The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 4, No. 6 February 20, 2004)

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The DOCTOR YOURSELF NEWSLETTER (Vol. 4, No. 6 February 20, 2004)"Free of charge, free of advertising, and free of the A.M.A."Written and copyright 2004 by Saul, PhD, ofhttp://www.doctoryourself.com , which welcomes nearly a million visitorsannually. Commercial use of the website or the contents of this Newsletteris strictly prohibited.HEALTH UN-SURANCESure, health insurance should cover preventive and therapeutic megadoses ofvitamins. It doesn't. Now think this one over: Viagra "is covered by mosthealth plans," says its manufacturer, Pfizer Inc., in its 2003 ad campaign.Of course Viagra, admits Pfizer, may cause "heart attack, stroke, irregularheart beats, and death" in some persons, even those without preexistingheart conditions.Face that off with the fact that high-dose vitamin E and C supplementsprevent heart attack and stroke, and reduce cardiovascular deaths by up to50%. (http://www.doctoryourself.com/forgotten.html)And still, substantially any use of vitamins is not covered by most "health"plans. I'll bet your own health "un-surance" won't even cover a dailymultiple vitamin. But it is much more likely to cover Grandpa's access to abetter sex life than to pay for vitamins for his grandchildren.As for the poor, Food Stamps cannot be used to buy vitamins, either. Someskeptical people I've talked to think this is tantamount to conspiracy.Whether or not that is the case does not matter nearly as much as this does:Take charge of, and responsibility for, your family's health. My motheralways said, "You can only spend your money in one place." Use it wisely:invest in wellness. It is cheaper in the long run.My children were raised all the way into college without even one dose ofany antibiotic. When we had insurance (which was rarely), it did not help usat all. Our kids had their physicals at school, and economically thusvetted, played outdoors, ate right, and, by golly, took their vitamins.Insurance did not pay for any of the vitamins or the good food that keptthem well.But as for erectile dysfunction, well now, just sign here!COST OF KIDS' VITAMINS BUGGING YOU?Oh, please. The average baby goes through between 6,000 and 7,000 diapersbefore completing toilet training. You might just as well have a healthybaby as a dry baby.Just raising one kid to age 18 can cost a quarter of a million dollars,according to the US Department of Agriculture. (Lino M. Expenditures onChildren by Families, 2002. USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion.Washington, DC, May 2003. Miscellaneous Publication Number 1528-2002.http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Crc/crc2002.pdf ) Do it on a health homesteader'sbudget, like I did, and it's still a hundred grand, easy.By any standard of comparison, you can afford supplements. Adjusted for 2004dollars, we personally spent about 25 cents a day per child on preventivemegadoses of vitamins. That's under a hundred bucks a year per kid. Whenthey were sick, up went the C and out came the vegetable juicer. But, asidefrom physicals, there were no doctor visits. (I mean NONE; my son anddaughter never even met their pediatricians.) No office call fees; nowaiting-room scream-a-thons; no co-pays; no medicines, prescription orotherwise. Such savings certainly covered the cost of carrots and extravitamin C.For more information on child's health, please do a search for "children"from the search box near the top of the main page athttp://www.doctoryourself.com .(Reader reminder: I do not endorse any supplement brand, and do not providerecommendations as to which one you might want to use. That is what Googlesearches and health food stores are for.)NEW REVIEW OF "DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works"(http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html):Hugh D. Riordan, M.D., writes:"What a superb book Doctor Yourself is for both the health professions andanyone interested in maintaining a better level of health. I applaud thework, especially its forthright manner of presentation. It should be ofenormous value to a vast number of people."My book "Doctor Yourself: Natural Healing that Works" is now availablethrough booksellers everywhere. If you'd like an autographed copy, please goto http://www.doctoryourself.com/order.html and I'll get out my Sharpie andsign one for you.WATERI'm for it.Your body is mostly water. Vegetable juice is mostly water. Food is mostlywater. Even wood