09.24.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, gardening at 12:56 am by Administrator
Recently Brian signed us up for a couple Chumash Healing classes. The classes were held at the Theodore Payne Foundation for two Saturdays, each class being three hours long. The teachers of the classes were Cecilia Garcia, a bonafide Chumash Indian Healer, and James D. Adams, Jr., Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Southern California. The classes were very good! The herbs discussed were primarily California native plants, although a few were plants from other areas that were later introduced to California but made their way into Chumash herbal treatments. We were introduced to the various herbs used by the Chumash Indians as explained by Cecilia, and then the pharmacology side of the plants were explained to us by James. For anyone interested in herbs, I recommend this Chumash Herb class.
Although each class was three hours long, the time went by really fast. Not only were we told about how each plant was/is used, but there was a lot of hands-on experience as well. They brought it freshly harvested plants which they passed around to each of us and we all made a sash filled with mixed herbs to wear. We were taught about using the mixed herbs in pillows and as bedding to enhance health, including mental health. Here’s a picture of an animal skin (IIRC, it’s rabbit) filled with mixed herbs.
These herb-filled skins are used like pillows during sleep. It’s believed to enhance mood and mental well-being.
Foot soaks and steam treatments were also discussed for various ailments like colds, lung problems, mood problems, etc. Here’s a pic of a couple gourds filled withhot water and herbs. We were encouraged to try them out. They smelled really nice.
Those were the teacher’s feet by the gourds, heh. Below is a close up of one of the herb mixtures. The water was very warm, and smelled really nice. It felt good, and I could see how it could help with relaxation.
Most of the herbs they passed around for us to look at, smell, and feel were fresh out of the ground, while a few were dried and in small baskets like this one. This herb is used for females (regulate cycles, IIRC) and is called “California everlasting.” I think it’s also used for lung issues and colds.
Amongst the fresh herbs were Elderberries. Apparently there are bluish ones and white ones. I knew of the bluish ones, but didn’t know about the whitish ones. They can be dried and used like currants. We tried them and they were actually tasty. Here’s a pic of the white variety.
Acorns were another California native plant used by the Chumash. James made up a sort of acorn jello or gruel for us to try.
Eh, I can’t say it tasted too good, heheheh, but it was considered a very important food source and helped sick people feel stronger. I think it’s kind of the equivalent to Chinese congee.
Here’s a pic of some acorns. They’re supposed to be ripe when they’ve fallen off the tree naturally.
Amongst the plants being passed around were also items like turtle shells. The small turtle shells were supposed to help with pain. Just rub them along the painful areas. I have to admit that those little turtle shells did feel good in the hands. I didn’t have any painful parts to test it out on, but I did rub the shells a bit because it really did feel nice. I neglected to take a pic of those, tho. . . But I did take a pic of this little hawk that Cecilia happened to see fall out of the sky on her way to the class. Apparently, an owl attacked it in mid air, and it fell where Cecilia was able to see it and pick it up.
I didn’t know this, but it’s illegal for people to own these birds, except for the American Indians. So Cecilia went ahead and took this bird since as a Chumash Indian she had the right to keep it. It was actually quite beautiful and peaceful lying on her bed of herbs. The feathers were very soft, too.
With all the stories, slides, hands-on items, etc. the time flew by and we headed out to do a short herb trek. Here’s a pic of the pathway.
Along the trail we were allowed and encouraged to pick fresh herbs for our use. That’s why Brian is carrying a big woven bag.
Along the trail was a lot of California buckwheat. We’ve eaten plenty of buckwheat in our household and I realized that day that I didn’t even know what the plant looked like. Well, this is what it looks like. . .
It was a really nice day to pick herbs. I’d like to go back out there again another time and spend more time exploring and picking, heh. I’m particularly encouraged to try to make my own fresh sashays. The ones Cecilia had us make smell really nice. Here’s a pic of Brian and me on the trail with our red sashays that we made with mixed herbs rolled up inside.
Our class ended with the completion of the herb trail. We learned a lot of nice and useful things in that class. For anyone interested in more information regarding California medicinal plants, Cecilia and James have a book available called Healing with Medicinal Plants of the West; cultural and scientific basis for their use. Thanks Cecilia and James for all your hard work and sharing it with us!
Marlakins
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05.18.11
Posted in Book Reviews, Church Issues and Bible Interpretations, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Treatment Decisions at 12:53 pm by Administrator
For anyone interested in medical ethics and it’s history, I recommend Acres of Skin by Allen M. Hornblum.
Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison
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Originally I was gathering information on radiation when I stumbled across an interview with Allen Hornblum. He was discussing why he wrote the book and detailed some information on medical experiments performed on prisoners. While he admits that there were experiments done at several different prisons, Hornblum focused primarily on the Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania wherein prisoner experimentation spanned over the early 1950s to the mid 1970s. These experiments involved many substances from soaps, lotions, shampoos, etc. for pharmaceutical companies to bacterial and viral experiments for the U.S. military, to mind control drugs for the CIA, and radiation experiments for NASA.
Personally I find it fascinating that humans can be so cruel and heartless towards one another. Seemingly “normal” people have perpetrated horrific things upon their fellow human beings. Things we ordinarily would think was “unthinkable” to do to humans have been, and continue to be, inflicted upon people as if they were merely animals or objects. I find the duplicity a bit scary and a warning to be careful that I (or my family) not fall into that trap of condoning unethical practices. References were made to the Nazi and the Nuremberg trials where some of the “defense” arguments some of the Nazi medical doctors presented were that “they were not doing anything that the American doctors were not doing themselves.” The experiments done on U.S. prisoners and the mentally handicapped are examples of what the Nazi medical doctors were referring to. One only need look into the published, peer reviewed medical journals to verify their claims. The obvious duplicity was that we as American’s were pointing the finger at the Nazi doctors as being barbaric and inhumane sentencing them to imprisonment or death, while we were doing the same thing, but thought there was nothing wrong with it. It reminds me of reading early U.S. history about how slaves were considered only 3/5’s of a person and that even their children were born into condoned perpetual slavery. That used to be thought of as proper, and even part of our accepted law. As a Christian I believe we are to love one another, and there is no distinction between color or social status. Yet, we see time and time again people abusing one another, both religious and non-religious alike. I find it interesting how we “justify” questionable actions if “we” are performing them, while we can simultaneously “condemn” the very same action if “other” people are doing them.
