 In the lifeextension approach, vitamins and vitamin-like substances are used as a therapyagainst the aging process itself.
Will it work? Well, some of these human guinea pigs have been on heavy
vitamin supplementation for over thirty years (as of 1995) and none seem to be
suffering any damage. Will they live longer? It is impossible to say with full
scientific rigor? To know if life extension works, we would have to first determine“live longer than what?” After all, we don’t know how long any person might havelived without life extending vitamin supplements. Though it can’t be “proven,” itmakes perfect sense to me to spend far less money on an intensive life extensionvitamin program than I would certainly lose as a result of age-related sickness.
Besides, I’ve already observed from personal use and from results in my
clinical practice that life extension vitamin programs do work. Whether I and myclients will ultimately live longer or not, the people who I have put on theseprograms, including myself and my husband, usually report that for several yearsafter starting they find themselves feeling progressively younger, graduallyreturning to an overall state of greater well-being they knew five or ten or fifteenyears ago. They have more energy, feel clearer mentally, have fewer unwantedsomatic symptoms.
Sometimes the improvements seem rather miraculous. After a few months on
the program one ninety year old man, an independent-minded Oregonian farmer,reported that he began awakening with an erection every morning; unfortunately,his 89 year old cranky and somewhat estranged wife, who would not takevitamins, did not appreciate this youthfulness. A few months later (he had a smallfarm) he planted a holly orchard. Most of you won’t appreciate what this meanswithout a bit of explanation, but in Oregon, holly is grown as a high-priced andhighly profitable ornamental for the clusters of leaves and berries. But a slow-growing holly orchard takes 25 years to began making a profit!
A few older clients of mine reported that they noticed nothing from the life
extension program, but these are unique people who have developed the ability todominate their bodies with their minds and routinely pay their bodies absolutely noattention, driving them relentlessly to do their will. Usually they use their energiesto accomplish good, Christian works. Eventually, these dedicated and high-tonedpeople break down and die like everyone else. Will they do so later on life
extending vitamins than they would have otherwise? I couldn’t know because I
can’t know how long they might have lived without supplementation and sincethey refuse to admit the vitamins do them any good, they won’t pay for them.
Many on life extension programs experience a reverse aging process for
awhile. However, after the full benefit of the supplementation has worked itselfthrough their body chemistry, they again begin to experience the aging process. Ibelieve the process will then be slowed by their vitamins compared to what itwould have been without supplements. But I can’t prove it. Maybe we will havesome idea if the program worked 20 to 40 years from now.
At this time I know of only two companies that make top quality life extension
vitamin supplement formulas. One is Prolongevity (Life Extension Foundation),the other, Vitamin Research Products. I prefer to support what I view as thealtruistic motives behind Prolongevity and buy my products from them.Unfortunately, these vitamin compounders can not put every possibly beneficialsubstance in a single bottle of tablets. The main reason they do not is fear of thepower-grabbing Food and Drug Administration. This agency is threateningconstantly to remove certain of the most useful life-extending substances from thevitamin trade and make them the exclusive property of prescription-writingmedical doctors. So far, public pressure has been mobilized against the FDAevery time action was threatened and has not permitted this. If some productwere included in a mix and that product were prohibited, the entire mixed, bottledand labeled batch that remained unsold at that time would be wasted, atenormous cost.
Were I manufacturing my own life extension supplement I would include the list
shortly following. By the way, to get this all in one day, it is necessary to take 6 to12 large tablets daily, usually spread throughout the day, taken a few at a timewith each meal. If you compare my suggested formulation to another one, keep inmind that variations of 25 percent one way or another won’t make a significantdifference, and adding other beneficial substances to my recommendations
probably is only helpful. However, I would not want to eliminate anything in the
list below, it is the minimum:
Beta-Carotene 25,000 iu Selenium 100 mcg
Vitamin A 5,000 iu T aurine 500 mg
B1 250 mg Cyctine 200 mg
B2 50 mg Gluthaianone 15 mg
B3 niacinamid 850 mg Choline 650 mg
B5 750 mg Inositol 250 mg
B6 200 mg Flavanoids 500 mg
B12 100 mcg Zinc 35 mg
PABA 50 mg Chromium 100 mcg
Folic Acid 500 mcg Molybdenum 123 mg
Biotin 200 mcg Manganese 5 mg
Vitamin C 3,000mg Iodine (as kelp) 10 mg
Vitamin E 600 iu Co-Enzyme Q 10 60 mg
Magnesium 1,000 mg DMAE 100 mg
Potassium 100 mg Ginko biloba 120 mg
Calcium 1,000 mg V itamin D 3 200 iu
Please also keep in mind that there are many other useful substances not listed
above. For example, every day I have a “green drink,” an herbal preparationcontaining numerous tonic substances like ginseng and also various forms of algaeand chlorophyll extracts. My green drink makes my body feel very peppy all day,so it certainly enhances my life and may extend it. It costs about $25.00 a monthto enjoy that. I also use various pure amino acids at times. Phenylalanine willmake me feel more aggressive whenever I am feeling lackluster; this nutrient hasalso been used as an effective therapy against depression. Melatonin taken atbedtime really does help me get to sleep and may have remarkable life-extending
properties. Other amino acids help my body manufacture growth hormones and I
use them from the time I begin training seriously in spring through the end of thesummer triathlon competition season. Pearson and Shaw’s book (seeBibliography) is a good starting point to begin learning about this remarkablyuseful subject.
The Future Of Life Extension
I beg the readers indulgence for a bit of futurology about what things may look
like if the life extension movement continues to develop.
Right now, a full vitamin and vitamin-like substance life extension program
costs between $50 and $100 dollars per month. However, pharmaceuticalresearchers occasionally notice that drugs meant to treat and cure diseases, whentested on lab animals for safety, make these animals live quite a bit longer andfunction better. Though the FDA doesn’t allow any word of this to be printed inofficial prescribing data, the word does get around to other researchers, togerontologists and eventually to that part of the public that is eagerly looking forlonger life. Today there are numerous people who routinely take prescriptionmedicines meant to cure a disease they do not have and plan to take thosemedicines for the rest of their long, long life.
These drugs being patented, the tariff gets a lot steeper compared to taking
vitamins. (Since they are naturally-occurring substances, vitamins can’t bepatented and therefore, aren’t big-profit items. Perhaps that’s one reason theFDA is so covertly opposed to vitamins.) Right now it would be quite possible tospend many hundred dollars per month on a life extension program that includedmost of these potentially beneficent prescription drugs.
As more of life-extending substances are discovered, the cost of participating
in a maximally effective life extension program will escalate. However, those whocan afford chemically enhanced functioning will enjoy certain side-benefits. Theirproductive, enjoyable life spans may measure well over a century, perhaps
approaching two centuries or more. Some of these substances greatly improve
intelligence so they will become brighter and have faster reaction times. With moretime to accumulate more wisdom and experience than “short livers” these folkswill become wiser, too. They will have more time to compound their investmentassets and thus will become far more wealthy. They will become an obvious andrecognizable aristocracy. This new upper class will immediately recognize eachother on the street because they will look entirely different than the short-livedpoorer folk and will probably run the political economic system.
And this new aristocratic society I see coming may be far more pleasant than
the one dominated by the oligarchy we now have covertly running things. For withgreater age and experience does really come greater wisdom. I have long felt thatthe biggest problem with Earth is that we did not live long enough. As GeorgeBernard Shaw quipped when he was 90 (he lived to 96), “here I am, 90 yearsold, just getting out of my adolescence and getting some sense, and my body isfalling apart as fast as it can.”
Vitamin Program For The Sick
No matter which way you look at it or how well insured you may be against it,
being sick is expensive (not to mention what it does to one’s quality of life), andby far the best thing to do is to prevent it from happening in the first place.However, most people do not do anything


 the baby to have seizures, but if she wants to call it a convulsion then it is a convulsion. Most all babies that have convulsions, the problem is low blood sugar. The quickest way to bring a baby out of the convulsion is to place a little honey in its mouth a nd in one minute it will be out of
the convulsion.
The modern tests that doctors do on blood chemistry for low blood
sugar, and even the glucose tolerance tests, are very difficult to locate low blood sugar, and the blood sugar problems.
The glucose tolerance test is only at its best 50% accurate, and that
misses it by a lot, too far for safety. There are those who have said it misses it 85% of the time.
The very first RBTI test will denote if there is a low blood sugar
problem. For 23 hours and 55 minutes of a day the blood sugar may be perfectly normal. But for the next five minutes the blood sugar may drop too low, and the person feels like he is going to die, or may have 100 a blackout. It is one of the worst feelings in the world. By the time he
can get to a doctor, the doctor can find nothing wrong because the
adrenalin glands have started to flow and the blood sugar is back to normal, and the doctor says, "It is all in your head."
It was all in the head, but the doctor didn't find out the cause for it.
In low blood sugar the blood does not take enough oxygen to the brain, and it was "in the head."
I have had people with low blood sugar that would go into coma at
any time of the day or night, and the doctors knew nothing to do about it. In a matter of two or three weeks with an individually-made diet we would have them completely free of the low blood sugar problem.
Low blood sugar is caused by the pancreas manufacturing too
much insulin. There are foods that cause the pancreas to manufacture and flush too much insulin. So the doctors take patients off of all sweets and carbohydrates because they have found some whose pan-creas flush es because they use certain sweeteners or carbohydrates, and they put them on an all-protein diet, which raises the urea, causes them to be more tired, puts them in the zone for pectoris heart attack, and, therefore, "robbing Peter to pay Paul." The patient won't die at the moment but probably will die much earlier with pectoris heart at-tack.
This type of person must be in a retreat and each day have a given
diet, and each day the medical doctor on the staff serving that patient can tell them by the diet they had the day before which carbohydrate has caused the pancreas to flus h, or which carbohydrate caused it not
to flush. Then the patient is taken off those carbohydrates that cause the pancreas to flush and they no longer have low blood sugar. It is just as simple as that. But these tests are the only tests that can detect every stage of high and low blood sugar, and are accurate.
In the low blood sugar range there are people who have other
problems besides the low blood sugar problem. They may have the low blood sugar and may have a very high urea. The diet for the very high urea, and the low blood sugar are opposite.
There is no way to handle this kind of problem without having the
person in a place where they can be tested two or three times a day so 101 that blackouts or seizures can be prevented. It only takes about two
weeks to correct this kind of a condition. I wish it were possible for us
to give everyone a diet so no one would need to go to a retreat, but this is not possible because of the necessity of running a test many times a day.
The American Medical Association often complains about the
prices that are charged in the retreats for services that we give on diet. The prices are about the same as staying in an A-class hotel. This price is the total of all tests, dietary aids, and diets.
The hospital rates generally start at $75 a day for room only, be-
sides the doctor fee and other tests that are made. In one Los Angeles, California, hospital that I was in this past year for 12 days, my room rate was $350 a day. Now, who is giving the rip off, the medical doc-tors in the hospitals, or we in the retreat with the health message as written in the Bible? We are not running hospitals. We are not running drug centers. We are running seminars in which we teach the health message as written in the Bible.
We are not treating diseases. We are teaching people how to live
without drugs and to live healthy.
Many people are coming to spas and retreats because drugs have
failed to get them well. Operations have failed to get them well. Many
of those coming are young people, some just children.
As a means of last resort they search out any place where they
have hope, where they can get encouragement. They are disenchanted, disappointed, brokenhearted over brainwashed ideas of what drugs can do.
The drug establishment is trying to make people stay on drugs
even when many medical doctors know that no drug can heal.
Medicine is the practice of drugs, it is not a food. In fact, many
doctors pooh-pooh the idea of food having anything to do with a per-son being in the best of health. Therefore, when I am accused of prac-ticing medicine without a license on a subject that is pooh-poohed by the drug establishment, it proves that I am not practicing medicine without a license. I am practicing drugless therapy, and medicine is
the practice of drug therapy. 102 If you wish to get well on drugs, I have no objection.
If you wish to get well by the use of God's plan of a better diet, I
have no objection; or the use of both drugs and food, but I do maintain that this is America and that you have a freedom of choice to choose the way and to whom you should go with your health problems. You should have the right to choose if you are carried to the cemetery young, or live in the best of health to a ripe old age. Anything less than this is tyranny.   103 CHAPTER 14
OBESITY

