14 years ago I went through what I would consider a life challenging but also a life changing health event.  I followed the same road as everyone else when it came to doctors and drugs, except this time the drugs and the doctors almost ended my life due to medical mistakes.  So as most of us do when we have exhausted all the human possibilities, I turned to the One I have sought to follow my entire life. As far as i knew and was taught God wasn’t really that concerned that i was healthy.  After all look at Job and his suffering and God allowed it. That’s what i was told.  The One who according to Holy scriptures created the heavens and the earth. The giver and sustainer of life. The One who knows the number of hairs on my head. The One who said, I am the God who heals you.”  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of Moses and the Red Sea. The God of Joshua. The God of Daniel and the lions den. The God of Daniel when he and his friends decided not to defile their bodies with the kings food but ate vegetables and drank water and looked healthier and were smarter than their peers.  The God of Joseph and what man intended for evil God intended for good and His glory.  The God who knew you before you were born. The God who fearfully and wonderfully knit you together in your mothers womb. The list never ends. . .because He is an infinite God. His ways cannot be exhausted.

That same God created you and me to live in health provided we followed His directions given to us in the first book and the first chapter of the Bible.  The problem is most of us have been taught from the beginning of our lives that somehow that relationship with God only applies on Sundays or in some religiously or spiritually segmented part of our life. Unfortunately that lack of wisdom about the Creator, Healer God has caused millions of people to suffer needlessly with their health and die prematurely. Whats more is the tragic ending when doctors have exhausted their treatments and there’s nothing else to offer for hope. Family members wait in fear as their loved ones suffer through the last days of their lives with feeding tubes and breathing machines and doctors playing God.

The answer is so simple yet most just can’t accept it.  I didn’t believe until I experienced my life changing health crisis 14 years ago.  When the doctors gave me no hope. It doesn’t mean my health is perfect and I don’t experience health challenges.  I do. However, those challenges are mostly related to violating God’s laws that I’ve already learned and I can usually turn them around quickly with complete obedience to His law.  

To those who are suffering through some life changing health event I beg you to consider what the Creator said in His word.

 Leviticus 26:21  If you remain hostile toward me and refuse to listen to me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.

 Lamentations 3:33  For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to children of men

 Exodus 15:26  He said, “If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

 Just as pain from hitting your finger with a hammer or coughing when you breathe in smoke warn you of an offense to the body so ALL chronic disease and related symptoms is the body’s response to an offense that has been going on for years.  I found out that I had been ignoring the Creators instructions for 39 years. But when I looked into the Creator’s instruction manual for all of life I discovered something that no one ever taught me in church.  That’s so sad! I discovered that the Creator has given me everything I need for life and godliness.  I just needed to obey. When I stopped listening to the worthless counsel of men and greedy drug companies and started listening to the Creator, I started getting better.  The problem is most of us discover too late that some treatment we were subjected to by man has caused permanent damage to our immune system or major organs. The self healing power of the body is amazing but can only go so far and sometimes cannot reverse organic damage to the body’s organs.  But since mans ways didn’t offer hope, I recklessly abandoned my trust and faith for healing in an all wise God who said He is our Healer.  Either what He said is true or it isn’t.  Hopefully it goes without saying that emergency room treatment is necessary for accidents, stitches, broken bones etc. I do believe we are commanded to pray for the sick. James 5:15-16. However, just as it is foolish to stand at the top of a 10 story building and ask God to save your life as you jump, it is also reckless to ask God to heal you while you continue to violate his first law of nutrition given in Genesis 1:29-30  Sadly, if you are sick and currently under a doctors care for long term illness and you don’t stop doing what you have been doing, even if the doctor pronounced you cured, your sickness will return in time to an older, weaker immune system possibly in another area of your body. Consider the wisdom of an Intelligent Designer to isolate cancerous toxins away from major organs to body parts which are no longer necessary. Breast cancer and cancer of the uterus primarily in middle age women whose child bearing years are completed is an example of the wisdom of God.  I trust Him more than mere man.

I have been proclaiming what i discovered for 14 years and it still amazes me that some people just wont give up their caffeine, (the Christian drug,) donuts and fudge cake, white flour and pasteurized dairy products while suffering with cancer or heart disease.  For 39 years I made much of food and it made much of me.  It made me 185 pounds of chronic fatigue, with headaches, colds, flu, fevers, pneumonia, cavities, high blood pressure and a bleeding ulcer. The doctor seemed to grin when he said, “Brian, we are looking for cancer. “  

Dear friend,  humbly I beg you to stop doing what you’re doing.  Stop listening to medical advice that doesn’t own a cure and never will. Thats correct, never will although billions of dollars is spent in research. God says in his word, “the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God.”  This applies perfectly to 21st century healthcare and is nothing more than malpractice protected by law. 

 But you have to be willing to change what you eat and drink.  I haven’t found the answer in organic “health foods” or some man made vitamin or protein shake.   Start by eliminating sugar, caffeine,  white flour, pasteurized dairy products and all processed foods five days of the week. Start eating raw, uncooked green salads in abundance and fresh fruit in moderation.  Drink 16 ounces of organic, fresh squeezed romaine or kale juice every day. It tastes a little better with an apple to sweeten it. Eat large green salads for lunch and dinner.  Eat fresh fruits in season and raw nuts like walnuts, pecans and almonds in moderation.  Save the weekends or special occasions for ‘cheating a little.” You do not have to eliminate meat and eggs completely, however if you are eating the standard American diet you do need to cut back on the amount of flesh foods you eat. If your body is capable of healing itself after all those years of abuse, the light will begin to dawn and your healing will come in time. (Isaiah 58:8)  Adopt a regular fasting discipline.  You wont die if you drink only a fresh squeezed 16 ounce glass of romaine and apple juice for breakfast.  Try fasting 2-3 days per month and be willing to fast and drink only water when you are sick.  All animals do.  It’s the only true cure for colds and flu.  Be patient for change. Your body has to go back through years of abuse and unload your diseased cells as you feed your body superior nutrients.  The improvements come in cycles and you will feel sick for a while. Each ‘sickness’ will result in another improved level of health like peeling an onion one layer at a time. You cannot rebuild in a few months what took 30-40 years to tear down. Don’t lose hope because during these detox times your emotional state will be a bit frightening.  I call them ”half empty glass” attitudes.  Your physical state is directly related to your emotional condition. You have no other hope but to trust a wonderful, loving Creator who knows how you were made and knows better than anyone how you operate physically and wants you to live an abundant life so you can tell others of His love and give Him credit for your healing.

 Whether you realize it or not,  God, the Creator is seeking a personal relationship with you through Jesus Christ. Ask Him for wisdom in the health challenges of life and see if He shows up willing to help in all areas of your life.  If you have ignored the first law of nutrition as I did for 39 years it’s just a matter of time before you will hear the bad news from the doctor and you will need to make a decision on which road to travel.  Will you choose the road everyone is on or will you choose the less traveled road.  God is seeking after you. But you need to listen and obey.

Psalm 119:67, 71, 75 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes. I know, O Lord , that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.

 2 Roads: Choose Life!

Since you are traveling the narrow road with me, consider this as you watch “cold and flu season” come upon us. You don’t have to worry about colds, or flu or fear swine flu. Here’s why.

