“When a treatment is ineffective, its risks — if not zero — always will exceed its benefits.”  Dr. Michael Shannon,  Children’s Hospital Boston pediatrician and Harvard Medical School professor.

I recently came across an article on a very popular health site and was struck by the opening paragraph: “Fevers, while not typically dangerous in their own right, can make children uncomfortable. If you have a child with a fever— whether it’s because of an illness or is a normal response to vaccination— you may wish to give antipyretic, or fever-reducing, medication.”  Giving any fever-reducing medicine, such as Children’s Tylenol, is the last thing you want to do for an ill child and can, in fact, both prolong the illness and actually cause more harm. The fact that there is little-to-no evidence that Tylenol/Advil therapy contributes to health has not stopped marketers, and sadly, most doctors from continuing to give patents this bad advice. According to the World Health Organization:

“Fever represents a universal, ancient, and usually beneficial response to infection, and its  suppression under most circumstances has few, if any, demonstrable benefits. On the other hand, some harmful effects have been shown to occur as a result of suppressing fever: in most individuals, these are slight, but when translated to millions of people, they may result in an increase in morbidity and perhaps the occurrence of occasional mortality. It is clear, therefore, that widespread use of antipyretics should not be encouraged either in developing countries or in industrial societies. Unfortunately though, just as fever represents an ancient biological response, an emotional effect is embedded deeply. Through the ages, parents have seen that when fever begins to diminish and disappears, the child feels better and recovers from the illness — whatever it was. Thus, the fever has become synonymous with the illness. This flaw in logic has persisted in parents’ and physicians’ minds, and they are seduced by the thought that if they “make the fever go away, the patient will be well.” No amount of scientific discourse will change this attitude . . .”

What exactly is a fever?

Simply put, fever is the body treating itself with heat. What happens during a fever? An infective agent (bacteria, virus etc.) is engulfed by a part of your immune system known as a macrophage. A series of chemical reactions take place that cause the thermostat (set-point) of your body to turn down. The body perceives its normal temperature to be too low and begins to generate more heat by shivering and conserving heat by constricting the blood vessels, which limits blood flow to the skin, and by shutting down the sweating mechanism. This is what causes chills.

The immune system also releases chemicals that provoke sleep to help preserve energy for fighting against the infecting germs. At the same time, chemicals are released that promote the breakdown in muscle tissue, which increases the body’s amino acid supply, which are the raw materials it uses for defense, repair, and energy. This is why muscle aches are common with fevers and chills. Excess amino acids also suppress the appetitive. This is important because the digestive system shuts down when the temperature goes above 99.5°F.  If food is eaten during a fever, it will strain the system by not being properly digested, and will add to the body’s toxic load, inhibiting its ability to deal with the fever’s cause. When body temperature is elevated, white blood cell production, motility, and killing ability are enhanced, and antibody production is increased up to 20 times. While the fever is cranking up the body’s defenses, it is also providing an inhospitable environment for the germs. At a temperature of around 104°F, most bacteria and viruses are killed. (Before the availability of antibiotics, syphilis was treated by infecting the patient with malaria, inducing a high fever and leading to a cure.)¹ The ideal temperature for a fever is between 102-103°F for fighting infectious disease. 104-107°F is considered the point where dehydration becomes a serious concern and a fever above 107°F is considered dangerous. Most harm associated with high fevers is usually due to dehydration rather than the fever. The concern should be more directed towards the cause of the fever rather than the fever itself. Serious conditions such as meningitis can cause a high fever, but the treatment should be directed towards the meningitis, not the fever.

What about the most common fear for parents— febrile seizures? All the medical research I have found has debunked the two most commonly held misconceptions about high fever in children: that it can result in dangerous seizures, and that fevers from infection must be controlled before they reach a certain point (usually I06°F), to prevent seizures and brain damage. Febrile seizures tend to occur early in the fever process, rather than after fevers have mounted, and a small percentage of children simply seem to be prone to them. Administering fever-reducing medicine does not stave off their recurrence. Most febrile seizures are the result of imbalanced electrolytes due to dehydration from diarrhea, vomiting, and increased perspiration.