Acres of Skin helped me to reflect upon my personal feelings regarding the “ends justifies the means” mentality. I am conflicted because I know that I live my life using the very substances or technologies that I have found came from dubious means. At the moment I try to limit that use as much as I can, but I certainly am nowhere near eliminating all those derived “benefits.” Even some of the literature I’ve read to figure out ways to treat myself have come from very questionable experiments. Where do we draw the line?
Overall, I give Acres of Skin two thumbs up. Hornblum discusses many more examples of prison experiments, including quotes from interviewees (mostly former inmates who were involved with or knew about the experiments) and various people who would talk to him about the Holmesburg experiments. Hornblum also discusses the moral implications and the outcomes of various experiments, including the subsequent banning of prisoner experimentation and the closing of the prison as well as other aspects of Dr. Albert Kligman’s, the primary doctor who organized and operated the prison experiments, medical research and experimentation operation. I found the book well-written, informative, and easy to read.
Marlakins
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05.11.11
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized, family stuff at 12:27 am by Administrator
Last night it rained. Before March 11, 2011, I used to love it when it rained because all my plants would get watered, and I just loved the overall feeling that everything around me was washed. The plants always seemed to look so much happier, too. The March 11 nuclear disaster in Japan at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant changed all that. Now I’m torn when it rains because if there’s any radioactive material in the skies above us, then it’s when it rains that it comes down. I don’t want radioactive material raining down on us no matter how “safe” the government tells us it is. My son was out that night at his Aikido class, and I was worried that he might be walking in the rain. Normal rain would be just fine, but not radioactive rain. Sure it may not even have any radioactive particles, but now we can never know for sure. It was bad enough that we have chemical pollution, but at least plants have the ability to cleanse some of those pollutants and we have ways to detox those types of things. But radioactive particles are different. Plants can not break them down to stable, safe isotopes. Depending upon which isotope it is, it can continue to emit harmful radiation for years and years to come. It really puts a damper for me to even eat the stuff we’ve grown in our backyard.
With the advent of the Fukushima disaster, so much of the things I’ve been reading about our future has been depressing. So what to do? Basically we just have to go on living and just try to adopt as healthful a lifestyle as possible (course trying to get me to exercise more is a challenge in itself!) From the things I’ve been reading and watching, living a long healthful life seems bleak with all the toxins and dangerous substances being released into our environment. One of the interviews I watched was with a man named Dr. Alexey Yablokov. He recently published a book called Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment. In it, he discusses the damages to humans, animals, and the environment that he believes is connected to the radioactive material spewed out from Chernobyl back in 1986. Apparently, he worked for the Russian government at the time, but when during a meeting in 2005 he heard comments that only about 9,000 people died as a result of Chernobyl, he got so mad and decided to publish a book about the things he knew and studied about the effects of Chernobyl. Basically, instead of 9,000 deaths due to Chernobyl, he estimates around 1 million deaths. His interview can be viewed here.
Dr. Yablokov has a pretty thick accent and can be a bit hard to understand, so here’s another video interview with the contributing editor of his book, who is a easier to understand.
I was watching some of Helen Caldicott’s presentations on Chernobyl and Fukushima, but she really got me depressed (might add some of her videos later because she did have some pretty interesting things to say, and I did learn some things. . . ) But the one thing I got out of Dr. Yablokov’s interview is that from their comparisons of populations living in the “clean” zones vs “hot” zones, there was about a 4% increase in deaths in the contaminated zones. Four percent might sound small, but in relation to billions of people, then that would translate to millions of deaths. There are likely lots of others still living with negative health effects, but they are still alive. I believe Yablokov mention million in increase of morbidity. So that made me think that somehow some people seem to manage much better than others. What could be the factors involved? Well, I have heard that the radiation that spewed out from Chernobyl affected areas in patches like a leopard skin, and also eating habits of animals affects how high a radioactive burden they carry. This is something I want to look into more, but in the meantime, I’ve decided that my family will not be having dairy products for now since radiation has been detected in milk products here, and since radioactive particles can be floating around, I’ve told my kids that I no longer want them eating outdoors. They have to eat inside. It’s not fool-proof, of course, but it’s small precautions that just make me feel better. I’ve also started the boys on more mineral supplementation to make sure that their mineral stores are up to snuff. And I think I’m gonna try to think of ways to manage the dust control in my house. I live on a fairly busy street, and the dust build up is amazing. I think Russell Blaylock also recommended some supplements to help shore up our health against radiation. I’ll have to look back into that, too.
I know that I may sound paranoid. And I know that we all must die some time. But I really don’t want to die a painful, debilitating death. The Fukushima disaster did prompt me to do more reading and what I found is that there is a lot more pollution in our environment than I realized. It makes sense now why my heavy metals test I took over 10 years ago (when I was first diagnosed with aplastic anemia) showed my uranium level off the chart. And why my middle son’s heavy metals test about 5 years ago showed he had a high arsenic level. Our environment is highly polluted even before Fukushima spun out of control. There are reasons for our health problems. I can see now why obtaining optimal health in this day and age is an uphill battle. But I do believe that God created this world to sustain life, so there must be natural things that God has given us to help us heal and protect ourselves. Why else would there be such things that strengthen our cells like proper minerals, vitamins, and fats? Or why would there be natural chelating agents like clays and various foods, herbs, and minerals? I think God knew that our lives would be put in danger like this, and so He has given us hope that He has given us help. We need to search it out and reach out and use it. Now if only the pyschos running our government (and the other countries governments) would finally come to their senses and realize that they are destroying our world with all their greed and warmongering, maybe we will have a chance to live with peace of mind. But then again, maybe that’s why Jesus has to come back because it’s only He who can truly set things right again. Maybe we’ve already gone too far.