The same wisdom that created all living things with billions of cells inherently programmed them to re-build, multiply and thrive with the correct nutritional intake. That intelligent design created seasons to continually refresh, replenish and restore the earth.  After the flood God made a covenant. Genesis 8:23 states, “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”  In the fall season the leaves fall from the trees and the vegetation seems to die.  Yet the spring brings a fresh, brand new green season.  In the same way, hurricanes, wind and rain even snow serve to clean, energize and sanitize the earth with fresh air and water to feed the vegetation and clear the air from smoke and fumes that can damage and even kill our animal and plant life.  Smell the fresh air after a rain and marvel in our Creator’s wisdom.  This fresh air keeps us from suffocating in the waste and smog of modern civilization.

Cold and Flu season usually begin in the fall when new, fresh dry air comes in the form of a cold front from the north.  The body, if strong enough, will produce a house cleaning (cold or flu) when new fresh oxygen is available to the cells. The stronger the body the quicker the house-cleaning happens.  This is the body’s software upgrade.  In reality, it’s a cell upgrade.  The cold front ushers in the cleaner, superior air and the body’s cleansing action goes to work. Just as a computer must have software upgrades, so the body’s cells eliminate waste at the first sign of superior nutrients or oxygen. (fresh air).  The body discards inferior cell waste when newer, fresher building materials are available. (Fresh, clean air) If colds and flu are not produced by the body, our bodies would deteriorate more quickly. So with “flu”and cold symptoms we experience running noses, aches, pains, headaches, nausea, etc.  These are all common detoxification symptoms when the body is cleaning house.

Most of us experience colds and flu because our immune systems are over-burdened with the standard American diet and lifestyle. Too much of the wrong fuel and lack of fresh air and exercise outdoors.

So, while germs are certainly a part of the equation, after walking the narrow road for the last 14 years, i believe “flu season” happens for two reasons.   First, colds and flu are the body’s self-cleaning mechanism to keep us from suffocating in our own toxins and to allow cell waste to be discarded.  So, when fresher, superior air is available you may experience a cold or flu. There’s another reason, i believe, and will talk about that during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

There’s no need to worry about colds, flu or the swine flu when you travel the narrow road.  I would worry more about the drug or medical treatment than the flu.  Go to bed, rest, DO NOT EAT. Your body will tell you that you are not hungry. The wonderful taste of food will go away. You will feel full with the first bite of food. . .so please don’t add fuel to the fire. Drink water with lemon or fresh squeezed romaine juice. Do not drink herbals teas or take some expensive herb or supplement to somehow thwart the cold. Just let it come out and if you drink only water or fresh romaine juice your symptoms will be greatly diminished. This is a good time to juice fresh squeezed vegetable juices to help cleanse the toxins.  NORMALLY,  within 3-5 days you will be well again. Do not eat until your appetite returns, otherwise you will be adding more fuel to the fire and your fever (if you have one) will increase.   Your body will tell you when it’s time to eat. Your appetite will return with an unmistakable force.  No fear, no vaccinations, no cost. It’s free. God’s healthcare.

Please don’t think that by getting a vaccine you are somehow “magically” protected from the swine flu.  If a lake is polluted, pouring more chemicals into the lake does not remove the pollution.  The chemical temporarily distracts and suspends the cleansing effort and adds more toxins to the already polluted lake.  The same is true with medicines and vaccines.  You are only adding more offense to an already polluted body and immune system.  Only time and eternity will tell of the damage and death that has occurred through medicine and vaccination.

Voltaire said. “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”  It’s unfortunate that this godless man knew more about health than God-followers.

I would suggest you do not suppress the cold with over the counter drugs. I think we will find out in the future that colds and all sickness suppressed with prescription and over the counter medicine leads to hypertension and cancer.

So with each new cold front comes another group of “cold or flu sufferers.”  Watch closely as God brilliantly orchestrates His plan to sustain life.  Appetite disappears, the body produces runny noses, aches, pains and fever to discard the excess in the cells. Your lower back  will ache and urination will increase. The body is forcing you to fast and eliminating toxins. If you eat during sickness, you will probably stay sicker, longer. So listen to your body and don’t eat and watch God’s “Cure” reveal itself. It’s simple and it costs nothing!

Read the fasting post for more information on what do do and what you can expect during fasting. God’s Cure.

2 roads: choose LIFE!

2 Roads Choose life!

From Mercola.com

It’s been seven years since I posted the comprehensive, footnoted research article, Death by Medicine, on this website.

Authored in two parts by Gary Null PhD, Carolyn Dean MD ND, Martin Feldman MD, Debora Rasio MD, and Dorothy Smith PhD, it described in excruciating detail how the modern American medical system had bumbled its way into becoming the leading cause of death and injury in the United States.

From medical errors to adverse drug reactions to unnecessary procedures, heart disease, cancer deaths and infant mortality, the authors took statistics straight from the most respected medical and scientific journals and investigative reports by the Institutes of Medicine (IOM), and showed that on the whole American medicine caused more harm than good.

The purpose of this was not to frighten you, but to help you make informed choices about your health, and to provide you with the tools you need to take control of your own health

Seven years after the original article was written, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine November 25, 2010 piqued my interest — the researchers found that, despite efforts to improve patient safety in the past few years, the health care system hasn’t changed much at all.

Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person’s death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery.

In all there were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions!

Shocked, I decided to do some research of my own on the state of American health care today.What I found is the grim picture that I’m sharing with you, as an update to the original Death by Medicine article.

Over 40,000 Mistakes EVERY Day!
Unfortunately, the NEJM article was just a reminder of something that the Thirteenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study pointed out earlier this year.

HealthGrades has been studying the quality of care in the nation’s hospitals since 1988. This year they analyzed approximately 40 million Medicare patients’ records from 2007 through 2009, and found that 1 in 9 patients developed a hospital-acquired infection.

The HealthGrades report said that “the incidence rate of medical harm occurring is estimated to be over 40,000 each and EVERY day according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.”

Another study, in 2008, by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, also reported grave evidence that something is amiss in the hospital setting in America: One in seven Medicare beneficiaries who is hospitalized will be harmed as a result of the medical care they receive in the hospital, the study said.

Authors of this study found that physician reviewers determined nearly half, or 44 percent of the adverse and temporary harm events “were clearly or likely preventable.” The cost of these mistakes was estimated at $324 million in October alone. The mistakes equate to 3.5 percent of the Medicare budget.

Hospital-Acquired Infections
Another study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this year, showed that sepsis and pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections killed 48,000 patients and ramped up health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006 alone. Both these infections are mostly preventable through better infection controls. The study also found that 20 percent of people who developed sepsis died; 11 percent of those who developed pneumonia died.

The authors noted that many hospital-acquired infections are super resistant to common antibiotics – and it’s not just sepsis and pneumonia that they’re talking about.

A different study in 2006 showed that “central-line-associated” bloodstream infections caused by catheters placed directly into veins resulted in a $26,839 loss for each patient that came down with this type of hospital-acquired infection. This same study estimated that 2 million people come down with hospital-acquired infections of any type in every year, and that approximately 100,000 die from those infections.

Medication Errors are a Major Killer
In 2000 the Institutes of Medicine reported that medical errors were the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S., killing between 44,000 and 98,000 people each year. While the number of errors today is said to possibly be the fourth leading cause of death in a hospital, health officials agree that this type of death-by-medicine is still prevalent — and preventable.