from your local lumber yard is 25% water.Drink a lot of water and you will feel better immediately. Try it and see.Headaches vanish; stuffiness clears up pronto; your "plumbing" will likework a dream (less constipation; risk of kidney stones drops to near zero);it will even help you lose a bit of weight (especially in combination withvegetable juicing, further below).Do not take this as an excuse or an endorsement to spend money on waterproducts, with the possible exception of an inexpensive device to clean upyour drinking water if you live in an area where tap water is a bit dicey.Sipping from a cute little bottled-water container, while at least a smallstep in the right direction, is not the same as drinking water by theglassful. Unless there is a clear medical requirement that you limit yourfluids, then don't. Open the hatch and gulp it down! It is remarkablydifficult to over-hydrate yourself, but it is amazingly easy to getdehydrated. Though everyone knows that hot weather activity causes waterloss, you need as much or more to replace water lost in cold weatheractivity. It is not just exercising (I'm for that, too) that causes waterloss. Talking uses water: classroom teachers need an extra liter or two aday just for that. Airline travel dehydrates you, and there you just sit. Inmany ways, the old-time hydropathists were right: Water can be good for whatails you. Certainly the value is great, the safety high, and the price isright.LOWERING CHIOLESTEROL AND TRIGLYCERIDES writes:"I was having a very difficult time with cholesterol and triglycerides. Mytriglycerides were over 700 and cholesterol was 256. About two months ago,in one of your newsletters, you suggested that if we eat meat and friedfoods, that we should be taking lecithin. I went on a regimen of powderedlecithin, and in two months, my cholesterol was reduced to 180 andtriglycerides were reduced from over 700 to 350. Then, I started taking1,500 mg of niacin for the triglycerides and raised it to 3,000 mg/day."I suspected that my future lipid tests would continue to show dramaticimprovement, and they did. Three months later, cholesterol: 149;triglycerides: 250."I am 62 years old, and the doctor said that he was jealous of my bloodpressure and cholesterol count. Thank you!"Most kind of you to write. Your letter will be a great encouragement tomany. Thanks are rightly due to Dr. us Rinse, who turned me on tolecithin decades ago. (For more information on lecithin and Dr. Rinse'stherapy, please do a search for "lecithin" from the search box near the topof the main page at http://www.doctoryourself.com .)MULTIPLE CHEMICAL SENSITIVITYI am preparing an article on multiple chemical sensitivity. I'd beinterested in knowing what has helped you (and also what hasn't) if you haveMCS. No product endorsements, please. If you want to share your story,please email drsaul@... .DEPRESSIONR. T. writes:"I have struggled with chronic depression and anxiety for years. I read yourwebsite articles about vitamin B-3 (niacin) and schizophrenia, and the otherinfo about B vitamins and how important they are. So, I thought I would givethe idea a shot and went and purchased a powerful B-complex supplement. Itworked! I notice a magnificent improvement just over the past few months.Previously, I was taking Zoloft. But the B-complex has done much more thanthe Zoloft did. Amazing how mankind tries to complicate things when it isactually very simple. I am amazed!"Good for you. For even better results, you can take your B-complex vitamin,divide the dose, and take it all throughout the day, say with each meal. I'dbe sure to add vitamin C as well.WEIGHT LOSS"Does taking vitamins make you fat?"No, taking vitamins makes you healthy. Obtaining vitamins goes with eatingright. Underweight people who eat right and take vitamins will gain weight;heavy people who eat right and take vitamins will lose weight. Notovernight, but given time. Look for a 3 to five pound loss per month. Thatis the kind of gradual but sustainable weight loss you want to see.Vitamin pills contain no calories. The foods most people eat containcalories and no vitamins. I think a lot of people overeat because theirbodies are understandably craving vitamins and also craving the good part offats, their essential fatty acids (linolenic and linoleic acids). You canmeet both cravings without blimping out.Here's how:Eat a tablespoon of lecithin (granulated, stirred into in milk or juice)about half an hour before every meal. Lecithin in quantity is a very gooddiet aid: it kills your appetite while giving