Good fever management in the form of limiting food and maintaining fluids and electrolytes will prevent most fevers from progressing to more critical stages. And while it is true that fevers over I06°F are potentially damaging, such high temperatures are virtually always the result of heatstroke or brain injury, not infection, and so fears of a cold or flu causing a fever to rise to this level are groundless.  What happens when you give a fever reducer such as Tylenol? The entire metabolic process is stopped in its tracks, and now you still have an infection, but without any natural defenses. The potentially infectious person, instead of staying in bed because they feel sick, feels well enough to go to work or school, thereby exposing colleagues to the same illness. The maker of Tylenol (and those who manufacture other fever-reducing products) has successfully convinced the public that something absolutely must be done to bring down all fevers in young children. According to a recent article: 

Keeping in mind that bringing fever down by using medication possibly postpones recovery, increases the probability of a secondary infection, deprives one of clues as to the need for further examination or for changes in the therapeutic approach, and may provoke widespread side effects; physicians should treat feverish patients only when the expected benefits outweigh the possible risks.

Anti-fever medications have been marketed for use in children for decades, with drug companies spending $50 million a year on heart-tugging ads in parenting magazines and elsewhere. Still, it has long been acknowledged there is little or no data from studies in the very young to show the medicines are safe and work. Worse, some studies suggest the medicines are no better than dummy pills in treating cold and cough symptoms in young children.²

To sum up:

1.) Fever is the cure, not the sickness.

2.) Leave the fever alone unless it is threatening to go to dangerous levels.

3.) The febrile patient should fast and slowly resume feeding only when natural hunger returns, and the body’s temperature is back below 99.5°F.

4.) 102-103°F is considered optimal for infection fighting.

5.) Leave the sweating patient alone- sweating is the body’s own mechanism for lowering temperature, so don’t interfere with it.³

6.) Consult a Naturopathic Doctor in your area if you feel your fever is getting too high.

¹Wade Boyle,ND, Andre Saine, ND Naturopathic Hydrotherapy. Eclectic Medical Publications 1998; pp. 54.

²Axelrod PI, Lorber B: Antipyretic orders in a university hospital. Am J Med 1990; 88:31-35

³Wade Boyle, ND, Andre Saine, ND Naturopathic Hydrotherapy. Eclectic Medical Publications 1998; pp. 62.

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This little mite is likely responsible for up to 90 percent of all acne and rosacea cases, yet it is rarely looked for by dermatologists here in America.

There are two types, the long and the short, both which survive in the sebaceous (oil) glands.  They feed on oils, hormones and fluids around the follicle.  For most people, the mites are harmless and live in balance with their host. Like any infection, the body’s immune system is responsible for keeping the mites from overproducing. Mite colonies can spread unchecked because patients cannot produce the antibodies needed to control the parasites.

Dr. Frank Flowers, a professor of dermatology at UF’s Health Science Center, said ”Under normal conditions, mites produce an antigen when they feed in a hair follicle, and then the human body makes antibodies against the bugs, thereby keeping their reproduction low and in balance,” Butler said. “The mites are actually needed to make the antigen that stimulates the body into making protective antibodies.  If you have high levels of hormones, you’re going to have high levels of mite reproduction because these anthropods obtain their steroids from the host.”  This is likely why many women experience outbreaks of acne around their menstrual cycle and why teenagers experience acne. I’ve noticed that when many people remove dairy from their diet, their acne improves.  I used to attribute this to being a straight sensitivity to dairy. I now believe that the dairy may be just another stressor on the system that allows the immune system to not function optimally, thus allowing for the mites to reproduce at a higher rate.