In a June 2010 report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, study authors said that in looking over records that spanned from 1976 to 2006 (the most recent year available) they found that, of 62 million death certificates, almost a quarter-million deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors. They also found that these errors spiked in July, and particularly in teaching hospitals.

There are four points in the medication use process at which errors may occur:

when the medication is ordered (written, electronic, or oral)
when the medication order is transcribed and verified
when it’s dispensed, and
when it’s administered

The June 2010 report narrowed the errors down to:

drug overdose
prescribing the wrong drug
taking the wrong drug, or
accidents involving medications during surgery or medical procedures
Older adults are at a higher risk of medication errors and have a greater propensity for experiencing harmful and fatal errors. The most common types of medication errors in older adults are omission and improper dose.

Nearly Half a Billion Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions
An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year.

A study published in the Journal of Gerontology in 2006 showed that adverse drug reactions are very common in frail elderly persons after a hospital stay, and polypharmacy and warfarin use consistently increase the risk.

The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually — greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care. Adverse drug reactions cause injuries or death in 1 of 5 hospital patients.

The reason there are so many adverse drug events in the U.S. is because so many drugs are used and prescribed – and many patients receive multiple prescriptions at varying strengths, some of which may counteract each other or cause more severe reactions when combined.

In 2009 there were nearly 3.68 billion prescriptions filled in the U.S. That averages to almost 12 prescriptions for every person in the U.S. Other interesting drug statistics are:

Specialists give more than 2 prescriptions per visit
Just over 89 percent of Medicare patients take prescription medicine daily
46 percent take 5 or more prescriptions chronically
Nearly 54 percent take meds prescribed by more than one doctor
One thing that the drug companies don’t tell you, and that your physician may not realize, is that premarketing drug safety profiles may be very narrow: most new drugs have 3,000 or less short-term patient exposures. Another fact the drug companies don’t advertise is that some drugs have rare toxicity possibilities, meaning very bad side effects could occur in as few as 1 in 20,000 patients. To detect such rare toxicity, more than 60,000 patients must be exposed AFTER the drug is marketed.

49th in Life Expectancy, First in Health Care Costs
The latest study published in Health Affairs revealed that the United States now ranks 49th in the world for both male and female life expectancy, down from 24th in 1999.

In 1950, the United States was fifth among the leading industrialized nations with respect to female life expectancy at birth, surpassed only by Sweden, Norway, Australia, and the Netherlands. The last available measure of female life expectancy had the United States ranked at forty-sixth in the world. U.S. infants also are in the basement when it comes to mortality rates; according to 2009 data compiled by the World Bank, the U.S. is 41 places behind other countries in infant mortality.

Is American Medicine Working?
There’s no doubt that government health care officials are worried about this country’s reputation for safety in the hospital setting. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have set up the Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, a task force charged with developing plans and strategies for making American health care safer.

The problem is that, as it always with government, things move very slowly when change is needed, so the nation has yet to have a nation adverse event reporting system for hospital medical errors. We also don’t have any federal standards regarding state systems. The question is whether living the status quo is going to make us any healthier or not, and if it doesn’t, what are we going to do to make a better life for ourselves?

What about Preventive Care?
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the American health care system is skewed toward treating illnesses and diseases, not preventing them. In 2003, my Death by Medicine report showed that judging by health care spending alone, the U.S. should be the healthiest country in the world with the best medicine available. But it wasn’t.

And today, it still isn’t.

One reason for that is because an obscure federal panel that most people never hear about not only defines what preventive medicine is, but decides what services your health care dollars will pay for. Historically that panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, has been accused of being ultra-conservative in the way of preventive care. But when it does approve it, the definition of preventive care means some kind of diagnostic test for a possible existing illness, not a strategy for staying well.

For example, if you take a look at the task force’s website, you’ll see lists of “preventive” medicine topics the group is considering that include such things as aspirin use and various types of disease screenings — with only one mention of vitamin supplements as a possible upcoming preventive strategy.

If you click on the task force’s A to Z topic guide of existing “preventive” health care, you’ll see that almost every single one is some type of disease screening or counseling for a condition you already have.

And that’s what’s wrong with U.S. health care, whether it was seven years ago or today — we are all too eager to embrace screenings for diseases or illnesses we may or may not have, and counseling and/or medical treatment in the form of pills and chemicals and surgeries for it, after we find out what disease it is we have.

According to the Kaiser Foundation and the CDC, the main drivers of health care costs in the U.S. are technology and prescription drugs; chronic disease; aging of the population; and administrative costs.

I agree that these are huge contributors to what is killing us as a nation financially and as a people. But I DON’T agree with the context in which they’re presented. If you’ve followed all the information I’ve given you here, and even skimmed the 2003 Death by Medicine article, then I think you’ll see why I think the major contributors have a slightly different paradigm — and that the only way we are get healthier as a nation, and drive medical costs down too, is to change that paradigm.

That’s because the foundational causes of what’s driving health care costs in America are:

The emphasis on sickness and treatment, rather than health, fitness, and prevention which is primarily fostered by ultra-sophisticated marketing strategies employed by the drug cartel.
Fraud — by both consumers and providers, including the drug industry.
Unnecessary procedures, medications, hospitalizations and screenings
Medical mistakes, hospital-acquired infections, and surgical and device errors.
If we were only to address these issues, beginning with changing the emphasis of our well-being to health and fitness, and then following the healthy lifestyle that paradigm suggests, I promise that the issue of sickness in America and what it’s costing us — as well as the death-by-medicine events will begin to fade away very quickly.

It’s time to quit bombarding your body with medical interventions and to reward yourself with the fit and healthy body that come from living fit and lean.

And until then — until our health care system as a whole — changes the emphasis of what we’re doing to health and healthful living, exercise, proper nutrition and diet, and vitamin supplementation, we’re not going to see anything in our health care system change, even if we wait another seven years to see how it’s going.

References:

Hanlon JT, Pieper CF, Hajjar ER, Sloane RJ, Lindblad CI, Ruby CM,Schmader KE. Incidence and Predictors of All and Preventable Adverse Drug Reactions in Frail Elderly Persons after Hospital Stay. Journals of Gerontology A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006 May;61(5):511-5
Buerhaus PI, Needleman J. Policy implications of research on nurse staffing and quality of patient care. Policy Politics Nurs Practice 2000; 1(1):5-15.
The Department of Health and Human Services and The Department of Justice — Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Program Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2009
Adverse Events in Hospitals: National Incidence Among Medicare Beneficiaries

2 Roads: Choose Life!

From Mercola.com

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee has recommended that the agency take a new look at updated data on mercury amalgam dental fillings that may indicate medical problems for patients.

The committee also said that more information on amalgam fillings should be posted for both for patients and dentists.

According to CNN:

“Public pressure prompted the panel’s review, initiated less than 18 months after the agency’s decision. Committee members listened to testimony by consumer and dental groups claiming the FDA used flawed science when it set the current guidelines for mercury safety levels.”

Sources:
CNN December 16, 2010

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Thanks to a massive response from grassroots America to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) abysmal 2009 amalgam rule, the FDA agreed to re-examine its pro-mercury fillings position at a hearing earlier this month.

Well, the hearing was a major success!

A government panel of scientists, after two days of hearings before its Dental Products Panel, has determined that the FDA is failing to protect children, pregnant women, hypersensitive persons — and the rest of us — from the dangers of mercury fillings.

