A simple 10-step arthritis treatment plan

What are the most important things we can do to stop and reverse the degeneration, and alleviate the stiffness and pain of arthritis? You can be sure that no matter how bad things are, there are many things that will help, and they don’t involve pharmaceuticals.

We looked in some detail at how to treat arthritis in Treating Arthritis I and II, and have at least one of our readers, an artist, Catherine Bath, who has been able to alleviate a great deal of her stiffness and pain, and recover a good amount of mobility and ease of movement by following the various recommendations we made there and throughout this blog.

Here, prompted by a request from a good friend who needs it, we present a simple treatment plan with the most important elements, and just the essential details needed to understand why the interventions are useful, and how to put them into practice right away.

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Illustration of painful, inflamed, arthritic joints. (Image taken from Everyday Health)

1. Hydrate and alkalise

This is the most important point of all. Without it nothing will work, really. Every joint works thanks to the cartilage that allows the bones to move within it without rubbing against one another. Arthritis is always characterised by the degradation of this cartilage and the pain associated with the inflammation caused by the bones not moving properly or rubbing inside the joints. Cartilage is water (85% by weight) held together in a matrix made mostly of collagen, and chronic dehydration is the first cause of cartilage breakdown (details in Your Body’s Many Cries for Water).

Metabolic acids (mostly uric acid) can only be excreted efficiently by the kidneys when there is an excess of both water in which to dilute the acid, and salt to help carry it out in the urine. Without excess water, the kidneys will prioritise retaining as much of it as they can. Without excess salt, the uric acid will be recycled instead of being excreted in order to to maintain the concentration gradient in the medulla of the kidney that ensures its ability to reabsorb as much water as possible. Chronic dehydration and avoidance of salt, coupled with the drinking of acidic liquids and eating of acid-forming foods inevitably leads to chronic acidosis.

To maintain the pH of the blood at 7.365 in spite of the continuous flow of acids into it from the muscles and digestive system, two main coping strategies are available: 1) The body’s main acid buffering mechanism using the reserves of alkalising minerals stored in the bones and teeth to counterbalance the acid load. If you don’t quite understand the implication here, this means erosion of the bones and teeth to put into the blood some of the alkalising calcium, phosphate and magnesium as acid-buffering minerals. 2) The crystallisation of the uric acid to pull it out of circulation, but then storing it into tissues, of which the joints, regrettably for arthritis sufferers, seem to be used preferentially, even though all tissues can be used for this to a certain extent.

The strategy is simple: drink alkaline water (either naturally so, or made to be with pH drops) on an empty stomach, and allow at least 30 minutes before eating. Aim for 3 litres per day. One litre before each meal, drank over a period of one to two hours, is a simple rule of thumb and easy schedule to remember. And aim for 2 full teaspoons of unrefined salt with your meals.

2. Magnesium chloride and sodium bicarbonate baths

Magnesium is at the very top of the list of supplements for anyone in any circumstance. We explored and explained why in Why you should start taking magnesium today.

Transdermal magnesium and bicarbonate therapy is the best way to simultaneously replenish magnesium stores in the cells, while alkalising the tissues directly by transdermal absorption of magnesium and sodium bicarbonate. If you have a bath tub, do this once or twice per week, or more if you can or need it. Add two cups of each magnesium chloride and baking soda, and soak for 45 to 60 minutes.

I also recommend that in addition to this—but crucially if you don’t have a bath—you take magnesium supplements. I take a fat-bound magnesium supplement called L-Threonate. Another alternative is the amino acid-bound supplement called magnesium glycinate (using glycine). Both of these form maximise absorption. Take it with meals.

3. Silicic acid, collagen, hyaluronic acid, and proteolytic enzymes

An essential constituent of hair, skin, and cartilage. Absorption is poor and slow. This means you need to take small amounts every day for long periods of time. Every morning, first thing, with your first glass of water. You will need to do this in cycles of three months on, three month off. I take Silicea, a concentrated water-soluble silicic acid gel by the German brand Huebner.

Collagen and hyaluronic acid will help greatly in rebuilding the damaged cartilage. Look for type II collagen for better absorption. Now Foods has good products at good prices. Also, glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM have all been shown to be useful for joints.

Proteolytic enzymes are responsible for breaking down, building, and repairing tissues. They can be amazing in accelerating a healing process, no matter what it is. Therefore, this is an essential supplement to take in treating arthritis.

4. Vitamin D3 and K2

These are the two vitamins that control and regulate the availability and deposition of calcium. Vitamin D3 makes it available, and vitamin K2 directs it to the bones and teeth.  Lots of vitamin D3 without K2 will lead to calcification with calcium being deposited all over the place in the arteries and soft tissues. Lots of K2 without D3 will lead to a depletion of available calcium in the bloodstream because it will be stored away in the bones and teeth. K2 is also used to decalcify soft tissues by pulling out and redirecting the deposited calcium from the tissues to the bones.

Vitamin D deficiency is universal in the west, and so is vitamin K2 deficiency. Arthritis sufferers need large doses of both for extended periods of time (at least a year). I recommend taking a combo supplement containing both in an optimal ratio, and take as many capsules as needed to bring vitamin D intake to 20 000 – 50 000 IU per day with breakfast and lunch. For years I took DaVinci’s ADK combo, which I think is one of the best. Now I take Life Extension’s D and K combo, without vitamin A, because its presence dampens the activity of vitamin D3. However, vitamin A promotes the healing of tissues. You can take both, alternating between the two.

Another of our readers who had his entire adult life an arthritic wrist that caused him pain and trouble whenever he used his hand for anything at all, followed my suggestion of taking 50 000 IU of vitamin D3 per day, together with the appropriate amount of vitamin K2 to match in the D3 intake, for six months. Within the first month, he found incredible improvement, something he had never been able to achieve using all the methods and drugs that had been proposed to him by MDs. After three months, his wrist was completely healed. He continued for the entire 6 months just to be sure, and now, his painful, debilitating, arthritic wrist that he was living with for more than 20 years, is a thing of past, a bad memory.

5. Vitamin C

Whole food vitamin C is essential for healing and keeping tissues and cells healthy. And there is definitely a difference between whole food C and ascorbic acid. We discussed this in Vitamin C is not vitamin C. This is not specific to arthritis, but everyone with arthritis should be loading up on it. I take The Synergy Company’s Pure Radiance C. You should take at least three capsules, but better 6 capsules per day, split evenly with each meal.

6. Turmeric extract

Turmeric is one of if not the most powerful natural anti-inflammatory. And inflammation is a hallmark of arthritis. You should take an extract that concentrates the curcuminoids, but you should also think of making yourself hot turmeric drinks, adding as much turmeric to your soups and curries as the flavours and combinations of foods will allow. It always needs to be taken with a lot of fat to maximise assimilation.

7. Food

Naturally, you will have guessed that my recommendations for food are the same as always, but even more important in this case when we are trying to bring inflammation as low as possible, and maximise healing:

  • no simple or starchy carbs because they cause inflammation, tissue damage, and metabolic disorder, except for berries once in a while;
  • unlimited unprocessed saturated fats from coconut oil, butter, and animal sources;
  • enough high quality protein from healthy animals including organ meats, especially liver; and
  • as many green veggies as you like, especially leafy like spinach, kale and lettuces, watery like cucumbers, fibrous like celery and broccoli.
  • Avocados are fantastic to eat as often as you want. Walnuts and hazelnuts are excellent health-promoting nuts (either roasted, or raw and soaked, subsequently dehydrated or not).

8. Sunshine, fresh Air, exercise and sauna

Go out in the sun, go for long hike, expose your skin, breath deeply, run up the hills, work your muscles at the gym if you can, go to Pilates and yoga classes, do lots of stretching whenever you can, and go to the sauna when you can. Make sure you stay 15 minutes to get really hot and for the heat to penetrate into the tissues and joints.

9. Iodine

Iodine is the universal medicine. Everyone needs it, and everyone should be supplementing with it. You can read for yourself why in Orthoiodosupplementation. Start at 12.5 mg and work your way up to 50 mg per day. Increment by 12.5 mg each week. Take the supplements on weekdays and give the kidneys a break on weekends. I take Iodoral, and recommend that. Using the generic Lugol’s solution is as good but less convenient.

10. Melatonin and good sleep

Good sleep is absolutely essential for repair and healing. Make sure you get plenty every day. Melatonin has, in addition to its effects in helping you sleep, many other amazingly health-promoting effects that we will explore in another article sometime soon, I hope.

Last words

Are there more supplements you can take? Of course there are. I personally take all of the above and several others. I wanted to stick to the things which I believe most essential. If I were to recommend additional supplements, I would say to take

  • omega-3’s, which are useful for lowering inflammation, as well as tissue healing and repair. I take Life Extension’s Mega EPA/DHA. Don’t take more than the recommended dose. Omega-3’s are very easily oxidised, and should always be taken in very small quantities.
  • Niacin in the form of niacinamide is also a universally useful supplement because it provides molecular building blocks needed by every single cell to produce energy. I take 500-1000 mg/day, but you could take 3000 mg (1000 mg with each meal). Niacin supplements will also do wonders for your mood (see No more bipolar disorder?).
  • Ubiquinol, the active form of Co-enzyme Q10, is also essential in cellular energy. I would recommend at least 50 mg per day, but more (like 100 or even 200 mg) would probably be better.
  • Vitamin B12 is crucially important for health. And the older we get, the more critical it becomes. I get an injection of 5 mg every month, and recommend that for everyone (see B12: your life depends on it).

Keep in mind that the timescale for improvements is long: on the scale of months. If you think that is too slow, ask yourself how old you are, and how long it took to get to the state you’re in. Now, with the answers in mind, remind yourself to be patient. You need to be determined to get better, consistent with your new regimen, and patient. But I assure you that you will get better. And please, keep me posted on your progress.

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Case study: old man can’t walk

Some time ago, a childhood friend of mine sent me this message:

I want to help this man. He has a problem with his tendons in both legs. In the morning, he can’ t stand up. Can you recommend some minerals and vitamins? Maybe some exercises that can help? Your advice is important.

oldMan

The old man that can’t walk from the pain in his legs.

That’s all he wrote. So, I replied:

How can I give any advice? I don’t know anything about him. I help/treat people with a complete eating and drinking programme. Vitamins and mineral supplements are only used as adjuncts to correct deficiencies. So, before saying anything, I need to know some basic things:

How old is he? What work does he do or did? How long has this problem been developing for? Does he drink water and how much? What does he drink? What does he eat every day? Does he have other complaints? How is his digestion? How is his skin (any rashes or dry skin or eczema)? What kind of other problems has he had in his life? And anything else about this health that could be useful?

