Sheriff Mack described eloquently the warnings of our founding fathers who fought and died for our freedom. They knew that the correct role of government should be to protect the basic freedoms of its people and not interfere in their private lives, and that when government gets too big,  this basic role could be threatened. He said that Lady Liberty is ailing and that people today cannot be complacent and uninvolved – that this will be a grave error for our people. Many great nations have fallen by this sword.

Now just as a reminder  of why our forefathers had the wisdom to write a constitution that upholds the right of every citizen to bear arms, and why Sheriff Mack worked so hard to challenge the Brady bill, I have a little gun history that may interest you.

• Switzerland issues every household a gun. Switzerland’s government trains every adult they issue a rifle. Switzerland has the lowest gun-related crime of any civilized country in the world.
• In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
• China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Guatemala established gun control in 1964.  From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Uganda established gun control in 1970.  From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

You get the idea. Every constitutional right you have is there for a reason. Without these rights, the United States of America would not stand for freedom today. Yet, right now we are facing many challenges to these  freedoms that cannot be ignored.

Our country is rooted in a rich agricultural heritage. Small family farms graced our land  for hundreds of years. In the last two years, all over our nation, we have witnessed unprecedented, unethical governmental farm raids  aimed at jeopardizing these small farms. Wisconsin farmer, Vernon Hershberger and his family were present at the rally and had been recent victims of these tactics that make criminals out of  innocent, law abiding people.

Mack called on sheriffs and police officers who have sworn by sacred oath, to abide by the constitution–that it is their absolute duty to protect citizens from unlawful harassment. He asked–”How different would the Rosa Parks case have been if police officers had protected her personal rights, which was their constitutional responsibility?”

As our people have suffered from the far-reaching health consequences of a sixty-year experiment with industrial foods, the demand for nutrient-rich foods that heal and support health from sustainable farms is dramatically increasing. However, even as food safety and quality issues regarding mass-produced food are ever more prevalent, the industrial food system and pharmaceutical giants are trying to deal their power card. Fortunately, people are waking up and the word is getting out. The government has no business in our kitchens or dictating to our small farms–these are private affairs.

Americans intuitively understand our claim to clean water and air, and to sustainable food grown with integrity.  We know that we have inalienable rights to life, liberty and security of our person.  Another example of overreaching government intrusion is seen with proliferating vaccination mandates. In all states, healthy children are required to receive an unprecedented number of vaccines – 70 doses of 16 vaccines, as a requirement for daycare and school admission. This occurs in the complete absence of any public health emergency, where government has not demanded the scientific research to prove their assertions of herd immunity and the “greater good.”   Yet the government is violating our rights, as Americans and human beings, by withholding important privileges, making the choice to vaccinate no real choice at all.  Parents have always possessed the right, supported by the Constitution, to determine what is best for their own children.  Will we protect these rights?

Vaccination choice and food freedom share the common foundational touchstones of health, human rights, and bodily integrity.  Our communities are bringing networks and resources together to educate supporters on how our work is part and parcel of the same cause.  If we remain segregated and separate, we will be divided and picked off.  The inspiration for solutions will come from integration across our groups, in the creation of a broader movement.

Have we forgotten that our country was founded on the rights of private citizens? Have you read our Constitution recently? In June, I traveled to Washington DC to testify against the “new” USDA Dietary Guidelines. During this trip, I visited the Holocaust Museum.  Nazi Germany followed on the heels of a cultured, civilized and sophisticated Weimar Republic.  The process unfolded slowly, almost imperceptibly.  German citizens were decent, hardworking people, struggling to provide for their families, trusting their government to make the right choices for its people.  As the words “Never again” ring in our ears, today we ask how it could have happened.  What happens when we abandon vigilance, seek greater protections and safety in exchange for our freedom, and trust government to do the right thing?

We cannot afford complacency. The signs are all there. Be actively involved in the protection of our personal and Constitutional rights. Go to a rally, organize a rally, write letters, contact and meet with your governmental representatives–get involved. Do something. But–you have no time–right? What is the consequence of this attitude. Who will do it then?

Kathryne Pirtle

with

Louise Habakus
Life Health Choices
Center for Personal Rights and
PetitionCoalition for Vaccine Safety

We cannot assume that someone else will protect our rights. Each person needs to write a letter. SB S510 is perhaps one of the most scandalous bills to ever have been written that could jeopardize your right to choose the foods you want to eat.

Please send the following senators listed below a sample letter below, or write one and send yours.

Kathryne Pirtle

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) is the sponsor of this bill.

Co-sponsors are:
Lamar Alexander [R-TN]

Senate Bill S510 Will Make It Illegal to Grow, Share, Trade or Sell Homegrown Food
by Steve Green

S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010,  may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US.

“If accepted [S 510] would preclude the public’s right to grow, own, trade, transport, share, feed and eat each and every food that nature makes.  It will become the most offensive authority against the cultivation, trade and consumption of food and agricultural products of one’s choice. It will be unconstitutional and contrary to natural law or, if you like, the will of God.”  It is similar to what India faced with imposition of the salt tax during British rule, only S 510 extends control over all food in the US, violating the fundamental human right to food.” ~ Dr. Shiv Chopra, Canada Health whistleblower.

Monsanto says it has no interest in the bill and would not benefit from it, but Monsanto’s Michael Taylor who gave us rBGH and unregulated genetically modified (GM) organisms, appears to have designed it and is waiting as an appointed Food Czar to the FDA (a position unapproved by Congress) to administer the agency it would create — without judicial review — if it passes.

History
In the 1990s, Bill Clinton introduced HACCP (Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points) purportedly to deal with contamination in the meat industry.  Clinton’s HACCP delighted the offending corporate (World Trade Organization “WTO”) meat packers since it allowed them to inspect themselves, eliminated thousands of local food processors (with no history of contamination), and centralized meat into their control.  Monsanto promoted HACCP.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton, urged a powerful centralized food safety agency as part of her campaign for president.  Her advisor was Mark Penn, CEO of Burson Marsteller*, a giant PR firm representing Monsanto.  Clinton lost, but Clinton friends such as Rosa DeLauro, whose husband’s firm lists Monsanto as a progressive client and globalization as an area of expertise, introduced early versions of S 510.

S 510 fails on moral, social, economic, political, constitutional, and human survival grounds.

1.  It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency.  It resembles the Kissinger Plan.

2.  It would end US sovereignty over its own food supply by insisting on compliance with the WTO, thus threatening national security.  It would end the Uruguay Round Agreement Act of 1994, which put US sovereignty and US law under perfect protection.  Instead, S 510 says:

Nothing in this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) shall be construed in a manner inconsistent with the agreement establishing the World Trade Organization or any other treaty or international agreement to which the United States is a party.

3.  It would allow the government, under Maritime Law, to define the introduction of any food into commerce (even direct sales between individuals) as smuggling into “the United States.”  Since under that law, the US is a corporate entity and not a location, “entry of food into the US” covers food produced anywhere within the land mass of this country and “entering into” it by virtue of being produced.

4.  It imposes Codex Alimentarius on the US, a global system of control over food.  It allows the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the WTO to take control of every food on earth and remove access to natural food supplements.  Its bizarre history and its expected impact in limiting access to adequate nutrition (while mandating GM food, GM animals, pesticides, hormones, irradiation of food, etc.) threatens all safe and organic food and health itself, since the world knows now it needs vitamins to survive, not just to treat illnesses.

5.  It would remove the right to clean, store and thus own seed in the US, putting control of seeds in the hands of Monsanto and other multinationals, threatening US security. See Seeds – How to criminalize them, for more details.

6.  It includes NAIS, an animal traceability program that threatens all small farmers and ranchers raising animals.  The UN is participating through the WHO, FAO, WTO, and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in allowing mass slaughter of even heritage breeds of animals and without proof of disease.  Biodiversity in farm animals is being wiped out to substitute genetically engineered animals on which corporations hold patents.  Animal diseases can be falsely declared.  S 510 includes the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), despite its corrupt involvement in the H1N1 scandal, which is now said to have been concocted by the corporations.

7.  It extends a failed and destructive HACCP to all food, thus threatening to do to all local food production and farming what HACCP did to meat production – put it in corporate hands and worsen food safety.

8.  It deconstructs what is left of the American economy.  It takes agriculture and food, which are the cornerstone of all economies, out of the hands of the citizenry, and puts them under the total control of multinational corporations influencing the UN, WHO, FAO and WTO, with HHS, and CDC, acting as agents, with Homeland Security as the enforcer.  The chance to rebuild the economy based on farming, ranching, gardens, food production, natural health, and all the jobs, tools and connected occupations would be eliminated.

9.  It would allow the government to mandate antibiotics, hormones, slaughterhouse waste, pesticides and GMOs.  This would industrialize every farm in the US, eliminate local organic farming, greatly increase global warming from increased use of oil-based products and long-distance delivery of foods, and make food even more unsafe.  The five items listed — the Five Pillars of Food Safety — are precisely the items in the food supply which are the primary source of its danger.

10. It uses food crimes as the entry into police state power and control.  The bill postpones defining all the regulations to be imposed; postpones defining crimes to be punished, postpones defining penalties to be applied.  It removes fundamental constitutional protections from all citizens in the country, making them subject to a corporate tribunal with unlimited power and penalties, and without judicial review.

For further information, watch these videos:
Food Laws – Forcing people to globalize?
Corporate Rule?
Reclaiming Economies?

What a concept of faith and gratitude to Mother Earth and its creatures–to ask what we can do to serve. What greater calling can well up in our souls than asking, “How, dearest soil, plant, animal and brother, can I serve you”….Can we turn this planet around–I know all things are possible with spirit as our guide.

When I experience Scott’s farm I am in awe of the effervescent energy and aura alive there. To walk amongst the cows content on pasture, to cradle the chickens who freely roam, to talk to the pigs who are happily free to be pigs, to smell the amazing sweet aroma of fresh grass and hay, to hear the sounds of nature all around you–I know that this is heaven–what a gift.

But then to share this magic with families and children who have been deprived of this perfect plan–who are grateful and all of the sudden–REALLY GET IT once they go! This is God’s plan for us now–we all need to REALLY GET IT. We need to spread the magic. We need to make a pilgrimage to the farm a regular priority. This is life! Are we truly awake yet if we aren’t connected to the stream of life? What do we value?

By going to the farm with this group, Scott said he can now pay his taxes without taking out a loan! Wow, by supporting small family farms, we not only receive the gift of life-sustaining foods–foods that can heal chronic, life-threatening illness and support optimal health for all, including growing children–we keep our dearest farmer, who cares deeply for the land, from suffering great debt. Farmers deserve better in our country. After all–sustainable farms are the only hope of the future health of our people and planet.

One of the most sacred experiences I have at the farm is communing with the cows. I am awestruck by their beauty and spirit. I feel drawn to their eyes and am blessed when I get a kiss. There is nothing like a big fat kiss from a cow! Their tongue is a little prickly like a cat’s, and when they trust you, they might just show that they like you and let you scratch their head. This is heaven.

Connection to mother earth means physically going to the farm where you get your food if possible. Since we can’t all have a farm, the next best thing is to be a part of the excitement of real food by connecting with it.

Don’t miss out on the magic of the farm in your life journey. Have you been kissed by a cow today?

To find sustainable farms in your area see realmilk.com

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move the world.
– Mahatma Gandhi

From Eknath Easwaran’s Thought for the Day

Mahatma Gandhi provides a perfect example of how anger can be harnessed. As a young, unknown, brown-skinned lawyer traveling in South Africa on business, he was roughly thrown from the train because he refused to surrender his first-class ticket and move to the third-class compartment. He spent a cold, sleepless night on the railway platform.

Later, he said this was the turning point of his life: for on that night, full of anger because of this personal injustice, as well as the countless injustices suffered by so many others every day in South Africa, he resolved not to rest until he had set those injustices right. On that night he conquered his anger and vowed to resist injustice, not by violence or retaliation, but through the loving power of nonviolent resistance, which elevates the consciousness of both oppressed and oppressor.

We may never be called on to liberate a people or lead a vast nation, but Gandhi’s example can apply in a small way in our own lives, when we decide to return good will for ill will, love for hatred, in the innumerable little acts of daily life.

The USDA is proposing an increased militant agenda to make sure that all institutions–hospitals, schools, universities, mainstream media etc. exclusively promote the“new” USDA Dietary Guidelines–the same draconian low-fat/high fiber diet that has fostered degenerative illness in epic proportions in the last 50 years.  However, the Committee for a Healthy Nation, a new initiative of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society, nonprofit health organization providing research, information and education in the application of fundamental science to nutrition, particularly dedicated to the problems of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is joining forces with the Weston A. Price Foundation and other like-minded organizations concerned with these trends. Their mission is to send a clear message that the USDA Guidelines are harmful to long-term health.

CRITICS ASSAIL USDA DIETARY GUIDELINES

High-Carb, Low-Fat Diets Cause Obesity, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Scientists Claim

Monday, July 12, 2010–WASHINGTON, D.C.–The USDA Dietary Guidelines are a leading cause of the American health and obesity crisis, according to scientists, nutritionists and consumers who testified last Thursday at a USDA public hearing on the report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). Dissenters argued that the proposed 2010 revisions to the Dietary Guidelines are worse, and will not prevent obesity and will only increase degenerative disease in the U.S.

Those testifying against the Guidelines focused on the Committee’s misuse of scientific data to justify a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet. Dr. Jeff Volek, scientist and academic researcher at the University of Connecticut, noted that the DGAC report ignored scientific studies showing the effectiveness of low carbohydrate diets for weight loss.  “Americans deserve to have official support for the low-carb dietary option,” he said.

“I have followed the work of the DGAC all the way through this process as an academic project. I have dug into their nutrition evidence library,” said Adele Hite, a graduate student in nutrition and public health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. “Time after time, the scientific evidence the DGAC cited to oppose low-carb diets actually says the exact opposite of the Committee’s conclusions.” Hite testified to losing sixty pounds on a low-carbohydrate diet.

Morton Satin of the Salt Institute sharply criticized the Committee’s recommendation to reduce sodium consumption to 1500 mg per day. “The Committee is suggesting that Americans consume less than 4 grams of salt per day.  No modern society consumes so little salt, making this proposal nothing less than a call for an uncontrolled experiment on more than 300 million Americans.” Satin provided references showing the critical role of salt in digestion, blood pressure regulation and brain development.

Four of the dissenters presented the views of the Nutrition and Metabolism Society, a group of nutrition researchers and medical professionals who have studied the benefits of a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss, insulin regulation and protection against chronic disease. “We expected the new guidelines to recognize current research that vindicates saturated fats as a cause of heart disease and weight gain, and to acknowledge the demonstrated benefits of lower carbohydrate diets,” said Dr. Richard Feinman of Downstate University, New York.

In response to the DGAC report, the Nutrition and Metabolism Society recently launched the Committee for a Healthy Nation (CHN). “The CHN is a working coalition of professionals who oppose the low-fat, plant-based thrust of the DGAC report. We feel strongly that the scientific evidence omitted from or misrepresented by their report must be considered in the final outcome,” said Feinman.

“Five years ago, I was the lone voice testifying against the guidelines,” said Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation and member of the CHN. “This year I was happy to be joined by members of the medical and research community in opposition to USDA’s unscientific prescription.” Fallon Morell’s testimony focused on nutrient deficiencies common in those following low-fat diets.

Dr. Feinman challenged the DGAC panel to an open public debate on the scientific evidence underpinning the Guidelines. “Our nation’s citizens need a range of dietary options to choose from, not a one-size-fits-all approach. We must allow for lifestyle, activity levels and metabolism as factors in choosing an optimal diet for each individual.”

The Committee for a Healthy Nation membership is open to professionals and organizations interested in developing guidelines that will offer a range of choices to the American public.

The Committee for a Healthy Nation is a project of The Nutrition & Metabolism Society, a 501(c)3 nonprofit health organization providing research, information and education in the application of fundamental science to nutrition, particularly dedicated to the problems of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.  Their office is located at 424 E. 73rd Street, #1RW, New York, NY, 10021. For further information or to join the CHN, contact by E-mail: info@nmsociety.org or call 908-326-6464.

MEDIA CONTACTS:  Kimberly Hartke, 703-675-5557  press@westonaprice.org

Pam Schoenfeld,  609-439-8237  Pam@MetabolismSociety.org

Imagine: You are rehearsing for your first major singing role with an opera company and your vocal range has become unpredictable. Some days you have your full range; others, you do not. But you have never experienced this problem. The opening night is in just one week. Your doctor says you have a nodule on your vocal cords, which has developed because you have acid-reflux disease. He tells you that you must rest your voice and not do the performances. You are devastated.

Health problems that affect performance are extremely frightening. They not only affect you physically, but they are an enormous burden to your mental well-being. Acid-reflux disease is a serious ailment that can permanently damage the voice. If we heed the profound statement of Hippocrates (460-370 BC) that ”All diseases begin in the gut,” then we must make a serious pursuit finding the root cause and correcting the source of any digestive issue. Since the longevity of a vocal career depends on health, it is imperative that true solutions are found to this problem.

Have you ever asked yourself why digestive ailments have become so common? There are endless radio, television and magazine ads about medication that helps acid-reflux and other digestive complaints. What is a large percent of our population doing that would promote this massive increase in the incidence of digestive disorders? Should the entire population succumb to these medications? It would seem that there are underlying reasons that so many people have these disorders.

I had acid reflux disease in my early forties just prior to becoming extremely ill with a life-threatening digestive disorder that nearly ended my musical career. I am the clarinetist and executive director of the Orion Ensemble, now in its 18th season. We tour throughout North America, present three series each year in the Chicago metropolitan area, and perform a live, internationally broadcast series on WFMT, Fine Arts Radio in Chicago. Besides playing principal clarinet with the Lake Forest Symphony, I frequently perform with the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony and the Ravinia Festival Orchestra. In addition, I have taught for over 30 years and have served on the faculties of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, Northern Illinois University, Indiana University and Bradley University. In 2004, the Hal Leonard Corporation released my solo album of Bach unaccompanied cello and violin suites and sonatas transcribed for the clarinet.

In the fall of 2001, I became chronically ill for two years, suffering from a severe inflammatory condition in my spine, which caused debilitating pain in my arms, shoulders, hands and fingers making it difficult to play. I developed chronic diarrhea and my embouchure, the facial muscles I use to produce my sound, also began to shake uncontrollably. This was ultimately diagnosed as coming from a long-term digestive problem, intestinal damage and malabsorption as a result of following common nutritional dictates and Celiac disease—an intolerance to gluten grains.

Of great significance, despite the fact that I was chronically ill for two years, is that I had experienced ongoing musculoskeletal inflammation, often of a severe nature, since my 20s and relieved it through physical therapy-type approaches common to the field of music—you name it; I became an expert at it! In my late twenties and throughout my thirties, I was constantly “chasing” pain and stiffness from practicing and performing. When I would solve the discomfort in one area, another area would become irritated. I was also trying to eat a healthy diet and closely followed popular guidelines for healthy eating.

Along with inflammatory conditions, I had early digestive illness symptoms starting in my childhood.  Beginning in my youth I had ongoing flatulence, which is a sign of poor digestion and intestinal bacterial flora imbalances. When I was 42, I began to experience acid reflux disease. A very distracting problem for a wind player, I felt a constant pressure in my throat and the sensation of wanting to burp. Of course, when I did burp, acid would be released into my esophagus. This was very frightening and I sought answers to this problem. At this point, my solution was to stop eating wheat, which was quite helpful for the time being. However, several years later, I developed a spinal inflammation followed by a severe digestive disorder—life-threatening chronic diarrhea and malabsorption. Obviously, cutting out wheat was not the full answer to acid reflux, as my digestive disorder, unknowingly to me, continued to develop.

We have become complacent in accepting the widely publicized recommendation that a low-fat, high fiber diet is essential to good health. I later learned that the nutritional advice I was following was not based on the study of healthy people, but on trends. Although I thought I was eating a healthy diet, and for years had faithfully followed the US governmental guidelines, these modern conventions were clearly causing health problems.

If following modern dietary trends resulted in digestive problems, what then were the answers to healing? In order to not only save my career, but also save my life, I needed accurate information. This complicated puzzle was solved through a radical change in my diet based on studying the work of Dr. Weston Price that reversed my acid reflux and intestinal damage, and provided my body with the nutritional elements necessary for building health. I am now recovered and vibrantly healthy! For the first time in 25 years, even with a full performing, practicing and teaching schedule, I have had no pain or inflammation in my body for over four years. My embouchure is completely strong and I have excellent stamina and muscle strength.

Dr. Price was a prominent dentist in the 1930s who was baffled by the large percentage of degenerative illness in his patients—chronic ailments of all sorts such as arthritis, inflammatory conditions and digestive complaints, fertility problems, cavities, crooked and crowded teeth and behavior and learning problems in children. He sought answers to these problems by traveling worldwide to see if there were cultures free of these types of conditions. He found 14 vibrantly healthy isolated cultures that had no signs of degenerative illness and had eaten the same foods for centuries from generation to generation. Although their diets were completely different, he analyzed their foods and found common characteristics that determined their diet’s ability to promote optimal health and genetic potential in humans. He was able to cure chronic illness in his own patients through his findings. He wrote an incredible book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Through his unprecedented work and the development of the Weston A. Price Foundation, (www.westonaprice.org.)  there is a growing movement of people who are finding solutions to healing chronic conditions and serious illness through traditional foods.

What are some of the foods that Dr. Price found to be absolutely essential to optimal human health?  The surprising traditional practices involve high-fat, easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense nutrition from pastured animals and wild-caught fish including:
•    Nutrient-dense, high-vitamin A and D foods, such as liver, cod liver oil and egg yolks—essential for nutrient absorption (Price found that healthy populations had 10x the amount of Vitamin A and D from natural sources in their diets.)
•    High quality traditional fats critical for digestion and nutrient absorption, such as raw butter and coconut oil.
•    Bone-broth soups made from chicken, beef, or fish with vegetables, simmered for up to 36 hours that heal the intestinal tract, are easy-to-digest, and provide essential nutrients in an easy-to-assimilate form, such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and other amino acids. Secondly, they provide important bone and tendon-healing components.
•    Easy-to-digest, high-enzyme, traditionally cultured foods to help develop a healthy intestinal flora, such as homemade sauerkraut, pickled beets, and raw milk kefir and yogurt from grass-fed cows.
•    High quality proteins—meats, raw dairy and dairy products, poultry, eggs and fish—from animals eating their natural diets.

By focusing on eating ample nutrient-dense, traditional foods that support good digestion, such as raw milk from grass-fed cows often cultured into kefir or yogurt (yes, it’s legal—for details on finding a certified raw milk source, visit www.realmilk.com ), traditional lacto-fermented vegetables, egg yolks, meats and poultry from pastured animals, liver and organ meats, wild-caught fish—especially salmon and seafood, bone-broth soups daily, cod liver oil, and ample traditional fats, I was able give my body the nutritional elements to heal and build optimal health. Through these easy-to digest, nutrient-rich foods that supported the development of a healthy intestinal flora, I also corrected the low-acid state of my stomach, which ended the ongoing stomach and intestinal fermentation that I had experienced for so many years. Therefore, I no longer suffered from flatulence or any other digestion ailment symptoms, including those from acid reflux and a hiatal hernia. And after five years of following the principles of that Dr. Price discovered, I continue to notice improvements in my well-being.

Since my recovery, I felt that I needed to write a book that would help people in high-performing fields and others understand how our modern foods are causing so many health problems and offer accurate answers to healing. I knew that many artists were desperately trying to find solutions to serious career-threatening ailments, and had often exhausted all available resources. With the help of co-authors, Sally Fallon, international lecturer on nutrition and the founder of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and Dr. John Turner, DC, CCSP, DIBCN, the doctor who helped me with my recovery and has over 25 years of experience treating athletes, artists and the general public, I wrote a book called Performance without Pain (pub. 2006 by New Trends Publishing) and an acid reflux e-book called Acid Reflux: A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness: Achieving Lasting Healing with Traditional Foods.

I have given over 70 seminars since 2004 for the general public, performing artists and families with children who have Autism. Since then, I have had the opportunity to witness how powerful Dr. Price’s principles are in helping world-class singers permanently recover from acid-reflux. The following are two recent stories that chronicle recovery with traditional foods:

I am a successful, internationally acclaimed singer in my fourteenth year of singing professionally. In that time, I have often struggled, plagued with GERD or performance anxiety that resulted in a reduced performance capacity. Let me start from the beginning, though, before I became a singer.

I grew up poor in a small town in Indiana. I was blessed to live in an area where growing one’s own vegetables or going to local farmer’s markets was common. We drank powdered milk and ate lots of red meat, all of which was corn-fed. Wonder bread was a staple, but, luckily, junk food was an expensive indulgence, as was eating-out, so we seldom experienced either, although we had our fill of KoolAid. I was diagnosed at the age of seven with a nervous stomach, which I now believe was reflux. I avoided sausage and very spicy foods, which seemed to make we feel the worst, and didn’t think anything else about it. I was always a very high-strung person, with lots of energy, nervous and otherwise, and I attributed that to metabolism and personality.

Fast-forward to college, when I am finally singing on a daily basis. I experienced problems with lots of unfocused, frantic energy that made settling into singing difficult. I also panicked easily. I would experience my “nervous stomach” problems before important events, and would never really know when I would have trouble with my voice. Being an extremely determined person, I soldiered on and performed well by sheer willpower. I advanced and improved and managed to make it into Orlando Opera’s Resident Artists program. I shortly thereafter was admitted into the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. I had to complete my work with Orlando, which included many exhausting programs for children and adults, sometimes having three to four shows in one day. I snag myself into a vocal node, and was on vocal rest for almost two months, only talking for two minutes a day. The first time I sang in public again after the node was my house audition for the Lyric; thus began my vocal descent.

My node never healed, my “nervous stomach” got much worse, my range was erratic, my voice unpredictable, my nerves shot. People heard that I was in trouble, but attributed it to bad repertoire choices and tried to change my fach. I still had the same willpower, which did help me get through performances, but it wasn’t enough. I had my biggest successes during this time, but suffered from the fact that my voice wasn’t “stellar” like it used to be. On a day that I was in vocal distress, I visited an ENT in Portland who scoped my cords and informed me that the node I had contracted five years earlier had never healed, and the “nervous stomach” from which I had suffered was indeed GERD. Scared, shocked, and a bit relieved, I visited a famous doctor who specializes in vocal surgery, which was very successful. My surgery was very successful and my cords were perfect again, and there was no reason that I should struggle anymore. Yet, I still had GERD, which acid reflux medicine and the diet the doctors prescribed didn’t help, and it wasn’t consistent enough for me to want to be on a medication constantly. My nerves were still shot, also, and I was panicked beyond belief. I found a wonderful teacher and got into therapy, which helped enormously. I also had a baby, which tends to affect the voice in a positive way, but I still could not get rid of the GERD, so my top range was inconsistent, and my focus and nerves were spotty on the best days, like I couldn’t stop the constant stream of noise in my head.

I met Kathy Pirtle when I was a guest performer with the Orion Ensemble, of which she is a founder. She saw I was drinking a lot of water, and had mentioned that I had GERD, which is a bad combination. She talked to me about Weston Price and the book she herself had just written about her performing problems and the life-changing diet she discovered. At this point, I had tried everything, from vegetarianism to Atkins to South Beach to the Blood-type diet, so I was willing to try anything. I was terrified that such a high fat diet would make me blow up like a balloon, and I had just gotten rid of all the weight I had gained from giving birth, but I thought my voice and health were more important. From day one, I noticed that I was hungry on less, and felt vital. My mood calmed down and my nerves settled, so that I could focus and think while singing, which is something I was rarely able to do. Also, reflux was a thing of the past, as well as gas, which I thought was something with which all people had to deal. I also continued to lose weight, and didn’t bloat the way I used to at any hormonal times of the month. If I decided to cheat and eat lots of refined grains and sugars, I would bloat up again, quickly put on pounds, get gassy, and might have reflux that night, so the proof for me has been, so to speak, in the pudding. Now, I am happier in my singing than any other time in my life, and feel I finally have the stamina to do it.

Another huge reason I decided to take up the diet was because of my mother. She recently has been diagnosed with breast cancer, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, high blood pressure, Atrial Fibrillation, plantar fasciatis, bone spurs, thickening of the uterus, and depression. It all started for her with GERD, which went unnoticed for fifty years. I knew if I did not do something, I could end up in that condition. It wasn’t all about my voice, it was about my quality of life after my singing career was through.

Here is another professional singer’s story of healing from acid-reflux through traditional foods:

When I was in my early 20’s, I remember having a ’sensitive’ stomach but thinking it was dorm food in college or stress. I didn’t think much of it. My stomach would hurt but I didn’t have throat burning or excessive throat mucous. This was prior to the first surgery.

I had my first vocal surgery in 1992. I was 33. I had a varicosity on my left vocal cord that needed to be cauterized. They had no idea what caused it. They said
it could’ve been overuse—hereditary—they weren’t sure. No one at that time mentioned acid reflux. I had been experiencing erratic vocal symptoms. Sometimes I felt great, strong, like I could sing anything and for extended periods of time. Other times I would experience quick fatigue, muscle tensions that I couldn’t control and tightness in the throat. I later learned it was from the varicosity, which would swell sometimes but not always. He thought it had probably been there a long time and was working it’s way to the surface of the cord. It eventually burst which was how I figured out what was wrong. I lost my singing voice entirely when that happened. It was like I suddenly went hoarse.

I had another vocal surgery in 1997 for a similar thing. This time I had a pollup on the left vocal cord but when they went in to take it off, they found more varicosities on the cord, which they again cauterized. At that time, my doctor mentioned that he thought I maybe had some acid reflux symptoms and suggested I go on some medication. I can’t remember which one it was—maybe Nexium? He said I could take it whenever I felt it was necessary so I messed around with it a little but didn’t feel like I wanted to get dependent and didn’t end up taking it. I didn’t really believe him because at that time I wasn’t experiencing throat burning or even upset stomach. This surgery was a surprise. I had been singing regularly and had been feeling great. He thought it was a ‘vocal accident’—just a fluke.

By 1999, I had started my own business and was having more severe problems. I would notice that certain foods seemed to trigger symptoms. I was experiencing painful upset stomach and lots of gas and burping. I tried to control it with eating blandly and eating more often in lesser amounts. This helped some. I was under a tremendous amount of stress at that time with a new business and trying to get pregnant with our second. We eventually ended up adopting. I was noticing that the acid reflux was sometimes affecting my endurance and my voice would tire more quickly. I also felt like I needed to clear my throat a lot which of course exacerbates the symptoms. I was in a vicious cycle and it was starting to mess with my head. I felt I had no control over my instrument and couldn’t rely on it. Sometimes it was fine. Other times I felt nothing but struggle. I was experiencing a mild form of depression because of it. I had fantasies of quitting entirely and just giving up.

By 2002, I needed another surgery. This time, I had had it. I worked with a vocal therapist who told me that acid reflux can cause varicosities on the vocal cords. I had always been against taking medication and so struggled with the idea of taking something every day. But the therapist said I needed to take it regularly or it wouldn’t work. It needed to build up in my system. After the surgery, I had barely been talking, let alone singing and one month later, another swelling appeared on the right vocal cord (first time on this side). I went into a tail spin. I decided to go on the medication to protect my voice. I also decided to wait and see if I could ‘heal’ the problem naturally. I just wasn’t ready for another surgery. I found a great voice teacher who helped me get back on track. I was singing better but still feeling some vocal symptoms that I couldn’t control. (Weird fluttering in my mid register was the most annoying and prominent). I decided to have a fourth surgery in 2004 to get rid of the pollup. At this surgery, he said the cords looked cleaner and there was less redness and varicose problems so I felt like the medication was helping. I still felt uneasy about being on it indefinitely though.

Since that time, I have read your book and have been following the recommendations (at least about 80% of the time). I have taken myself off the medication and my voice is healthier than it’s been in a long time. I feel like my range has diminished slightly but other than that, I’m in good shape. This may be due to the fact that I’m older and am not using the upper most part of my range as much as I did when I was singing more classical music. It may also be because I’m peri-menopausal—at least that is what my doctor has suggested. I like to think that it has nothing to do with that, but I’m not sure.
Additionally, through eating this way, after suffering my whole life with debilitating back pain, my back is much better. I’m sure it’s all related. I have a ways to go but am doing what I can to get as healthy as I can. Your book, along with Sally’s and the Weston Price Foundation’s stuff has been an inspiration. I finally feel like I’m on the RIGHT track.

These are just a few examples of healing through traditional foods. Why did our food supply change? To better understand this, let’s first examine the drastic changes that occurred since the dawn of the profit-based industrial farming industry in the 1950s. The foods we are purchasing in our grocery stores today have almost no resemblance to the quality and types of foods that our ancestors ate for thousands of years. With profit as the sole guiding force, our livestock are fed unnatural diets, which are generating foods that are very low in nutrient value; we pasteurize, homogenize, irradiate and alter our fresh foods in countless ways; we use chemical fertilizers and spray our foods with insecticides and herbicides; the shelves of our grocery stores are bursting with processed junk food of all kinds and the average person is eating about 180 pounds of sugar a year.

Before the 1950s, most of our foods came from small family farms. These high quality foods came from animals eating their natural diets—cows ate grass, chickens ate bugs and worms and all fish were wild caught. The food from animals raised on their natural diet was nutrient-dense. The grains, nuts and seasonal vegetables and fruits were, of course, also naturally, or “organically,” grown. Sugar consumption was much less—at about 40 pounds a year per person.
With the industrial farming industry, came dramatic changes in land use. As our livestock were now fed grains instead of their natural diets, much of the land that was formerly used for pasturing animals was now allotted for grain production.