Charlie Brown, the national counsel for Consumers for Dental Choice and the president of the new World Alliance for Mercury Free Dentistry, says:

“[This] decision is a resounding defeat of FDA and its policy of protecting dentists’ profits instead of protecting children’s health.”

We’re Making Progress, but the Fight is Not Over
For the last year we have been working alongside Charlie Brown to help eliminate the use of mercury in U.S. dentistry — and we’ve made some major strides.

Most recently, Costa Mesa, California has set the precedent by becoming the first city in the United States to pass a resolution to immediately ban the use of mercury amalgams in dentistry.

This success story was made possible by a trio of Orange County, California activists who distributed flyers explaining the hazards of amalgam (unfortunately, most people are still not even aware that “silver fillings” contain mercury!). They allied with health professionals and green businesses for support.

They organized an extensive petition drive, collecting signatures from individuals asking city council to ban amalgam — both by asking people directly to sign, and by enlisting friendly health professionals and businesspeople to keep the petitions in their front offices.

They surveyed all the city’s dentists, and presented certificates to dentists who are mercury-free.

Then, they sought out Councilman Gary Monahan, who agreed to sponsor a resolution calling on the federal and state governments to “eliminate the use of mercury in dental practices …immediately,” and, at the local level, requesting that every dentist cease using this poisonous material.

Thanks to the testimony of an array of dentists, a dental hygienist, chiropractors, victims of mercury toxicity, businesspeople, a scientist, a Navy veteran, and a lawyer at the City Council meeting reviewing the Monahan resolution, it passed unanimously — and Costa Mesa became the first locality in the United States to call for a ban on mercury fillings.

The FDA hearing earlier this month also made some favorable strides for this movement.

The scientists told the FDA to tell U.S. dental patients, starting right now, that amalgam is mainly mercury, and to tell U.S. dentists to stop giving amalgam to children. They also recommended that the FDA come up with models that show the effects of mercury vapor exposure from dental fillings, as well as review more data on the impact of these fillings on children and fetuses.

The bad news, however, is that the entire matter will now be returned to FDA’s board for consideration, which, Brown notes, is “notoriously pro-mercury and pro-American Dental Association.”

The FDA does NOT have to follow its committee’s recommendations, and, unfortunately, the FDA has a history of ignoring its panelists’ advice if it doesn’t uphold the pro-industry position — even to the point of disagreeing with their own FDA scientific experts.

This is precisely what happened in 2009 with their disappointing “final rule.”

The FDA is STILL Protecting Industry Over the U.S. Public
The FDA has long been the world’s number one protector of mercury fillings, and the U.S. is lagging behind the rest of the world, and even behind some third world countries, in protecting its citizens from this toxic product:

Canada advised dentists to stop placing amalgam in children and pregnant women in 1996!
Denmark, Norway and Sweden have essentially banned amalgams.
There are 5,636 hospitals in developing countries that are committed to or already mercury-free. The majority of these are in the Philippines, India and Argentina.
Yet, in the United States four out of five dental specialists still use amalgams, and the material is still endorsed by the American Dental Association.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg even has an egregious conflict of interest on amalgam, yet participated in the rule making. Hamburg entered the FDA through the revolving door after making millions as the director of Henry Schein Inc., the largest seller of amalgam.

The FDA is so much in the pocket of corporate America that it not only allows mercury-based dental filling to be implanted in children and pregnant women, but it covers up the very fact that these fillings contain mercury, which is a known toxic substance.

And the FDA’s rule ignores the fact that Americans are getting mercury from so many other sources (vaccines, fish and seafood, household products, paints, pesticides, etc.) that many teenagers and adults are saturated with these neurotoxins.

Another Call to Action: We’re So Close, Help Keep the Momentum Going!
Even the FDA is finally starting to realize it has become a pariah in the world by covering up the massive harm being done by the continued use of mercury fillings.

Now that the tide is turning, pro-mercury dentists, the FDA, and the world need to know that consumers like you will not tolerate dental mercury — a neurotoxin and a pollutant — any longer. Just like Costa Mesans have made it clear that the use of amalgam is no longer acceptable in their community, it’s time to get this substance OUT of U.S. dentistry.

I urge all of you reading this to tell Jeff Shuren, director, FDA Center for Devices (Jeff.shuren@fda.hhs.gov or 301-796-5900), that we have waited long enough — and that it’s time, this month, for FDA to:

Tell Americans amalgam is mainly mercury
Protect Americans from mercury amalgam, starting with a ban on amalgam for children and pregnant women.
Tell Dr. Shuren, too, that Canada gave these warnings 15 years ago — which means that an entire generation of U.S. children has grown up unprotected from amalgam’s mercury, and that we will not stand for any more harm to be done to future generations to come.

You can also ask Dr. Shuren:

Why does the FDA approve of dentists telling parents amalgams are “silver fillings”?
Why does the FDA ban mercury for treating the legs of race horses but say it’s fine implanted in a human child?
Does the FDA say increased amalgam use is a “positive health outcome” in order to pump up the sales for Henry Schein Inc., Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s company?
Together we are making a real difference and with continued passion and support on your part we can WIN! Let’s protect the health of Americans, including that of future generations, from toxic amalgam by getting “silver fillings” banned from U.S. dentistry once and for all.

2 Roads: Choose Life!

40,000 DAILY Hospital Medical Mistakes – How to Slash YOUR Risk… From Mercola.com

PreviousEfforts to make hospitals safer are proving ineffective. A large study conducted between 2002 and 2007 found that harm to patients was still common, and that the number of incidents was not decreasing over time.

Identified preventable problems included severe bleeding during an operation, breathing trouble caused by an improperly performed procedure, a fall that caused nerve damage and a dislocated hip, and vaginal cuts caused by a vacuum device during a birthing procedure.

The New York Times reports:

“… [I]nstead of improvements, the researchers found a high rate of problems. About 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care, some more than once, and 63.1 percent of the injuries were judged to be preventable.”

Sources:
New York Times November 24, 2010

New England Journal of Medicine November 25, 2010; 363(22):2124-34

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

One of the reasons why I am so passionate about sharing preventive health strategies with you — tips like eating right, exercising and reducing stress — is because they can help you to stay out of the hospital.

And as much as possible, the hospital is a place you clearly want to avoid at all costs, except in cases of accidental trauma or surgical emergencies (such as appendicitis).

Over the last 10 years, hospitals have been well aware of their dismal patient safety ratings and unacceptable rates of injury and errors. But efforts meant to improve patient safety have fallen way short.

It’s Common to be Harmed by Medical Care in Hospitals
The latest study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that from 2002 to 2007, harm to patients at 10 North Carolina hospitals (hospitals that were involved in programs to improve patient safety) was common and did not decrease.

Instead, 18 percent of patients were harmed by medical care (some repeatedly) and over 63 percent of the injuries could have been prevented. In nearly 2.5 percent of these cases, the problems caused or contributed to a person’s death. In another 3 percent, patients suffered from permanent injury, while over 8 percent experienced life-threatening issues, such as severe bleeding during surgery.

Most often, patients suffered complications from medical procedures or drugs, or came down with a hospital-acquired infection. Other problems also occurred because hospitals failed to prevent infections and mistakes caused by urinary catheters, ventilators and lines inserted into veins and arteries.

In all, there were over 25 injuries per 100 admissions … a frighteningly high statistic for a health care system that demands more than twice the amount of spending as health care in other developed nations.