Obesity, or not obesity, that is the question! There are many causes for weight problems, and only about 2% of
overweight people are obese. I would venture to say that 95% of the 2% are ill. There is a reason for them to be obese.
A 28-year-old woman came to my office who weighed 550
pounds. However, she was 6' 4" and had a big frame. It was all we could do to get her through the door. She was the biggest person for whom I had ever written a diet. It took two scales to weigh her. She had six children. Two years prior to coming to us she had been put on the birth-control pill, and immediately began to gain weight. For the previous two months before she came in she had gained 55 pounds each month. She had been told she would be dead within 90 days be-cause there was no way to stop this weight gain. They owned an or-namental nursery, and she was a very hard worker.
The first thing I did after the test was to suggest she stop taking
the birth-control pill. Second, to take her off of all wheat and milk products. I then furnished her with a refractometer to measure the car-
bohydrates in the urine so she could keep them between 1 and 2 brix (the measurement of sugar per pound of volume) on the refracto dial. I told her to eat nothing but vegetables, lots and lots of raw salads, and no meats at all until I gave her the word to eat meats. She was to drink raw vegetable juices made with a juicer. She didn't have a juicer, she had to buy one.
I wanted her to come back in two weeks. After two weeks she had lost 12 pounds. I then put her in bed for
two weeks on nothing but lemon water and distilled water (four ounc-es lemon water every hour for 12 hours a day, and four ounces of dis-tilled water every half hour for 12 hours a day).
All she was to do was to go to the bathroom. No work. No noth-
ing. 104 The reason for not being on the lemon water for the first 14 days
was because the urea was so dangerously high that if she had gone in-
to a withdrawal it could have caused a heart attack. The diet I gave her
brought the urea back down out of the zone for a pectoris heart attack.
Then she was put on a very, very light diet for another two weeks.
I was to have a report every other day. If she got weak or hungry I was to be notified. The thing about it was I wanted her to rest. If she had tried to work then the lemon water and the water would not have taken effect. She would have been burning up the very energy she needed in order to restore her body chemistry so that it would rebuild itself.
The next 14 days she was to have a very, very light diet with a
very small amount of food and continue on the lemon and water.
She said she lost no strength, that she felt wonderful. By the end
of the fourth week it was very difficult to keep her down. By this time she had lost 60 pounds of weight. I restricted her work to one-half


origines was zero percent, which means that they had total immunity to tooth
decay. In contrast, he found that the average decay rate of all teeth of modern Aborigines, living on
reservations and eating modern foods, was 70.9 per cent.
a
His poetic words paint an important picture:
It is doubtful if many places in the world can demonstrate so great a contrast in physical
development and perfection of body as that which exists between the primitive
Aborigines of Australia who have been the sole arbiters of their fate, and those
Aborigines who have been under the influence of the white man. The white man has
deprived them of their original habitats and is now feeding them in reservations while
using them as laborers in modern industrial pursuits.
I have seldom, if ever, found whites suffering so tragically from evidence of physical
degeneration, as expressed in tooth decay and change in facial form, as are the whites of
eastern Australia. This has occurred on the very best of the land that these primitives
formerly occupied and becomes at once a monument to the wisdom of the primitive
Aborigines and a
signboard of warning to the modern civilization that has supplanted
them
.
25
 (Emphasis added.)
Dr. Price explained the importance of nutritious food to our overall health. He observed that the
Australian Aborigines, who for thousands of years maintained near-perfect physical forms, have lost
their ideal beauty and health with the foods of modernized society.
Those individuals, however, who had
adopted the foodsof the white man
,
suffered extremely
 from
tooth decay as the whites did. Where they had no opportunity to get native food to combine with the
white man's food their condition was desperate and extreme.© Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, www.ppnf.org
Wherever the primitive Aborigines have been placed in reservations and fed on the white man's
foods of commerce dental caries has become rampant. This destroys their beauty, prevents
mastication, and provides infection for seriously injuring their bodies. Note the contrast between
the primitive woman in the upper right and the three modernized women.
26
 (Original caption.)
[Referring to the figure] Note the contrast with the upper right. It is quite impossible to
imagine the suffering that these people were compelled to endure due to abscessing teeth
resulting from rampant tooth decay. As we had found in some of the modernized islands
of the Pacific, we discovered that here, too,
discouragement and a longing for death
had taken the place of a joy in living in many.
 Few souls in the world have experienced
this discouragement and this longing to a greater degree.
27
 (Emphasis added.)
Diet of Native Aborigines
The Aboriginal diet was a hunter-gatherer diet.For plant foods they used roots, stems, leaves, berries and seeds of grasses and a native pea eaten
with tissues of large and small animals. The large animals available are the kangaroo and wallaby.
Among the small animals they have a variety of rodents, insects, beetles and grubs, and wherever
available various forms of animal life from the rivers and oceans. Birds and birds' eggs are used
where available.
28
Modernized Aboriginal Diet
The modernized diet of the Australian Aborigines was very similar to the other modernized diets
listed in this book. Imported foods included sugar, flour, packaged milk, tea leaves, and meat in
tins.
29
A dire warning from Dr. Price:
It should be a matter not only of concern but
deep alarm
 that human beings can
degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition, particularly
the dietary products used so generally by modern civilization.
30
Nutritive Values of Diets Compared
Weston Price performed nutrient analyses of the foods eaten by many of the isolated and modernized
groups he studied. In the case of the Swiss, he found that the isolated Swiss diet contained 10 times
more fat-soluble vitamins and activators, 4 times more calcium, and 3.7 times more phosphorus than
the modern diet. The isolated Gaelics ate 10 times more fat-soluble vitamins, 2.1 times more calcium,
and 2.3 times more phosphorus than their modernized counterparts, who lived sometimes just a few
miles away. The Aborigines of Australia lived along the eastern coast where they had ample access
to seafood. Compared to the modernized food, their native diet contained 4.6 times the calcium, 6.2
times the phosphorus and ten times the amount of fat-soluble vitamins.
31
The Dramatic Difference in Dietary Nutrients Discovered by Dr. Price.
Dr. Price determined that tooth decay in modern civilization is due to a lack of nutrients in our
modern diet. Therefore Dr. Price concluded that tooth decay was not genetic but that:
Tooth decay is not only unnecessary, but an indication of our divergence from Nature's
fundamental laws of life and health.
32Fat-soluble Vitamins and Activators
The components most lacking in our modern diet are the fat-soluble vitamins, particularly those found
in animal fats. By restoring the fat-soluble vitamins to our diets, we will regain our health and
immunity to cavities. Fat-soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E, and K and they are found in fat. Fat-
soluble vitamins are essential for our physical health, not just because they provide nutrients to the
body, but precisely because they are activating substances that help our bodies utilize the minerals
present in our diets.
Dr. Price found that the indigenous groups, which had the highest immunity to tooth decay, ate daily
from at least two of the three following principal fat-soluble vitamin sources:

