WHY DO VACCINES DAMAGE SOME PEOPLE?

Vaccination is a boon today. So why is there fear? Perhaps a vaccine candidate is on a “metabolic cliff” and gets “knocked off” by the “stress” of the inoculation. History provides a model clue. Beriberi was a scourge in the East for millennia. It is now known to be due to dietary vitamin B1 (thiamin) deficiency, damaging energy metabolism, chiefly affecting the brain, heart and nervous system. Earlier attempts to find the cause were blocked by a simple observation. Eastern factories were built in blocks with passages between them. In the summer the workers would eat their lunch in the passages. Initially in the shade, the sun would eventually shine on them and several would get their first symptom(s) of beriberi simultaneously, leading to the false conclusion that the disease was caused by an unknown infection. Ultra violet light (UVL) is stressful to the human body, (why tanning is a natural defense). Some of the workers, being “on the dietary edge” of developing beriberi, were stressed by the UVL. Lacking sufficient cellular energy to mount an efficient adaptive response, they were “knocked off their metabolic cliff”, a metaphor for a person succumbing to risk. Both the diet and the exposure to sunlight were risk factors. Nobody today has any idea that a person is at risk. If the “stress” of a vaccination, like UVL, is imposed on a person at risk, it might be “the last straw”. Evidence suggests that the dietary “mayhem” that exists today may be a risk factor. Sugar induces vitamin B1 (thiamin) deficiency and may reflect known excessive sugar consumption. Most commercial foods contain sugar, pandering to palatability, not health. Consumption by children and adolescents might explain some adverse reactions to vaccination. Imagine 3 interlocking circles labeled Genetics/Stress/Nutrition. Their combined action governs health and disease. The imposed stress, if not itself overwhelmingly the obvious cause,requires an energy consuming response that is dependent on the fitness derived from the state of the other two circles. A simple diet history from a vaccine candidate might depict possible risk, particularly if there is symptomatic evidence. Vitamin B deficiency can be spotted in the laboratory by a test called red cell transketolase, a test that is known to few medical laboratories. Since all disease depends on the state of the three circles, it represents a huge shift in our concepts of health and its breakdown. We cannot "blame" the "stress" of the inoculation anymore than the poor diet or the unknown genetic risk of a given individual.

"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD"

There is accumulating scientific evidence for “intelligent design” (www.Summary of Scientific Evidence for Creation ( Part I & II) by Duane Gish, Ph.D. Michael J Behe. Darwin’s Black Box; The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. Mar 2006) The “Big Bang” is now accepted as a natural law and indicates that “something can be created from nothing”. Perhaps the evolution of man is part of a great design so that we become the first creatures on Earth that have the capacity to discover that design and explain the long held view that there is, in fact, a designer. Einstein taught us that energy and matter are inter-convertible (E=MC2). This must change our present concept of who we are, how our overall health matters and how the art and science of medicine must “catch up” with the natural sciences in physics, chemistry and astronomy. Although we know how our cells create chemical energy from food, we still know little about its transduction to electrical energy. For example, we know that the 500 volts of energy produced in the electric organ of the electric eel is an adaptation of a nerve mechanism. Some research has been published that begins to connect the energy transduction process, inviting further speculation (Bettendorff L, et al. Thiamine triphosphate and membrane-associated thiamine triphosphatases in the electric organ of Electrophorus electricus. J Neurochem 1987;49:495-502). The principle is exactly the same as that in the mechanism of some of our own nerves, using the neurotransmitter called acetyl choline. If the “designer” is energy, then God is in our heads, because it is electrical energy that drives the brain. BRAIN FUNCTION Although we still do not know how our brains give us the power to think, we have lots of evidence that at least part of it is a computer called the limbic system. We know that it automates all our ability to adapt to the constantly changing environment that we meet on a daily basis. For example, we sweat when it is hot and shiver when it is cold. The “fight-or-flight” reflex is a well known response to danger. It may be “taught” to perform actions that appear to be intellectual. An accomplished musician plays the notes automatically, using the brain computer. The “thinking brain”, whose functions are still mysterious, is applied to interpretation of the composer’s intentions in creation of the music. BRAIN ENERGY However these functions operate, energy is consumed. We understand the chemistry and know that poor nutrition, demanding calorie liberating fuel, oxygen and vitamin/mineral catalytic nutrients, results in energy loss. Electric energy is produced in our tissues (cardiogram, encephalogram) but