would roll over in his grave about that.

LT: By combination remedies, you mean some of the more popular formulas available over the counter without a consultation?

Fry: Yes. You can go to a drug or health food and get a remedy for headache, for instance. Well, we have over 400 remedies for headache. So the store formulas have a combination of maybe six different remedies, each with a real low potency, which is like a buckshot approach. The problem with that, I think, and my teacher reiterated this not too long ago, is that in some ways they can be more harmful than plain allopathic drugs. Allopathic drugs are crude, in a sense. But when you start messing with the vital force with low potency homeopathic remedies, it's possible to do some damage. Number one, they rattle the vital force, and when that happens, over time you can create more havoc than not. This goes back to the principle of how homeopathy works. We give one remedy at a time, at the right dose, at the right time. Sometimes you need a really high potency and other times you need a low potency. That's one of the things homeopaths are always learning and refining.

LT: This approach you've outlined, then, would be the definition of what you mean by Classical Homeopathy?

Fry: Right. One remedy, one at a time, at the right time, and in the right potency. What you're looking for is the one remedy that is going to open the lock.

LT: So people need to understand that homeopathy isn't really a self-care approach to health.

Fry: It really isn't. Except for really acute situations like taking arnica if you've got a bruise, for example. That certainly is available for people. But for most conditions I don't recommend that people try to treat their own symptoms.

LT: As you begin your search for the right remedy, typically what's the time frame before you know you're on to something?

Fry: Usually a couple of weeks, but sometimes it's miraculous how quickly it can work. I have one longtime patient, for example, whose remedy is arsenicum. One night she had a bladder infection so bad that she was peeing blood and urinating frequently and in a lot of pain. Her husband came over and picked up her remedy from me. I gave it to her in water and had her take one dose every two hours. After the first dose, the frequency stopped, after the second dose, the pain stopped, and after the third dose the blood stopped, all within a six hour period. So when you get the right remedy acutely like that, the results can be instantaneous.

My teacher had a case where a patient who'd had an aortic graft was recovering in the ICU. He was doing fine, but then his surgeon decided to snake a catheter up there to see how things looked. Well, he snagged the graft and the patient started bleeding out. The patient's family threw the surgeon out and called my teacher. He gave the patient a remedy every 30 seconds and stopped the bleeding. If you give the right remedy in a high enough potency and repeat it often enough, you can do that. I saw a videotape of another case where a man had a huge abscess in his lung and was going to have it removed. He was put on a remedy and three weeks later his chest x-ray was completely normal. In another case, a little girl had acute appendicitis. When you saw her on the videotape, she looked toxic. She had a high fever, high white cell count, right lower quadrant guarding, the whole bit. Her doctor gave her bryonia, which is one of the remedies for appendicitis, then he sent her home. The remedy was a high potency, and he gave her one dose and told her mother to bring her back the next day. When she came back, she was completely well. Her mother said she'd fallen asleep in the car on the way home, went to bed, got up in the morning and had breakfast, and there she was on the video walking around. That's why, for anybody who really studies homeopathy over time, why would you want to do anything else? Why would you go back to operating with arrowheads when you've discovered a laser? So homeopathy is taking off because it works and because our regular health care system is so miserable at treating chronic disease. And that's because we haven't gotten at the cause of what makes people sick. Basically, we treat the symptoms, so what we're doing is just palliating people.

LT: What would you say the future of homeopathy is in the U.S.?

Fry: I think it's very bright. It's on an upsurge. We have lots of conferences. We have more people studying it all the time, and we have more patients looking into it. Our biggest problem currently is that we really don't have enough well-trained homeopaths. And I would say that the best homeopaths in the country aren't necessarily physician homeopaths. The last two teachers I've had, who are both superb, are lay homeopaths, not physicians. Of course, they've been practicing homeopathy for 20 years. Just because they didn't go to medical school in a conventional way doesn't mean that they're not fabulous homeopaths, because they are. But you've got to be careful and that's the hard part. How do you find a good homeopath?

LT: How do you?

Fry: First of all, you want to find somebody who's been practicing homeopathy for a while. Find out where they got trained and speak to their patients. Then you also want to make sure they only use one remedy at a time. If they're using combination remedies, run the other way, because the biggest bang for your buck is the right remedy.

(Note: For further information regarding homeopathy, including referrals to homeopaths near you, visit 1HealthyWorld’s Resource Directory at http://www.1healthyworld.com/resources and then see Homeopathy in the Therapies section.)