Here’s what I got back:

  • How old is he? What work does he do or did?  He’s 81. He was a manager.
  • How long has this problem been developing for?  The problem started when he was around 65. It has gotten much worse in the past 2 years.
  • Does he drink water and how much?  He drinks little water, 0.5 litres a day.
  • What does he eat every day?  He eats meat, potatoes, tomatoes, some cheese, and a lot of bread.
  • Does he have other complaints?  Heart, kidneys.
  • How is his digestion?  He has problems going to the bathroom every day. He goes once every three days.
  • How is his skin (any rashes or dry skin or eczema)? His skin is fine.
His doctor told him to exercise, but he can’t even stand up or move properly.

With this info, I was able to get a better idea, and did my analysis of the situation.  This is what I replied:

Here is my diagnosis:
This man has been chronically dehydrated for most of his life. Being chronically dehydrated is one of the most health-damaging situation we can be in, but because it is not acute, the consequences are manifested over long periods of time. 
The lack of water first leads to a deterioration of the digestive system and digestive function: of the stomach (poor digestion and ulcers), and of the intestines (damaging of the lining, ulcers, and leaky gut), constipation and from it toxins and pathogenic bacteria going back from the colon into the bloodstream. 
Second, it leads to deterioration of the kidneys and the nephrons (little filters in the kidneys), because the only way to get the acids out of the blood is to dilute them in water, but if there is a lack of water, then the kidneys do everything they can to keep this water, because water is more important to keep than to get rid of acid. Therefore, not only do the kidneys get destroyed little by little, but the body accumulates the uric acid everywhere in the soft tissues, starting in the joints, and then in the tendons, ligaments and muscles. This leads to incredible stiffness, pain, and eventually to not being able to move.
Third, because our diet is usually rich in calcium but very poor in magnesium, everyone tends to be over-calcified and to accumulate calcium everywhere in the blood vessels, soft tissues of the joints, and in the muscles. This is made much worse by over-acidification and chronic dehydration. Calcification also leads to stiffness, pain, and eventually, to not being able to move properly.
Therefore, the most important things to do in order or priority are the following:
  1. Drink a lot more water (at least 3 litres per day), on an empty stomach (at least 20 minutes before eating), and making sure it is alkaline water (high pH 9-10).
  2. Take baths with 2 cups (500 g) of sodium bicarbonate and 1 cup of magnesium chloride (or magnesium sulphate). The bicarbonate and magnesium will be absorbed into the body through the skin, and will dissolve uric acid and calcium deposits throughout the body. 
  3. Drink juice of green vegetables to remove acid buildup in the body, and clean out the intestines.
  4. Take supplements of magnesium (the best form is L-Threonate, because it is bound to fat and is 100% absorbed) in order to help remove build-up of calcium.
  5. Take supplements of vitamins A-D-K2 (I recommend DaVinci’s combo supplement because of the high concentration of K2), as these are the most important fat-soluble vitamins, and K2 is the only nutrient that can effectively de-calcify blood vessels and soft tissues.
  6. Take supplements of vitamin C and collagen to help rebuild the cartilage and heal the damaged soft tissues, especially the blood vessels and the joints. It is essential to take whole-food vitamin C, and high quality collagen.
  7. Stop eating sugar, bread, cheese, yogurt, and eat basically very big salads and fatty meats like lamb, veal and porc (only outdoor-living animals).
Good luck, and make sure to let me know how things evolve. If you don’t understand something, just ask.

 

Three weeks later, I got his note from him:

Today I called the old man’s wife. She told to me that since yesterday he has no pain, and can move his arms and legs a lot better.  He drinks more than 2 litres of water per day, eats and takes the supplements as you prescribed. His grandson translated your message for him. I am very impressed. Thank you so much for you help. Your method works.

It’s a nice feel-good story, isn’t it? Here’s the thing, though. How many millions of people do you think are in the same situation as the one in which this man was? Suffering like he did, for decades growing older, stiffer, less mobile, and in more pain, until the end, which by that point comes as a relief from this difficult and painful life. And from what? Dehydration. Simple dehydration. Long-standing, chronic dehydration.

How much water do you drink each day? What’s the pH of the water you drink? How much salt do you eat each day? How much bread and potatoes do you eat? How is your digestion? How often do you go to the bathroom, and how is the wipe? Such simple things, so crucial to health.
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You have cancer, and there’s lots you can do

Everybody knows that cancer rates are rising everywhere and every year. Everybody also knows that the words, “You have cancer. I am sorry.”, fall upon us like a death sentence. Everybody knows this, because we see it all around us, everywhere we look, and we hear about it every day, everywhere we turn.

If a doctor has, indeed, said these words to us, then we are probably scared, probably very scared. We know that basically everyone we have ever heard of who were diagnosed with cancer, died. Sometimes they died really quickly, like, within a few weeks. Sometimes they died within a few months. Sometimes it wasn’t so quick. Maybe it took a year of two, or three, or even five. They went through rounds of chemo. They were on sick leave at home for months on end. They sometimes appeared to recover at some point, maybe a bit, for a little while, but in the end, they died. And they died of cancer.

We also know that not even the most famous and richest people, like Steve Jobs, for example, can escape this kiss of death that the diagnosis of cancer delivers. Wealth and power are irrelevant when it comes to our prognosis as cancer patients: it is always bad. Of course, how bad it is depends on the kind of cancer, but why is it that so many different people, in so many different places, die of cancer every day?

I won’t venture into formulating an answer to this question, and I won’t dwell on cancer survival statistics. I don’t think it’s useful for us right now. I want to hurry and move to the good news. And the good news is that there many things you can do to help your body rid itself of cancer, which is usually the result of a long-standing disease process that has evolved over a lifetime, and has finally manifested itself in this way. This presentation of the question at hand is definitely not exhaustive, nor attempting to be. But this is what I consider to be some of the essential elements.

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White blood cells (shown in blue) attacking cancer cells (shown in red).

 

Understanding cancer

To understand cancer, we have to understand the origin of cancer cells. Cells become cancerous due to a defect in energy production, a mitochondrial dysfunction, an inability to manufacture enough ATP (adenosine triphosphate) through oxidation of glucose or fatty acids to sustain the cell’s functions. This forces the cell to fall back on anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation of glucose to supplement the deficient energy production from the dysfunctional or reduced number of mitochondria. Fermentation produces an increase in lactic acid in and around the cell. This decreases the availability of oxygen to the mitochondria, which further impedes their ability to produce ATP through oxidation of nutrients, and creates a negative feedback loop that pushes towards further mitochondrial stress and dysfunction, less oxidation, more fermentation, more acid, and less available oxygen.

Because energy production through fermentation is so very inefficient, the cell needs far more glucose, and naturally develops more insulin receptors in order to be ever more sensitive to, and able to capture circulating glucose more effectively. Cancer cells often have 10 times more insulin receptors than healthy cells. What should be clear is that it doesn’t matter where the cancer is, and it doesn’t matter how it evolved, whether it was due to a gradual evolution from an environment too high in glucose, lacking in oxygen, and saturated with acid, or whether it was due to exposure to a toxin or mitochondrial poison, of which there are many and increasingly more in our environment. In the final analysis, this is how cancer cells become how they are, and this is how they survive.

As to their multiplication and proliferation from a single or small group of microscopic cells to large macroscopic tumours in one spot or all over the place, this can be understood by considering that the cell that is devolving from its normal function to that of cell whose only function is to ferment glucose at the fastest possible rate, loses, little by little, the ability to do whatever it was doing before, by losing the ability to produce ATP that can be used by its different specialised parts and constituents to perform their specialised functions, the cell becomes less and less specialised, less and less differentiated and therefore more and more general and more and more primitive, to the point where the essential ability of the cell to destroy itself, when something in its workings has gone wrong, is lost. Having lost this safeguard, the primitive, the undifferentiated, but also necessarily abnormal and weakened cell, just ferments and multiplies, limited only by its ability to fuel itself and sustain this most basic activity of survival without other purpose but this survival in and of itself.

Removing cancer

Having recognised and understood this, the strategy by which we can help the body rid itself of the cancer cells, and regain its healthy physiological functions becomes clear. We have to 1) do all we can to cut off the source of fuel to the cancer cells, 2) clear out the accumulated acids and transform the acidic environment into one that is alkaline and oxygen-rich, 3) help restore the cells’ mechanism of apoptosis—their ability to self-destruct, and 4) do everything else we can to further weaken and destroy cancer cells by means that simultaneously strengthen healthy cells. It’s a simple strategy that is also simple to put into practice, as we will see in a moment.

1) Starve the cancer cells

The first point is to cut off the fuel to the cancer cells. The source of fuel is glucose, because cancer cells can only ferment and cannot oxidise, and the way the glucose is supplied to the cell is by the action of insulin that moves it across the cell membrane. Therefore, what has to be done to is minimise the availability of glucose, and, more important still, minimise the availability of insulin to shuttle the glucose into the cells. The lower the glucose, the less potential fuel there will be. The lower the insulin, the less glucose will actually be able to enter cells. There is no real lower limit. Without ingesting any carbohydrates, the body maintains and regulates blood sugar according to the stress levels and kinds of activities we engage in, independently of how low insulin levels are. And so, the focus should be to have the lowest possible insulin levels naturally.

The fastest way to lower blood sugar, but especially insulin, is to fast, to stop eating altogether, and just drink water and herbal tea, remembering to eat enough salt to match the water intake. The second best way of doing this is in form very similar, but turns out to be much easier to do, is also a kind of water fasting, but with the addition of fat from coconut oil and butter, melted in the herbal teas. Both of these forms of fasting will most effectively deprive the body of anything that can easily be made into glucose, and of anything that will stimulate the secretion of insulin, thereby will allow glucose to drop as low as possible, but more importantly, insulin to drop and stay at an absolute minimum, and therefore most effectively starving cancer cells, no matter where they are in the body and bodily fluids, in the tissues and organs. The first form of the classic water fast is harder, but many people do it without hesitation nor difficulty. The second form is much easier, and may even be more effective in inducing a deep state of ketosis given the additional intake of medium chain fatty acids.

We can easily imagine doing such a fat “fast” for days, or even weeks, depending on the severity of the situation, our resolve to suffocate and starve the cancer cells as quickly as possible, and, of course, the state and circumstances in which we find ourselves. In addition, we can do this as much as possible on any given day, independently of what else we eat. The more fat and the less carbohydrate we ingest, the lower the insulin and the more effective the anti-cancer healing protocol will be.

