My approach is to start from the straightforward principle that our body is a machine . . . and it can be subjected to maintenance and repair in the same way as a simple machine, like a car.
—Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D.
A living cell requires energy not only for all its functions, but also for the maintenance of its structure.
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, M.D., Ph.D.
Human health is almost infinitely complex. That’s why to end our epidemic of chronic disease the focus needs to be on simple, practical steps that anyone can take to optimize health. This chapter presents a list of maintenance items that are fundamental to your biochemistry and your health. Learning to maintain and control them will reduce your risk of developing disease and, if you are already sick, will help you to get well and stay well. Performing this maintenance will even reverse some of your aging and make you biologically younger.
A car that is not well maintained ends up in a junkyard. A body that is not well maintained ends up in a nursing home. Nobody wants to end up in a nursing home or be dependent on others for basic needs, with a quality of life that is close to zero. Yet one out of seven people over age sixty-five suffer from chronic conditions that impair their ability to live independently. A car that is 100 years old can still look and run like new if it is well maintained, and so can you, if you are well maintained. Here is the problem: We don’t know how to maintain ourselves.
Cars come supplied with an owner’s manual and a maintenance schedule that tells you what to do to keep the car in good running condition. We don’t. With cars, most of us know we need to change the engine oil, keep the tires inflated, rotate the tires, replace the radiator fluid, change the brake and transmission fluids, replace the timing belt, replace the brake pads, replace hoses and filters, and numerous other maintenance items, especially as the car becomes older. How many of us know how to maintain a human body?
If you don’t keep a car well maintained, you may be in for some expensive problems. You may end up needing a new engine, radiator, or transmission. Likewise, if your body is not properly maintained, you may be paying for a $40,000 hip replacement, a $50,000 knee replacement, $100,000 open-heart surgery, or well over $100,000 for cancer treatment. It’s cheaper to do the maintenance and avoid these problems. Regular preventive maintenance can extend the life of your vehicle, and it can extend your life, too.
Below is a list of maintenance items that require your attention. If you perform this maintenance, you can move yourself toward health by keeping your body machinery in top operating condition. This will extend your life and allow you to live those extra years filled with vitality and free of disease. These maintenance items are as follows:
• Energy production
• Inflammation
• Acid/alkaline balance
• Digestive health
• Hormonal balance
• Platelet stickiness
• Fat storage
Energy Production
The amount of energy you are able to produce may be the most important measure of your health. Virtually all chronic disease involves impaired energy production. Everything runs on energy, including you. When your energy is high, you are healthy. When it’s low, you are sick. When it’s very low, you are very sick. When it’s gone, so are you. Optimize your energy production and you optimize your health, longevity, and quality of life.
A decrease in energy production is an alarm that things are seriously wrong. Yet low energy is epidemic, and fatigue is the number-one complaint made to doctors. Fatigue was the first complaint I brought to my doctor when I began my downward health spiral. I told him I didn’t have the energy I used to have. After a comprehensive and expensive examination, my doctor, who was a Harvard Medical School professor, joyfully announced that all of my tests showed that I was in excellent health and that my fatigue was the result of getting older. Like most physicians, this professor of medicine was clueless that decreased energy production was a serious matter, and that my lack of energy was not about getting older. It was about being very sick. Healthy people have boundless energy. Any decrease means you are sick, and decreased energy often occurs long before other symptoms of disease. Think of a healthy college athlete. That’s high energy. That’s where we should all be.
Every cell contains hundreds to thousands of energy production units called mitochondria. Like the engine in your car, mitochondria produce energy by reacting fuel with oxygen. Most of the energy is in the form of heat to keep your body warm, but mitochondria also produce chemicals that the body uses for energy, such as the high-energy compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Anything that interferes with the production of ATP will cause fatigue. The ability to produce high-energy compounds is very much affected by deficiency and toxicity. For example, niacin (vitamin B3) is used in the creation of energy; a niacin deficiency results in less energy. A deficiency of essential fatty acids impairs the ability to properly construct mitochondrial membranes. Improperly constructed membranes result in progressive loss of energy production and disease. Toxic metals like mercury can disable enzymes required for energy production. Prescription drugs and environmental toxins like herbicides and pesticides can impair ATP production. Consuming the food preservative sulfite can cut ATP production in half.