The mite has a life span of about 15 days, and when they die the bodies decay inside the sebaceous glands. Since demodex spend all their lives inside the sebaceous glands, they physically and chemically affect the skin, reducing its immune competence, and causing allergic reactions in some parts of skin tissues, where acne breaks out. According to Dr. Zhongzhou, “If not treated properly with correct medication, the inflammation will reoccur. In more serious cases, the epidermis, or the appearance of skin, will be permanently injured, scars resembling the texture of orange skin will be left, hair  follicle pores will be enlarged, and the skin will become thicker due to hyperplasia. Sometimes, the inflammation even leads to superfluous tumors or lumps, and red nose.” 

The way that a demodex outbreak is treated by most dermatologists is with a Metronidazole cream. However many people react poorly to this cream, and Metronidazole is listed by the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) as reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. I recommend a cream developed by Dr. Zhangzhou that can be purchased here .  This cream works great for all types of acne and rosacea. It can take several months to kill off all of the mites. Of course I also recommend removing all dairy products as well.

If you live in Portland and would like to be screened for the demodex mite,  call my office at 503-232-5653. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below.

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I asked my doctor, “you mean I should never eat wheat again?”  He simply replied; “You’d be healthier.”  So I gave his diet a try for 6 weeks, and though I didn’t want to admit it, I felt much better. The chronic aches in my shoulder and wrist went away, the stiffness in my back went away and my digestion, which I had though was fine, actually felt better. I often hear form patients who are as suprised as I was about what a proper diet should be, and the common refrain is “why didn’t my other doctor tell me this.” Modern medicine is slowly (very slowly) catching on that what we eat, and the source of our food plays a huge role in our health, but they don’t quite seem ready to admit that the cause of many of the illnesses that plague our country is the food we eat. The food supply in just the last 20 years has been forever changed through genetic modification.  Changing the practices of food corporations like Monsanto, who are responsible for most of the genetically modified foods that have shown up in our food supply is going to take a grass roots movement.  If people refuse to buy these foods, then they will no longer be economically viable to produce. This TED talk by Robyn O’Brian is a powerful presentation on how our food supply is affecting families, and what can be done about it. Thanks to Dr. Batten for passing this on to me. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, feel free to leave a comment at the bottom.

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The one fact that, for some reason, seems to get overlooked is that statins DO NOT prevent heart disease or heart attacks. Lipitor has not extended a single person’s life by a single day; yet it is prescribed like candy. What are the criteria then for so many prescriptions? The data from the companies that sell these drugs are very clear and available to the public. However, it can be confusing for the layperson to sort through it all–so I will do my best to translate some of the data for you.

In statistics there is a number used to determine the effectiveness of a medication; this number is known as Number Needed to Treat (NNT). It represents the number of patients who need to be treated in order for one to benefit from the drug.  If a drug has an NNT of one, it means that every person who takes the drug receives a beneficial outcome. If it has an NNT of 10, it means you have to treat 10 people for one to have a benefit.  The NNT of Lipitor is 100. Another way to say this is that Lipitor has a 99-percent failure rate.

What Lipitor will do is lower your cholesterol. If this is so, why doesn’t it prevent heart disease?  The simple answer is that there is no correlation between heart disease and cholesterol. In other words, of the people who have heart attacks, about one-half will have “high” cholesterol and one-half will have normal or low cholesterol.

Cholesterol is not fat; it is a waxy substance of which about 80 percent is made in the liver. It is produced from a molecule called HMG-CoA. Statins poison the enzyme that converts this molecule to cholesterol.  They also stop the production of CoQ10, which is an essential part of the production of ATP, the main energy unit of our cells.  Ironically, the highest concentration of CoQ10 is in the heart.

Cholesterol is the substance from which all of our steroid hormones (estrogen, testosterone, cortisol etc.) are made. It is also present in every cell membrane. When there is damage to the wall of an artery, cholesterol is sent in to “patch” that damage. Cholesterol itself, however, needs to be transported and the proteins that transport it to and from the cells are known as low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and high-density lipoproteins. (HDL).  These are often erroneously referred to as “bad” and “good” cholesterol respectively. LDL is responsible for taking cholesterol from the liver to the tissues, and HDL is responsible for recirculating the HDL from the tissues back to the liver. They are strictly shuttles that take cholesterol to and from tissues. LDL particles, however, come in different sizes and new tests can determine what your LDL particles are made of. They basically fall into two types: large buoyant and small dense.  It is the small, dense particles that can get under the lining of your blood vessels and oxidize and cause a plaque to form.  The large buoyant particles are too large to get under the lining and do not pose a threat.