The third option is to eat and drink to keep insulin levels as low as possible. Here again, because fat is the macronutrient that stimulates the least secretion of insulin, truly minimal, it should be the main source of calories. Simple carbohydrates and starches are most insulinogenic, and protein is about half as insulinogenic as are carbs. Indigestible fibre does not stimulate insulin. Therefore, in the extreme, we would eat only fat, pure fat. The best ones being the most natural and least processed, most saturated and least unsaturated: coconut fat, butter, animal fat and, the best of the vegetable oils, cold pressed olive oil.

It’s important to understand the difference between having low blood sugar, and having low insulin levels. The first is like the amount of food in the kitchens of the restaurant, the second is like the waiter bringing it to the table. It is far, far more important in our efforts to stop the supply to cancer cells that we keep insulin levels as low as possible, than it is to try to keep glucose levels low. And to push the point further, it doesn’t really matter what the amount of glucose actually is, because as long as insulin is low, it will not be brought into the cell, into the cancer cells. The reason I emphasise this is because lack of sleep, emotional or psychological stress, intense physical exercise will all raise blood sugar levels temporarily, in some instances, to high levels. But as long as insulin is as low as it can be, the sugar will not be readily transported into the cells.

Naturally, we cannot have zero insulin, because we would die: our cells would literally starve to death, no matter how much we ate. Babies with a genetic defect that makes their pancreas not able to produce insulin always died of emancipation before the discovery and subsequent commercialisation of insulin as medicine. Similarly, if at any point in a child’s or adult person’s life, insulin stops being produced, incredible weakness and emancipation will follow, before it is tested and identified as the cause of their problem, hopefully in time before permanent damage ensues. Therefore, there is always some insulin in circulation, and therefore, sugar will eventually make its way into at least some cancer cells. This is why it is important to keep it as low as we possibly can naturally, and this is how we can appreciate the essential difference between the effects of high glucose and high insulin.

In a less extreme form than the fat-fast, we maintain low sugar and low insulin by getting and deriving most of our energy from fat. Eating cucumber or celery with almond butter or tahini, for example, or a green leafy salad with lots of olive oil, walnuts, and avocado, provides basically all calories from the fat, given that cucumber, celery and lettuce greens, are basically just water and indigestible fibre, while almond butter and tahini are 80\% fat by calories, and walnuts are 84\%. So is coconut milk, for example, at nearly 90\%, and dark 85\% chocolate, at 84\% fat based on calories. Focusing on feeding the body with these kinds of healthful, high-fat foods, will nourish, stimulate healing, and keep insulin and glucose levels as low as we can without either water fasting, or consuming only fat.

2) Alkalise to remove and excrete accumulated acids

The second point is just as important as the first, because it is the environment in which the cells live that actually has the most direct effect on their function. We have looked at the importance of achieving and maintaining an alkaline environment in the body in several other places. The essence is excellent hydration with alkaline water (pH>8) combined with the intake of proportional amounts of unrefined salt to promote the release of acids from the tissues, and its excretion through the urine by the kidneys. Without proper hydration, the cells will retain the acid with the little water they have to hold on to. Without proper amounts of salt, the kidneys will also retain the acid in order to maintain the concentration gradient that allows the nephron to function when it re-absorbs water.

Naturally, alkaline water will work infinitely more effectively. But the most important detail is the controlled balance between water and salt intake, and what we want is a lot of water and a lot of salt. We cannot take in large amounts of salt water without getting loose stools. So, it has to be smoothly distributed throughout the day, except in the morning, when we get up, because we are dehydrated, and need to drink about 1 litre of water over the course of one to two hours, before we start taking salt.

If you buy mineral or spring water, find the one that has the highest pH value. It should be greater than at least 8. If you have a water filter at home, then add alkalising drops to it before drinking it. I use Dr. Young’s PuripHy drops.

As acidity decreases, and the environment becomes more alkaline, oxygen will flow more freely, and become more available to mitochondria for oxidising fatty acids in producing energy. Remember that cancer cells do not use oxygen, and cannot use fatty acids to fuel themselves, whereas normal, healthy cells, not only can, but function much more efficiently on fat rather than glucose as their primary fuel. Adding chlorophyll and fresh juice of green vegetables to the alkaline water is an excellent way to further boost alkalisation, neutralisation, and elimination of accumulated metabolic acids. Unlike the first step, which is to lower insulin and glucose levels, and that can be done, to a great extent, literally overnight under fasting conditions, alkalising to eliminate accumulated acids is something that takes time. But in both cases, what matters most is consistency. Hour by hour, and day after day, the body will do what it needs to do as best is can, and improve in these functions with time.

Beyond this fundamental necessity to hydrate with alkaline water throughout the day, and day after day, the most therapeutic way to alkalise the tissues, and detoxify the body, is by taking medicinal baths in which we add two cups of sodium bicarbonate (baking soda), and two cups of magnesium chloride (nigari), or magnesium sulphate (epsom salts), if nigari is not available. This is easy, relaxing, extremely medicinal, and very effective in neutralising and eliminating acids and toxins from the body. In fighting cancer, you should be soaking in this kind of hot bath for 45-60 minutes three times per week. The benefits of this ultra simple trans-dermal therapy with sodium bicarbonate and magnesium are incredible. You can read a lot more about this from the baking soda, magnesium and iodine doctor, Dr Sircus.

3) Restore cellular self-destruct function

The third line of action is also essential, and it only requires you to take a few key supplements. The most important of these in the fight agains cancer is iodine, because of its fundamental role both in the structure and architecture of cells, but also in the regulation of apoptosis, the process by which a damaged cell will self-destruct when things have gone wrong somewhere. The importance of iodine cannot be overemphasised. And in healing cancer, or any serious disease condition, we will want to take high doses daily. Doses of at least 50 mg, but preferably 100 mg.

However, because of its very strong detoxification effects, as it pushes out all accumulated toxic halogens out of the cells to replace these by iodine in its proper place, we must work up to these high doses gradually, starting with 12.5 mg, and increasing the dosage as quickly as possible given the body’s response to it. Some people , maybe most, will experience headaches and possible nausea when starting on iodine. This is perfectly normal. The stronger the reaction, the more indicative of the body’s level of toxicity. Therefore, you should always view this as something good, in that toxins are being excreted out of your cells. It is important to support the detoxification process by taking chlorella and spirulina, probiotics and psyllium husks every day as well, while always drinking a lot of alkaline water with added chlorophyll for extra cleansing, if possible.

What I take and consider to be the best supplement is Iodoral by Optimox. Optimox recommends taking the iodine on an empty stomach for faster absorption, but it can also be taken with food for slower and possibly better assimilation. In addition, although iodine can easily be taken on an empty stomach, the co-factors, which include B vitamins, are much better taken with food to avoid potential nausea or queasiness. Moreover, taking it with food will slow down the absorption, and thereby decrease the negative sensations from the detoxification effects. The only thing is that iodine, given its stimulation of thyroid function, will energise the body. Therefore, it should be taken before midday. I take it either first thing in the morning or at lunch (or both).

You can read about the importance and functions of iodine in the following three books: Iodine, Why You Need It, Why You Can’t Live Without It by Dr. Brownstein; What Doctors Fail to Tell You About Iodine and Your Thyroid by Dr. Thompson; and The iodine crisis: what you don’t know about iodine can wreck your life by L. Farrow. There are also many web resources and highly informative forums about iodine and cancer. You can search for the words iodine and cancer to see for yourself.

Other fundamentally important micronutrients are vitamins B12 and D, both of which are needed for proper cellular function, and DNA transcription and replication, because of their roles in the nucleus of cells, activating and de-activating, switching on and off genes, to ensure everything in the cell works as it should. For best and fastest results—and that’s definitely what we need in our fighting cancer—B12 should be injected weekly in the amount of 1 mg, and in the form of methylcobalamin. (For optimal health in normal circumstances, it can be injected once a month in the amount of 5 mg.) Vitamin D should be taken with its sister vitamins, A and K2, for synergistic effects and biochemical balance in their functions. Each of these have complimentary roles, and should generally be taken together, unless there is a reason not to. You can read these two articles published by Chris Masterjohn from the Weston A. Price Foundation to learn why and how: On the trail of the elusive X-factor: a sixty two year old mystery finally solved, and Update on vitamins A and D.

It is by supporting proper cellular function, especially in the nucleus, with iodine, B12 and D, that cells will regain, little by little, the ability to recognise that they are damaged and need to self-destruct. There will always be millions or even billions of cells involved in the disease process we call cancer, but they will be distributed along a wide spectrum of dysfunction, from having very mildly impaired mitochondrial function from a light oxygen deficit cause by a little too much acid in the environment surrounding the cell, to full cancer cells that derive 100% of their energy needs from anaerobic fermentation without using any oxygen at all, and thriving in extremely acidic conditions.

Hence, many cells will die from being starved of glucose, because that’s the only fuel they can use; many cells will recover enough of their normal regulatory mechanisms to know its time to self-destruct; and many cells will actually regain their healthy function, repair their damaged parts, and replace their dysfunctional mitochondria with new ones. Nothing is ever black and white when it comes to cells and cellular function. Instead, everything is grey. But it is a million different shades of grey.

4) Do everything else that can help

The fact is that there are many, many more things you can do. Many therapies, many treatments, many supplements and herbal formulas, that have all proved highly effective against cancer. There are so many that many books have been written about them: About Raymond Rife, you can read The Cancer Cure That Worked by Barry Lynes; about Gaston Naessens, you can read The Persecution and Trial of Gaston Naessens: The True Story of the Efforts to Suppress an Alternative Treatment for Cancer, AIDS, and Other Immunologically Based Diseases by Christopher Bird; about Rene Caisse and the Essiac tonic, you can read Essiac: The Secrets of Rene Caisse’s Herbal Pharmacy; about Johanna Budwig, you can read Cancer – The Problem and the Solution; and the list goes on. There are websites devoted to these people and their approach to cancer, and this is just a few of them that I know about. One book that compiles a lot, maybe most, of the information on non-toxic treatments for cancer, is Ty Bollinger’s Cancer: Step Outside the Box.

Maybe you find it hard to believe that our governmental and medical authorities would have gone—and continue to this day—to go through such extreme measures in order to suppress treatments that work so effectively to help and heal people of their illnesses and of cancer, without negative side effects, and at very low costs. But this is a simple fact. And it is quite easy to understand if we consider that anyone, or any institution, that has commercial investments and interests in a particular endeavour, will go to great lengths to maintain and strengthen, as much as they can and for as long as they can, the conditions that make them successful. There’s nothing more to it than that. Let’s look at a few of those therapies and supplements which are easy to implement, and highly effective against cancer: hyperthermia, flax seed oil, enzymes, and turmeric.