Maintaining high energy levels is critical to your health. Less energy means less ability to deliver nutrients and remove toxins, and less ability to do daily repairs to DNA and tissues. Shortness of breath is often an indicator of energy production problems. How many of us feel winded walking up several flights of stairs? How about running up those same stairs? How many people have a problem exerting themselves much at all? How many are barely sustaining life? In order to be truly healthy, you have to optimize your energy production.
Fructose presents a special problem. Metabolizing fructose drains ATP from cells, robbing the body of energy. Our overconsumption of fructose is causing myriad health problems, including loss of energy, high blood pressure, diabetes, excess uric acid production (gout), and chronic inflammation. Inflammation, which we’ll talk about soon, causes damage to DNA, mitochondria, and tissues throughout the body. The largest source of this vicious cycle is the habit of drinking sodas containing high-fructose corn syrup.
So-called diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and diabetes, are all related to decreased energy production. Energy is required for every bodily function, and less energy reduces the body’s ability to remove toxins and do its daily DNA and tissue repairs. Today, our energy requirements are higher because of all the environmental chemicals our bodies are being forced to detoxify. We must be careful to avoid toxins that interfere with energy production, such as heavy metals and pesticides. We must supplement with nutrients such as the B vitamins; vitamins C, D, and E; CoQ10; acetyl L-carnitine; alpha-lipoic acid; curcumin; essential fatty acids; ribose; and phospholipids that help to increase energy production.
How can you gauge how well you’re doing on this maintenance item? It is possible to measure your energy production by using a technique called bioenergy testing. But the simplest way is by noticing how you feel. When you wake up in the morning, do you bounce out of bed ready and even eager to begin your day? Everyone needs periods of rest and relaxation, but is your energy sustained and dependable throughout the day and evening? Do you enjoy daily moderate exercise and occasional strenuous exercise?
If your answer to some or all of these questions is “no,” remember, it’s not because you’re getting older. It’s because of deficiency (one or more things are missing) and toxicity (one or more things are gumming up the works). The solution to your personal energy crisis is a unique combination of factors. You will find these solutions in the following chapters on the Six Pathways.
Inflammation
Inflammation, when needed, is a good thing. It is the body’s natural and healthy response to injury, irritation, or infection. If you cut your finger, an inflammatory process begins immediately; this is what causes redness and swelling. The inflammatory process neutralizes harmful microorganisms, helps to repair the wound, and cleans up the debris resulting from the injury.
Temporary inflammation is beneficial, but chronic inflammation is disastrous. Chronic inflammation destroys your body! During the normal inflammatory process, white blood cells destroy harmful microorganisms by unleashing powerful chemicals called free radicals. These free radicals can potentially go on to damage healthy tissue, and even DNA. However, once a repair has been made, the inflammatory process is turned off, and the free radicals it has generated are subdued and neutralized by chemicals called antioxidants.
However, when inflammation is turned on and not turned off, a constant supply of free radicals is generated that overwhelms your antioxidant reserves. The resulting damage to tissue and DNA ages you and causes disease of every description. For example, most hip replacements are necessitated by inflammatory damage to the joint. A better idea is to protect the joint from inflammation, keep it in good repair, and it will last a lifetime—surgery unnecessary.
Unfortunately, chronic systemic inflammation is epidemic. Why? Because our diet, environment, and lifestyle promote inflammation. The average American’s diet is rich in pro-inflammatory factors, including sugar, wheat, and excess omega-6 fatty acids. At the same time, it lacks antioxidant and other anti-inflammatory nutrients found especially in fruits and vegetables. Consuming an acidic diet containing too much salt, sugar, white flour, dairy, meat, and cola drinks also contributes to inflammation. Many experts consider overacidity to be one of the major causes of chronic inflammation. Being overweight makes things worse because fat cells produce inflammatory chemicals. Environmental toxins have an inflammatory effect and deplete antioxidants. Taking antibiotics leads to chronic gastrointestinal inflammation. Chronic stress produces hormones that result in chronic inflammation. People who are sleep deprived have higher levels of inflammation. Even chronic noise causes inflammation.