there has been little thought given to whether this is a mere effect of chemical reactions or evidence that it is the energy that drives function. Acupuncture and various forms of electrical treatment are beneficial, supporting the importance of electrogenesis (formation of electric energy). Hence, electric energy can be boosted by these means in bypassing the normal chemical/electrical transduction process. The synthesis of cellular energy must meet the demands of its consumption and therefore, one is as important as the other. In a mad workaday world, the combination of daily stress and poor diet is a virtual guarantee for lack of this cellular energy affecting brain function. Our physical existence is organized and controlled by the brain. The body is a chassis that carries our heads and all body functions are a result of brain action. Attacks by microorganisms give rise to defensive reactions organized by the brain. If that organization breaks down, we are automatically inducing the onset of disease. Depending on the way the messages are dispatched, a lack of brain energy can affect the organs of the body and produce “organic” disease. Energy conservation and nutrition come together as the primary method to treat both body and brain. We are never consciously aware of brain function except by its results. Thinking uses energy and both physical and mental “stress” consumes it. When we dig a ditch we are conscious of work being done and are not surprised by onset of fatigue. When we sit at a desk and think, we know that the resulting fatigue is even greater than with digging a ditch, but we do not usually associate it with brain energy consumption. The brain uses twenty per cent of the oxygen taken in with each breath. Mental “stress” wastes energy and anything that shows this fact and teaches conservation has to be at least preventive, and potentially therapeutic. BIOFEEDBACK Biofeedback is a method for energy conservation. The patient sits in a comfortable chair and receives brain input by either auditory or visual stimulus. Electrodes are placed strategically on the scalp and music is played, or an image is projected on a computer screen. The patient must learn that complete relaxation is necessary to maintain the continuity of the stimulus. If this is not achieved, the music stops or the visual image disappears and the stimulus chosen returns when relaxation is accomplished. There are billions of neuronal connections in the brain and any volitional use will start function and consume energy. The function is intercepted by the technology and the stimulus is cancelled until the synaptic transmissions slow down or cease. The patient gradually becomes aware that thinking or any form of physical tension stops the stimulus until relaxation is achieved, thus conserving energy. Biofeedback explains the action of meditation and backs up the ancient disciplines of mind/body control.

My book on alternative medication - A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine

Is Alternative Medicine the Answer We Need? Are we poisoning ourselves with the foods we eat? Dr. Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., provides the nutritional and health care answers we need in his no-nonsense book A Nutritional Approach to a Revised Model for Medicine: Is Modern Medicine Helping You? Can a simple change in our diet make all the difference? Are we eating too much sugar? Could the obesity epidemic, diabetes, and a host of other diseases be the result of our present dietary mayhem? This is the view expressed in the illuminating book by author Derrick Lonsdale M.D., who draws attention to the dangers of the prolific ingestion of sugar that is so widespread today. The book cites case reports to illustrate these dangers and to emphasize the ease with which symptoms may be stemmed in the early stages. However, if symptoms are left unrecognized and behavior is unmodified, these symptoms become less treatable, giving rise to chronic diseases and serious health problems. This is one house call you won’t want to miss! A NUTRITIONAL APPROACH TO A REVISED MODEL FOR MEDICINE: IS MODERN MEDICINE HELPING YOU? (ISBN: 978-1-61897-092-3) is now available for $13.50 and can be ordered through the publisher’s website: http://sbpra.com/DerrickLonsdale or at www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com. WHOLESALERS: This book is distributed by Ingram Books and other wholesale distributors. Contact your representative with the ISBN for purchase. Wholesale purchase for retailers, universities, libraries, and other organizations is also available through the publisher; please email bookorder@aeg-online-store.com. About the Author: Derrick Lonsdale, M.D., was born in Lancashire, England, and earned an MB.BS. at London University. He worked in medical practice for 64 years, retiring at the age of 88. Dr. Lonsdale is a Fellow of the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), an international professional organization that represents the alternative medicine field. He has written two previous books on alternative medicine and published over 100 medical papers. Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLC www.AuthorMarketingIdeas.com www.PublishOnDemandGlobal.com www.StrategicBookClub.com ABOUT: Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLC provides book publishing, book marketing, and e-Book services to over 10,000 writers around the world, employing 150 people who live throughout the US and work virtually through telecommunication. Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLC is experiencing over 30% growth per year, having published approximately 3000 authors with almost 100 new releases per month. Our books are available through Ingram, the largest book distributor in the world, as well as in bookstores, through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all online channels. Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co, LLC attends and exhibits at the major book expositions in London, New York, China, and Germany each year. To follow us on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/2cwerv7 To follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/SBPRA To follow us on Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3690863

THE THREE CIRCLES OF HEALTH

I was particularly struck by an article in a Canadian magazine by Inge Hanle “Why are Pharmaceutical ‘psycho-drugs’ mandated- and Orthomolecular Remediation shunned and even outlawed”? She put her finger on it by saying that “Health is not the driving engine of ‘health care. Money is and money talks. I have failed in laboring against this ignominious fact for years after my eyes were opened to the truth. The fact is, however, that we cannot ever give up”. Then what is the truth? I was told by a friend that he could not understand my previous posts. They were “too technical” so I am going to try to put all of them in a “nutshell” and say that all I am trying to do is to deliver a message. Each of the earlier posts actually depend on understanding the principles outlined here. This blog is not for entertainment, it is trying to educate the public, based on 64 years of medical practice. Neither does it cost a dime to read. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It seems that few people ever give the slightest thought to why we breathe and what we do with the oxygen that we inhale. It is likely that when the use of oxygen (oxidation) in the body goes haywire, even fewer people associate it with illness. So let me make it as clear as I can in supporting the words of Inge Hanle. “Orthomolecular remediation” means that every cell in the animal body, including humans, requires fuel (calorie producing nutrients).Naturally occurring food includes a whole series of nutritional substances (orthomolecular) that must “ignite” (oxidation is a form of chemical combustion) to create energy. It applies to every one of the 70 to 100 trillion units (cells) that are stuck together to make a human body. Each cell has a special function that contributes to the enormously complex activities of the whole brain/body union. “Remediation” implies that this complement of nutrients is not being met by modern diet and must be provided for normal health, or even its retrieval. When a person has been consuming high calorie foods that do not have enough vitamin content, the cellular machinery begins to decline. The symptoms generated are so common that they are either ignored by family and physician or given the label “psychosomatic”, or “functional”. At this stage it only requires simple recognition of dietary error as the cause. If it continues for years, however, the damage gradually becomes irreversible and results in classic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, many different brain diseases in adults, and autism from bad nutrition in pregnancy. As we all know now, there are genetically determined diseases, but we will show shortly that such a handicap can be helped by nutrition and lifestyle--------a new science called epigenetics. The brain and the heart use more energy than any other tissue in the body. That is why the high calorie intake of white rice (fuel) without vitamin B (spark plug) caused thousands of years of terrible neurological and heart disease in millions. This disease, known as beriberi, is one of the classical vitamin deficiency diseases. White rice (the grain without the vitamin containing husks) is starch and was the staple food for the peasants in China. This is broken down to glucose in the body and is the primary fuel for our cells, particularly the brain. The high concentration of carbohydrate yielding calories without vitamin B caused the disease. The “fuel” was not being efficiently oxidized, resulting in lack of sufficient energy for the affected cells to function properly. It is a perfect example of high calorie malnutrition. Because modern diet is believed to have adequate vitamin enrichment, beriberi is considered to be only of historical interest. But starch is a carbohydrate and in our present culture sugar in ALL its different forms substitutes for white rice. Thus high carbohydrate calorie malnutrition Is common. The effect of this , known from experimental studies in human subjects in 1942, is to make the brain more irritable, producing “psychosomatic” symptoms. Examples are; heart palpitations, an intermittent form of relatively mild chest pain, IBS, PMS, excessive sweating, pins and needles or numbness, recurrent nausea and vomiting, fibromyalgia, sudden bursts of emotional reactions such as might follow a trivial incident and even allergic manifestations from