your body those two essentialfatty acids (above) it is really looking for.Also, take a good multiple vitamin pill twice daily. Most people's regularmega-calorie fare is already vitamin-poor. For most people, dieting justmakes bad food-based vitamin intakes even worse.WEIGHT LOSS AND APPETITE"Thank you honestly for all the valuable information you presented on yourwebsite regarding weight loss and, most importantly, how to keep it offthrough simple rules for changing life style, not just an item or two ofdiet."One of the most fruitful solutions you presented to lose weight was tojuice fast. I tried fasting before and it was easy after day 2 or 3. I'mthinking of juice fasting again, but those first two hungry days areamazingly hard as much as the days that follow them are amazingly great. Doyou have advice to share on this?"Sure do. The first thing to remember is that fasting is a choice; starvingis a sentence.We instinctively fear hunger, and with reason. I've gone hungry a few timesin my life and there is nothing ennobling about it. Let's start by banishingthe fear: You'll be fine.That brings us to appetite, the real problem. Like dogs and teenagers, weare always hungry. But for what? If you have a hankering for salty, sugary,greasy "foods," then I say you are not really hungry. Appetite is partlyphysiological but largely learned. While the normal human body can go daysor even weeks without food, your appetite is not about to let you withoutputting up a fight.Appetite is linked to low blood sugar, a desire to chew, and an emptystomach.We can fix them all.First, the blood sugar. Water-only fasting tends to crash your blood sugarand fruit-juice-only fasting tends to make it (and you) hyper. Vegetablejuice is in smack in the middle, containing a natural mix of some but nottoo many complex and simple carbohydrates. If you are pooped out, drink morejuice. For a picker-upper, have some fruit juice after you FIRST have twoglasses of plain water. If you are buzzing and putting a new addition on thehouse at 3 AM, try drinking more plain water. Otherwise, drink fresh madevegetable juices. Low-salt V-8 is good for taking to work and travelling.Now for the chewing part: Simply snack on raw vegetables, any kind, anytime, day or night. Chew them very, very well. Is this cheating? How can itbe, if you were going to put those same vegetables through the juiceranyway? Relax! This is about good health, not distracting technicalities andlegalities. I won't call the Food Police if you won't, OK? If you need to,then munch. Just munch on the right things. (More on this further below.)As far as having an empty stomach goes, well, don't. If you have an emptystomach you are doing it all wrong. When you are hungry, drink juice. Nolimit. All you want; any kind, any amount; any time. There is absolutely noneed to have an empty stomach. Juice it up!In summary: If you can eat it raw, you can juice it. If you can juice it,you can eat it raw. If you are hungry, immediately do one or the other.Now here is the part you've REALLY been waiting for:EAT AND GROW THINNER"Oh, yeah, like I haven't heard that one before!" you say.Let me let you in on a secret. The real trick to successful dieting truly isto never be hungry. If you are hungry or otherwise uncomfortable, you aredoing it wrong. Plenty of people needlessly suffer when they diet. I thinkmost dieters are either down and dehydrated, crazy carnivores, or angrymartyrs.Diet Mistake Number One: DOWN AND DEHYDRATED1) Don't dry up and wither away: Drink lots of water, as we've discussedabove. And the colder the better.(http://www.doctoryourself.com/dieting.html) It will cut your appetite. Itwill relieve most headaches. It will help fill your tummy with zerocalories. And it costs nothing.And while you have that water glass in your hand, take some vitamin C withit.One big reason people eat is to improve their mood. Vitamin C, a naturalantidepressant, also helps improve mood. High doses of vitamin C promote theformation of epinephrine, or adrenaline. In fact, the human body's primaryreserves of vitamin C are found in the adrenal glands, and vitamin C is aspecific treatment for adrenal exhaustion. You take more C and you feelpeppier. Sounds trite, but just you try it.Take substantial vitamin C doses regularly throughout the day and see howwell it works as an appetite suppressant. I am not making this up.Researchers of the Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center,found that, in persons "using an ascorbic acid aerosol as a sensorysubstitute" for tobacco, "hunger for food was significantly lower." (LevinED, Behm F, Carnahan E, LeClair R, Shipley R, Rose JE. Clinical trials usingascorbic acid aerosol to aid smoking cessation. Drug Alcohol Depend. 