Inflammation is a common element in virtually all disease. Most of us are suffering from some degree of chronic low-grade inflammation, and many suffer from severe inflammation. No matter what so-called disease you have, from cancer to the common cold, inflammation is a major part of your problem. By promoting chronic inflammation we are aging ourselves prematurely, causing us to look old, feel tired, and suffer every imaginable disease. Learning how to reduce inflammation will go a long way toward preventing and reversing almost all disease as well as slowing the aging process, keeping you healthy, biologically young, and vigorous for a lifetime. To be healthy, you must eliminate or at least minimize chronic inflammation.
The amount of inflammation in your body is a powerful predictor of aging, age-related disease, and whether you will become fragile in old age. Russell Tracy, Ph.D., professor of pathology and biochemistry at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, helped demonstrate that inflammation is the cause of heart disease. Dr. Tracy maintains, “Inflammatory factors predict virtually all bad [health] outcomes in humans.”
In Alzheimer’s patients, the areas of the brain clogged with senility-associated plaques also bristle with inflammatory cells and cytokines (cytokines are proteins released by cells that trigger inflammation). Research has found that cytokines block memory formation in mice. In diabetes, inflammation and insulin resistance track together. Inflammation is also a culprit in declining lung function, osteoporosis, and old-age depression. Inflammatory activity breaks down skeletal muscle, leading to the loss of lean muscle mass.
Inflammation also contributes to the shortening of telomeres. Telomeres are caps at the ends of chromosomes found in each cell. Like the plastic tips on shoestrings, telomeres protect the ends of the chromosome strands. Telomere shortening is a marker of aging and disease.
Inflammation is easy to see if you cut your finger, and it’s easy to feel if you pull a muscle. But chronic inflammation can smolder on for years without symptoms. Eventually, you may experience aches, pains, and soreness. But because inflammation can be silent, it is useful to measure your levels with blood tests like C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), plasma viscosity (PV), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).
Learning how to live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is a key to your health and longevity. Controlling chronic inflammation requires a comprehensive approach because it arises from a combination of causes, but most of it is under your control. In the chapters on the Six Pathways, you will learn how to prevent and control inflammation. Supplementing with antioxidant nutrients is essential to control chronic inflammation and restore health. People with serious illness may require massive amounts of antioxidants to shut the inflammation down. These include omega-3 fatty acids; vitamins A, C, D, and E; beta-carotene; CoQ10; curcumin; quercitin; selenium; N-acetylcysteine; and alpha-lipoic acid. Taking a high-quality vitamin C to bowel tolerance (just short of the amount that causes loose stools) is recommended. The B vitamin complex (including folate, B6, and B12) is also critical to controlling inflammation. Dietary restriction inhibits the inflammatory response, which explains why low-calorie diets promote longevity.
Acid/Alkaline Balance
The pH of your cells and body fluids has a major effect on your health. pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. Aqueous solutions with a pH less than 7 are acidic (think vinegar), 7 is defined as neutral (like water), and greater than 7 is alkaline (think lye). pH controls an enormous amount of body chemistry. If your pH is wrong, your chemistry will be wrong, and nothing will be right!
To function normally and keep your body in homeostasis, your cells need a proper environment. Internal temperature, glucose levels, oxygen levels, sodium levels, and pH must be kept within normal limits. The pH of the fluid inside a healthy cell is between 7.35 and 7.45, which is slightly alkaline. Maintaining normal pH in your cells and tissues is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Maintaining normal pH is not optional—you must do it! Fortunately, this is something you can measure yourself and control.
One reason that pH is so important is the regulatory functions that protein molecules perform. Special protein molecules perform critical metabolic and regulatory functions to keep your body functioning and balanced. The success of these functions depends on the protein maintaining the correct geometric shape. Changing the shape of the proteins damages your metabolic machinery and impairs your ability to self-
regulate and be healthy. The shape of the proteins can be altered by even the tiniest changes in pH!
When your pH is normal, you will slow the aging process, have more energy, and be healthier. When your pH is not normal, cells malfunction and you are sick—even if you don’t think you are. Too many people suffer from the delusion that they are healthy, when actually they are already sick and getting sicker because their pH is declining. When they finally arrive at a diagnosable disease, such as cancer, they are usually surprised and don’t realize how long it took them to get there.