Significantly, profit from grains was essential to this new system of farming. This ignited a huge push to make profit from products made from grains. Thus the processed food industry progressed, vegetable oils were developed, the cholesterol-heart disease theory evolved and the Food Pyramid, which emphasized grains, became our nation’s nutritional guide. We went from a country that primarily ate nutrient-dense foods—raw whole milk and milk products; eggs; high quality meats, poultry and organ meats; traditional fats like butter, lard and coconut oil; seasonal fruits and seasonal vegetables—to a country that ate a lot of nutrient-poor grains and new-fangled processed foods, refined sugar, vegetable oils, and meats, dairy and poultry that were factory farmed. Beginning in the 1970s, fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world also gradually became available year round.

How did these changes to our food supply affect my dietary choices? As a child in the 1960s, my family ate plenty of grains—both whole, refined and in some processed foods—modest amounts of meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, sugar and vegetable oils, including margarine, which was hydrogenated vegetable oil, and no butter or other traditional fats. I remember “Velveeta Cheese,” “Miracle Whip,” powdered milk (which my mother added to whole milk to make it stretch farther), “Blue-Bonnet” margarine, and many “new” sugarcoated breakfast cereals. All these exciting products had endless television commercials touting their wonderful attributes. My mom (thank goodness), having to stretch the family budget to feed 5 kids, did not let us have “Twinkies,” “Hostess Cupcakes” or other very popular—and expensive—snack cakes in our lunch like all the other kids—we got plain old, store bought, bargain cookies and fresh fruit.  I also remember the “bran cereal phase” where my mother heard that bran was really good for you—fiber was the “craze” in the early 1970s. We had bran breakfast cereal with added wheat germ every morning! My approach to “healthy eating” beginning in college in the late 1970s, did not include the “new-fangled” processed foods, but incorporated lots of salads, whole grains, fresh vegetables, fruit, peanut butter (it was cheap), small amounts of meat, dairy and eggs, vegetable oils, little sugar and no “evil” traditional fats—the Food Pyramid was in full force in our country and the “key” to healthy eating.

The consequences of these dietary habits were profound. First, I learned that the lack of traditional fats contributed to my problems with digestion and nutrient absorption. Second, I developed malnourishment and a “leaky gut”—a factor in inflammatory conditions—because most of the foods I ate as a child and those I thought were so “nutritious” as an adult were difficult-to-digest, nutrient-poor, and created intestinal flora imbalances, an incomplete digestion of foods to occur and nutrients to be unavailable. In fact, without foods that promote a healthy intestinal flora, the whole grains that I consumed could not be fully digested, and contributed to the development of “gut dysbiosis,” where unhealthy bacteria thrive in the intestinal tract and cause bacterial fermentation and intestinal damage. When the intestinal tract become damaged, undigested proteins can “leak” through the intestinal wall, causing an immune system response and inflammatory chemicals to constantly circulate throughout the body. Third, the result of following the US high-fiber nutritional dictates was persistent flatulence and fermentation in the stomach from these bacterial imbalances, which lead to acid reflux—my first serious digestive disorder symptom.

Often, acid-reflux disease is a sign of a hiatal hernia, where part of the stomach protrudes up through the esophagus and stomach acid can easily be released in the wrong direction. A lifetime of fermentation in my stomach produced a constant upward pressure against the esophagus due to the undigested foods being acted on by bacteria and yeast, thereby causing both of these ailments.
Insoluble fiber is exceedingly difficult to digest, especially when digestion is not optimal, and historically, people consumed far less fiber in favor of more nutrient dense, easy-to-digest foods such as high quality dairy from grass-fed animals—raw milk, cream, cheese and butter—high quality meats and fish, bone broth soups and cooked vegetables with butter.

In a remarkable book by Konstantin Monastyrsky called Fiber Menace, (pub. by Ageless Press, 2005), the author describes major health problems that can develop from eating what’s considered a modern healthy diet high in insoluble fiber from grains, raw vegetables, fruits, legumes and even fiber supplements. He details how high-fiber diets cause large stools which stretch the intestinal tract beyond its normal range—eventually resulting in intestinal damage—and a drastic upset of the natural bacterial flora of the gut. The end results can manifest as hernias, acid-reflux, hemorrhoidal disease, constipation, malnourishment, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn’s disease.  He also provides numerous medical references to show that high fiber diets do not confer the benefits claimed for them.

The author of this book is a brilliant professional man who suffered a life-threatening illness from years as a vegetarian living on high-fiber foods. Konstantin Monastyrsky was trained as a pharmacologist, but after immigrating to the US from the Ukraine, pursued a career in high technology. He worked in two premier Wall Street firms: as a senior systems analyst at First Boston Corporation and as a consultant at Goldman-Sachs & Co. He has also written two best-selling books in Russian: Functional Nutrition: The Foundation of Absolute Health and Longevity, and Disorders of Carbohydrate Metabolism.

Monastyrsky explains that human teeth are fashioned to chop flesh and that our digestive system is built to handle mainly protein digestion, with only small amounts of fiber. When we eat too much insoluble fiber, digestion lasts longer and fermentation occurs, damaging the bacterial flora and causing problems such as bloating, flatulence and enlarged stools, leading to acid reflux, constipation or diarrhea, IBS and diverticular disease.

From eating a high fiber diet that encouraged poor intestinal bacterial flora, I also developed low acid in the stomach, further contributing to acid reflux. Where most research on poor digestion focuses on unhealthy intestinal flora, the book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome, by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, Mmed (neurology), MmedSci (nutrition), (pub. by Medinform, 2004), uniquely points to many problems with gut flora actually beginning with an unnatural growth of the fungus, Candida Albicans, in the stomach when it is not producing enough acid. Dr. Campbell-McBride discusses that this overgrowth interferes with the first step of digestion by causing the stomach to produce inadequate amounts of the hydrochloric acid necessary to break proteins into “peptides” before entering the small intestine. For instance, under normal circumstances, the gluteomorphine and casomorphine proteins in wheat and milk are broken down in the stomach in the presence of proper amounts of stomach acid. However, with less stomach acid, these foods in fact begin to ferment in the stomach and are not broken down into peptides before passing into the small intestine. Besides causing an inadequate digestion of foods, the pressure of the gas created from this fermentation can lead to acid reflux, esophageal problems and even hiatal hernias, which are some of the most common digestive problems that people experience. Consequently, medications that curtail the production of stomach acid further exacerbate poor digestion and bacterial flora problems.

For those who worry about getting enough nutrients without eating raw vegetables and fruits, nutrient-dense animal foods contain concentrated nutrients because the animals spend their whole lives “chowing down” literally bushels of fresh green grass and other plant matter. The result is meat and fat containing all the vitamins and minerals found in fresh produce, not only in more concentrated form, but also one that is easy to digest.

In Fiber Menace, the author gives practical advice not to eat anything that your great, great, great, great grandparents wouldn’t eat . . . but when our grandparents did include high-fiber foods like grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in their diets, they could do this without ill effects because they had a healthy intestinal flora from eating cultured beverages and fermented foods, and they knew how to properly prepare legumes and grains for easy digestibility through soaking, sprouting and sour leavening or, in the case of vegetables and even many fruits, by cooking.  Additionally, they were able to eat these foods because they did not weaken the intestinal mucosal tissue by following a low-fat vegetarian diet.

It is wise to refrain from consuming raw vegetables and fruit until acid reflux symptoms are well under control for an extended period of time. After a full recovery, it may be possible to add small amounts of these foods providing symptoms do not return. The addition of grains, however, should be very cautious, as they may be difficult to tolerate or produce allergic reactions. It is best to only test properly prepared grains.

If you are concerned about constipation, some of the healthiest cultures had very little fiber in their diets. A diet with adequate traditional fats, fermented and cultured foods and beverages for a healthy intestinal flora, and easy-to-digest bone-broth soups will correct irritable bowel symptoms of both constipation and diarrhea.
Acid reflux is a very complicated problem that requires a thorough and honest assessment of all possible causes. As the optimal health of every body system is dependent on nutrition that supports the proper functioning of the digestive system, certainly studying and applying the essential components of the diets of cultures that had perfect health is a wise endeavor.

Although finding high-quality foods and changing your diet may at first be complicated, your health is your most important asset. Without your health, you may not reach your potential and your dreams may not become a reality. The foods that Dr. Price found that supported optimal human health are not the foods that are currently recommended by US governmental standards for healthy eating. However, these nutrient-dense foods were the permanent answer to correcting malnourishment, healing acid reflux and my digestive tract, and therefore, my long-term pain. The exciting news is there is a growing movement of people across the country that is turning to these same foods to improve chronic illness of all kinds.

Written By Kathryne Pirtle

Kathryne Pirtle is a world-class clarinetist whose career nearly ended because of performance difficulties caused by celiac disease, acid reflux, chronic inflammation and other health problems. Performance without Pain, written with Sally Fallon, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and John Turner, DC tells the story of her trials and recovery.   As a health educator, she has given more than 70 workshops around the country with Dr. John Turner and appeared on numerous radio and television shows.  She has been published in Advance Magazine (a publication for Physical Therapy), Wise Traditions, International Musician, the Clarinet and writes a blog on her website www.performancewithoutpain.com  about issues relating to building health with nutrient-dense foods. She has also just published an e-book called Acid Reflux, A National Epidemic and Precursor to Chronic Illness—Achieving Lasting Healing with Nutrient-Dense Foods.

Pirtle is executive director of the Orion Ensemble, which gives three concert series in Metropolitan Chicago, presents a live internationally broadcast series on Chicago’s WFMT-FM Fine Arts Radio Network and tours throughout North America. She is also is principal clarinetist of the Lake Forest Symphony and frequently performs with the Chicago Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Grant Park Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival Orchestra, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Read my entire testimony at http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/07/08/kathryne-pirtle-to-testify-today-at-usda/

Be a part of the answer by buying foods from small family farms. Who is your farmer?

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Oprah is leaving network television, but she won’t be off the airwaves. She is launching the Oprah Winfrey Network on cable television, and looking for the next generation TV stars to join her. Oprah is a kingmaker, having taken Dr. Phil and made him an overnight sensation.

Did you know that Oprah met Dr. Phil when he was hired to help her through the Texas beef industry lawsuit against her, for saying on national television that she wouldn’t eat beef? Dr. Phil was the psychologist hired to help her make it through the court proceedings, trial and all the media publicity that threatened to ruin her financially.

So OPRAH–WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET THE MESSAGE OUT ABOUT REAL FOOD. Please vote for all of the speakers in the link below.

http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/06/28/vote-for-real-food-stars-to-get-their-own-show-on-oprah-channel/#more-6761

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Today, what can you do to help make positive change happen? We need every person. We can change our food supply, our environment, our government…anything we can see clearly we can change. What can you do today?

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Luckily, I was able to crawl out alive from my low fat/high fiber experiment, which lead to 25 years of chronic pain and a life-threatening digestive disorder. I found the truth of what really fuels the human body–real food from animals eating their natural diets–traditional fats–bone broth soups–unprocessed dairy–cultured foods–fermented cod liver oil–the infallible work of Dr. Weston A. Price–foods from small family farms that were eaten for thousands of years–foods that are not a part of a food supply produced by an industrial farming industry.

You can’t fool Mother Nature. Yet–our government thinks it may be possible. They think maybe people won’t notice. However, people are getting a lot smarter today. They are sick and tired of being sick and tired. It’s time to remove from government those who think “business as usual” is acceptable. When “business as usual” continues to severely damage an entire population–we must remove those who practice this kind of usual business.

Take a look at the new guidelines and take action http://www.westonaprice.org/press/1951-proposed-2010-usda-dietary-guidelines-a-recipe-for-chronic-disease.html

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

When we arrived at the farm, the girls could see, this would be no ordinary day. Stepping out of the car we were greeted by at least 50 free-roaming chickens who delighted in the possibility that we may have some food for them! Scott stood by holding and stroking one of these beautiful birds, waiting to share with us the glory of his and his wife, Julie’s creation. As we entered his home, we were greeted by 3 happy cats. Lots to do today–we were going to help plant 100 of the 600 already planted hazelnut trees around the perimeter of the farm. This was part of Scott’s plan for permiculture–planting a wide variety of trees and plants on the farm to intermingle in the rich tapestry of healthy pastureland and livestock. He and his wife are participating in the creation of paradise and we were there to share.

The girls loved walking amongst the cows and their calves. They quickly learned that some cows were very friendly and come up to be petted or just to meet you. Others were shy, and one cow was a little bossy and tried to tell us to leave her alone!  Every one of these beautiful animals enjoyed superior health as Scott and Julie had painstakingly built soil fertility for three years before pasturing animals.

As we walked to the area where we were going to plant trees, a large group of chickens followed us as if they were going to help! Instead of walking, my farmer enlisted my daughter to drive the “Gator”–a golf-type cart that carried our gear to the planting site. By the look on her face, you would have thought someone had just given her a million dollars! So off we went planting. It will be such a gift to watch the trees we planted grow in years to come.

When it started to thunder, we went to the barn to clean and bag rye seed for planting. The belt-driven, seed-cleaning machine was straight out of the past–nothing fancy or computerized–just simple and to the point. Both girls ran back and forth from the giant seed bin with to bring containers of seeds to the machine. After the thunder passed, we planted more trees.

Just before lunch–the girls discovered the pigs and the chicken nests. They watched the baby pigs who were very busy eating and playing. The girls then gathered dozens of eggs from the chicken’s nests and brought them in the house where we sorted them and put them in cartons. After Julie blessed is with a glorious lunch, we planted more trees finishing at about 4PM.

The next stop–the refrigerated milk holding tank to get fresh milk and the farm store to get meat to take home. We got a variety of fantastic meats. Scott then filled our glass jars with fresh, cold, clean, unprocessed milk from vibrantly healthy, happy cows–liquid sunshine–a life-sustaining, divine, healing food–a food cherished by people worldwide for thousands of years–a food that saved my life–

As we drove back home, the girls reveled in their amazing experience as they counted how many new things they did. “When are we coming back mom?” ” Can I bring my friends?’  my daughter said with an enormous smile.

Connect back to the earth and sun, connect with small family farms, connect with the animals, plants and trees–connect with creation and fill your life with new life and sunshine. Who’s your farmer?

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Oil Spill Vigil Readings

Below are a series of brief facts and stories from people on the gulf region. Several of the facts and stories below are used courtesy of the Gulf Restoration Network. Check out more stories of the Gulf oil spill here: http://www.youtube.com/healthygulf1

FACTS

The fishing communities threatened by the spill produce 30% of America’s seafood and the shrimp, oysters and crabs that New Orleans is famous for. One-third of the Gulf of Mexico fishing grounds are closed. (Source: Gulf Restoration Network)

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As of June 4, 278 dead sea turtles have been found. Most were found washed ashore, either dead or in distress. (Source: Gulf Restoration Network)

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This is a prime nesting season for Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican. Louisiana has about 20 brown pelican nesting sites. And eggs appear to be picking up oil from incubating parents that swim through oil. The oil could be deadly to the 100,000 chicks that will begin coming of age in the coming weeks. (Source: New Orleans Times Picayune)

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Sperm whales are endangered species, and the BP spill is located in a canyon that is a prime feeding area for the whales. Biologists say that even if they could move from their prime feeding ground, they might not be able to survive. NOAA estimates that if even 3 sperm whales are killed by the BP spill, their recovery as a species will be in jeopardy. (Source: Gulf Restoration Network)

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Because of a federal law passed right after Exxon Valdez, BP’s legal liability for the spill is capped at $75 million. The total damages from the spill will easily reach the tens of billions. BP meanwhile is the fourth largest corporation in the world. They made $239 billion in 2009 alone. (Source: various)

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Since the beginning of 2009, BP has employed 49 lobbyists at a cost of $19.5 million. Of these 49 lobbyists, 35 –or 71 percent — previously held federal positions. They’ve also spent $200 million a year on their “Beyond Petroleum” advertising campaign. (Source: Public Citizen)

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There is little knowledge of the side-effects of the toxins being poured in the Gulf, though over a dozen workers have reported health problems such as dizziness, headaches, chest pain, and nausea. Dispersants have also never been used to the extent used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico, reaching record levels that has resulted in over 700,000 gallons of the chemical dumped into the water. Essentially, BP is conducting the largest chemical experiment ever attempted in the Gulf of Mexico and the final results will not be in for another 10-20 years. (Source: Gulf Restoration Network)

STORIES

Brenda Dardar Robichaux, Principal Chief, United Houma Nation:

The United Houma Nation, an indigenous nation numbering approximately 17,000 along coastal, southeast Louisiana, is at high risk of cultural. The Tribe has existed in the bayous and rivers of central South Louisiana long before Louisiana became a state and New Orleans became a French colony. The impact of the spill is already catastrophic to tribal fishermen. The oil has spread west of the Mississippi River. Houma fishermen cannot sustain the losses of just one fishing season, much less several seasons if impacts are long term. With such dire but very real predictions, Houma Nation fishermen may literally cease to exist.

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Mike Lane, owner of the recreational charter boat company RodnReel.com:

My business was fine two months ago, three months ago, and my income will effectively be zero next month. I’m not going to be able to generate any business because most of the areas are closed. Pretty soon pretty much all of them will be closed, plus who wants to come down here and fish in an environment, even the selected parts of it. So it’s not just my business. Everyone’s business that depends on the ability to fish in Louisiana is going to be decimated.

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Dean Blanchard, Dean Blanchard Seafood:

I got 1,400 boats, and we do about 900 a day. Normally, you wouldn’t be able to stand right here, there’d be fish stacked up everywhere you look. I’d have 14 or 15 tractor trailers parked out here, 1,000 people running around this place going 24/7.  Now, we got a guy who comes here from London, pollutes the whole Gulf, and I gotta watch him on TV saying that I still got 80% I can fish. You know what? That 80% don’t have the stuff. The 20% is where everything’s at.

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Danny Phillips, oysterman

Breathing all that poison, I figured people would get sick and probably can’t even live there anymore to tell you the truth. How are you going to breathe all that everyday? I don’t know. We were just devastated, and if the oil comes over here, we’re going to be devastated again. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have no plan, but I need to start making one if the oil’s coming here.

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Rosina Phillip, community elder, Atakapa Tribe:

We need the truth because our very lives, our very livelihood, entire culture depends on getting the truth, knowing what we have to deal with, what is the duration of what we have to deal with. Without the truth we’re sunk. But it’s not happening because people don’t want to get off of that bottom line and it’s all about profit.  It’s all about profit. It’s profit for today and you suffer for generations afterwards. Enough of that.

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Patrick Fahey, AmeriPure Oyster Company:

It’s had a profound effect on our business. We’re selling about 25 percent of what we were prior to the spill. The little bit that we’ve got is fine. It’s not been affected by the oil. That’s not to say that at some point in future, these harvest areas won’t be affected.

I’m tired. We have – we’re working twice as hard to do about 25 percent as much. And it grates on you after a while. And just seeing the images of that thing spewing poison into our beautiful Gulf, it just sucks it out of you. It sucks the life out of you.

Only after the last tree has been cut down,

Only after the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

– Cree Indian Prophecy

Below is a poignant letter I received talking about just how ridiculous regulating small farms in the name of protecting people from “bacteria” really is–as if monitoring small farms for bacteria count in their milk is really a big problem….In our germaphobic and immunity compromised population, real food from small family farms is our only hope for building people’s health and repairing our destroyed food supply.

I’d like to see the corresponding numbers as to the food that is ‘monitored’.   We seem to have no rules of hygiene for the many foreigners and folks who decide to sell their own food in PUBLIC restaurants.  The people who check these things out should have a sincere learning of bacteria and foods, with server’s finger nails, jewelry and facial hair.   It’s disgusting.  I would prefer buying milk or food from someone I know, someone who is not bamboozled by big corporations.

I have seen fast food restaurants where servers lean over the food and their dirty apron touches it; drinks and ice cream handed to you with hands that have dirt under the nails.

I was in a meat market where food dropped on the floor was picked up and packaged…by the manager!.  the workers and delivery people come in and walk all round the meat handlers…. their shoes have stood next to toilets, walked on the sidewalks and streets  where people spit, and sometimes blow their nose, and where dogs pee.   Those same shoes walk around the fresh meat tables, and the meat that has fallen to the floor gets every chance of being contaminated.. yet is put back with the rest of the meats.

Hand gels do not disinfect.  Only hot water and soap can get near disinfecting.  In Chicago, I saw water dripping through the ceiling tile onto the counter.  and it was ignored!!  The clerk walked around the drip to hand me a sandwich… which I then refused.    I was almost served by a man who decided to scratch himself beneath his belt and continue to handle fried chicken…right in Northbrook Il.!!

Doesn’t ANYone take general science anymore?

I recently wrote an article about how Doctors and Nurses have long hair that constantly needs to be stroked back over the ears to keep it out of the eyes…….and then handle a suture; a fresh cut.  I abhor mustaches and beards around food or on Doctors.  The hair is a magnet for the dangerous bacteria that drops out of a nose, or the saliva that lands on the beard.  One nurse who chatted with me before a procedure was holding the needles, and tapping at the open cold-sore that was on her nostril.  I actually watched the blood pressure on my monitor go up!

When I see a chef or cook wear rings and bracelets while they are sticking their hands in meats or salads, or stroking a smooth steak or raw salmon,  I cringe.     Where is the governing of our health here?   On the other hand, you guys raid a small farm business for selling raw milk, robbing us of our choice of wholesome milk or shelved, stored contaminated milks and cheeses.  Spend our tax money on things that really count!!  Let the small farms produce things that we can choose to use or not use.  Stop forcing the consumer to buy things we know are unhealthy!

Judi Klinsky

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

http://www.channel3000.com/localvideo/index.html?v=29206

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has been on the farm of Vernon and Erma Hershberger (Grazin’ Acres) three times in the past week.  The Hershbergers have been selling products of the farm at their on-farm store to members of a private buying club.  DATCP is trying to shut down their operation and has referred the matter to the Sauk County District Attorney even though there have been no complaints against Grazin’ Acres nor any record of food produced at the farm ever making anyone ill.

The Hershbergers need your help in order to continue to provide healthy food to the many members of the buying club.

ACTION TO TAKE
1.  DATCP has referred the Hershbergers’ case to the Sauk County District Attorney, Patricia Barrett, for potential prosecution.  Everyone is urged to contact Barrett’s office and request that she not prosecute the Hershberger case.  Sauk County residents are especially encouraged to contact the District Attorney and inform her that you will not vote for her the next election if she pursues the Hershberger case.  The District Attorney has already taken so many calls on this case that they are no longer accepting them; but you can still contact the DA’s office by email, fax and/or postal mail.  Here is the contact information:

Patricia Barrett, Esq.
Sauk County District Attorney
Sauk County Court House
515 Oak Street
Baraboo, WI  53913
Phone (608) 355-3207
Fax (608)355-3282
patricia.barrett@da.wi.gov

2. Contact the Sauk County Sheriff’s office and urge them not to participate in any investigation of the Hershbergers.  Here is the contact information:

Randy Stammen, Sheriff
Sauk County Sheriff
Law Enforcement Center
1300 Lange Court
Baraboo, WI  53913
Admin Phone (608) 355-3207
Fax (608) 355-3598
rstammen@co.sauk.wi.us

3. Use the talking points at the end of this alert to persuade the County DA and the Sheriff not to pursue the Hershberger case.

4.  Enlist others to join in this campaign to help the Hershbergers and farms like Grazin’ Acres.

BACKGROUND
On June 2, DATCP officials, Jacqueline Owens and Cathleen Anderson along with Sauk County Health Department officials and deputies of the County Sheriff descended upon Vernon and Erma Hershberger’s dairy farm, Grazin’ Acres in Loganville, to execute a “special inspection” warrant. DATCP inspectors taped freezers in the Hershbergers’ farm store and placed a hold order on thousands of dollars of food in the store, mostly raw milk and raw milk products. Under the hold order, the Hershbergers were prohibited from selling or even moving any of the food in the taped freezers. DATCP sent inspectors out to the farm because the Hershbergers had refused to comply with an intrusive request by the agency for documents and information going back over seven years.

The Hershbergers’ on-farm store sold products only to members of the private buying club.  Vernon told reporters that under the Constitution, he was allowed to enter into private contracts and that DATCP had no jurisdiction over his operation. DATCP has referred the matter to the Sauk County District Attorney.

On June 8, Owens and Anderson returned to the farm without a warrant, attempting to conduct another inspection of the farm store.  Vernon refused the request for an inspection and the officials left his premises.  Before leaving, they served Vernon a ‘Special Order’ which could subject him to fines of up to $5,000 per violation if he is not in compliance with Wisconsin food and dairy laws.

On June 10, Owens and Anderson again returned to the farm, this time with a warrant but the store doors were locked; so, again they left without searching the store.

POINTS TO MAKE
1. The County DA and Sheriff should not be spending taxpayer money, pursuing cases like this in which there is no victim or injury.  There has been no complaint filed by anyone against the Hershbergers.

2. The only injury in a case like this occurs when the farmer or food distributor is prosecuted and consumers who were obtaining foods they deem best for their health and the health of their families have now lost their source of those foods.

3. The right of consumers to obtain the foods of their choice from the source of their choice is a political issue; cases like this in which there has been no injury do not belong in the courts nor should the Sheriff be participating in any investigation of them.  The County DA and Sheriff should exercise their discretion not to get involved in these cases.

4. With the tough economic times and all the cutbacks in government spending, the County DA and Sheriff should not be using their remaining enforcement dollars pursuing victimless crimes.

5. Let the County DA and Sheriff know how food direct from farms has benefitted your health and the health of your family.

The Hershberger farm has been providing high quality pastured foods and raw milk to a members-only buying club.  These private lease buying clubs and Herd lease/cow-share programs will save the small family farm from bankruptcy across our nation, take back our constitutional rights and transform our damaged food supply.

Who’s your farmer?………….

To locate a cow-share/ private buying club in your area, see www.realmilk.com

Thanks for your help in saving this small family farm!
Kathy

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Dr. Hal Huggins, a leading dentist and scientist in the field mercury toxicity showed many relationships between trends in toxic dentistry and illness. In 1975, there were approximately 8,800 cases of MS reported by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In 1976, a new amalgam filling material was introduced that contained high amounts of copper along with mercury. In 1976, 126,000 cases of MS were reported! Adding copper to amalgams increases the toxicity of mercury.

The notable rise in MS between 1975 and 1976 is just one of the many increases we have seen in chronic illness due to mercury amalgams. Hopefully, very soon mercury amalgams will be banned worldwide. To learn more about this subject, read the book  It’s All in Your Head, by Dr. Hal Huggins.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Do you think this kind of country would be facing a financial and health disaster?

• What if we lived in a country where basic decisions about policies were based on how these decisions would affect the well-being of our population for generations to come?
• What if we lived in a country where policy decisions could not bought and sold?
• What if we lived in a country where the foods that our children ate had extraordinary nutrition based on traditional methods of agriculture?
• What if we lived in a country where our schools had vending machines and lunch programs that offered children nutrient-rich food?
• What if we lived in a country where the majority of the advertising focused on foods that had optimal nutrition?
• What if we lived in a country where chronic illness was almost never seen because people’s diets protected them from disease?
• What if we lived in a country children rarely suffered severe illness and brain disorders?
• What if we lived in a country where infertility was unusual and most children were born healthy?
• What if we lived in a country where prescription drugs were considered unnecessary?
• What if we lived in a country where prescription and over-the-counter drugs were considered poor solutions to our health problems?
• What if we lived in a country where the right to purchase foods that could provide optimal nutrition from small farms was never an issue and industrial raised foods were obsolete?
• What if we lived in a country where the nutrient quality of food we eat was at the basis of all decisions we made about food policies?
• What if we lived in a country that did all of the things on this list?

Do you think this kind of country would be protected from a financial and health disaster?

Visualize the country you would like to have. Vote with your pocketbook. Support real food.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Please send this on to others.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

I started taking Dr. Huggin’s supplements to remove the stored mercury from my cells in May, 1991. The change in my mental and emotional states were astounding. Each month I got better and better. My memory returned and my depression left. My energy increased and my anxiety decreased. My entire personality was changing. What a joy! I had blood and urine tests taken to record the loss of mercury. The blood test confirmed the amount of mercury that was being dumped into my body each day and the urine test confirmed the amount that was being excreted due to the Huggin’s supplements. I was excreting more mercury than I was taking in. To be exact, the test indicated that I was taking in .5 micrograms of mercury and excreting 5.0 micrograms. After a few months the changes in myself were so enormous that I made up my mind then and there that I wanted this to be a permanent change in my life. The only way to insure that was to have all of the mercury amalgams removed.So, I called the Huggin’s telephone number and asked for a dentist referral in my area. Also, having interviewed a variety of people, I had several referrals of my own.

I then proceeded to call all of the dentists and interviewed them over the phone. Either talk to the dentist or someone in authority in the office to elicit the information that you desire. Do not go in for a consultation until you have done this. First of all, the consultation will cost you money. Secondly, you don’t even want to use a dentist that is not using the proper protocol for mercury removal. I had read the book, Its All In Your Head, and knew the Huggin’s protocol by heart. I also knew that improper removal of the mercury could cause serious and permanent damage to my health. The Huggin’s protocol for mercury removal was taught by Dr. Huggins in his Colorado clinic to those dentists that were interested in learning the methodology. Dr. Huggins stopped placing mercury amalgam fillings in his patients’ mouths in 1973. He is recognized as one of the leading authorities in the world on mercury amalgam removal. Huggin’s protocol for mercury removal was as follows and these are the questions that you want to ask the dentist or his receptionist over the telephone BEFORE you waste your time or money on a consultation: (This was the protocol when I had my amalgams removed in 1992. New technology and research might have changed it).

Dental Amalgam (Fillings) Removal Questions and Procedures

• Electro Ferese Machine (EFM) – Does the dentist have one in his clinic? The EFM is designed to attract errant mercury atoms that escape into the environment while amalgam removal is taking place. Generally, the EFM is attached to the ceiling of his work station. This is very important, as you do not want to absorb these escaping atoms into your body via inhalation, etc. When you do go in for a consultation, ask to visibly see this machine.
• Air Exchange Machine (AEM) – This usually sits on the floor in the work station and physically exchanges the air in the room several times per hour. You should actually see the AEM to ascertain the dentist is in compliance with the Huggin’s protocol.
• Rubber Dam – This is a square piece of rubber that is placed into your mouth as a safeguard against mercury pieces and/or vapor being swallowed or absorbed during removal. The rubber square is about half the size of a Kleenex tissue and is laid over your open mouth and kept in place with wire frames that fit outside your mouth around your lips. The dentist puts pressure on the rubber around the tooth that he is going to work on so that the rubber breaks in that spot only, adhering firmly around the tooth. That leaves only the tooth to be
  worked on exposed, effectively protecting the other teeth, tongue, throat and mouth with the rubber dam. While it is difficult to explain, the procedure is quite painless and absolutely necessary. I would not let a dentist touch me for mercury extractions if he did not use this exact procedure.
• Water Exchange – Constant water/air suction should be used during removal to insure that all of the mercury is immediately removed from your mouth, thus
  eliminating any chance of absorption from mercury vapors.
• Sequential Removal – The dentist should have a machine that reads electrical current in your mouth. This machine is called an Amalgameter. It reads positive and negative electrical current in microamps. A ground is placed in your mouth and a probe is touched to each tooth which has a filling in it. The tooth will either have a positive or negative reading. Sequential removal means that amalgams are removed in order, according to the electrical charge. For example, the quadrant having the highest negative reading is done first, moving to the quadrant with the lowest negative reading. Then, the quadrant having the highest positive reading is done moving to the quadrant with the lowest
  positive reading on the Almagameter. COMPLETE RECOVERY IS SELDOM ACHIEVED IF THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT FOLLOWED EXACTLY. A quadrant is a fourth of your mouth.
• You have the upper left teeth forming one quadrant, the lower left another. The upper right and lower right form the additional two quadrants. After each amalgam extraction, resetting of the current has to be done because the fields change. When I had my current tested it indicated I had a total of 80 microamps. Dr. Voll of Germany has said that there should be no more than six microamps of current in anyone’s mouth. He has also said that the acupuncture meridians in the body are adversely effected by any current greater than six microamps and that this aids the process of disease. Picture these meridians as guitar strings running from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. There is concern about negative current at one microamp. It has been said that some of the dramatic improvements seen in some people after amalgam removal is due to the changes in their electrical field due to the removing of the negative fillings along with getting rid of the mercury.
• Protamine Zinc Insulin (PZI)
  - Be sure that the dentist uses a shot of PZI with each quadrant of amalgam removed.
• Immunization Cycle – Avoid having all appointments on the same day of the week in order to avoid interfering with the 21 day immune cycle. I had mine removed one quadrant a day for four consecutive days. On Monday one quadrant of amalgams was removed and on Thursday the fourth one was removed.
• Dycal – Make certain that the dentist does NOT use Dycal as a base. Dycal causes electrical current to be generated just as the metals do. All metals, including gold, cause electrical current fields in the mouth. To eliminate these fields, you must eliminate all metals.
• Do not take vitamin C on the same day as mercury removal takes place because it reduces the pain killing action of the Novocain.

Protocol After Removal

Now that we’ve covered the things that you must interview your dentist on, let’s cover the things that you must do to have the best results from your
amalgam removal.

• Dietary changes are important. This includes the elimination of caffeine, sugar, and alcohol from your diet, and of course, smoking. I believe that
  organic, raw, fresh fruits and vegetables are necessary daily to achieve and maintain optimal health.
• The taking of supplements to remove the mercury stored in your tissues and brain cells. These supplements can be purchased from Dr. Huggin’s office. Also, several doctors recommend chlorella as a good detox method. There are several other ways to detox, see #20, Detox Body and #21, Detox Brain.
• As per author, the taking of Aloe Vera Gel. See subject #3, Aloe Vera.

