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- DEAR FRIEND:
- As our world becomes more complex and we
are distanced from nature and the sources of life, our vulnerability
escalates.
- In the not-too-distant past, just 50 years
ago or so, a large percentage of the population occupied family farms.
- They were pretty much self-sufficient.
Some of my fondest childhood memories are of spending time at my grandparents’
farm where cows were milked, eggs were gathered, a garden tended, water was
hand pumped and an outhouse with catalog pages for toilet paper was a real
adventure. Just a few years prior to that, there was no electricity and
horsepower was made only by horses. These were hard times, but at least my
grandparents were in control and pretty much self-sufficient.
- We have today traded such self-sufficiency
for convenience and dependency. As society progresses and population grows we
will increasingly become vulnerable to the vagaries of others and to the sheer
mass of the complex web we are caught up in. I shudder when I visit a big
city and think about how precarious life is there. If all of a sudden the
power is gone, or gasoline is not available, or food is not delivered to the
grocery store, there would be pandemonium beyond imagination.
- I speak often in the Health Letter
about the importance of being in control. Not only might self-sufficiency
save your life if infrastructure crumbles for some political or natural
reason, but the psychological and physical benefits from not feeling as though
you are a potential victim are immeasurable.
- How can we retain a sense of control when
we are in fact so dependent? Here are some ideas. First and foremost,
simplify life and decrease needs. Learn how to do things you would otherwise
hire out that might be important as a survival skill. Gardening, mechanical,
carpentry, plumbing, sewing, meal preparation, etc. Some of these skills are
taught every day on public television stations and also are available to learn
off the internet or at your local library.
- Learn what foods are edible in your back
yard or nearby forest. Put up a survival kit at home, complete with a store
of survival foods.
- Alarmist? Extremist? Is this silly to
do when you’ve lived your whole life without needing this? Yes - only if you
believe history does not repeat itself and you have a special exemption.
- Also, try to save the world. Yes, I know
it is a tall order but by doing something you will gain a tremendous feeling
of self-worth and control. Stay informed, be alert, understand what is going
on in the world around you. Don’t lose sight of the fact that we live in a
finite world with finite resources that is on loan to us by our children. We
have a fiduciary responsibility to them and future generations. Become
active, take part, advocate, complain, compliment, be engaged, get heard,
write letters, support benevolent organizations, join them, lead them, teach
your children.
- This is so much better than being a
passive consumer waiting to be a victim. It will make you feel alive, give
you hope and make life worth living. It sends a message to your body that you
are alive and important. Your body responds by being healthy and staying
alive. The sense of being in control is one of nature’s strongest healers.
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- A Fish Story
- Five hundred years ago when John Cabot, in
looking for a route to Asia, discovered North America, he found the richest
fisheries on Earth. Cod were five and six feet long and weighed as much as 200
pounds. The waters were so teeming the fishermen boasted they could simply dip
their hand in the water and pull out enough fish to feed a family for a week.
- Just a half a century after this discovery
some 60% of the fish eaten in Europe were cod. Now, in the 1990’s, there is
almost a total ban on cod fishing in Newfoundland where John Cabot made his
discovery, because of reckless mismanagement and the human folly of thinking
this was a bottomless resource. The vast fisheries of the world are going the
way of tropical rain forests and Earth’s wilderness habitats.
- For about 300 years after Cabot,
approximately 200,000 tons of cod per year were taken by hook and line from
small dories. Then in the 1870’s the cod trap was invented, and then the
distant-water fleet with draggers who could use modern technology to hunt down
schools of fish while still far out at sea. These methods permitted catching
them year round. The catch quadrupled to 800,000 tons per year.
- The dragger captains were able to locate
the nurseries of the cod and found that the fish at the time of spawning were
at their prime condition for the table and so they tore up the ocean floor
harvesting these incubators of the great cod schools.
- In about 1992, however, the boats went out
and came back empty. Countries began paying welfare checks to fishermen rather
than reaping the bounty of a copious fish harvest. Livelihoods were ended,
economies shattered, and fishing villages abandoned.
- The same scenario is occurring on
virtually every sea coast on Earth. One newspaper reported that there is not a
square meter of sea bottom in the Dutch region of the North Sea that is not
being dragged by a beam crawler at least once a year. The bottom of the ocean
is being plowed into a virtual desert.