Marlakins
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01.11.09
Posted in Book Reviews, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 1:37 am by Administrator
Yesterday I checked out a small book called Flax Oil as a True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer and Other Diseases by Dr. Johanna Budwig. Amongst the alternative treatment advocates, Budwig is known for the flax oil and cottage cheese mixture to treat diseases such as cancer. I had read about her years ago, but since I was already trying other healing modalities, outside of the basics, I didn’t spend much time learning about Budwig and her theories. More recently I was encouraged to revisit Budwig’s flax oil and cottage cheese mixture as I had been experiencing very dry skin and started using flax and borage oil. I felt that the oils were helping me and it made me wonder if I should try adding the cottage cheese. Co-incidently, Patti wrote and asked my opinion about Budwig’s diet around the same time and mentioned of a man whose liver cancer appears to be improving using the flax oil cottage cheese mixture. In addition, my father’s myeloma took a big leap, and so I felt more compelled to revisit Budwig’s diet again.
Upon searching the net, I found that the basic idea of the flax oil and cottage cheese mixture was to make the omega 3s in the oil water soluble, and thus more usable to the body. Just taking the oil alone apparently is not used as efficiently by the body. I found in Budwig’s book that it is the cysteine in the cottage cheese that makes the oil water soluble. By the way, the reason I decided to check out one of her books is because I found that the “recipe” for the flax/cottage cheese mixture was not all the same on the net. I wanted to know what Budwig’s actual recommendation was rather than what was everyone else’s modifications. And being that Budwig wrote in German, I didn’t have a good selection to choose from in English but Flax Oil as a True Aid Against Arthritis, Heart Infarction, Cancer and Other Diseases. As it turns out, this little book is a transcript of three of her public presentations. So the amount of information is limited.
Although Budwig’s presentations were relatively short, I am glad that I read them as there was information in there that I did not find highlighted much on the net regarding her views. I had known from the net that along with the flax/cottage cheese mixture, Budwig recommended a vegetarian diet. I also knew that she was against drugs, chemos, radiation, and even supplements. For that view, she did resonate well with me. She also advocated avoiding preservatives, solidified and damaged fats such as hydrolyzed oils, and pesticides as she felt that these things interfered with the body’s fat and protein bonds which is essential to proper cellular functioning. What her book explained much better than what I found on the net was the relationship of the sun and her theory of healing. I had read Kime’s book, Sunlight, so really appreciate Budwig’s insight regarding sunlight, a view which I didn’t not read in Kime’s book. That is, Budwig felt that the electrons stored in our bodies helped to attract photons from the sun. We need good electrons in our bodies such as comes through electron-rich foods and oils such as flax oil to better utilize the photons from the sun, otherwise the sun can be harmful to us. This reminds me of Kime’s book wherein he deals with the common belief that the sun causes cancer. According to the study he cites, the sun only caused cancer in the subjects who were low in antioxidants. Those who had good levels of antioxidants actually “benefitted” from exposure to sun. Budwig’s view was that if we did not have sufficient electrons, then we would not be able to absorb enough photons from the sun and that when we burned during sun exposure, it indicates that we don’t have enough electrons to absorb the sun’s rays safely. Her’s a quote from her book regarding that,
“The living body can only take in and store solar electrons through resonance absorption. To absorb the electrons into the living body, we must already have in the body’s electron system either the same wavelength or a multiplicity of wavelengths. Thus, the human who eats refined foodstuffs or food which lacks electrons, not only cuts off his oxygen enough to suffocate himself, he also cuts himself off from the effects of the sun. When such people cover their skin with a layer of paraffin as sun protection oil, and then lie in the sun, the burn damage is very great, because the electrons, which cannot be stored, and the electron-rich-biological molecule, are missing. It has been proved that all the poisons which affect the action of enzymes, including paraffin and the benzopyrin in cigarettes, have an irritative effect on the entire system of electron absorption, storage and further conduction.”
From that I’m think Budwig is stating that the electrons in our bodies attract the energy from the sun. Without the appropriate electrons we would not attract the energy from the sun, and thus not obtain the full benefits the sun offers to our health. Since flax oil is rich in electrons (according the Budwig), it works synergistically with the energy from the sun by attracting the sun’s photons. It appears to me that Budwig felt that we obtain energy from the sun, and that is why all the electron-photon storage is so important. This passage from her bood seems to sum it up.
“. . . We can store the sun’s energy and the living body is then in a position to summon, depending on the situation, energy from this storage depot of electrons. When these depots are empty, the person then feels irritable, tired, and his limbs become heavy. But we are able to replenish these storage depots by taking in electron-rich seed oils. These are set to receive solar energy.”
In addition to attracting protons, electrons are important because they have a great affinity to oxygen, which stimulates our breathing and our entire being. Kime wrote in his book, Sunlight many other benefits of the sun, provided you’re nourished well enough to benefit from the sun. Such benefits of the sun are conversion of cholesterol to vit D and other hormonal stimulation. John Ott, also wrote several books documenting his observations of the benefits of the sun to man and other living organisms including animals and plants. He stumbled upon the effects of lighting from his hobby of time-lapsed photography. He noticed that plants grew differently depending upon whether certain light waves were filtered or not. He later concluded after many experiments and studies that full-spectrum lighting is the only beneficial lighting to our health. He even advocated not wearing any eyeglasses as that inhibited the full benefits of the sun through the eyes.
All this time I had no idea how important Budwig felt the sun was to our health. So this is another aspect that I agree on with her. Budwig stated that,
“According to the computael findings of those modern physicists, the quantum biologists, there is no entity in nature, in life, which as a higher concentration of solar electrons than man. It then folows that man has a true rapport with sunlight. . .”
“The electrons in our food serve as the resonance system for the sun’s energy.”
If Budwig is correct, then it stands to reason that we should be careful to put electron-rich foods into our bodies, and not dead foods devoid of nutrition. While I have read about the importance of the sun to our health, I had no idea that Budwig also felt strongly about it and is part of her healing modality aside from her flax oil and cottage cheese mixture.