Now, for the final aspect of this procedure. What do you replace the mercury/silver amalgam with? To this question, I am happy to say, there are good answers.

To begin with, there is a blood test. You can call Peak Energy Performance Laboratory in Colorado (1-800-331-2303) and they will send you a kit. You can have the blood drawn locally, then mailed overnight to Peak Energy Performance laboratory in Colorado. They analyze the blood and will give you a list of the replacement materials that you are compatible with. The procedure was called a Compatibility Panel 307 in 1992. The results are given to you and you can take them to your dentist who then, collaboratively, helps you select the best replacement materials for your amalgams. When I did this, the test revealed that I was very compatible with a white filling material called Conquest. This is a white, ground-glass powder mixed with a plastic binder. There are several different name-brands of materials similar to Conquest, but my blood test indicated I was least reactive to the chemical components in Conquest (Post Comp II by Generic Pentron).

As I stated earlier, do not let the dentist use Dycal as a base for the filler in your teeth. The best results overall are with a base called Dropsin. A “base” is a coat of insulation usually placed over the pulp chamber where the nerve lives to decrease the thermal shock of hot and cold sensitivity. Now, for the crowns. If the hole that is left in your tooth after the amalgam is removed is going to be too big, then a normal “filling” will not be suitable. It will not “hold”. In this case, you will need either a crown or an inlay. At this point you have four choices, of which, in my opinion, two are good and two are bad ones. Let me explain the good and bad of all four choices: The four choices are pure porcelain, porcelain over metal, gold, and cast glass. Please remember that these are my opinions and these choices were available in 1992. There might be new materials on the market that are better today.

1. & 2. Porcelain and Porcelain over metal- Porcelain was my choice. Porcelain comes in two ways;

• Pure porcelain bonded to your tooth
• Porcelain on top of metal (metal is 86% pure gold) cemented to your tooth.

Since I don’t believe in using metal of any type in one’s mouth, even gold, I chose the pure porcelain. As you have learned in this book, gold does give off an electrical charge and you will have an electrical field in your mouth if you use it, although according to experts it is a very low field. Also, you NEVER mix gold and mercury/silver amalgam in a mouth, not even for one day.

The downside for pure porcelain is two-fold. Porcelain is not as strong as metal/porcelain crowns. Heat and cold sensitivity lasts longer due to the fact that porcelain is simply bonded to the tooth while metal/porcelain crowns have a metal and cement base that adds a “buffer” separating the nerve in the tooth from heat and cold.

There are many different brands of porcelain. Since aluminum is an ingredient in porcelain, you must be careful to use one brand of porcelain only. Research data on the brand “Di Cor” shows a 100 to 500 thousand year half-life in aluminum leakage. In other words, you don’t have to worry about it in your lifetime because it will take a minimum of 100 thousand years for half of the aluminum to leak out of the porcelain.

3. Gold – The third choice is gold. A good point about gold is that it is the strongest choice, a bad point is that it will create an electrical field in your mouth which can be harmful to your health according to experts.

4. The fourth choice is Cast Glass. This is probably one of the best materials, but it is not strong and the crowns can break and crack with hard usage.

Taking everything into consideration, I elected to use pure porcelain and I have been happy with the choice. I have absolutely no electrical field in my mouth and the sensitivity to hot and cold diminished in a short time.

Everyone is different with their level of tooth sensitivity. I have talked to people who hardly notice a sensitivity at all while others had varying degrees of sensitivity. In my case, sensitivity was acute for several months, though within nine months it was barely discernible. It has been several years since I had my crowns put in and there is no sensitivity at all. I have been told that I am the exception to the rule, that most people don’t have as much sensitivity as I experienced.

Dental Amalgams (Fillings), Electrical Testing and Other Issues

Your dentist MUST check the electrical fields each time you come in for amalgam removal because the fields can change from quadrant to quadrant. This is part of the sequential removal procedure discussed earlier. During my mercury/amalgam extraction I also supported my adrenal glands by taking pantothenic acid and vitamin C. I took this combination for months prior to the extraction, but eliminated the vitamin C on the mornings scheduled for extraction, electing to take it in the afternoons (recall, vitamin C decreases the effectiveness of Novocain) and I continued taking it for some time afterward. I also added a freeze-dried adrenal gland supplement which I took before, during, and after amalgam removal. It just seems to me that since the adrenal glands are so sensitive to stress, that I should support them to the best of my ability during the extraction process. The stress on the body is tremendous at that time.

One more bit of information. My amalgams were removed in January of that year, but I didn’t start losing weight until three months later, in April. From April until August, I had lost 20 pounds. I believe the delay was the time necessary for the Pineal to recover from 30 years of “shell shock” in being bombarded with electro-magnetic fields. There is probably a time of adjustment and repair necessary for it to start functioning properly.

I must add here that the process of extraction was absolutely painless!!!! I never had one uncomfortable moment. And, my energy level was high and my mental condition, i.e., emotional stability, etc., was excellent. I think it was partially due to the adrenal support and the liter of Aloe that I drank daily, consuming four liters in four consecutive days of extraction. At that time I was taking Coate’s Aloe which comes in liter bottles (33.8 oz. in a liter Vs 32 oz. in a quart). From laboratory reports, at that time, I knew that Coate’s Aloe had between 1500 and 2500 mg./L of the healing ingredients I sought, therefore, one liter each day was adequate. If I had been taking R-Pure Aloe, I would have had to only take three ounces per day, as R-Pure Aloe guaranteed, at that time, 448 mg. per ounce of the healing ingredients. My goal was to consume a minimum of 1200 mg. of Aloe’s healing ingredient per day.

In ending this section, I would like to expound on the importance of selecting the dentist. The dentist that removed my amalgams is in West Palm Beach, Florida, and his name is Dr. Medlock. He was trained by Dr. Huggins and is a very sincere, conscientious person. Working with him and his staff was a pure delight. The staff always greeted me with an upbeat, happy attitude and demonstrated the utmost concern for my safety and comfort.

Dr. Medlock’s knowledge and input helped me tremendously in deciding on the proper crowns for my teeth. Thanks to his desire for continuing education, a recent seminar he had attended provided him new-found information on using the Di Cor porcelain.

Not long after I had finished my extractions, Dr. Medlock returned from another seminar on mercury extraction where he discovered a substitute for the rubber
dam. It is a combination drill and semi-rubber dam all in one.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank him again for the safe, successful mercury extraction that I experienced. He has also been helpful in providing me with some of the necessary names and techniques listed in this book, not to mention his critique of this subject for accuracy.

Now, the last reference I am going to make in this topic occurred on December 16, 1990, on national television. Sixty Minutes, the popular television show, did an expose on mercury amalgams. I have the transcript of the show. Anyone can order it by calling Burrelle’s Information Services at 1-800-777-TEXT, OR
Journal Graphics 1-800-825-5746, or write to Journal Graphics, 1535 Grant Street, Denver Colorado 80203-1843. The television segment is entitled “Is There Poison in Your Mouth? To order it you must request it by date and segment title. I highly recommend that you order this transcript and read it. The
contents are mind boggling.

The following information is excerpted from the transcript with permission from CBS.

—- Copyright, CBS Inc., 1990. All Rights reserved. Originally broadcast in December, 1990, over the CBS Television network and affiliates —-

Morley Safer: “Is there poison in your mouth? The American Dental Association says there isn’t, but some of its members say there is and have stopped using it. Mercury is more poisonous than lead or even arsenic.

Because its been around so long and because it was assumed that the mercury wasmade stable when mixed with other metals, amalgam fillings were never testedfor safety – one of those remedies that the Food and Drug Administration automatically approved, but now a growing number of scientists, doctors and dentists are saying silver amalgams should be banned. Last summer, the EPA banned mercury from indoor latex paint because of mercury vapor. The vapor level in this patient’s mouth after chewing for 10 minutes is 92 times higher than the mercury-vapor level in a newly painted room – three times higher than the U.S. Government allows in the work-place.

Dental Amalgams (Fillings), Medical Schools

A number of medical schools are looking at the relationship between mercury vapor in the mouth and a whole variety of diseases. Alzheimer’s, arthritis and colitis have all been linked to mercury poisoning. Mercury in the work-place has produced kidney damage, brain damage, birth defects and symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Up until seven years ago, the ADA said no vapor at all was released from fillings. The ADA is adamant that mercury in a patient’s mouth is safe – so adamant that in 1986 – it changed its code of ethics. It became a violation of that code for any dentist to recommend the removal of amalgam because of mercury.

The Inclusion of the “Is There Poison In Your Mouth?” Television script does not imply endorsement of the author’s editorial content therein.

By changing its code of ethics the ADA can now charge a dentist with fraud, get expert witnesses to testify against him, and revoke his license. Therefore any
dentist that speaks out against mercury dental amalgams could lose his license and livelihood! And, it HAS BEEN DONE. Please read the 60 minute transcript to find out more.

I end this chapter on a note of sadness. It has been called to my attention that the panthers of the Everglades of Florida, an endangered species, are being killed by mercury poisoning. There are only a few dozen left in the Everglades and recently several have died. Panther No. 27, as the 4-year-old female was called, had a higher mercury level in its body than did victims of history’s most notorious mercury poisonings, at an industrial town in Japan.

If mercury in the environment is this deadly, think about having a toxic waste dump in your very own mouth, spewing out vapors every second of every day that you live, and for that matter, long after you die.

I hope this helps to enlighten you, to open your eyes to the lies that are being fed to you concerning the SAFETY of mercury amalgams. It’s your physical and mental health that are being destroyed. It’s you that is being cheated out of the full enjoyment of life which can only come hand in hand with a healthy, robust body and mind. I made my decision, and I had all of my mercury amalgams removed in January of 1992.

For those of you with any doubt as to mercury’s dangers, I would recommend that you read a book called “Beating Alzheimer’s” by Tom Warren. It is listed in the back of this book under the section entitled, Recommended Books to Read. Tom Warren was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s disease and for six years he and his wife searched for answers to beat his INCURABLE disease. “Beating Alzheimer’s” is his own true story, and in his book, Tom devotes an entire chapter to mercury fillings.

The November 11, 1988, issue of Dental and Health Facts News Letter, published by the Foundation For Toxic Free Dentistry, reports that a group of researchers
at the University of Kentucky found increased mercury in Alzheimer’s brain tissue.

The Stortebecker Foundation for Research, in Stockholm, Sweden, reports that the high concentrations of metallic mercury found post-mortem in the brain originate mainly from the mercury in dental amalgam fillings. However, far more dangerous are similarly released mercurial fumes, which settle in the mucous membranes of the upper region of the nasal cavity and are then transported directly to the brain. A silver filling is composed of five dissimilar metals: 50 percent pure elemental mercury, 35 percent silver, 13 percent tin, two percent copper, and a trace amount of zinc. When these dissimilar metals combine with saliva, a battery effect occurs. Studies indicate that an electrical current accelerates the release of hazardous mercury vapor.

A research paper entitled Dental “Silver” Tooth Fillings: A source of Mercury Exposure Revealed by Whole-Body Image Scan and Tissue Exposure and written by Leszek J. Hahn, et al, published on August 28, 1989, by the Departments of Radiology and Medical Physiology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It ended all speculation about the stability and dangers of mercury silver fillings by reporting what happened when radioactive mercury-silver fillings were placed in the teeth of adult sheep. Mercury appeared in high concentrations in the sheep’s’ kidneys, livers, jaw tissue, and gastrointestinal tracts. In each animal, it was found in lower concentrations in the frontal cortices, occipital cortices, thalami, cerebrospinal fluid, pituitary gland, thyroid and adrenal. It was found throughout their whole bodies – within twenty-nine days.I have read, from knowledgeable sources, that many of the chemical imbalances found in people are created by reactions to toxic substances in the mouth. They include mercury, copper, nickel, beryllium, aluminum, molybdenum and other metals found in fillings, crowns, braces and removable bridges. Plastic fillings contain phenol, hydroquinone, formaldehyde, boron, strontium, urethane and toluene.

These are just a few of the chemicals that people are exposed to from these fillings. Even “gold crowns” contain notable amounts of copper, palladium, silver, tin and zinc in the non-biological, or metallic forms which can react with our bodies. These metals and chemicals can combine with your hemoglobin where oxygen is supposed to travel resulting in the experience of chronic fatigue. They can combine with your hormones such that your blood test may look “normal” yet the hormones are not fully active due to contamination from some of these metals. They can attach to normal cells in your body and make them register abnormal, or “nonself” to your own immune system. When this happens, your white blood cells will start to destroy those “non-Self” cells thinking they are invaders. This creates what is called an autoimmune disease. Examples are Diabetes, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s Disease and many others.

It is EXTREMELY important to let Whole Foods know how you feel about this decision by emailing them at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/contact_submit.php. Then patronize smaller health foods stores and markets that still carry raw milk. Not only has Whole Foods stopped providing Nature’s perfect food, they have created a severe financial hardship for the farmers who in good faith have invested in raw milk production for Whole Foods markets. If you phone the dairy that has provided raw milk to Whole Foods, they will be able to provide you with the names of stores that still carry it.

My name is Kathryne Pirtle and I am a professional clarinetist with a national career. I play with the Orion Ensemble, which tours throughout North America and am Principal Clarinetist of the Lake Forest Symphony. I also often perform with the Lyric Opera, Ravinia Festival and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. I am 52 years old and at age 45 I nearly died from a severe digestive disorder. I had suffered from chronic pain for 25 years. However, I had followed all the healthy high-fiber, low-fat eating dictates that we are told are necessary to insure good health for my entire life. Excellent health is very important to me. I ate lots of salads, grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, a little meat, eggs and dairy and only vegetable oils—no butter.

However, this way of eating was making me very ill. Besides being in chronic pain, at 42 I began experiencing acid reflux, and I developed a severe digestive disorder at 45 which caused me to have chronic diarrhea. I was going to the bathroom about 15 times a day! At that time, I was eating only vegetables, fruit, meat and olive oil. I did not know what to eat or if I would survive.

Luckily, I learned of the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and the Weston A. Price Foundation. Dr. Price was baffled by the amount of chronic illness in his patients and traveled worldwide to see if there were cultures that had perfect health. He found 14 cultures that were immune to disease and had wonderful dental and physical health. Many of these cultures depended on raw milk for their high degree of wellness. Their diets all included ample amounts of nutrient-dense foods that were from animals eating their natural diets.

I began eating these foods—raw milk, cream, butter, bone broth soups, cultured foods, cod liver oil and pastured meats and eggs. I began to consume about a quart of raw milk every day along with lots of raw butter and cream. Gradually, not only did my digestive problems and chronic pain disappear, I have become healthier than ever before as I continue to eat these God-given unprocessed foods.

Not only did raw milk help to save my life, there is a growing worldwide movement of people who are discovering its important health benefits. I have given over 55 seminars across the country, written an important book called Performance without Pain, and given radio and television interviews sharing how nutrient-dense foods like raw milk can heal and build optimal health. I have spoken to the autism and mental health communities; to people suffering from food intolerances like gluten; to families and their children about maximizing learning, concentration and mental health through nutrient-dense foods; to performing artists and athletes and to people who are struggling with chronic illness. My book, website and seminars are an example of the effective information that is spreading throughout the world on helping people overcome the severe health challenges that we are facing today that cannot be ignored and need real solutions—NOW!

Our children cannot wait any longer for real food to be available to each and every person. We have hospitals being built for very sick children who need real food now. The time is now—we cannot wait any longer. We need raw milk now. It must be legalized in every state. The future of our children’s well-being depends on this!

Kathryne Pirtle

People came from as far as France to testify to the enormous attributes of raw milk–it’s ability to heal and support optimal health when handled in a responsible manner by small family farmers and the ridiculous laws that have shamefully prevented people’s access to this perfect food. It was clear from the testimonies given by doctors, farmers, families, and young and old people from all walks of life–that people are demanding that their right to choose the foods they need to live healthfully and the legalization of raw milk is serious business.

Testimony from France discussed how in their country you could buy raw milk from vending machines! France has a long history of the safe consumption of raw milk, cream and butter. It was rather embarrassing to note how draconian our laws have been when the French have enjoyed raw milk for centuries. Dr. Ted Beals gave poignant testimony on the possibility of illnesses from raw milk being very small when proper care is taken in handling. He pointed out that you are more likely to be injured from the drive to pick up your raw milk than from drinking it! He also stated that sickness from raw milk can almost be totally obliterated if any people who are ill abstain from its handling in the milking and bottling and even purchasing phase. In fact he suggested that we pay raw milk employees who are sick  to stay home and do not send sick family members to pick up the milk!

There was powerful testimony from Scott Trautmen, a well known Wisconsin pasture dairy farmer, that represented the experiences of small farmers in Wisconsin whose farms are in danger of being shut down.  He talked of the pervasive, inexcusable criminal invasion by the Department of Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) of his farm and his passionate business to provide healthy foods to people in need.  This criminal activity is reminiscent of  the worst kinds of governmental harassment in the history of our country.

I talked about how raw milk was key in the many of the diets of healthy populations that Dr. Weston A. Price studied and that it was instrumental in saving my life. I also discussed the growing movement of people who are finding raw milk to be critical to their family’s health and that through the Weston A. Price Foundation and resources like my lectures, book, and website, people all around the world are understanding the need to return to nutrient-dense traditional foods.

Hours and hours of testimony were heard–starting at 10AM going on and on late into the evening! Countless people discussed over and over again that raw milk was necessary to sustain the health of the small family farm and that of the consumers of this traditional food, and that governmental intrusion needs to end immediately. We can easily access foods that have been known to cause illness from factory farms in our grocery stores and fast food restaurants–we can even freely eat raw foods like sushi if we so choose–it is time to have free access to raw milk!

Thankfully, Wisconsin’s legislators were all ears! They sat openly listening to all the testimony–the room was filled with the undeniable force of positive change. The hats worn all through each aisle read “MILK FREEDOM!”

THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN–LEGALIZE RAW MILK NOW!!

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/whole-foods-market-responds-to-wjla/

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ31Ljd9T_Y&feature=player_embedded#

There is an old saying that “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of time.” Whole Foods–Stop fooling the public!

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

‘We’re Not Eating What We Should Eat’

By Agnes Blum
Friday, February 12, 2010

Eat fat, be healthy.

It’s not nutritional advice that one hears every day, but it was the message at the Northern Virginia Whole Food Nutrition Meetup on Saturday Jan. 30. About 40 people braved the impending snowstorm and met at the restaurant Food Matters in Cameron Station to discuss how food can affect mood and health.

Paula Bass, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist, spoke to the crowd as they ate a breakfast of local foods. Bass, who has been practicing in Northern Virginia for 30 years, fuses a traditional psychotherapeutic approach with nutritional wisdom.

Drawing on experiences with her patients and her own battles with health problems, she told the audience how a change in diet could dramatically alter health. One theme emerged over and over: we need saturated fat, the kind you get from animals.

“When you take the fat out, you’re taking out all the good nutrients,” Bass said, explaining how saturated fat helps keep the brain chemically balanced. “Without it, symptoms can mimic a psychiatric illness and then you do have a psychiatric illness, because that’s the way you’re feeling every day.”

One little girl, for example, had always excelled in school but had begun having breakdowns and lashing out at friends and family. It turned out this second-grader had, up until recently, been eating a whole-foods breakfast with plenty of fat — pancakes, eggs, bacon — and was now eating sugar-cereal and skim milk because of the morning rush at home. Bass recommended to her parents that they ensure she eat a breakfast full of protein and animal fats. They did, and her problems disappeared.

“Food can directly influence a child’s brain,” Bass said. Many people who suffer from mood disorders today — everything from depression to ADD — can trace their problems to a diet lacking in nutrients and fats, she said.

“The only vegetable I saw growing up was canned string beans,” Bass joked. She traced her own turnaround in health to when she began to follow the principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation, which uses education, research and activism to promote healthy living. Their guidelines are: eat pastured meat, probiotics such as yogurt, organic fruits and vegetables and strictly avoid sugar, vegetable oils, white flour, soy and additives such as MSG. “We’re not eating what we should eat,” Bass said. “And what we are eating damages the manufacture of healthy cells.”

A nutrient-dense, traditional foods diet will go a long way in protecting our children’s physical and mental health. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

The book describes mercury as a “cytotoxin.” It is poisonous to all living cells and can bind with any molecule called a “sulfhydrl”–which is found in most proteins–the building blocks for all tissues. As a result–mercury can interfere with virtually any process or organ in the body. Mercury has a long history of being reported as a poison. 2,500 years ago, the Greeks used it as a murder weapon by pouring it into the victim’s ear–thereby paralyzing the brain and causing almost instant death. It has been marked an extremely toxic poison in every encyclopedia description. In a widely-respected toxicological manual–The Pharmacological Basics of Therapeutics (Eighth Edition, Pergamon Press, 1990)–it states that:

Short term exposure to elemental mercury vapor may produce symptoms within hours; these include weakness, chills, metallic taste, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dyspnea, cough, and a feeling of tightness in the chest. Pulmonary toxicity may progress to an interstitial pneumonitis with severe compromise of respiratory function. Recovery, although usually complete, may be complicated by residual interstitial fibrosis.

Chronic exposure to mercury vapor produces a more insidious form of toxicity that is dominated by neurological effects (Friberg and Vostal, 1972). The syndrome is referred to as asthenic vegetative syndrome and consists of the following findings (Goyer, 1985): goiter, increase uptake of radio-iodine by the thyroid, tachycardia, labile pulse, gingivitis, dermographia, an increases mercury in the urine. With continued exposure, tremor becomes noticeable and psychological changes consist of depression, irritability, excessive shyness, insomnia, emotional instability, forgetfulness, confusion, and vasomotor disturbances (such as excessive perspiration and uncontrolled blushing, which together are referred to as erethism. ) Common features of intoxication from mercury vapor are severe salivation and gingivitis.

To add to this scenario, dental office staff are carefully instructed about the careful  handling of amalgam material as it is classified by OSHA as “hazardous.” Remarkably–once it is put in your mouth–it becomes safe? In 1992, the World Health Organization declared that mercury is so poisonous that no amount of mercury absorption is safe!

A study done by publisher, Sam Ziff and his son, Michael Ziff, DDS published in 1993–“A Consolidated Symptom Analysis of 1569 Patients”– compiled the changes in health that occurred with the removal of amalgams in people from Sweden, Denmark, Canada and Colorado. Here are some of the results:

• Chronic fatigue –45% reported this problem–86% of those reported cure or improvement
• Headaches–34% reported this problem–87% of those reported cure or improvement
• Vision Problems–29% reported this problem–63% of those reported cure or improvement
• Depression–22% reported this problem–91% of those reported cure or improvement
• Dizziness–22% reported this problem–88% of those reported cure or improvement
• Skin Disturbances–20% reported this problem–81% of those reported cure or improvement
• Memory Loss–17% reported this problem–73% of those reported cure or improvement
• Lack of Concentration–17% reported this problem–63% of those reported cure or improvement
• Gastrointestinal Problems–15% reported this problem–83% of those reported cure or improvement
• Allergies–14% reported this problem–89% of those reported cure or improvement
• Insomnia–12% reported this problem–78% of those reported cure or improvement
• Ulcers and Sores in the Oral Cavity–12%reported this problem–86% of those reported cure or improvement
• Irregular Heartbeat–10% reported this problem–80% of those reported cure or improvement
• Muscle Tremor–8% reported this problem–83% of those reported cure or improvement
• Gum Problems–8% reported this problem–94% of those reported cure or improvement
• Irritability–8% reported this problem–90% of those reported cure or improvement
• Multiple Sclerosis–7% reported this problem–75% of those reported cure or improvement

Dr. Ziff states that, “You wouldn’t take a leaky thermometer, put it  in your mouth, and leave it there 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Yet that’s exactly what happens when an amalgam filling is installed in your mouth.”

The book also discusses these important research studies:

• In animal experiments of Murray Vimy, DMD and Fritz Lorscheider, PhD,  the presence of amalgam fillings in the mouth caused a decline in kidney function of 54% within 30 days and 60% within 60 days. These changes are considered sub-clinical as there are no “overt” symptoms.
• The research of Dr William Markesbery and Dr. Willaim Ehmann determined that there is a higher level of mercury in the brains of persons who died of Alzheimers–and a lower level of two major minerals which protect against mercury–zinc and selenium.
• The research of Drs. Vasken and Mary Aposhian at the University of Arizona, showed that two-thirds of the body-burden of mercury comes from amalgam dental fillings, with only one-third coming from food and the environment.
• Lastly, research by Dr. Anne Summers, a molecular biologist at the University of Georgia, determined that “the presence of mercury in the body stimulates antibiotic resistance among bacteria in the GI tract–that dental amalgam is an identified factor in the widespread development of antibiotic resistance.“

A summary of how mercury interferes with basic metabolic processes is eloquently described by Alfred Zamm, MD, FACP in this statement from his research:

Mercury poisoning is impaired oxidation. It’s like having an invisible cord around your neck that’s strangling you, but you can’t feel the cord is there. [The strangulation] is biochemical, but the principal is the same: mercury reduced the amount of oxygen you get. The body keeps adjusting, but with every adjustment it gets sicker and sicker. And ultimately you will die from this.

I realized that when you were at this level of impaired oxidation, then everything else would follow: autoimmunity, inability to deal with infections, bizarre illnesses that don’t make sense otherwise. These environmental illnesses are due to a lack of energy packages required for the detoxification process.

Therefore mercury toxicity deprives the body of oxygen-and any process in the body requiring oxygen will be less efficient in the presence of mercury.

Learning about the effects of mercury toxicity can alert us to the shocking evidence of how many epidemics in illnesses may have a relation to this issue. Besides personally taking steps to find a biological dentist who can assist us in the safe removal of these poisonous substances from our bodies, we can become a help to others by sharing this information.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Health Insurers More Grotesquely Greedy Than Wall Street Bankers

By gollies, the top executives of health insurance corporations are not giving up without a fight! To paraphrase every high school football coach who ever lived, “When the going gets ugly, the ugly get going.”

During the past several months, the Barons of Wall Street had established themselves as the vilest and most reviled corporate team in the land. They’ve been lavishing bonuses on themselves even as their firms continue to benefit from government bailout measures and even as ordinary Americans continue to struggle with the economic collapse caused by the bankers’ arrogance and avarice. Wall Streeters were widely considered a shoo-in to take the coveted Corporate Greedhead Trophy this year — but, holy cow, what a comeback bid we’re now seeing from the Giants of Insurance!

Let’s recap their amazing charge: Last week, the news broke that America’s five largest health insurance companies (United Health, Wellpoint, Aetna, Humana and Cigna) had scored record profits in 2009, totaling $12.2 billion. This was a stunning 56 percent hike over the previous year, a drive made all the more impressive by the fact that these gains came during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

As American families struggled financially last year, Team Insurance was able to boot 2.7 million more people out of their private health plans, leaving those folks in the corporate dust. In an even slicker, hidden-ball play, three of the five giants cut the proportion of premiums they spent on their customers’ medical care, shifting those premium dollars into corporate salaries, profits and administrative overhead. Even Wall Street’s Barons had to shake their heads in disbelief and marvel at the audacity of that play.

By the way, buried in that increase for the insurers’ administrative overhead was a little statistic that often gets overlooked: lobbying expenses. The Big Five spent $16.8 million last year to lobby against comprehensive reform of our health care system. You youngsters should take note of that, for such attention to detail is what builds a corporate champion.

The recession-time surge in insurance profits, the shedding of older and sicker customers, the lateral of more premium dollars into things like executive pay — these maneuvers alone would’ve moved health insurance up in the top tier of ugly industries. But then the industry ratcheted up its game another notch. One of Wellpoint’s subsidiaries heaved a “Hail Mary” pass that shocked everyone and catapulted insurance into a serious contender for the Greedhead Trophy.
In the same week that Wellpoint acknowledged that its 2009 profits were up by $2.3 billion over the previous year (a 91 percent increase), its Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary in California caused a sensation by seeking to raise the premiums on its customers’ policies by as much as 39 percent this year.

As befits a true Greedhead striver, Wellpoint neatly stiffed critics by asserting that this price hike was necessitated by the general increase in America’s health care costs — never mind that the corporation’s rise in premiums is actually 10 times more than the rise in the overall cost of health care. What a move!
However, whether Wellpoint’s daring California score will be allowed is in question, for there was a flag on the play. State insurance zebras are questioning the legitimacy of the increase, causing a company executive to argue heatedly that while tens of thousands of customers would indeed be socked with a 39 percent jump in their premiums, the average rate increase would be a mere 25 percent, so the play should be OK.

Come on, sports fans, ya gotta give ‘em some style points just for trying to get away with that.

Still, can the upstart Insurance Giants hope to out-ugly the more-sophisticated Wall Street Barons? The great thing about Corporate America is that competition is always fierce for the national greedhead title, and insurance is now in the running. As sportscasters can tell you: Only time will tell, it’s not over ’til it’s over, tomorrow’s another day, winners never quit/quitters never win, wait’ll next year, and it’s deja vu all over again.

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the new book, “Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow.” (Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly “Hightower Lowdown,” co-edited by Phillip

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Huggins discusses that mercury attacks the body in many ways so the symptoms of mercury poisoning vary from person to person.  He states that “Mercury kills cells by interfering with their ability to exchange oxygen, nutrients and waste products through the cell membrane. Inside the cell, mercury destroys our genetic code, DNA, leaving us without the ability to reproduce that cell ever again. Immunologically, mercury embeds itself in a cell membrane, giving the cell the appearance of being”non-self, ” which is the trigger for the immune system to destroy that specific cell. With mercury in your cell membranes, the immune system will start destroying your own tissues, thus the term autoimmune disease. Examples of these are diabetes, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma and lupus.” Courageously, Huggins, and the growing community of biological dentists have shown us that many of these serious illnesses may be reversed through the proper removal of these amalgams.

Huggins categorizes the medical diseases he saw as related to amalgams into five categories:

1. Neurological (motor and sensory)–tremors, seizures, MS, ALS, Alzheimer’s, emotional disturbances, unexplained depression, anxiety, unprovoked suicidal thoughts
2. Immunological–lupus, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis
3. Cardiovascular–unexplained heart pains, irregular heart beat, high and low blood pressure
4. Collagen–ie osteoarthritis and diseases that affect the collagen
5. Miscellaneous–chronic fatigue, brain fog, digestive diseases and Crohn’s disease

Below is a list of common symptoms from his extensive study that are suspected to be of dental origin:

• Unexplained irritability
• Constant or frequent periods of depression
• Numbness or tingling in extremities
• Frequent urination at night
• Unexplained chronic fatigue
• Cold hand and feet, even in moderate weather
• Bloated feeling most of the time
• Difficulty with short-term memory
• Constipation on a regular basis
• Difficulty in making decisions
• Tremors or shakes of hands, feet, head, etc.
• Twitching of face and other muscles
• Frequent leg cramps
• Constant  or frequent ringing or noise in ears
• Shortness of breath
• Frequent or recurring heartburn
• Excessive itching
• Unexplained rashes, skin irritation
• Constant or frequent metallic taste in mouth
• Jumpiness and nervousness
• Constant death wish or suicidal intent
• Frequent insomnia
• Unexplained chest pains
• Constant or frequent pain in joints
• Tachycardia
• Unexplained fluid retention
• Burning sensation on tongue
• Headaches just after eating
• Frequent diarrhea

Through the careful removal of amalgams, biological dentists are helping people to overcome serious health issues caused by heavy metal toxicity. As we move forward in understanding all of the necessary components to reversing and preventing  dental carries and chronic illness through nutrient-dense foods, we will hopefully provide future generations with the correct knowledge to alleviate the necessity of dental fillings. In the mean time, we must be cognizant of the wide ranging symptoms of mercury toxicity so that we may understand their root cause, which diet alone will not correct.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Dr. Cowan notes that “civilization is the cause of cancer….The hunter-gatherer indigenous populations that were dependent upon animals feeding on perennial grass-based environments lived free of cancer for literally thousands and thousands of years. Organic agriculture turned the soil nearly into a desert, and brought cancer to people who had no cancer. Weston Price got in at the tail end of this inquiry in the 1930s and documented the health of these people from the standpoint of their teeth. But again, whenever we look at the health of non-industrialized people we see the same thing: these people are without cancer, and also without heart disease.”

Cowan discusses how a diet high in hard-to-digest carbohydrates–including hard-to-digest raw vegetables–can cause dysbiosis, intestinal damage and leaky gut, which puts the body in a constant state of inflammation. This state of inflammation is what leads to degenerative illness like cancer and heart disease. It is by returning to the hunter-gatherer diet that we can correct this disease state. This is the same diet that Dr. Weston Price found in immune cultures and that is reversing chronic illness in so many ill people who follow this approach today.

I love Cowan’s statements in response to the question,  “Is the hunter-gatherer diet “square with human anatomy?” He says, “I am not against changing certain patterns of the diet based on what a person can tolerate. But when someone says that their blood type needs to be a herbivore, a vegan, I think to myself well, yes, that would be fine if they had rumen. Let me tell you, the first cancer patients that come in with rumen, I’m putting them on a vegetarian diet. If they have very long intestines and a rumen with bacteria to ferment cellulose, I’d put them on a vegetarian diet.”

Cowan uses a nutrient-dense diet in his work with cancer patients. This diet eliminates all disaccharides–sugars in grains, lactose in fluid milk (even raw) and starchy vegetables. It emphasizes lots of healthy fats–butter, ghee, and coconut oil–grass-fed meats and organ meats, wild seafood, fermented raw dairy, low-starch vegetables, some fruit, bone broth soups and cod-liver oil. This is exactly the same diet that saved my life and that I have written about extensively for the last eight years. This is how I overcame 25 years of chronic inflammation and a severe digestive disorder. IT WORKS!