Hyperthermia, or heat therapy, is a very well studied and effective therapy against cancer, both preventatively and curatively. The idea or principle is very simple: healthy cells can withstand high temperatures without damage. The reason why this is so, and why we know it for sure, is that the body produces fevers as a defence mechanism to destroy invading viruses and bacteria that, unlike our own cells, cannot withstand the heat. Similarly, cancer, and other compromised and damaged cells, are unable to cope with high heat. Hence, it was hypothesised, tested, verified and demonstrated that hyperthermia is really very effective at destroying cancer, while simultaneously cleansing and strengthening healthy cells and tissues. Infrared saunas are ideal in heating the tissues more deeply, but any sauna, steam room, or even bath that induces hyperthermia by raising the temperature in the body, will help kill cancer cells, cleanse, and restore health.

Enzyme therapy has also been used for many decades in the treatment of cancer patients extremely successfully. The late Nicolas Gonzalez who passed away last year, was its most recent champion, following in the footsteps of his mentor, Dr William Kelley. The treatment protocols are more complicated, and are always highly individualised, but the main element is the supplementation with large doses of enzymes, combined with the colon cleansing to eliminate the dead tumour tissues from the body. Large quantities of fresh vegetable juice are also often included in his recommendations. You can read about it here: http://www.dr-gonzalez.com/index.htm, but whether you decide to throw yourself completely into it or not, I strongly recommend taking proteolytic enzymes three times per day, always on an empty stomach at least 30 minutes before eating, and support cleansing by taking a colon cleanser before going to bed. This site, http://www.losethebackpain.com, has good quality enzymes and cleansing supplements that we’ve used, but you can also do your own research.

Flax seed oil, organic and cold pressed, combined with fresh organic quark or cottage cheese is, based on Johanna Budwig’s extensive, lifelong research, as well as practical clinical experience with patients, is another one of the most effective and simple cancer treatments. And although the biochemistry of it, and biochemical pathways through which the cancer is weakened and destroyed may be complicated, the implementation is very easy and simple, costs very little, and cannot in any way bring about harm, unless one is severely allergic to milk proteins (in which case the dairy can be replaced with another source of protein that will work as the carrier). Here is a good article that has links to other excellent articles about this: https://www.cancertutor.com/make_budwig/

Turmeric, an ancient, bright yellow, Indian spice, which is a powder made from drying the ginger-like root that is turmeric, is one of the most researched natural substances in modern times, and is surely one of the most powerful natural anti-cancer supplements. Since it has tons of wide-ranging health benefits, and carries no risks at all, it’s clear that everyone can benefit from it. You can read about it from Mercola here. You should take it three times per day, but with your meals, because the more fat there is in the gut, the better the absorption will be, as is true for most antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals.

I feel it is important to emphasise the point just made about the risk-free nature of supplementing with turmeric, because it is a crucial point that applies to everything we have discussed here, and everything we have discussed in all the natural healing protocols and nutritional approaches we have presented in the past. Food-based nutritional healing is, in general, risk-free, because it doesn’t involve ingestion of or exposure to toxic substances, and instead involves correcting deficiencies, boosting nutritional status, and optimising the biochemical and hormonal environment of the body in order to promote healing.

Of course, we can object by referring to examples of people dying from drinking too much water too quickly. But we are not talking about such extremes. Nonetheless, we could, for example, eat coconut oil or butter all day, and other than the possible nausea from taking in so much fat, you wouldn’t get anything more than loose stools. Moreover, the body’s own hormonal responses would naturally prevent overconsumption through a feeling of extreme satiety that would basically make it impossible to willingly eat more.

Another example is that of using baking soda or iodine. So simple, and yet so powerful, they stand as the perfect examples of the benign nature but extreme effectiveness of natural healing. We find written in the most recent edition of the Manual for the Medical Management of Radiological Casualties of the US Military Medical Operations, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, that sodium bicarbonate will “prevent deposition of uranium carbonate complexes in the renal tubules”, and that we should, “within 4 hours of exposure, administer potassium iodide (KI) to block uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid”, because they are the best known ways to protect the kidneys and thyroid from being destroyed by the radioactive elements that would—without the use of sodium bicarbonate and potassium iodide—migrate to these organs and destroy them.

But why wait for a chemical spill or a nuclear power station meltdown in order to rid the body of accumulated chemicals and toxins, and to replenish every cell with a plentiful supply of iodine to ensure that all cells and all glands function at their best, now and every day? We don’t have to wait. The same goes for turmeric, for enzymes, for B12, for A-D-K2, for hydration, for alkalisation, for minimal glucose and minimal insulin loads, for maximum nutrition and maximum health. Why don’t we start doing this preventatively right now?

Summary and Wrap up

Maybe you know all of this stuff already, or maybe you don’t and you are blown away and overwhelmed by the amount of information and range of topics we have covered. Maybe you are reading this because you are interested and curious to learn and be as well-informed as you can about health topics, or maybe you are desperately looking for relevant information that can help you or a loved one. No matter in which camp you find yourself, here is the summary and wrap up I can offer to bring all of what we have discussed down to a simple set of recommendations that anyone faced with a diagnosis of cancer, and fearful of, or skeptical about, or doubtful that the current standard of care in the cancer industry will help them, can understand and follow, knowing that none of these food choices, supplements, and therapies will bring them harm in any way, and that all will only do good, regardless how dire or hopeless their situation may appear to be.

  • Keep low insulin levels, as low as possible, by not having insulin-stimulating carbohydrates, and by keeping protein intake reasonably low. Focus on consuming natural, unprocessed fats as much as possible to supply the largest proportion of your daily calories. Consider a water or a tea-with-fat fast for a few days when it is suitable, or even as an intermittent fasting strategy on a daily basis. Consider also doing a green juice “fast” (only green vegetables) with added fat from blending in melted coconut oil or milk.
  • Drink alkaline water, always on an empty stomach, considering the day as divided between hydration periods, and feeding and digestion periods. The first hydration period is from the time you get up until you have your first meal. It is good to extend that period if you can to allow plenty of time for proper hydration after a long night of dehydration, with at least 1 to 1.5 litres over a period of at least 2 hours. Drink slowly to improve absorption and not pee everything out. Always allow 30 minutes without drinking before meals, and 2-3 hours after meals, depending on their size. The cycles of hydration and feeding during the day (for 3 meals) should be as follows: drink, wait, eat, wait, drink, wait, eat, wait, drink, wait, eat. For only two meals, which I recommend, then periods of drinking are extended and allow for even better hydration, cleaning of the blood, and better digestion.
  • Take iodine supplements with the co-factors and with food to maximise absorption and effectiveness. Start with 12.5 mg per day, and work your way up to 100 mg. Do this as quickly as your body allows you to. Take the iodine every weekday, and stop on weekends; five days on, two days off. (My wife and I take 50 mg per day.)
  • Take hot baths with sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride (or sulphate; 2 cups of each). Soak for 40 to 60 minutes. Do this three times per week. Always take your baths on an empty stomach, and drink at least one litre of alkaline water during the length of the bath. (Once per week is what I aim for as preventative medicine.)
  • Get B12 injections of methylcobalamin, 1 mg on a weekly basis. (My wife and I get a 5 mg injection once per month.)
  • Take proteolytic enzymes and Essiac tonic three times per day, always on an empty stomach, always at least 30 minutes before meals. (We take it once, first thing in the morning.)
  • Take turmeric and turmeric extract, as well as A-D-K2 with every meal or fatty snack, three times per day during recovery. (Once daily in normal circumstances.)
  • Take infrared or regular saunas, every day if possible, or even in the morning and at night if you have or decide to buy your own little sauna. I would definitely do this given how effective hyperthermia is at destroying cancer cells.
  • Eat Budwig cream.
  • Eat and drink greens.
  • Spend time outdoors, as much time as you can, moving, breathing fresh air, exposing your skin to the sunlight.
  • Keep low stress levels, as low as possible. Take tulsi, ashwagandha, and HTP-5 to keep stress hormone levels low, and mood high.
  • Take probiotics, chlorella and spirulina in the morning, and a colon cleansing supplement before bed.
  • Sleep well, long restful nights. Melatonin is very useful for this, and has many additional health benefits.

Cancer is very easy to prevent, but somewhat harder to dislodge once it has taken hold somewhere within the body. But no matter what type of cancer, how localised or generalised it is, or at what stage it finds itself, there is always hope. Hope of getting better and more comfortable, and hope for a complete recovery.

We have to remember that cancer cells are degenerate and weak. By making the environment as health-promoting to normally functioning cells, and simultaneously as hostile as possible to cancer cells, they will perish and be cleared out from the body as the waste that they are. The body heals itself, often miraculously quickly, when impediments are removed, and the elements needed for healing are provided. With all my heart, I hope this can help you and your loved ones.

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Reversing diabetes: understanding the process

The fundamental problem, the cause of all the complications associated with diabetes, is the chronically elevated glucose and insulin levels. Independently of the fact that each individual, each one of us, has a different tolerance to carbohydrates, a different metabolic response to the presence of glucose and insulin in the blood, there are basically only two ways that blood glucose can be elevated: the first is by the consumption of sugar or starch that finds its way into the bloodstream through the intestinal wall; the second is by the stimulation by stress hormones of liver glucose production whereby the glycogen reserves are broken down and the resulting glucose released into the blood. Therefore, in order to most effectively bring down chronically elevated blood sugar levels, it is essential to eliminate insulin-stimulating carbohydrates, but it is also essential to eliminate chronic stress.

The sugar

The vast majority of the millions of type II diabetics that constitute the body of what is now generally considered to be a diabetes epidemic in many western countries, have developed the condition primarily from the consumption of dietary insulin-stimulating carbohydrates, from eating high-sugar and high-starch diets over the course of decades. The process of growing insulin resistance due to chronic consumption of carbohydrates is described in several other posts (like, for example, We were never meant to eat simple or starchy carbohydrates, A diabetic’s meal on Air France, and Cure diabetes in a matter of weeks). It is for this reason that the same vast majority of type II diabetics responds extremely well to the elimination of these carbohydrates from their diet, whereupon glucose levels drops, insulin levels drop, the cells gradually regain insulin sensitivity, and the tissues and organs gradually recover from years or decades of the toxic environment created by continuously being exposed both to glucose and insulin. Naturally, the recovery process depends intimately on how long and how bad things were before implementing these dietary changes, but it happens in more or less the same way in every person.

The stress

The tendency, in many western societies, especially in North America, to create and generate in all sorts of ways very high levels of stress in most spheres of activities in our life, and, unfortunately, also thrive on this stress, often for years or even decades, in order to be highly productive, successful, and therefore important, or at least, make ourselves feel and believe that we are, is extremely bad. This, compounded with the fact that most of our standard western diets are very high in insulin-stimulating carbohydrates, makes the evolution towards of type II diabetes faster, more pronounced, and much more harmful. As a consequence, there is without a doubt a non-negligible fraction of diabetics that suffer from both a high intake of sugary and starchy foods, as well as high stress levels.