Okay, so now that I’ve got a “little” better understanding of Budwig’s ideas, I have already tried the flax oil and cottage cheese mixture, as have my parents. We started yesterday. HOWEVER, today I noticed on the cottage cheese list of ingredients that it has “citric acid.” Cripes. I’m trying to improve my health, not start taking excitotoxins. . . Whole Foods only had two selections for organic cottage cheese and I bought one of each (Horizon and Clover). Now I notice that both has citric acid as an ingredient. I’m gonna have to find another brand that doesn’t have citric acid in it or learn how to make my own cottage cheese. At any rate, I hope we start noticing some benefits soon.
Marlakins
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01.12.08
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 2:55 pm by Administrator
This morning I got the chance to pack the emergency herbs I want to take on my trip with me. These herbs are specifically in case I get a UTI away from home. Since I have a history of bone marrow failure, I make it a point to avoid conventional antibiotics because they can suppress the bone marrow. Instead, I have opted to use food and herbal based treatments in the event I need some antibiotics. I developed the need when I had a few bouts of UTIs. A little more detail of what I did when they first started to crop up can be read on my “pages” section titled “Onion Puree Soup Recipe” http://goatrevolution.com/blog2/onion-puree-soup-recipe/. Yesterday I was able to pick up the ingredients, and below is a picture of all the supplies I needed to pack my own herbs. I have veggie capsules, a pill packer (the white tray with the holes), a scale, a spoon, plastic bags, and of course the herbs. Off to the right are a couple of other things I took, Stone Free, by Planetary Herbs, and also Chapparal. But this time, I’m including powdered chapparal in my pills, so will not have to take it separately.
The first time I packed these herbs, some of the ingredients we had were not powdered, so we just put them in the blender and powdered them ourselves. It worked just fine, but it’s easier and less work to just buy the herbs already powdered for you. But if they’re not available powdered (which sometimes they’re not), just powder it yourself. It appears to be more effective powdered because the smaller particles makes it easier for the body to extract the nutrients. Some sources say they are 30% more powerful when powdered.
Below is a picture where the powdered herbs are visible, and the beginnings of the first steps of packing the herbs are about to get underway.
The ingredients I used are Echinacea root, Goldenseal, Uva Ursi, Dandelion Leaf, Ginger root, and Gotu Kola. Since they are all already powdered, the rest of the process is very easy. Take a teaspoon of each ingredient and put them in a bag. I use a regular ziplock bag. My husband has been very interested in herbs, so he’s the one packing them in the following pictures.
Once all the herbs are measured out, we weigh them all out to make sure we have enough powder to fill all the capsules. There are different sized capsules, but we use capsules which hold 1/2 gram each.
Other uses I have for the scale regarding herbs is when I make some teas like Uva Ursi. I would weight out 15 grams of Uva Ursi dried “leaves” for about 2 cups of water worth of tea. I don’t think it has to be that exact, but I just like to make sure I use about 15 grams a day when I was fighting a UTI.
After all the herbs are measured out and weighed, zip up the bag and shake it all around to evenly mix all the ingredients together. We like to write all the ingredients on the bag in case you run out and want to add more stuff later.
One the ingredients are sufficiently mixed, take the veggie capsules and load the pill packer. This is done by opening the veggie capsules and placing the larger ends in the pill packer. Once all the veggie capsules are inserted, pour in the mixed herbs.
After you pour on the herbs, use the small card to help scrape the herbs across the tray and into the capsules. Once the capsules look fairly full, take the pill tapper, and tap in the herbs to pack them tighter into the capsules. Do this about 2 or 3 times as shown below.
It can be seen below after tapping the herbs down how much room is left that can be filled with more herbs. This is why you pack with the tapper. Just go over it again with the card scraper to move the herbs into the capsules until all the capsules are sufficiently packed.
Once they’re packed, lower the top tray. This will expose the upper half of the capsules. Replace all the veggie caps onto the capsules.
This is what they look like with all the capsules capped.
Before removing the capsules, pour the loose herbs back into the plastic bag where the rest of the mixed ingredients are.
This is what they’ll look like just before the filled capsules are ready to be removed from the tray.
Now the last step is to remove them from the tray. Just take a clean bag, and dump the capsules in.
And “viola!” They’re done and ready to rock and roll, heheheh. . .
The last thing I wanted to share was how much I took. When my UTI was in full force, for me that meant pain upon urination, bleeding, the uncomfortable urge to urinate when you just went, etc., I would take two capsules every hour. I did that until the symptoms would all go away, and that usually would be about 3 days for me to start feeling back to my old self. My old self meaning, I don’t feel pain, no bleeding, no uncomfortable urge to go when you know you shouldn’t need to go. I would spread out the pills to two every two hours, then if all were still well, the next day I’d go to every 3 hours, then the next day to 3x a day. And continue that for about another week for good measure. Since you never really know exactly what is going to work, I like to attack at various angles, so I also took the onion puree soups when convenient (meaning when I was home), and unsweetened cranberry juice occasionally (I don’t like to take it too often because all the sugar seems to bother my skin), and I also drink uva ursi tea and dandelion leaf tea for good measure. May sound like a lot of work, but I found it to be worth it. No worries of ruining my gut or my bone marrow, and the peace of mind that I know what’s in my pills. No fillers, artificial ingredients, binders, etc. I thank God for herbs. 
Okay that’s about it, hope I didn’t miss anything. . .
So next post. . . how to roll your own reefers, ha! Just kidding. You figure that one on your own, ha ha!
Okay, off to make myself useful!
Marlakins
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10.25.07
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 10:31 am by Administrator
I’m just about finished reading Black Markets, The Supply and Demand of Body Parts by Michele Goodwin. I wanted to keep the book a tad longer to go back and review a few things, but alas, it is due today, and not renewable because someone’s waiting on this book, erp! So really quickly, I’m making a few comments while I still have this book on my lap.