A new exciting study, The Pilot Research Study, Live Blood Analysis of Adults Comparing The Weston A. Price Foundation Diet and the Conventional Modern Diet, by Beverly Rubick, PhD, compares the blood from two groups of men of three age groups–one eating the Weston A. Price diet and the other a conventional diet. “The blood of the subjects on the WAPF diet showed reduced blood coagulation and clotting within forty-five minutes compared to those on conventional modern diets. Blood coagulation and clotting in fresh blood draws are generally associated with increased inflammation.” Here again, in the  prevention of inflammation, a traditional, nutrient-dense diet is showing great promise.

As we see more people healing and being protected from inflammation, digestive disorders and degenerative illness with nutrient-dense diets, and even more research pointing to the support of this powerful traditional dietary approach, we will hopefully move our society in the direction of seeking true solutions for our ever-increasing modern health epidemics. As more people also seek the foods produced by traditional small-farm agriculture to accomplish this goal, we can reform our food supply to improve the health of future generations.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Another book, Is Your Child’s Brain Starving?, by Dr. Michael R. Lyon, MD and Dr. Christine Laurell, PhD (Mind Publishing, 2002) makes these profound statements:

• ADHD, Autism, OCD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and depression have become rampant in today’s kids. What happens when these children grow up? Without real solutions to these conditions, the future of our world is in jeopardy.
• Think of this: a very subtle downturn in the overall intelligence of our population would have a profound effect on society. If the average IQ decreased by only 5 points, the number of individuals officially considered to be mentally retarded/disabled would increase by 50%, while the number of individuals officially labeled as “intellectually gifted” would decrease by 50% (www.igc.org/psr) The whole course of history could change if such a shift were to take place on a global scale.
• Although the brain is built to survive and perform under adverse conditions, optimal brain performance requires optimal nutrition. Brain cells are the most sophisticated cells in the body. They need a wide array of nutrients.
• Junk food, contaminants like pesticides and heavy metals, and a decrease in dietary nutrition cause a deadly combination against the brain.

In a review of Bernardini’s book by Janice M. Curtin, she explains:

Beginning with a report on the status of children in America today, Bernardini asks the question I have raised many times. “If you’re an adult reading this who is older than about 40 years of age, I’d like you to think back to your childhood. How many kids did you know who had leukemia, asthma, diabetes, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), arthritis, multiple sclerosis, cancer, autism or were obese? Chances are, you may have known a few. Perhaps the kid down the street had asthma. Maybe there was a distant relative who had juvenile diabetes. Or you heard on the news about some rare child with leukemia. Now, it seems like everywhere you turn, you read or hear about a child with a serious health problem. How many kids do you know of who are on Ritalin or were diagnosed with a learning disability? There are whole hospitals devoted to children’s cancer. Asthma and diabetes are now considered epidemics.”

Bernadini points out that “we live in a universe of laws. These laws that don’t care if you’re black or white, Japanese or Mexican, 90 years old or still a fetus. These laws are fundamental in the nature of matter and energy and determine how life progresses. If we live in harmony with these laws, we will as consequence live in harmony. If we break the laws, we will become discordant. Enough of this discord will create sickness, disease, and aberrant behavior.” Dr. Price expressed this fact in a similar manner as “Life in all its fullness is Mother Nature obeyed.”

Bernadini explains that whenever a health problem occurs, we must determine what the problem really is and determine the cause of the symptoms. Then we must apply our knowledge and technology in a way that works with nature, not against it, in order to get our children well. A good example of this might be the treatment of ADHD. Bernardini recommends removing the heavy metal toxicity from a child’s tissues and giving him a good diet instead of giving him Ritalin. If you do not remove the cause you never truly get rid of the problem. It may, however, seem to disappear but then surface in a new way.

Bernardini also addresses mental and emotional health and the growth of violence in our schools. “According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the years between 1985 and 1995 saw a 249 percent increase in gun-related murders committed by juveniles.” Bernardini says our kids are going crazy because “they’re not happy. And they’re not happy because they’re not healthy.”

Furthermore, “People are getting sicker younger and younger–physically, mentally and emotionally. And it’s not by chance –it’s because our bodies are not being treated and cared for the way nature intended.” Our children are exposed to environmental toxins which their small bodies cannot handle and they are stressed out and poorly fed.

Bernardini stresses that the diet of pregnant mothers and infants during the first few years of life is critical to their health and happiness later on. He quotes Susan B. Robbers, Ph.D, professor of nutrition at Tufts University School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, who says, “As a nutrition researcher, I have spent 20 years studying the importance of healthy food at all stages of life. . . Studies from my own laboratory and others around the world have taught me that the foods my daughter eats during the first months and years of life have long-lasting–and in some cases–permanent effects. Foods make an important difference in virtually everything–from mental and physical developments to vitality, personality and health from childhood through old age.” Bernardini provides extensive information on the foods and nutrients your baby needs, what these nutrients do, and how to get them.

Bernardini’s dietary advice is in line with that of Dr. Price. Characteristic of the entire book, Bernardini is not afraid to tell us that it is important for your growing child to get enough fat in the diet. “Newborns must derive 50 percent of the calories they consume from dietary fat. Fat is essential for normal growth from infancy on, since fats provide fatty acids, the building block children need for critical metabolic programming of brain growth and development.” Bernardini gives specific advice on how to feed your child. He includes our recipes for homemade baby formula and recommends cod liver oil, egg yolks, raw whole milk and liver.

Dr. Bernardini fearlessly addresses an array of controversial topics including birth defects, infertility, baby food and formula, soy, vaccines, and SIDS. He gives extensive advice on what to avoid but also has plenty of support and resources on ways to deal with any problems your child may be experiencing already.

Bernardini does a good job of empowering us to be proactive. He is particularly concerned that we take back responsibility for our own and our children’s health. He gives good advice when he says: “You must scrutinize closely the information you receive from the government and the mass media. Policy decisions, guidelines and laws are oftentimes made not so much for the preservation of our health, but for the preservation of profits. Big money can do big things, including influencing our government. A 1980 study showed that almost half of the leading officials at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had at one time worked for organizations the agency is mandated to regulate. Similarly, many FDA officials quit to go work for a company in the field they were once regulating. . . . Do some research and ask some questions. Don’t necessarily believe somebody just because he or she is on the nightly news, in the papers or is a so-called ‘expert.’ Make yourself the expert. Learn to seek answers, not just accept what is foisted upon you–for the truth is often quiet and the truth is often hidden. Truth is not in it for the money, it just is. Truth doesn’t advertise.” He reminds us to be wary of the advertisers and be watchful that we do not become brainwashed. We must constantly be aware of the fact that we could lose our health freedoms if we are not educated, aware and vigilant about protecting them.

Although the problems we are seeing today may seem overwhelming in their scope, it is the responsibility of an alerted society to protect future generations of children from the suffering caused by the obvious mistakes and profit-driven decisions that have given birth to a wildly untamed massive power structure and authority that we cannot afford to blindly support. As statistics are showing seriously unfavorable trends in wide areas of health, we have no time to waste in correcting this path, for our children’s ability to thrive depends on our courage to help change this misguided direction of history.

The enlightened work of the Weston A. Price Foundation and the expansive healing information it is providing, which is helping to reverse these trends, must be communicated in exponential proportion to every person by those who understand and have experienced its power. Through understanding the root cause of our mistakes and the proven answers to these problems, we can steer a sinking ship from disaster to great hope for a brighter future for upcoming generations.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

WHOLE FOODS PROMOTES MILITANT VEGETARIAN AGENDA

Has the Upscale Market Outlived Its Usefulness?

WASHINGTON, DC. February 3, 2010:  Whole Foods Markets has launched a nationwide “Health Starts Here” marketing scheme that endorses a lowfat, vegetarian diet, with promises that the diet will “improve health easily and naturally.” The plan promotes the books and private business ventures of Joel Fuhrman, MD, and Rip Esselstyn, both of whom worked with Whole Foods to formulate the new guidelines. Customers now receive a pamphlet urging them to adopt a lowfat, plant-based diet and to cut back or completely eliminate animal foods.  Many Whole Foods stores no longer sell books advocating consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products.

The plan will feature new Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) labels for foods in the store; the index is designed to make plant foods to appear “nutrient dense” by favoring various phytonutrients in plants and ignoring many vitamins and minerals essential to health. “Whole Foods has stacked the deck against animal foods by choosing ANDI parameters that do not include a host of key nutrients, such as vitamins A, D and K, DHA, EPA arachidonic acid, taurine, iodine, biotin, pantothenic acid, and vital minerals like sodium, chloride, potassium, sulfur, phosphorus, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum and chromium,” says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation. “Many of the phytochemicals that Fuhrman includes in the index he developed for Whole Foods play no essential role in the body and may even be harmful.”

“Animal foods like meat, liver, butter, whole milk and eggs contain ten to one hundred times more vitamins and minerals than plant foods,” says Fallon Morell. “Plant foods add variety and interest to the human diet but in most circumstances do not qualify as ‘nutrient-dense’ foods.”

“For years before becoming deathly ill, I followed the dietary suggestions in the Whole Foods plan,” said Kathryne Pirtle, author of Performance without Pain. “I ate large amounts of organic salads, vegetables and fruits, lots of whole grains, only a little meat and no animal fat. I had chronic pain for twenty-five years on this diet, then acid reflux, then a serious inflammation in my spine followed by chronic diarrhea. Without switching to nutrient-dense animal foods, including eggs, butter and whole dairy products, not only would I have lost my national career as a performing artist, I would have died at forty-five years old! I am not alone in this story of ill health from a lowfat, plant-based diet, which does not supply a person with enough nutrients to be healthy and can be very damaging to the intestinal tract.”

“Consumers can send a message about Whole Foods’ misinformed scheme by voting with their feet,” says Fallon Morell.  “Most major grocery store chains now carry basic organic staples and a larger array of organic fruits and vegetables than Whole Foods markets. And citizens should purchase seasonal produce  and their meat, eggs and dairy products directly from farmers engaged in non-toxic and grass-based farming. It’s not appropriate for Whole Foods to promote a scheme that has no scientific basis and that bulldozes their customers towards the higher profit items in their stores.” The local chapters of the Weston A. Price Foundation help consumers connect with farmers raising animal foods in humane, healthy and ecologically friendly fashion.

“The growing emphasis on plant-based diets deficient in animal protein also serves to promote soy foods as both meat and dairy substitutes,” says Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.   “Soy is not only one of the top eight allergens but has been linked in more than sixty years of studies to malnutrition, digestive distress, thyroid dysfunction, reproductive disorders including infertility, and even cancer, especially breast cancer.”

“Low fat patients are my most unhealthy patients,” says John P. Salerno, MD, a board certified family physician from New York City. “The reason we are spiraling into diabetes and obesity is because of the lowfat concept developed by the U.S government decades ago. Lowfat diets have a low nutrient base, and phytonutrients in vegetables cannot be properly absorbed without fat.”

Fallon Morell cites recent studies from Europe showing that lowfat diets promote weight gain in both children and adults, and also contribute to infertility. A meta-analysis published January, 2010 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no significant evidence that saturated fat consumption is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Whole Foods CEO John Mackay has stated that eating animal fats amounts to an addiction. But in fact, animal fats are essential for good health,” says Fallon Morell. “The nutrients in animal fats, such as vitamins A, D and K, arachidonic acid, DHA, choline, cholesterol and saturated fat, are critical for brain function. In the misguided war against cholesterol and saturated fat, we have created an epidemic of learning disorders in the young and mental decline in the elderly.”

“Perhaps the vegetarian diet has affected the thinking powers of Whole Foods management,” says Fallon Morell. “It’s time for the stockholders to insist on leadership devoted to increasing customer base, not promoting a personal vegetarian agenda.”

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a 501C3 nutrition education foundation with the mission of disseminating accurate, science-based information on diet and health. Named after nutrition pioneer Weston A. Price, DDS, author of the book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, the Washington, DC-based Foundation publishes a quarterly journal for over 12,000 members, supports 400 local chapters worldwide and hosts a yearly conference. The Foundation headquarters phone number is (202) 363-4394, westonaprice.org, info@westonaprice.org.

Comments about the Whole Foods Health Starts Here scheme can be emailed to customer.questions@wholefoods.com.

CONTACT

Kimberly Hartke, Publicist, the Weston A. Price Foundation

703-860-2711, 703-675-5557 press@westonaprice.org

When Lexi came to us she was nervous and skittish. I knew I was going to feed her a diet based on the work of Weston A. Price and Dr. Pottenger–a species-appropriate raw diet. I found a fantastic book called Switching to Raw and got busy. What I realized after reading the book is that Lexi would be eating a lot like me–except I don’t do the raw bones and I don’t eat raw meat exclusively–but do bone broth soups and lightly cooked meats–sometimes raw. I alternate her diet between one day of raw chicken necks and backs from the farm, which I cut in smaller pieces, with raw meat or liver mixed with raw egg yolks, cod liver oil and butter oil the next day. She always has a little bowl of raw milk kefir to drink alongside her water.

As you might imagine, Lexi at 9 years old has never been sick, she is no longer skittish and her coat is drop-dead gorgeous! She went from a shy dog to being a dog who is happy, playful–yet calm–and a friend to all. What a beautiful miracle she is and her exceptional health is a joy to observe.

Although I do not have a cat, I know if I did, I would follow Dr. Pottenger’s recipe for cat health. Raw meat, raw milk, raw egg yolks, cod liver oil and butter oil and learn if ground-up raw bones is also recommended.

When you feed your pets nutrient-dense foods, they can recover from illness and develop a high-level of health and hopefully, many more years of life.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

I had all of my mercury amalgams removed about 20 years ago by a leading biological dentist. If you have read my book, you know that I got a cavity in each of my molars at age 16. Had I not had those amalgams replaced with composite fillings, I am certain, from what I know now, that I wouldn’t have recovered from my life-threatening illness. Let me tell you why!

Although I had all my amalgams removed, up until Monday, Feb. 1, 2010, I had one crown on the bottom right side of my mouth over my first molar. I needed that crown after I cracked my tooth on popcorn at age 20! This crown was porcelain with metal at the bottom and it enclosed a mercury amalgam-filled tooth. If you know anything about bad dentistry–this scenario describes one of them, because when you mix metals, you get what is coined “Dental Galvanism.” In Dorland’s medical dictionary, this is defined as:

“A physiochemical phenomenon in which two or more dissimilar metals that have been used to restore or replace missing teeth produce the flow of an electric current.”

Because amalgam fillings are made of a mixture of metals and people often have other metals in their mouth like gold or crowns made with metal, they can be suffering from severe heavy metal toxicity. Dental galvanism causes an amplification of heavy metal toxicity in the body. In fact, to protect the vital organs, the body will try to displace the toxic metals through neural pathways to less important parts of the body, like the breasts and the reproductive organs, thereby protecting the brain, liver , kidneys and heart.

This is what was happening to me with only ONE toxic piece of dental work in my mouth. Last summer I noticed a lump in my RIGHT breast, which I was able to massage away through the self-breast massage technique I talked about in an earlier blog article. I also was experiencing sinus drainage behind my RIGHT eye and eyebrow area this last summer and thought it was an allergy–only on the RIGHT side?–Not making sense is it! My RIGHT eyelid has had a recurring twitch for years. My RIGHT tonsil often was sore. My RIGHT ear was sometimes sore. I had shingles on the RIGHT side of my face years ago–excruciatingly painful. Was this my body’s way of trying to detoxify this ONE piece of bad dentistry left in my mouth. Of course! What else could it be.

So if you think that your mercury amalgams are not causing you harm, or your mixed metal crown with a mercury amalgam underneath is just fine, or your root canals are not causing any symptoms in your body that you know of—THINK AGAIN! Read RADICAL MEDICINE and think again–it could be the best thing you ever have done to protect your health besides eating a nutrient-dense diet!  If you have any dental work done, it is imperative that you work with a highly qualified biological dentist.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

I just received a disturbing letter from a dedicated reader who is concerned that Whole Foods may be turning into a vegan store:

“I have been shopping more frequently at Whole Foods and I notice they have a selection of health books that are all based on being a vegan or low fat vegetarian.  Then when I was checking out, I was offered a pamphlet by the young man bagging my groceries.  The pamphlet told me to implement the following:  low fat, plants mostly, and to cut way back, or completely eliminate all animal foods.  It encourages nutrient dense foods but seems to say that these come from plants only.  Even a look at the books they promote now seem to be mostly along the lines of vegan, vegetarian, and low fat.  Since when did Whole Foods get into the business of telling people how to eat?  Makes me think they will do away with their seafood and meat departments at some point!”

For years before becoming deathly ill, my diet consisted of large amounts of organic salads, vegetables and fruits, grains, a little meat and eggs and no animal fat. I had chronic pain for 25 years on this diet, then acid reflux, then a serious inflammation in my spine followed by chronic diarrhea. Without learning about the work of Dr. Weston A. Price and the Weston A. Price Foundation–not only would I have lost my national career as a performing artist–I would have died at 45 years old!!! I am not alone in this story of ill health from this kind of diet–it simply will not provide a person with enough nutrients to be healthy over their entire life.

Now at 52, I have healed my digestive tract, been pain-free and have vibrant health from eating a nutrient-dense diet for the last 8 years. Whole Foods has been one of my partners in achieving this level of health. In my seminars across the United States, I recommend Whole Foods over and over.

We need Whole Foods to continue to be a partner to people of all dietary needs–not just veganism–because veganism may be a choice for some people, but it is not the answer for the majority. If this is an environmental issue for Whole Foods, please remember that sustainable agriculture based on traditional pasture farming is the ONLY way we will build our exhausted, nutrient-poor soils, as animals on pasture that provide nutrient-dense foods and build soil fertility are our sole vehicle to this means.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Nourishing Traditions and the real food movement that has grown from it, in itself has begun to turn around the terrible incorrect modern high-fiber/low-fat dictates that have plagued our society since the dawn of industrial farming and the processed food industry. It is helping to change a food supply that has become so corrupted that it is causing epidemics of dietary-caused illnesses in people that have never been seen before. It is the basis of what needs to happen to bring an end to a broken, profit-driven food industry that has no true regard for your health.

In celebration of Sally’s work, Kim Knoch, a mom of teenage twin girls and wife to a picky eater husband, is going to cook all 773 recipes in Sally’s book before 12/31/2011! She states in her note to Weston A. Price chapter leaders that “I am having some challenges switching my family over to the ‘real food,’ Weston A. Price Foundation lifestyle, but we are doing it one step at a time. My blog is about the ‘real face’ of switching over to real food and replacing bad habits with good ones.

Her blog is called The Nourishing Cook. Please share in the celebration of the best cookbook ever written by following this blog.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Pass The Butter … Please.

This is interesting …

Margarine  was originally manufactured to fatten  turkeys.  When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put  all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their  heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get  their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal  so they added the yellow colouring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.  How do you like it?   They have come out  with some clever new flavourings….

DO  YOU KNOW.. The difference between margarine and butter?

• Both  have the same amount of calories.
• Butter  is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8  grams; compared   to 5 grams for margarine.
• Eating margarine can increase  heart disease in women by  53%  over  eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent  Harvard  Medical Study.
• Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in  other foods.
• Butter  has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few and
• only  because  they are added!
• Butter  tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavours of  other foods.
• Butter  has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years .

And now, for Margarine..

• Very High in Trans fatty acids.
• Triples risk of coronary heart disease …
• Increases  total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and  lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
• Increases  the risk of cancers up to five times..
• Lowers  quality of breast milk.
• Decreases immune response.
• Decreases  insulin response.

And  here’s the most disturbing fact….

• Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away  from being PLASTIC… and shares 27 ingredients with PAINT
• These facts alone should have you avoiding margarine for life  and anything else that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is  added,  changing the molecular structure of the  substance).

You  can try this yourself:

Purchase  a tub of margarine and leave it open in your garage or shaded  area.  Within a couple of days you will notice a couple of things:

• no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it  (that should tell you something)
• it does not rot or smell differently because it has  no nutritional value ; nothing will grow on it. Even those teeny weeny  microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.  Why?   Because it is nearly plastic .  Would you melt your Tupperware and  spread that  on your toast?

Share  This With Your Friends…..(If you want to “butter them up”)!

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

The right to choose the foods you eat is an unalienable right.  This ruling will give great momentum to the legality of purchasing healthy food through these type of contracts.

Huge Victory for Michael Schmidt As Canadian Judge Rules Cow Shares Outside Regulators’ Jurisdiction

By David Gumperts–from his blog The Complete Patient
Author of The Raw Milk Revolution

Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:18PM

In a decision that took Ontario Judge Paul Kowarsky two-and-a-half hours to read, and sounded much of the time like a thoroughly researched legal treatise, raw dairy farmer Michael Schmidt was exonerated on 19 counts of violating the province’s milk laws.

At first, the judge sounded as if he was going to rule against Schmidt,when he said several times he had “no authority” to pronounce on legislation. His role, he said, was to determine “whether offenses occurred.” He then went through each of the 19 counts against Michael Schmidt, which stem from offenses that first occurred in 1994, when his Glencolton Farm was first raided by authorities.

He then went through the account of how two undercover agents from the Ontario Ministry of Health in 2006 acquired milk products from Michael Schmidt. The circumstances around that operation wound up influencing the judge’s ruling when he decided he had “reasonable doubt” about whether the acquisition of $6 worth of raw milk cheese from Michael Schmidt constituted a sale. That decision was essential to allowing the judge to then rule on whether cow shares are subject to Ontario milk laws.

In the end, the judge determined that cow shares are outside regulatory oversight based on the following:

• That legislation is subject to a “dynamic” based on cultural, social, and historical factors. In other words, raw milk doesn’t pose the same dangers it might have been seen to pose in the 1930s, when much of Ontario’s dairy legislation was passed.
• That Michael Schmidt wasn’t “marketing” the cow shares. “There was no advertising and sale (of raw milk) to the general public…Cow shares are a legitimate private enterprise that does not constitute marketing in Ontario.”
• Perhaps most intriguing, that “the people who are permitted to buy the milk are fully informed” via a special booklet, identification cards, regular newsletters, and other steps Michael Schmidt took on behalf of his members.  “There is no evidence of any illness” in all the years Michael Schmidt has been distributing raw milk, he observed, and tests by the regulatory authorities never found any evidence of pathogens.

Judge Kowarsky obviously gave the case a huge amount of time and consideration. He In addition to researching other cases, he reviewed cow share procedures in the United States and Australia,and rules regarding sale of raw milk in Europe. It made me wish that the New York state judge who ruled against Meadow Sweet Dairy on a very broad definition of the term “consumer,” might have done the same kind of analysis.

Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin raw dairy buyers club facing legal problems of his own, said, “I want that judge for my case.” He drove overnight from Wisconsin to Newmarket to hear the court decision. Another American raw milk “celebrity” in attendance was Tim Wightman of the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation.

Michael Schmidt was all smiles afterwards. “It’s an incredible relief,” he told me. Especially given the judge’s observation that the amount of potential fines had Michael been found guilty could have been “astronomical.”

Besides dietary influences, we are now finding several other key factors that may block a person’s ability to overcome chronic conditions and illness that go past healing  and building health with nutrient-dense foods. These underlying problems include heavy metal toxicity from mercury amalgams and health problems caused by root canals, a history of tonsil infection and tonsillectomy as well as energy blocks from scar tissue. The new book, Radical Medicine, by Dr. Louisa Williams has opened a critical door to holistically understanding many previously uncharted keys to healing completely from complicated issues–that one must find and heal the “root” cause to overcome every aspect at hand.

As more performing artists take a look at the integral relationship between diet, poor digestion and malnourishment and chronic inflammation and other serious performing problems like focal dystonia, we may be able to make great strides in the prevention of these debilitating injuries for future generations of artists. As we also learn about other possible blocks to healing, we may be able go even further to help  insure the total recovery of serious performing ailments.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain .

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Monday, June 15, 2009

The Elephant on the Table (or Piano)

I’ve been procrastinating writing this blog for some time now. I knew I wanted my next blog to be on this certain topic, but it’s a big one, and a hard one. And pianists don’t wear their injuries on their sleeves with any small degree of grace, or as a badge of honor. Otherwise we might know more about the physiological reasons behind Horowitz and Gould’s extended breaks from concertizing, and Fleischer may have not responded to the early onset of focal dystonia by “practicing harder and longer”.

My hand problems have been gloriously multifarious, spanning 20 years, and encompassing a plethora of colorful diagnoses; carpal tunnel, tendonitis, overuse syndrome, neck injuries resulting from a falling-out-of-bed incident as a 5 year-old, weak eyesight resulting in ocular muscle-strain, muscular dystrophy, and most titillating of all, focal dystonia, the big Hog Daddy of musicians’ injuries, one that mostly leads to complete abandonment of all musical pursuits. Doctors I worked with often expressed frustration with their inability to pinpoint and treat the problem, as I’d often come back week to week with rotating pains between various parts of my right and left arms and hands. When my right hand improved, my left hand started acting up, as if demanding equal rights for pain and discomfort. More than one doctor gently suggested seeking the aid of a psychoanalyst specialized in extreme cases of psychosomatic delusion. At the worst point, the structure (bridge) of my hands had collapsed, the whole right side of my body sagged lower than the left, and my fourth finger in my left hand shook uncontrollably whenever I put any weight on it. An unhappy conundrum.

And then there were the treatments… soaking my hands in warm wax (comfy! but completely ineffective), a daily hanging from a neck-stretcher (terribly alarming for unsuspecting friends and family members), homeopathy, osteopathy, chiropracty, neurology, hydrotherapy, massage, manual therapy, Feldenkrais, Alexander, muscle training, Yoga, fish-oil supplements, meditation, plain old Aspirin, and exercise (including the infamous episode where a doctor suggested jogging for improving overall condition, advice I followed religiously until I tripped and fell onto my hands the day before a concert and was forced to try to play the Goldberg Variations with what looked like a blessed dose of Stigmata. The audience gasped audibly during the many hand-crossings. This concert was not my finest moment at the piano.)

The problems lingered, sometimes flaring up to levels which paralyzed my playing for some time, but mostly staying at a bearable though immensely frustrating level. Pain has been an almost daily companion in practice and performance for much of the past 20 years. Rather simple elements in piano technique have been extremely difficult to grasp. I had the feeling of having to practice much more than my colleagues in order to maintain a professional level, this over-practicing in turn was a classic Catch-22 which only aggravated problems. There was an uncomfortable feeling of not being in control of my hands, not sensing their intricacy, and “making-do” with pianistic tools that seemed (and were) increasingly inadequate for the tasks they were asked to do.

The explanation for these problems came almost one year ago after a hospitalization for extremely low blood levels (something which also was connected to the health problems). The cause of this suffering is a strange but not uncommon one, though it was a condition totally unknown to me before the diagnosis. I was diagnosed with Celiac disease, an extreme gluten-intolerance that forces the body to react to the confrontation of gluten as a low-level poison, constantly building dangerous levels of antibodies that then turn on the body and attack it in various ways (internal organs, nerve-endings, muscles). The cure is simple, no more bread. Or cookies. Or cake, pasta, soy sauce, beer, chips, crackers, pizza, and most kinds of junk foods. Finding out the cause of these problems is at once an enormous relief but also produces a sinking feeling of having lost a lot of time dealing with the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of not knowing why things were not functioning well.

The pianistic cure is not simple. Deeply ingrained habits that were developed with a faulty physical system in order to find solutions to pianistic challenges must be methodically and pain-stakingly retrained. One example- I always relied on a quick thrust from the lower arms to produce loud chords, which was the only solution I could find at the time though it produced a brittle and ugly sound. Having used this ’solution’ countless times over the past decade or so, it takes a lot of time and patience to introduce new ways of confronting a chord. I had to practice in a way that any Zen master would be proud of. Months and months of work went into single soft tones, using each tone as an opportunity to trace the connection between the finger and the back, with all of the various points in between. When I felt confident that I could play the single tones without immediately resorting to old habits, I could move onto 2-note chords, 3-note chords, etc. I had the great fortune to work with a pianist in Berlin with a deep knowledge of anatomy, neurology, and various pianistic ailments ( I’d be happy to share details with anyone… write me!) who encouraged me to find these kinds of connections. There was a feeling of having great gaping holes in my sensory perception that I had to fill through the strength of imagination (and images provided by this teacher) until the brain finally could confront, understand, and recognize these sensory “black holes”. Practicing had to become non-musical for a long period of time, preoccupation with the physical components of piano playing very much took the foreground . Playing though pieces for enjoyment wasn’t an option, as the hands would respond to this wild abandonment through several days of ’sulking’ with the all-too familiar aches and pains. This kind of hyper-aware practicing is not always enjoyable, especially because it’s often accompanied with uncomfortable sensations of pain, but it did introduce an element for me in being deeply tuned into the messages sent from within. I have gained through this experience a new humility in dealing with my body. I listen to it. I respect its signals. I don’t trespass. I suppose this kind of self-awareness is something common to people who practice meditation. I’m emerging from this experience with a great sense of awe in the subtlety, fineness, and beauty of our capabilities as healthy human beings.

Posted by … at 2:31 PM

By Lisa Abend Monday, Jan. 25, 2010

On a farm in coastal Maine, a barn is going up. Right now it’s little more than a concrete slab and some wooden beams, but when it’s finished, the barn will provide winter shelter for up to six cows and a few head of sheep. None of this would be remarkable if it weren’t for the fact that the people building the barn are two of the most highly regarded organic-vegetable farmers in the country: Eliot Coleman wrote the bible of organic farming, The New Organic Grower, and Barbara Damrosch is the Washington Post’s gardening columnist. At a time when a growing number of environmental activists are calling for an end to eating meat, this veggie-centric power couple is beginning to raise it. “Why?” asks Coleman, tromping through the mud on his way toward a greenhouse bursting with December turnips. “Because I care about the fate of the planet.”

Ever since the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released a 2006 report that attributed 18% of the world’s man-made greenhouse-gas emissions to livestock — more, the report noted, than what’s produced by transportation — livestock has taken an increasingly hard rap. At first, it was just vegetarian groups that used the U.N.’s findings as evidence for the superiority of an all-plant diet. But since then, a broader range of environmentalists has taken up the cause. At a recent European Parliament hearing titled “Global Warming and Food Policy: Less Meat = Less Heat,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, argued that reducing meat consumption is a “simple, effective and short-term delivery measure in which everybody could contribute” to emissions reductions. (See the top 10 green ideas of 2009.)

And of all the animals that humans eat, none are held more responsible for climate change than the ones that moo. Cows not only consume more energy-intensive feed than other livestock; they also produce more methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — than other animals do. “If your primary concern is to curb emissions, you shouldn’t be eating beef,” says Nathan Pelletier, an ecological economist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., noting that cows produce 13 to 30 lb. of carbon dioxide per pound of meat. (See where cows eat and what it means for the environment.)

So how can Coleman and Damrosch believe that adding livestock to their farm will help the planet? Cattleman Ridge Shinn has the answer. On a wintry Saturday at his farm in Hardwick, Mass., he is out in his pastures encouraging a herd of plump Devon cows to move to a grassy new paddock. Over the course of a year, his 100 cattle will rotate across 175 acres four or five times. “Conventional cattle raising is like mining,” he says. “It’s unsustainable, because you’re just taking without putting anything back. But when you rotate cattle on grass, you change the equation. You put back more than you take.” (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2009.)

It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals’ grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant’s roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

Compare that with the estimated 99% of U.S. beef cattle that live out their last months on feedlots, where they are stuffed with corn and soybeans. In the past few decades, the growth of these concentrated animal-feeding operations has resulted in millions of acres of grassland being abandoned or converted — along with vast swaths of forest — into profitable cropland for livestock feed. “Much of the carbon footprint of beef comes from growing grain to feed the animals, which requires fossil-fuel-based fertilizers, pesticides, transportation,” says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. “Grass-fed beef has a much lighter carbon footprint.” Indeed, although grass-fed cattle may produce more methane than conventional ones (high-fiber plants are harder to digest than cereals, as anyone who has felt the gastric effects of eating broccoli or cabbage can attest), their net emissions are lower because they help the soil sequester carbon.

To build optimal health it is critical to clean up your drinking water supply. Reverse osmosis does the best job of removing toxins from water, but also leaves the water de-mineralized. Without going to a huge expense of buying your own reverse osmosis system, many grocery stores offer reverse osmosis water very cheaply. If you purchase your own glass jars to store the water, you will have a better supply of drinking water without having to have it delivered. If you want to re-mineralize your reverse osmosis water, you may want to purchase one of the reasonably priced filtration systems–like the system from Nikken–that will do this to your reverse osmosis water.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Since we know this to be true, it seems ridiculous that the medical community keeps chasing bugs, as this kind of health initiative is rather new in the history of health care. Yet the germ theory is preached almost like a terrorist plot–as if we can succeed in outwitting germs! The underlying reason for this insanity is, of course, money!

“Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food” was state of the art health care for thousands of years. As we return to this approach and build our immune systems with nutrient-dense, pasture-raised foods, we can live in harmony with “bugs.”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Removing the “Ghost” Inside Us

The Revolutionary New Sankaran System of Homeopathy

By Louisa Williams, MS, DC, ND

The Success of Acute Homeopathy

Many holistic health advocates are familiar with homeopathy. Originating through the brilliant mind of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in Europe in 1789 (7 years before the first vaccine was given by Jenner), this energetic system of healing has been exceptionally curative for over 2 centuries. This has especially been the case with acute homeopathy. (Acute refers to the use of a remedy that is prescribed based on the outstanding pathological symptoms of a patient, for a recent illness or injury and for a short period of time.) For example, the use of Arnica Montana for the treatment of acute injuries, sprains and strains, and even head trauma is well known in the holistic community, and has proven to be remarkably effective. Historically the use of acute homeopathic remedies has also been dramatic. During the great flu of 1918, 80% of those who were treated with allopathic medicine (drugs) died, whereas 80% of those treated with homeopathic remedies lived (Naumann, E., Homeopathy for Epidemics). More recently, homeopathic medicine has been proven to be as effective and safer than Prozac at treating moderate to severe depression (Oxford University Press, July 09).