Research on Hospitals Paints a Grim Picture
The New England Journal of Medicine study only adds to the growing roster of evidence highlighting the sad state of safety in many U.S. hospitals.

The HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, released in March 2010, found that “patient safety incidents,” which is a nice way of saying “preventable medical mistakes,” are common in U.S. hospitals. In all, over the years 2006-2008, there were nearly 1 million incidents among Medicare patients, and one in 10 of them were deadly.

The HealthGrades report pointed out that “the incidence rate of medical harm occurring is estimated to be over 40,000 each and EVERY day according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.”

You read that right: 40,000 medical mistakes a day!

Further, in the United States, more than 2 million people are affected by hospital-acquired infections every year, and 100,000 people die as a result. In one of the largest nationally representative studies to date, released earlier this year, it was found that 48,000 people died due to sepsis or pneumonia caused by hospital-acquired infections alone!

The saddest part is, virtually every one of these infections could likely have been prevented with better infection control in hospitals.

Recent studies have shown that hospital-acquired infections are not a normal side-effect of caring for the seriously ill, but are generally caused by poor medical care. This includes not only contaminated medical devices but also spreading germs from patient-to-patient.

Doctors and nurses not washing their hands prior to touching a patient is the most common violation in hospitals. According to findings by the Seattle Times, in the worst cases, as few as 40 percent of staff members comply with hand-washing standards, with doctors being the worst offenders.

But even the best hospitals had no better than 90 percent compliance — which means one out of 10 practitioners may have contaminated hands even under the best circumstances.

U.S. Ranks Last for Unnecessary Deaths and 49th for Life Expectancy
The U.S. now ranks LAST out of 19 countries for unnecessary deaths — deaths that could have been avoided through timely and effective medical care. Additionally, one-third of adults with health problems reported mistakes in their care in 2007, and rates of visits to physicians or emergency departments for adverse drug effects increased by one-third between 2001 and 2004.

The United States also now ranks 49th for male and female life expectancy worldwide, a ranking that has fallen sharply from fifth place in 1950.

Among the most likely suspects for Americans’ declining health were not obesity, traffic accidents, murder or other “big killers” you might suspect. Rather, researchers pointed to unnecessary medical procedures and an uncoordinated system with fragmented care, where patients rely on numerous providers to treat various bits and pieces of a problem, rather than seeking out one provider who will treat them as a whole.

The problem is complex, but as it stands, due to poor safety procedures, inadequate staffing and training, and more, you risk being harmed any time you enter a hospital. Among the top mistakes and mishaps to be aware of are:

Adverse drug reactions
Hospital-acquired infections
Medical tubing errors
Radiotherapy accidents
Surgical errors
How to Stay Out of the Hospital
By nourishing your physical and mental health with the proper tools, you can drastically lower your chances of needing to go to the hospital. You will need to take control of your health to do so and avoid becoming another sad statistic.

Remember, some of the best ways to improve your health are very inexpensive. Some are even free. Below I’ve listed a number of these basic strategies you can use to avoid getting sucked into the current disease-care paradigm.

Following these guidelines will be a powerful way to avoid premature aging, and improve your health, no matter what your age, so you can avoid having to take your chances in a hospital.

Address your emotional traumas and manage your stress
Get optimal exposure to sunlight, a safe tanning bed or take oral vitamin D if this is not possible to optimize your vitamin D levels
Drink plenty of clean water
Limit your exposure to toxins
Consume healthy fat
Eat a healthy diet that’s right for your nutritional type (paying very careful attention to keeping your insulin levels down)
Eat plenty of raw food
Optimize your insulin and leptin levels
Exercise, especially higher intensity ones like Peak Fitness
Get plenty of good sleep
What to do if You Have to go to the Hospital
In the event that you need to spend time in a hospital, you need to be your own patient-safety advocate, and also ask a family member or friend to act as one for you when you’re not able.

Remember, first and foremost, that your life is in the hands of your health care providers, and you have every right to be informed about every procedure that is performed on you. So be vigilant in asking questions about medications, medical procedures and surgery before they are given to you or performed.

You will also want to ask your physicians and nurses to double-check their orders before injecting a drug into your IV, administering radiation, hooking up medical tubing or performing surgery to make sure they have the right body part, procedure, tube, dosage, etc. You can also ask your providers to wash their hands when they come into your room.

The HealthGrades 2010 report also found major discrepancies in medical errors between the hospitals at the top of the list and those at the bottom, so if you have a choice of hospitals, do your research first. You can find patient-safety ratings at hospitals across the United States from the HealthGrades Web site.”

2 Roads: Choose Life!

HEALTH BY GOD’S DESIGN
Therapeutic Fasting

by D.J. Scott, D.M., N.D., D.C.

For many years it has been the desire of my heart to introduce the Christian culture to the knowledge of therapeutic fasting. Like all things done in God’s timing, this opportunity provides a way that I could not have envisioned. For this I am most grateful to Dr. Bright, who has asked me to contribute an explanation of therapeutic fasting to his book, “The Coming Revival: America’s Call to Fast, Pray and Seek God’s Face”. You may find many of these truths difficult to believe. These are mind and heart searching times. This subject for you may be your time for learning. My desire is only to teach that which the Lord has allowed me to learn.

Therapeutic Fasting is the most powerful God designed tool ever for the recovery of our health. Should we Christians wonder at that? Of course not. Its usefulness came built into the very fabric of life by the WISDOM OF HIS DESIGN.

Just take a few minutes of your time to look with me at one single therapy designed by God, applicable in a multitude of diseases, which is just as up to date today as it was 5,000 years ago; just as consistent with life as breathing, and yet free of iatrogenic (doctor caused) complications.

HISTORY OF FASTING
The history of fasting goes back into antiquity. Modern day Christians have been deceived into thinking that somehow Christ, in his physical human body, along with prophets of old were simply given supernatural powers to accomplish the feat of going forty days without food. Not so. Today in my practice people do this routinely, believers and nonbelievers alike. This is made possible by the living God who built into human flesh physical laws of nature which, if obeyed, will bring into our lives great blessings of well being and health. If we defy these same laws of our God designed nature, then we become cursed (diseased) by our own personal disobedience.

TEMPTATIONS TO MISTREAT OUR BODIES
Corrupting our flesh with toxic and poisonous products was never intended by the Sustainer and Provider of Life as a means of maintaining life. This principle applies to believer and nonbeliever alike. Again, the principle is true because God, except in specific intervention, showers his natural blessings equally on both groups. “The rain falls on the just and the unjust alike”. We believers must clearly understand that our body is not spiritual — not yet. Yes it can be dedicated to the spiritual kingdom of God, but even so, our physical bodies still follow all the natural God-designed physical laws of nature and as such can be corrupted or kept healthier by choices.

Even Christ, while He could have at any moment called forth twelve legions of angels, refused to comply with Satan’s temptation when he said, “Jump off from this high place, and angels will bear you up”. Christians daily are listening to this same destroyer when they are told to go ahead and jump off from high places with flesh corrupting habits which cause diseases. A greater danger here is that we are then asked to believe that angels of modern science will bear us up with the magic of more toxic agents called medicine.

In the physical sense fasting provides one more evidence of God’s divine character of forgiveness displayed as we watch corrupted human flesh transformed back to health through regenerative healing.