While Goodwin does bring up many good points, what appears clear to me is that she is coming from the presumed standpoint that transplants are good. And from there, she discusses the various ways of organ procurement. My personal opinion is that in order to make a good decision of whether we even should be procuring organs for transplant, we need to look more closely at the “process” of procuring organs in addition to the actual transplants themselves. I believe there is more to consider than just that some people sell their organs or that some organs come from cadavers (I realize there are many other aspects of organ procurement discussed by Goodwin, but the bottom line is organs either come from live donors or cadavers).
From a little further reading on the net, it appears that calling some organ donors “cadavers,” is misleading. A so-called “brain-dead” person is technically “not” a cadaver. This person is still alive with a beating heart. I think this is a very import concept to understand because “vital” organs such a the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, etc. appears to only be transplantable if it is removed “fresh” from a still warm body, not from a cadaver. So technically, there are only live donors. The difference is whether the donor “continues” to live after donation or not. I think this is a very big missing part in Goodwin’s book.
Okay, so words are easy to manipulate. Am I just making a big deal of a technicality of whether a comatose patient is alive or not and can feel pain or not or ever has the possibility of regaining consciousness? Consider the below excerpt from a person who supposedly has been personally involved with harvesting organs for transplantation:
The late Dr Phillip Keep, former consultant anaesthetist at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in the United Kingdom, risked his career by publicly saying what the anaesthetist profession had been debating privately for decades,
“Almost everyone will say they have felt uneasy about it. Nurses get really, really upset. You stick the knife in and the pulse and blood pressure shoot up. If you don’t give anything at all, the patient will start moving and wriggling around and it’s impossible to do the operation. The surgeon always asked us to paralyse the patient.”
The full article can be read here
This link gives more details about harvesting organs such as how long organs are viable after harvest and other information such as what is done to the patient to keep his/her organs viable. Organs can actually be no longer viable for transplantations if they are taken from the body only as short as 15 minutes after the heart stops beating.
There is so much more to know regarding what is truly involved with transplants. It’s easy to accept transplants when the details are so watered down to terms such as “donations,” “cadavers,” “gift of life,” “life-saving transplants,” “brain-dead.” etc. What we don’t hear about is all the compromise, pain and suffering, and experimentations on people and animals. Do we ever stop to consider how this “technology” came about? What sacrifices were made? Who were sacrificed? How about the paradox of hoping that another person would die, so that another person could live? Such is the case while “waiting” for an organ to become available from a so-called cadaver. And what of the poor who sell their organs for incredibly small amounts of money? One such example can be read in this article of a Filipino who sold one of his kidneys for $1,750. Apparently, many others have sold their body parts as well because of sheer desperation of their living conditions. Goodwin wrote that in Iraq, some have sold their organs for as little as $750. What kind of world do we live in where we are willing to take someones organs and think it is okay because they were paid for it? Keep in mind that often times more care is given to the organ recipients than to the organ donors. Many of those poor organ donors don’t get follow-up care to make sure their surgeries don’t end with complications. Why not spend more effort into finding out why the need for organ transplants are increasing? Why not find ways to heal our organs, rather than taking organs from others. Instead, we keep pumping ourselves full of drugs and toxins which damage our kidneys and livers, and other organs.
While I do think Goodwin missed a big aspect of transplantation in her book, I do appreciate her insight into the inequality of blacks and whites throughout our history. I had not realized the extent of sacrifice made at the expense of blacks toward the advancement in our western medical knowledge. The grave robbing aspects were also of interest to me as well as medical experiments done on black people that I had never known about, and likely a great majority of people still don’t know about. And while I currently am not in favor of transplants, I did come across a book review of a book called, “Kidney for Sale By Owner, Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market” by Mark J. Cherry. The book reviewer stated that he used to be against organ transplantation until he read this book. Soooo, I reserved a copy of it at my library, and just last night I picked it up. I want to see what Mr. Cherry has to say and if he can persuade me too that organ transplantation is okay. We’ll see. . . And also Goodwin brings up other very controversial aspects of body parts such as cloning, designer babies, etc. I was a tad disappointed that she didn’t go into more details regarding some of the pictures she included in her book. There were short captions below each picture, but no further details. For instance, she had pictures of facilities where organ parts are harvested, testimony of a witness of organs harvested from Chinese prisoners, etc. What a teaser. . . Okay, off to return Goodwin’s book for the person who is waiting for it.
Toodles for now,
Marla
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10.15.07
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Hmmm Moments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 10:34 am by Administrator
From reading Black Markets, the Supply and Demand of Body Parts, by Michele Goodwin, the topic of corneal transplants came up. Apparently, there was a scandal regarding inappropriate harvesting of corneas from homicide victims. What I was not aware of, and evidently many other people are not aware of, is “presumed consent.” Presumed consent involves those persons who have *not* specified whether they want to donate organs or not. So once a person dies, and for whatever reason his organs (particularly corneas in Goodwin’s chapter, which discusses presumed consent) have not be specifically barred from donation, then it is taken for granted that his organs can be used for donation. The idea being that, “If he were alive, then he would agree to donate because he didn’t specifically say that he didn’t want to donate.” Ack! I had never heard of that, and apparently, many others including many politicians were not aware of presumed consent in regards to organ harvesting when asked about it.
The particular scandal regarding presumed consent and organ harvesting occurred when it was found that the corneas of many homicide victims were harvested without consent of the donor, or the families and without the families knowing that it was done. Evidently, corneas are easy to take without it being obvious, especially since the deceased eyes are usually closed during viewings. These corneas were later sold and resold for profit. Apparently, cornea transplants are a common thing. I didn’t know that. So I looked up cornea transplants and found that it is estimated that in the U.S. (depending upon which source one reads), there are around 20,000 to 40,000 corneal transplants done a year. Wow, where do all those corneas come from? Well, apparently, lots of them came from homicide victims under the presumed consent reasoning. While not all deaths end in autopsy, all homicide victims routinely are sent for autopsy. And it is during that autopsy where these homicide victims end up “donating” their corneas or anything else deemed harvestable.
Goodwin discusses the arguments for and against presumed consent, which does appear to be a bit controversial.
