Dr. Tom Cowan - The Body's Feel-Good Chemicals - WAPF 2008

[Guest guest]

Here is my report from one of Dr. Cowan's talks, The Body's Feel-Good Chemicals,

at the Wise Traditions 2008 conference. He is a funny and fascinating speaker!

First he talked about the philosophy of medicine. He related a couple funny

stories from his days in medical school. One was where a farmer came in and said

he had an itchy anus. His fellow student (I think it was) did a bunch of tests

and so forth and diagnosed the farmer, " You have pruritus ani. " Dr. Cowan said

that just means itchy anus in Latin. The farmer had told him what he had when

he came in! In another example, he said someone will come in with a rash on

their arm. A doctor will do a bunch of tests and diagnose " You have eczema. "

That means rash in Latin.

The point was, when we go to the doctor, what are we looking for? What are we

asking? We are not just looking for a name to our condition, a diagnosis, an

explanation. We are looking for an answer to the problem, the handling that

will resolve the situation. We want to know what did I do, what choices did I

make that has led to my condition? Doctors don't think in terms of choices and

consequences.

Then he talked about the two conventional ideas of where life came from:

Intelligent Design vs. Evolution. Rudolph Steiner taught that it's both, that

things were created, and then they evolved. He related this to how plants and

humans are related, that plants have mimics in humans, that is, humans create

chemicals in their bodies that are also and only found in plants. Illness then

is a loss of a plant essence and healing is a re-uniting of plants with humans.

He gave the example of eating trans-fats leading to gallstones. Doctors take

out the gall bladder. Instead, we should make different choices and use the

appropriate plant to heal, thus re-uniting with the plant. We need to get

educated to make better choices, and re-unite with nature. He gave another

example of the blank stare of someone with Parkinsons. It is like the blank

stare of an octopus. In Parkinsons, a gland in the brain secretes a black

juice, just like an octopus. We need to

make better choices, and we need to re-unite with nature by using the octopus,

which would be done homeopathically. [Yes, this was a little esoteric!]

Next he talked about low-dose naltrexone. www.low dose naltrexone.org.

Originally it was a drug for heroine overdose. If someone who OD's comes in,

they can be saved by being given naltrexone, which blocks opiate receptors (so

they can leave the hospital and do it again). Then it was tried for heroin

addiction. It made them feel bad. Opiates are copies of endorphins. The

failure of LDN for addiction led to the discovery of chemicals affecting moods.

Heroin addicts had low endorphins.

Endorphins are fuel for the immune system. There are huge amounts of endorphin

receptors on immune system cells. I think he said 85% of the receptors on

immune cells are endorphin receptors. In other words, there is a direct

relation between endorphins and immunity. How you feel has profound effects on

immunity. If you feel bad, you have low endorphins = you have low immunity.

The 3 well-known ways to raise endorphins are 1) high intensity exercise (the

2nd wind, the runner's high) (highly recommended), 2) acupuncture (this is how

surgery can be done using acupuncture instead of anesthesia), and 3) chocolate

(l-phenylalanine inhibits breakdown of endorphins). The other way is LDN. The

conventional dosage of 50mg blocks receptors all day. 3 or 4 mg at night tricks

the body and makes it respond by making endorphins, thus fueling the immune

system.

Autoimmune disease is a deficiency of endorphins. The use of LDN " cures " aids,

multiple sclerosis, chrohn's disease, IBS, etc.. Many studies have been done.

People feel good and the disease goes away, but only if they stay on it. If

they stop, the disease returns, and they feel bad again too. LDN is a

prescription drug and low doses must be from a special pharmacy. The real

source is a bad gut creating abnormal morphine-like compounds. The brain is

like smushed up guts--they work on the same biochemistry.

Regarding high intensity exercise, Dr. Cowan said he is sold on " SuperSlow "

weight training. Muscle grows when you make it do something it can't. That is,

push it to the point of failure. SuperSlow training is only done once a week

and takes about 20 minutes. 2 minutes of an exercise are done at a very slow

speed, 10 seconds positive and 10 seconds negative (you use enough weight to

only do 2 mins worth, always to failure). 8 or 9 exerices are done, working the

whole No cardio is done as it works the cardio. The real world result is that

when he started a year ago, he leg pressed just over 200 lbs. Now he does

nearly 300 lbs. When he started he did the 400 yd dash in just over 2 mins. He

shaved 17 seconds off that time a year later, with no other cardio training.

['s note: I have also read about and do High Intensity Interval Training,

specifically the " Sprint 8, " which uses the same principle. You sprint 30

seconds and jog or walk 90

seconds, 8 times in a row. Other cardio exercises can be used. You are

pushing yourself to the point of failure and this causes a release of 5x the

normal amount of human growth hormone.

http://outside.away.com/outside/bodywork/200604/high-intensity-training-1.html]

Dr Cowan's 2 biggest recommendations to live long and healthy, short of moving

to the country and working an organic farm, are to 1) do 6 mos - 1 year of the

GAPS diet (www.gapsdiet.com), then transition to NT (the book Nourishing

Traditions by Sally Fallon), and 2) SuperSlow weight training.

Audio of his talk is available at www.westonaprice.org. I have ordered his talk

on heart disease, which should prove equally fascinating.

Feel free to share these notes.