Dairy products from grassfed animals.
Organs and head meat from fish and shellfish.
Organs of land animals.
In a rarely reviewed 1936 article from the
Journal of the American Dental Association
, Dr. Price
reveals this little known secret for 100% immunity to tooth decay.
On the basis of the fat-soluble activators or vitamin content of the foods used, I found
that those groups using at least two of the three principal vitamin sources had the
highest immunity to dental caries. Those using the lowest amount of fat-soluble
activators had the greatest amount of dental caries. On this basis, namely, the fat-
soluble activator content of the diet, those groups using the fat-soluble activators in
liberal quantity had not more than 0.5 per cent of the teeth attacked by dental caries;
while those using fat-soluble activators less liberally had up to 12 per cent of the teeth
attacked by dental caries. All groups having a liberal supply of minerals particularly
phosphorus, and a liberal supply of fat-soluble activators, had 100 per cent immunity to
dental caries.
33
I specifically bring in the
Journal of theAmerican Dental Association
( ADA) quote because I
believe that the public needs to know that what is promoted by the ADA such as the acid / bacterial
theory of cavities and what is taught in dental schools is contrary to material published in its own
journal. I want to criticize the ADA for ignoring earlier research published in its own journal, by its
own former head of research, Dr. Price. Because the ADA masks this critical information about
insuring immunity to tooth decay through diet, hundreds of millions of people have developed cavities
that could have been prevented.
Eggs also count as a special source of fat-soluble vitamins. Most store-bought eggs, however, come
from chickens that are solely grain fed, even organic ones. Eggs from grain-fed chickens do not
possess enough vitamins and nutrients to merit consideration as a food capable of preventing tooth
decay. It is precisely due to the lack of fat-soluble vitamins and activators in the vegan diet that makes
it difficult for vegans over time to remain immune to cavities and the effects of physical degeneration.
Insects could be added as a fourth category but this source of nutrition is not heavily utilized in ourculture. The “yuck” factor seems to be our biggest obstacle to taking advantage of this category of
food. On the other hand, my children love eating grasshoppers, so taste wise, insects can be excellent.
Why Tooth Decay with Modern Civilization?
Our modern diet rarely utilizes the special foods that isolated indigenous people ate, which made
them immune to tooth decay. How often do you eat fish with the heads? Or how often do you eat liver,
bone marrow, heart and blood curd? While we do use dairy products in our country, most are of
inferior quality, and even can produce poor health due to factory farm practices.
A typical adult needs to eat approximately the following nutrients, daily, to be healthy:
Calcium
Phosphorus
Vitamin A
Vitamin D
Percent Calories from Fat
1.5 grams
2 grams
4,000 - 20,000 IU
1,000 - 4,000 IU
30-70%
Note: never use synthetic vitamins to obtain these nutrients; they are not effective.
The figures for calcium and phosphorus come from Dr. Price himself. The figures for the vitamins A
and D and the calories from fat are based on my analysis of several different interpretations of healthy
diets as well as recommendations from the
Weston A. Price Foundation
. These figures are simply
guidelines and may not be suited for all readers. You will need to modify these guidelines depending
on your level of health, your weight, and


.133
8DMSO in Basic
Neuroprotection
BRAIN TRAUMA OVERVIEW
The search for safe and effective agents that can reverse, arrest, or minimize the
 consequences of traumatic brain injury has become a major research priority
throughout the world due to the rising epidemic of brain trauma resulting from falls,
motor vehicle accidents, sports injuries, physical assaults, and military and civilian gunshot wounds.
The leading causes of traumatic brain injury in the general population are
falls (35.2%), motor vehicle crashes (17.3%), blunt impact (i.e., being struck by or against a moving or stationary object) (16.5%), and assaults (10%).
1 These numbers
do not include U.S. military personnel sustaining war-related injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan in the past decade. There were a total 253,330 traumatic brain injuries sustained by military personnel between 2000 and 2012; 194,561 were described as mild, 42,063 were moderate, and 6,476 were severe or penetrating wounds.
2
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that at least 2.4 million emer -
gency department visits, hospitalizations, or deaths were related to traumatic brain injury in 2012.
3 Of these brain trauma cases, 52,000 deaths are recorded annually in
the United States.4 Approximately 75% of these brain injuries are mild concussions
and do not require hospitalization or aggressive treatment.
Children and older adults are more likely to sustain a traumatic brain injury, usu -
ally from a fall, and it is one of the leading causes of death and disability for this segment of the population.
5 The direct and indirect economic costs of brain injury in
the United States in 2010 were estimated at $76.5 billion annually.6
Moreover, about 3.2 million persons in the United States are living with life-long
neurologic deficits from the consequences of head injuries.7
A workshop on head injuries, sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), was held in May 2000 gathering some of the leading experts in the field of traumatic brain injury.
8 The group concluded that severe, closed
head injury was a life-threatening injury that required immediate medical help and the need for the development of more effective drugs for the treatment of this trauma. It was also the consensus that none of previously tested treatments had been shown to significantly modify the outcome of severe, closed head injury. Additionally, the work -
shop members estimated that of the 50,000 patients hospitalized in the United States annually with severe, closed head injuries, 17,500 (33%) died irrespective of any treat -
ment given even when the best head injury centers were considered.
8 This was a call to
action to urgently find more effective and safe interventions that could reduce the high fatality and permanent disabling deficits following moderate-to-severe head injuries.134 Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) in Trauma and Disease
There was also a stark warning by the workshop members that current therapies
exhibit side effects that are potentially harmful to the patient and that can compro -
mise the outcome of trauma to the brain.8
Management of such head injuries presently relies on controlling high intracra -
nial pressure (ICP) from progressive edema buildup, increasing a low cerebral perfu -
sion, and correcting pulmonary distress. Unfortunately, no single agent is capable of
addressing these consequences after a head injury and multiple therapy is generally required to control each problem separately.
The drugs given to treat and manage the head injury complications in the past
have been osmotic agents such as urea, glycerol, and mannitol; for control of ICP, steroids, which was given for many years until it was found to be contraindicated for head injuries due to inefficacy and increased mortality; and furosemide, a powerful diuretic also later abandoned as a treatment to lower brain pressure and swelling. If the head-injured patient survived, phenobarbital was given for the first 3 weeks after admission,
9 a protocol that has been modified in favor of outcome. Presently, barbitu -
rate coma is used temporarily, until the patient regains consciousness after which the barbiturate dose is reduced and withdrawn. The basis for using induced barbiturate coma is to reduce cerebral blood flow and metabolic demand in a patient who has sustained severe trauma to the brain.
However, controversy has risen as to the benefits of barbiturate coma since it does
not appear to prevent brain damage, possibly because the reduction of high ICP is not sustained.
10
A Cochrane analysis of randomized controlled trials of using barbiturate therapy
and barbiturate coma showed no evidence that barbiturate therapy improved out -
come in patients with acute severe head injury.11 This analysis concluded that barbi -
turate therapy results in a fall in blood pressure in 25% of patients treated and this drug’s promotion of a hypotensive response will impair lowering ICP and improving cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP).
11 When trying to monitor the level of conscious -
ness in patients with head injury, barbiturates are impractical because they interfere with this clinical exam.
Although initially effective in the control of elevated ICP, the main problems
with the hypertonic diuretics (urea, mannitol, and furosemide) were their side effects when used repeatedly and also their tendency to rebound after multiple doses and create higher ICP than that on admission.
12,13
Hypothermia was suggested as a treatment for head injury. Although hypother -
mia can reduce ICP, the analysis of high-quality studies using therapeutic hypother -
mia showed an association with cerebrovascular disturbances, including a lowering of cerebral perfusion and an increase in morbidity on rewarming and possibly a risk of pneumonia in adult patients.
14
It was said that although these drugs saved a few from head injury death, they
could not be correlated with the recovery outcome.9 Osmotic agents such as magne -
sium sulfate to lower ICP have had a time-honored place in neurosurgical practice
and with the introduction, by Javid15 in 1958, of intravenous urea to treat brain swell -
ing, a new era of drugs with similar action leading to the search for better osmotics.
Although intravenous urea still remains one of the most reliable drugs to combat
acute brain swelling, another osmotic agent, mannitol, has shown fewer complications 135 DMSO in Basic Neuroprotection
in treating head injuries, but its action is half as short as that of urea (about 4 h), plus,
it does not improve brain tissue pO2 in severe head trauma and its effect is not as
dramatic when brain edema is severe.16
A fundamental guide to emergency department management of head injuries at
the present time is ensuring adequate CPP, adequate oxygenation, and preventing even brief or transient episodes of hypotension, hypoxia, seizures, hyperglycemia, and hypocapnia.
17 CPP is a function of ICP and systemic blood pressure, and it must
be monitored and controlled at all times to prevent further structural and functional damager.
18
When severe brain tissue trauma occurs, brain cells respond in a typical manner.
The anatomic changes in neurons following trauma have been well studied and con -
sist of cytoplasmic swelling secondary to sodium influx and a failure of membrane ionic regulation.
19 This is followed by characteristic cytoplasmic eosinophilia, severe
loss of the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus, chromatin clumping, nuclear shrinking with peripheral shifting, and disappearance of axonal microtubules, a phe -
nomenon that generates synaptic dystrophy and neurotransmission failure.
20
Depending on its location and severity, a focal traumatic insult to the brain will
destabilize ischemic neurons by inducing hypoxia, glutamate excitotoxicity, a mas -
sive and disruptive intracellular rise of Ca2+, mitochondrial energy loss, formation
of oxygen and nitric oxide free radicals, and impairment of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis that fuel all brain cells.
21 The biochemical cascade associated with
anatomic changes in ischemic neurons and glial cells is the product of irreversible oxygen–glucose deprivation resulting from the severe ischemia that leads inevitably to ATP production failure and a neurometabolic energy crisis in adjacent hypoper -
fused neurons.
22
The reduced mortality and improved outcome for patients with severe traumatic
brain injury in the past decade has been attributed to the partial but incomplete success of trying to squeeze oxygenated blood through a swollen brain. This plan requires quantification of cerebral perfusion by monitoring the ICP and by prompt treatment of cerebral hypoperfusion to lower the incidence of secondary injury. Although this plan can mean the difference between good survival and incapacitat -
ing, long-lasting neurological deficits or death, it is not generally possible to achieve due to the absence of an agent that can address cerebral hypoperfusion, brain edema, excitotoxic release of glutamate and cytokines, ionic cell shifts involving sodium and calcium channels, and free radical formation. Is there an agent that can address the pathologic cascade results from severe brain trauma and clinical success and improved outcome?
SECONDARY INJURY AND ISCHEMIC PENUMBRAL NEURONS
Because traumatic brain injury results in irreversible damage at the site of impact and initiates cellular and molecular processes that lead to secondary neural injury
in the surrounding tissue, understanding the pathophysiology of secondary injury is
critical to the development of effective therapy.
Adding to the cell and molecular damage that results at the site of trauma, sec -
ondary injury to the surrounding brain tissue also undergoes electrophysiological 136 Dimethyl