Statin drugs do nothing to modulate the size of the particles.  This is done through diet alone. And the most offending food, the one that drives those small, dense particles? Sugar. Sugar is the main cause of both increased small LDL particles and increased triglycerides (fat) – not saturated fat.  One of the worst things you can do for your heart is to go on a low-fat diet. A low-fat diet is, by definition, a high-carbohydrate diet, which is a recipe for heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes etc.

If your doctor is trying to put you on a statin, or if you are currently on a statin, I would highly recommend that you get the more specific particle testing done. The two labs that we use at our office are the Lipoprotein Particle Profile by Spectracell Laboratories and the VAP Cholesterol test through Quest Diagnostics.

A normal total cholesterol level is between 180 and 250. These numbers in themselves are meaningless because two people can have the exact same numbers but be at completely different risks. A total cholesterol count below 160 becomes problematic because the body doesn’t have enough of the building blocks it needs to maintain cellular health and steroid hormones.  I found this video from the movie “Fathead” that sheds some truth on the cholesterol debate. Please feel free to leave a comment below, I would love to hear your feedback or answer questions you may have about this subject.

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Platelets are cells which circulate in the blood. They contain substances called growth factors that activate and rejuvenate cells in the body. While less that one percent of your blood contains platelets, it is possible to concentrate those platelets with a specialized centrifuge by a factor of 100.  Platelet enriched plasma contains several million more platelets, resulting in more growth factor release and more stem cell attraction compared to the normal wound healing process.  The concentrated platelets in PRP contain tremendous amounts of bioactive proteins, which include the growth factors PDGF and VEGF. These growth factors have been shown to initiate accelerated tissue repair, and have also been shown to have positive effects on skin rejuvenation. The growth factors, when released, promote tissue repair, capillary formation, and collagen production. We have been using PRP for joint repair at our clinic for about a year now and have recently started to use the procedure in aesthetics. We recently made a video of the procedure and started a website (www.portlandprp.com) to inform the public about this new procedure. I would love to hear what you think about the video (I edited myself).  Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.

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Have you ever awakened with a headache for no reason at all? Do you have dark circles under your eyes or ringing in your ears? Do you suffer from bursitis or carpal tunnel syndrome?  Do you enjoy eating popcorn, nuts, and seeds? If so you could be suffering from ileocecal valve syndrome (ICV).

The ileocecal valve is a sphincter located between the ileum (the last portion of your small intestine) and the cecum (first portion of your large intestine). Its purpose is to allow digested food materials to pass from the small intestine into your large intestine and to keep waste matters from backing up into your small intestine. It is intended to be a one-way valve, only opening up to allow processed foods to pass through.

In Applied Kinesiology (AK) ICV syndrome is known as the “great mimicker” because of the amount of symptoms that are caused by its dysfunction.  Ileocecal valve dysfunction can show in two ways: by being stuck in an open position or being stuck in a closed position.

When the ileocecal valve is stuck open, waste products can back up into the small intestine (much like a backed-up kitchen sink drain) disturbing your digestion and creating unhealthy toxins that are absorbed into the body. If the ileocecal valve is stuck closed, waste products are prevented or constricted from passing into the large intestine.  Unfortunately, the medical profession often overlooks this disorder. Ileocecal valve dysfunction can result in a myriad of symptoms, including:

Shoulder pain

Sudden low back pain

Pain around the heart

Dizziness

Flu symptoms

Pseudo bursitis

Pseudo sacroiliac strain

Tinnitus

Nausea

Faintness

Pseudo sinus infection

Pseudo hypochlorhydria

Headache

Sudden thirst

Pallor

Dark circles under the eyes

Bowel involvement

In AK theory, it is believed that many symptoms of ileocecal valve dysfunction occur as a result of absorption of toxic products by the ileum that have been regurgitated from the colon. In an open ICV, a combination of dehydration and fluid retention may exist. Fluid retention is the body’s natural method of attempting to reduce the effects of the toxicity by diluting the toxins with water. A major complaint of a patient may be peripheral nerve entrapment, such as the carpal tunnel condition. I personally have successfully treated many patients with carpal tunnel syndrome simply by addressing ileocecal valve syndrome.

