We've been through a pandemic.  We've seen Big Pharma (with the blessings of government) take over the country.  We've seen censorship of opinion and even facts.  Both pretty much as un-American as it gets.  Doctors have been treated badly if they did not stick to the script--or god forbid, wanted to try non pharmaceutical treatments.  Or repurposed drugs.  Nearly everyone who was vaccinated got covid anyway.  How safe it is, is still being argued.  

I wrote a book that I am actually updating at this time for a second edition and hope to get it published soon.  It's full of basic health and wellness information most of which gets overlooked or denigrated by the powers that be,  We owe it to ourselves to get better information and question authority.  America is not getting healthier and it's getting more expensive for the national and personal economies.  We have the power to change that.  I'd love to discuss these issues with readers!  I can be reached at winslowellie@yahoo.com

 Since that last post about seven years ago, a lot has occurred.   On the topic of staying healthy and aging well, all the things I learned over the last few decades gradually coalesced into a cohesive theory that now show up in the first edition of my book, "Better Body, Better Brain, More Zing:  What to do about inflammation and other treachery to wellness."  

Then we had a pandemic.  Before I even got that book to a publisher, this thing called Covid-19 interfered with life.  I am working on the second edition of the book.  Meanwhile, the first edition pdf of the book is free to anyone who sends me an email asking for it.  The only thing I ask is a report back on how it improved anything for you!.  I can be reached at winslowellie@yahoo.com.  While I will consider consulting with individuals, I think the book is sufficient to itself to make a huge difference for anyone who looks closely.  My philosophy is that the information is public, just not promoted much and I am simply a translator of big scientific words and complex concepts.  You still have to do the work!  Maybe if we all felt better, humans would be kinder to each other!

Best Wishes,

Ellie

PUTTING IT INTO PERSPECTIVE

Where does it make sense to put your concern, effort and money?

Deaths in US

# of deaths   time frame                 Cause 

   0                   2015                                                    Marajuana 

  2                    1998-2008                                           Raw Milk 

  8                    2015    (worldwide)                          Sharks 

 12                   2015                                                    Taking a Selfie 

  20                  per year                                             Cows 

  26                  per year                                             Lightning 

  34                  2015                                                    Dogs

  52                  per year                                             Horses, pigs and deer 

  58                  per year                                             Bees, Wasps and hornets 

17,465             2014                                                    Illicit drugs 

25,760             2014                                                    Prescription drugs 

30,700             2015                                                    Alcohol, non traffic 

32,675             2014                                                    Traffic deaths  

589,430           2015                                                    All types Cancer 

610,000           every year                                         Heart Disease

 

The biggies on this list are lifestyle problems.  But if you think allopathic medicine can save you from lifestyle/diet errors, just remember the above numbers.

An analogy I am becoming fond of

A friend has recently had some major health issues and I have watched what allopathic medicine has done for her (or to her).

They have her on multiple mediations and (of course)  told her nothing about the side effects she might see right away or could see down the road.  Two of her medications are known to cause type II diabetes.  One can cause an allergic reaction where the face and tongue swell causing death very shortly.  Two are "water pills" which get rid of water by preventing the kidneys from hanging onto salts (minerals).  While they recognize that can cause a potassium shortage they ignore the magnesium and calcium loss which can have devastating affects on muscles and nerves (oh, by the way, the heart is a muscle that needs nerve impulses to beat correctly).  All the medications cause digestive upsets.  Of course--they are toxins and the body wants to get rid of them as quickly as possible.  Another medication shuts down the body's natural production of CoEnzyme Q10 which is what powers the mitochondria (the power plant in EVERY cell).  Did they tell her to supplement coq10?  No.

So here's my analogy.

Your body/wellness is like a boat.  It rides around on top of the water keeping you (the passengers) dry and happy.  It takes maintenance and fuel and care to not crash into things.  But if you ignore the maintenance or use bad fuel or forget the oil or run into pilings, the boat ends up with problems and eventually that means it goes poorly, won't go at all, or it gets dry rot and it springs a leak or a hole and really leaks.  Some boats get a little leakage and the owners manage to keep riding around in their boat anyway with just wet feet and low power.  Some damage is more extensive and pretty soon the boat is filling with scary amounts of water.