In the extreme, however, it is definitely possible to develop diabetes uniquely or primarily due to chronically high levels of stress. The most important, and indeed, very important difference between elevating blood sugar through diet or as a consequence of stress hormones, is that the former is naturally corrected by the secretion of insulin, which helps put aways the sugar either as glycogen or as fat, whereas the latter, the presence of high levels of stress hormones, simultaneously induces insulin resistance in order to keep the glucose in circulation as long as possible. This makes perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint because under stress, under a fight or flight situation, we need lots of glucose in the blood and we want it to stay there to allow us to respond physically to whatever needs to be done: to run, jump, climb, fight, survive. The problem is that our high levels of stress are not only chronic, but they are not associated with a situation in which we need to have access to high levels of sugar in the blood in order to respond to the stressor physically with our muscles. And so, glucose remains high and circulates, insulin remains high but is not effective, and from this, all our blood vessels, tissues and organs get damaged: glycated from the glucose, oxidised from the free radicals, and literally corroded by the insulin.

This clearly implies that chronically high levels of stress are far worse than a high carbohydrate diet, and explains in no uncertain terms why high-stress professionals—even low-carb eaters—can not only suffer from chronically elevated blood sugar levels and the full array of damaging consequences, but also develop diabetes, and almost inevitably, heart and artery disease, because they all come from the same place: high stress leads to high levels of cortisol and other stress hormones; high levels of stress hormones lead to high glucose and insulin resistance no matter what is eaten because it comes from the liver; high glucose levels and insulin resistance leads to artery disease which leads to heart disease, and it also leads to type II diabetes. This is why, for those high work volume and high stress high-strung high-achievers, it is essential to eliminate all insulin-stimulating carbohydrates, but it is crucial to significantly reduce, and ideally, eliminate chronic stress. (We have looked at many of the physiological effects of stress in The kidney: evolutionary marvel and in At the heart of heart disease.)

The physiological consequences

As every diabetic knows, or at least should know, the consequences or complications associated with the condition of diabetes are horrific. What is very unfortunate is that it appears as though many doctors do not understand the biochemical and physiological connections and chains of  reactions and responses that develop and grow more sever over time as a consequence of the underlying chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin levels (as you may remember from your reading of Why do diabetics have high blood pressure?). What happens in the body when levels of blood sugar and insulin resistance stay high? Let’s follow this through:

High blood pressure, atherosclerosis and heart disease

The most immediate consequences are the rise in blood pressure and increased damage to blood vessels from glycation: the elevated levels of glucose that the kidneys have evolved to keep in circulation causes a rise in osmolarity (blood concentration), which the kidneys try to counter by retaining water in order to keep the blood from getting too concentrated. Since blood pressure is mostly a function of the amount of water in the blood, this causes the pressure to rise. Because glucose is meant to remain in minimal circulating concentrations or otherwise be quickly cleared from the bloodstream by pancreatic insulin shuttling it into cells, long-lasting elevated sugar concentration leads to the glycation of tissues, which is the damage of protein or fatty structures of the cells due to the glucose molecules “sticking” in the wrong places and in the wrong way. This, in combination with the higher blood pressure, is the perfect recipe for much increased damage to the blood vessels, especially the large arteries in which the pressure is greatest, the increased production of cholesterol and lipoproteins for cholesterol transport and damage repair, and the consequent plaque buildup termed atherosclerosis, which eventually (sooner than later) leads to artery disease, heart disease, and heart attacks from the occlusion of vessels bringing blood to the heart muscle (the coronary arteries).

Kidney disease

Even though it is the kidney that regulates the blood pressure and retains water in order to keep the blood from getting too concentrated with the increasing concentration of glucose, the higher blood pressure puts great strain on all of its micro filtering units, the nephrons, whose function is to filter out acidic metabolic waste from the bloodstream and get rid of it through the urine. The nephron works optimally under optimal conditions, but optimal for it, which means ideal blood pressure: not too low, but especially, not too high. It’s a self-regulating system in that if we are relaxed and at rest, then breathing is slow, heart beat is slow, blood circulation is slow, blood pressure is low and the kidneys are under little strain. As we get moving, through exercise, for example, then breathing is faster, heart beat is faster, blood flow is faster, blood pressure is higher, and the kidneys filter a larger volume of blood per second in order to eliminate as much of the acid that is building up from the activity and that needs to be eliminated in order for the muscles to continue working in ideal conditions.

With chronically high blood pressure, the kidneys are continually under stress and the nephrons get damaged. However, because there are millions of nephrons in each of the two kidneys, and it has been estimated that we can live with only 1/3 of the nephrons in only one of the two kidneys, this problem of the gradual deterioration of kidney function is not really considered as a big issue until the kidneys fail (or little time before), at which point it is far too late, and the situation is irreversible.

In addition, insulin resistance—to any degree—promotes the break down of muscle tissue, because as soon as sugar levels drop after a few hours after a meal or snack, during the night is the most apt example, since the cells cannot use fats for energy, the muscle tissue is broken down and constituents of its proteins made into glucose. This leads to chronically high levels of circulating creatinine that, as a metabolic waste product, must also be filtered out and eliminated by the kidneys. This happens in everyone with insulin resistance, and the amount of muscle breakdown is a function of the degree of insulin resistance. In the case of extreme insulin resistance as is seen in type II diabetics, the process is far more pronounced. The excessive stress on the kidneys inevitably leads to deterioration, nephron dysfunction, and eventually to failure. (You can read more about kidney function in The kidney evolutionary marvel.)

What makes things even worse is that most diabetics/heart disease sufferers have elevated lipoprotein (and cholesterol) levels due to the excessive inflammation and speed at which tissue damage is taking place in the blood vessels and all over the body. This, as you all know, has been wrongly interpreted and widely promoted as a major risk factor for heart attacks. The “treatment” of choice for these patients are a lifelong prescription for statin drugs. Very unfortunately, not only do statin drugs not confer any health or longevity benefits, but they accelerate the speed at which muscle breaks down, causing even greater amounts of creatinine to make its way into the bloodstream, and thus creating a heavy additional load on the kidneys. Is it any wonder that the rise in kidney disease closely reflects the rise in diabetes but also in statin consumption? If you’ve been taking statins, don’t get overly worried: physiological degradation is a slow process, and it is rarely too late to make the intelligent choices and changes that will help stop and reverse the disease process, and in time allow the body to heal itself.

Systemic acidosis

The way in which the kidney regulates blood pressure upwards is by secreting different hormones that prevent water from being eliminated, that thicken the blood, and that contract the blood vessels. In most people, the majority of which is chronically dehydrated, there is already a shortage of water and therefore a dehydration response by the kidneys; the elevated sugar concentration makes this far worse, of course. And under dehydration conditions, the means by which the kidney can retain even more water, as much water as it can, is by increasing the concentration gradient in the interstitial medium through which the nephron passes in order to pull as much water out of the filtrate as possible.

Increasing the concentration gradient is done by keeping and concentrating sodium and uric acid. It is more important to retain water than to eliminate uric acid, because water is primordially important for all body functions. Consequently, urea and uric acid levels rise, gradually but consistently over time. Because acid cannot accumulate in the blood, whose pH must absolutely be kept pretty much exactly at 7.4 (7.35-7.45), but because, at the same time, it cannot be eliminated by the kidneys under the given circumstances, it is stored away in the tissues all over the body: joints, ligaments, tendons, muscles and organs. Chronically high levels of uric acid in the blood lead to the condition known as gout. The buildup of acid in the tissues leads to pain, inflammation, arthritis, cartilage breakdown, bone demineralisation and osteoporosis, and a slew of other undesirable consequences, including increased susceptibility to all forms of infections: yeast, viral and bacterial, and severely depressed immunity. (You can read more about acidosis and alkalisation in A green healing protocol, Detoxification, and Such a simple and yet powerful natural anti-inflammatory.)

Maybe the most critical point about acidosis in how it relates to diabetes is that the pancreas and its precious beta cells, those that produce the insulin, are extremely sensitive to pH, and simply cannot function when the blood and cellular environment is acidic. The cells simply stop functioning because of the overload of acid that is not excreted and not neutralised. This makes the pancreas more and more dysfunctional over time, and eventually leads to exhaustion and the complete inability to secrete insulin or do any of the other functions that it is intended to perform. Something very similar happens in the liver, and, in fact, everywhere else, when chronic acidosis defines the internal environment of the body.

Pancreatic exhaustion

The distinction between type I and type II diabetes is usually highlighted by calling the first insulin-dependent diabetes, and the second insulin-resistant diabetes. Type I diabetics are usually identified and diagnosed as children or young adults because their pancreas does not produce insulin, and are then “treated” by having to inject themselves insulin after they eat for the rest of their lives. Naturally, over time, from the continual and usually excessive exposure to insulin, their cells become insulin-resistant, and they subsequently develop all the same problems as type II diabetics, whose condition is, in a way, exactly the opposite, in the sense that they suffer from chronic hyper-insulinemia, because their pancreas that senses the elevated glucose concentration in circulation, produces more insulin in order to clear it out and store it away. The problem is that the cells are not sensitive to the presence of insulin, and therefore do not take in the sugar. The pancreas is then forced to produce and secrete more insulin, and on it goes. Amazingly, type II diabetics are also “treated” by insulin injections, which increase insulin levels even more, and increase insulin resistance even more, obviously making the situation far worse. Eventually, the pancreas of the type II diabetic gets completely exhausted, and loses the ability to manufacture and secrete insulin. At this point, the type II becomes a kind of type I. Interesting how this goes, isn’t it.

The pancreas’ main function is not to secrete insulin, even though in our diabetic-centric worldview it is certainly considered as such. This is one of its functions, but not the most important. By far the most essential is the production and secretion of enzymes, the specialised proteins that break down foods but also do everything else that needs to be done, especially tissue building and repair throughout the body. The third essential function of the pancreas is the concentration and secretion of sodium bicarbonate in the small intestine following the movement of the pre-digested chyme from the stomach into the small intestine. This is also extremely important because all absorption and digestion in the intestine must take place in an alkaline environment, compared to the acidic environment required in the stomach when protein is present. Pancreatic exhaustion from the over-production of insulin for years on end, therefore spells disaster on many more fronts than just insulin and glucose metabolism. It spells disaster for all digestion and absorption processes, and all enzyme regulated activities, which basically means everything, really. This is very serious.