food or external influence such as a mosquito bite. The brain/body is always alert to defend us from hostile aspects of nature. If, however, it has been made too responsive by high calorie malnutrition, it fires excessive signals that provide discomfort in the form of these symptoms. A full belly is not necessarily good nutrition. I have repeatedly referred to “high calorie malnutrition” in previous posts. It has been said that any complexity must be reduced to simplicity to be of general use. So I have provided an hypothesis to show how the complexity of modern medicine can be reduced to relative simplicity. By drawing three interlocking circles you can easily understand the mechanisms of health and disease. They all interlock at the center. Circle 1: Genetics. Modern medicine is looking deeper and deeper into our genetic mechanisms. They are trying, I believe falsely, to explain every disease on genetic grounds alone. It is true that genes come into our individualized construction and our DNA is never perfect. But many of the “mistakes” are minor and fortunately, by themselves, make little clinical difference. Some form of stress may initiate their action. Even major mistakes in DNA can often be helped b y the science of epigenetics. This is based on the discovery that our genes are indeed influenced by diet and lifestyle. Circle 2: Stress Stress is defined as “pressure or tension or compulsion (times of s.when much energy is needed)”. It is the part in italics that matters in the interpretation of its effect on health. People fail to be aware of the slow health deterioration that they can suffer both mentally and physically as a result of prolonged stress from all the complexities of modern lifestyle. They often fail to realize the energy consumption required for recovery from an infection or surgery. Because we have to adapt constantly to both physical and mental stress, the energy consumption can be enormous. If the energy producing biochemical mechanisms fail to keep up with the increased expenditure, cellular energy deficiency results in dysfunction that depends on locality and the aggregate number of affected cells. Circle 3: Nutrition. If a car gets the fuel for which it has not been designed, its performance is either reduced or it ceases. That is also true for us and so it behooves us to study the nature of the right fuel. Since we would not have survived as a species if the food had not been present when we arrived on Earth, it is obvious that naturally occurring food is the fuel that fits our design. Any substitute is essentially wrong, even though our “engines” are remarkably adaptable and many people “get away with it”. It should be obvious that the highest power car engines require the fuel most closely suited to its design and I have come to realize that the most superior people are in greater danger from poor nutrition. The observations made over many years indicate that the greatest danger is in high intelligence brains. I will give an illustration of the necessary interaction between these three circles from the history of beriberi , now accepted by all as an excess of simple carbohydrate without vitamin B 1. Its cause from dietary deficiency has been known for less than one hundred years. The peasants in China, where beriberi affected thousands, worked in factories made up of ranks of buildings, separated by relatively narrow corridors. In the early spring/summer months, the workers would take their lunch in the corridors. At first they would be in the shade but after a short while the sun would shine onto them. Some of the workers would develop their first symptoms of beriberi as they continued to sit in the sun. It was this kind of phenomenon that made the doctors think that the disease was due to infection since a few individuals succumbed at the same time. Now that the cause of this disease is an open book, the explanation is quite different. Why, for example, would only a few workers succumb? They were all eating the same diet. Genetic risk always comes into the picture in health and disease because we are all uniquely different in detail. Sunlight is stressful to the body. That is why we tan because it is a form of defense against the physical stress of sunlight. Granted that the nutrition circle was (and still is) the most important circle but sunlight initiated symptoms in those who were either more at risk genetically or diet wise. I imagine the workers most at risk were “sitting on the edge of a metabolic cliff”. The “stress factor” knocked them off the “cliff”. If we think this way, it becomes much easier to understand why a disease like diabetes can make its first appearance after a simple infection, a business crisis or a divorce. Geneticists have never been able to fit this disease into the classic concepts of genetics because that is only one circle in “The Three Circles of Health”

CHILD ABUSE

