Every time I’d feel ’sick’ when I was younger, my dad would say “it’s all in your mind.” Little did he know the ‘truth’ behind his comment. We’ve all heard those urban legends of the mom picking up a car off a baby or seen David Blaine hold his breath for over 15 minutes. But the question is: can ‘we’ all do those things? Are ’super-powers’ some form of untapped innate programming that we have yet to embrace as reality? If this does in fact exist, can we all learn how to harness these powers to our benefit, in particular healing. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Generation RX’ addresses many of the alarming issues surrounding the growing use of ADHD drugs, antidepressants, and anti-psychotic medications among children and teenagers worldwide.
‘For decades, scores of doctors, government officials, journalists, and others have extolled the benefits of psychiatric medicines for children,’ said Miller, the film’s writer and producer. ‘Generation RX unveils ‘the rest of the story’ and explains how this era of unprecedented change in Western culture really occurred — and what price has been paid by society.’ Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve run across a few research studies that have the headline “statins protect against memory loss.” Of course I had to read it to see what the heck they were talking about. You know how adamant I am about the abuse of statin drugs and how we’ve been misled about the “dangers” of cholesterol. So when researchers come out and say that statin drugs can be helpful in the prevention of dementia, I have to raise an eyebrow and question the headline.
There’s been tons and tons of research done on statin drugs and their ability to lower the production of cholesterol. See my previous post about the Cholesterol Conspiracy. But the truth behind why statins may prevent heart attacks is because they have antioxidant characteristics and block inflammation. The majority of cardiovascular studies out there state that 70% of all heart attacks occur in people who have no prior history of artery blockage or any signs of artery blockage upon autopsy.
Since memory loss such as dementia is a degenerative process, we can conclude that oxidative stress and inflammation will speed up that process. It’s well known that as you get older your body produces less and less antioxidants and your need for antioxidant supplementation increases. So if your body produces less antioxidants, your oxidative stress increases and degenerative processes such as dementia speed up. Here’s the logic behind these studies:
Increased oxidative stress increases dementia. Statins can lower oxidative stress. Therefore…statins may protect against memory loss.
But hold on here…what else do statins do? Well…they block the production of CoQ10 and Vitamin D. Hmm. You really need those to function optimally.
I know…enough blah, blah, blah already. Just cut to the chase. Well the solution: if you want to decrease oxidative stress, take some antioxidants. Simple, yet effective.
A group of researchers from Hawai`i have made the conclusion that loss of smell may be an early sign of Parkinson’s disease. They found that loss of smell comes before the classic signs of the disease such as rigidity and slowed movement and that these people are five times more likely to develop the disease.
With these findings the researchers state that we will be able to screen for the disease and if someone qualifies, place them on a treatment program (i.e. medications) to slow the progression of the disease.
So what does this really tell us? Well it’s widely known that if you begin to lose any of your senses, there’s something wrong with your central nervous system. What I disagree with is the “treatment” program. In my opinion, almost every disease process (hereditary or not) is due to high levels of toxicity within the body. Environmental toxins which are stored within fatty tissues can penetrate the cell’s nucleus and damage DNA causing mutations & activation of certain genes. Most neurological diseases are toxin related. Most of the Parkinson’s patients I see have a history of known past exposure to pesticides and herbicides. These organochlorides are super-toxic to nervous tissue because that’s how they kill the organisms they’re designed to kill. Don’t think that pesticides only kill “pests.”
Solution:
We need to find an alternative to the use of these organochlorides.
We need to limit the exposure to organochlorides.
We need to detoxify our bodies
As a side note: stem cell research seems very promising in this area. Anytime you’re dealing with damaged tissue, regeneration seems like the obvious answer. If we can find a way to satisfy the ethics behind stem cell research I can see us making huge leaps and bounds in degenerative disease treatments. Till then a preventative detoxification and avoidance program is the best.
Here’s more information about the basics of Alzheimer’s disease (a follow up to the original post). This video will give you some of the background history behind the disease.