Unabashed Plug

Discover and Gain Control of Your Human Energy Field. Read Dr. Valerie Hunt’s Mind Mastery Meditations: A Workbook for the “Infinite Mind,” the empowering guide created by one of the world's foremost researchers into the human energy field, energy medicine, and the relationship between consciousness and health. Each of the meditations this eBook contains is designed to give you mastery of your mind and to empower you to discover the answers to why you are the way you are, your soul's needs, your unique talents and capacities, and your self-designed destiny. By practicing and mastering these meditations, you will become able to live your life with greater ease and success, speed your self-healing, and dramatically increase your ability to manifest your deepest goals.

To order this life-changing guide, visit
http://www.1healthyworld.com/ebooks/Mind-Mastery-Book-Info.cfm.


Recipe Of The Week

Spiced Couscous and Curried Tofu

Ingredients:
16 oz tofu, diced
1 ½ cups couscous
½ cup raisins
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
½ tsp each of curry powder, onion flakes, minced garlic, ground cinnamon

Combine chicken brother with raisins, garlic and spices and bring to a boil. Add tofu and couscous and stir. Turn off heat and cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Serves 4

For additional healthy recipes, please visit http://www.1healthyworld.com/recipes, which features a new recipe each day.


Reader Feedback

Lucille R. writes: “Hi Larry - Love the newsletter. I've been into alternative medicine for last 13 years. I'll be 56 in a couple of months, don't look or act my age, don't take any medications, do take a number of supplements, very active, lots of energy - see an alternative physician twice a year and regularly read about alternative therapies. I also eat organically (including meats) most of time and try to work out on a regular basis. Has it paid off? I definitely believe it has. Thirteen years ago, I had a digestive problem that I wasn't aware of; all I knew was that I couldn't go anywhere without a tissue due to allergies. Found out the pancreas wasn't working at 100% that I had candidiasis. My doctor prescribed pancreatic enzymes which I still take every meal and we fixed the candidiasis. Things today are great.”

Lucille’s proactive approach to health is a roadmap that can pay big dividends for anyone interested in boosting vitality. Thanks for writing, Lucille!

Marcel L. writes: “Dear Larry. I really enjoyed Dr. Robert Ivker’s 4-part series on candidiasis and was disappointed that your latest issue did not include an article on another health condition. Will such articles return in the future?”

Yes, in the newsletter and within a Health Conditions section on 1HealthyWorld.com. Look for both soon.


Recommendations

Websites:
http://www.vaccinetruth.org - Think vaccines are safe? Think again. This website, compiled by a mother whose child was seriously harmed by vaccines routinely recommended in early childhood was an alarming eye-opener even to me, and I am no stranger to this issue. Informative, well-documented, and written for lay people.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk - If you, like me, are fed up with the PR tone of our nation’s mainstream media coverage of the Iraqi invasion, you’ll find far more serious investigative journalism in the ongoing reports by veteran reporter Robert Fisk, who writes for The Independent in England. The website above features a compilation of his stories on the subject.

http://www.jpinstitute.com - I was informed about this site by my youngest nephew, Gabe, who told me when he was 3 years-old that he wanted to be a paleontologist when he grew up. (Today, almost 7, he is a walking dinosaur encyclopedia.) Based on the Jurassic Park series of books and films, it’s a lot of fun and very educational, and kids will love it too. (Be prepared to print out reams of fact-filled illustrations.)

Books:
World Without Cancer by G. Edward Griffin. Not only does this excellently researched book provide the facts about the benefits laetrile (aka Vitamin B17) can have as a preventive agent for cancer, it also documents the ongoing suppression of these facts by the powers that be within the cancer establishment, and exposes the origins of that establishment via a collusion of multinational profiteers that began early in the 20th century and also played a role in Adolph Hitler’s rise to power. To order, visit Griffin’s web site, http://www.realityzone.com.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I’ve read far more suspenseful thrillers than this one, yet I still couldn’t put this book down. (I read it in two sittings, despite a very busy schedule.) The story is built around the existence of an actual clandestine society known as the Priory of Sion, members of which included, in addition to Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, and Jean Cocteau, all of whom allegedly worked to safeguard the Priory’s greatest treasure – the true meaning of the Holy Grail.

I highly recommend both books for the wealth of information they convey.

See you next Tuesday.

Health and Blessings!

Larry Trivieri, Jr (larry@1healthyworld.com)


Disclaimer: The Health Plus Letter is a weekly eZine published by Larry Trivieri, Jr. and Library of Health, LLC (dba www.1healthyworld.com). It is made available without charge for information purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for medical care. If you are experiencing a health problem, seek prompt medical attention.

Legal Notice: The information in this eZine may be freely and widely disseminated so long as full attribution is made as follows: The Health Plus Letter, August 12, 2003, Vol. 1, No. 6. Copyright © 2003 by Larry Trivieri, Jr. All rights reserved.

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