Past Frustration with Constitutional Homeopathy

However, although acute homeopathy has been proven to be remarkably effective, homeopathy prescribed for chronic or constitutional treatment has not enjoyed the same level of success. (Chronic or constitutional homeopathy refers to a single remedy prescribed to treat a patient’s unique physical, mental, and emotional symptoms for his/her lifetime.) In fact, a not insignificant number of homeopathic patients have experienced quite a bit of frustration over the years, after receiving one constitutional remedy after another, with no real improvement in their symptoms. This is not due to a lack of trying from many earnest and well-meaning homeopaths, but simply from ineffective systems of analysis.

A Revolutionary New Method

Fortunately this has all changed with the advent of a new system developed by Rajan Sankaran, MD. Due to the efforts and knowledge from this Indian homeopath and his Mumbai colleagues, the Sankaran System has recently become a teachable and highly successful method to ascertain an individuals’ lifetime constitutional homeopathic remedy. There are many principles that make this new system – well, more systematic, and have transformed homeopathic case-taking (the interview) from an often frustrating and confusing process to a very clear roadmap of exactly which specific remedy the patient is expressing.

One of the major paradigms constituting the Sankaran System is that patients typically fall into one of 3 major categories: a plant remedy, an animal remedy, or a mineral remedy. Plant remedy patients will express the fact that they are highly sensitive and reactive, and deeply affected by their environment. An animal remedy will describe issues of survival as well as attack and defense, either as a predator (aggressor) or a prey (victim) – or both. Mineral remedy patients express themes of lack of support, a feeling of being incomplete, and not having enough stability and strength. Sankaran-trained homeopaths first endeavor to determine which of these 3 kingdoms the patient is in, and then assess the subkingdom (for example, the rose family in the plant kingdom, or the cat family in the animal kingdom, or the second row of the periodic table in the mineral kingdom). Finally, the homeopath must determine the specific remedy within this subkingdom family.

The Non-Human Song, or “Ghost” Inside Us

How do these plant, animal or mineral patterns affect us? Literally these patterns are like living with a ghost – hence the title of this article. This inner ghost, also referred to as a non-human distortion pattern, adversely affects us in every aspect of our lives – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Dr. Sankaran describes this distortion pattern as “the other song” that is playing within us, causing discord with our natural human song:

“There exists a duality. On one hand, each individual has his life as a human being, singing his own human song. On the other hand…there is a non-human world inside him that seems to sing another song altogether…The other spirit inside us is in itself melodious and complete. Yet it is out of place because it is not innately human, but is a reflection of a pattern we have borrowed from nature from the plant, animal, or mineral kingdoms. This different song in a human being creates disharmony and conflict. Further, the suppression of this non-human song crystallizes in physical and mental pathology.”

Rajan Sankaran, MD

The Other Song: Discovering Your Parallel Self

The correctly prescribed constitutional remedy resonates with this plant, animal or mineral distortion pattern, and slowly (or quickly in some cases) but surely dissolves this non-human energy that is inappropriately residing within us. Over time the volume of this non-human song reduces, and eventually is completely muted, thus allowing our human song –that is our truly human self – to more fully emerge, grow and develop.

A Great Fit with Psychospiritual Work

Many of us have learned in our psychological work that we are adversely imprinted and shaped by our unresolved past experiences (negative self-images, feelings of deficiency, suppression of painful memories, etc.), resulting in a habitual personality pattern that obscures our true self, or soul. What is little known, however, is that our soul is also greatly affected by another pattern – one that is non-human.

Similar to the most effective psychospiritual schools of healing (Somatic Experiencing by Levine, the Diamond Approach by Hameed Ali, John Welwood and other transpersonal psychologists, rebirthing and other forms of breath work, etc), a key principle of the Sankaran System is that the most effective cures – and the prescription of the correct remedy – occur at the sensation level. This level – which is significantly deeper than the physical, emotional or even mental planes of experience – can be reached through both psychotherapy and homeopathy. (The sensation level is where one directly experiences the felt sense of their body such as feeling stiff, heavy, squeezed, light, pressure, brittle, dazed, paralyzed, burning, trapped, floating, and so forth.)  Thus, both these cutting edge schools of holistic healing have independently arrived at the same conclusion – whether it’s psychospiritual work or constitutional homeopathy – real change, and thus real cure, can only be achieved through reaching this deepest sensation level.

Further, homeopathy and psychotherapy are exceptionally synergistic. That is, while the correct constitutional homeopathic remedy is working to dissolve the non-human distortion pattern within us, psychospiritual work is invaluable to help the emerging being more fully develop. In fact, even those of us who have done decades of psychological work have noted a mild to moderate feeling of being rather unsettled and even estranged from ourselves at times on the correct homeopathic remedy. Thus, even though the constitutional remedy can be truly miraculous in removing our non-human patterns, it can be a bit disorienting to lose these self-sabotaging yet very familiar defensive patterns our egoic personality has structured itself around. (Of course, dysfunctional family dynamics also engender these egoic patterns, and quality psychological work is essential in helping to clear and dismantle these resulting egoic patterns as well.) Therefore, in perfect conjunction with the ongoing dismantling of our non-human patterns through taking the homeopathic remedy, effective psychotherapy helps us simultaneously become more familiar with our humanness. Thus, as the homeopathic remedy catabolizes (breaks down) our false personality shell, effective psychospiritual works in an anabolic (building up) manner, encouraging the individual to fully develop by experiencing more and more his/her soul, or true self.

Conclusion

Homeopathy has been a proven and effective form of natural healing for over 2 centuries. However, acute homeopathy has enjoyed more success than chronic, or constitutional, homeopathy. Recently this has changed with the advent of the revolutionary new Sankaran System. This amazing system of analysis has proven so successful that it is now being taught to dedicated homeopaths all over the world.  In the author’s experience of over 25 years as a holistic physician, the Sankaran System of constitutional homeopathy is the single most curative form of healing presently known.

Dr. Louisa Williams is director of Marin Naturopathic Medicine in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the author of Radical Medicine. More information on the new Sankaran System is available on her website, www.marinnaturopathicmedicine.com, or call her office at (415) 460-1968. Constitutional homeopathic interviews can be done in the office in person, or by phone or SKYPE.

The drugs in the commercial beef you buy at your local supermarket are getting so bad, even the vultures are dying. I just read a report that millions of vultures died in South Asia after eating cattle carcasses tainted with two drugs used to treat livestock. As scavengers, vultures have an iron-clad digestive system. Look at their diet – the birds eat nothing but putrid meat day in and day out. Yet their numbers have decreased – almost to extinction in some cases – because of the deadly effect of drugs we inject into cattle.

Imagine for a moment what would have happened had the meat made its way into your refrigerator. For millions of years, beef has been a healthy part of our ancestors’ diet. But our ancestors never had to deal with the commercial farming practices of today. I want to stress the importance of making certain the meat you eat is not commercially raised. My two biggest concerns are antibiotics and hormones…

Commercially raised cattle are force-fed grain laced with antibiotics – not because they’re sick, but to:

• Increase daily body-weight gain
• Improve food-to-weight gain ratio
• Increase the voluntary intake of food

Did you know that 70% of all antibiotics in the U.S. are used – not in people – but in “healthy” livestock animals?  This is a major crisis for us, because antibiotics create drug-resistant strains of bacteria that live in the food we eat. Because of this, many life-threatening diseases – such as E.coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter – are almost impossible to treat.

The other major issue is hormones. Most beef in the U.S. is injected with synthetic hormones that are transferred to people. They are dangerous to children, dangerous to adults, and also cause cancer. It’s such a health concern that there’s been a ban on hormone-treated U.S. meat throughout the European nations since 1989.

It’s a sad commentary. I was lucky enough to grow up eating grass-fed beef. My mom and dad made sure we had locally grown, healthy, grazing beef from neighboring farms. They simply didn’t trust the commercial beef industry; my dad said they kept too many secrets. But they did trust what they could see in our neighbors’ fields and farms.

Finding quality grass-fed beef is tricky sometimes. Grocery stores often label meat as grass-fed because at one time in their life, a cow grazed on grass, but later was put on a grain diet. So it’s important to investigate.

By Al Sears, MD

Please know the source of your foods! Your health depends on it. The Weston A. Price website has a listing of co-ops throughout our country that have grass-fed, organic meats, poultry and dairy.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Below is a great description of Karack’s Oil Treatment, which is highly recommended by many holistic practitioners including Dr. Louisa Williams in her book Radical Medicine. In Chapter 2 of her book, “Detoxification of Toxic Metals and Chemicals,” she discusses this Ayurvedic treatment’s benefit for use immediately after the removal of mercury amalgam fillings. However it can be used by anyone on a regular basis for aiding the regular detoxification of the body. Besides using unrefined sesame oil, we have also heard of people who have used organic coconut oil.

DR. KARACK’S OIL THERAPY TREATMENT

Procedure

In the morning before breakfast, on an empty stomach, take 1 tablespoon of cold pressed unrefined sesame oil in the mouth, but do not swallow. Swish the oil around the mouth, “chew It”  and mix it with your saliva for 10-20 minutes. Then spit it into the toilet bowl.

Chewing activates the enzymes which draw toxins out of the blood. And In 10-15 minutes, the blood from the entire body has had the opportunity to circulate through and around the mouth. After 10-20 minutes the oil should be thinner and white. If it is still yellow, you have not held it in your mouth long enough. (10 minutes the first week is usually sufficient, then increase to 15-20 minutes as you get clearer.)

Immediately brush your gums, teeth, and tongue with warm salt/soda water
1 cup water to 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp soda, or with food grade hydrogen peroxide diluted in water. Then gargle and spit with the remaining salt/soda water. It is also helpful to tip the cup under the nose and gently sniff up the water to clean the nasal passages. Then gently blow the nose.
The sink should be cleaned afterward because the saliva contains harmful bacteria and toxic bodily waste.

Repeat this procedure two to three times a day, before meals, on an empty stomach. Continue this procedure until you are healthy I (few weeks to years…).

Discussion

This procedure has been helpful to curative in almost every disease or dysfunctional immune state that Dr. Karack has encountered.
We have found the same amazing results. especially in patients who are detoxing their petroleum solvents. Remember that petroleum solvents are lipophilic and will readily be absorbed into the oil. Additionally, the toxic metals/minerals form soap complexes with the oil, and can then be easily eliminated through spitting.

This oil technique has also had a major effect on chronic, severely toxic patients. Although neural therapy is excellent for a mild to moderate toxic tonsil focus, severely damaged tonsils can often be saved from surgery with the addition of Dr. Karack’s technique. And since the tonsils are the first filtering system in the body for orally ingested toxins, this treatment helps boost everyone’s immune system functioning through increased lymphatic cleansing of that area. Remember, too, that even If you have had a tonsillectomy, the lymphatics in the tonsil area are still trying to function as a filter, and neutralize ingested toxins and manufactured microbes in the oral cavity.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

The Sulfur Study

Early results of an experimental study using Organic Sulfur

By Patrick McGean, Director
Cellular Matrix Study

The Cellular Matrix Study (referred to here as “The Sulfur Study”) was organized in 1999.  This study was inspired by a fatal type of breast cancer, a type of germ cell reproductive cancer that had been reported to respond to organic sulfur.

While researching this cancer, it became obvious that the sulfur cycle plays an important role in the regeneration of our cells.  The Study also found that the use of chemical fertilizers had effectively broken the sulfur cycle in countries that use these fertilizers.

Diseases we hadn’t even heard of have become typical, cancer has grown at an unprecedented rate, and the quality of our food has been greatly diminished.  Is there a correlation here?

Since 1954, rates of disease in the U.S. have gone up approximately 4,000 percent.  And in 1954, chemical fertilizers were mandated by our government.  Fertilizers such as ammonium nitrates and sulfates, which lack bioavailability, appear to have broken the sulfur cycle.  This appears to have contributed to the decline of our health, wealth, mental acuity, and quality of life.  We believe that when the Study is completed, it will clearly demonstrate a connection between the lack of sulfur and the inability of cells to regenerate in a healthy manner.

Linus Pauling said that all modern diseases can be attributed to a mineral deficiency.  Though Pauling is best known for his work with vitamin C, his statement was about minerals.  Most researchers say that sulfur is one of the most important of the trace minerals, around the fourth to sixth most important.

What Sulfur Does

Sulfur enables the transport of oxygen across cell membranes, and oxygen is necessary for healthy cellular regeneration in mammals.  Plants, on the other hand, require carbon dioxide for cell regeneration, and plants can store sulfur, while man cannot.  Man eliminates carbon dioxide, and plants eliminate oxygen.  Thus, the sulfur cycle is symbiotic and vital for life as we know it.

When many health professionals are asked about sulfur, they state as if reading from a cue card, “We get all the sulfur we need from the food we eat.”  That was true until man decided to change the way we grow our food and what we feed our crops.

In 1920, Otto Warburg began his study of cancer in both plants and man, for which he received a Nobel Prize in 1931.  He proved that cancer in man is anaerobic.  Anaerobic, by definition, is cellular metabolism without oxygen.  “Cancer” in plants is linked to too much intracellular oxygen, or aerobic metabolism.  The use of a gas we are intended to eliminate for cellular regeneration is not a healthy program for plants or man.

Why Most MSM Supplements Don’t Work

The Study’s initial research of organic sulfur had its participants go to the store to buy MSM (methylsulfonylmethane).  But what we hoped to observe did not coincide with what the literature said about MSM.  Except for gastrointestinal improvements, our initial group had little improvement.

When we found an article about the 16 “deadly” additives found in MSM—the anti-caking additives, we realized why our early participants were not reporting any health improvements.  These additives benefit only the packaging industry;  our health is apparently a lesser concern to them.

Sulfur, with an atomic number of 16, is known to bond with almost every other mineral.  Sulfur has demonstrated its ability to detoxify heavy metals in conjunction with the transport of oxygen across the cell membrane, thus allowing regeneration.  Sulfur is also the key player as a precursor for the utilization of amino acids, the body’s building blocks.  Of all of the amino acids, some 70 percent are sulfur-based.

This detoxification cannot happen with MSM that contains anti-caking ingredients, because these excipients block the bioavailability of sulfur to the cells.  The same thing happens when organic sulfur is released into the ocean, or evaporates and falls with rain—that sulfur is bound up by the chemical fertilizers as sulfites and sulfates.

It soon became clear that the Study had to find a pure, uncontaminated form of MSM.  After a thorough search, we believe we have found it in the form of Organic Sulfur—coarse crystal flakes which are fresh from the precipitator and have had no further processing.  This Organic Sulfur is supplied to the members of the Study, and we follow them with photographs of their faces in an effort to observe the cellular regeneration they experience.

The photographic followup, the newest aspect of the Study, is too recent in its implementation to be able to share the results.  However, the reports on health, diet, and medications have been very interesting.  As in the beginning of the Study, many of these participants had been taking MSM in tablet or capsule form for many years.  Our efforts to find a pure form of MSM was worth the effort, as their responses have clearly indicated.

Preliminary Findings

We are seeing cellular regeneration in the face photographs of our Study participants, but it takes up to seven years to regenerate all the cells in the body when the cells are healthy.  Damaged cells from trauma or chemical processes cannot regenerate unless the ability to transport of oxygen across the cell membrane is functioning.  Oxygen is a large molecule, so  nutrient uptake is also improved when the cell membrane becomes pliable and healthy.  The purity of the sulfur is an important factor.

Old scar tissue and various types of fibroids have been reported to resolve.  This is an example of cellular regeneration in cells that have been scarred and unable to regenerate over the years following a trauma.

The skin is the largest organ in the body, and it’s like a huge kidney or lung.  Sulfur is known as “the beauty mineral,” and what we really are saying is that the skin is more beautiful if its cells are able to regenerate.  The skin is the backup for the liver, and someone in liver distress shows it in the cells of their face and skin.  When the internal filters are working well, the extracellular fluids are not polluted and the immune system is allowed to protect the body from infections.

Lab and clinical data have not been made available from the doctors or clinics who have seen our Study members.  However, we can report the following dramatic examples of cellular regeneration:

• Cancer is an anaerobic condition by definition.  Study members who had cancer and used chemotherapy who took 30 grams of sulfur during the chemotherapy had no side effects—there was no hair loss, nausea, or diarrhea.  There was, however, a surprisingly greater reduction of cancer cells counts, as reported by their oncologists.  Lymphomas have been responding to Organic Sulfur both in decreased pain and decreased size of tumors.
• Arthritis: Organic sulfur, by comparison to commercially available MSM, is a remarkable mineral for arthritis, and produces the effects which have been reported.  Those who had been taking Organic Sulfur reported much less pain and increased mobility.  Many reported the straightening of finger joints, along with the resolution of internal scar tissue around the joints.
• Osteoarthritis has been reported to respond to the ingestion of organic sulfur.  As can be observed in old photographs of our relatives prior to 1960, most people were not bent over prior to the historical breakdown of the sulfur cycle through fertilizer use.
• Osteoporosis has also been addressed, though the numbers are too few to be significant.  Bone density tests are demonstrating reversal of bone thinning, or loss of bone density.
• Skin conditions including acne, psoriasis, rosacea, toenail fungus, burns, liver spots, and disorders associated with Lupus Erythematosus have been eliminated.  Sulfur can be used both internally and externally, but the cells which demonstrate the problem originate from the endothelial layer of the skin, which is better addressed by internal use.
• Cardiovascular: The results which were the most startling was the number of open-heart procedures which had been scheduled and were subsequently cancelled when the individual’s EKG returned to normal.  This happened in as little as six weeks of ingesting Organic Sulfur.  54 cases like this have been reported.  Our blood vessels also regenerate, and we believe that these cancelled surgical procedures could be an example of such regeneration.  The group has also seen the reduction of scar tissue, high blood pressure, and the breakdown of calcium plaque in the arteries.  Thus, we believe organic sulfur would be likely to benefit Alzheimer’s sufferers as well.
• Diabetes is helped, because sulfur is necessary in the production of insulin as well as other sulfur-based amino acids necessary for the metabolism of carbohydrates.
• Gastrointestinal disorders including acid indigestion, GERD, irritable bowel syndrome, leaky gut, and chronic constipation have been addressed with a dosage of organic sulfur at a 4 percent level of body weight twice daily.  Other digestive disorders such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s Disease have not been observed to date, but we feel that the symptoms found in the literature will be alleviated with the use of sulfur.
• Liver: One of our members regenerated his liver after suffering 25 years from Hepatitis C, after 15 months of taking two tablespoons of organic sulfur twice a day.
• Parasites find that the lining of the stomach and intestines too “pliable or slippery” to sink their hooks into.
• Migraines and headaches have been alleviated.  Migraines seem to take longer than other types of headaches, and the sulfur can often can produce a migraine which then may require more sulfur to address the possible detoxification process that is occurring.
• ADD, ADHD, hyperactivity, depression, and mood swings are greatly relieved with the use of organic sulfur.  Organic sulfur acts as a stabilizer or mood elevator and relaxes the nervous system.  We have reports of people getting off antidepressants and Ritalin within as little as three days of starting to take Organic Sulfur.  Those who had been on antidepressants for a long time took a little longer.  The ability of the body to produce its own glutathione appears to be the reason.
• Respiratory: Just as impressive were the Study members who were suffering from lung dysfunctions such as allergies, asthma, and emphysema.  Those with more serious conditions stopped depending upon the bottled oxygen they had been carrying around, in spite of the fact that they might have continued smoking.
• Glaucoma relief has been reported by Dr. Eldon Haus, MD and by a few members of the Study.  It appears that there is regeneration of the cells of the “drainage” system of the trabecular meshwork at the inner base of the iris.  Subjects who suffer from increased intraocular pressure found that the drops they used to control their eye pressure often inhibited their ability to drive or read, where sulfur has not demonstrated any such corneal disturbance.
• Hair: Gray- and white-haired members have experienced a return to their natural color hair.  The natural color that gradually returns to the nape of the neck indicates the regeneration of the pigment glands at the base of the hair follicle.  (NaturoDoc Note:  Reversal of hair loss is also being reported by our users.)
• Teeth and gums: The power of oxygen may be best demonstrated in its ability to eradicate gum disease.  Organic sulfur, when used as an additive to toothpaste or tooth powder, appears to eliminate the plaque buildup on the teeth, but more importantly, it appears to regenerate the gums and “tighten” previously loose teeth.

Cellular Regeneration Requires Oxygen Transport Across Cell Membranes

Cellular regeneration appears to be closely tied to the body’s ability to transport oxygen across cell membranes.  As stated earlier, this is a primary function of organic sulfur.

A study of the periodic table of elements shows sulfur, selenium, and tellurium as being the only three oxygen transport minerals.  Further study shows that chlorine and fluorine are detrimental to such oxygen transport, yet these elements have been added to make our teeth “healthier” and our water “more pure” or free from bacterial infestation.  These elements are poisonous at higher concentrations, and they block the uptake of both oxygen and sulfur.  Drinking city tap water is discouraged in the Study for this reason.

The Study believes that a widespread deficiency in the mineral sulfur may be responsible for the great increase in disease in the U.S.  Healthy cellular metabolism is the basis for cellular regeneration of all of our cells.  This is the bottom line for the human body.  Without intracellular oxygen, we begin to degenerate long before our biological clock runs out.

We began life as a single cell, and from that one cell we have made and regenerated all the cells of our body in a healthy manner, unless that regeneration is stymied by the food we eat.

Since 1954, our food supply has been devoid of sulfur, thanks to the use of chemical fertilizers and the overprocessing of our foods.  Unfortunately, our nation is not about to cease the use of these profitable chemicals, which involve commercial agribusiness, medicine, insurance, as well as genetic and designer foods.  However, we can regenerate our internal sulfur cycle with organic sulfur, provided that this sulfur compound has not suffered the same indignities of science that our food supply has and continues to suffer.

Finland, alarmed over the increasing disease rate of its population, took a hard look at chemical fertilizers and banned all of them, fearing the levels of cadmium.  They were not aware of the sulfur connection or Krebs cycle.  Since doing so, they have become a leading supplier of “Bio-Friendly” or completely organic foods in Europe.  They have also seen their disease rates drop to one tenth of the 1985 levels.  In 1985, the U.S. was at the same marked disease level as Finland.  Why are we not following suit and banning all chemical fertilizers?  It appears that the epidemiology of those countries using chemical fertilizers have an increase in disease, while those that use organically based fertilizing methods do not.

Organic sulfur is a food, not a drug.  Organic Sulfur is not stored in the body and it is considered to be nontoxic.  Attempts to kill mice, rats, and Oregon State Death Row inmates failed to reach a toxic level even at 200 grams or almost half pound a day.

Cellular Matrix Study
Email: kathrynepirtle@gmail.com

For the continued success of our local Wisconsin small family farms who produce our wonderful raw milk and some of the highest quality foods available to us please join the Wisconsin Raw Milk Alliance on Facebook. Pass this on to all of your friends!

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=229022049416&ref=ts

Wisconsin Alliance for Raw Milk

WARM is Wisconsin farmers and consumers, and those from surrounding states, who are for the freedom and right to choose raw milk and other foods we want to consume to maintain and restore our health. We are for the right and freedom to farm the land and to share and trade in the bounty of our crops without government or corporate interferences.

To our continued strength in our right to choose healthy foods!
Merry Christmas!

Best in health,
Kathryne Pirtle

The raw milk rally in Viroqua, Wisconsin on Monday of this week was  just the beginning of the many opportunities we must seize to make it very clear that the government can no longer attempt to control what kinds of foods people choose to insure their health and that of their children. A world without healthy children being born, is no world at all. Good food raised from small family farms is the only food that will support our future on this beautiful planet.

Get involved!! The time is now!! Every person must look at these seeds of disaster and look at the answers that are being provided and not be complacent.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O2pZfiBJs0 We cannot underestimate the importance of our involvement in insuring that our basic right to choose the quality of the very foods that go into our mouth is respected.

Please become involved in the Weston A. Price Foundation and join the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

On Monday, there is a rally in Viroqua,Wisconsin supporting Max Kane, who has a farm co-op. The members of the co-op own cow-shares, which means that they have the legal right to receive food from the animals they own. Governmental authorities have asked Max to give them the names, addresses and e-mails of people in the co-op. Because he refused to do so, he may be jailed for contempt of court. This type of harassment is happening to farmers from small farms all across the country. In fact, many farmers have been put in jail for selling these foods to their co-op members. For more information on the rally, See http://rally4rawmilk.blogspot.com/

As we search our hearts and minds for what is right, let us not be complacent in our actions to insure the health of our food supply, our people and generations to come. Please become involved with this issue through both the Weston A. Price Foundation at www.westonaprice.org. and become a member of the Farm to Legal Defense Fund at farmtoconsumer.org.

The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,
it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its
foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness.

Constitutional Amendment 14

Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The first approach we have to oversensitivity to foods, airborne allergens and other substances of course is avoidance. But what if a person is allergic to most foods and a huge list of airborne substances–then we have a real problem! An allergic reaction to anything is the immune system in motion. When the immune system is always reacting, it puts a great strain on the body’s resources for maintaining good health.

There is great hope in improving the body’s sensitivities by going to the source of the problem, which is often the digestive tract. Because of our poor food supply and incorrect high-fiber/low-fat health dictates, many people are suffering from a condition called “leaky gut.” Leaky gut is a result of intestinal damage from poor gut flora–usually a candida overgrowth. When the intestinal tract becomes weakened, it can become inflamed and proteins can escape into the blood system. This causes an immune response–so that the next time your body comes in contact with that substance–even if it is a healthy food–it will cause the same immune response. When the digestive tract is inflamed, the entire body can become ultra-sensitive to many other things such as airborne substances.

Foods that help to heal the digestive tract are nutrient-dense foods from pastured animals, wild caught fish and organic sources:

1. bone-broth soups
2. cultured drinks and foods like whole-fat kefir and yogurt, homemade sauerkraut, pickled beets, beet kvass and kombucha
3. traditional fats like  raw butter, coconut oil, and lard
4. Meats, poultry, eggs and wild caught fish
5. Fermented cod liver oil and butter oil (see greenpasture.org.)

Another help to improving allergies is heavy metal detoxification. Carefully removing mercury amalgam fillings with a biological dentist and working with an experienced holistic health practitioner who understands how to gently detox heavy metals can also enhance the blocks to overcoming allergies. (see www.wholenutritionist.com and www.radicalmedicine.com.)

Healing the digestive tract and removing heavy metals is an exciting step to recovering from allergies. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

The following is an incredible article on the marine plasma water supplement:

“

Evolutionary Development of Our Internal Ocean: Restoring Bio-Terrain with Quinton Marine Plasma

©By Roy Dittman, OMD, USA & Raul Brugioni, Biologist, Brazil

Published in Explore! Volume 15, Number 6, 2006

In July of 2006, I published Part I entitled: “Bio-Terrain, Evolutionary Biology, and the Practice of Medicine in the Early 1900’s: An Intro to René Quinton’s Marine Plasma”, where I introduced Quinton Marine Plasma as a fundamental tool in restoring biological terrain.1 In Part II, Raul Brugioni and I will explore the role the oceans and more specifically marine plasma plays in supporting and evolving life on our planet. In addition, we will define how Quinton Marine Plasma restores biological terrain and provide clinical distinctions to better understand how and when to apply Quinton.

What Is Quinton™ Marine Plasma™?

In the overwhelming response to June’s article, we have heard many speculations regarding what marine plasma is. Let me just begin by saying what marine plasma is not.

First, Quinton is not merely seawater. You cannot simply collect and purify deep or coastal seawater and expect to duplicate the clinical results realized by Quinton Marine Plasma. Second, Quinton is not plankton, and does not contain plankton. Since Quinton is cold-filtered, all zooplankton and plankton are removed from the fluid.

Quinton Marine Plasma is the living fluid produced by dense fields of zoo-plankton as they consume smaller phyto-plankton. This fluid, discovered by French physiologist René Quinton, has been used successfully by clinicians throughout the world for over 100 years to restore our ‘internal milieu’ to its original marine inheritance.

Quinton is not just trace minerals. Trace minerals produced from salt beds on land are inorganic, because they have not been pre-digested by living microorganisms. In addition, the quantity of each trace mineral varies from sample to sample and does not mirror the ratios found in the human body. It is true that unlike land minerals, every major and trace mineral is present in Quinton in an ideal synergistic ratio, but Quinton is still much more.

Quinton Laboratoires was founded in 1905. In France, Quinton Marine Plasma was officially recognized as a medicine around 1907. In 1941, Quinton Isotonic, and Hypertonic products were ‘registered’ as medicines and included in France’s equivalent of the Physician’s Desk Reference (Dictionnaire Vidal). Quinton products remained listed in the Vidal until 1999, referencing oral and topical applications.

Today, forward-thinking scientists are beginning to understand what Quinton knew 100 years ago; that marine plasma has the power to regulate our own “internal ocean” as it informs our genetic potential and guides our very evolution.

Quinton’s Laws of Osmosis & Marine Constancy

The first animals evolved in sea water. As animals evolved, they developed a symbiotic strategy to ensure their survival. Their adaptation to life on land was a foundational evolutionary achievement, which required profound biological advancements – with the most critical factors of success being the ability to maintain a constant pH, mineral makeup, and temperature.

The more we study the ocean, the more we understand its fundamental role in guiding our evolution. In 1904, René Quinton asserted his foundational laws of osmosis and marine constancy – the idea that the earth’s oceans maintain a state of elemental equilibrium, known as “marine constancy.” He then demonstrated through years of research that our internal fluids obey the same laws.

His laws can be summed up best in his profound revelation: “We are truly a living marine aquarium!” The 1957 award winning movie, Hemo the Magnificent, produced and directed by Frank Capra, reaches the same conclusion, powerfully asserting that “blood is seawater.”

According to Quinton’s laws of osmosis and marine constancy, he asserted the following:

1. All life emerged from unicellular organisms – the ancestors of human cells. Their need for a constant supply of mineral salts was met by the seawater in which they lived. The seawater also facilitated acid-alkaline balance, which was fundamental to the establishment of homeostasis.
2. Humans maintain an isotonic internal environment similar to the less salty oceans which existed when the first amphibians emerged hundreds of millions of years ago.
3. “There is physical and physiological identity between seawater and the internal environment of the organism.”

Our “Internal Ocean” Informs Our Genetic Expression

If Quinton’s laws are true, how do they apply to us? Even from the very beginning, the vitality of our internal ocean guides our individual gestational evolution. Before the neural tube forms in an embryo, the internal ocean or “tidal body,” which develops from the amniotic fluid, intelligently regulates and directs the formation of the nervous system and organs.

Additionally, the organic minerals saturated within the tidal body provides a conductive medium that transmits phasic and sound pulses received from the mother’s abdominal aorta that in turn develops the vestibular area of the embryonic brain. Later, these tidal “pulses” are sensed by the fetus’ skin, which in turn stimulates neuronal development. Indeed, as we are developing, the health of our “tidal body” directs how our genetic potential is realized.

Like the tidal body and the internal milieu, Quinton Marine Plasma’s rich store of organic minerals facilitates cellular conductivity by restoring the electrical potential of our cells. When we are born, our internal ocean feeds every single one of our billions of cells. This extra-cellular fluid is where all inter-cellular communication takes place and where critical nutrients are transported to the cell membrane.

So, while every cell contains its own genetic backbone, it is constantly being affected by the epigenetic influencers found within the extra-cellular fluid. Studies reveal that changes in our extra-cellular fluid have the ability to direct the cell to make 2,000 or more different proteins from the same gene blueprint. The upshot of this dynamic is that, while genetic makeup is important to the health and function of each cell, “a cell’s operations are molded by their interaction with the environment, not by its genetic code.”

The oceans contain the homeostatic blueprint of life – the original genetic code that has and is governing evolution. The mineral, nutritional, and genetic information found in marine plasma may “recharge” the extra-cellular fluid, enhancing cellular communication.

World famous biologist Craig Venter, the first to map the human genome, is now working on a new project to uncover the genetic origins of the human genome and all life on the planet to better understand how the oceans impact health. To accomplish this, he is cataloguing ocean water samples every 200 miles.

His team now estimates that there may be as many as 20 billion genes within the Earth’s oceans – a rich store of genetic information that tells the story of our oceanic origins.  Through natural selection, humans inherited a mere 30,000 genes, of which as many as 18,000 have been labeled as “pseudogenes” or “junk genes,” Until recently scientists have considered pseudogenes to be merely obsolete remnants of our evolutionary past.

Today biologists assert that the junk genes may “inform” the genes next to them and may fulfill an immunological role in protecting us from both internal and external environmental stress. Our 30,000 genes interact with our internal ocean to respond to the billions of genes present in our environment.

It is likely that the “junk” genes help us to adapt to rapidly changing environmental circumstances – to upgrade our bodies’ genetic hardware as we move through an evolutionary maze. By drinking marine plasma, we may be accelerating this upgrade by exposing our bodies to a micro-dilution of the genetic and epigenetic information stored in the billions of genes and millions of life forms found in the dense plankton bloom.

Our Land-Locked Bodies Suffer From Chronic Cumulative Mineral Deficiencies

Since all life originated within the ocean, our internal biology depends upon the complete ratio of mineral salts found within the oceans. However, living off of the land no longer provides the raw material needed to maintain our internal ocean. Our land-locked bodies are nutritionally starved.