Since the title of this blog is “Oxygen the Spark of Life” a reader might well ask why I am addressing the subject of child abuse. In all my posts I have tried to show that normal brain activity depends on normal energy metabolism induced by efficient oxidation. It is obvious that child abuse can be simply a lack of love and we know that people are capable of cruelty but I have had an unusual experience with child abuse. The nature of the extreme cruelty is hard to explain as coming from a parent with a normal brain function. I am going to recount the history of three unusual cases. They were so awful that it resulted in a symposium at Cleveland Clinic Foundation where every member of the many public organizations in the city dealing with children’s welfare were invited. Many years later, I met a woman that told me that it had led to the establishment of the “hotline” that operates in Cleveland today. They all happened so many years ago that identification would be impossible. Perhaps the most tragic case was Charlie who was brought for medical consultation “to explain all those scars on his body”. The point is that the correct nature of the cause of the injuries is never given. It is “this strange disease” or “he fell off a wall” etc. So a physician has to be a detective as well as a sympathetic listener. It turned out that the real cause of Charlie’s scars was repeated cigarette burns perpetrated by his mother. This has been reported in other cases. I imagine that it is “you do that again and I will punish you with another burn”! It comes from the mind of a parent under extreme stress, especially as the father had the nickname ”Killer”. Then there was Vicki, aged four, who was admitted to the hospital with an obvious case of Kwashiorkor, the typical appearance of protein starvation seen today in children of third world countries. Vicki quickly began to flourish, even with “hospital food” and it turned out that it was a case of attempted homicidal starvation. Although this could not be proved, the mother was ordered to appear with the child at regular intervals. Each time that she made an appearance the child was clothed in a new outfit, each one being of a different color. One day the child appeared with three bruises on her forehead and this was explained by a fall. I must add here that all this was before the Child Abuse law was established in Ohio. At that time it was necessary only to report a suspicion to the police. Later, Vicki was brought into the emergency room in coma and was passed immediately to neurosurgery where the brain tissue was found to be abnormal in appearance and substance. When she died, nothing could be proved but I suspect that she was smothered. The last case I want to describe was a 6-month old infant referred by a pediatrician who had found an enlarged liver in the child. He was scheduled for liver biopsy but with TLC from the nurses he began to sit up by himself for the first time and to my great surprise, I found that the enlarged liver could no longer be felt. I cancelled the biopsy and told the mother what the findings were and that she would need to follow up with the pediatrician. As I was reporting to her, there was a sudden and dramatic dilatation of her pupils. I became suspicious that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and wrote to the pediatrician asking him to watch out for possible child abuse. The mother was referred to a psychiatrist who reported that she was perfectly normal. A month or two later, this child was in an emergency room with a skull fracture, still accepted as “an accident”. The next event proved the underlying truth when the child was found drowned in a bath tub. I later received a letter from the pediatrician telling me of the final event and adding, “ I wonder how we could have prevented this”? I was unable to explain how something as important to an infant as TLC could rapidly lead to a return of an enlarged liver to normal. It did, however, lead me toward the importance of “mind over matter” in consideration of health and disease. Had the simple charm of loving care turned on the placebo effect? Doctors are trained to accept the complaints of a patient and at this relatively early era in mid 20th century, child abuse was not as well known as it is today. Other pediatricians thought that I was cruel and unsympathetic, reflected by the presence of only three or four pediatricians at the symposium. I have suggested in previous articles and papers that murder can occur in blind rage (seeing red), even on the spur of the moment. A crime can be accepted in Ohio as “temporary insanity” if it can be proved that the criminal “knows what he is doing but is powerless to stop himself from doing it”. This, totally different from cold blooded planned crime, was illustrated very well by Dostoyevsky in his novel, “Crime and Punishment”. The trouble is that it is virtually impossible to prove. In the case of child abuse, the abusive actions often occur impulsively and seem to be well beyond the powers of reason. The extraordinary love of motherhood is an icon of human behavior. I hypothesize that the brain of an abusing parent is biochemically abnormal and the child, in some way, irritates her/him to release a physical action known to be wrong, but beyond the power of reason. Although child abusers, like wife abusers, are more commonly from the lower socioeconomic members of society, it is certainly not confined to them. Alcohol and/or poor diet may well enter the picture in many cases, thus introducing biochemical changes that cause excessive irritability that overwhelms the power of reason. For this to be explored and researched, it would be necessary to accept the possibility. Our society and our medical thinking is very far from that.