.
(P)
Shakespearstraat 13
Oranjestad, Aruba
PD
St. Maarten
Dirk van Lith, M.D.
(DIPL)
PO Box 3030
Simpsonbay
St. Maarten
A,CT,DD,GP,HO,NT,PM,S
Robert T.H.K. Trossel, M.D.
(DIPL)
PO Box 3030
Simpsonbay, St. Maarten
A,CT,DD,GP,HO,NT,PM,S,
NEW ZEALAND
Auckland
Maurice B. Archer, D.O.
(P)
PO Box 2981
Auckland 1
CT,NT,PM
R.H. Bundellu, M.D.
(DIPL)
173 Tamaki Road
Otara, Auckland
CT,FP,OBS
Christchurch
Robert Blackmore, M.D.
(D/C)
196 Hills Road
Christchurch 1
AC,CT,FP,GP,NT,OBSHamilton
William J. Reeder, M.D.
(D/C)
PO Box 4187
Hamilton
AC,CT,GP,NT,PM
Masterton
T.J. Baily Gibson, M.D.
(DIPL)
PO Box 274
Masterton
A,CT,FP,OBS,OME
New Lynn
Raymond Ramirez, M.D.
(P)
3075 Great North Road
New Lynn, Auckland
AC,AU,CT,GP,OSM,YS
Napier
Tony Edwards, M.D.
(D/C)
30 Munroe Street
Napier
CT,FP,NT,OBS,PM
Oxford, North Canterbury
Ted Walford, M.D.
(P)
454 Cameron Road
Tauranga
CT,NT,PM
Tauranga
Michael E. Godfrey, M.D.
(DIPL)
Willow House
14 Willow Street
TaurangaCT,OME,PM
PHILIPPINES
Manila
Rosa M. Ami Belli, M.D.
(P)
Suite 303-501
PDC Building
1440 Taft Avenue
Manila
CT,HGL,NT,P
Leonides Lerma, M.D.
(P)
#301, Pearl Garden
1700 M. Adriatico Malate
Manila
A,AC,AU,GER,P
Corazon Macawili-Yu, M.D.
(P)
Suite 303-501
PDC Building
1440 Taft Avenue
Manila
CT,NT,PM
Remedios L. Reynoso, M.D.
(P)
Suite 303-501
PDC Building
1440 Taft Avenue
Manila
CT,NT,PM
PUERTO RICO
Cidra
Pedro Rivera, M.D.
(P)
PO Box 1518Cidra 00639
(Retired)
Santurce
Pedro Zayas, M.D.
(D/C)
PO Box 14275
B.O. Obrero Station
Santurce
AC,BA,CT,FP,HGL,NT
SPAIN
Malaga
Henning Munksnaes, M.D.
(P)
Medina Sidonia 192
Urb. Torre Nueva
Mijas Costa/Malaga
CT,DD,GYN,NT,P
SWITZERLAND
Geneva
Robert Tissot, M.D.
(P)
168 Route de Malagnou
1224 Geneva
AU,NT,OSM,PM,PMR
Montreux
Claude Rossel, M.D., Ph.D.
(P)
Clinique Bon Port
1820 Montreux
CT,NT,PM
Netstal (Glarus)
Walter Blumer, M.D.
(P)
8754 Netstal
(Glarus bei Zurich)CT
(Honorary Life Member)
TAIWAN (R.O.C.)
Taipei
Paul Lin, M.D.
(P)
5 Lane 85 Sung Chiang Road
Taipei
CT,NT,PM
Yeh-Sung Lin, M.D.
(P)
154 Sec. 1 Chien Kuo N. Road
Taipei
AN,CD,DD,DIA,END
WEST INDIES
Jamaica
H. Marco Brown, M.D.
(D/C)
6 Corner Lane
Montego Bay, Jamaica
CT,NT,PMNotes
Chapter 1
The Painkiller With a Problem
1.
 Olver, I.N.; J. Aisner; A. Hament; L. Buchanan; J.F. Bishop; and R.S. Kaplan.
“A prospective study of topical dimethyl sulfoxide for treating anthracycline
extravasation.”
Journal of Clinical Oncology
 (Nov. 1988); 6(11):1732–1735.
2.
 Babenko, V.N. “Treatment of patients with generalized periodontitis with a
suspension of indomethacin in a dimexide solution.”
Stomatologiia
 (Mar./Apr.
1987); 66(2):26–28.
3.
 Goranov, K.; V. Zarankova; M. Velceva; and S. Dermend: zieva. “Clinical
results from the treatment of a hemorrhagic form of periodontosis with a
complex herb extract and 15 percent DMSO.”
Stomatologiia
 (Nov./Dec.
1983); 65(6):25–30.
Chapter 2
DMSO’s Controversial History
1.
 “DMSO Documents Sought,”
NHF Public Scrutiny.
 Vol. XXVII, No. 27,
January, 1981, p. 29.
2.
 Szmant, H. Harry. “Physical properties of dimethyl sulfoxide and its function in
biological systems,”
Biological Actions of Dimethyl Sulfoxide
, Stanley W.
Jacob and Robert Herschler (eds.), New York: Annals of the New York
Academy of Sciences, Vol. 243, January 27, 1975, pp. 20–23.
3.
 Tackett, Michael. “Arthritis victims warned on solvent,”
Chicago Tribune
,
November 16, 1980, p. 1.
4.
 Dewitt, Karen. “Drug DMSO studied as unauthorized use rises,”
The New York
Times
, July 31, 1980, p. A11.
5.
 Sweeney, Thomas F. “Medicinal uses of marijuana get conflicting reviews,”
The Advocate
, January 28, 1981, p.2.
6.
 “Former Gov. Wallace travels to Oregon for special treatment,”
The Advocate
,
June 30, 1980, p.3.
Chapter 3
The Therapeutic Principle of DMSO1.
 Schlafer, H.L. and W. Schaffernicht.
Angew. Chem
, 72:618, 1960.
2.
 Ranky,
W.O. and D.C. Nelson.
Organic Sulfur Compounds
 (N. Kharasch, ed.),
Vol. 1, Pergamon, New York, 1961, p. 170.
3.
 MacGregory, W.S.
Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.
, 141:3, 1967.
4.
 Martin, D.; A. Weise; and H.J. Niclas.
Angew. Chem
, 79:340, 1967.
5.
 Thomas, R.; C.B. Schoemaker; and K. Eriks.
Acta Cryst.
, 21:12, 1966.
6.
 Parker, A.J.
Advances in Organic Chemistry, Methods and Results
, (R.A.
Raphael, E.C. Taylor, and H. Wynberg, eds.), Vol. 5, Wiley (Interscience),
New York, 1965, p. 1.
7.
 Lindberg, J.J.; J. Kenttamaa; and A. Nissema.
Suomen Kemistilehti
, 34B:98,
1961.
8.
 Schlafer and Schaffernicht, op. cit.
9.
 Wiberg, K.B.
Physical Organic Chemistry
, Wiley, New York, 1964, p. 136.
10.
 Martin, Weise, and Niclas, op. cit.
11.
 Pruckner, H.; Erdoel; and Kohle,
Acta Shandia Med.
, 16:188, 1963.
12.
 Lindberg, J.J.
Finska Kemistsamfundets Medd.
, 77:130, 1968.
13.
 Kauzmann, W.
Advan. Protein Chem.
, 14:1, 1959.
14.
 Klotz, I.M.
Brookhaven Symp. Biol.
, 13:25, 1961.
15.
 Tanford, C.
J. Am. Chem. Soc.
, 84:4240, 1962.
16.
 Typley, J.A.
J. Phys. Chem.
, 68:2002, 1964.
17.
 Kligman, H.M.
J. Am. Med. Soc.
, 193:11, 1965.
18.
 Muset, P. Puig, and J. Martin Esteve.