We overeat in a futile attempt to restore this fundamental “organic” mineral balance. The soil we use to grow the foods we eat and therefore the nutritional supplements we consume are devoid of the full spectrumof trace minerals we crave. As the former Minister of Agriculture Dr. André Voisin pointed out, most cancers are linked to a lack of key nutrients. Clearly, re-establishing mineral balance is one of the foundational requirements to restoring the biological terrain.

The health implications of soil depletion were forecasted in 1936, when the United States Senate issued Document 264, warning that our crops were being grown on mineral depleted soil and that human health was suffering as a result. The following is an excerpt from the report:

“Sick soils mean sick plants, sick animals, and sick people. Physical, mental and moral fitness depends largely upon an ample supply and a proper proportion of minerals in our foods. Nerve function, nerve stability and nerve cell-building likewise depend upon trace minerals.”

Over time, mineral deficiencies can lead to chronic acidification, which in turn sets in motion a positive feedback loop, defined by the cumulative depletion of vital minerals from the body and therefore further acidification, which weakens our cellular defenses.

Trace minerals account for approximately three (3) percent of the electrolytes in the ocean and our internal environment, where they form a complex interdependent synergy. One billionth of a gram (nanogram) of metal contains 2.5 billion atoms. One to ten atoms are all that is needed to activate an enzyme. Therefore, even a minute but consistent supply of organic “live” trace minerals has the ability to restore the balance lost from nutrient deficient foods.

Plankton Convert Minerals to Bioactive State

Microbes feed on inorganic minerals and convert them to their ‘organic’ crystalloid state. Marine plasma contains a full spectrum of organic crystalloid minerals, transformed by the trillions of plankton and zooplankton (i.e. microorganisms) found within the vortex plankton bloom in which marine plasma is produced.

Inorganic minerals are not available at a cellular level and must be transformed into their crystalloid state in order to pass through the cell membrane, and therefore to direct cellular activities. Crystalloid minerals are bioavailable at the epigenetic level both outside and inside the cell – interacting with the cell membrane to direct genetic potential.

“People can utilize inorganic salts or elements only by having plant life in their intestines in the form of bacteria to hook up the inorganic element with a carbon atom so it can be transformed into an organic form.” Unfortunately, with the advent of antibiotics and the proliferation of Candida, the intestinal flora’s ability to convert inorganic elements into their organic state has been significantly compromised.

The synergistic matrix of crystalloid minerals found within the extra-cellular fluids plays an integral role in determining the health of the biological terrain and therefore the health of the person. And, the quality of the minerals and water found within the extra-cellular fluid determines the quality of the communications that take place between cells.

In 1994, Pischinger, Chair of Histology and Embryology at the University of Vienna showed that cells are not in direct contact with each other, and that all inter-cellular information (nervous stimuli, metabolic, immunological and vascular processes, etc) flows through the extra cellular liquid. Pischinger asserted that: “Original seawater is the oldest system of communication between living cells.”

Does it not stand to reason, then, that the best way to re-mineralize the all-important extra-cellular fluid is by replenishing it with its original marine inheritance?

Quinton Marine Plasma Is Beneficial In Its “Live” State “The Whole is Not Equal to the Sum of It’s Parts”–Goethe

Through his research, René Quinton showed that:

1. marine plasma could not be extracted from random locations;
2. that marine plasma was clinically superior to seawater; and
3. that marine plasma must be kept “alive” in the seawater base in which it is dissolved.

In his landmark book, “L’eau de Mer Milieu Organique” (Seawater, Organic Matrix), René Quinton demonstrated that drying out or desiccating marine plasma irreversibly damaged the “live” mineral and protein complexes. He clinically demonstrated that it was impossible to reconstitute marine plasma and still achieve the same health benefits. This is because, when marine plasma is dried, minerals fall out of their “live” crystalloid state.

Water is the universal molecular and energetic solvent. It does not “forget” the information that dissolves in it. The minerals, organic compounds, and genetic material stored in the marine plasma form a matrix of biological information that may intelligently evolve us.

René Quinton himself summarized it best when he asserted that: “marine plasma tends to maintain its characteristic biological activity and the molecular balance of a living medium. The entirety of trace elements contained in marine plasma are to be found in the solution in their active states.” Unfortunately, eating dried sea salt provides a potent inorganic trace mineral complex, but fails to provide the biological information stored within marine plasma.

Quinton Restores Bio-Terrain

Maintaining an optimal internal environment or biological terrain, is critical to maintaining health. “To maintain a healthy body, homeostasis must be kept constant. A healthy organic terrain is the basis of health and conversely diseases develop on a depleted or congested terrain. Upstream of most diseases there is an unbalanced terrain.”

Targeted nutrients cannot fulfill their intended function on top of a depleted biological terrain. Quinton Marine Plasma directly and indirectly resolves many of the polarities listed below by replenishing the integrity of the “internal ocean.”

Bio-Terrain Clinicians Are Looking to Restore Balance to the Following:

Whenever there is a chronic deficiency or excess of any critical nutrient, pathology is not far behind. Clinicians struggle to reconcile the fact that one nutritional supplement may balance out one polarity while negatively affecting another. For example, if a person takes B vitamins, they may be balancing out a deficiency, while at the same time the B vitamins may contribute to chronic acidity and dehydration through the generation of Excess Heat.

This is the “law of diminishing returns”, whereby the amount of energy it takes to absorb, assimilate, and eliminate a nutritional product is often greater than the energy gained by the product itself. The majority of most nutritional supplements are poorly absorbed, leaving the intestines, liver, and kidneys to eliminate the unassimilated portions, which further dehydrates and acidifies the body.

Quinton marine plasma, however, is taken up by the intestines through passive diffusion. Since the organic minerals and marine co-factors have been ‘pre-digested’ by the zoo-plankton, they do not require active digestion as a pre-requisite for assimilation.

The Future of Evolution

We are now beginning to understand the conditions for evolving and optimizing our health. In the past, the whole area of reproduction was a mysterious event often attributed to chance. Our impression was that at the time of birth, we were thrown into a hostile, threatening world and forced to learn to survive. Survival gave rise to an accidental form of evolution.

With Quinton, we have the tools to replenish and restore our bio-terrain – to thrive in our internal environment. Thriving is giving rise to a new kind of evolution. Now, we can direct, balance, and enhance our internal environment.

We assert that Quinton has a key role to play in the coming biotech age, by creating a homeostatic foundation that helps to guide, balance, and regulate the many nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and stimulants we consume to manipulate our physiology.

In our opinion, Quinton is an essential tool for clinician’s protocols, simply because it is so effective at restoring bio-terrain, which is primary to resolving secondary more immediate physiological objectives and symptoms.

The big revelation for us was that through the consistent application of Quinton marine plasma, many of the symptoms and complaints begin to resolve, simplifying patient evaluations, and thereby uncovering subtler conditions specific to the individual. Once the root causes begin to reveal themselves to the clinician, the clinician is able to competently address the personal imbalance using targeted therapies, nutraceuticals, and bioenergetic products, to arrive at optimal health.

Quinton™ – Distinctions for Clinical Use*

Quinton Marine Plasma is manufactured in two distinct forms:

1. as an isotonic solution that is precisely diluted to match the 0.9% salinity of human blood plasma; and
2. as a hypertonic solution that is undiluted at 3.3% salinity.

While dosage is important, the clinical goal should be to encourage consistency. In general, Isotonic’s overall effect is gentler than Hypertonic and is therefore better suited for sensitive clients. The following summarizes how Quinton Isotonic and Hypertonic work in the body according to various clinical perspectives.

Naturopathic and Biological Terrain Distinctions

• Balances out internal fluids.
• Facilitates intestinal peristalsis, thereby addressing constipation.
• Clears toxins and removes Excessive Heat; supports deficient adrenal, pituitary, thyroid, and gonadal function.
• Ideal for supporting recovery from fatigue, low energy, and other depressive states.
• Promotes organic physiological growth & development.
• Assists the body in reducing inflammation and supports the body’s ability to eliminate infections and parasites.
• Restores and opens up suppressed methylation and metabolic pathways in the brain and nervous system.
• Improves general intra-cellular and extra-cellular communication and restores membrane potential.
• Enhances pro-biotic activity, which promotes the proliferation of pro-biotic microorganisms.
• Restores Triple-Warmer/Pericardium function (thyroid function and peripheral circulation/cold hands and feet).
• Restores mineral balance thrown off by excessive sweating, exertion, diarrhea and coffee intake.
• Improves absorption of other nutrients.

Osteopathic Benefits

• Resets/restores the ‘tidal body’ to fewer pulses/min.
• Supports the intended outcome of manipulation therapy, supporting the subtle, physical, and emotional “bodies”.

Oriental Medical Distinctions

• Promotes the Flow and Conductivity of Chi and Blood.
• Reduces thick, greasy tongue coating.
• Reduces Heat and Dampness.
• Restores Jing Essence.
• Restores Kidney Yang and Kidney Yin.
• Reduces the Accumulation of Phlegm & Mucus in the Metal Element (lung & large intestine).
• Promotes Earth Element Function/Digestion (Stomach/Spleen/Pancreatic) by increasing digestive enzyme production.
• Tonifies Spleen.
• Reduces Toxic Heat and Fire from the skin (topical and internal administration).
• Eliminates Dampness and Heat from the Large Intestine.

General Guidelines & Benefits

• Balances skin conditions, digestive issues, and facilitates mental focus.
• Supports the restoration of balanced internal pH.
• Supports optimal immune function.
• In certain circumstances, slightly and temporarily elevates basal temperature.

Quinton™ Isotonic*

General Guidelines & Benefits:

Recommended for children, elderly patients, people with a fragile immune system, and hypersensitive/ allergic patients. Isotonic is generally used to address nervous or anxious states. It supports the reduction of hypersensitivities to foods and other allergens.

Physiological Distinctions: For issues related to sympathetic dominance and fast oxidation.

Oriental Medical Distinctions: Yin, Cooling, Sedating, Balancing. Calms the Shen/Spirit. Reduces Heart Fire.

Ayurvedic Distinctions: Has a “moon” or calming quality.

Additional Distinctions for Use: Excellent for yoga, meditation, sleep, and recovery after exercise.

Quinton™ Hypertonic*

General Guidelines & Benefits:

Anabolic effect on metabolism. Improves endurance and strength. Excellent for high performance, and intense mental activity.

Physiological Distinctions: For conditions related to parasympathetic dominance and slow oxidation.

Oriental Medical Distinctions: Yang, Warming, Energizing, Replenishing, Building, Tonifying. Ideal for Menopausal Yin Deficiency. Restores reproductive drive and Chi.

Ayurvedic Distinctions: Has a “sun” or activating quality.

References

Dittman, R. “Bio-Terrain, Evolutionary Biology, and the Practice of Medicine in the Early 1900’s: An Intro to René Quinton’s Marine Plasma.” Explore, 2006.

Quinton, René: L’eau de Mer Milieu Organique, 1904.

Capra, Frank. Hemo The Magnificent. DVD. 1956.

Blum, T., Dittman, R. Prenatal, Perception, Learning, and Bonding. Leonardo Publishers. 1993.

Lipton, Bruce. 2005.

“Voyage of the Sorcerer: J. Craig Venter cracked the human genome. Now he’s set his sights on a new frontier: life under the sea” On Earth Magazine; Summer 2006, p. 8-9.

Gerstein, Mark; Zheng, Deyou. “The Real Life of Pseudogenes.” Scientific American. August 2006.

Voisin, André. Soil, Grass, and Cancer.

United States Senate issued Document 264, 1936.

Passebecq, André M.D., Ph.D., N.D., Soulier, Jean-Marc Soulier, Ph.D.: “Human Plasma and Ocean Plasma: A Comparative Study of the Therapeutic Properties of Seawater Preparations” 1992.

Murray, Maynard. Sea Energy Agriculture. 1976.

Pischinger, A. “Basal regulation system,” Ed. Haug 1994.

Dang Vinh Luu and Claudine Luu. “Connaissance de l’eau”. University of Montpellier. INDERPLAM 1993.

Mahé, André, Brugioni, R. O Segredo das Nossas Origens O Plasma de Quinton.”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Only after the last river has been poisoned,

Only after the last fish has been caught,

Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

– Cree Indian Prophecy

Purchasing and eating traditional, nutrient-dense foods that superbly nourish the body and supporting farmers that grow them is the only way that we can return to the earth the gifts we have been given. Pasture based farming is the only environmentally sound approach to raising food that continues to provide nutrients to the soil that will insure healthy food for  generations to come. Your health is your wealth and the health of our people is the wealth of our nation.

The choice is yours.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Share ]]> http://performancewithoutpain.com/2009/12/13/cree-indian-prophecy/feed/ 0 http://performancewithoutpain.com/2009/12/12/smooth-firm-clear-skin-what-are-some-of-the-dietary-factors-that-enhance-skin-quality/ http://performancewithoutpain.com/2009/12/12/smooth-firm-clear-skin-what-are-some-of-the-dietary-factors-that-enhance-skin-quality/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:28:27 +0000 kathy http://performancewithoutpain.com/?p=673 As a continuation of yesterday’s article on how including traditional fats  in the diet can help improve the dryness of skin, today we will look at more issues that deal with skin quality.  Most people would agree that the skin beauty is a multi-billion dollar industry. However, most of the products we can purchase fail to discuss how much we can improve our skin through diet and how many issues with skin are signs of leaky gut, systemic inflammation and nutrient deficiencies.

One of the components of healthy, firm skin is collagen. One of the foods richest is collagen is old-fashioned bone broth from pastured animals or wild-caught fish. This historic traditional food was a mainstay of the diet for thousands of years.  High quality eggs, meats and dairy from pastured animals also help to maintain collagen. As we have not only removed traditional fats from the diet, but also other nutrient-dense foods, many people today have signs of early aging skin.

The skin is the largest detoxifying organ of the body, so many issues of the skin are caused by this important protective function. Often, when people eat a high carbohydrate diet or one that is high in processed foods,  they may develop a leaky gut. This is most often the result of intestinal damage from a candida overgrowth.  With a leaky gut, the body has more difficulty detoxifying itself through the intestinal tract as it is often inflamed.  A leaky gut can also cause the body to have allergic reactions to many foods and airborne molds and pollens. Under these conditions, the body frequently tries to rid itself of toxins through the skin and various types of epidermal eruptions may be prevalent. All the expensive creams in the world will not heal a leaky gut!

The best way to improve these types of skin problems is to look at the diet and the digestive system.  Working on a long-term time line with a nutrient-dense diet that corrects digestion and malnourishment, will often dramatically improve skin quality. If you look at the remarkable pictures that Dr. Weston A. Price took of immune populations, you will be taken by the undeniable beauty of their skin.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

In his book, “Pottenger’s Cats, A Study in Nutrition,” he states that “Fats are present in every living cell and are essential to life. Intracellular fat is an important constituent in tissues such as muscle, brain, pancreas, and skin. Nerves are surrounded by a myelin sheath and largely composed of fats: leukocytes, the life-protecting scavengers of the body, are also largely composed of fats. ” Later he says, “In our experience, dry skin provides an index of disturbed fat metabolism. Most patients attribute their dry skin disorders to one of the following causes: hard water, improperly neutralized soaps, detergents, various household chemicals, exposure to the sun or wind, dry weather, dust or incompatible or excessive cosmetics. Few suspect deficiencies in their fat intake. Recognizing that fatty acids have largely disappeared from our modern dietary, we have worked out a high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet for general rehabilitation.”

When you start to add fats like raw butter, coconut oil and lard to your daily fare, you may notice over time that your skin improves dramatically. This will be especially true when your digestion improves and you are better nourished from eating a nutrient-dense diet that is rich in vitamins A and D for nutrient absorption. Remember, Dr. Weston A. Price found in his studies of healthy cultures that traditional fats were a very important part of the diet. He found that without both vitamins A and D from natural sources and adequate traditional fats you could not absorb the nutrients from you foods no matter how good the diet.

From this information you might consider that dry skin may be a sign of malnourishment. With the constant buzz that a low-fat /high fiber diet is so healthy, is it a wonder that many people are asking “why”, when their skin is dry and they just don’t feel well on this regimen?

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Did you realize that the “safe” amalgam “silver” fillings in your mouth are 49-54% mercury, 35% silver, 12% tin and 3% copper? That’s a lot of mercury! Mercury is extremely toxic in very small amounts, and has been linked to many neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis. In heavy metal tests done on people with these types of illnesses, mercury is often seen at very high levels.  Mercury in small amounts can cause brain lesions as it can alter the cell membrane structure of developing brain neurons resulting in their rapid degeneration. You can see this happening in the link to the following study:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XU8nSn5Ezd8&feature=related

There is a constant mercury vapor that is released from amalgam fillings even after 50 years!  see www.uninformedconsent.org If a person has two or more types of metals in their mouth it can actually create an electric current, called “dental galvanism”, thereby increasing the rate of mercury corrosion from 10-20 times. Heavy metals migrate to fatty tissues like the tissues of the brain and the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells.

For good health, it is extremely important to consider removing amalgam fillings very carefully. It should be done with a highly qualified biological dentist who understands the correct protocol of removal of only one quadrant at a time and detoxification remedies following the removal. Some excellent detox remedies are Gemmotherapy Plant Stem Cells (www.plantstemcells.net), Organic Sulfur (organicsulfur@sisna.com) and Original Quinton Marine Plasma (www.originalquintonplasma.com) For even more information on proper removal of amalgams see Dr. Louisa Williams and her book called Radical Medicine (www.radicalmedicine.com.)

Here are some holistic dental organizations for information about biological dentists in your area:

IABDM (www.iabdm.org)

IAOMT (www.iaomt.org)

HAD (www.holisticdental.org)

DAMS (www.amalgam.org)

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

NON-GLUTEN NUT CRACKERS

Makes 16-20

2  1/2 cups raw walnuts, almonds or pecans
2 tablespoons Celtic sea salt
1 small onion, coarsely chopped (optional)
1 tablespoon fresh minced rosemary, thyme or garlic (optional)
2 teaspoons raw red wine or cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey (optional)
1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt (see Sources)

Soak almonds or walnuts overnight in filtered water mixed with 2 tablespoons Celtic sea salt. Drain in a colander. Place in a food processor along with or without optional remaining ingredients.  Process to form a coarse paste. Spread mixture onto as thin as possible onto cookie sheets lined with buttered parchment paper. Place another sheet of parchment paper over paste and roll with a rolling pin. Press in cutting lines before drying. Dehydrate in a warm oven (preferably at 150 degrees) for 12-24 hours until completely dry. Adopted from Recipes for Life by Becky Mauldin.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see our book, Performance without Pain and our e-book on healing acid-reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

For centuries, cod liver oil was mostly used as a topical treatment or balm for its general medicinal and strengthening properties. But in the Manchester Infirmary in 1766, it was shown to be a curative for rheumatism when ingested, after which it became a well known medicine. In 1841, the British physician, John Bennett wrote a treatise on cod liver oil and it’s use in healing Scrofula–a tuberculosis of the skin. Bennett noted that when people had one disease like tuberculosis they also had another like rickets–indicating a vitamin D deficiency.

Research between 1920 and 1940 began its wide use for preventing and treating measles, industrial absenteeism and puerperal fever. However, with the dawn of penicillin in the 1930s and 40s, came massive support for antibiotics (anti-life) and sulfa drugs and the pharmaceutical industry was born. Instead of focusing on building immunity with nutrition, we began an arms race against germs, trying to stay two jumps ahead of bacteria.

Today, as we are seeing the poor results of the “killing bacteria” approach, we are seeing a resurgence of interest in building immunity with nutrient-dense foods and cod liver oil is becoming again an important part of  this health-building plan.

The beauty of a high quality cod liver oil is that it contains both vitamin A and D in the best ratio–which is a 10 to 1 relationship. Vitamin A  is necessary for mineral metabolism, strong bones, immunity, normal growth, successful reproduction, healthy skin and good eyesight.Vitamin D is necessary for mineral metabolism, nervous system function, insulin production, immunity and protection against depression.

Commercial  cod liver oil has been over processed and will not provide healing qualities that were seen historically, but fermented cod liver oil, made the old fashioned way, is now available thanks to the work of David Wetzel at Green Pasture. Along with cod liver oil, Dr. Price found that it was very important to have adequate traditional saturated fats in the diet. Price also developed high-vitamin butter oil to use in conjunction with cod liver oil as a powerful combination for the prevention and healing of cavities and a high immunity to disease.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods, see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

If you read the ingredients on your shampoo, conditioner and cosmetics containers and they look like a chemical factory–think twice about using them!

The best way to begin to reduce this toxic load is to control what you can control. Here are a few links to sources of toxin-free body care products and cosmetics:

http://healing-scents.com/index.html
http://www.drrons.com/

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense-foods see our book Performance without Pain and our new e-book on acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Just look around and see all the health epidemics. It does not take a brain surgeon to realize that corn-fed does not work!

If your health is your wealth, our country has a disaster waiting to happen! However, by purchasing foods that are traditionally raised, you will not only improve your own health, but be a part of a movement that is helping to insure the health of future generations!

For more information on healing and building health with nutrient-dense foods, see our book Performance without Pain and our new e-book on acid reflux.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

In order to function properly–that is to break down our foods into usable components and detoxify our body– the human digestive system needs ample probiotic bacteria and enzymes. Fermented and cultured foods naturally provide these components. Without these kinds of foods, we may develop many serious digestive problems like candida overgrowth, which chemically change the way out foods are processed and we will not be able to get rid of toxins. Ultimately, poor digestion equals poor health. In fact, acid reflux, inflammatory conditions of all kinds and cancer can be linked to poor digestion and a toxic overload.

Do your health a big favor–devote time to learning to prepare these delicious cultured and fermented foods. As your digestion improves so will your health!

For more information on preparing cultured and fermented foods see our website at www.performancewithoutpain.com. Both of our books, Performance without Pain and our e-book on healing acid reflux are wonderful guides to optimizing digestion.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Also on the subject of being completely full, the great 14th century poet-mystic-saint Rumi, founder of Sufism:

”
Even a candle, when it knows it will melt away, doesn’ t quit spreading its light out. Oh human! You, while completely full of the Power of the Creator, why do you hang back?
”

Something tells me Rumi was equally as full of highly saturated animal fats with high vitamin A and D. His words are dripping with abundant brain power.

I’d like to ask on this day of Gratitude: just how good DO we have it now as humans living in most of America–and most of anywhere in the first world for that matter–where we are in fact capable of securing food on this day and mostly healthy enough to chew and swallow it?

And, I’d like to ask: just how good DO we have it now as humans living in most of the first world during this particular TIME in the whole history of human civilization, regarding the fact that we are mostly guaranteeably able to access food on this day, like we were able to access some food yesterday and like we will likely access some food tomorrow?

Relatively speaking, for the first time in *all “civilized” human history*, for the last few decades in just a few places on earth, many of us in the “first world” have generally been able to secure two or three meals a day, every day, and every day we know that likely tomorrow we will be able to do that again. And many of us in the “first world” even know that if the economy gets a little worse than it already is, we and our loved ones will likely ourselves continue to keep eating, one way or another. Even if our forms of income are cut off, we can in many cases get at least some food via the social safety net our society has constructed for itself.

This situation we are in is a TRUE novelty of novelties amongst the vast spread of geographies and histories amidst the total spread of human life on this planet. Many of us are able to eat today! And what’s more, many of us will be able to eat tomorrow and the next day! This is a miracle! For hundreds of centuries, our evolutionary ancestors did not possess this situation of constant access to food, having to continually remain in fight-or-flight mode to attain access to meals.

But does this sudden burst of access in the last century necessarily imply a similar or higher quality of nutrient density in the food? Quite the opposite I’m afraid, according to overwhelming scientific evidence.

What our nearby evolutionary ancestors DID have, even if they did not have constant *access*–provedly amidst 14 different tribal/indigenous societies that Weston A. Price formally studied for around 10 years in the 1930’s in his magnus opus “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”–were consistently much more nutrient-dense foods consisting of highly saturated animal fats with high vitamin A and D, cartilaginous and highly elastin-containing bone stocks, raw/unpasteurized milk, truly homemade lacto-fermented foods, soaked/sprouted and naturally-leavened grains, soaked/sprouted nuts, seeds, berries, beans/legumes, and many other such foods, which had not yet been divorced from their traditional indigenous wisdom by the poison of industrialization’s influence on mainstreaming the human food supply.

Again, perhaps these isolated, untouched tribes did not always have these foods in plenty (and yes, these peoples did often get some of the diseases which modern medicine has been able to deal with such as tuberculosis, THEN AGAIN: they did not get heart disease, cancer, allergies, cavities, rampant mental disease, or difficult childbirth–all of which modern medicine and industrialization has had a hand in creating!), but their foods nearly always had extremely superior nutrient density to the processed, packaged, mass-produced food of today, and one of the most common traits this created in those people was the radiant quality of their general mental quietude and “general ease and contentment with life,” according to Dr. Price’s notes.

Which leads me to: just how good DO “we” have it, “we” who know something of these “deep secrets” of traditional, nutrient dense foods (i.e. yours truly), AND get to live in this technological world! –All thanks to the printed and electronically published works of communication-genius health luminaries such as Kathy Pirtle, Sally Fallon, Mary Enig, Kaayla Daniel, Natasha Campbell McBride, Sandor Ellix Katz, and of course Dr. Weston A. Price and his partner Dr. Francis Pottenger (and the list goes on and on)–along with numerous other food revolutionaries and visionaries who have re-unearthed the ancient, archaic, timeless knowledge of countless ancestors’ *Innate Wisdom* on “how our foods are meant to be,” then cleverly re-applying it to how we can use this timeless knowledge to actually heal our own bodies of countless diseases (such as how to heal acid reflux for starters).

As for me, without these people and their work, today I would likely be dead. I am living with an HIV+ diagnosis, yet I do not require the medicines and I survived nearly dying from chronic wasting and diarrhea five years ago, thanks to them and their food help. I am truly thankful for them.

Lately I’ve been watching a BBC documentary about a year spent in Tibet, which was filmed just a few years ago. Tibet is a rather severe example of food gone wrong, or more simply no food being available to much of the population much of the time, because of the harsh oppression of the Chinese communist regime, and no doubt their influence on the food supply. Last night the episode I watched had us observing a family who does not get to eat anything but barley dough and potatoes. When asked what else they eat, they said “barley dough and potatoes.”

Barley is very native to Tibet. When the Chinese tried to replace all barley with wheat, because of the fact that they found the Tibetans dirty and uncivilized and inferior for eating barley, the Tibetans couldn’t grow wheat (perhaps because the soil and harsh climate of the Tibetan plateau wouldn’t allow it or because they didn’t understand how to cultivate the new crop, I’m not clear on that), and as a direct result much of the Tibetan population starved to death. The Chinese, fearing more uprising, and wanting to keep a decent number of Tibetans alive for their value as human commodities, gradually let them return to growing barley.

So, today Tibetans are apparently quite happy to be able to grow and eat barley. A favorite past-time of Tibetan farmers is also barley beer, to the extent that now much of the Tibetan population has a serious alcoholism problem because of how much they enjoy their barley beer.

As a person sensitive to gluten, which is plentiful in both wheat and barley, I simply cannot imagine this way of living, but it does seem as though the Tibetan gene pool may not have such a big issue with gluten. Gluten aside, there’d be the situation of eating only a grain and some starches most or all of the time if I suddenly had to subsist on a Tibetan diet in Tibet. I’m pretty sure I would die on such a diet quite quickly. I’m not sure exactly how fast my immune system would collapse, but one thing is certain: I would go insane first, because the gluten would bring back the crippling mental illness I dealt with all my life prior to realizing that gluten was one of the biggest culprits in my severely faulty brain chemistry.

And just a little irresistible side-note: where COULD I go to eat in Tibet to try and get off the gluten and starch? Just guess where. American-based fast food, that’s where! –which is apparently slowly making its way into Tibet through dealings with the Chinese government! Oh yes, I could find a homogenized, pasteurized, hormone-injected, forced-to-prey-on-its-own-kind super-industrialized yak-burger at the nearby B**ger *ing, and maybe even on a PROCESSED glutenous barley bun! If this doesn’t tell us something about the intentions of fast food mega-conglomerates, and the precise ethical integrity of their visions for the world, I don’t know what does. They seem to get a real kick out of “nourishing” the third world, don’t they? < / end_sarcasm >

It is really too bad Dr. Weston A. Price didn’t get to visit Tibet and study indigenous Tibetan diet in the 1930’s! I’m sure it would have added to his disappointments of indigenous cultures not being vegetarians (and doubly so because of their Buddhist and therefore supposedly vegetarian-leaning morality), because I have heard through the grapevine, from many actual practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism, that actually Tibetan Buddhists aren’t at all natively vegetarians (why am I not surprised–none of the rest of Dr. Price’s indigenous tribes were vegetarians, after all).

Actually the lamas (or high Buddhist teachers) were known to consume a good deal of yak, a very high-protein/high-amino-acid source of meat with no doubt very highly saturated fat. I was happy to hear in the BBC documentary I was watching that at least the Tibetans have a somewhat constant supply of no-doubt highly saturated [and raw] yak butter from their own few yaks, to balance their high barley-n-potato intake. So my guess is that before the devastation of the communist invasion 50 years ago, they likely consumed yaks aplenty.

Perhaps they still traditionally ferment their barley beer, and it isn’t so bad after all? Hm…

Anyhow, what a Blessing to be alive in the nutrient dense here and now. Today, Thanksgiving Day, I am eating so much yummy, nutrient dense food, with a wide diversity of plants and animals, highly saturated animal fats with high vitamin A and D, highly lacto-fermented foods, foods that kill candida and keep my immune system strong, turkey gravy from bone stock, wild turkey with amino acids that will make my soul sing, and much more!

Unlike the Tibetan farmers living under Chinese communist oppression, I have access to it, I was able to buy it, and now I will be able to eat it because I am healthy enough to eat it, thank God! And with my friends/family! And the day after that I will feel like eating again, and eat!

Is 1500 words enough to express my thanks? Or 100,000 words? Or a million words? No.

But I will continue, while I continue to be able to breathe in and out, to try and get both the knowledge of these foods and access to these foods to as many human beings living on this planet as possible. Because the truth is: ALL human beings REQUIRE access to these foods FOR REAL HEALTH and the knowledge of that state of REAL HEALTH which is contained at websites like performancewithoutpain.com .

Kathy Pirtle has done a much clearer/better job at communicating this sacred knowledge than I to large numbers of people, and this site delivers two powerful vehicles of that transmission; one an extremely powerful eBook on how to permanently heal your acid reflux, and of course the classic printed book, Performance Without Pain, from which this website derives its name. Get a hold of these sources of information while you are able, for you and your loved ones, for the good of all sentient beings ASAP! You will live much longer, stand much taller, and act forever out of Gratitude for your new found life of high nutrient assimilation!

And someday–in those very same moments in which we all realize together that WE are the Masters of our own Health (and not some corporation, pharmaceutical company, or fast food restaurant), with all the knowledge of our ancestors boundlessly alive within us– as a result of that Immense Supernova of Gratitude-in-Action which is on its way and already happening, a FR** TIB-ET (and maybe even a fully free Ch*na, for that matter) will fully return to their traditional, nutrient dense foods.

Soaking grains and beans in acidulated water overnight–that is water with yogurt, kefir, vinegar or lemon juice–will prepare them for easier digestion. As an example, if you are serving oatmeal to your family in the morning, the night before, slightly warm the water required for the recipe in a pan and stir in some yogurt and the dry oatmeal and cover. Place the pan on top of your refrigerator. The next morning cook as usual. Make sure you add lots of butter or cream when serving as this will also greatly enhance the nutrient value. If you are preparing beans, cover them with warm water and stir in some yogurt or vinegar and let them soak for at least 12 hours, drain and cover again with water and cook as usual. Always serve beans with a meat and a fat so that your meal is nutrient-dense.

For nuts, you will want to make sure you start with “raw.” Unfortunately, except for pecans and walnuts, it is difficult to find truly raw nuts in the health food store. For peanuts and almonds, you will have to look online. Here’s a website that offers high quality organically grown raw nuts. http://www.livingtreecommunity.com/store2/products.asp?catid=17&gclid=CMzfreyipp4CFQjyDAod5×66nQ To prepare 1 pound of nuts, simply cover them with water and add 1 tablespoon of Celtic Sea salt and let them soak for about 8 hours. Drain and dehydrate in a dehydrator or place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper on the lowest setting in your oven for about 12 hours or until crispy.

Taking the time to prepare nuts, grains and beans will make them a wonderful addition to a nutrient-dense diet.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense, traditional foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

It is certain that as we choose to support foods because of their health-providing qualities we will naturally turn to foods that are not produced in this industrial system. However the integrity of this decision goes farther than this, because by choosing these kinds of foods, we are supporting the health of  the soil, the animals, the water, the air, and the economic stability of small family farms dedicated to bringing these high quality foods to our tables. For this utmost reverence given to the circle of life we can celebrate a true Thanksgiving.

For more information on a healing diet and building optimal health with traditional, nutrient-dense foods see http://performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

• Try to obtain a pastured turkey from a farm co-op as this meat is far superior to even an organic turkey and often no more expensive. The beauty of buying a wonderful pastured turkey is that the leftovers taste fresh for a long time as the fats in the meat do not go rancid as with commercial birds.
• Serve nutrient-dense butter–Raw butter from your co-op is best or Whole Foods has Organic Valley pastured butter in green foil wrappers and Kerry butter
• Use whole milk–preferably raw-pastured or unhomegenized, organic– and pastured butter for your mashed potatoes
• Serve your organic vegetables with lots of butter
• Make your own cranberry sauce–I posted a wonderful lacto-fermented cranberry chutney several days ago–see  http://performancewithoutpain.com/2009/11/21/great-holiday-recipe-for-traditionally-fermented-cranberry-chutney/
• Make your own pumpkin pie with high-quality organic ingredients

Your wonderful turkey has more gifts to offer as you can use the carcass to make a fantastic nutrient-dense bone broth soup. Cover the bones, fat and skin with water and put in a few tablespoons of vinegar. Simmer for about 12 hours and strain.  You will have a beautiful broth for a marvelous soup that you can freeze.