Another thing that came to my attention was “do corneal transplant recipients need to take any immuosuppressant?” It seems not, and reminds me of other “implants” wherein foreign material is placed inside the body seemingly without the body rejecting them–i.e. metal screws, various plastics, etc. Hmmm. While it is obvious that those items are not naturally supposed to be in the body, it does seem that the body will accept some foreign materials to a certain point. BUT, I do know that places like the Gerson Institute does not accept people with any types of implants because the idea is that once the immune system is fully functioning and in pristine condition, then it will recognize foreign materials and cause the body to reject those foreign items–including metal hip screws, pacemakers, breast implants, etc. I have heard from a man who had corneal implants who claimed that he was not feeling well, so he went on a more healthful diet, which did improve his overall feelings, BUT he also started to reject his corneal implants. The idea is that once on a better diet and his immune system was improving, it also started to recognize that his corneas were foreign and proceeded to attack them. And then again, some of those foreign materials are considered in themselves immunosuppressants, like various plastics are believed to cause cancers and other health problems. Consider the debates on silicone breast implants and pthalates that can leech into foods from various food containers and wraps. But the bottom line is if corneal implants don’t require immunosuppressants, it seems to me that they are not in the same league as full organ transplants. Therefore they don’t seem as “wrong” to me. Although some of the “harvesting” practices do seem questionable because it not only involves “non-consent” issues, but also involves lack of screening of the tissue–i.e. it is common to “not” obtain medical history of homicide victim, so the quality of his organs, or in this case, corneas, can be of questionable quality since transmissible diseases can be passed on through contaminated corneas.
Okay, I’m out of time again. Must dash, but hope to get back with a little more on transplants, particularly since this topic brought back my old interest on the history of transplants. I blew off the dust on my old notes and thought it would be interesting to share some transplant history.
But for now, toodles!
Marlakins
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04.20.07
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Historical Trivia, Hmmm Moments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 5:41 pm by Administrator
Anyone who has explored alternative treatments for long will likely have run into the controversy of the value or dangers of vaccines. One of the claims is that the recipient of a vaccine can actually come down with the very disease they are being vaccinated against. As a layperson, I had wondered if that was true. First of all, I had no idea how vaccines were made aside from the basic knowledge that vaccines contain a small amount of the virus for which we want to mount an immune response for protection to prevent a full-blown case of the particular virus. Subsequent reading and searching revealed bits and pieces of how vaccines were/are developed and produced. Basically, there are two types of vaccines–1. the attenuated version (weakened virus), and 2. killed version where the virus used in the vaccination is dead. My first question was, “Why do they use “attenuated” vaccines AND “killed virus” vaccines? What’s the difference aside from one is dead and one is weak? Well, today while reading a book called, The Invisible Enemy, A Natural History of Viruses, I found the answer. “Attenuated” vaccines supposedly offers longer-lasting protection against a full outbreak of the virus than the “killed” version of the vaccine. Hmm. So that seems to imply that we don’t have “life-time” protection if one lasts longer than the other. . . I don’t recall ever being told I need to update my vaccines as an adult unless there were unusual circumstances like a bone marrow transplant. I find that a curiosity, and maybe I’ll find my answer to that one somewhere else since I don’t recall running into the answer in the above mentioned book. However, I did find some other answers to questions I had wondered about regarding viruses and vaccines.
Another question I had wondered about was, “Is it possible to actually come down with the very disease we are being vaccinated against?” Just the mention of that is enough to get some incredulous stares, but some books I’ve read say, “yes,”one can come down with an infection from the virus introduced by vaccination. Since those claims are usually from the “anti-vaccine” party, I had wondered what the “pro-vaccine” party would say. Dorothy H. Crawford, author of “The Invisible Enemy” apparently belongs to the pro-vaccine party. She wrote that those who choose not to vaccinate are like the “parasites” of society. Ack! But even she has admitted in her book that, yes, it is true that a recipient of an attenuated vaccine could actually develop the disease of which one is being vaccinated against. It is on page 210 of her book where I learned of the term, “back mutations.” Crawford explains, for example, how the polio vaccines are attenuated, and each batch is tested in animals to make sure that it has lost its capacity to cause paralytic polio before it is released for human use. She futher states that, “But although it is extremely safe, it does cause paralytic polio in around one in every two million of those vaccinated.” (Not comforting to the parents of the one-in-two-million child who develops paralysis). Continuing on, “Somewhat surprisingly, comparison of genetic material from the paralytic and attenuated vaccine strains of polio virus shows very few differences–in most instances just two mutations. In cases of vaccine-associated paralytic polio, further mutations have returned these single changes back to their original form in the virulent virus“. . . There’s our “back mutuation”. . . So it does exist. . . But get a load of the next couple paragraphs she writes.
“In 1983, Philip Minor from the UK’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Controls, set out to see how common back mutations of the vaccine strain of polio virus actually were. He studied his own baby son, David, who was four months old when he had his first dose of oral polio vaccine. Minor collect all his baby’s faeces and detected polio virus in them for the following 73 days. But it was molecular analysis of these viruses which really surprised him. He detected back mutations which increased the virulence of the virus as early as two days after immunization and more followed. To show that this was not just a fluke result, Minor repeated the same experiment two years later on his daughter, Elizabeth, and came up with the same answer. Up until then polio mutants had only been found in rare cases of vaccine-associated paralytic disease, but thankfully the Minor children remained healthy.
“We now know that back mutations occur in almost all those vaccinated, but why these viruses so rarely cause paralysis is not yet clear. However, with this level of reversion to a potential disease-causing virus and circulation of vaccine virus in the community complete eradication of paralytic polio and the virus will probably not be feasible using live attenuated vaccine. For this we may ned to change back to the earlier killed preparation.”