What causes ICV? The most common causes of ICV are diet, allergies, parasites, and stress. As an applied kinesiologist, I look at the patient’s structural, chemical, and emotional states and address each one accordingly. Treatment usually includes spinal manipulation, acupressure to specific points related to ICV, and a low-roughage diet for two weeks.  Ileocecal Valve Syndrome Diet is a low roughage diet.  Foods most likely to irritate the ICV are: coarse cereals, chips, popcorn, nuts, seeds, spicy foods, chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol. In the case of an open ICV, I will often have the patient take chlorophyll tablets to help soothe and heal the bowel. For a closed ICV, often a calcium supplement is needed for a couple of weeks.  For ileocecal valve treatment, place a cold (not ice) pack over the cecum, which is on the lower right side of your abdomen where your appendix is.  Allow the pack to slowly come to room temperature.

I have often said that if I could do but one technique in my office, it would be ICV treatment.  It is surprising how many symptoms can be alleviated by restoring function to a dysfunctional ileocecal valve.  I recommend finding an Applied Kinesiologist in your area who can evaluate you to ensure that this important valve is operating properly.

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I recently saw a fantastic lecture titled, “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” given by Dr. Robert Lustig professor of pediatrics at UCSF. I will try to summarize the basic points here but, if you have the time, I highly recommend watching it. There is an epidemic of obesity in our country not only in adults but in children as well.  Dr. Lustig is seeing an epidemic of obesity in children as young as 6 months. His research (and that of his colleagues) has led to the conclusion that the main culprit leading to obesity is the sugar fructose. In his lecture he breaks down the biochemistry of how fructose is metab olized in our body and comes to the conclusion that fructose is  highly toxic —as toxic as alcohol.

How did we as a nation come to increase our fructose consumption so dramatically? In 1980 Dr. Ancel Keys wrote The Seven Countries Study, which was the first multivariate linear regression study (a studythat examines how different variables have an effect on an outcome) on coronary heart disease and fat.  In summary,Dr. Keys concluded that countries that ate more fat had more heart disease. However, there are numerous problems with the misleading study, including the fact that he excluded countries that didn’t fit into his hypothesis.  But more significantly, he stated: “The fact that the incidence rate of coronary heart disease was significantly correlated with the average percentage of calories from sucrose in the diet is explained by the intercorrelation of sucrose with saturated fat.” e.g., doughnuts.  He recommended that everyone reduce their intake of fat.

He didn’t take into consideration that wherever there was fat, there was sugar.  The problem with his study is that in order to conduct a multivariate linear regression study properly, you have to hold fat constant showing that sucrose doesn’t work and you have to hold sucrose constant and show that fat still works, which he did not do.  He was looking at the sugar and didn’t know it.  Unfortunately, 30 years of nutrition information has been based on this study, which turned out to be incorrectly interpreted. In 1982 the recommendation was made (based on this study) to reduce our consumption of fat from 40 percent to 30 percent. When we as a nation reduced our fat intake, we increased our intake of carbohydrates—often in the form of added sugar. A low-fat diet by definition is a high-carbohydrate diet.

What happens to our food supply when you take the fat out? In general food has less flavor and, to make up for this lack, companies had to add sugar to low-fat products to make them palatable. Thus people were inadvertently consuming more and more sugar. In contrast to modern man, a Paleolithic man consumed only about 15 grams of fructose a day in the form of whole fruit. Up to the time of World War II, sugar consumption was around 16 to 24 grams per day. This gradually increased. In 1978, when high-fructose corn syrup was introduced, consumption was up to 37 grams per day and by 1994 it was up to 54.7 grams per day.  Corn syrup is commonly found in an increasing number of common processed foods.