ANCIENT GREECE AND EGYPT
Because you, the reader, probably know little or nothing about the history of fasting, let me take you briefly to a wealth of knowledge brought to us by the most brilliant of both ancient and modern scholars. I won’t take you to holy writ, because Dr. Bright has done that far more competently than I could.

First of all therapeutic fasting means not only zero calorie intake, but it also means no food at all — in any form. Only pure water intake is used.

Apart from scripture, the earliest records of therapeutic fasting date back to the ancient civilizations of Greece and the Near East. Plato and Socrates fasted for physical and mental efficiency. Pythagoras required his students to fast before entering his classes.
Ancient Egyptians resolved syphilis with therapeutic fasting. The renowned Greek physician Hippocrates recognized therapeutic fasting as of primary importance in disease.

EUROPE AND RUSSIA
In the 16th century a famous Swiss physician Paracelsus said, “Fasting is the greatest remedy”. In the 17th century Dr. Hoffman wrote a book “Description of the Magnificent Results Obtained Through Fasting In All Diseases”.
A century later Dr. Von Seeland, of Russia wrote that “fasting is a therapeutic of the highest degree possible”. Likewise Dr. Adolph Mayer of Germany wrote, “Fasting is the most efficient means of correcting any disease”. Also Dr. Moeller wrote that “fasting is the only natural evolutionary method whereby through a systemic cleansing you can restore yourself by degrees to physiological normality”.

MODERN FASTING RESEARCH
Literally hundreds of brilliant scholars have contributed to the modern day scientific research into the exact physiological characteristics of fasting.
Many hundreds of scientific papers have been published on the subject. The archives of most famous universities are bulging with research data on fasting. The most famous personalities in scientific research are Professors Child, of the University of Chicago, Langfield of Harvard, Allen of Rockefeller Institute, Benedict and Ritzman of Carnegie Institute, Morgulis of the University of Nebraska, along with numbers of European physiologists as well.

MILLIONS OF SUPERVISED FASTS
Over the last two centuries well known physicians have used and prescribed therapeutic fasting here in America. It could be reasonably estimated that collectively a million or more such fasts have been conducted under supervision. This therapy has been used in almost every disease known. The modern day physician periodically doing sophisticated biochemical blood profiles during the fast attempts to clearly track quantitatively and therefore physiologically almost every organ, system, and disease process — “The life is in the blood”. The great advantage of this evaluation is that it defines safety during the fast. Early on, evidence of developing physiological deficiency becomes visible should the organism begin to weaken vitally. This possibility of course indicates a resuming of selectively corrective feeding within individual tolerances. Astute study of the patient’s physiology as measured biochemically during the near basal state of fasting contributes immensely to diagnostic precision rarely observed except during the acute stages of disease.

Most amazing and marvelous physiological qualities have been designed by God into life — all forms of physical life — from the most microscopic to the ultimate of His creative wisdom — man.

FROM FOOD TO NUTRITION
Certain characteristics are common to all forms of physical life. The very foundational necessity for all forms of life sustenance is nutrition. Nothing living can be sustained without nutrition. Food is not nutrition. We’ve all seen this in wasting diseases. Stuffing with food is of no help. Food rather is the raw material of nutrition. Food must be digested, absorbed, transported, modified, and utilized to be nutrition. To accomplish this requires a multitude of precisely integrated physiological processes.
We talk about the complexity of the universe in which we live. One human cell, and there are trillions in each of us, is more complex than that universe in which we live. Only God could design such a magnificent mechanism wherein every single cellular universe is constantly striving towards precisely harmonious integration (health). Fasting is never starvation. Starvation is rapidly fatal because nutrient is not available. Never for one moment in the fast is the organism deprived of essential nutrients. These are quickly mobilized from internal resources.

HEALING AND REPAIR = REGENERATION
Fasting allows physiologically for nutritional reorganization. Livers repair, stomachs heal, intestines gain tone. There is hardly a tissue that doesn’t benefit from nutritional regeneration during the fast.
Regeneration is the term we use to describe healing and repair. This quality is so tremendously enhanced in a fast that many diseases which never subside while one is eating, rather quickly heal during the fast.

REJUVENESCENCE
There is one quality of fasting which is genuinely awesome and even miraculous, and yet it is truly natural to life. This characteristic is the ability of living things including humans to regain youthfulness. This physiological (scientific) characteristic is called rejuvenescence. There is no other way. Experimental scientists have clearly demonstrated rejuvenescence by fasting lower forms of life. Some of these forms of life live out their entire life cycle in a few days or weeks. They can be easily used for such experimental research.

Deprived of food, such creatures can be fasted back from the adult to the embryonic stage of life. This is as if they are reborn. The process can be carried on through many generations after their brothers and sisters have died. In some cases certain creatures that normally live and die in a few weeks have been kept alive for several years.

This principle does not precisely apply to man. Man cannot be fasted back to the embryonic stage. But man can benefit from the same physiological characteristic present in his tissues. At the University of Chicago, Carlson and Kunde fasted a 40 year old male two weeks discovering his cellular physiology was that of a seventeen year old. These benefits are acquired by ridding the cells of toxic metabolic accumulants.

One of the characteristic features of youthfulness is seen in the cell to nucleus ratio. Youthful cells have a preponderance of nuclear material, while old and senile cells have a preponderance of cellular material.

AUTOLYSIS OF TUMORS
Another amazing characteristic of fasting is the principle of autolysis. This is the ability of the organism to selectively self digest and remove unwanted material and accumulations from within the body without touching vital structures. This is a normal quality of God designed physiology. In fasting, this quality of life becomes greatly enhanced so that many tumors, cysts, abscesses, abnormal accumulations, fatty deposits etc. may be completely or largely absorbed.

VITAL TISSUE PROTECTION
A most brilliant design characteristic about life in the fast is that while we are fasting and securing our nutrition from many internal resources, not one minuscule fragment of the eyeball or the brain is consumed as food. The food resources during the fast are mainly fat and to a lesser degree the cytoplasm of muscle, liver, bone marrow and other organ cells. None of these living tissue structures are sacrificed. They are only reduced in size. The more vital the tissue, the less it is touched. Contemplate this thought for a while, and you quickly realize the brilliance of our Maker.

IMPROVES FOOD ASSIMILATION
Again, another physiological characteristic of fasting, but more especially important to those who suffer from malabsorption, is the ability to restore assimilative powers. This helps the people who can eat, but can’t gain weight or strength.

REST WHILE FASTING
Both physiological and physical rest are absolutely essential to recovery from most serious health problems such as hypertension, congestive heart failure, and arteriosclerosis with angina, just to name a few. Food is one of the biggest workloads on all systems, but especially so on the heart and circulation. Stopping all food not only puts the entire intestinal tract at rest, but also the heart and most other organs as well. This is physiological rest. Add recumbent bed rest, which is physical rest, to this life support system and we see most serious conditions regenerate to improved health in extended fasts. Without near total physical rest, however, such cases will not experience the regenerative healing anticipated.

DETOX SYMPTOMS
Increased elimination of toxic metabolic waste during the fast is evidenced by many uncomfortable symptoms which may or may not develop during one’s fast. Very bad breath, terrible taste in the mouth, body odor, foul discharges, eruptions on the skin, fever, diarrhea, and transient vomiting frequently become indicators of vital life saving actions of elimination. The discomforts associated with increased elimination subside as the offending toxins and related diseases are removed by these same beneficent vital life saving actions.