Liver dysfunction

The liver does an amazing amount of vital work, most of it incredibly complex. This includes filtering the blood from all sorts of toxins, both biological and chemical in nature, and breaking those down for elimination; it includes the manufacture of cholesterol and lipoproteins, vital for survival, but the details of which are so intricate that they are still not completely understood after a century of study; it includes the transformation of excess glucose into glycogen and into fat for storage; and in includes the manufacture of glucose from liver-stored glycogen to continually adjust the levels of glucose in the circulation depending on the body’s needs, or more specifically, on the hormonal and biochemical environment. The distinction may appear subtle, but it is quite important in the sense that it is really the hormones and biochemistry of the blood that regulates the function of most tissues and organs, especially those of the vital glands like the liver, pancreas and adrenals, and there is hardly anything more disruptive and unbalancing to the hormonal and biochemical makeup than chronically elevated glucose, stress hormones and acid levels.

Under such conditions, the liver must manufacture an inordinate amount of glucose from the glycogen stores that it itself must also replenish, but also from the broken down muscle tissue. At the same time it converts as much as it can of the glucose into fat for storage, but unfortunately, insulin resistance makes it impossible for the triglycerides to be used, and they are therefore left in circulation for longer than they should before eventually being stored in our fat cells. To top up the list, the free-radical and glycation damage to the vessels and tissues require the liver to also manufacture an inordinate amount of cholesterol and lipoproteins in an attempt to repair these damaged cells, which is no small feat, (you can read more about cholesterol and lipoproteins in But what about cholesterol? and in Six eggs per day for six days: cholesterol?). All of these processes are perfectly natural. However, they are not meant to be running in overdrive for years on end. It is no surprise then that imposing upon the liver to cope with this, eventually leads to dysfunction, deterioration, exhaustion and failure.

Towards a working solution

This is definitely not the end of the list of the complications and physiological consequences that develop from chronically high circulating glucose and insulin levels, but they are some of the most important. Also, it is essential to understand the process by which these consequences first arise and then grow in severity and into the disease process over time. It is, however, infinitely more useful to know what to do in order to maintain a biochemical and hormonal environment in which none of these various dysfunctions and complications can arise if they haven’t yet, or how they can be stopped and reversed if they have.

It shouldn’t be surprising that these are the same, and that they are keys to any optimal health plan, simply because the cells, tissues and organs that make up the human body function, or rather, should function in the pretty much the same way in everyone, allowing for small differences in some of the details. For example, the fact that different people have different tolerances to carbohydrates does not change anything to the consequences of chronically elevated glucose levels on physiological function. It only changes the details relating to the thresholds and time scales involved in developing the same problems. The same goes for vitamin D: the fact that different people require different amounts of vitamin D in order to remain healthy does not in the least alter the basic fact that virtually all complex living creatures depend on it for life. So, yes, everyone is different, but, at the same time, everyone is the same.

No sugars, no starches, no dairy

The first step to take is to eliminate from the diet foods that cause glucose and insulin levels to rise. For this, we must

  1. Eliminate all simple sugars: that’s basically anything that tastes sweet, including sweet fruit, because all simple sugars will elevate blood glucose levels almost immediately after consumption;
  2. Eliminate all starchy carbohydrates: that’s all grains and grain products (at least 90% carb), beans (typically more than 70% carb), potatoes (virtually 100% carb), and other starchy veggies like sweet potatoes, yams, taro, etc, because the starches they contain are broken down to glucose by enzymes in the digestion process; but also sweet root vegetables like carrots and beets, which are just full of simple sugars (you’ll know this if you’ve ever had carrot or beet juice?)
  3. Eliminate dairy: that’s all milk products, which, even those low in sugars like hard cheeses, cause a rise in insulin levels. Besides, most people are allergic or intolerant to dairy products, whether they are aware of it or not.

And aside from just glucose and insulin levels, as we discussed in At the heart of heart disease, insulin-stimulating carbohydrates are highly inflammatory, triggering more than 300 inflammatory pathways. So, excluding them from our diet not only brings about plenty of positive metabolic and physiological changes, but it is, as far as I am concerned, a requirement to make those positive changes happen.

Drop the stress

For those people to whom we referred to earlier that suffer mostly from the chronically elevated stress hormone levels, it is crucial to eliminate the causes of stress, ensure long hours of high quality sleep, and incorporate exercise and activities that effectively reduce stress levels, as well as supplements that can help with that. Obviously, the most important sources of stress for most professionals are psychological ones. But what is also well established is that the level of stress that is experienced (i.e., the amount of stress hormones secreted and in circulation) depends entirely on each person’s outlook and attitude. Therefore, it is this—the attitude and outlook—that are the most influential factors in generating or relieving stress on a daily basis.

Having said this, it is also obvious that going to a remote holiday house on sandy beach without access to phone or internet communications, and making a point of simply relaxing, going for walks, swimming in the sea, reading good books, watching good films, taking naps, eating healthfully and sleeping long and soundly every night, is inherently far more conducive to eliminating stress than the usual school year and work day conditions. What we must find a way to do is to function well in all circumstances with minimal stress, and most importantly, without chronic stress. It is chronic stress that is the problem; not relatively short periods of high stress. And stress, it shouldn’t be surprising, is also happens to be extremely acidifying (haven’t you ever noticed the strong, acidic smell of underarm stress sweat?).

Very helpful in this is taking Tulsi in the morning and at lunchtime (only during the day), and valerian root before bed. But exercise, conscious relaxation, and modifying outlook and attitude towards a more open and relaxed position are definitely most important.

Lower blood pressure

Lowering glucose levels will automatically lower blood pressure. Lowering stress will also automatically lower blood pressure. Biochemically though, the most important muscle relaxant—and this most definitely applies to the smooth muscle cells that line the blood vessels—is magnesium. Therefore, magnesium baths, oil and oral supplementation is essential. On the other hand, calcium is contractile and unfortunately, much more present in the foods we eat. Therefore, most of us are magnesium deficient but also over-calcified. Hence, minimising calcium intake is also very important. (You can read more about these topics in Minerals and bones, calcium and heart attacks, and in Why you should start taking magnesium today.)

Proper mineral balance, especially sodium and chloride, are essential for blood pressure regulation. Eating plenty of unrefined sea salt with meals (and with drinks) is also crucial. Naturally, we seek balance, and salt intake has to be balanced with water intake, and this leads to optimal kidney function. (You can read more about water, salt and physiological function in How much salt, how much water and our amazing kidneys, Why we should drink water before meals, and in Water, ageing and disease)

Support the kidneys

The kidneys want to maintain optimal blood pressure; regulate water, sodium and mineral content of the blood; and clear out metabolic wastes, mostly uric acid. To have them do what they are trying to do as best they can, we must very simply provide plenty of water, plenty of unrefined salt rich in sodium and all the other essential minerals, plenty of alkalising sources in drink and food, minimise glucose levels and minimise creatinine levels. The importance of alkalising the body intensely at first and continuously thereafter cannot be overstated with regards to the proper function of all the vital organs discussed here, and everything else really: every cellular process and every enzymatic action; everything depends on this.

Rejuvenate the pancreas

The pancreas senses and responds to glucose in the blood by manufacturing and secreting insulin. It responds to the movement of food from the stomach to the intestines by manufacturing and secreting sodium bicarbonate and digestive enzymes. To rejuvenate the pancreas, we need to not only give it a break, but help it recover. For this, we need to minimise glucose levels in the blood, and thereby minimise the need for it to manufacture insulin; maximise intake of enzymes to minimise the need for it to produce them; and, especially in light of what we discussed under acidosis, we need to maximise alkalisation, including through oral and transdermal absorption of sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride, with a focus on chlorophyl and chlorophyl-rich foods and drinks.

Cleanse the liver

The liver’s most taxing function is the breakdown of toxins (all substances foreign and dangerous to the body). Another taxing function of the liver is the manufacture and recycling of cholesterol and lipoproteins that, as we said earlier, are in production overdrive because of the excessively fast free-radical and glycation damage to the lining of the blood vessels, as well as the damage these cause everywhere else in the tissues of the body, accompanied by the chronic systemic inflammation this leads to (you can read more about systemic inflammation in Treating Arthritis and At the heart of heart disease.)

To help the liver, we must therefore first stop ingesting chemically manufactured medications, and we must eliminate sources of toxins and chemicals from the things we eat and drink; from the air we breathe, especially from those toxic cleaning products we use; and from all the chemicals we absorb through the skin in soaps, shampoos, lotions and creams. Second, we eat and drink to minimise inflammation and internal tissue damage, therefore minimising the strain of excessive manufacture of cholesterol and lipoproteins. And third, we must take regular toxin cleansing and alkalising baths with sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride. This simple therapy is the most effective means of detoxifying the body from chemicals and toxins or all kinds, including the most notorious radioactive isotopes that can make their way into our bodies from nuclear weapons, spills and power plant accidents through the air, water and food. Here again, chlorophyl and chlorophyl-rich foods and drinks are essential.

In conclusion

The basic conclusion is the same as what we have come to whenever we discussed type II diabetes: while it is a devastatingly damaging condition that affects every metabolic and physiological function of the body, it is incredibly easy to prevent, and even after many years of deterioration for the diabetic sufferer, it is relatively easy to reverse the condition and cure the disease, including the beta cells of the pancreas, by understanding the disease process thoroughly, and by adopting an appropriate healing protocol. Here, we have detailed several of the key problems or complications that stem from chronically elevated glucose and insulin levels, with specific discussion of the ensuing dysfunction in some vital organs, and highlighting the crucial importance of considering the effect of stress in addition to the effects of dietary insulin-stimulating carbohydrates.

You might have noticed that a discussion revolving around overweight, obesity and fat metabolism is missing, maybe conspicuously so. This is not an oversight, but a conscious move towards a focus on the underlying causes of the metabolic, hormonal and physiological natures of the disorder instead of the superficial and rather inconsequential repercussions of it that take expression in the form of excess body fat. The only point I want to mention about this is that by correcting the causes of the disorder, excess body fat stores will melt away on their own. Some help from supplements and hormonal manipulation through diet and timing here and there will be useful. But, the point remains that if the body is in optimal biochemical balance, then physiological and metabolic functions will also be optimal, and no excess body fat will remain, no matter how young or old we are, and no matter what our genetic makeup happens to be.

The overview of the basic strategy for preventing and overcoming diabetes should make it clear that what it implies, although in some aspects quite specific and targeted, is very simple in that it relies mostly on drinking clean water, eating unrefined salt and clean foods, especially those that are chlorophyl-rich, eliminating damaging foods, chemicals and toxins, alkalising and detoxifying with sodium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride, and finally, using a number of important supplements to correct deficiencies and restore optimal biochemical balance. In a subsequent post we will formulate a detailed programme that incorporates all of the elements and strategies discussed here in general terms, together with some additional considerations about details like the timing and amount of food, drink, exercise and supplements.