Adolescents today consume about 73 grams of fructose per day, or around 12 percent of their total daily calorie intake. The math is something like this: one can of soda is 150 calories. One pound of body fat is about 3500 calories. So one can of soda a day (150 calories x365 days) produces 15.6 pounds of additional fat per year.  A large amount of calories commonly consumed come in the form of juices and sodas, which are full of sugar—often in the form of fructose. Fructose–often called the fruit sugar– is a type of naturally occurring sugar found inmany fruits (berries, melons, apples), vegetables (beets, sweet potatoes, onions) and honey. Fructose is nearly twice as sweet as sucrose (table sugar) and is commonly used in processed foods partly because it is less expensive to produce than sucrose and it takes less of it to produce the same level of sweetness.

So how does fructose work in our body and why is it so deadly?, Glucose is the main type of sugar in the blood and is the major source of energy for the body’s cells. Unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin, nor leptin, the hormone that tells your brain you are full.  Fructose get metabolized entirely by our liver, eventually leading to what is known as metabolic syndrome, or pre-type 2 diabetes. Doctors are finding an alarming increase in diabetes in children.

If we compare the equivalent calories from glucose and fructose we can see the difference between the two in the way it is processed in the body.. Two slices of bread contains about 120 calories of glucose. Of that, 96 calories (80 percent ) is used by the cells and the liver takes up 24 calories. Most of that gets stored as glycogen; some gets converted to ATP (our main source of energy); and about ½ calorie of that is turned into VLDL (very low density lipoprotein). VLDL is a cholesterol transporter that has been linked to cardiovascular disease.

Compare that to 120 calories of sucrose from an 8-ounce glass of orange juice. Sucrose (table sugar) is composed of two sugar molecules—1/2 glucose and 1/2 fructose. So of the 120 calories, 60 are glucose in which about 40 calories get used by the body and 12 go to the liver. But all 60 calories of fructose get metabolized directly by the liver, for a total of 72 calories of sugar that get taken up by the liver. Once in the liver, fructose is metabolized much differently than glucose.  One of the byproducts of fructose metabolism is the waste product, uric acid, which your body disposes of through the urine.  However, excess uric acid is what causes not only gout, but high blood pressure as well. Some of the sugar won’t make it out and forms a fat droplet in the liver.

Excess fat in the liver leads to a disease known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Much more of the fructose will be metabolized to VLDL, and much more will be turned into triglycerides.  The negative effects of excess fructose include hypertension, increased risk of heart attacks, pancreatitis, obesity, fatty liver, fetal insulin resistance, and addiction as well as all the diseases that are associated with type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Fructose changes the way your brain recognizes energy, all in a negative fashion —your brain gets the signal that you’re starving even though your fat cells are saying that you are full. In summary:

• Fructose consumption has increased in the last 30 years and is a major contributor to the obesity epidemic.
• Fructose is a carbohydrate that gets metabolized like a fat.
• Thirty percent of the fructose ends up as fat, so a low-fat diet isn’t really low fat because the fructose/sucrose doubles as fat.
• Hepatic fructose metabolism leads to all the manifestations of metabolic syndrome—hypertension, NASH, inflammation, obesity, leptin resistance promoting continued consumption, dyslipidemea, de novo lipogeneis
• Fructose is a chronic hepatotoxin —“it’s alcohol without the buzz.”

So what about fruit? Doesn’t fruit have fructose? Of course it does, but fruit also has fiber. As Dr. Lusting says: “When God made the poison, he packaged it with the antidote.” Whenever fructose occurs in nature, there is also more fiber. Whole fruit also limits the amount of fructose one can consume. Most people will only eat one orange in a sitting, while a glass of orange juice may contain the juice of four or five oranges (with the fiber removed). Fiber reduces the rate of intestinal carbohydrate absorption and increases the speed of transit of intestinal contents to the ileum, which induce satiety and inhibits the absorption of free fatty acids in the colon. Fructose used in processed foods has no fiber.