- But not only are cod being decimated, but
so too the “trash fish” that are tossed back overboard to die because they are
brought up to the surface so rapidly that their swim bladders kill them.
Millions of tons of “trash fish” are destroyed each year, further imbalancing
the sea’s ecosystems.
- The world has been having a wonderful,
carefree economic party. But the fun is ending. The last great buffalo hunts
have occurred in the prairies of the ocean in our very day, while we watch
movies and lament the selfish short-sightedness of real buffalo hunters of
days gone by.
- It’s a simple matter of mathematics. In
1900 the world caught 3 million tons of fish, and then through the advent of
technology the catch grew 25 times just between 1950 and 1970, reaching 80
million tons. The Peruvian anchovy catch, for example, in just 3 years has
collapsed from 12 million tons to 2 million. The human population in just the
past decade has increased by 800 million to reach almost 6 billion people.
- In order for fisheries to catch the same
amount of fish, fishing fleets are working harder, spending a lot more time
and employing much more expensive technology. Now all 17 of the world’s major
fishing regions are fished at or above sustainable levels.
- It is now believed that the world’s fish
catch is the first global limit that we have reached.
- But, you say, every time I go to the
grocery store there is a surfeit of seafood available. But this is an
artificial sense of abundance. Fish are now increasingly grown on farms, and
fed scrap fish protein taken from the sea, or agricultural products such as
corn meal. These resources too will dry up as population increases and
ecological damage continues.
- To grow shrimp, for example, great
sections of the world’s coastal mangrove forests have been cut down to build
shrimp farms. In Thailand 120,000 tons of shrimp from these farms were
harvested in a five year period, but 800,000 tons of potential wild fish
harvest was lost by destroying the mangrove spawning grounds.
- By taking small forage fish out of the sea
to feed farmed fish we are in effect eliminating the possibility of wild
populations rejuvenating themselves. It’s like clear cutting a forest and then
making mulch for tree farms by grinding up saplings as soon as they poke their
heads up out of the ground.
- These are trying times. We are going to
need2 million more tons of protein each year just to supply the growth of
population. True, technology can perhaps slow the process and give us the
temporary illusion of abundance, but soon the two lines on the graph will
cross and we will experience real catastrophe unless we can change our
attitude toward Earth.
- The next 50 years are going to perhaps be
the most difficult. Toxic pollution, carbon emissions, deforestation, and
species extinction are going to reach their zenith. We are not going ‘to find
new oceans to fish, nor are we going to find new continents to farm. We live
in a narrowing moment in human history where we have the ability to shape the
future of the next generations.
- The age of abundance is over. No more
passenger pigeons blackening the skies, buffalo shaking the land and cod
choking the waves. It is a time for reflection and fiduciary responsibility.
There is no longer any reason for mindless exploitation, carelessness from
perceived abundance or the hubris of interpreting the word “dominion” in
Genesis.
- Ours is now a world of preciousness and
rarity. But this is also most of all a time of opportunity to use that fancy
cortex on top of our muscles, to take action now to protect the future.
- No argument by those who would poo-poo
such environmental sensitivity can stand against the reality that we live on a
finite world with finite resources. As such, management and respect are
necessary, not endless exploitation and plundering.
- References:
- UTNE Reader, May/June 1998:60-
- Hope, Human and Wild, by Bill
McKibben. Little Brown Inc.
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- Average May Not Be You
- Nutrient minimums established by
scientific and regulatory boards to meet the needs of average people overlook
the special requirements of those who fall outside the average.
- For example, if in a population half of
them are found to require 30 mg of vitamin C per day and the other half 90 mg,
the average “requirement” is set at 60 mg per day. Obviously all of those
individuals requiring 90 mg per day will become vitamin C deficient if they
follow this minimum recommendation.
- Here is an actual example. Folic acid and
vitamin B6 are very important in keeping homocysteine levels such
that they do not cause heart disease. In recent research it was found that
within a group of individuals numbering over 18,000 who had been screened and
determined to have high homocysteine concentration, supplementation with 0.2
mg per day of folic acid only normalized the homocysteine levels in a little
over half of the study group. Others in the group were found to require as
much as 5 mg per day for as long as 7 weeks before homocysteine levels were
brought into a healthy range.