benefits. The index of key medicinal plants (pp. 54–155) contains many herbs that are
readily available in health stores and pharmacies, for example St. John’s wort ( Hypericum
perforatum, p. 106). It also includes herbs that are more commonly known as foods, such as
lemon ( Citrus limon, p. 82), but which, nonetheless, are valuable medicines. The index of other
medicinal plants (pp. 156–283) contains some less commonly known but important medicinal
herbs, such as andrographis ( Andrographis paniculata, p. 167), a traditional Indian medicinal
plant that stimulates recovery from infection and supports normal liver function.
 A global overview of the history of herbal medicine puts the development of different
herbal traditions from earliest origins to the present day into perspective. This is complemented
with features on herbal medicine in Europe, India, China, Africa, Australia, and the Americas,
providing a rounded picture of herbal medicine worldwide.
 Herbal medicine is nothing if not practical in its approach, and the Encyclopedia  has a
detailed self-help section with advice on preparing and using herbal medicines to treat
a range of common health problems.
 If more people come to appreciate the immense richness of the world of herbal
medicine and are able to benefit from the curative properties of medicinal herbs, this
book will have achieved its aim.
US_006-007_Introduction.indd   7 07/04/16   4:36 pm
US_008-009_The_Development_of_Herbal_Medicine.indd   8 26/02/16   4:42 pmThe
developmen T
of herbal
medicine
From the earliest times, herbs have been prized for their pain-relieving and
healing abilities, and today we still rely on the curative properties of plants
in about 75 percent of our medicines. Over the centuries, societies around
the world have developed their own traditions to make sense of medicinal
plants and their uses. Some of these traditions and medicinal practices may
seem strange and magical, others appear rational and sensible, but all are
attempts to overcome illness and suffering, and to enhance quality of life.
 “a wise man ought
to realize that health
is his most valuable
 possession.”
Hippocrates
US_008-009_The_Development_of_Herbal_Medicine.indd   9 26/02/16   4:42 pm
10
The developmen T of herbal medicineHow Medicinal Plants Work
Many of the thousands of plant species growing throughout the world have medicinal
uses, containing active constituents that have a direct action on the body. They are used  both in herbal and conventional medicine and offer benefits that pharmaceutical drugs  often lack, helping to combat illness and support the body’s efforts to regain good health.
There is no doubt that in extreme situations, the treatments
devised by modern medicine can offer an unparalleled opportunity to relieve symptoms and save lives. A newspaper article in 1993 described the terrible conditions in a hospital in war-torn Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Deprived of conventional medical supplies and drugs, the doctors were forced to use a well-known European herb, valerian (Valeriana officinalis, p. 148), as a painkiller for the wounded and as an anesthetic. Valerian is an effective herbal medicine for anxiety and nervous tension, but it is woefully inadequate as an analgesic or anesthetic. Orthodox pharmaceutical medicines sustain life and counter
infections in situations where other types of treatment
may have little to offer. Modern surgical techniques, such as keyhole surgery and plastic surgery, and the whole range of diagnostics and of life-support machinery now available, can
all be used to improve the chances of recovery from serious illness or injury.
The Benefits of Herbal Medicine
Y et despite the dramatic advances and advantages of conventional medicine, or biomedicine as it is also known,
it is clear that herbal medicine has much to offer. We tend  to forget that in all but the past 70 years or so, humans
have relied almost entirely on plants to treat all manner
of illnesses, from minor problems such as coughs and colds
to life-threatening diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. Today, herbal remedies are coming back into prominence because the efficacy of conventional medicines such as antibiotics, which once had near-universal effectiveness against serious infections, is on the wane. Over the years, infectious organisms have developed resistance to synthesized drugs, and the herb sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua, p. 67) and
its active constituent artemisinin, for example, are now the standard treatment for malaria in tropical areas where
the protozoa causing the infection no longer respond to conventional treatment. Herbal medicine often complements conventional
treatments, providing safe, well-tolerated remedies for chronic illnesses. It is experiencing a dramatic renaissance in Western countries, partly because no effective conventional treatment as yet exists for many chronic illnesses, such as asthma, arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome. In addition, concern over the side effects of biomedicine is encouraging people  to look for more gentle forms of treatment. It is estimated that 10–20% of hospital patients in the West are there due to the side effects of conventional medical treatment.
Using Herbs Wisely
Most commonly used herbs are extremely safe to use.
But some plants can produce side effects and, like all medicines, herbal remedies must be treated with respect.  It is essential to take or use certain plants only under the guidance of a well-trained practitioner, to avoid adverse consequences. Ma huang (Ephedra sinica, p. 95), for example, can be extremely toxic at the wrong dosage, and comfrey (Symphytum officinale, p. 138), a very popular herb in the
past, is thought to cause severe or even fatal liver damage
in rare circumstances. When an herbal medicine is used correctly, however, the chances of developing a serious side effect are remote.
Potent Plant Chemicals
The ability of an herbal medicine to affect body systems depends on the chemical constituents that it contains. Scientists first started extracting and isolating chemicals from plants in the 18th century, and since that time we have grown accustomed to looking at herbs and their effects in terms of the active constituents they contain. This Encyclopedia
is no exception, providing details of all the main active constituents of the medicinal herbs featured and explaining their actions.
Opium poppy fields in Tasmania. Opium, derived from the seed capsules of the opium
poppy, yields the narcotic alkaloids morphine and codeine, powerful painkillers that are widely used in conventional medicine.
US_010-013_How_Medicinal_Plants_work.indd   10 26/02/16   4:42 pm11 How Medicinal Plants workResearch into isolated plant
constituents is of great
importance, for it has given rise
to many of the world’s most
useful drugs. Tubocurarine, the
most powerful muscle relaxant
in existence, is derived from
pareira ( Chondrodendron
tomentosum, p. 189), and the
strongest painkiller of all,
morphine, comes from opium
poppy ( Papaver somniferum,
p. 244). Many anesthetics
are also derived from plants—
for example cocaine comes
from coca ( Erythroxylum
coca, p. 206).
 Today, biomedicine still
relies on plants rather than
the laboratory for at least 25%
of its medicines, and many of
these are among the most effective of all conventional drugs.
It is hard to think of a world deprived of the antimalarial
properties of quinine (derived from Cinchona  spp., p. 80); or
the heart remedy digoxin (from Digitalis  spp., p. 202); or the
cough-relieving properties of ephedrine (from Ephedra sinica,
p. 95), which is present in many prescription and over-the-
counter cold remedies. These and many other conventional
medicines are all derived from isolated plant constituents.
Value of Whole Plants
Although it is important to understand the actions of
individual active constituents, herbal medicine, unlike bio-
medicine, is ultimately about the use and actions of whole
plants—medicines that are literally god- or goddess-given, rather than developed in a laboratory. In the same way that
taking a watch apart and identifying its key parts will not show
you how it works as a whole, dividing up a medicinal herb
into its constituent parts cannot explain exactly how it works
in its natural form. The whole herb is worth more than the
sum of its parts, and scientific research is increasingly showing
that the active constituents of many herbs, for example those
in ginkgo ( Ginkgo biloba, p. 100), interact in complex ways to
produce the therapeutic effect of the remedy as a whole.
 Plants contain hundreds, if not thousands, of different
constituent chemicals that interact in complex ways.
Frequently, we simply do not know in detail how a particular
herb works—even though its medicinal benefit is well
established. The pharmacological approach to understanding
how whole herbs work is like working on a puzzle where only
some of the pieces have been provided. Furthermore,
although it is very useful to know that a plant contains certain
active constituents, such information can be misleading on its
own. For example, Chinese rhubarb ( Rheum palm


 such
as conjunctivitis, mastitis (inflammation of the breasts), and rheumatism.
Research  Chinese research indicates that the
Asian species has significant antimicrobial activity, including against the tuberculosis bacillus. Clinical studies suggest that this species can also help to lower high blood pressure.
Caution  Do not eat the berries, which are
thought to be toxic.
Loofah fruit is dried and used in Chinese medicine to treat
muscle and joint pain.
Peyote is a powerful hallucinogen. It is used in  Native American ceremonies.It is best known in the West as a bathroom
accessory—the fibrous skeleton makes a good  skin scrubber.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  In Chinese
medicine, the inner skeleton of the dried fruit  is used to treat pain in the muscles, joints, chest,  and abdomen. It is prescribed for chest infections accompanied by fever and pain, and is used to
clear congested mucus. Loofah is also given
to treat painful or swollen breasts.
Research  Chinese research indicates that the
fresh vine has a stronger expectorant effect than the dried fruit. German research (1999) using a homeopathic preparation of the plant showed it  to be as effective as a standard nasal spray for relief of hay fever.
Lycopodium clavatum
(Lycopodiaceae)
Club Moss
Description  Creeping evergreen moss growing
to 43⁄4 in (12 cm). Has numerous straggling
branchlets covered with bright green linear leaves,
and scaly spikes bearing yellow spores.
Habitat & Cultivation  Club moss is found
throughout temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It is common on mountains and in moorland. The plant is gathered in summer.
Parts Used  Moss, spores.
Constituents  Club moss contains about
0.1–0.2% alkaloids (including lycopodine), polyphenols, flavonoids, and triterpenes.
History & Folklore  Club moss
has been used medicinally since at least the Middle Ages. The whole plant was employed as a diuretic to aid in the flushing out of  kidney stones. In Wales, club moss was used for certain back problems and for colds and sore throats. Being strongly water-resistant, the spores are still used to coat tablets. The spores ignite explosively and have been used in  making fireworks.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  Club moss is
diuretic, sedative, and antispasmodic, and is particularly useful for treating chronic urinary issues. The herb may also be taken for indigestion and gastritis. The spores can be applied to the skin to relieve itchiness. Club moss is frequently used in homeopathic medicine, being prescribed for headache, liver problems, and digestive symptoms such as gas and burping.
 QCaution  Club moss is potentially toxic in
overdose. This plant should only be used with the supervision of a professional practitioner.Constituents  Peyote contains alkaloids, principally
mescaline, which is a powerful hallucinogen.
History & Folklore  Peyote has been used
in Native American religious ceremonies for
over 3,000 years. Its use as a hallucinogen was
popularized by Aldous Huxley in his book
The Doors of Perception.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  Peyote is a
shamanistic plant, taken in Native American rituals
to deepen spiritual understanding. It plays an important part in the emotional and mental state of the community. It is also used to treat fevers, as
a painkiller for rheumatism, and to treat paralysis. It is applied as a poultice for fractures, wounds, and snake bite. Peyote is also used to induce vomiting.
Caution The use of peyote and mescaline is
illegal in most countries.
Luffa cylindrica syn. L. aegyptica
(Cucurbitaceae)
Loofah,
Si Gua Luo (Chinese)
Description  Annual vine climbing to 49 ft
(15 m). Has large lobed leaves, tendrils, and
yellow female flowers producing long cylindrical  marrow-like fruit.
Habitat & Cultivation  Loofah is native to
the tropics of Asia and Africa. It is now grown
as a fruit in tropical regions around the world.
It is harvested when ripe in summer.
Part Used  Fruit.
Constituents  Loofah contains polysaccharides,
xylan, xylose, and galactan.
History & Folklore  Loofah was brought from
India to China in the T ang Dynasty (618–907 ce).  Lophophora williamsii (Cactaceae)
Peyote
Description  Cactus growing to 2 in (5 cm).
Has a squat gray-green body with tufted hairs,  and pink or white flowers.
Habitat & Cultivation  Peyote is native
to northern Mexico and the southwestern region of the U.S.
Part Used  Whole plant.
Club moss
US_224-245_Jasmine_Harmala.indd   230 26/02/16   12:47 pm231 Other medicinal plantsMadhuca spp.
Lycopus virginicus (Lamiaceae)
Bugleweed
Description  Perennial herb growing to 2 ft
(60cm). Has a square stem, lance-shaped leaves,
and whorls of whitish flowers.
Habitat & Cultivation  Bugleweed is common
throughout most of North America, thriving close
to water. It is harvested in summer when in flower.
Parts Used  Aerial parts.
Constituents  Bugleweed contains phenolic
acids (including derivatives of caffeic, chlorogenic,
and ellagic acids).
History & Folklore  In the 19th-century
Physiomedicalist tradition, bugleweed was regarded
as astringent and calming to the nerves, and was
given for loose coughs, internal bleeding, and
urinary incontinence. Herbal practitioners once
considered the plant to be a mild narcotic.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  Bugleweed
has sedative properties and today the herb is
principally prescribed to treat an overactive
thyroid gland and the racing heartbeat that often
accompanies this condition. Bugleweed is also
considered an aromatic and tonic astringent
that reduces the production of mucus.
Research  Studies indicate that bugleweed and,
to some degree, gipsywort ( see Related Species,
below) reduce the activity of the thyroid gland.
Related Species  Gipsywort ( L. europaeus ), a
European native, has astringent and cardiotonic
properties. It is taken for palpitations and anxiety,
and has been used to lower fever.
 QCautions  T ake only under professional
supervision. Do not take during pregnancy.Dioscorides (40–90 ce) recommended loosestrife
to staunch wounds and for nosebleeds, and noted
that its smoke would drive away snakes and flies.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  An astringent
herb, yellow loosestrife is principally used to treat
gastrointestinal conditions such as diarrhea and
dysentery, to stop internal and external bleeding,
and to cleanse wounds. It makes a workable
mouthwash for sore gums and mouth ulcers, and
may be used to treat nosebleeds. Y ellow loosestrife
has also been taken as an expectorant.
Related Species  The yellow pimpernel
(L. nemorum ), another European native, is
astringent and staunches blood. Jin qian cao
(L. christinae ), from China, is a diuretic used to
treat urinary pain. A Chinese trial showed that
the latter is also effective in treating both kidney
stones and gallstones.
Lythrum salicaria (Lythraceae)
Purple Loosestrife
Description  Attractive perennial growing to
about 5 ft (1.5 m). Has straight red stems,
pointed lance-shaped leaves, and spikes
of brilliant purple flowers.
Habitat & Cultivation  Purple
loosestrife is native to Europe
but well-established in the
wild in North America.
It thrives in marshes and along rivers and streams, to altitudes of
3,300 ft (1,000 m). It is gathered when in flower
in summer.
Parts Used  Aerial parts.
Constituents  Purple loosestrife contains salicarin,
a glycoside (vitexin), tannins, a volatile oil, mucilage,
and plant sterols.
History & Folklore  In 1654, the herbalist
Nicholas Culpeper praised this herb, writing that
“the distilled water is a present remedy for hurts
and blows on the eyes, and for blindness … it also
cleareth the eyes of dust or any other thing gotten
into them, and preserveth the sight.” A common
plant in Ireland, purple loosestrife was much used
there against diarrhea.
Medicinal Actions & Uses  The astringent
purple loosestrife is mainly employed as a
treatment for diarrhea and dysentery. It can be
safely taken by people of all ages; some herbalists
recommend it to help arrest diarrhea in breast-
feeding babies. The herb may also be used
to treat heavy periods and for inter-menstrual
bleeding. Externally, it is applied as a poultice
or lotion to wounds, leg ulcers, and eczema,