When the hole in your boat is pretty small someone could sell you a cute little cup with a handle and tell you to start bailing.  As the damage to your boat gets larger,  they might sell you a small bucket to get the water out.  For bigger holes, maybe they sell you five gallon bucket.  This is where my friend is.  She was about to go under, and after a week in the hospital she got her five gallon bucket and she's bailing to stay afloat.  In an even more dire case, someone might stick a bilge pump in your boat to keep it from ending up on the ocean floor.

That's what allopathic medicine knows how to do---sell you buckets from cup size to bilge pump.  What they do not know--or even care about--is telling you how to fix the leaks/power problems/holes in your boat.  There is no money in the bucket/pump industry if you fix the holes.  Besides, they know you probably won't bother.  It takes knowledge you'll have to research (construction techniques, marine materials, dry dock, etc)  and changing habits (better fuel choices, regular maintenance, how to navigate better, adding bumpers in strategic locations, how to stay on top of things, etc)  That's hard.  Much easier to go to the bucket store and say "Give me a bucket that will keep me afloat."

I get it that not everyone wants to maintain their boat, and some are happy to bail for years.  I guess you know where I fit in that scheme.  In fact I have become a master boat repair person.  My boat is whizzing through the water and the inside is dry and comfy.  My boat is older than dirt and in the best shape of is existence.

If yours is not, but you would like to quit buying buckets and bailing to stay afloat, ask me what it takes and how you, too can repair your boat and enjoy the ride once again.

VITAMIN D Again

 

The Vitamin D Council sends out a newsletter that I recommend to anyone interested in healthy aging or general health for that matter.  Today’s issue points out three more diseases of civilization that are linked to low vitamin D levels—Leukemia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and PMS.  Over the last year I have mentioned its role in preventing cancers.  I cannot begin to remember all the other diseases that are likely caused by or worsened by low Vitamin D, but these are memorable:  Parkinson’s, premature births, MS, Crohn’s, Rheumatoid arthritis,  depression, celiac, autism, ED, dementia, Alzheimer’s, type II diabetes….and the list goes on.  More research just adds to the list.

Have you gotten a Vitamin D test lately?  Of all the tests I think are useful for keeping us healthy, this is the easiest, least controversial and most important.  A level below 20 is deadly.  A level of 80 to 100 is what is normal for indigenous people who spend a lot of time outside not totally covered in clothing.  Anything thing below 50 or 60 is less than ideal. 

Another thing I want to comment on today.  I keep reading in supposedly scientific articles, a little throwaway line that is flat out wrong and so misleading.  When talking about insulin resistance many articles and documents list the causes as (first) fat and (second) as sugars.  They ignore biology and adhere to politics.  Fat has no effect on insulin production.  ZERO.  It CANNOT affect insulin resistance.  Sugars—whether added to or contained in carbohydrate type foods are the only food that affects insulin production. 

We’ve had 40 or 50 years of the special interests and government telling us that low fat is the way to go.  In that same period, the epidemic of obesity and diabetes has mushroomed.  Over and over, good research demonstrates that fat is not the enemy, sugars are.  The theory persists that fat is bad.  It is not.  Eat plenty and you will be thinner and healthier and fuller on less food.  Insulin is triggered by sugar (blood sugar, to be exact) not by lipids.  Insulin is always inflammatory and always the hormone of hunger. 

What you put in your mouth matters.  Every meal, any snack.  Be good to your bodies!!  And may 2016 be a year of vigor and robustness for all!

Can You Get All The Nutrients You Need From Food?

I hear it.  I read it.  Just eat real food.  You don't need supplements.

Maybe.

If you are relatively young.  If you know where your food is grown --animal or vegetable.  If you know HOW it is grown.  (Organic?  Slathered in Roundup?  CAFO feed lot? Free range or grass fed or crammed with grains to increase body fat and someone's profit?)   If you cook from scratch.  If you have few stressors on your life.  If you know what your body needs. (We've been told whole grains for decades, now we know they are just empty calories--or worse--and that animal fat is bad--it's actually the healthy fat)  If you don't smoke, drink alcohol, eat a lot of preservatives, artificial colors and chemical additives.

And finally...if you're not already sick. 

But if any of those things are not true for you, you probably need supplements.  If all these things were true from your youth through whatever age you are now, you'd probably have reserves of the things your body needs and a dearth of the toxic things that tax your health.  Few of us are in that situation. And if you are already sick, it is de facto evidence that your body has deficiency(s) and/or toxicities.  They are the drivers of chronic inflammation which is the bedrock cause of all the ailments of aging--major or minor. 