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Such a simple and yet powerful natural anti-inflammatory

He knocks at the door, walks in to my office, and, barely capable of holding back his excitement and enthusiasm, says: “It’s amazing! The pain is completely gone! It’s just been six days since I started, and the pain is gone! I can’t believe it! It’s like a miracle!” I was very happy for him. “I’m glad to hear that”, I said, “and although it may seem like a miracle to you, it makes perfect sense to me. In fact, I would have been surprised if it hadn’t worked.”

About a month before that, we crossed paths in the bathroom. He was wearing a plastic and neoprene brace on one of his wrists. I had never seen him wearing it, and so I asked what had happened. He told me that about three years ago, he had injured his wrist and that it had never healed properly. Sometimes it hurt more, sometime less, but that it had been particularly uncomfortable for about a week, especially typing at the computer most of the day. He said physicians had prescribed anti-inflammatories of various kinds, and at different times, but none had helped in allowing the wrist to heal or making the uncomfortable pain and stiffness go away.

We hadn’t really talked much before that, him and I, and he said, rather jokingly: “Do you know what to do to help it heal?” To his surprise, I think, I said: “Of course I do!”, and then laughed, partly because it was a little funny to say that, but also to break the ice between us. This is what I then went on to say:

“Chronic pain like that, especially in or near a joint, is usually caused by the an excess of uric acid stored in the tissues. Uric acid is the primary metabolic waste excreted in the urine by the kidneys. Since most of us are deeply and chronically dehydrated, the blood becomes saturated with acid that cannot be eliminated in the urine because of the lack of water (and/or salt). But since blood pH cannot be allowed to drop, the acid is pulled out of the blood and stored in the tissues. Over time, all the tissues of the body become acidic. This makes us more susceptible to ailments and injuries of all kinds, and when something happens to cause damage to a soft tissue, like a sprain, for example, the injury does not heal, or takes an excessively long time to do so.”

“What do I need to do?”, he asked. “Do you drink water?”, “Very little: I have a small glass once in a while, with lunch, for example, but I hardly ever drink water, really.” “Well, you have a big part of your answer right here. You absolutely need to drink water. Otherwise, the kidneys cannot eliminate metabolic acids.”, I said.

“From now on, this is what you will do, every day: When you get up in the morning, drink half a litre of plain water. Thirty minutes before lunch, drink half a litre; and thirty minutes before supper, drink half a litre. That makes a total of one and a half litres of water, always on an empty stomach to ensure maximum hydration, and always about thirty minutes before meals to ensure good digestion.”

“Now, in addition to that, which is really the strict minimum amount of water anyone should drink, you will have to, and this is very important, drink one liter of water with the juice of two lemons, a teaspoon of unrefined sea salt, and a little bit of stevia to sweeten. You will do this either late morning, at least an hour before lunch, or late afternoon, at least one hour before supper. It is very important that you drink this lemon water on a completely empty stomach and wait about an hour before eating anything.”

“Doing this will hydrate the digestive system, the blood and the tissues; the lemon water with salt on an empty stomach will, in addition, alkalise the blood, and thus allow the tissues to release the stored acid back into the bloodstream; and these together will allow the kidneys to eliminate this accumulation of metabolic acid each time you pee. In a relatively short amount of time, your wrist will feel better, but everything else in the body will function a lot better as well. Inflammation is not localised; it is systemic. And to get rid of it, we need to get rid of it everywhere.”

“OK. I’ll do it.”, he said, “This is more water than I have ever drank in my life, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually drink that much, but I’ll try, and I’ll let you know.” One month later, exactly one week after he did start to drink more water and the lemon water with salt, the chronic pain he had in the wrist, the chronic pain he had had for about three years after the initial injury, the chronic pain for which he had been prescribed and taken a variety of different anti-inflammatory medications, and none of which had worked to help heal the injury, the chronic and long-standing pain was gone. It was completely gone, and it felt like a miracle to him; we can understand why.

I start every day with half a litre of plain water, at least. I usually drink a total of about one litre over the course of about 2 hours. About 1.5 hours later, around 10:00, I make myself a lemonade with one lemon, half a teaspoon of salt and a little stevia in a little more than half a litre (about 650 ml) of water. I drink it relatively quickly and then always rinse the mouth well with plain water in order to avoid any issue relating to the mild citric acid damaging the enamel of the teeth.

Then, I slowly drink my daily green juice over the course of about one hour. Around 12:00 I have another half litre of water, plain or with chlorella or evaporated green juice powder, salt and stevia. I eat around 14:00. For lunch I usually have my coconut milk pudding, but sometimes have a big green salad with some grilled fish at the canteen (once or twice a week).

After lunch, I wait at least two and usually three hours before drinking again, depending on what I ate, (high protein or not). I will usually have a good three quarters of a litre of plain water around 17:00. Then, around 18:00-18:30, I will prepare myself another lemonade with the juice of one lemon, half a teaspoon of unrefined salt and some stevia in a little over half a litre of water. I rinse the mouth with plain water, and usually leave work to ride back home on the bike. When I get there, I drink half a litre of plain water. We have supper about 30-45 minutes later. I usually don’t drink anything more after supper, except for a small glass before bed sometimes.

That’s it: lots of water, lots of salt, lots of lemon water, lots of green juices. A wonderfully simple, effective and powerful natural anti-inflammatory combination for you, your parents, your children, and everyone everywhere. I’ll be happy to hear from you if you want to share a personal story or experience that relates to this.

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Treating arthritis I: super-hydration, alkalisation and magnesium

This is entitled Treating arthritis I, because I want to highlight that it is the first phase of what I think is of the most fundamental importance for people suffering from any form of arthritis. It should really be entitled Treating and preventing any and all disease conditions in everyone I, because these measures are truly fundamental to optimal health in all respects and for everyone throughout life. So even if you don’t have arthritis, you should read on.

This first phase should be viewed as one during which you train yourself to acquire new habits. It is not a treatment per se, but rather a prescription for the basis of a new daily rhythm where hydrating and cleansing the body are of the most fundamental importance. In the end, it is really very easy and very simple. It’s just that we need to get used to it.

Arthritis is a word that means joint (arthro) inflammation (itis). There are tons of different types of arthritis (in the hundreds), but all of them are manifestations of the same thing in different joints and somewhat different ways. And the symptoms: the stiffness, the breakdown of cartilage and other tissues, the ossification or rather calcification, the crippling pain, are all related to the inflammation. But what if there were no inflammation? Would there be no arthritis?

what-arthritis-pain-feels-like-722x406

Illustration of painful, inflamed, arthritic joints. (Image taken from Everyday Health)

Without inflammation there is no tendonitis where a tendon gets inflamed like in the well known tennis elbow. Without inflammation of the lining of the arteries there is no plaque and no atherosclerosis, and thus no heart disease and no stroke. Without inflammation there is no Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the inflammation of the myelin sheath that covers nerves, and no Crohn’s disease either, inflammation in the gut. We could go on and on like this because inflammation is at the heart of almost every single ailment from which we suffer. The reason is simple: inflammation is the body’s way of responding to injury in our tissues.

We sprain an ankle and it swells up by the inflammation that follows the partial tearing of ligament and tendon: this is essential for bringing plenty of blood carrying all the specialised molecules and nutrients necessary to repair the injured tissues. What is the best course of action? Just rest and allow the ankle to heal. The more we use it, the slower the healing will be, the longer the inflammation will last, and the more we will increase the chances of causing some more serious or even permanent damage to these fragile tissues. Without the body’s inflammatory response mechanisms, healing would be impossible.

In fact, repair and growth would also be impossible; muscle growth would be impossible. The process is rather simple: stress and tear (injury) followed by inflammation and repair or growth. This applies to body builders who develop enormous muscle mass over years of intense daily workouts, but it also applies to a baby’s legs kicking and tiny hands squeezing your index finger tightly. It applies to their learning to hold their head up and pulling themselves to their feet with the edge of the sofa to then take those first few steps. It applies to me, to you and to every animal. So, once again: repair and growth of tissue depends on the body’s inflammatory response mechanisms. In a well-functioning metabolism, this process takes place continuously in a daily cycle regulated by activity during the day and rest during the night: stress, tear and injury to tissues during activity; repair, growth and cleaning during the night.

Difficulties arise when inflammation becomes chronic. Either a low-grade inflammation that we can ignore completely and go about our business until it manifests in the form of a serious health concern, or a sustained,  sub-acute state of inflammation that does indeed make it difficult to go about our business, but that we can nonetheless learn to ignore or cope with hoping that it will eventually disappear. Unfortunately, this is how it is for most of us to a greater or lesser extent, whether we are aware of it or not. If it weren’t the case, there wouldn’t be hundreds of millions of people suffering from arthritis the world over, and atherosclerosis-caused heart attacks and strokes would not be claiming the lives of more than one quarter of the population of industrialised countries.

As an aside, for those of you who are interested in measurements and quantifiable effects, among the best markers of chronic inflammation are C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6). The number of white blood cells relate to immune response, and if elevated mean the body is fighting something. Elevated concentrations of Ferritin and Homocysteine (HcY) are also associated with chronic inflammation much elevated risks of heart attack and stroke. You can easily get a blood test to check those numbers among other important ones (see Blood analysis: important numbers).

So what is it that causes a person to develop arthritis at 50 or even 40 years of age, while another person only begins to have mild signs of it at 80? What is it that causes a teenager to develop the crippling Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) at 16, while none of her friends do? Why does only 1 in 400 develop Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) or bamboo spine, characterised by the chronic inflammation of the spine, the ossification and gradual fusion of the vertebrae? Who knows?

But, for example, approximately 90% of AS patients express the HLA-B27 genotype and exhibit the HLA-B27 antigen, which is also expressed by Klebsiella bacteria. Could it be the bacteria that causes the damage and injury to spinal tissues and structure, which then follows by inflammation that over time becomes chronic, and since the bacteria remains and continues its damaging activities, the inflammation continues to grow together with all the awful symptoms? Maybe. The debilitating effects of certain bacteria and viruses such as Epstein Barr or HPV for example, that persist in the bloodstream over years and decades, are well known. And the chronic inflammation that results of the activity of infectious agents such as these is also a well established effect, even claimed by some to be among the primary causes of arterial disease (see Fat and Cholesterol are Good for You in the Bibliography page.

But whether it is AS or arterial disease, MS or tendonitis, what is common to all is inflammation, and what needs to be addressed are the causes of the inflammation, not the inflammation itself, which is what we do with anti-inflammatory medication. The inflammation is the body’s response to the injury. What we need to do is find and stop the process causing damage and injury to our tissues, and once the tissues have healed, the inflammation will disappear of itself.