 asserted that these figures for 1962 do
not begin to tell the story, for although the law requires all physicians to report such cases, many
fail to do so. Indeed, it is said that such cases are rarely reported. Less than ten percent according
to estimates of the cases of gonorrhea have been reported. It is stated that teen agers and young
adults are the chief
victims
.
The false security that was aroused by the first optimism for the anti-biotics, has now given way
to despair—and alarm. Physicians admit that penicillin and steptomycin are “no longer effective”
against the disease. The common explanation is employed: the germs have developed resistance to
the drug.
Even progressively larger doses are now admitted to be resulting in more “treatment failures”
than did much smaller doses when the drug was first used. It is now realized that it is not possible
to treat gonorrhea out of existence with universal use of anti-biotics.
While one may have gonorrhea numerous times in a lifetime, it is well known that one
infection
127does not confer
immunity
, as is claimed for many other infections; it is now said by the experts of
WHO that the only hope for the future resides in the possible finding of a vaccine that will confer
immunity
. It is strange that they never suggest that good behavior is a sure preventive. They take it
for granted that youth has started on a course of sexual laxity from which it cannot be returned, no
matter what the cost.
My observations as well as statistics of the disease show that circumcision is a very poor
substitute for good behavior. The disease is very prevalent in circumcised as well as
noncircumcised peoples of the world.
Before the days of penicillin I used to get numbers of cases of gonorrhea for care. Then came the
“wonder drugs” and the belief that one to three shots would rapidly cure gonorrhea. I ceased to get
these patients. Everybody who developed gonorrhea resorted to penicillin. Symptoms were thus
suppressed and recurrences were again suppressed. But suppressing symptoms does not provide
any lasting answers.
Gonorrhea is a self-limited disease. This is to say, it runs a more or less variable course to
recovery. Patients get well under all kinds of treatment and they get well with no treatment at all. A
number of years ago some tests were made and it was discovered that warm water was as
effective as the drugs popularly used. The course of gonorrhea runs from four to six weeks. Its
course can be shortened by rest and fasting. Complications can be prevented in all cases by
fasting.
Every enervating influence, such as tobacco, alcohol, overeating, lasciviousness, late hours,
over-activity, will delay recovery and increase the liability to the development of complications.
My own experience has indicated that the disease gets well more rapidly in females than in
males and there is less suffering, due primarily to the fact that the female canals are larger and
drain better. Adequate drainage is
vitally important and any bandages or ligatures that interfere
with drainage are almost certain to cause complications.
This is one condition in which I think that we may profitably alter our rule against drinking much
water, and permit the free taking of water. Much water drinking means frequent urination and this
helps to keep the urethral canal washed out. Injections into the canal tend to carry infectious
material further back into the canal, whereas urine tends to sweep it to the mouth of the urethra and
out. Externally, both in males and females, strict cleanliness is essential.
While I prefer the fast in all such cases, if the circumstances of the patient are such that a fast of
any length is not feasible, the fruit diet may be substituted for the fast. Three meals a day of fresh
fruits, with no eating between meals and no heavy fruit meals taken, will enable the patient to carry
on his activities and get will without complications.
Fasting or a light diet of this kind not only hastens recovery and prevents the development of
complications, but it also assures the patient greater comfort while the disease is at its height.
There is less pain and in the case of the male, fewer painful erections.
Again, I emphasize: the fast is not a
cure
; it does not
cure
 gonorrhea. The self-healing processes
of the body eliminate the cause of the gonorrhea and restore the normal state. When one fasts under
such conditions, one merely avoids putting hindrances in the way of the reconstructive processes
of life.
12832
Paralysis Agitans
A woman nearly forty years old arrived at a
Hygienic
 institution in this country, after suffering
with Parkinson’s disease for six years. Her home was in Costa Rica, her husband was an Austrian
engaged in the importing business. When her first symptoms appeared a physician was consulted.
After a few local physicians had been given the opportunity to restore her to health, her husband
took her to Vienna, where she was given the best medical care Europe afforded at the time.
Two years later she was brought to New York, where she was again treated by the best
specialists on the east coast. After a total of six years of
the finest care available, with no results
except that her condition had grown progressively worse, she was taken to the
Hygienic
institution.
At this institution she was put to bed and placed upon a fast. As progressed, she gained control
of her limbs. After a fast of more than thirty days, she was allowed to resume eating. There was an
immediate recurrence of tremor, but it was not so bad as before the fast. The results were the
same, except that the tremor was much less, after the second fast as after the first.
After another period of eating, she was given a third fast. There was no recurrence of tremor
afterwards. For more than ten years, thereafter, as long as the
Hygienist
 was able to maintain
contact with her, she had no recurrence of the tremor. She carried on the work of her household
and enjoyed better than average health. The total time during which she was under
Hygienic
 care
was nine months.
The developments in this case are typical, with the exception of the completeness of recovery.
Not all cases make full recovery; indeed, full recovery is not the general rule. The rule is that the
majority of these cases make sufficient progress to become useful again, but retain a part of the
tremor.
There are a small number of cases, in late stages of the disease, that make no appreciable
improvement. It is correct to say that cases that make full recovery and cases that make no
improvement are both comparatively rare. This is apparently true for the same reason in both
instances:
Hygienic
 care is instituted much too late. It is rare that a patient with paralysis agitans
undergoes
Hygienic
 care at the first appearance of symptoms. Indeed, the author has never known
of such an instance.
Paralysis agitans, also known as shaking palsy and Parkinson’s disease, was named after Dr.
James Parkinson, who was British. He first described the disease in 1817. It commonly develops
late in life, usually after the age of forty. It is slightly more prevalent in men than in women, and is
characterized by stiffness and rigidity of the muscles, which causes delayed action of the voluntary
muscles, and by tremor, which is chiefly noticeable when the patient is sitting still and disappears
when he is active. A description of a typical very advanced case reads: “Quaking of the limbs,
rigidity of the muscles, an abnormal slowness of movement, staring wild-eyed without blinking,
right facial expression, and often drooling from the mouth.”
There are an estimated 280,000 cases of paralysis agitans in the United States, with thirty-six
thousand new cases developing each year.
Tremors, whether coarse or fine, result from alternate contraction and relaxation of opposing
muscles. They are not confined to paralysis agitans, but are seen in cases of venereal excess,
129chronic alcoholism, delirium tremens, opium, chloral, mineral drug and other forms of poisoning.
They may also be seen in many cases of neurasthenia, debility, senility, arteriosclerosis, hysteria,
goiter, paresis, etc.
Usually affecting the hands and feet, the tremor of senility is exceedingly fine. In paralysis
agitans the tremor is rhythmic and regular and persists during sleep as well as during waking
hours.
Beginning mildly, paralysis agitans progresses gradually with tremor and weakness beginning in
an extremity, usually one hand and arm. In the beginning the tremor can be controlled by the will,
but the disease gradually extends until an entire side is affected and it becomes no longer possible
to control the tremor.
In advanced stages, there is often dullness of the mind, drooling, a tendency to go forward (the
so-called propulsion walk), and restlessness of the fingers, which appear to be continually going
through the motions of crumbling bread. There is a progressive loss of power in the affected
muscles, moderate rigidity, alternations in the gait, and, at times, mental impairment. In advanced
states, the tongue and chin may become tremulous. Rarely is speech lost. Some of the patients
become very much worse under excitement and so great is the trem


-conscious Intelligence.It will be noted that Mr. Rockefeller, in his
recent pithy, gisty utterance relative to themerits of Fletcherizing, makes no mention ofthe kind of food to be recommended. Happily, asfar as I know, he is not in the food business, hasno connection with any special food supply, andcannot recommend any of the products ofpetroleum as food or drink. He should beabsolutely unprejudiced in his judgment, andseven or eight years of recuperative experience,similar to mine of a longer period, is materialfor judgment and recommendation.
Some years ago there was born in me the
ambition to formulate the rules of economicprocedure in securing optimum nutrition in aspace of not more than ten pages of coarse printthat mothers, teachers, and children of primaryschool age could understand as easy as thenoses on their faces. Mr. Rockefeller has " beatme out " in brevity by several lengths. He hasmade the revelation with the lucky number ofthirty-three words, and left room for a finalremark full of scriptural tone, as is his wont.PROFITABLE  ECONOMY.
There is one argument in favour of a
meatless diet that appeals to everybody, andthat is the economy and cleanliness of it. InProfessor Irving Fisher's classic investigation totest the merits of Fletcherism it was proventhat careful attention to the mastication,insalivation, and enjoyment of food while in themouth, and swallowing only in response to astrong invitation to swallow, and removing fromthe mouth whatever remainder that did notpractically swallow itself, a net gain of
approximately 40 per cent. was achievedwithout any attempt at economy. The savingwas in the money cost alone, and it came frommore and more inclination towards farinaceousand vegetable foods and away from moreexpensive meat.
This form of saving is very telling. Dr.
Francis E. Clark, founder and permanentpresident of the great International ChristianEndeavour organization, noticed a reduction ofone third in the food expenses of his family. Thehealth officer of a suburb of Hamburgaccomplished a saving of two thousand marks a
year in his family of three without otherassistance than careful eating and aninclination towards non-flesh food material. The" Poor White Trash " community in America,before mentioned, saved an average of threedollars a month each, three thousand dollars amonth among a thousand members of thecommunity, and the missionary workers whotaught them to Fletcherize save half of the costof their sustenance. Accompanying all of thiswonderful economy was an immunity from theordinary illnesses that was worth more than themoney saving.
In the Rockefeller family any decrease in the
cost of food is a negligible quantity incomparison with the total expenses, but sevenyears of immunity from indigestion andreplacing the demon with good golf-health formhave been worth more than millions of money.<|eot_id|><|begin_of_text|>Soil and Health Library
This document is a reproduction of the book or other copyrighted material you
requested.  It was prepared on for the exclusive use of Oriana, whose email address
is orianaoriana@gmail.com.
This reproduction was made by the Soil and Health Library only for the purpose of
research and study.  Any further reproduction or distribution of this copy in any form
whatsoever constitutes a violation of copyrights.FRANK AVRAY WILSON