MICRO-ORGANISMS ARE OPPORTUNIST

As a brief prelude, those who know a little about English history will remember that Henry VIII “dissolved” the monasteries so that he could grab their cash. My teaching hospital, St Bartholomew’s, was founded by a monk named Rahere in 1123 as a monastery in “the smooth field”, now known as Smithfield in the City of London. Thus “dear old Henry” dissolved it! Later when he became sick from syphilis he wanted somewhere that would treat him so he refounded it and became known paradoxically as the founder. Thus there is a statue of him over the entrance gate to this day. As a young intern in this, my teaching hospital, I had an experience that I have remembered through 64 years of medical practice. One night I was confronted with a middle aged man with pneumonia. This was before the days of antibiotics: the first sulfonamide had just been synthesized. The patient was known to have chronic tuberculosis and the pneumonia was an additional factor. There was little that we could do for him. In the morning I was standing in the ward entrance. The hospital was made up of wards for males and females separately and each consisted of about 30 beds. The only privacy was a curtain that was used to surround each bed as required. Each ward was presided over by a head nurse who was called Sister. Her flowing cap and the name Sister were inherited from the time when monks were the doctors and lay sisters were the nurses in monasteries. Every physician in an English hospital and especially young interns listened to Sister at his peril. She ruled the ward with an iron rod. She is truly a historical figure. The next morning, while I was standing in the ward entrance, my “chief” had entered and was standing behind me. He said “O, I see you have a dying patient” and of course, I asked him how he knew. “Well,” he said, pointing to my patient with pneumonia, “you see how that patient’s fingers are picking at the edge of the bed-sheet, occasionally pointing at the ceiling and picking at thin air: that is consistent with what we recognize as a toxic brain”. Well, of course, he died and the autopsy showed that his entire body was infiltrated with micro-abscesses filled with staphylococci. The lab work before he died showed nothing that would even hint at disease. The white cell count was normal: he had no elevated temperature and other blood tests were all normal. Laboratory tests are used really to see how a sick person is responding to any form of “stress”, including any form of infection. They really demonstrate how the body defenses are responding to an attack. It was clear that he had not put up any kind of defense at all. In fact, due to poverty, poor diet and the ensuing tuberculosis, his defense mechanisms were simply not functioning. The important factor that I learned the hard way was that the part of his brain that acts as a computer below conscious level was “sick” and that it had failed to organize any kind of defense. The next time I saw this phenomenon was when I was an assistant in a family practice in Leicester, a Midlands city. One evening two young women came into the surgery (office) at the end of evening hours and said “we want you to come and see our Dad”. I asked whether it could wait until morning and they said “no—we want you to come now. He’s got a cough”. When I entered the bedroom I saw a middle aged man who was kneeling on a bed with a single blue light bulb over the bed as the only lighting. He was looking at me with sightless eyes, pointing at me and “picking at thin air”. He proved to have meningitis caused by a pneumococcus, an unusual organism for meningitis but a common one for pneumonia. The family had failed to call me for his “cough” that was due to pneumonia that had preceded the meningitis. Because of his extreme disability through poverty, lousy diet and poor living conditions, the organism that had caused pneumonia had spread to the spinal tissues to cause meningitis. He had the same situation as the one already described. It has been a vivid memory that has guided me to see how the brain is responsible for our body defenses in any sort of attack, whether it be an infection, an injury or virtually any form of “stress”. So, it is fascinating now to see that research has indeed shown how the brain “gets into the act”. It has recently been found that the lower part of the brain, the computer, receives information