That pretty much confirms it for me that what people like Neil Z. Miller, author of Vaccines: Are They Really Safe and Effective?, and Tim O’Shea, author of The Sanctity of Human Blood: Vaccination is Not Immunization claim. That there is risk that those being vaccinated can actually become infected from the vaccination itself and that the true decline in the incidence of infection may not be attributed to vaccinations, but rather to the cyclic nature of the host of viruses to gain natural immunity in general. For instance, Miller writes that the incidences of polio was already on the decline when vaccines were introduced. Thus, the seeming erradication of polio was not due to the vaccinations, but rather the natural course of host resistance to the disease. That idea is not completely out in left field as Crawford confirms that viruses have a tendency to do this in her example of the flu virus epidemics. (Interestingly, she defines an epidemic as any unusual increase of an infection in a community, so the recent 10 cases of AA in the first few months of the year in San Diego could fit that description since, with their population, they should have been allotted only about 6 cases for the entire year; while a pandemic is an unusual world-wide increased incidence of an infection). Crawford writes that “although flu outbreaks occur every winter, full-blown epidemics only happen every 8-10 years. . . and flu “pandemics” occur on average every 10-40 years. Apparently, this has to do with the genetic makeup of the virus and the natural resistence the hosts develop. Thus, it seems plausible that Miller is right that the viruses, such as polio, were just naturally loosing steam on their own before the vaccines came to take the credit for its eradication. Miller includes statistics on not only polio, but measles, pertussis, and smallpox.
When I first checked out Crawford’s book, The Invisible Enemy, I was just interested in reading up more on viruses because of the recent discussion on the AA forum of the possible causes of AA, and if some sort of virus was involved with some cases of AA. What I wanted to know was once we are infected with a particular virus, does the virus ever leave the body, or do we harbor it for the rest of our lives? Apparently, depending upon the virus, one can either eradicate it, or we can harbor it for life. A virus such as the flu apparently is eradicated, but our bodies develop antibodies against it so that if we are ever exposed to that same virus again, we could fight if off and not develop infection. Other viruses manage to lie dormant in our cells until an opportune time to resurface. These particular viruses are known as latent viruses and include strains such as the herpes variety. Other viruses never quite completely go dormant and continue to cause low level infection in the host such as some cases of viral hepatitis.
Overall, I enjoyed reading The Invisible Enemy. Crawford writes about other interesting viral epidemics, gives an easily understood description of viruses as opposed to bacteria, actual case stories, etc. I have a couple other virology books on hold, and look forward to learning more about viruses. They certainly are very interesting little, tiny animals, ha! Plus, I still have other questions for which I hope to find more answers.
Marlakins
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02.20.07
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 11:08 pm by Administrator
Tonight I had a new experience. I was allowed to stand in during an acupuncture session and watch the needles get inserted. I’ve seen it on TV, but never in person. So this was nice. After the needles were inserted, the patient was left to relax for about 20 minutes with the needles in place. Since this acupuncturist is a friend of one of my sisters, I was allowed to take pictures. Below is a picture of four needles placed in the back. It’s a little hard to see the two needles on the right side of the picture (I noticed that the aol browsers don’t show pictures as well as other browsers), so I’ve drawn in arrows to point to where the four needles are.
Other needles were placed on other parts of the body like the head, near the ankles, and one on the hand. Below is a picture of the needles in the package. Actually, the needles can’t be seen, but at least you can see that each needle is packaged and sealed individually. They are disposable and discarded after use. Had I thought of it, I should have placed a penny next to the needles to give a size comparison. The needles themselves look about two inches long, but only a very short part of the needle is inserted.
One thing I found out today is that there is a Chinese method of acupuncture and a Japanese method of acupuncture. The Chinese method tends to use more needles than the Japanese. Also in Japan, their acupuncturists don’t use herbs, while in China, herbs are frequently used. I’m not clear as to whether it’s a law prohibition there or not, but that’s the impression I got. It appears that Japanese style acupuncturists here in the U.S. do use herbs, though. Also herbalism is considered more important and respectable in China than in the U.S. Acupuncture is considered more of a profession in the U.S. than is herbalism. I’m not sure why there is a difference in perception in each location, but there it is. Perhaps it’s cultural.
I was told depending upon whether the condition is acute or chronic would determine whether herbs would be recommended or not as well as how many treatments would be involved. For some simple conditions, a single treatment can prove sufficient, while more chronic conditions would require more sessions.
I asked what types of conditions benefit from acupuncture and was told that conditions like chronic pain, nervous conditions, and even strokes respond well to acupuncture. I was told that one of the best things a stroke victim can do is see an acupuncturist as soon as possible to help faciliate a faster recovery.
Okay, it’s getting late. Maybe I’ll try a couple pokes and check back in the morning.
Marlakins 
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10.10.06
Posted in Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Treatment Decisions, Uncategorized at 12:57 pm by Administrator
For anyone interested, another update on Starchild Abraham Cherrix’s progress was posted at Dailypress.com. As a recap for those who may not have been following Starchild’s case, he is a 16-year-old male who developed Hodgkin’s lymphoma when he was 15. He underwent chemotherapy, but his cancer returned several months later. Because of the difficulty he endured with the chemo, and the fact that it failed to cure him, he opted to search for alternative means to treat himself. One of the treatments he chose was the Hoxsey herbal treatment.
As a result of that choice some heated debates have ensued on the net between hardcore mainstream medical advocates and groups who support alternative treatments. The arguments arising from the mainstream medical group is that Hoxsey is/was a “quack” and never cured anyone. The alternative advocates naturally disagree.
Personally, I had heard of the Hoxsey treatment, but only knew very little such as the herbal formula was developed by one of the Hoxsey’s (I later found it was John Hoxsey) when his horse developed cancer. He let his horse out to pasture thinking that this horse didn’t have long to live and wanted him to die in peace. To Hoxsey’s amazement, after three weeks on pasture, his horse’s cancer appeared to be stabilizing. During that time Hoxsey noticed that his horse was feeding on weeds that he didn’t ordinarily feed on. About three months later, the tumor began to dry up and started separating from the healthy tissue underneath. It appeared that his horse had some natural instinct to eat certain vegetation which helped to heal its cancer. From there, Hoxsey started experimenting with those herbs and treating other animals with cancers with reported success. The other thing I heard about Hoxsey was the he had some man named Morris Fishbein from the AMA (American Medical Association) after him for many years in an attempt to shut him down. That was about all I knew of the Hoxsey formula.