For more information on a healing diet and building optimal health with traditional,  nutrient-dense diet foods, see http://performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

As of late, a lot of folks I’ve run into seem to hold two predominating notions concerning diet (perhaps one more than the other in many populations of dietary thinkers): one is that raw veganism is the ultimate end-all of human diet, and the other is that cutting edge science is able to successfully dictate to us what we should eat based on accurate findings. I’d like to deal a little bit with both, although this could of course be an entire book (a book I happen to have written by the way, email me at paulchfs@gmail.com if you’re interested).

I myself used to be among the folks I describe above. I was a serious follower of Gabriel Cousens, David Wolfe, Victoras Kulvinskas, Anne Wigmore, and many of the other figure-head pioneers of the raw vegan movement. I almost even moved to Tree of Life in Arizona–Gabriel Cousens’ raw vegan retreat center–so I could live in the desert practicing shaktipat yoga, doing sweat lodges, and eating nothing but soaked and sprouted nuts, seeds, salads, etc. –the typical raw biogenic vegan diet. However, during my obsession with attempting to be a raw vegan (and I say attempting because it never did/could work for me!) the fact of the matter is: my health completely collapsed.

I trusted Cousens’ writings (i.e. “Conscious Eating”) because they seemed to present a merge of science and new age spiritual thinking about the Divine in a way which I felt was cozy and quite socially comfortable. It brought everything together into a unified ideology of community and a supposed return to “tribal” ways of doing things. And if I could just follow this ideology completely and 100% of the time, then I would finally heal my digestion and achieve the results Cousens’ scientific references and supposed sort-of-clinical observations seemed to describe. And yet, during this time my health completely collapsed. My gut was an absolute mess, and by the way: I had a serious sugar addiction (and I have since realized many vegetarians and vegans also have this problem, which makes perfect biochemical sense to me now since animal protein with its full complement of amino acids supports blood glucose regulation).

I’d like to point out something which I now realize in hind-sight, which I did not at the time, which I find rather interesting, and a very weak point of the supposed “new” age movement; that is that the “New Age” consistently identifies with indigenous elements, cultural, mystical, etc. and seems to be offering a sort of revival of archaic and/or tribal ways of doing things. In fact, it is not doing that in a dietary sense at all. And here is how I discovered that…

One fine day I came across a book by Weston A. Price called “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” Weston A. Price was a dentist in the 1930’s who was interested in why so many of his Western patients were suddenly getting more and more (exponentially more) cavities. He had this hunch that isolated tribal peoples (which he, in our current politically [quite] incorrect language referred to as “primitive”) might have better teeth. He spent a decade visiting nearly all of the remaining completely isolated tribal societies he could find on the planet, and their non-isolated relatives (the ones nearby near train tracks who had access to modern transportation and commerce, where they could get white sugar, white flour, and processed and packaged foods which had only recently been invented by industrialization).

He of course found, not unsurprisingly to me today, that the isolated counterparts of each anthro-genetic set of peoples which were not exposed to white flour, white sugar, still drank their milk raw, did NOT have access to modern medicine, often did not brush their teeth, still fermented their grains in a community grainery, lacto-fermented their raw veggies, drank raw unpasteurized milk, etc etc. –these peoples had always nearly ZERO dental cavities, space for their wisdom teeth to come in, better dental arch spaces, better mental health, easier childbearing, longer lives, no death from cancer, no allergies, and the list goes on and on. He cataloged all of this data as a true scientist does, with charts of very precise figures based on population gradients and detailed survey reports.

Of key significance to all of his findings, and *much to his disappointment*: among all of the indigenous tribes with these remarkably resilient states of bone, teeth, mental, and reproductive health (most notably), not ONE of them ate a completely vegetarian–and certainly not a VEGAN–diet. The nearest thing to it was the African Dinka peoples who, although they did eat mostly raw milk, eggs, and mostly cooked vegetables, still did eat fish every so often as they loved to dwell near water for this purpose. The Dinka stands out quite rarely in this regard, however. The neighboring Masai for instance, which had nearly the same number of cavities per population (almost zero, as with the Dinka), ate an extremely primal diet of raw milk and raw blood, both of which are extremely high in catabolic-supportive amino acids which support bone growth, muscle/ligament/tendon repair, and immune reconstitution.

And another major commonality to ALL of the tribes Dr. Price studied with these remarkable states of health and longevity were consuming saturated animal fat high in vitamin A and D, which of course flies squarely in the face of the current supposed “scientific” thinking of our day about fat and cholesterol–to further this discord, one of Price’s findings was that these cultures had literally zero presence of death from cardiac arrest–which shouldn’t have been a possible finding according to our current prevalent, supposedly “scientific” dictates concerning cholesterol.

Why have our current researchers and others wearing white lab coats working in expensive university labs kept this *very scientific* research of Dr. Price’s from the public? Just as a simple potential explanation: it doesn’t keep the funding coming–medical academia is thoroughly enmeshed in the industrial-pharmaceutical complex, and knows little (although it often attempts to purport otherwise) about nutrition.

Again, Weston Price was *very disappointed* that he didn’t find more vegetarian indigenous cultures with remarkable health.  He too, even in the 1930’s, was of the popular persuasion that vegetarianism, being more “ethical” would of course naturally be supported by his investigation into indigenous cultures. But this was not what the data supported. And today, the data still falls squarely against veganism (for instance, with extremely high levels of osteoporosis in the elderly vegan population, since veganism is low in bone building amino acids and fat-soluble vitamins that support calcium metabolism–not to mention how veganism fails to properly limit harmful raw fiber intake [see Konstantin Monastyrsky's truly cutting-edge research] and doesn’t provide enough fat altogether, and this is a giant subject on its own).

So, it’s interesting to me that everywhere we have a popular culture purporting to be part of a “new” age, consistently collectively claiming that it is supposedly reviving archaic or indigenous ways of doing things, when in fact the actual last recorded nutritional scientific observations (those of Dr. Weston Price) of archaic, indigenous societies are in direct contradiction with any semblance to this supposed “archaic revival”. We are what we eat, so the “new” age has certainly not succeeded at an archaic revival in the dietary sense, and I think that if it truly wants to be “new” then perhaps it could look more deeply and think farther outside the box in terms of exactly what the true archaic revival would really look like on an eating plane.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Paul Yeager

Here’s a wonderful holiday recipe for a traditionally fermented cranberry chutney.

Lacto-fermented cranberry chutney

* 3 cups of cranberries
* 1/2 cup of nuts (pecans was suggested in the recipe I found, we used hazelnuts)
* 1/2 cup of rapadura
* 2 teaspoons of salt
* 1/2 cup of whey (easy whey can be made by draining 2 cups of plain organic yogurt through a smooth dish towel or cheesecloth-the drained liquid is the whey)
* 1/2 cup of prune juice or other juice (I used apple juice)
* 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/2 teaspoon of cloves
* juice from 1 orange
* juice from 1 lemon
* 1/2 cup of raisins

Pulse all, except raisins, in food processor. Stir in raisins. Place ingredients in a 1 quart glass jar. Leave 1 inch room at the top of jar. Cover. Ferment 48 hours, then refrigerate. Serve with meat or poultry.

Usually the fruit ferments are good for 1-2 months.

For more information on healing and building health with traditional foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

First, most diets do not have adequate vitamins A and D from natural old fashioned foods like high quality cod liver oil (see www.greenpasture.org.) egg yolks and liver. Without these key nutrients, the body cannot absorb calcium or any other vitamins well.

Second our diets are low in vitamin K2, which is ample in foods from animals on pasture. Vitamin K2 acts like the mortar for the bricks of both vitamin A and D in putting calcium in the right places in the body, like the teeth and the bones and not in the arteries. With the corn feeding of our livestock, we have an entire population deficient in this vitamin.

Third, low fat diets do not support calcium absorption. Without traditional fats in the diet like butter, coconut oil and lard, we cannot utilize calcium properly.

Next, our diets lack the easy-to-digest traditional foods that are rich in calcium. Bone-broth soup and cultured raw dairy from grass-fed cows and goats are foods that were eaten for thousands of years, yet they largely disappeared from our diets with the industrialization of our food supply.

Finally, diets lacking the probiotic foods that support good digestion, will also hamper calcium utilization.

Unfortunately all the calcium supplements in the world will not make up for the nutritional building blocks available in real food–no matter how much they cost or how many commercials support that product!!

The key to  improving calcium absorption is eating a nutrient-dense, traditional diet. For more information see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

My favorite mantra is “Present moment–I am grateful.” May you be strengthened and enriched by each bite of life!

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutapain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

High-quality, naturally raised raw proteins like raw and cultured dairy, raw egg yolks, raw meats and fish are the highest in enzymes. However, eating cooked foods with high-enzyme fermented vegetables like unpasteurized sauerkraut, pickled beets and kimchee as well as cultured beverages like beet kvass, kombucha and lacto-fermented drinks also saves the body’s enzyme reserves.

Some raw foods  have anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors, and require special preparation to digest well. Nuts, seeds, grains and legumes all contain these difficult-to-digest elements in their raw form and need to be soaked in acidulated water to break down these components.

Our book, Performance without Pain, contains a wealth of information on high-enzyme foods, preparing cultured foods and the proper preparation of foods containing enzyme-inhibitors. It can get you started on understanding how to maximize the healing energy of your diet. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

When we look at both polio and small pox we will see the evidence for prevention through vaccine is very questionable. The death records from about a ten year span before both polio and small pox show that the numbers of people dying from these two diseases went down significantly. And when the vaccine was introduced with polio, the amount of people who contracted polio went up!! With small pox, the disease had also already gone down significantly before the vaccine was produced and the person who developed the vaccine reported years later that it was a failure! Measles was yet another illness that had declined by 98% between 1915 and 1958 just before the vaccine was introduced.

The other very serious problem with vaccines is that they have many toxic ingredients. Many of them still many still have thimerosal–which contains mercury. The adult flu vaccine still has this ingredient unless you ask for a “thimerosal-free” dose. Mercury in very small doses is extremely toxic. In fact, after a three hour exposure, mercury causes cell membrane damage and death in only “very tiny ” amounts. In many of today’s vaccines, aluminum–also toxic–is replacing mercury. It depletes minerals, targets the myelin tissue, can cause fatigue, numbness, paralysis etc.

With so many vaccines being developed today, there has never been a scientific study (double-blind, controlled) proving their efficacy! Yet, we are told that our children need to receive a record amount of vaccines throughout childhood! This is very disturbing. Luckily, many people are “going against the grain” and the entire Autism community has clear guidelines against vaccines for the health of children.

The following are websites to give you more information:
www.thinktwice.com
www.uninformedconsent.org
www.safeminds.org.
www.opednews.com
www.thimerosal-news.com

In the worldwide studies of 14 healthy cultures, Dr. Weston A. Price found that immunity to all disease was clearly through a nutrient-dense diet. He saw that “All disease is caused from malnourishment.” For more information about healing and building optimal health with traditional, nutrient-dense foods see www.perfromancewithoutpain.com.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

It’s no easy feat to resist the temptations of Standard American Diet at every turn, and running these thoughts through my head (and through my energy and heart) on occasion have really helped me return to my daily practice of eating according to nourishing principles, instead of sliding back into the “old way” of fast food, lousy restaurants, and inferior eating choices.

And eating in gratitude, aware of the immense fortune of being able to eat this way, and having that in perspective–I find this is the ultimate starting point for optimal digestion. I may often be eating nutrient dense, traditional food, but if I am not present to taste this food, which so few are able to have and eat, then it is not as nourishing.

On page 23 of “Peace is Every Step” in “Eating Mindfully,” Thich Nhat Hanh states:

“Eating a meal in mindfulness is an important practice. We turn off the TV, put down our newspaper, and work together for five or ten minutes, setting the table and finishing whatever needs to be done. During those few minutes, we can be very happy. When the food is on the table and everyone is seated, we practice breathing: ‘Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile,’ three times. We can recover ourselves completely after three breaths like this.”

Today I’d like to write about erosive gerd / acid reflux.

Just how erosive is erosive GERD? Is it really more erosive than nonerosive acid reflux? What defines it as more erosive? Is nonerosive gerd really *completely* nonerosive? Or is one just more erosive than the other? Just how advanced is modern science in making these kinds of distinctions? Well, I was interested in understanding the answers to these questions, so I started searching PubMed for some solid research literature.

Surprisingly like many things in modern science, I found the “most cutting-edge” answer I could find to be puzzlingly full of seemingly circular logic, with hordes of observations seeming to be made based on assumptions with little or no reference material. It surprises me that such studies even make it into PubMed, but then again, how scientific is science? Is science not based fundamentally on observations, or more acutely *our perceptions*?

For instance, Sir Isaac Newton and others found the acceleration rate of gravity to be quantifiable as 9.8 meters per second squared. He could throw an apple up into the air 10,000 times and predict with reasonable certainty that it was going to accelerate towards the earth at that rate. But then Einstein came along. And then Niels Bohr. And Schroedinger, etc. They–and then we (by going to space, studying eclipses, etc.)–discovered that that “law” had only been the result of living within the confines of our earth’s gravitational field–it still of course had an application, but it wasn’t *completely true* everywhere, all the time.

And such is HARDLY the case concerning distinctions such as those between erosive gerd and nonerosive gerd–here we’ll find that the conclusion simply completely contradicts the initial assumptions. At least with Newton, he started out with the “hunch” that there was something uniform about gravity and then found out he was pretty much right. Here we start out with the assumption that erosive gerd is more erosive than nonerosive gerd (or better yet that erosive gerd is just plain erosive and nonerosive isn’t) but we seem to find out, well… I won’t spoil it just yet. I’m just going to copy-paste the study I found below:

”

Relevance of ineffective esophageal motility with erosive and nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Foroutan M, Doust HM, Jodeiri B, Derakhshan F, Mohaghegh H, Mousapour H, Poursaadati S, Kiarudi MY, Zali M.

Department of Gastroenterology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. swt_f@yahoo.com

”

Now wait a minute. The study says at the top “Since erosive GERD is a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD, it may be associated with IEM, which delays esophageal clearance.” But WHY is erosive GERD a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD?! The study just assumed that was known right off the bat! And then after making such assumptions, the study actually winds up proving that this IEM (“ineffective esophageal motility”) is actually only a little more than 10% more prevalent in the erosive gerd control group?! So first we have an assumption that erosive gerd is more “erosive” than nonerosive gerd, and then we have evidence to show that nonerosive gerd is actually ALMOST AS EROSIVE AS EROSIVE GERD!

This is entirely broken circular logic!

Here’s why I suspect the logic is broken: because as the study clearly provides statistics to support (which is the statistic showing that 28.3% of the supposedly nonerosive gerd group HAD “ineffective esophageal motility” aka EROSION), nonerosive GERD is actually VERY EROSIVE!

And what would happen if that many more people with gerd (which we know from Kathy and John Turner’s ebook on a true gerd natural remedy make up 1 in 5 people in the population at large) were to be told by doctors that their “plain ol’ not-a-big-deal gerd” (which they’re currently happy swallowing a purple pill for) is in fact EROSIVE?

They would think “woah, this is a serious disease!” And guess what? This IS ALREADY a serious disease, because as the above study clearly proves, even nonerosive gerd is erosive.

So what can we do about this erosion, both of our GI tracts and of our ability to think clearly (with its attempted subversion by the poor logic in studies such as that above, AND by inferior food choices)? This is another reason many doctors might not want folks to think their gerd is creating erosion, because what we CAN do is change our diets.

We can start eating nutrient-dense, traditional foods consisting of the building blocks of optimal digestion and optimal assimilation, these being the true cornerstones of good health all around. These foods are the foods that countless ancestors of traditional isolated peoples have been eating for millenia: saturated animal fats high in cholesterol and therefore GOOD, bone-broth from cartilaginous and marrow-rich bones with its high content of colloidal stomach-acid-ATTRACTING (yes, that’s GOOD for gerd! not bad!) properties, truly lacto-fermented foods with its high content of probiotics, enzymes, and lactic acid, plenty of high-quality protein from pastured animals, and a wide array of plant-based vitamins and minerals from seasonally-attuned veggies like squash, zucchini, collards, kale, etc.

We can make these changes now, regardless of whether our acid reflux has been labeled erosive or nonerosive–which as we have seen, is largely a misnomer anyhow, possibly even designed simply to keep people thinking their nonerosive gerd is no big deal.

Kathy asked me to do a little writing on the blog in her stead, as a result of her immense dedication to as-close-to-daily-as-possible blog writing. I have to say, in all my years of reading–and then developing–blogs of various sorts, I have NEVER in my almost 20 or so years of life on the Internet seen *anyone* write such high-quality material on such a constant basis, and on such an important issue as this one.

So, when she asked me to be her substitute blog writer, I was greatly humbled and made sure to tell her, as I am telling you, that I am not the kind of writer she is, but that I would try my best to measure up. However, having gone through quite a bit of health crisis and resulting healing crises of my own, I do feel qualified to write on a few things (just not as elegantly and clearly), so I went ahead and created myself another administrative blog account named paulchfs–chfs stands for Certified Healing Foods Specialist by the way–and so here I am.

I’ve learned from Kathy and others some remarkable things about acid reflux, and this has been an incredible learning curve for me, not only because I know what she and others are saying is strikingly true about powerful, traditional, nutrient-dense foods healing acid reflux–from first hand experience–but also because the new things she keeps telling me about this disease make me realize that to some very degree, I am very much STILL healing from it!

Not only that, but I think I, just like the rest of society to some degree, tend to disregard many of the facets of this disease as “normal” when such a state of health is in fact, not normal at all. Kathy’s work continues to guide me in this way.

One thing that continues to startle me is that 1 in 5 people have acid reflux disease; ONE IN FIVE. Go back and read that again, because it means there’s a one in five chance you have acid reflux disease! That’s just a “delicious hors d’ouevre” of the plethora of startling acid reflux facts and statistics Kathy’s got around. Another is that last year there were 470,000 hospitalizations and 1.9 million visits to the emergency room for this illness.

The last one doesn’t startle me quite as much because I am actually amongst those people; just three or four years ago, I went to the emergency room with this illness! My acid reflux had turned into what the ER doctor labeled “acute gastritis” and he just told me I had too much stress and to go home and take it easy. Let me tell you, there’s a lot more to this disease than “go home and take it easy.” I mean sure, the life of a professional violinist and computer coder geek is stressful, but if there are 1.9 million visits to the ER over this thing, than that obviously isn’t a complete explanation!

Thankfully, I started talking to people like Kathy more than ER doctors. Kathy has enlightened me also to the fact that asthma and ear infections are a symptom of gerd, and all throughout my childhood I suffered from chronic ear infections and asthma! (By the way. all of this incredible information and more, along with what kind of menu of foods for gerd to have on a regular basis, will soon be able to be found in her ebook via the previous link.)

In relation to acid reflux and these symptoms of it I now know about, my health-life begins to make a lot of sense. Basically, I realize now that I had BAD acid reflux all my life until, about five years ago, I found out about and started constantly consuming traditional foods like fermented cod liver oil, bone broth from cartilaginous and marrow bones from pastured animals, lacto-fermented sauerkraut and other fermented foods (fermented the way our great-great-grandparents made things like this, not just jars of pickles from off the store shelf), and powerful healing fermented drinks like beet kvass and kombucha.

Also incremental to healing my acid reflux was the fact that I realized, with Kathy’s help and the help of Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s books and the Weston A. Price Foundation, that saturated animal fat is GOOD FOR ME! That’s a lengthy subject all on its own, and for another post.

By now you might be wondering OKAY OKAY so what might acid reflux and bad breath have in common? Well get this: there are approximately 20 people a day google-searching for “gerd bad breath” –advertisers are willing to pay OVER a dollar per click to get potentially interested buyers to find them via their google search for “gerd bad breath” (oh, being a web developer is fun stuff)!

Along with my asthma and chronic ear infections, all my life prior to beginning to heal my gerd/acid reflux, is it possible that this has been another of my symptoms as well?! My mother and sister have complained of my bad breath literally ALL my life, until the complaints began to finally sizzle out STARTING five years ago when I got on traditional foods and began to heal my gut.

And that is what acid reflux and bad breath seem to have in common: they are both results of poor digestion and malnourishment. Both occurred all MY life UNTIL I began to fix my digestion with traditional foods in the ways that Kathy Pirtle eBook describes. This ebook also described chronic belching and flatulence as a symptom of this disease, and these are things that I’m not afraid to admit largely healed as well when I stopped eating Standard American Diet and ultimately switched to a traditional foods, Weston Price diet.

And also admittedly, these things (chronic belching, flatulence, and bad breath) are things that will come back if I begin to fall off the wagon (i.e. I love to eat Thai food out at restaurants out on occasion, but I know that if I do, these signs–and eventually gerd itself–will return since my digestion is “sliding backwards”). And now I know I’m not alone on my thinking that gerd and bad breath have something to do with each other–I’m simply amongst a statistic to add to Kathy’s incredible acid reflux statistic-heap: 20 people a day are google searching for gerd bad breath! That’s 20 * 365 = 7300 people a year! Coincidence?

Ah, the beauty of the Internet.

Ciao, Paul

Historically, cultures that consumed soy, did so by a long fermentation preparation as in miso, natto or tempeh. (See www.southrivermiso.com) This important traditional process breaks down the difficult-to-digest phytates and enzyme inhibitors. Additionally, cultures who consumed soy, did so in small quantities and most often with meat or fish.

Commercial soy products are made from unfermented soy or refined protein iosolates that are highly processed at very high temperatures, thus making the proteins indigestible. They are also high in mineral blocking phytates, thyroid-depressing phytoestrogens and enzyme inhibitors that hamper digestion and may be a factor in cancer. Soy in infant formulas have caused many problems for the long-term health of growing children.

The book, The Whole Soy Story, by Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, CCN, PhD, is a superb guide to the enormous problems with the modern consumption of soy.

The best way to build health is to eat a diet rich in nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest traditional foods.

For more information see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Chronic inflammation is a frightening condition as pain may be present even when you have done very little and may be excruciating if you do the slightest bit more. It often does not go away–even with rest– and it can haunt you day and night.It also often moves from one area to another and you can end up literally “chasing” the pain in your physical therapy sessions to no avail–for just as you solve the problem in one area, another area becomes sore.

Ongoing inflammation cannot be solved permanently with physical therapy–sorry–as this kind of inflammation is systemic. If you don’t look at the “why” deeply, you will continue to suffer and this symptom may be just the start of more serious health problems down the line.

Systemic inflammation often is a sign of poor digestion and “leaky gut syndrome.” Leaky gut is most often caused from eating difficult-to-digest, nutrient-poor foods that create intestinal flora imbalances like Candida overgrowth. With poor gut flora or “gut dysbiosis,”  intestinal damage is likely. When the intestinal tract becomes damaged, undigested proteins can “leak” through the intestinal wall, causing an immune system response and inflammatory chemicals to constantly circulate throughout the body.

Permanent healing is possible if you change your diet to focus on easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense, traditional foods that will heal the intestinal tract and build optimal health. Although at first this may seem like a daunting task, the benefits far outweigh the difficulty. You have spent your entire life dedicated to top performance, so isn’t your future worth the care that it took for you to come this far? Remember–”Your health is your wealth!”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Myths & Truths About Nutrition

Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products.

Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNI)

Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries.

Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195)

Myth: Vegetarianism is healthy.

Truth: The annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%) (Am J Clin Nutr 1982 36:873)

Myth: Vitamin B₁₂ can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and soy products.

Truth: Vitamin B₁₂ is not absorbed from plant sources. Modern soy products increase the body’s need for B₁₂. (Soybeans: Chemistry & Technology Vol 1 1972)

Myth: For good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl.

Truth: The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. (Circulation 1992 86:3:1026-1029)

Myth: Animal fats cause cancer and heart disease.

Truth: Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils. (Fed Proc July 1978 37:2215)

Myth: Children benefit from a low-fat diet.

Truth: Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive & learning disabilities. (Food Chem News 10/3/94)

Myth: A low-fat diet will make you “feel better . . . and increase your joy of living.”

Truth: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide. (Lancet 3/21/92 v339)

Myth: To avoid heart disease, we should use margarine instead of butter.

Truth: Margarine eaters have twice the rate of heart disease as butter eaters. (Nutrition Week 3/22/91 21:12)

Myth: Americans do not consume enough essential fatty acids.

Truth: Americans consume far too much of one kind of EFA (omega-6 EFAs found in most polyunsaturated vegetable oils) but not enough of another kind of EFA (omega-3 EFAs found in fish, fish oils, eggs from properly fed chickens, dark green vegetables and herbs, and oils from certain seeds such as flax and chia, nuts such as walnuts and in small amounts in all whole grains.) (Am J Clin Nutr 1991 54:438-63)

Myth: A vegetarian diet will protect you against atherosclerosis.

Truth: The International Atherosclerosis Project found that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters. (Lab Invest 1968 18:498)

Myth: Low-fat diets prevent breast cancer.

Truth: A recent study found that women on very low-fat diets (less than 20%) had the same rate of breast cancer as women who consumed large amounts of fat. (NEJM 2/8/96)

Myth: The “cave man diet” was low in fat.

Truth: Throughout the world, primitive peoples sought out and consumed fat from fish and shellfish, water fowl, sea mammals, land birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, bears, dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, game, eggs, nuts and milk products. (Abrams, Food & Evolution 1987)

Myth: Coconut oil causes heart disease.

Truth: When coconut oil was fed as 7% of energy to patients recovering from heart attacks, the patients had greater improvement compared to untreated controls, and no difference compared to patents treated with corn or safflower oils. Populations that consume coconut oil have low rates of heart disease. Coconut oil may also be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics. (JAMA 1967 202:1119-1123; Am J Clin Nutr 1981 34:1552)

Myth: Saturated fats inhibit production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Saturated fats actually improve the production of all prostaglandins by facilitating the conversion of essential fatty acids. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)

Myth: Arachidonic acid in foods like liver, butter and egg yolks causes production of “bad” inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Series 2 prostaglandins that the body makes from arachidonic acid both encourage and inhibit inflammation under appropriate circumstances. Arachidonic acid is vital for the function of the brain and nervous system. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)

Myth: Beef causes colon cancer

Truth: Argentina, with higher beef consumption, has lower rates of colon cancer than the US. Mormons have lower rates of colon cancer than vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists (Cancer Res 35:3513 1975)

© 1999 Weston A. Price Foundation All Rights Reserved.

For more information on building optimal with nutrient-dense foods and a healing diet, see www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

In my 30’s, I had a lot of trouble with muscle and tendon stiffness. Without a daily yoga regime, I felt like my arms, back and fingers were stuck. In my 40’s when I became deathly ill with a digestive disorder resulting from years of eating a high-fiber/low-fat “healthy diet” and turned to easy-to-digest, traditional, nutrient-dense foods to heal, I noticed that eventually all of my stiffness melted away. So–in my 50’s I am more flexible than ever before!

Weston A. Price’s research on healthy cultures worldwide determined the nutritional elements that are necessary for optimal health. Most people today are following a high-fiber/low-fat diet thinking that this is healthy. However, this kind of diet was not even close to the kind of diets that Price found in optimally healthy populations. To the contrary, all 14 healthy cultures, though their diets were all different, consumed ample traditional fats and nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest foods that provided over 10 times the amount of vitamin A and D  and 30 times the amount of other vitamins compared to diets in the US. Price found that without adequate traditional fat (butter, cream, lard, coconut oil) and Vitamin A and D  from natural sources in the diet, you could not absorb the nutrients in your foods–no matter how good the diet.

Below are some of the basic elements of a good diet:

• Nutrient-dense foods such as meats, poultry, eggs and dairy from animals eating their natural diets and traditionally made bone broth soups
• Foods that help the digestive system function properly and promote good intestinal flora for optimal nutrient absorption.  Examples of these are old fashioned probiotic, high-enzyme  foods include cultured dairy–whole fat kefir and yogurt; lacto-fermented vegetables–homemade sauerkraut and pickled beets and cultured drinks like kombucha and beet kvass.
• Third, traditional fats like butter, cream and coconut oil which help with nutrient absorption, cell integrity and hormone function.
• Fourth, adequate vitamin A and D from natural sources like cod liver oil, egg yolks and liver also for nutrient absorption

For more information on traditional, nutrient-dense foods for optimal health and a healing diet see www. performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Before refrigeration, people drank beverages that were much more hydrating, nutritious and helpful to digestion. Fermented drinks like kombucha, beet kvass, and countless other lacto-fermented drinks were consumed that were high in nutrients, enzymes and probiotics. Cultured dairy like yogurt and kefir were a mainstay of the diet as were bone broth and bone broth soups–all of which are loaded with health benefits.

You may also be surprised to learn that low-fat diets tend to make people thirsty. Water is a byproduct of fat digestion–so being thirsty all the time may indicate that your body needs more traditional fats. Traditional fats are critical to nutrient absorption and they offer you a natural source of hydration at a much deeper cellular level.

As a guidline, daily total liquid consumption–including foods and beverages–should equal about 8 cups. By adding more fermented and cultured beverages and bone broth to your daily diet, you will be building your health with nutrient-density.

Our book, Performance without Pain, has a wealth of recipes for broths, fermented and cultured beverages. For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Butter and cream were never avoided for thousands of years. Heart disease was almost never heard of before 1920. In fact, in the 1920’s a machine was developed that would test a person’s heart health. This invention was considered fairly useless!

It was only with the industrialization of food and the corn feeding of livestock, that there was a push to make a profit with vegetable oils and demonize traditional fats. Thus the Framingham study was launched, which tried to determine that as cholesterol levels rose, there was a higher incidence in heart disease. Unfortunately, the study results were tainted, and  if read accurately, didn’t show any change in heart disease rate with higher cholesterol. Since then, billions of dollars have been put into more flawed research to try to eek out a positive result that cholesterol is the culprit! It is only when trans-fats are used that there is a rise in heart disease–wonder of wonders!!! What are trans-fats made of?—-vegetable oil!

So enjoy butter and cream–it’s good for you–especially if it comes from pastured animals!! As we move back to nutrient-dense, traditional foods to heal and nourish our bodies and souls, let us look to the past–to those who have shown us how a passion for these foods can fill our lives with zest and sparkle–a true sign that we are well and whole and that we will have the nutritional ingredients for a life well-lived as we fulfill our dreams.

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

It’s very easy to make your own yogurt and kefir with a good source of whole raw milk–see www.realmilk.com If you cannot obtain that, you can use a high quality whole organic milk–preferably unhomogenized. You can obtain fantastic cultures from www.bodyecology.com. Just follow the instructions on the package. Our book, Performance without Pain, has recipes as well.

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Today, raw milk with all its healing benefits is becoming more and more available through the cow-share program, the Weston A. Price Foundation and www.realmilk.com.

The trend of pasteurization only became necessary when the cows were taken off pasture and given foods that were not appropriate for their species. Giving cows unnatural food became a practice in the 1800’s in the US when whiskey distilleries housed cows and fed them the waste–called slop–from the distillation process. This tainted milk was sold to people on the east coast for nearly 100 years and caused the highest infant mortality rate ever seen. Pasteurization became the solution to selling this tainted milk. Sadly,  pasteurization became the rule. And with the industrial farming industry practices of today, commercial milk must be pasteurized.

However, milk for thousands of years was considered a mainstay of the diet for cultures throughout the world. It was so revered that Thomas Jefferson declared it a matter of national security and worked to make sure that cows were brought safely from England to the United States. In fact, in the early 1900’s, at the Mayo Clinic, the “milk cure” was used for healing many illnesses. Here is an interesting article written by Dr. Ron Schmid, who wrote the important book, The Untold Story of Milk, (pub. by New Trends):

{NATIVE NUTRITION}

Real Milk Cures Many Diseases

by realmilk.com

The following is an edited version of an article by Dr. J. R. Crewe, of the Mayo Foundation, forerunner of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, published in Certified Milk Magazine, January 1929. We are grateful to Dr. Ron Schmid, ND of Middlebury, CT for unearthing this fascinating piece. The “Milk Cure” was the subject of at least two books by other authors, written subsequently to Dr. Crewe’s work. The milk used was, in all cases, the only kind of milk available in those days—raw milk from pasture fed cows, rich in butterfat. The treatment is a combination of detoxifying fast and nutrient-dense feeding. Note that Crewe quotes William Osler, author of a standard medical textbook of the day. Thus, this protocol was an orthodox, accepted therapy in the early 1900s. Today the Mayo Clinic provides surgery and drug treatments, but nothing as efficacious and elegant as the Milk Cure. (To find out about Raw Milk in Australia contact Real Milk Australia – Ed)

For fifteen years the writer has employed the certified milk treatment in various diseases and during the past ten he had a small sanitarium devoted principally to this treatment. The results obtained in various types of disease have been so uniformly excellent that one’s conception of disease and its alleviation is necessarily changed. The method itself is so simple that it does not greatly interest most doctors and the main stimulus for its use is from the patients themselves.

To cure disease we should seek to improve elimination, to make better blood and more blood, to build up the body resistance. The method used tends to accomplish these things. Blood conditions rapidly improve and the general condition and resistance is built up and recovery follows.

In several instances, Osler (Principles and Practices of Medicine, by William Osler, MD eighth edition) speaks of milk as being nothing more than white blood. Milk resembles blood closely and is a useful agent for improving and making new and better blood. Blood is the chief agent of metabolism. Milk is recognized in medical literature almost exclusively as a useful food and is admitted to be a complete food.