that an organism is attacking. It then dictates what has come to be known as the “inflammatory reflex”. It organizes this vital defensive mechanism because of messages from the attacked tissue to the brain through an important nerve called the vagus. This nerve runs from the lower part of the brain to many organs in the body, carrying signals from and to them. Thus it turns on the inflammatory reflex, controls the right degree of inflammation and then turns it off. We need inflammation as a defense but it has to be carefully controlled. If something goes wrong with it, an important part of our defense is compromised. The mechanism depends on chemistry (and probably electricity) derived from food that supply our cells with the ingredients to synthesize cellular energy that enable this vital reflex to function. Both these unfortunate patients were killed by organisms that quickly overwhelmed their depleted natural defenses. Thus, you might say that the attacking organisms were opportunists. They “cashed in” on an easy opportunity to win what is essentially a war between us and our environment. We are bombarded with stressors that we cannot see, against which we have to mount a defense. As Darwin theorized, it is the survival of the fittest. The term “opportunist” is officially reserved for organisms that attack us only when our ability to defend ourselves has been damaged severely enough through disease to threaten death. For example, candida albicans is a yeast, known as “opportunist” since it is generally considered never to launch an attack unless serious illness has prevailed. We all know, of course, that Louis Pasteur introduced us to the fact that organisms that could only be seen with a microscope could kill us. This was really the first paradigm in medicine that led us ever since to seek ways and means to “kill the enemy”, whether it be bacteria, virus or cancer cell. I find it fascinating that Pasteur is said to have remarked on his death bed “I was wrong! It is the body defenses that matter”. Thus, perhaps Louis Pasteur indicated the next medical paradigm. I think that we should consider all pathogenic micro-organisms to be potentially “opportunist”. In recent years I have seen many children with autism who commonly develop yeast infections and although they are certainly biochemically compromised, they are not by any means “near death”. We are seeing diseases caused by infections with organisms like chlamydia that appear to be classified as “opportunist” but I believe that our profligate diet, the air we breathe, water and food pollution are all combining to weaken our defenses so that organisms that do not usually attack are being given a better opportunity to win the war. I believe that we should regard any pathogenic micro-organism as an opportunist, because it is much less likely to win a war when our bodily defenses are well organized. Think of the body as like an old fashioned fortress. There was a central control in the shape of a commander and the defenders obeyed his orders. If the commander was asleep or otherwise out of commission, any attack on the fortress would be potentially doomed. I have been engaged in answering patient’s questions on a new website called ”Health Tap”. This is where a great deal of free answers are provided by a large group of doctors who give some of their time to this beneficial connection between doctor and patients. What surprised me was that the answer I have had to give to so many of these questions has been “diet”. It was so common that I must look like a “broken record” to some. The fact is, however, that the nature of our fuel supply is one of the very few things that we can do preventively to maintain health. As long as we drive a two ton machine to a supermarket and buy our food in cardboard boxes, we are like cars that have been provided with the wrong fuel. The resulting failure to synthesize sufficient cellular energy winds up by supplying our only natural enemies with plenty of opportunity. It was not doctors that stopped the common appearance of tuberculosis. It was better housing, hygiene and less starvation. It is not too surprising that this dread disease has recently made its reappearance and is Mother Nature’s comment on our modern diet. The only difference is that we have swung from too little food to too much of the wrong food, the Yin and Yang that rule the natural order of things.