FOOD FIT FOR
HUMANS

LONDON
THE C. W. DANIEL COMPANY
First published in Great Britain
by The C. W. Daniel Company Limited
60 Muswell Road, London N10 2BE

© Frank Avray Wilson 1975

ISBN 085207 132 9

Set  in  eleven  on  twelve  point  Baskerville.
Printed  by  the  Northumberl and  Press  Ltd,  Gateshead,
and  bound  by  Staples  Printers  Ltd,
Rochester,  Kent, using  Da lmore  artwork  supplied  by
Frank  Grunfeld  Ltd,  London.
CONTENTS

 1 The Object Defined
 2 In Praise of Beauty
 3 Beauty Pursued
 4 Beauty and the Beast
 5 Flowers, Fruits and Brain Cells
 6 The Life-Giving Seeds
 7 The Sources of Evil
 8 Love, Lust and Aggression
 9 Need or Greed
 10 The Impoverishments of Prosperity
 11 The Unloving Crowd
 12 The Deceits of Lucullus
 13 The Costs of Confusion
 14 Food Fit for Humans
 15 Beautiful People, Beautiful Things
 16  Hints for the Millennium
 17  Notes and Readings

1. The Object Defined

Appearance can be deceptive. Who is happy? Who is healthy?
Assurances can also be false, like the dictum, 'a little of what you
like is good for you'. Even rats, gi ven the chance to eat what they
like, eat the wrong things. Sight, smell and taste have been so
falsified that the native senses are now powerless to distinguish
nature from artifice. Can it be that  some of the things people take
for granted to be harmless, right  and good, are in reality bad?
Not long ago, such a question would have been met with scorn.
But doubt has shattered ancient assumptions. Fat babies, once
believed to be the healthiest of babies, are now known to be more
likely to die than thin ones. If one chooses the largest, showiest
vegetables on a stall, one is all th e more likely to be buying the
products of overfertilized soils, now known to be the source of the
cancer-inducing nitrosamides, as well as a lashing of some insidious
pesticide.
For all its sensational discoveries, science has turned out to be
an unreliable guide. Indeed, it is largely responsible for a planetary
outrage of nature, now threatening human survival. This crisis of
malpractice and of misunderstanding the meaning of nature has
been so well advertised, that no one should be able to delude
himself today that things are not really as bad as they seem, that
they will turn out to be all right in the end.
The sense of betrayal, of hopelessness, felt by many, especially
the young, is understandable, for if the human being is without
reliable guidance, in the artif icial conditions of industrial
civilization, disaster is certain. Having abandoned the gods, and
now discovered the unreliability of reason and science, what hope
remains? This is an attempt to s how that the strongest hope of all,
neglected by a matter-of-fact culture, is to be found in the human
sensitivities—to beauty and purity in particular. It will be seen to be
applicable to life's most important biological activity—eating.
In order to substantiate this cl aim, it will be necessary to begin
by defining what is meant by the human sensitivities. To understand
the meaning of beauty, so out of tune in a world dominated by
materialistic values, will be to provide a basis for an approach to
living radically different from the one taken by most people.
The value of science is not denied. The orderliness of nature
discovered by science is one of the greatest achievements of the
human spirit. But the way this ev idence is used depends on some
sustaining background of thought and belief. The mechanistic,
materialistic ideal of present day science is by no means the only
one possible. That it is inadequate, is indicated by the considerable
amount of evidence which refuses to fit into the official picture of
nature, and which is accordingly neglected.
The vision of nature which sustains this book is one of a
Creation seeking wholeness, harmony, and beauty, and culminating
in a creature able to appreciate these qualities, and to express them, and in so doing, to experience a sense of joyful participation in the
Creation. There is ample eviden ce for such a vision, in the
harmonies of atomic order as in the progressive achievement of
beauty in the course of evolution.
In attempting to account for the human needs in food in calories
and proteins, in minerals and vitamins alone, these other essential
contributions which food can make to the human estate have been
neglected. It is hoped that the subject will confirm that a reliance on
the human sensitivities provides a valid and invigorating guidance
to the way of life able to ensure harmony with nature, wholeness
and health.

2. In Praise of Beauty

The way in which human beings appreciate beauty, and express it in
their lives, and in their arts, depends on the prevailing social
conditions. In harsh, cruel and heartless times, beauty goes out of
living. The appeal of a Negro mask, of a medieval gargoyle, as of
many modern pieces of sculpture, has more to do with excitement,
sexiness, awe, with magic and other strange enticements than with
beauty. In extreme conditions, the human mind becomes so
anguished that it acquires a taste for the hideous and macabre, as in
the cherished skull museums of head-hunters. Beauty in fact
requires sufficiently humanizing, benevolent conditions.
With the Industrial Revolution, the beauty-loving Renaissance
was superseded by a desecration of nature, and the rising of a man-
made environment too often hideous and disorderly. The word
beauty has gone out of fashion even among


 very effec
tive diet with a more than 6o-year excellent record of helping people with
all sorts of digestive disorders, including such devastating ones as Crohn's
disease and ulcerative colitis. This diet is called Specific Carbohydrate Diet
or SCD for short.
SCD was invented by a renowned American paediatrician Dr Sidney
Valentine Haas in the first half of the 20th century. Those were the good old
days, when doctors used to treat their patients with diet and natural
methods. Carrying on with the work of his colleagues Drs L. Emmett Holt,
Cristian Herter and John Howland, Dr Haas has spent many years
researching the effects of diet on celiac disease and other digestive disor
ders. He and his colleagues found that patients with digestive disorders
could tolerate dietary proteins and fats fairly well But complex carbohy
drates from grains and starchy vegetables made the problem worse. Sugar,
lactose and other double sugars also had to be excluded from the diet.
However, certain fruit and vegetables were not only well tolerated by his
patients, but improved their physical status. Dr Haas treated over 600
patients with excellent results - after following his dietary regimen for at
least a year there was "complete recovery with no relapses, no deaths, no
crisis, no pulmonary involvement and no stunting of growth". The results
of this research were published in a comprehensive medical textbook The
Management of Celiac Disease, written by Dr Sidney V Haas and Merrill P.
Haas in 1951. The diet, described in the book, was accepted by the medical
community all over the world as a cure for celiac disease and Dr Sidney V
Haas was honoured for his pioneer work in the field of paediatrics.
Unfortunately, "happy end" does not happen in human history too
often. In those days celiac disease was not very clearly defined. A great
number of various inflammatory conditions of the gut were included in the diagnosis of celiac disease and all those conditions were treatable by the
SCD very effectively. In the decades that followed something terrible hap
pened. Celiac disease was eventually defined as a gluten intolerance or
gluten enteropathy which excluded a great number of various other gut
problems from this diagnosis. As the "gluten-free diet" was pronounced to
be effective for celiac disease, the SCD diet got forgotten as outdated infor
mation. And all those other inflammatory gut conditions, which fell out of
the sphere of true celiac disease, got forgotten as well. The true celiac dis
ease is very rare, so the "forgotten" gut conditions would constitute a very
large group of patients, which used to be diagnosed as celiac and which do
not respond to treatment with the gluten-free diet. Incidentally, a lot of
"true" celiac patients do not get better on the gluten-free diet either. All
these conditions respond very well to the SCD diet, developed by Dr Haas.
GAP Syndrome would fall into this group.
Following the whole controversy about celiac disease, the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet would have been completely forgotten if it wasn't for,
you guessed it, a parent!
Elaine Gottschall, desperate to help her little daughter, who suffered
from severe ulcerative colitis and neurological problems, went to see
Dr Haas in 1958. After two years on SCD her daughter was completely free
of symptoms, an energetic and thriving little girl. Following the success of
the SCD with her daughter Elaine Gottschall over the years has helped
thousands of people, suffering from Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis,
celiac disease, diverticulitis and various types of chronic diarrhoea. But the
most dramatic and fast recoveries she has reported in young children who,
apart from digestive problems, had serious behavioural abnormalities,
such as autism, hyperactivity and night terrors. She has devoted years of
research into the biochemical and biological basis of the diet and has pub
lished a book, called Breaking the Vicious Cycle, Intestinal Health Through
Diet This book has become a true saviour for thousands of children and
adults across the world and has been reprinted many times. A number of
web-sites and web-groups have been set up to share SCD recipes and
experiences. Dr Gottschall is in her eighties now, still very active and help
ing many people around the world with the implementation of the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet. For the full details on how to implement this diet I
would highly recommend Elaine Gottschall's book.
The diet appropriate for GAPS patients is largely based on the Specific
Carbohydrate Diet. However, there is one issue that has to be taken into
account - the use of dairy products. What about dairy?
The Specific Carbohydrate Diet permits lactose-free dairy products. Lactose
is a milk sugar with a double molecule. It is present in fresh milk and many
commercially available dairy products. According to various sources from
25% to 90% of the planet's population cannot digest lactose due to the lack
of the lactose digesting enzyme, called lactase. Children and adults with
GAPS and people with gut problems most certainly cannot digest it and
have to avoid it. Well-fermented milk products, such as yoghurt, soured
cream and natural cheeses are largely free of lactose because in the process
of fermentation the fermenting bacteria consume lactose as their food.
However, apart from lactose milk contains other substances which GAPS
people have to avoid. The most researched substance is the milk protein
casein. In the previous chapters we have discussed casomorphins - pep
tides with an opiate structure, which are found in the urine of autistic,
schizophrenic, depressed and other patients. Casomorphins come from
misdigestion of milk protein casein. They absorb through the damaged gut
lining into the bloodstream of the GAPS person, cross the blood-brain bar
rier and affect the functions of the brain. And indeed when dairy products
get completely removed from the diet of an autistic child or a
schizophrenic patient we observe an improvement in the clinical picture,
sometimes quite dramatic. There is a debate about what particular form of
casein is the problem. The group of proteins called beta-caseins have
received most attention. For example, Cade and other researchers have
shown that in an unhealthy digestive system they convert into beta-
casomorphin-7 which gets taken up by 32 various areas of the brain, many
of which are responsible for vision, hearing and communication.
Another problem with dairy is its great ability at creating allergies and
intolerances. Real allergy to milk is one of the most common allergies in
existence, because dairy products have a wide range of antigens (various
immunoglobulins). According to various research papers it is the main
reason for infantile colic. Even in breast-fed babies if the mother consumes
dairy products the child may develop colic due to sensitivity to dairy anti
gens being passed through the mother's milk. In many cases when the
breast-feeding mother stops consuming dairy foods the colic in her baby
goes away.
Whether it is lactose or casein or allergies or a combination of factors,
the clinical experience shows that GAPS children and adults should not
consume dairy products until their digestive system is well enough to handle them. The only exception is for the milk fat, which contains virtu
ally no milk proteins or lactose and is generally well tolerated. Pure milk fat
is called ghee or clarified butter. It is easy to make at home from butter
(look in the recipe section). Unfortunately commercially available ghee
often contains preservatives and other additives. To make sure that your
ghee is pure it is best to make it at home. Ghee contains a lot of valuable
nutrients and is excellent for cooking and baking. Some people with severe
dairy allergy can not tolerate even ghee and have to avoid it. However, in
my experience the majority of GAPS children and adults have no reaction
to ghee and can use it in their diet right from the beginning.
The good news about dairy products is that for many patients they do
not have to be out of the diet forever. As the gut lining starts to heal many
GAPS patients are able to re-introduce other dairy products.
The first product to add to their diet is butter. Butter is virtually pure milk
fat and contains only very small amounts of whey, which at a certain stage in
the diet the patients can usually handle. Butter should be bought organic,
because non-organic butter contains a lot of pesticides, hormones and
antibiotics, which non-organic cows consume. I generally recommend to try
introducing butter after 6 months on the diet. It is preferable to have unsalted
butter as a lot of salt products which are used to preserve butter contain flow
agents and other additives. I would like to emphasise here that butter and
ghee contain a lot of valuable nutrition for children and adults and should not
be avoided, unless there is a true allergy. Butter and ghee provide various fatty
acids with important health giving benefits, vitamins A, D, E, beta-carotene
and other nutritious substances in an easy to digest form.
In about a year gradual introduction of protein containing lactose free
milk products is possible: yogh