Hormone imbalances are often corrected in the fast. This is more obvious in the young female who may be infertile or suffering from amenorrhea. Commonly we see menstrual cycles restored after only two to three weeks of fasting. Many sterile marriages have been able to conceive following the fast. Impotent males, are not an uncommon occurrence in our society today. These folks are most grateful when they can recover normal marriage relationships.

BENEFITS TO THE BRAIN & NERVES
I cannot leave the physiological characteristics of fasting without touching on the benefits to the nervous system. The benefits to the mind alone can be enormous. I use no psychological therapy whatsoever during the fast except for comforting reassurance. Yet I see people gradually recover mental stability. There is a strong delusion about today which says that all our problems are in our minds. Remember God designed the human brain just as easily as he designed the human heart. The brain is the organ of the mind, just as surely as the heart is the central organ of circulation. I do not believe that the brain is the mind, but I do know that brain chemistry affects the mind.

If your mind is upset, first look at how you are poisoning your brain. Your brain chemistry is designed by God to maintain mental comfort in health. In some physical diseases (often undetected) the brain screams with symptoms. Also, commonly, people consume food additives, drugs, and substances to which they are sensitive or allergic.
These may cause brain chemistry alterations with seriously disturbing mental consequences. These sensitizing agents cannot be present in our internal environment if our brain chemistry is to return to and stay normal.

This is why we may see uncontrollable moods, intolerable feelings, abysmal depression, and mental confusions return to normal comfort even while fasting. My experience indicates that many mental aberrations, are really physiological rather than psychological in nature.

DISEASES DISAPPEAR
Regarding the usefulness of fasting, there are few diseases where it is not applicable. The quality of experienced, well trained professional supervision however, remains of paramount importance. This physician must qualify first of all by total dedication to the inherent WISDOM OF DESIGN. He must shun all forms of toxic assault which are only intended to relieve unpleasant symptoms. Many symptomatic remedies are toxic agents and should only be resorted to where the doctor believes there is a life threatening emergency. All drugs, homeopathic remedies, and even natural herbal drugs are avoided in the fast.

The body best does its own work of defense and repair unhampered by the suppression of its repair activities. Drugs, along with various toxic remedies, are generally dangerous during a fast. Their dosage could be very fragile. There are very few exceptions. The insulin dependent diabetic may have to be under the care of a diabetologist. Here again, the dosage would have to be adjusted very carefully. While the ocular pressure in glaucoma falls during a fast, to remove medication prematurely and without monitoring could result in blindness. Some drugs, such as steroids, have to be withdrawn gradually.

Asthmatics, even the worst lifetime cases, can usually be drug free within a few days to a week or so. As a chiropractic physician I require that with the exception of asthmatics, medication must first be withdrawn by the medical physician in charge or with his or her conferring supervision during the fast.

LIVING BETTER AFTER FASTING
Lifestyle after the fast is just as important if not more important than the fast itself. If you intend to go back to the world’s lifestyle of sensualistic feeding, including high fat, high protein (meat, cheese, butter, milk, eggs, ice cream etc.) condiments, seasonings, tea, coffee, refined, processed, or denatured foods along with those many foods which contain an abundance of female hormones and carcinogenic agents, then most certainly all your diseases will return. Arteries will rapidly block again with degeneration. It is only a matter of time. Even those folks who prioritize their appearance over inner beauty and health will reactivate their tumors with toxic hair dyes, permanents, cosmetics, hormones etc. Like the new testament character who swept his house clean, the demons all left but when they returned they brought their many friends to occupy a cleaned up dwelling. That man’s last state was worse than his first.

Why indulge in the “demons” (foodstuffs) of death which God never designed to arrive on our tables in the way they have been commercially altered today? The diet God designed for man was fruits and vegetables. He did this and fully provided for man’s needs in the garden. After sin entered He allowed man to add other things to His prescribed diet but without the guilt of sin. The great difference today is that man adulterates everything he touches.

ADDICTIONS
I believe the food sin we Christians engage in today is not the food we eat, but rather the enslavement to those foods. Stop suddenly any substance which you consume regularly and if you suffer discomforts of any kind then you are addicted to that substance — just as surely as the alcoholic is addicted. Try it with tea and coffee first. These are addictive drugs, not foods. Sweets and chocolate are also enslaving “demons” because the confection industry seemingly adds identically the same addictive additives as the tobacco industry.

This information comes from a recent confession by a tobacco industry spokesman — who during federal investigations of additives used by the tobacco industry to cause addiction — stated, “We only use the same additives the confection industry uses.” Perhaps you know people who are swilling down soft drinks all day long? These folks are addicted just as surely as the alcoholic. Believers may even criticize alcoholics, but fail to recognize their own socially acceptable addictions. We must remember, “There but by the grace of God go I”. A famous doctor once said that “an alcoholic may live to a ripe old age but a glutton, never”.

Dear friends, this world’s values have seductively and totally invaded the Christian home with seemingly innocent things. We have adjusted to the world’s mold unknowingly. If we value our life — the life God has given us to serve Him, then we must care for it tenderly. Wholesomeness as God defines wholesomeness must be complied with to be beneficial. Anything else causes genetic damage with degenerative consequences. God put man in a garden because He designed him as one who feeds on seed bearing fruit and succulent vegetables. Huge populations throughout history have successfully survived and remained relatively disease free by adding grains and legumes to this diet. Absolutely essential to this success has been mother’s milk provided through a lengthy period of infancy. Amazing isn’t it that primitives and peasants understand this importance, while the educated and culturally advantaged abandon God’s plan for healthful feeding.

DEGENERATIVE DISEASES
Abandon God’s plan for healthful feeding and man rapidly degenerates. In America today, degenerative disease is already discoverable in the newborn. By age ten degeneration is well developed. And by age twenty degenerative disease is into advanced stages. What is the prognosis for longevity and health? Here it is — early strokes, heart attacks, and cancer, plus, for many, years of constant suffering until the raging war within to survive is finally lost.

Even if you don’t love your own life, and even if you are willing to sacrifice it to science, at least love your children and take them off the omnivorous diet, which is the American diet — the pursuit of sensualism without restraint. Omnivores eat anything and everything edible. Scientifically omnivores are classified along with the porcine (swine) family. Porcine behavior and porcine health is consistent with porcine lifestyle values which includes the porcine diet. Maybe we Christians are ready to “look and live”.

FASTING IS NATURAL
Fasting is never another mystical or magical system of “curing” disease. It is rather a natural physiological approach to the progressive recovery of health by allowing the organism to rest and restore its normal physiological status which is health. This includes its ability to heal and repair but always, within its own limits and tolerances.

GOD’S WISDOM
As a final thought, let me say, these simple truths are available to those who have been allowed to learn through suffering. I believe God has allowed me to learn these truths because I value His wisdom above the wisdom of men. I have yet to find in the field of verifiable science where this confidence in the WISDOM OF DESIGN has been betrayed. Of course I do consult with other physicians and refer to other specialists when a problem is outside my appropriate care. Gratefully the vast majority of human health problems can be greatly improved by simple lifestyle changes. Sometimes this includes fasting.

LIFE is profound. These TRUTHS are simple. Maybe you would choose to share with me my lifetime motto — “Profound Simplicity”.