BLEPHAROSPASM

Blepharospasm (from the Greek blepharo; eyelid and spasm meaning an uncontrolled muscle contraction) is any abnormal contraction or twitch of the eyelid. It is well described in Wikipedia as “a neurological movement disorder involving involuntary and sustained contractions of the muscles around the eyes” Wikipedia goes on to say that “the person’s eyelids feel like they are clamping shut and will not open without great effort”. It is fairly rare, affecting only one in 20,000 people. In some cases an affected person is able temporarily to open his/her eyes by a voluntary mental diversion. For example, he/she might want to go into a store to buy something but is functionally blind. By saying “e.g. Mary had a little lamb---etc.” the eyes open, but close again after the verbal diversion is completed. This, of course, suggests a “psychosomatic” background, but I have tried to deal with that issue in previous posts. Wikipedia indicates that its cause is unknown but obviously it is related to abnormal brain function in sending unwanted messages to the eyelid muscles. I am addressing this because of a most unusual case that I encountered many years ago. She did not fit at all into the descriptions provided by Wikipedia. It seemed to illustrate two things that I have tried to emphasize repeatedly in this blog. First, it is the brain/body combination and secondly the fundamental role of oxidation, the use of intracellular oxygen in energy synthesis, particularly as it affects the brain. The patient was a girl, 12 years of age. She had been referred because her eyelids had been in a permanent state of spasm for some time. As I examined her I tried to open one of her eyes manually. The spasm was so strong that I could only open it as a slit and as I did this a stream of tear fluid shot out several inches in the form of a spray, indicating that the tear glands were being stimulated at the same time. The other thing that I noticed was that her skin was covered with “goose bumps”. At one time in our evolutionary history we were covered with hair and each hair could be raised by the contraction of a tiny muscle attached to the follicle from which the hair grew. It is thought that the ape-like animal would look much fiercer when confronting an enemy with all his hair fluffed up. We no longer have the hairs but the follicles have remained and when the little muscle contracts, it makes a tiny cone-like bump that we call a “goose bump”. We still experience hair rising on the back of the neck when we encounter a form of sudden stress. Running my hand over the child’s skin, it felt rough because of the generalized pilo-erection (pilo: a hair). Most people associate this skin appearance with feeling cold, quite correctly. This is because the action is mediated by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic (automatic) nervous system (ANS). In previous posts I have discussed the ANS and the sympathetic branch is responsible for mobilizing action as in the fight-or-flight reflex that is initiated in a state of imminent danger. In other words this child was experiencing a danger reaction without there being any form of danger. After admission to the hospital it was found that she had a high blood sugar indicating that she had diabetes. Then a strange thing happened; after a single injection of insulin the pilo-erection disappeared. This, of course, indicated that her sympathetic system had become less activated. How to explain this gave me a great deal of thought. I came to the conclusion that the diabetes was due to the fact that the central part of her brain was not monitoring the concentration of circulating blood sugar and failed to send a signal to the pancreas to produce the necessary insulin. This made some sense considering the fact that the blepharospasm was caused by an outpouring of signals from the brain. I came to the conclusion that oxidative metabolism in the brain was the central underlying cause for everything and started to give her thiamine tetrahydrofurfuryl disulfide (TTFD) {Blog posts:3/16/11, A Remarkable Nutritional Supplement. 10/8/11: An Unusual Recovery}. To my surprise and satisfaction, the eyes opened and she became clinically well. She turned out to be an exceptionally intelligent and delightful personality who delighted in writing poetry. She lived in another State and after discharge I lost sight of her. Some years later I heard from another source that she had developed a calcified tumor in the center of the brain but I was not a party to how this was treated or what was the outcome. That supported my original contention that the problem was due to abnormal activity in the lower part of the brain. I need hardly add that there was no evidence of a tumor when she was under my care. There was therefore no possibility of knowing whether the tumor was related to cause or effect. I am describing this case because, as I have already said, it illustrates the dual action of the brain and body in both health and disease. Her blood sugar was raised because the pancreas had not received an appropriate signal from the part of the brain that monitors blood sugar, so her diabetes was a most unusual form. The sympathetic branch of the ANS had evidently been alerted from the lower brain control system. To think of this as connected in any way with psychology is absurd and I have long since regarded traditional ”psychosomatic” disease as a reflection of abnormal chemistry in the brain, commonly induced by poor diet. There was probably a genetic cause for the disease in this unfortunate girl. The response to TTFD did indeed suggest that oxygen was not being consumed efficiently in brain cells. As I have previously indicated, TTFD can be compared to a spark plug that ignites gasoline in a car engine. Also, even if there had been a genetic cause, it must have influenced the chemistry of cellular oxidation .