1993Oct;33(3):211-23.) How to make your own vitamin C spray has been discussedin previous Newsletters, and a search for "vitamin C spray" from the searchbox near the top of the main page at http://www.doctoryourself.com will findit for you.)Diet Mistake Number 2: CRAZY CARNIVORISM2) Most meats contain a big slug of fat. Even lean meat is made up of 10% to20% fat, and has no fiber. Yes, yes: you need protein. But you do notnecessarily need to kill a critter to get protein in your diet. Eat nutsinstead.Yes, nuts. You will hear people say the opposite, but the truth is that nutsare very good diet foods. They are satisfying, crunchy, high in magnesium,and have excellent mouth feel. Nuts are incredibly filling if you eat themslowly and chew them up well. Buy the good ones at the health food store:nothing stale, no salt, no oil, no tooth-rotting so-called "honey roasting."Eating nuts will help you have the willpower to leave the meats and manyanother "fat-food" alone. Nuts are high in the amino acid tryptophan, whichyour body makes into mood-elevating serotonin. For people who "eat for thewrong reasons," who eat out of loneliness, despondency or despair, nuts area perfect answer. Peanuts and cashews are especially rich in tryptophan.(http://www.doctoryourself.com/prozac.html)Diet Mistake Number 3: ANGRY MARTYRDOM3) It's not what you eat but what you eat a lot of that matters in the end,such as a pants-stretching rear end. Tasteless diet joke. Sorry. But don'thave a tasteless diet! Look, here's the plan: eat all the salads you wantand eat all the fruit you want, and I mean ALL you want. Raw-foodvegetarians eat themselves slim. Want to cook the vegetables? Go ahead,although it seems like a lot of extra work to me. Cooking does not increasethe calories in a food, but it does compact the food such that you eat moreof it. A really big bowl of greens will cook down into a very small portion.Still, it's better for you than the meat-mad, fat-frenzied, carbo-crazy waymost people eat. Raw vegetarian foods are fat-free, low cal and delicious,and you can eat until you are FULL at every meal. Now that's a diet plan!(http://www.doctoryourself.com/weight_loss.html)If you do not want to go for the "full monty" of a raw food vegetarian diet,that just do a regular no-junk-food, meatless diet and load up on foods thatreally do need cooking: the legumes. Peas, beans and lentils are high infiber, cheap and filling. They are also high in the dieter's friend,tryptophan, the feel-good amino acid mentioned above.Be sure to eat your squash, too. People who complain that vegetarian eatingdoes not satisfy their hunger are doing it wrong. Follow the ways of thenative Americans and always invite all of the Three Sisters to your dinnertable: grain, legumes and squash. If you eat a lot of just one or two partsof this triad, you will likely still have the after-dinner munchies. Whenyou have roughly equal servings of grain, beans, and squash at each meal,you prepare yourself for entry into a whole different between-meal world: aworld in which you are happy and the cravings are gone.If you do not agree with this, it is because you have not tried it yet. Whynot? What have you got to lose?READERS SAY, aged 93, writes:"Back in 1970 my hubby had the killer kind of heart attack. He was alive buta sick man with serious heart troubles a year later. We learned about theDrs. Shute's therapy with vitamin E. Dr. Wilfrid Shute called Coumadin"poison," took him off it, and within weeks (it seemed) had him hearthealthy. My husband took only our current vitamins, plus he'd worked up to1,600 IU's of vitamin E. This took him to age 90 without health problems."Way to go! A search for "Shute" or for "Vitamin E" athttp://www.doctoryourself.com will give you much more to read about thisapproach.WHY FDA MEANS "FOOLISH DRUG ADVOCATES"The U.S. Senate, the U. S. House of Representatives and the FDA (in closecooperation with the international pharmaceutical cartel) are attempting torestrict vitamin potency with a "dosage must be restricted to insure safety"argument. Consider this: tincture of iodine, a deadly poison, is sold overthe counter without even being in a child-resistant bottle. There is a screwloose here somewhere, and it may be more than just the iodine bottle cap.Previous recent issues of this Newsletter discussing this problem are postedat