To reduce one’s own intake of dangerous fructose, and to maintain a healthy weight, get rid of all sugared drinks, including juice. There are no healthy sweetened beverages. Read labels and buy products that do not contain corn syrup. Further protection from the dangers of ingesting too much fructose is found in regular exercise. Why is exercise important? It has little to do with the burning of calories, but rather it improves skeletal muscle sensitivity to insulin (brings insulin down) and reduces stress, thus your appetite decreases.  In addition, exercise increases your cells’ metabolism so the sugar doesn’t get turned into fat.

If you found this article helpful, please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question below.

There are entire books written on the problems with pasteurization and the handling of dairy and dairy products. (I imagine I’ll be writing a quite a bit about this topic since dairy products are so ubiquitous yet so harmful.) First there’s the simple observation that humans are the only mammals that continue to consume milk after we’re weaned and we’re the only mammals that drink another mammal’s milk (yes, cats sometimes, but only because we feed it to them). I’m not sure that this fact contributes any scientific reasoning as to why we shouldn’t drink milk but it is an odd fact. Cow’s milk is the number one allergic food in this country. It has been well documented as a cause of diarrhea, cramps, bloating, gas, gastrointestinal bleeding, iron-deficiency anemia, skin rashes, atherosclerosis, and acne and recent evidence suggests links to type I diabetes, heart disease, autism, and schizophrenia. Cow’s milk is also the primary cause of recurrent ear infections in children.

The truth is, like grains, we have only started domesticating cows about 8000 years ago and only started drinking large quantities of milk about 2000 years ago. This is a very short time in terms of human evolution.  Yet there is ample evidence that many early societies have been drinking raw milk without any of the health consequences that we see today.

Weston Price in his journeys observed many indigenous people from Africa to Europe who drank raw milk and were healthy. The Weston Price Foundation has been one of the biggest promoters of drinking raw milk, and it’s true that some people who have problems with pasteurized milk seem to tolerate raw milk just fine. The cows of today however are not the pasture-raised cows that Weston Price observed in the early 1930s.  The majority of dairy cows in America are raised on high-protein, genetically modified soy and corn-based feeds instead of fresh green grass. Instead of free range grazing, they stand in feedlots and manure all day. The living conditions and unnatural feed requires the use of antibiotics to keep them from getting sick and dying. These antibiotics wind up in the milk you and your family drink and are partly responsible for the antibiotic resistance bugs that are becoming prevalent today.

Two components in milk that are problematic for human consumption are lactose and casein.  Lactose is the sugar in milk and approximately 50 percent (up to 90 percent in some Asian and African countries) of the world’s population do not make the enzyme lactase, which is used to break down this sugar.  Those who are lactose intolerant are usually very aware of it because of the gastric distress they experience from ingesting milk products. The other component, casein, is the protein that makes up about 80 percent of cow’s milk. It is these proteins that are greatly affected by pasteurization.  The problems of pasteurization have been known and written about for many years. I found this quote from the British medical journal,Armchair Science in 1938 in which the author states:

“Besides destroying part of the vitamin C contained in raw milk and encouraging growth of harmful bacteria, pasteurization turns the sugar of milk, known as lactose, into beta-lactose — which is far more soluble and therefore more rapidly absorbed in the system, with the result that the child soon becomes hungry again.  Probably pasteurization’s worst offence is that it makes insoluble the major part of the calcium contained in raw milk. This frequently leads to rickets, bad teeth, and nervous troubles, for sufficient calcium content is vital to children; and with the loss of phosphorus also associated with calcium, bone and brain formation suffer serious setbacks.  Pasteurization also destroys 20 percent of the iodine present in raw milk, causes constipation and generally takes from the milk its most vital qualities”

Although pasteurization may kill off harmful bacteria, the process also destroys the friendly bacteria found naturally in milk and drastically reduces the micronutrient and vitamin content.  Pasteurization also transforms the physical structure of the proteins in milk, altering the shape of the amino acid configuration into a protein that is foreign to your body.