Are you stuck with them?  No.  It's a self-correcting, self-repairing biology.  If you give it what it needs and quit giving it what it does not need.

What edibles you can buy in the store, almost exclusively are first and foremost for somebody's bottom line profits and second to entice you it's great food.  They do that with taste enhancers and clever marketing.  Almost all commercial foods have little thought toward what nutrients they provide.  The old adage "FOLLOW THE MONEY"  applies.  Produce is grown the fastest cheapest way possible.  Nitrogen makes things grow fast and big, but if other minerals are not added to soil, they eventually are used up. So you have beautiful, big leaves or fruit with no taste and not near enough nutrition.  Do they fertilize with kelp?  (iodine and many other trace minerals)  Do they add magnesium?  Is your area high in selenium or low?  And that does not address all the agricultural toxins that may be present.

So let's start with the big bogeyman of health.  Cancer.  In a few blog posts earlier this year I talked about the five biggies that prevent cancer.  To recap, they are 1) low bloodsugar/low insulin; 2) Vitamin D; 3) Magnesium; 4) iodine and 5) selenium.  The research is conclusive, well established and mostly ignored.  (Follow the money).

Once a person has cancer, can it be cured?  I would argue yes, using all the strategies that prevent cancer, they can also reverse it.  For instance we know of the Warburg effect--the fact that cancer cells can only burn sugar (glucose) and they need a lot to grow as fast as they do.  What happens if a cancer patient goes on a ketogenic diet, virtually devoid of glucose?  Cancer cells are denied their fuel and cannot maintain their rapid growth.  In lab experiments cancer cells die under those conditions, but even if they just stopped growing it would be a big plus for a patient.

Adding in supplements of the other nutrients that prevent cancer gives the body's immune system a chance to fight it--what the well nourished body would do in the first place to not allow cancer's initiation.  I am not talking about foregoing allopathic medicine.  But they will never discuss these things with a cancer patient because there's no profit in it and most doctors are woefully uneducated in matters of nutrition.  So that's a completely different topic.

Substitute any disease you can name--including mental disorders--including heart disease, osteoporosis, arthritis, pcos, IBS. psoriasis, depression, etc etc...for the word "cancer".and the nutritional treatment is the same with minor differences.  Fix the deficiencies, quit doing things that jack up chronic inflammation, let the body heal.

All that said, there are some worthless supplements out there. If you'd like help on brands, or amounts that I can point out, just email me.  It's very cheap insurance for a vigorous second half of life.

How Toxic is Vitamin D in High Doses?

I have been otherwise involved and not blogging lately even though I've looked at tons of research.  So today let me just remind you that Vitamin D shows up over and over as correlated with preventing so many diseases (including flu) that it's too big a list to include. It includes pretty much everything.  Getting tested is simple.  Your doctor will order a test if you ask.  They know Vitamin D deficiency is widespread.  That, of course begs the question of why they do not routinely order the test.  Follow the money.  There is no profit in Vitamin D supplementation.  If you do not have a doctor, the Vitamin D Council offers a self test for $50.

How much Vitamin D to take?  Let me just report my own experience.  It took me about six months to raise my levels from 33 to 43 taking 10,000 iu a day.  The next increase did not take quite so long.  So when you are severely deficient, taking a lot of Vitamin D is a vey good idea. 

All the hype about how dangerous too much can be, needs to be put into perspective.  Here is an excerpt from an article on the website of the Vitamin D Council.

From 2000 through 2014, there were 25,397 calls to poison control about overdoses of vitamin D (Figure). There were about 200 calls/year in the year 2000, which has increased to more than 4,000 calls per year recently. During that 15-year period there were only three serious cases of vitamin D toxicity, but no deaths.

Do you know how many people died from Tylenol toxicity during that same time? About three thousand.

Of the five serious medical cases involving vitamin D, two were from aspiration problems in infants when vitamin D drops went down the windpipe. The three serious adult cases were: 1) 55-year old male, chronic ingestion causing agitation, confusion, electrolyte abnormalities, renal failure and seizures; 2) 78-year-old male, chronic ingestion causing lethargy, electrolyte abnormalities, renal failure and respiratory depression; and 3) 53-year-old female with chronic ingestion causing elevated creatinine, renal failure, electrolyte abnormality and hypertension. Doses taken were not given.

As far as suicide attempts, 106 people tried using overdoses of vitamin D to kill themselves, though none succeeded.

Link to the whole article is found here:  https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/blog/how-common-is-vitamin-d-toxicity/