- This means that the genetic individuality
of a large portion of this population was such that they required as much as a
25-fold increase in folic acid supplementation in order to avert homocysteine-related
cardiovascular disease.
- This is yet another reason to be highly
skeptical of the popular recommendation that all one needs to do is eat a
varied diet and all vitamin and mineral needs will be met. This study
demonstrated that even if supplementation at recommended minimums was given, a
large percentage of the population would still remain at risk due to their
biochemical individuality.
- Supplements by and large are safe and
effective and certainly cheap when measured against the potential of getting
one of the diseases their deficiency in the diet could create.
- Reference:
- Clin Invest, 1996;98:2174-83
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- Selenium And Cancer
- Selenium is an essential trace mineral
required for the synthesis of important enzymes such as glutathione peroxidase
and thioredoxin reductase. These enzymes in turn are very important m
protecting the body against free radical damage. They are considered to be an
antioxidant mineral as vitamins A, C, and E are antioxidant vitamins.
- We obtain selenium from our foods, but if
the soil is deficient in selenium - which often is the case - we can receive
inadequate amounts. The government’s minimum recommended allowance is 70 mcg,
and intakes of as much as 500 mcg daily have been shown to be completely free
of adverse side effects.
- A good source of selenium is as it is
organically found in certain forms of yeast such as are incorporated into
various Wysong dietary supplements and foods.
- This mineral has been found by good
research to be extremely important in decreasing the incidence of mortality
from tumors of various sites. For example, in one study testing the ability of
selenium to prevent carcinoma of the skin, a test group received selenium
whereas a control group did not. The effects of selenium in decreasing
incidence and mortality from cancer were so great that the study blinded phase
(control group) was stopped early. The researchers felt it would have been
unethical to continue to permit the control group to not receive the benefits
of selenium. Selenium also has the ability to affect virtually all components
of the immune system. This includes nonspecific humeral and cell mediated
responses.
- Selenium increases resistance to microbial
and viral infections, increases neutrophil function, antibody productions and
proliferation of T and B lymphocytes, and increases cyto destruction by T
lymphocytes and NK cells. It stimulates neutrophils, the production of
antibodies, lymphokines and also increases the ability of the host to reject
transplanted malignant
- Selenium is even of benefit applied
topically to the skin to prevent radiation-induced aging and carcinogenesis.
- It is for these reasons that for many
years Wysong products have contained organically bound selenium in both food
products and supplements, as well as in topicals.
- The references cited here are just a few
of the numerous ones demonstrating the remarkable effects of obtaining proper
dietary selenium levels. If the reader would like some others, we can send a
list of approximately 50 scientific references which certainly put to rest the
notion that nutrients, in this case only one - selenium can have a major
impact on health and prevention of dreaded disease such as cancer.
- The effect of selenium supplementation on
the incidence of hepatitis was also investigated in China, where in some areas
there is wide spread deficiency due to selenium-poor soil.
- Compared to controls, there was almost a
60% reduction in the incidence of both hepatitis A and hepatitis B in the
selenium supplemented group. Selenium is, therefore, believed to have not only
a liver-sparing effect, but a direct activity against a variety of viruses.
- Reference:
- Carcinogenesis, 1980;1:199-201
- The Lancet, 1983;2:130-134
- Biological Trace Element Research,
1991 ;29:289-94
- Nutrition and Cancer, 1992; 17:123-37
- Environmental Research, 1987;42:
277-303
- Biol Trace Elem Res, 1 989;20: 15-
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- Estrogen, Heart Disease And Cancer
- For years estrogen and estrogen synthetic
progesterone hormones have been prescribed to postmenopausal women for the
relief of menopausal symptoms. An added benefit was that it was believed that
this estrogen replacement therapy helped protect women against cardiovascular
disease.
- New research has shown that there is in
fact no change in cardiovascular risk for women who are taking estrogen
replacement hormones compared to those who do not.
- On the other hand, the risk of breast
cancer has been demonstrated to be significantly increased after only one year
of estrogen use. Researchers evaluated some 51 different epidemiological
studies of some 160,000 women to prove the correlation between estrogen and
breast cancer.
- A better alternative for women is natural
progesterone therapy which has none of the side effects of the estrogens. (See
previous issues of the Health Letter for recommendations on the use of
natural progesterones.)