THERAPEUTIC FASTING IS ONLY RECOMMENDED
UNDER THE CARE OF A PHYSICIAN

© 2001 D.J. Scott, DM., N.D., D.C. All Rights Reserved.
FastingByDesign.com
HealingByRegeneration.com

2 Roads: Choose Life!

People increasingly want to make their own choices for their health, and they are doing so by forming organic food co-ops, buying food from their local farms, and picking up fresh produce at farmer’s markets on the weekends.

And in the Saratoga area, the community has even managed to convince a local dairy farm to resurrect the tradition of the milk man.

Personally, I find the idea of bringing back the milk man to be downright enchanting. What could possibly be better than getting farm-fresh milk delivered in glass bottles right to your doorstep every week?

I’m not sure the King Dairy brothers currently sell RAW milk, but that would truly be an ideal to strive toward.

The video above is the trailer from a full length documentary called Farmageddon…The Unseen War on American Family Farms, produced and directed by Kristin Canty. The film is slated for public release in January of next year, but Canty was kind enough to provide me this preview. (For more information, see www.farmageddonmovie.com.)

The film offers an in-depth look into the issue of raw milk, and the many issues that surround it. From government policies that favor big agriculture over small traditional farms, to the fascist-like methods employed to maintain that status quo, to the vastly different health impacts between organically-raised raw milk and its pasteurized and genetically modified factory-farmed counterpart.

Military Tactics Employed to “Save” You from Raw Milk
Canty’s film includes the harrowing tales of seven dairy farmers and co-op owners who were raided and shut down for selling raw dairy products to the public.

David Gumpert’s book The Raw Milk Revolution also discusses the disturbing trend of using armed force against peaceful civilians whose only “crime” is to provide unadulterated, health-promoting food to people who want to buy it.

This issue is in fact about much more than just raw milk in and of itself.

It’s about your ability, your right, to purchase and consume natural, unadulterated food. And it’s about big business trying to quench a competitor they know they can’t compete with.

Many believe that industry could simply adjust and start selling raw milk if the market becomes strong enough. But they can’t!

A factory farm cannot compete with a small organic, free-range farm because their entire business depends on the milk being pasteurized. They simply cannot afford to reproduce the conditions required to produce safe raw milk, such as allowing all the cows to pasture and graze on grass, for starters.

So, since big business can’t produce what consumers want, they’re simply trying to eliminate the raw milk market altogether. Agricultural agencies along with the FDA and CDC have been particularly aggressive recently in their efforts to crack down on raw milk producers and buying clubs under the pretense of public health safety.

Avoid being fooled by this issue.

As you’ll see below, raw milk is typically far safer than pasteurized milk. The evidence to support their claims that raw milk is dangerous to drink simply does not exist; their claims are based on false assumptions.

But truth does not seem to matter in this case. Armed federal agents have and will continue to storm through small farms and barns, confiscating milk cartons and computers under the guise of protecting your health, unless drastic legislative changes are made.

Earlier this year, Grist magazine reported on the military tactics employed against dairy farmers, citing victims such as:

Rawesome Foods: A private food club run by raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz in California. Agents took thousands of dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products, and shut the group down for not having a public health permit (even though they’re a private food club). The FBI and FDA were also on the scene.
Traditional Foods Warehouse: A food club in Minnesota that offers locally produced foods. Agents raided the club and shut it down.
A private residence: Agents searched a home and took computers because a family allowed a raw dairy farmer to park in their driveway while distributing raw milk to residents who had ordered it.
The dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger: Three raids in a three-month period!
The farm of Sharon Palmer: Agents raided her farm three times in 18 months over issues with her labeling of goat cheese. A computer and milk used to feed chickens and pigs were confiscated.
Manna Storehouse: An Ohio food club that has been raided over licensing issues. According to Grist, “Armed law enforcement officers actually held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas.”
Canty’s film also includes the raid at the Faillace Farm in Warren VT, which is an award winning sheep’s milk cheese facility. In this bizarre case, the USDA incinerated healthy sheep for fear of mad cow disease, despite the fact that sheep are not susceptible to mad cow.

Raw milk drinkers and sellers finally filed suit against the FDA earlier this year, claiming the banning of interstate milk sale is unconstitutional. The case is currently pending, while the violent crackdowns continue…

Why Raw Milk is Superior to Pasteurized Milk
While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that raw milk can carry disease-causing bacteria, what they completely overlook is the fact that these bacteria are the result of industrial farming practices that lead to diseased animals, which may then in turn produce contaminated milk.

They make no distinction whatsoever between disease-riddled factory farmed milk and the milk from clean, healthy, grass-fed cows. One MUST be pasteurized in order to be safe for consumption. The other does not.

Believe me, you definitely avoid r drinking any raw milk from a conventionally-raised feed-lot cow! But drinking raw milk produced by grass-fed cows from clean, well-run farms, on the other hand, is actually far LESS dangerous than drinking pasteurized milk.

In fact, not only does raw milk contain good bacteria that are essential for a healthy digestive system, raw milk also offers protection against disease-causing bacteria!

Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures, the largest raw dairy in the United States, performed the following test: He inoculated pathogenic contaminants such as E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella into his raw milk, and into pasteurized milk.

In the raw milk, none of the pathogens survived because the natural bacteria were able to protect the milk. In the pasteurized milk, however — in which the bacteria and enzymes have been destroyed — the pathogens were able to take over.

To think that pasteurized milk is safer (even if you don’t believe it’s healthier) than raw milk from a healthy, grass-fed cow is simply not true.

Factory farmed animals are raised in concentrated feedlots that are absolute hotbeds for dangerous bacteria and viruses, and they’re fed an unnatural diet of grains, which creates a much higher level of acidity in the animal’s stomach that E. coli bacteria need to survive.

As for the “evidence” that raw milk is dangerous to your health, there have been more than 16,500 confirmed cases of people getting ill from pasteurized milk, or about 412 cases per year, while only about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk, according to CDC data.

Why is raw milk being vilified when statistics suggest it’s nearly four times safer than pasteurized milk?

How to Identify a High-Quality Producer of Raw Milk
Getting your raw milk from a local organic farm is one of the best ways to ensure you’re getting high quality milk. If you’re thinking about purchasing milk from a small farmer, it would be very wise to visit the farm in person.

Look around and ask questions, such as:

Does the farmer and his family drink the milk themselves?
How long has he been producing raw milk?
Are the cows clean?
What conditions are the cows raised in?
Are there any obvious sanitation questions?
Additionally, look for these general conditions:

Low pathogenic bacteria count (ie does the farmer test his milk regularly for pathogens?)
The milk is quickly chilled after milking
The milk comes from cows raised naturally, in accordance with the seasons
The cows are mainly grass-fed
The cows are not given antibiotics and growth hormones to increase milk production
Cows are well cared for
If a cow is covered in filth and manure, stinks, is wet and cold and doesn’t look particularly comfortable, that could be a warning sign that her milk is less than ideal for raw consumption, even if it’s from a small, local farm.

Looking for Raw Milk?
As demand for raw milk continues to grow, it will, hopefully, become easier and easier to come by. In Massachusetts, for example, the number of dairies licensed to sell raw milk has grown from 12 to 23 just in the past two years.

If you’re still unsure of where to go, you can locate a raw milk source near you at the Campaign for Real Milk Web site. You can also look here to find out the legal status of raw milk in the U.S. state or country where you live. The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (which helps farmers that have been raided) also provides a state-by-state review of raw milk laws.