With the recent debates regarding Starchild’s choice to use the Hoxsey tonic, and particularly seeing the hostile opposition accusing the Hoxsey tonic of being quackery, I wanted to know more about the Hoxsey story. Surely there must be more to the story for it to raise so much clamor. The searches I did on the internet yielded little new information for me. So I checked out my library to see what they had on the Hoxsey story. I found that there was a book called, “When Healing Becomes a Crime,” by Kenny Ausubel copyrighted in May 2000.
Wow! I had no idea how much controversy Harry Hoxsey and his Hoxsey tonic had stirred since the turn of the century and especially after he first opened his cancer clinic in 1924. Ausubel’s skill as a researcher really shines through in his well-documented book, “When Healing Becomes a Crime.” I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in health issues, and particularly with how the AMA has treated anyone who tried to treat cancer in any other way apart from the standard chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery. The book is a genuine eye-opener of which I would like to share some information which has left an impact on me.
In short, it was in 1840 that John Hoxsey’s horse developed cancer and when he discovered the herbs which he used to treat other animals with cancers. It was his son, John C. Hoxsey who first tried the herbs to treat human cancers. The next generation Hoxsey was Harry Hoxsey, who subsequently opened his cancer clinic in 1924. There are so many details in between, but one important piece of information was the before Harry’s father, John C., died, he made Harry promise that he would use the Hoxsey formula to cure cancers, and that no one was to be turned away due to lack of funds. It’s reported that Harry fulfilled that promise, and to this day (according to Ausubel’s book in 2000) the Hoxsey clinic in Tijuana run by Mildren Nelson has no accounting system set up to track or even send out bills. Payment is on the honor system. One amusing quote was by a woman named Stella Gladis. She claimed that when her surgeon found out that she wouldn’t take chemotherapy and radiation from his friends, that he hollered at her and said, “Why are you going down there? (the Hoxsey clinic) They’ll only take all your money.” Her reply was, “Uh-uh–’cause you already did!” Stella Gladis paid $900 for her Hoxsey treatment, while she estimated her bills from her cancer operations in the tens of thousands of dollars.
In order for Ausubel to complete his Hoxsey documentary and book, he not only dug into historical news articles, including pictures of a couple cancer patients and news articles, but was able to find a good number of people who were still alive who were involved with Hoxsey and his treatments. The personal interviews and news articles provided very compelling information that Hoxsey had many supporters of his treatment who claimed that they were in fact cured of cancer through his tonics. During the trial between Hoxsey vs Hearst, it was reported in the Dallas Morning News that the courtroom was packed with his patients in support of him testifying in court of their cancers which had now been cured. In 1949, Hoxsey actually won a libel lawsuit making him the first “quack” to beat the AMA. Obviously something was happening. Hearst’s defense suggested any seeming recovery could be the result of sponaneous remission. To which Hoxsey’s lawyers pointed out, instances of spontaneous remission in cancer are scarce, about one in 100,000 cases. Had all these oddities somehow found their way to Dallas (Hoxsey’s clinic)? If many of these patients never actually had cancer, they went on, there must be an awful lot of misdiagnosis going on.
Ausubel didn’t stop there, he researched the contents of the Hoxsey formula. He was able to find that there were in fact more than one rendition of the formula, so we don’t really know which is the original formula. However, the ingredients are very similar, to which he consulted with James Duke, Ph.D., who at the time worked for the USDA. Duke collaborated for many years with the NCI and helped lead the way to plant medicines that have produced pharmaceutical drugs such as the cancer drug Taxol from the Pacific yew tree. Dr. Duke ultimately wrote a short article based on his Hoxsey research, published in 1988 in HerbalGram. Duke’s assessment was that the Hoxsey internal tonic ingredients showed very significant chemical and biological anitcancer activity. The formula might or might not work, but in principle it definitely merited serious investigation.
Dr Duke further explains the difficulty of approving herbs in that, “The whole is better than the sum of it’s parts. The suite is what’s most effective. But FDA regulations are such that, if you’ve got several active ingredients, you’ve got to prove not only that every one of them is safe and efficacacious, but that all of them are safe and efficacious. All plants contain thousands of compounds, most of them biologically active. Are we going to have to prove all thousand of them safe and efficacious?”
According to Ausubel, “the NCI did perform laboratory tests on all the Hoxsey herbs using cancer cell lines in petri dishes. Almost all the results were negative. However, many of the testing methodologies used have since been abandoned because they are unreliable, and many scientists find that the outcomes do not match actual results with human subjects.” What’s the explanation for this? Dr. Duke explains, “. . . failure of the Hoxsey herbs to show anticancer activity in the NCI screens [occur] because these experiments have been designed for one very narrow band of activity: the cytotoxic capability to kill cancer cells directly in a dish. . . . While some of the plants may directly kill cancer cells to some degree, most work by indirectly interfering with malignant cell growth through other mechanisms.” Very insightful information coming from a renowned botanist and author of 20 books and over 200 scientific journals. He goes on to say that, “One of the major problems with the NCI screen is that they do not test the plants in the way humans use the plants. I don’t know that they have ever given an oral extract of red clover to a human being, and that’s how it’s used in folklore. If you’re going to test red clover tea, you’ve got to give it to a human being.”
In my opinion, Kenny Ausubel’s book, “When Healing Becomes a Crime,” is very well-written. From the reviews at Amazon.com, it’s obvious I’m not the only one who feels this way. While it’s true Hoxsey never claimed to be able to cure every single cancer patient, there is certainly evidence that many cancer sufferers were being cured who passed through his clinic doors. So why the fury to close down the Hoxsey clinics and force them across the border? The common belief is competition. In Hoxsey’s case, perhaps there’s an additional reason that has something to do with something Hoxsey mentioned, that in the eyes of the AMA, the only thing worse than alternative cancer treatment is “free” medical treatment. And that’s exactly what Hoxsey gave out.
Marlakins 
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