http://www.doctoryourself.com/backissues.html . Look for the latest onesin Volume 4. The search engine on my main page will save you time: just typein "CODEX" or "supplement restriction."You can find VACCINATION EXEMPTION LAW, STATE BY STATE, athttp://www.access1.net/via/STATES/allstates.htm , which says "All Stateshave a Medical Exemption. In addition, all States have a Religious Exemptionexcept Mississippi and West Virginia." Interesting, that, since the FirstAmendment of the U. S. Constitution applies (or should apply) in EVERYstate, don't you think?For more information on vaccination alternatives and how to do them, pleasesearch the http://www.doctoryourself.com website with the keyword"vaccination." There are many excellent anti-vaccination websites to befound on my "Links" page.YOUR FEEDBACK WANTEDHave you ever been denied a natural therapy by a doctor or hospital? Tellyour story! Email your experience to me at drsaul@...WEBSITE RESOURCEDoes your state have laws protecting your right to demand natural healthcare? Does it protect your doctor from persecution if he or she providesdrugless care to you? All this and more will be found athttp://www.healthlobby.com/statelaw.html .WHEN I WAS AN "IN-BETWEEN-AGER"I was just minding my own business one day when my father said this to me,without a preface of any kind: "As of today, I've been married longer than I've been single. Remember that." I have. I have also learned that arelationship is one of the few things that takes two people to make it work,but only one person to wreck it. Certainly your total health care requires aconsideration of the health of your relationships. I am pleased to presentsome wise words by SUNY Professor Emeritus I. Mosher, Ph.D. Four of Dr.Mosher's practical, down-to-earth articles are posted athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/relationship.htmlhttp://www.doctoryourself.com/mosher2.htmlhttp://www.doctoryourself.com/mosher_neuro.htmlhttp://www.doctoryourself.com/mosher3.htmlSTOP TOBACCO DEATHSTobacco is the number one cause of preventable death. Lung cancer kills farmore women than breast cancer. Tobacco smoke contains hundreds of toxicchemicals. For more information on putting an end to smoking, you can lookat the website of one of my favorite, all-volunteer organizations:http://www.SmokefreeAir.org .POPULARITY CONTESTAccording to http://www.ranking.com , http://www.doctoryourself.com is nowapproximately the 109,000th most visited website on earth. That's not ofjust health websites; that's of all websites.The word is getting out, and you are the reason. Keep reading!Privacy Statement:We do not sell, and we do not share, our mailing list or your email addresswith anyone. We never send out advertisements of any kind. You may noticethat there is no advertising at http://doctoryourself.com and no advertisingin this newsletter. We have no financial connection with the supplementindustry. We do not sell vitamins or other health products, except for Dr.Saul's books, which help fund these free public services.FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR ALL to this newsletter are available with a blankemail todynews-subscribe@...AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This newsletter is not in any way offered asprescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity orphysical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health programnecessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no oneshould assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it froma physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision."DOCTOR YOURSELF" "DoctorYourself.com" and "Doctor Yourself Newsletter" areservice marks of W. Saul. All rights reserved.Copyright c 2004 and prior years W. Saul drsaul@... .Permission to reproduce single copies of this newsletter FOR NON-COMMERCIAL,PERSONAL USE ONLY is hereby granted providing no alteration of content ismade and authorship credit is given. Additional single copies will be sentby postal mail to a practitioner or patient, free of charge, upon receipt ofa self addressed envelope with THREE first-class stamps on it (offer good inthe USA only), to Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, NY 14470 USA. (585)638-5357.For information about my new book, "DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing thatWorks" please go to http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html .---Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).Version: 6.0.588 / Virus Database: 372 - Release Date: 2/14/2004