- Progesterones are also the treatment of
choice for endometriosis. This can be a difficult disease to treat and the use
of pharmaceuticals such as Lupron can make women extremely sick. Additionally,
some practitioners recommend that their patients get pregnant in order
to cure the condition, since pregnancy results in a dramatic increase in
progesterone levels. For those who don’t really want to have a baby as a
method of treating a disease, natural progesterone therapy would certainly be
a good alternative.
- Reference:
- Ann Intern Med 1997;127:501-508
- Lancet, October 11, 1997:1041-44,
1047-59
- Fertil Steril, September 1997:393-401
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- Nutrients For Cervical Dysplasia
- Uterine cervical dysplasia may progress to
cervical cancer which is one of the most common causes of cancer death in
women.
- Oral and topical nutrients that research
has demonstrated may be effective include:
- 1) Folic acid - dosages were between 5 and
10 mg daily and some physicians recommend topical application to the cervix as
well.
- 2) Beta carotene - given as an oral
supplement of 3O mg daily demonstrated improvement in 70% of a study group
within six months.
- 3) Vitamin A (retinol) - is deficient in
cervical dysplastic tissue. Topical application of all-trans-retinoic acid has
been followed by regression of the lesion in a statistically significant
number of cases.
- For more specific information on these
treatment alternatives review or have your physician review the cited
references.
- Reference:
- American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition, 1982;35:73-82
- Second International Conference on
Antioxidant Vitamins and Beta carotene in Disease Prevention, October 10-12,
1994, Berlin, Germany
- J. Nat. Cancer Inst., 1994;86;7:539-43
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- Mainstream Medicine Losing
Popularity
- The number of visits by patients to
practitioners of alternative medicine in the United States - such as
chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathic, herbalists and spiritual therapies -
now outstrips visits with conventional physicians.
- This, perhaps, is an advancement in that
it shows some public enlightenment, but the true goal of everyone should be
medical self-determination and prevention, without the need for visits to
third party medical professionals at all.
- Reference:
- Annals of Internal Medicine,
1997;127;1:61-69
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- Sunlight And High Blood Pressure
- The further from the equator one lives,
the greater the risk of high blood pressure. This has led some to theorize
that decreasing exposure of the skin to ultraviolet light, with a resultant
decrease in vitamin D synthesis in the skin and a disturbance of other
metabolic effects related to natural light exposure, may cause susceptibility
to high blood pressure.
- This may also explain why blacks in the
U.S. and Europe are particularly prone to high blood pressure compared to
their counterparts in Africa. Darkly pigmented skin may only permit
penetration of about 5% of ultraviolet light, whereas light skin may permit as
much as 30% transmission.
- This again supports our continuing theme
in the Health Letter of genetic context. The further we depart from our
roots, the environment to which we are adapted, the more we can expect adverse
health consequences.
- Pets kept indoors and fed exclusively
processed diets are also at risk of nutrient deficiency and imbalance. Natural
prey would contain many preformed nutrients which are destroyed when foods are
processed.
- Reference:
- Hypertension, 1997;30:150-
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- Chlorinated Water And Cancer
- If you live in an area supplied by
municipal chlorinated water you (and your pets) are at increased risk for
colon cancer and total combined cancer. Studies now demonstrate that
chlorination by-products in drinking water are a significant health hazard and
everyone should consider appropriate water filters.
- The risk does not end with just the
drinking water. These chlorinated compounds can be absorbed in the tub and in
the shower. If you want a real heavy dose then spend some time in chlorinated
swimming pools, and if you really want to make sure your blood chlorine levels
go over the top spend some leisurely time in a more heavily chlorinated
whirlpool or spa.
- Reference:
- American Journal of Public Health,
1997;87: 1168-
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- Lipoic Acid For Diabetes
- Alpha-lipoic acid is an enzyme c6factor
found in a variety of foods such as potatoes, carrots, yams, sweet potatoes,
beets and red meat. It helps the conversion of glucose into ATP (the energy
molecule of the body) and also is an antioxidant capable of regenerating other
antioxidants once they have been spent.
- Diabetes is now rampant in modern society.
It is now at the highest level ever reported in the United States. The number
of new cases has risen to an average of almost 798,000 per year. More than one
third of the cases (5.4 million) are undiagnosed.