The therapy is simple. The patients are put at rest in bed and are given at half hour intervals small quantities of milk, totalling from five to ten quarts of milk a day. Most patients are started on three or four quarts of milk a day and this is usually increased by a pint a day. Diaphoresis (copious perspiration) is stimulated by hot baths and hot packs and heat in other forms. A daily enema is given.

The treatment is used in many chronic conditions but chiefly in tuberculosis, diseases of the nervous system, cardiovascular and renal conditions, hypertension, and in patients who are underweight, run-down, etc. Striking results are seen in diseases of the heart and kidneys and high blood pressure. In cases in which there is marked edema, the results obtained are surprisingly marked. This is especially striking because so-called dropsy has never been treated with large quantities of fluid. With all medication withdrawn, one case lost twenty-six pounds in six days, huge edema disappearing from the abdomen and legs, with great relief to the patient. No cathartics or diuretics were given. This property of milk in edema has been noted in both cardiac and renal cases.

Patients with cardiac disease respond splendidly without medication. In patients who have been taking digitalis and other stimulants, the drugs are withdrawn. High blood pressure patients respond splendidly and the results in most instances are quite lasting. The treatment has been used successfully in obesity without other alimentation. One patient reduced from 325 pounds to 284 in two weeks, on four quarts of milk a day, while her blood pressure was reduced from 220 to 170. Some extremely satisfying results have been obtained in a few cases of diabetics.

When sick people are limited to a diet containing an excess of vitamins and all the elements necessary to growth and maintenance, which are available in milk, they recover rapidly without the use of drugs and without bringing to bear all the complicated weapons of modern medicine.

Under the head of Treatment in Chronic Gastritis, Osler has said, “A rigid milk diet should be tried” (Principles and Practices of Medicine, by William Osler, M.D., eighth edition). And quoting from George Cheyne, he wrote, “Milk and sweet sound blood differ in nothing but color: milk is blood.” Under the heading of treatment in many diseases, it was true that he had little to say about drugs but did say a good deal about diet and particularly as in most every instance he recommended large quantities of milk.

Under chronic Bright’s disease (p 704) he says, “Milk or buttermilk should constitute for a time, the chief article of food.” Under treatment of cancer of stomach (p 505), he says many patients do best on milk alone. Under treatment of rheumatic fever (p 378), he says, “Milk is the most suitable diet.” With Olser as a background, one need not hesitate to go a bit farther. In fact, practically all medical men are agreed as to the value of milk as a food, and as an important part of the diet in the treatment of many diseases. But as the chief remedy in the treatment of disease, it is seldom used.

For more than 16 years I have conducted a small sanitarium where milk is used almost exclusively in the treatment of various diseases. The results have been so regularly satisfactory that I have naturally become enthusiastic and interested in this method of treating disease. We used good Guernsey milk, equal to 700 calories to the quart.

Interestingly, diseases that have no similarity respond equally to this treatment. For instance, psoriasis clears up beautifully. The improvement in tuberculosis or nephritis is equally interesting but there is no similarity in these diseases. I once heard a very distinguished medical man discussing a case of psoriasis. He said, “This was the worst case of psoriasis I have ever seen. This boy was literally covered from head to foot with scales. We put this boy on a milk diet and in less than a month he had a skin like a baby’s.” To me, this means that there was evidently some nutritive substance or vitamin or glandular secretion lacking, that was furnished by the milk.

It is well known that there is no time in the life of practically any mammal, but especially of the human, when the body is so beautiful and perfect as during the period when milk is the only food. It will be admitted that there is no period in life when the body is so perfect as in infancy, the infant being fed on milk from a healthy mother.

The Arabs are said (Encyclopedia Brittanica) to be the finest race, physically, in the world. Their diet consists mostly of milk and milk products with fruits and vegetables, and some meat.

You are all familiar with the writings of Colonel McCarrison, a medical officer in the British Army. He tells us that for nine years he was stationed in India in a district in the Himalayan Mountains. He said that the natives were very fine physically, that they retained a youthful appearance to advanced age and lived long and that they were very fertile. During the nine years of his residence there he saw practically no disease, no cases of malignancy or of abdominal disease. The diet of these people was simple and consisted principally of vegetables and fruits and milk and milk products.

Steffanson wrote most interestingly of the Eskimo, who, when uncontaminated by civilized conditions were hardy and robust. Their diet of course was almost entirely of meat and fish. He tells us, however, that the habits of meat-eating people are similar to those of carnivorous animals. The wolf first attacks the heart and gets the blood and later eats the glandular organs and viscera, leaving the muscle meats till the last. The Eskimo does the same thing.

During one expedition Mr. Steffanson and party started on a nine months’ trip over the Arctic ice with only one day’s provisions. All previous Arctic explorers had said that civilized men could not live in the Arctic regions without bringing in their supplies. Mr. Steffanson and his party, during the nine months, were almost never without an abundance of food, and much of it was eaten frozen and raw. I wish to show from Steffanson’s experience, first, that it is possible for people to be robust and maintain good health on various types of food of limited variety. That the condition common to all types of diet is, that much of the food is eaten raw. I wish to say here that our very excellent results obtained in the treatment of disease were had with uncooked food and raw milk.

The experience of seeing many cases of illness improve rapidly on a diet of raw milk has suggested more and more the feeling that much of modern disease is due to an increasing departure from simple methods of preparing plain foods. The treatment of various diseases over a period of 18 years with a practically exclusive milk diet has convinced me personally that the most important single factor in the cause of disease and in the resistance to disease is food. I have seen so many instances of the rapid and marked response to this form of treatment that nothing could make me believe this is not so.

We have often seen most satisfactory results in the treatment of anemia, including pernicious anemia, on a milk diet. I have repeatedly seen a marked reduction in the size of simple and toxic thyroid, with improvement in the symptoms of the toxic one. In prostatic diseases and associated conditions, this treatment will achieve rapid and marked improvement in the infection and in the reduction of the gland and lessening of obstruction. A professor of surgery in one of our state universities once said to me, “Since I have used your method in preparing prostate cases, I have had most excellent results and no mortality.” I replied that if he had continued the treatment a little longer, he would not need to operate. All infections of the urinary tract are greatly improved by this treatment.

An old friend of mine, a woodworker, aged 74, had a marked heart lesion and complete prostatic obstruction, so that it was necessary to use a permanent catheter. He had been taking digitalis but this was discontinued, and he received no medication of any kind. The prostate was very large and the residual urine very foul. His recovery has been rapid, and he has been able to work since that time and is now in very good health at 77 years of age. Another local man was treated six years ago for a severe chronic winter cough and prostatic disease, which necessitated his getting up many times at night. He volunteered the information a few days ago that he had no more trouble with any illness since that time.

Indeed we had a number of patients who took the treatment for “beauty treatment.” The tissues become firmer and the general appearance is markedly improved.One patient with very advanced cardiac and nephritic disease lost over thirty pounds of edema in six weeks. One would expect the large quantities of fluid would increase the edema but the above experience has been repeated many times in lesser degrees.

Hypertension responds with equal gratification. The blood pressure improves rapidly. I have never seen such rapid and lasting results by any other method. One of the patients lived almost exclusively on milk for more than three years.

About ten years ago a very sick man came to the Sanitarium suffering from a severe cystitis and nephritis. He was a diabetic. As milk contains about five percent milk sugar, it was feared that he could not manage this amount of sugar. But he did manage it, and improved in every way and in eight weeks was sugar free. My experience with milk diet in diabetes has been limited, but very interesting. These few patients, only seven or eight, have been much pleased with the results. Insulin was used for a time in some of the cases. They all became sugar free, or nearly so, after from four to ten weeks. From the fact that these patients were able to use a much more liberal diet than diabetics usually can take (after the treatment), it would seem to indicate that at least a partial regeneration of the pancreas is not impossible.

Recently I received a letter from a soldier who was confined in a government hospital in Arizona (for tuberculosis). He said a former patient of mine had induced him to try this method. He said that he had done so well that a number of the men were also attempting it and he had written for more definite instructions. He also said that the patients had to buy their own milk and received no encouragement from the hospital authorities.

There is a large class of patients who are ill but in whom no definite organic lesion can be found. These patients are often underweight. They may consume a fairly large amount of food but they do not gain in weight or strength. These patients do respond admirably to our system of large quantities of milk.

The chief fault of the treatment is that it is too simple. Patients attempt to do it at home, but there are many pitfalls, and it does not appeal to the modern medical man.

About the Author…

Real milk comes from real cows that eat real cow food. It contains no additives, is not pasturized or homogenized nor is it fed to humans skimmed. Real Milk can save Family Farms and the health of many millions of people.. Join a campaign for Real Milk. A project of The Weston A. Price Foundation For international Real Milk Activism go to the the Weston A Price Foundation’s Real Milk Site.

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Bone broth is one of the easiest foods to digest. It is loaded with a wide array of easy-to-assimilate critical nutrients like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, cartilage, marrow, amino acids and vitamins. The cartilage in broth will help you heal your own cartilage. Bone broths are also rich in gelatin, which can aid digestion and help to heal the intestinal tract.

In today’s world where everyone seems to have calcium and other nutrient deficiencies, good old-fashioned bone broth is the form of these nutrients that we can best utilize.

Bone broth can be made from chicken, fish or beef bones (for beef and chicken, pastured is best–free-range, organic is next best. For fish–wild-caught.) The most important thing is to add a little vinegar or wine to the water when simmering the bones as it pulls  the nutrients out of the bones and into the broth. Here is a wonderful bone broth soup recipe made from beef bones.

Rich Beef and Vegetable Bone Broth Soup

1 oxtail
1 knuckle bone
several marrow bones
several soup bones
2 T. vinegar
1-2 lb. stew meat
2 -3 large onions-chopped
4 large carrots-sliced
4 large beets-sliced
1/4 lb. Swiss chard-chopped
1 large bunch of parsley-chopped
other vegetables of your choice
2 cups dry red wine
filtered water to cover bones
Celtic Sea Salt to taste

In a large stock pot or crock pot, take the bones and cover them with water and put in the vinegar. Cover the pot and let the water come to a boil. Turn to simmer. When the meat from the soup bones and oxtail is cooked, take the meat off these bones and set aside in the refrigerator. Put bones back into same pot and continue simmering for about 24-36 hours!! (This is how you get nutrient-rich broth.) You may have to add water from time to time. After 24-36 hours, strain the broth and skim off the fat. Add the wine, meat from the bones, stew meat and vegetables. Simmer for about 2 hours. Salt to taste. (For easy lunches take a thermos of soup! Never heat in the microwave–it destroys the nutrients.)

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathyrne Pirtle

When the diet is high in difficult-to-digest foods like high-fiber, complex carbohydrate and processed foods or sugar, digestion can slow down and cause an overgrowth of candida in both the stomach and the intestinal tract. The byproduct of sugars broken down by yeast (candida) is alcohol and acetaldehyde. The byproduct of poorly digested gluteomorphine protein from gluten grains is a morphine-like chemical. Need I say more! That alcohol and morphine would affect both the mood and the ability to concentrate even in small amounts is obvious. Acetaldehyde will bind itself to proteins we consume and make their nutrients unavailable to the body. Additionally, these foods become very addictive because of the chemicals they produce under these circumstances.

Therefore–changing your diet to foods that are easy-to-digest and nutrient rich is the best way to insure that your body and mind are able to function at peak performance.

Optimal digestion requires certain components.

• The first is good intestinal flora, which helps us to break down our foods and keep the intestinal walls and villi functioning well for optimal nutrient absorption. Foods that enhance good gut flora are old fashioned probiotic, high-enzyme  foods like cultured dairy–whole fat kefir and yogurt; lacto-fermented vegetables–homemade sauerkraut and pickled beets and cultured drinks like kombucha and beet kvass.
• Second, a diet rich in nutrient-dense foods such as meats, poultry, eggs and dairy from animals eating their natural diets and traditionally made bone broth soups
• Third, a diet that includes traditional fats like butter, cream and coconut oil which help with nutrient absorption, cell integrity and hormone function.
• Fourth, adequate vitamin A and D from natural sources like cod liver oil, egg yolks and liver also for nutrient absorption

For more information on healing and building optimal health with nutrient-dense, traditional foods, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

An overabundance of omega-6 fatty acids can sometimes be a factor in inflammation as it may cause an imbalance in the production of important hormones called prostaglandins. Because of this, many people turn to omega-3-rich fish oil supplements like salmon oil. These are beneficial, but when you take a high quality cod-liver oil you will not only get the omega-3 fatty acids, but you will also get both vitamins A and D, which are critical to nutrient absorption. Dr. Weston A. Price’s research of healthy populations worldwide found that these cultures consumed 10 times the amount of vitamin A and D compared to diets of his patients in the US–in the 1930s! So that figure now would be much higher today considering how depleted our food supply has become.

Unfortunately, commercial cod liver oil is not the  always the best choice, as the natural vitamin A and D has been removed in processing and a synthetic version of these vitamins is put back. The Weston A. Price Foundation recommends fermented cod liver oil from www.greenpasture.org as an excellent choice for this supplement. It is the only cod liver oil in the world that is  made in a traditional way. It is also much more dense in vitamin A and D than commercial brands so the dose is much smaller.

Cod liver oil has been recorded as being an elixir for good health by cultures all over the world as far back as in the Roman empire. Even your great-grandmother took cod liver oil! So take your cod liver oil!!

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

• Beans
• Blueberries
• Broccoli
• Oats
• Oranges
• Pumpkin
• Salmon
• Soy
• Spinach
• Tea (green or black)]
• Tomatoes
• Turkey
• Walnuts
• Yogurt

This uninspiring list reflects the current establishment “angels” (anti-oxidants and omega-3 fatty acids) and “demons” (saturated fats and animal foods). Unfortunately, a diet containing only these foods is a fast track to nutritional deficiencies.

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see  www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

• Butter from grass-fed cows (preferably raw)
• Oysters
• Liver from grass-fed animals
• Eggs from pastured hens
• Cod-liver oil
• Fish eggs
• Whole raw milk from grass-fed cows
• Bone broth
• Wild-caught shrimp
• Wild-caught salmon
• Whole milk yogurt or kefir from grass-fed cows
• Beef from grass-fed steers
• Traditionally prepared sauerkraut (homemade, not pasteurized)
• Organic beets, beet kvass, traditionally prepared pickled beets (homemade, not pasteurized)

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods, see our website at www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Next, it makes sense to choose proteins that are easy-to-digest so that the nutrients that they contain are available to the body, which was another aspect of the work that Dr. Price did. When he sought to find cultures of people that had perfect health, he was hoping that he would find one that was vegetarian as he believed in the principle of vegetarianism. Unfortunately, he was very disappointed to find that cultures whose protein sources were from plants displayed degenerative conditions. This is because proteins from legumes, nuts and seeds are difficult to digest and do not have the nutrient-density of animal foods as they do not have the full array of amino acids.

As you can also imagine, fractionated proteins like “whey protein” and other protein powders are highly processed, difficult to digest and are therefore poor choices for nutrient-dense foods. These are among the “new-fangled” food  inventions of today that rob your pocketbook and promise results, when in fact, they are not real food!

So shopping for foods that will comprise a good diet is at best confusing when there is so much conflicting health advice–especially when we have been literally brainwashed into believing that a healthy diet is low-fat and high-fiber.

How can we go about making an educated choice about what proteins to include in our daily fare. If we are looking at nutrient-density alone, the foods highest in nutrients are not only organic, but they come from animals eating their natural diets. So finding a source of eggs, dairy, meat and fish from good sources is critical to good health as there is a remarkable difference in the nutrients in for instance, eggs from a pastured chicken and even an organic egg from a “vegetarian-fed” chicken (chickens are not vegetarian by the way–their natural diet is comprised of bugs and worms). Price also noted that in all cases healthy cultures ate ample amounts of traditional fats with proteins like butter, meat with its fat, cream, lard, coconut oil or palm oil.

Also, all healthy cultures that Dr. Price studied had sacred foods for good health, couples who wanted to conceive and growing children.  One of the sacred protein foods that they consumed was organ meats like liver. Liver from a grass-fed cow or other pastured animal is one of the most nutrient-dense animal foods that you can eat. If you consume liver just once a week, you will greatly magnify the nutrients available to your body for building and maintaining good health. Some people think the liver stores toxins, but in fact it acts as a filter. However, it is also very important to get liver from good sources-see http://www.westonaprice.org/localchapters/index.html for a list of local Weston A. Price chapters in your area to locate farm coops that carry naturally raised foods.

Below is a fascinating list of the comparative vitamin content of various kinds of liver. From this list, you will see just what nutrient-density really means.

Liver Comparison Chart

From: Nutrition Almanac, by John D. Kirschmann

So when considering how to build good health for a lifetime, choosing foods according to nutrient-density will go a long way to helping you achieve that goal, and we have history and good research on magnificently healthy people as our example.

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Because there was no refrigeration, our ancestors consumed many foods that were preserved through lacto-fermentation like yogurt and kefir and fermented vegetables, such as traditionally prepared sauerkraut and pickled beets, which contained probiotic bacteria that helped to maintain a healthy digestive system. With refrigeration and the industrialization of our food supply we stopped making these probiotic foods and started consuming more and more new-fangled food creations. These new fascinating “foods” have wreaked havoc on our digestion and the health of our population as they are very nutrient deficient and hard to digest.

When we consume foods that are hard to digest–even organic foods, digestion slows down in our stomach and stomach acid diminishes. Low acid in the stomach can cause an overgrowth of candida . In addition, without adequate stomach acid, the gluteomorphine proteins in gluten containing grains may not to be properly broken down before they reach the small intestine. In the small intestine the resulting byproduct of poorly digested carbohydrates is alcohol and acetaldehyde as well as morphine-like chemicals. We all know that alcohol and morphine are extremely addictive substances. Acetaldehyde is a very toxic chemical that can bind itself to proteins and make them unusable as nutrients. Therefore, carbohydrate addiction is a real chemical problem and without healthy digestion, candida overgrowth and poor gut flora will ultimately cause intestinal damage and malnourishment.

The best way to end the candida cycle and food addictions is to focus on eating a diet of easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense foods. Foods with real nutrients will eventually help you end the cravings as digestion and nutrient absorption improves. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

First, a breakfast of cereal, toast or a bagel with non-fat spreads and a piece of fruit may not be the breakfast of champions! For years before I got deathly ill with a digestive disorder, my favorite breakfast was bagels, no-cholesterol “buttery flavor” spread and a piece of fruit. Another choice was a bowl of cold cereal. However by 10AM, I was very hungry again. This is not good. A healthy breakfast is not one that would leave you hungry in just a few hours.

Instead, a breakfast with higher amounts of protein and fat from traditional foods will literally nourish you until the afternoon and will offer far greater levels of nutrients. In our book we recommend a few great breakfasts that besides being nutrient-dense, will also help improve digestion. Smoothies made with 16 oz. whole fat kefir or yogurt (preferably raw milk from grass-fed animals), 2-4 raw egg yolks (from pastured chickens–not commercial eggs), fruit and 1 T. coconut oil are a fabulous breakfast. Another is old fashioned bacon (organic, no-nitrate) and eggs (from pastured chickens). Nutrient density is the key to building optimal health and maintaining blood sugar meal to meal. Nutrient-dense foods have ample high-quality traditional fats, protein and carbohydrates.

However, another reason that you are hungry just two hours after eating may be that you are suffering from inflammation in your intestinal tract. Inflammation is usually caused from bacterial imbalances in the gut flora like a candida overgrowth. When inflammation is present, nutrient absorption will be hampered and a person will feel hungry very quickly after eating a meal. After years of malabsorption, malnourishment is sure to follow.

For optimal health we need eat foods that are high in nutrients and also those that will support good digestion. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,
Kathryne Pirtle

During this same time period, Dr. Francis Pottenger was working with nutritional healing for the treatment of tuberculosis and other diseases at the Pottenger Sanatorium in Monrovia, California. He always focused healing on a proper diet based on the principles discovered by Weston A. Price, and served liberal amounts of liver, butter, cream and eggs to his patients.

He also kept colonies of cats who had had their adrenal glands removed to help him determine how much adrenal cortex to give to his own patients. He found that when the cats consumed a species appropriate diet of raw milk and raw meat that they thrived from one generation to the next. However, if they received either a diet of pastuerized milk and raw meat, raw milk and cooked meat or pastuerized milk and cooked meat that the cats developed degenerative conditions. In fact, with these problem diets, in the second generation, the cats had narrowed faces and crooked and crowded teeth, and in the third generation, the cats could produce no more young!

These astonishing independent yet parallel outcomes between both Dr. Price and Dr. Pottenger can teach us the keys to the exponential percentage of fertility problems that we are seeing today. Both humans and cats who have superior nutrition will have no fertility problems and their offspring will be healthy. But when nutrition is inadequate, the first sign is in fertility problems, structural problems and the prescence of health issues.

What we must wake up to understand is that widespread ferility problems are truly a sign of something very wrong with our foods and nutritional beliefs. And if we are really honest, by not choosing and supporting a supply of nutrient-dense foods, this lack of fertlity really will ultimately translate into extinction. What both Pottenger and Price revealed can help us to be determined to help to turn the clock back.

For more information on a nutrient-dense diet, see www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

In 1945, Dr. Weston Price described “a new vitamin-like activator” that played an influential role in the utilization of minerals, protection from tooth decay, growth and development, reproduction, protection against heart disease and the function of the brain.

Using a chemical test, he determined that this compound—which he called Activator X—occurred in the butterfat, organs and fat of animals consuming rapidly growing green grass, and also in certain sea foods such as fish eggs.

Dr. Price died before research by Russian scientists became known in the West. These scientists used the same chemical test to measure a compound similar to vitamin K.

Vitamin K2 is produced by animal tissues, including the mammary glands, from vitamin K1, which occurs in rapidly growing green plants.

A growing body of published research confirms Dr. Price’s discoveries, namely that vitamin K2 is important for the utilization of minerals, protects against tooth decay, supports growth and development, is involved in normal reproduction, protects against calcification of the arteries leading to heart disease, and is a major component of the brain.

Vitamin K2 works synergistically with the two other “fat-soluble activators” that Price studied, vitamins A and D. Vitamins A and D signal to the cells to produce certain proteins and vitamin K then activates these proteins.

Vitamin K2 plays a crucial role in the development of the facial bones, and its presence in the diets of nonindustrialized peoples explains the wide facial structure and freedom from dental deformities that Weston Price observed.

By eating traditional foods from pastured animals, you can help protect yourself from common degenerative conditions. For more information on traditional diets, see our book at www.performancewithoutpain.com

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

But what about getting vitamin A from the beta-carotene in vegetables? The following  article by Sally Fallon discusses this issue.

Vitamin A Vagary

by Sally Fallon

This article has since been expanded and updated on the Weston A Price Foundation site as Vitamin A Saga

“Eat carrots for vitamin A.” Such statements, found in many popular diet and nutrition books, create the impression that the body’s requirements for this essential nutrient can be exclusively met with plant foods like carrots, squash, green leafy vegetables and orange colored fruits. The low fat school of nutrition benefits greatly from the fact that the public has only vague notions about vitamin A; for the family of water-soluble nutrients called carotenes are not true vitamin A, but are more accurately termed provitamin A. True vitamin A, or retinol, is found only in animal products like cod liver oil, liver and other organ meats, fish, shell fish and butterfat from cows eating green grass.

Under optimal conditions, humans convert carotenes to vitamin A in the upper intestinal tract by the action of bile salts and fat-splitting enzymes. Of the entire family of carotenes, beta-carotene is most easily converted to vitamin A. Early studies indicated an equivalency of 4:1 of beta-carotene to retinol. In other words, four units of beta-carotene were needed to produce one unit of vitamin A. This ratio was later revised to 6:1 and recent research suggests an even higher ratio.1 This means that you have to eat an awful lot of vegetables and fruits to obtain even the daily minimal requirements of vitamin A, assuming optimal conversion.

But the transformation of carotene to retinol is rarely optimal. Diabetics and those with poor thyroid function, a group that includes at least half the adult US population, cannot make the conversion. Children make the conversion very poorly and infants not at all —they must obtain their precious stores of vitamin A from animal fats —yet the low-fat diet is often recommended for children.2 Strenuous physical exercise, excessive consumption of alcohol, excessive consumption of iron (especially from “fortified” white flour and breakfast cereal), use of a number of popular drugs, excessive consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids, zinc deficiency and even cold weather can hinder the conversion of carotenes to vitamin A3, as does the low-fat diet.

Carotenes are converted by the action of bile salts, and very little bile reaches the intestine when a meal is low in fat. The epicure who puts butter on his vegetables and adds cream to his vegetable soup is wiser than he knows. Butterfat stimulates the secretion of bile needed to convert carotenes from vegetables into vitamin A and at the same time, supplies very easily absorbed true vitamin A. Polyunsaturated oils also stimulate the secretion of bile salts but can cause rapid destruction of carotene unless antioxidants are present.

It is very unwise, therefore, to depend on plant sources for vitamin A. This vital nutrient is needed for the growth and repair of body tissues; it helps protect mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, throat and lungs; it prompts the secretion of gastric juices necessary for proper digestion of protein; it helps to build strong bones and teeth and rich blood; it is essential for good eyesight; it aids in the production of RNA; and contributes to the health of the immune system. Vitamin A deficiency in pregnant mothers results in offspring with eye defects, displaced kidneys, harelip, cleft palate and abnormalities of the heart and larger blood vessels.

Nutrition pioneer Weston Price considered the fat soluble vitamins, especially vitamin A, to be the catalysts on which all other biological processes depend. Efficient mineral uptake and utilization of water-soluble vitamins require sufficient vitamin A in the diet. His research demonstrated that generous amounts of vitamin A insure healthy reproduction and offspring with attractive wide faces, straight teeth and strong sturdy bodies. He discovered that healthy primitives especially value vitamin-A-rich foods for growing children and pregnant mothers. Working in the 1930’s, he found that their diets contained ten times more vitamin A than the typical American diet of the time. This disparity is almost certainly greater today as Americans have forsworn butter and cod liver oil for foods based on polyunsaturated oils.

In third world communities that have come into contact with the West, vitamin A deficiencies are widespread and contribute to high infant mortality, blindness, stunting, bone deformities and susceptibility to infection.4 These occur even in communities that have access to plentiful carotenes in vegetables and fruits. Scarcity of good quality dairy products, a rejection of organ meats as old fashioned or unhealthful, and a substitution of vegetable oil for animal fat in cooking all contribute to the physical degeneration and suffering of third world peoples.

Supplies of vitamin A are so vital to human health that we are able to store large quantities of it in the liver and other organs. Thus it is possible to subsist on a diet low in animal fatfor a considerable period of time before overt symptoms of deficiency appear. But during times of stress, vitamin A stores are rapidly depleted. Strenuous physical exercise, periods of physical growth, pregnancy, lactation and infection are stresses that quickly deplete vitamin A stores. Children with measles rapidly use up vitamin A, often resulting in irreversible blindness. An interval of three years between pregnancies allows mothers to rebuild vitamin A stores so that subsequent children will not suffer diminished vitality.

One aspect of vitamin A that deserves more emphasis is its role in protein utilization. Kwashiorkor is as much a disease of vitamin A deficiency, leading to impaired protein absorption, as it is a result of absence of protein in the diet. High protein, lowfat diets in children induce rapid growth along with depletion of vitamin A supplies. The results —tall, myopic, lanky individuals with crowded teeth, and poor bone structure —are a fixture in America. Growing children actually benefit from a diet that contains more calories as fat than as protein.5 Such a diet, rich in vitamin A, will result in steady, even growth, a sturdy physique and high immunity to disease.

So it’s a bit embarrassing to the low-fat people, especially as the truth is beginning to come out, even in orthodox publications. A recent New York Times article noted that vitamin-A-rich foods like liver, egg yolk, cream and shellfish confer resistance to infectious diseases in children and prevent cancer in adults.6 A Washington Post article hailed vitamin A as “cheap and effective, with wonders still being (re)discovered,” noting that recent studies have found that vitamin A supplements help prevent infant mortality in third world counties, protect measles victims from severe complications and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV virus.7 The article lists butter, egg yolk and liver as important sources of vitamin A but claims, unfortunately, that carotenes from vegetables are “equally important.” So vagueness about vitamin A continues, even among science writers.

Those familiar with the work of nutrition pioneer Weston Price are not so easily fooled. They know that vitamin-A-rich foods like liver, eggs, and cod liver oil are vital to good health. If you–or your children–don’t like liver, eggs and cod liver oil, don’t despair. Studies show that the best and most easily absorbed source of vitamin A is butterfat,8 a food relished by young and old alike. So use plenty of butter and cream from pasture-fed cows for good taste and wise nutritional practice.

Vitamin A Vagary was first published in the Price-Pottenger Health Journal. (619) 574-7763

Endnotes

1. Solomons, N.W., and Bulus, J., “Plant sources of provitamin A and human nutriture”, Nutrition Review, Springer Verlag New York, Inc., July 1993, v. 5 1, pp 199204.
2. Jennings, I.W., Vitamins in Endocrine Metabolism, Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois.
3. Dunne, Lavon J., Nutrition Almanac, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, 1990.
4. Solomons, Op. Cit.
5. Personal communications, Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.
6. Angler, Natalie, “Vitamins Win Support as Potent Agents of Health”, New York Times, March 10, 1992.
7. Brown, David, “It’s cheap and Effective, With Wonders Still Being (Re)discovered”, The Washington Post, November 7,1994.
8. Fraps, G.S., and Kermerer, A.R., “The relation of the Spectro Vitamin A and Carotene Content of Butter to its Vitamin A potency Measured by Biological Methods”, Texas Agricultural Bulletin, N.- 560, February 1938.

Sally Fallon M.A., food historian and nutrition journalist, combines extensive background in nutrition with training in French and Mediterranean cooking. She is the author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, a full spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message —animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Mrs. Fallon’s book also provides information the values of Real Milk products, both to the consumer and the conscientious farmer. She is President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and editor of Wise Traditions, the Foundation’s quarterly magazine.

To order Nourishing Traditions, call 877 707-1776 or visit New Trends Publishing.

A Campaign for Real Milk is a project of The Weston A. Price Foundation
PMB 106-380, 4200 Wisconsin Ave, NW, Washington DC 20016
Phone: (202) 363-4394 | Fax: (202) 363-4396 | Web: www.westonaprice.org

Dr. Price found that without adequate amounts of these two nutrients that a person could not absorb the other nutrients in the diet no matter how good the diet. In fact, he found that deficiencies in these vitamins caused noticeable genetic changes in the skeletal structure–a narrowing of the skull and face causing crooked and crowded teeth. We are seeing this narrowing in almost every child born today.

Vitamin A and D are the only vitamins that function as hormones. They help express the correct genetic material in the cells. When there is a deficiency, genetic changes can occur.

The best way to insure that your diet is rich in these fat-soluble vitamins is to eat traditional, nutrient-dense foods–foods from animals eating their natural diet.

For more information see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

• persistent flatulence
• gas or bloating after eating
• acid reflux
• irritable bowel
• constipation
• diarrhea
• allergies

Any one of these symptoms may indicate that you are having trouble with digestion and also may have a candida overgrowth and bacterial imbalances in your intestinal tract. Digestive problems are extremely common today because our health dictates tell us that a high-fiber/low-fat diet is a healthy diet. However, high-fiber foods are often hard-to-digest, low in nutrients and can over time give rise to bacterial imbalances in the gut flora. We also absolutely need ample high quality saturated, traditional fats like butter and cream from grass-fed cows or coconut oil in our diet to absorb nutrients. So if we you trying to eat a healthy diet by listening to common dictates, you may ultimately develop digestive problems and nutrient deficiencies.

With both nutrient deficiencies and digestive problems, we can lack the energy needed to fuel our muscles for long periods of time–especially the small muscles used to play musical instruments.

Therefore, the first step to correcting stamina problems  is to carefully evaluate your symptoms and  understand their root cause. The most powerful road to recovery is to eat a diet rich in traditional, nutrient-dense foods that will heal and support good digestion. Although nutritional healing takes time, there are no short cuts to overcoming long-term malnourishment. This process is absolutely necessary to achieve permanent healing. Considering the years you have spent mastering your instrument, dedicating yourself to protecting your continued ability to perform is well worth the same effort.

For more information on a healing diet of nutrient-dense foods, see our book information at www.performancewithoutpain.com

To your health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Although their diets were different, Price found certain common key components. First, the diets had 10 times the amount of vitamin A and D from natural sources–like cod liver oil, egg yolks, organ meats, fish eggs and traditional fats–like butter and cream from grass-fed animals–foods that we are largely told to avoid. Next, he found that their diets had ample traditional fats such as butter, cream, lard, coconut oil and meat with its fat. He found that without both adequate vitamin A and D and traditional fats, that a person could not absorb the nutrients from the foods they ate no matter how good the diet. Lastly, he found that their diets consisted of high quality proteins from animals eating their natural diets, and they ate no refined foods whatsoever.

Importantly, Price found that when people from these same cultures moved to areas where they were able to have access to modern foods–white flour, pasteurized milk, refined sugar and vegetable oils–that they developed cavities and degenerative illnesses and in the next generation, the children had crooked and crowded teeth, cavities and poor health as well.

Today, cavities are commonplace, our entire population is exhibiting  crooked and crowded teeth and the percentage of people–adults and children alike–affected by degenerative disease of all kinds, is growing at an exponential rate. Our modern food supply is a large part of the reason this is happening as our foods are highly nutrient-deficient.

If we follow Dr. Price’s work, we will see that the future of the health of our people lies in improving our broken food supply in favor of traditionally raised, nutrient-dense foods. When we correct malnourishment, healing and building optimal health are possible.

For more information about the Weston A. Price Foundation, see www.westonaprice.org.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle
www.performancewithoutpain.com