 spends time in an
average hospital, the sense of dependence, loss of autonomy and privacy will make the prospects
look even bleaker. The patient becomes a passive sufferer, with no say in what is being done to
him or her. In the telling phrase of the brilliant thinker and author, the late Ivan Illich, “Modern
medicine turns the patient into a limp and mystified voyeur in the grip of bio-engineers.”3
 These observations apply to cancer patients diagnosed and treated in a conventional medical
framework. But as almost all patients come to the Gerson Therapy after that system had failed
them, it is important to recognize their depressed or scared state and do something about it at once.
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 167Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comOrdinary human empathy and caring demand that we try to dispel their fear and hopelessness.
Just as importantly, in the light of PNI’s findings there are sound medical reasons for urgently
relieving the patients from their huge emotional burden and steer their negative orientation
towards a positive outlook. “No attempt should be made to cure the body without the soul,” wrote
the Greek philosopher Plato nearly 2,400 years ago—a powerful endorsement of the body-mind
link in healing from an unimaginably remote past.
 If something deep down in the patient’s inner world does not want to live, even the tried
and tested Gerson program cannot do its best. That something may have nothing to do with the
cancer diagnosis. It could be an almost forgotten early emotional wound, a severe loss, a deep
resentment, or some unfinished business with a loved or hated person. Or else we may be dealing
with someone who conforms to the so-called ‘cancer-prone personality,’ as defined by Lawrence
LeShan4, pioneer researcher of the body-mind link in malignant disease. LeShan, also known as
‘the father of psycho-oncology,’ has observed over several decades that certain personality traits
seemed to pre-dispose some people to cancer. These traits include low self-esteem, difficulty
in expressing anger or aggression, an urge to please others and ignore their own feelings and
needs, and inhibited emotions. The true self of such people has been banished behind a false self,
probably developed quite early in life to ensure parental approval, and maintained in adulthood,
too, when it was no longer necessary.
 Of course this personality profile does not apply to all cancer patients, although in my work
with sufferers I have often come across similar character traits. Together or separately they suggest
a dispiritingly negative outlook on life, which a cancer diagnosis can turn into black despair, and
PNI tells us what that means in terms of reduced immune competence.
 It has been observed that cancer often appears 18 months or two years after some adverse life
event, such as divorce, bereavement, financial crisis, loss of a job or of an important relationship,
and so on. Experience with clients has shown me that those events only represented for them
the last straw; that they had long existed in an impossible existential situation that apparently
could neither be borne nor changed. LeShan and Carl Simonton, M.D.5 call this setup a life trap,
which they describe in detail. My case material bears out its power, and the fact that those who
feel unable to break free eventually reach a stage when they don’t care whether they live or die.
As many of them put it, “Something snapped inside me.” I suspect it was the last strand of their
frayed will to live.
The Role of Stress
 I am often asked whether stress can cause cancer. I don’t think it can, certainly not by itself.
But it can be the ultimate extra burden that pushes an already weakened, barely functioning
immune system over the edge, so that it can no longer dispose of the irregular maverick cells that
every healthy organism produces in vast numbers every day. Yet without the eternal vigilance of
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 168Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.coma well functioning immune system there is nothing to stop a few of those irregular cells to initiate
a malignant process.
 What we are dealing with here is the mysterious interaction of biochemistry and emotions,
which we have only begun to explore and understand. But there is already enough orthodox
clinical—as opposed to anecdotal—evidence to prove that inner attitudes can make a big
difference to survival. For example, British researcher Stephen Greer 6 interviewed a group of
women three months after they had undergone mastectomies, to find out how they were coping.
He found four distinct types among them who showed respectively fighting spirit, denial, stoic
acceptance and hopelessness. After 5 and 10 years, 80% of the fighters, but only 20% of the
hopeless had survived. These rates had nothing to do with medical prognoses.
 In the U.S., David Spiegel, M.D.,7 invited 36 women with metastasized breast cancer to
attend weekly meetings for a year, where they could share worries and sorrows, encourage each
other, and make their mental attitude positive. A control group of 50 women attended no such
meetings. Spiegel only wanted to discover whether the group meetings enhanced the members’
quality of life, which it certainly did. But he was amazed to find that they also lived twice as long
as the members of the control group.
 Another interesting insight comes from US oncologist Bernie Siegel, M.D.8, author of several
best-selling books that have helped to extend public understanding of the body-mind link in
health and sickness. He claims that 15-20% of cancer patients consciously or unconsciously want
to die, no doubt to escape a difficult life trap. 60-70% wish to get well, but are passive and expect
the doctor to do all the work. 15-20%, however, are exceptional: they refuse to be victims, they
research their disease, don’t obey the doctor automatically but ask questions, demand control and
make informed choices. In Dr. Siegel’s words, “Difficult or uncooperative patients are most likely
to get well.” Apparently they have a more warlike immune system than docile patients.
First Aid for the Mind

 There are simple ways to dispel the newly diagnosed patient’s sense of hopelessness and
isolation. The first step is to de-mystify the disease, discuss it openly, in a natural voice, without
avoiding the dreaded word ‘cancer.’ One of the very first advantages which the intending Gerson
patient experiences is the calm assurance with which his or her problem is approached, with the
clear message that yes, it is possible to be healed, not just put into remission (which is the best
orthodox medicine has to offer.)
 What the patient needs is a safe space in which to release stormy emotions, and to be listened
to with total unhurried non-judgmental attention, something that time-starved doctors and nurses
cannot give. It is a mistake to try to comfort and console too soon or offer cheerful assurances.
To do that would simply stop the patient from expressing his or her true feelings. They must be
Copyright © Charlotte Gerson, 2007.  All rights reserved.
This material may not be reproduced in any medium, print or electronic without prior written permission from the author.Page 169Healing the Gerson Way—Defeating Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases
www.thegersonway.comgiven free flow. But once that has happened, I ask a vital question: “Do you want to live?” If the
answer is yes, I ask: “Do you want to live unconditionally?” Another firm “yes” settles the matter,
while a hesitant “Yes, but…” reply hints at an undecided individual, possibly stuck in a life trap.
If I ask what the rest of the sentence might be, I often get something like “if things go on as
before, I’m not sure I want to live.” That “but” needs careful exploration to make sure that it will
not undermine the healing work. The 18-24 months of the patient’s life prior to the diagnosis can
yield valuable clues. Did some major stress or trauma drive the patient to drink, drugs, or other
destructive habits, which caused significant liver damage? Gentle questioning often allows us to
identify some life trap. The next task is to show that there is a way out, other than dying.
 It helps to build a therapeutic partnership with the patient, in which he or she has an important
role to play. This is easy with the Gerson Therapy, which cannot succeed without the patient’s
active cooperation. If a patient tells us that 85% of people with his or her condition die within
three years, we suggest joining the 15% who don’t. (I recall with admiration the fragile little
woman riddled with cancer who, when told that she had six months to live, brightly replied, “Oh
good, I have six months to get well!” And get well she did, on the Gerson program.)
 I like the way LeShan4 approaches the task of shifting the mood from negative to positive.
His basic questions are, “What’s right with you? What are your special ways of being,