- Complications include circulatory
disturbances, neuropathy, macular degeneration, and cataracts. Research
demonstrates that alpha-lipoic acid can help prevent and reverse some of these
diabetic pathologies. It improves blood flow, nerve conduction, and reverses
damage to the nerves, eyes and heart. Long-term consumption even promotes the
growth of new nerve cells.
- Alpha-lipoic acid is one of the
ingredients in Wysong Spectrox™, a Foundation Formula containing a broad
spectrum of proven effective antioxidant nutrients. But as you can see here,
lipoic acid is not only an antioxidant, but has more direct beneficial effects
on the heart, blood vessels, eyes, and in energy metabolism.
- Thus, when taking NSF products for the
eyes (Opthid™), heart and blood vessels (Carvasol™), brain and nervous system
(Neuridone™) and for sugar metabolism (Carboprin™), it is very important that
the Foundation Formulas including Spectrox™ be taken so that the synergistic
effect of the nutrients can complement the specific NSF formula(s).
- Reference:
- The Potato Antioxidant: Alpha Lipoic
Acid, by Beth Ley, BL Publishmg
- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,
October30, 1997:1013-26
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- Nutrients For Epilepsy
- Epileptic seizures can be an exasperating
problem to treat in both humans and animals. Pharmacological agents may be
helpful but are not without side effects, and they often have diminished
effectiveness over time.
- Nutrients that may be beneficial in
decreasing epileptic seizures include:
- 1) 400 IUs of vitamin E daily
- 2) Taurine, an amino acid, in dosages of
15004000mg daily
- 3) Zinc at 60 mg daily
- A variety of other vitamins and minerals
has also been found to be effective and therefore a good vitamin/mineral
supplement, such as Wysong RDA™ or Optimal™ along with Neuridone™, a Wysong
NSF nutrient formula for brain and nerve function, may prove highly
beneficial.
- Reference:
- Alternatives, February 1989: 6
- Canadian J. Neurol. Sci., 1978;5:220
- Arch. Neurol., 1974;30:275-80
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- Wysong Works - (Excerpts from
Wysong customer letters.)
- I appreciate your help in improving my
understanding of the field of nutrition. It is amazing to me how much I have
learned from Wysong products.
- • Valley City,
OH
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- I use Wysong and I think it’s great. These
ingredients look wonderful even to me, and my dogs LOVE it! I’ve been feeding
this for over 5 years now and like the results as far as dogs’ coats, stools,
and overall health.
- • Internet
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- Choline For Manic Depression
- Some cases of manic depression (bipolar
disorder) are refractory to conventional therapies. In a study of the effects
of choline on this condition it was found that a dose of 1-2 grams given twice
daily and increasing to 1-1/2 to 4 grams given twice daily as a continuing
dosage resulted in a substantial reduction in symptoms in refractory patients.
- Oral choline has the ability to increase
the concentration of the important nerve biochemical acetylcholine. In this
study it was found through brain proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy that
while patients were on the supplement, choline levels did increase in the
basal ganglia portion of the brain.
- Choline is one of the ingredients in
Wysong’s Neurodine™ Nutrient Support Formula. It is not at a concentration
used in this study, however, and therefore, if additional levels of choline
are needed to achieve these higher levels, one would need to take choline as a
singular supplement in addition to Neuridone™.
- Reference:
- Biol Psychiatry, 1996;40:382-
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- Broccoli Sprouts For Cancer
- Broccoli contains a compound called
glucoraphanin which is a precursor to sulforaphane, which boosts phase II
enzymes, which in turn can speed the detoxification of electrophiles and
reactive oxygen metabolites, which protect against mutagenesis and neoplasia.
- Now if that’s not a hard enough mouthful,
eating sufficient broccoli to make a significant impact with these important
cancer-protecting compounds certainly is.
- To obtain high enough levels of these
compounds to derive benefit, broccoli sprouts may be the answer. Ten pounds of
sprouts is equal to ½ ton of the fresh mature broccoli itself. This is going
to be one of the ingredients in a new product we have developed called Wysong
Salad™ which contains a variety of concentrated vegetables known for their
health-enhancing effects. An alternative in the meantime is to go ahead and
sprout broccoli and start incorporating it into the diet along with fresh
salads.
- Reference:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 1 997;94: 10367-72
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