There are many things that cause injury to our tissues, and we will look at all the most important ones in greater detail in subsequent posts, but it is fundamental to address first order issues first. Among the most fundamental issues of all are therefore those with which we concern ourselves in the first phase of treatment:  super-hydration, alkalisation and magnesium. But the truth is that these fundamental elements are what everyone concerned with optimising their health should actually concern themselves with first, before everything else.

Super-hydration

Chronic dehydration is at the root of so many health problems that it is hard to know where to begin. I’ve written a few posts on the importance of water that you can identify by their title. If you’ve read them and want to know more, you should read Your Body’s Many Cries for Water (see Bibliography). In relation to arthritis, however, water is not only the primary means to reduce inflammation of stressed cells and tissues, but it is also what gives our cartilage suppleness and flexibility.

Cartilage a very simple tissue. It is water, 85% in healthy cartilage, down to 70% or less in compromised cartilage and in most older people, held within a matrix of collagen and other proteins that consists of a single type of cell called chondrocyte. These cells have very special electrical properties that give cartilage its amazing resistance to friction and pressure. Without sufficient water, however, the chondrocytes cannot work correctly, cartilage dries out and breaks down, and calcification grows.

What is totally under-appreciated is that because cartilage does not have a blood supply, nerves or lymphatic system, water makes it into the cartilage through the porous end of the bone to which it is stuck, and the only way water can make it into the bone in order to get to that porous end to which the cartilage is attached is through the blood that makes it into the bone.

Since there is, within the body’s functions, a definite hierarchy in water usage in which the digestive system is naturally the first served since it is through it that water enters, even the mildest dehydration can be felt in the function of the most water-sensitive tissues like those of the lungs (90% water) and muscles (85% water), (something any athlete who has drank alcohol the night before a race or even training run or ride will have noticed), it is unfortunately often the cartilage that suffer the most.

Dehydration will make it such that the soft conjunctive tissues at the ends of our bones, in every joint, and that allow us to move will not get the water supply they need to remain well hydrated, supple and flexible. This is really the most important point to remember. What is also highly under-appreciated is the vital importance of silica in the form of silicic acid in the growth, maintenance, repair and regeneration of all connective tissues, including and maybe especially bones and cartilage (here is a good article about it). Silicic acid should therefore be included in all arthritis treatment programmes.

How do we super-hydrate? By drinking more, as much as possible on an empty stomach, and balancing water with salt intake. You should read How much salt, how much water, and our amazing kidneys, and make sure you understand the importance of a plentiful intake of water, an adequate intake of salt, and the crucial balance of these for optimal cellular hydration and function. Detailed recommendations are given below.

Alkalisation

Chronic acidosis, some would argue, is not only at the root of innumerable health complaints and problems, but that it actually is the root of all health disorders. The reading of Sick and Tired, The pH Miracle and Alkalise or Die is, I  believe, enough to convince most readers that that premise is in fact true. Not surprisingly though, it is not possible to alkalise bodily tissues without optimal hydration. And so we immediately understand that chronic dehydration is the primary cause of chronic and ever increasing tissue acidosis. Therefore we address both simultaneously, and in fact, cannot do otherwise.

Briefly, what is essential to understand is that healthy cells thrive in an alkaline environment, and indeed require an alkaline environment to thrive. Conversely, pathogens such as moulds, yeasts, fungi, viruses and bacteria thrive in acidic environments. Healthy cells thrive in well oxygenated aerobic environments, whereas pathogens thrive in anaerobic environments deprived of oxygen. Since this is so, we can say, crudely speaking, that if the tissues and inner environment of the body—its terrain—is alkaline, then pathogens cannot take hold nor develop nor evolve nor survive in it. On the other hand, if the body’s terrain is acidic, then they thrive, proliferate, and overtake it, sometimes slowly and gradually, but sometimes quickly and suddenly, causing sickness and disease.

Everything that we eat and drink has an effect that is either alkalising, acidifying or neutral. This is after digestion, and has little to do with taste. All sweet tasting foods or drinks that contain sugars, for instance, are acidifying. I will write quite a lot more about pH and alkalisation in future posts. For now, we are concerned with alkalising through super-hydration, and this involves drinking alkaline water and green drinks. By the end of phase I, drinking your 2 litres of alkaline water and 2 litres of super-alkalizing green juice should be as second nature to you as brushing the teeth before bed.

Magnesium

As I attempted to express and make evident the importance of magnesium for every cell and cellular process in the body in Why you should start taking magnesium today, and thus show that we all need to take plenty of magnesium daily in order to both attain and maintain optimal health, for someone suffering from arthritis it is extremely important, it is crucial. And the reason is very simple: arthritis is characterised by inflammation, stiffening and calcification. They come together, of course, and it is useless to even wonder if one comes before another. Regardless, the best, most effective, most proven treatment or antidote for inflammation, stiffening and calcification is magnesium.

Magnesium, injected directly into the bloodstream, can almost miraculously stop spasms and convulsions of muscle fibres, and release, practically instantaneously, even the most extreme muscular contraction associated with shock, heart attack and stroke. This is used routinely and very effectively in birthing wards and surgery rooms. Magnesium is the only ion that can prevent calcium from entering and flooding a cell, thereby causing it to die, and magnesium is the best at dissolving non-ionic calcium—the one that deposits throughout the body in tissues and arteries, and over bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments—and allowing all this excess calcium to be excreted: precisely what we must do in treating arthritis.

In addition, magnesium is very effective at chelating (pulling out) both toxic heavy metals like mercury and persistent chemicals that bio-accumulate in blood, brain and other tissues. For too many unfortunately unsuspecting people, heavy metal toxicity is the cause of a plethora of various symptoms, wide-ranging in nature, hard to understand or associate with some known and easily identifiable condition, but that cause them often immense discomfort up to complete disability.

Putting all of this into practice

When you get up in the morning, you go to the bathroom, undress and spray or spread on your legs, arms chest and belly, neck and shoulders, the 20% magnesium chloride solution (4 teaspoons of nigari with 80 ml of water for a total of 20 g in 100 ml of solution). You wash your hands and face well, put your PJs back on, and head to the kitchen to prepare your water and green drinks for the day.

Line up three wide-mouth 1 litre Nalgene bottles. In each one put: 5 drops of alkalising and purifying concentrate (e.g. Dr. Young’s puripHy) and 10 drops of concentrated liquid trace minerals (e.g. Concentrace).

In the first bottle, add 50 ml of the 2% solution of magnesium chloride (made with 4 teaspoons of nigari dissolved in 1 litre of water), 50 ml of aloe vera juice, 20 ml of liquid silicic acid, fill it up with high quality filtered water, shake well to mix, and take your first glass with 1 capsule of Mercola’s Complete Probiotics. You should drink this first litre over the course of about 30 minutes, taking the third or fourth glass with an added 1-2 teaspoons of psyllium husks. (The aloe vera and psyllium husks are to help cleanse the intestines over time.)

In the second and third bottles, add a heaping teaspoon of green juice powder (e.g., Vitamineral Green by HealthForce), 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of fine, grey, unrefined sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon of finely ground Ceylon cinnamon, a heaping mini-spoonful of stevia extract powder and a single drop of either orange, lemon or grapefruit high quality, organic, food-grade essential oil. Shake well. One of them you will drink between about 10:00 and 12:00, the other between 15:30 and 17:30. Shake every time you serve yourself a glass or drink directly from the bottle to stir up the solutes in the water. You should take these two bottles with you to work and/or keep them in the fridge until needed: the drink is really nice when it’s cool.

Now that the magnesium has been absorbed through the skin—this takes around 30 minutes, you can go have a shower to rinse off the slight salty residue that feels like when you let sea water dry on your skin without rinsing it off. You should wait at least 30 minutes after you have finished your first litre of water before you eat anything.

By about 10 or 10:30, depending on when you finished breakfast, you should start to drink your first litre of green drink and continue until about 12:00 or 12:30. Make sure you finish drinking 30-45 minutes before you eat. Wait at least couple of hours after eating. Then start drinking the second litre of green drink by about 15:30 or 16:00 until about 17:30 or 18:00. Again, make sure you stop drinking always at least 30 minutes before eating. Depending on when you eat dinner, you should drink a half litre of plain water 30 minutes before the meal. The general rules for drinking you should follow are: 1) always drink at least 500 ml up to 30 minutes before eating, and 2) do not drink during or within 2 hours after the meal.

Before going to bed, take a small glass of water with 50 ml of 2% magnesium chloride solution. And that’s it for the day. And tomorrow and the next day and the day after that, keeping to this schedule, until it becomes perfectly natural and customary. After four weeks, you should do another blood test and see how the numbers compare to those before starting. In addition, if you are interested in this from the scientific standpoint, or just curious, or both, you should get Doppler imaging of your coronary and cerebral arteries, as well as an MRI of the joints in your body, including the spine, before you start and at then end of every phase. It will also be extremely informative to test and record the pH of at least your first urine every morning; any additional urine pH readings will be very useful and tracing the progress of the gradual de-acidification of your tissues and the days and the weeks progress. And finally, the transdermal magnesium therapy (putting the 20% solution on your skin), should last 6-8 weeks. By that time, you intracellular magnesium stores should have been replenished. We continue taking the 2% solution indefinitely, and use transdermal magnesium once in a while (once or twice per week).

The great advantage of the transdermal magnesium is that almost all of it is absorbed into your tissues and bloodstream. The oral magnesium is absorbed a level between 25 and 50%, and this depends primarily on the amount of magnesium in the blood when you take it. This is why it is very important to take it first thing in the morning when magnesium is at its lowest, and then in the latter half of the afternoon and before bed, those times when concentrations are lowest. You don’t have to worry about too much magnesium because any excess will be excrete in the urine and faeces.

You should just worry about not enough: that’s the real problem. Incidentally, the fact that almost all the magnesium that you put on your skin is absorbed underlines the importance of carefully choosing what we put on our skin. Because in the same way, anything we put on it will be absorbed into our system. So putting coconut and almond oil is just as good for our skin and our health, as it is bad to put on creams and lotions with synthetic chemicals and compounds that all make their way into our blood. General rule: if you cannot eat it, don’t put it on your skin.

Update: read these Updated recommendations for magnesium supplementation.

That’s it for the first phase: mostly drinking a lot more than you used to, with a few special tweaks to what and when you drink. I haven’t mentioned anything about food even though you can obviously know from the rest of the articles on the blog that this will come in time: in the second phase. We first deal with the first order terms, then the second order terms, and after that with the third and fourth order terms. That’s very important to grasp: what has the most and what has the least impact and thus importance.

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