It is equally important to consider that reduced-fat, low fat, or fat-free versions of milk are virtually void of metabolically beneficial vitamin D and calcium. These milks are also typically homogenized, a process that keeps the milk from naturally separating. The homogenization process creates a substance known as xanthine oxidase (XO), which is thought to play a role in oxidative stress by acting as a free radical in the body.  When the cream in milk is in its natural state, the fat globules are too large to go through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Homogenization changes that by straining the fat through tiny pores under great pressure. This XO attaches to the fat molecules, which have been reduced in size but increased in amount a hundred times and are now small enough to get into the bloodstream and do its damage.  Scientists have discovered that a significant amount of XO is present in areas of hardened and blocked arteries. XO is not present in human milk. In clean, raw cow’s milk, the intestines do not absorb XO.

But what about those cultures that have used raw milk as part of their staple for generations, such as the Maasai in Africa and most of India?  It turns out that in cattle there are two major types of beta casein protein, known as A1 and A2.  In his book The Devil In the Milk, Keith Woodford details the case against a tiny protein fragment known as BCM7, which is released from A1 beta casein.  It is this protein that has been linked to Type 1 diabetes, allergies, autoimmune disease, autism and schizophrenia.

Woodford describes how a mutation occurred about 8000 years ago, changing the structure of the beta casein protein.  This mutation has subsequently been spread throughout in the western world such that the A1 mutation is only in western cows. The breeds of cows in Asia and Africa do not produce this A1 protein, nor do goats, sheep or humans.  Woodford notes that in one animal experiment, one group of mice was fed A2 casein milk and the other A1. None of the mice fed A2 casein got diabetes, but 47 percent of those fed A1 developed the disease. The dairy industry is very aware of the evidence against A1 milk, and there are dairy companies that are producing and marketing only A2 milk.  The bottom line for cow’s milk is that it is not a health food. The exception is butter, which is made from the fat of the milk and contains either none or only trace amounts of lactose and casein. It is for this reason that butter is well tolerated by the general population.

Does this mean you should never eat dairy products? Of course not. A little cheese or an ice cream every now and then is not going to harm anyone. But “every now and then” means just that. It should be included in your diet as a treat, not part of one’s daily diet.

The number one selling artificial sweetener is Splenda- a sugar molecule that has had three chlorine molecules added to it through a patented process producing a sugar that does not occur in nature. It was accidentally discovered by a researcher who was trying to come up with a new insecticide. To date there have been no long-term studies done on Splenda (or on aspartame). According to a study from Duke University , Splenda “suppresses beneficial bacteria and directly affects the expression of the transporter P-gp and cytochrome P-450 isozymes that are known to interfere with the bioavailability of drugs and nutrients. Furthermore, these effects occur at Splenda doses that contain sucralose levels that are approved by the FDA for use in the food supply.” In short- don’t eat it.

The primary reason people consume these artificial sweeteners is the mistaken belief that they will help them lose weight, or at least not gain weight. This however does not seem to be the case.  A recent study done at Purdue university concluded that consuming  artificial sweeteners actually increases the odds of gaining weight. The report offers strong evidence that animals fed with artificially sweetened foods actually consumed more calories and gained more weight than animals eating foods flavored with glucose, a natural, high-calorie sweetener. Another reason diet drinks can lead to increased weight gain has to do with the toxicity of artificial sweeteners.  One of the places the body stores toxins is in your fat cells,because fat is a very effective chemical buffer. The fat surrounds the toxin and protects both the fat cell and the rest of your body from the potentially damaging effect of the toxin, until your body is ready to deal with it. Toxins can block your body’s ability to burn fat, causing a resistance to losing weight.

There is no doubt the consuming sugar, in all its forms, is bad for you. However, if you must sweeten your drink, use plain old sugar.  Remember- Friends don’t let friends eat artificial food substitutes.