Tragically, our physicians have little understanding of the true causes of disease and will usually blame your problems on getting older or on faulty genes, when the real problem is your declining pH, which has nothing to do with age or genes. Virtually all degenerative diseases, including arthritis, cancer, gallstones, heart disease, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and tooth decay, are associated with excess acidity.
How Do Our Bodies Become Acidic?
Although normal cell metabolism produces acids, a healthy diet rich in alkalizing minerals can neutralize these acids. However, abnormal cell metabolism is another matter; it produces enormous amounts of acid, which is the major reason that so many of us are too acidic. Normal cells produce energy through a process called oxygen respiration, where fuel (mostly fats and some glucose) reacts with oxygen. However, our poor diets, accumulation of toxins, and lack of exercise all conspire to impair the ability of our cells to produce energy through oxygen respiration. When this happens, cells switch to a less complex, less efficient way of producing energy called fermentation. Fermentation produces lots of lactic acid and free radicals. Free radicals must be neutralized with antioxidants, but due to the lack of antioxidants in our diet, these radicals cause systemic inflammation. Lactic acid can be neutralized by alkaline minerals, but modern diets are deficient in alkalizing minerals, so our bodies build up lactic acid and become too acidic.
The shift from normal oxygen respiration to fermentation is a major factor in accelerating the aging process and is associated with numerous diseases, especially cancer. In fact, the prime cause of cancer is loss of 60 percent or more of a cell’s oxygen respiration capacity. (See my book Never Fear Cancer Again.)
Making matters worse, we consume too many acid-forming foods such as sugar, highly acidic cola drinks, excess salt, grains, dairy, and meat. On average, Americans eat far too much animal protein. When animal proteins break down in the body, they metabolize into strong acids. The bottom line is that the majority of the foods most of us eat today have an acidic effect on the body. As a result, most of us suffer from chronic low-grade acidosis, which leads to chronic inflammation. Chronic stress creates acidity, and we lead stressful lives. Allergic reactions create acidity, and most of us have allergies and food sensitivities, whether we know it or not. Chronic dehydration, chronic infections, most prescription drugs, and many environmental toxins all promote acidity.
To stay healthy, the body must neutralize excess acids, and healthy bodies have alkaline reserves that can be used for this purpose. However, when fermentation and our acid-forming diets deplete those reserves, the body starts taking alkalizing calcium and magnesium from the bones, resulting in osteoporosis. Acidosis also increases the production of free radicals, which damage DNA, cause disease, and accelerate the aging process. Even a small amount of acidity can lead to fatigue and feeling generally subpar. Pain is a symptom of acidity. Acidity can even make you fat. Acidic cells have a lower metabolic rate, preventing fat from being burned.
Low pH and Enzymes
Abnormal cellular pH impairs the function of enzymes. Enzymes are little molecular machines that put molecules together or take them apart. Critical chemical reactions in the body are completely dependent on enzymes. Digesting food requires enzymes to take molecules apart, and making complex molecules like hormones or neurotransmitters requires enzymes to put them together. However, enzymes are pH sensitive. Change the pH and you change enzyme function, potentially shutting down critical metabolic machinery. For example, the liver’s ability to detoxify and to produce hormones is dependent on pH-sensitive enzymes. When the pH is abnormal, liver detoxification is compromised; hormones may become unbalanced; immunity will be depressed; food may not be properly digested; chemicals critical to brain function may not be produced. The pH in a cell gives chemical signals to genes, instructing them to perform or not perform certain actions. Abnormal pH will give abnormal instructions to your genes, causing cells to malfunction and make you sick.
Low pH and Cellular Oxygen
The body must be slightly alkaline in order for your cells to be properly oxygenated. A slightly alkaline solution can absorb more than 100 times as much oxygen as a slightly acidic solution. This is why when cellular pH drops, oxygen levels drop, causing a host of problems. Acidic body fluids will not support the oxygen-rich environment that the body needs; this can manifest as chronic pain, impaired metabolism, infections, and cancer. When the fluid inside and outside the cells becomes too acidic, cell walls begin to lose their integrity. This not only damages the ability to transport oxygen into cells, it also allows toxins to enter cells. These toxins can damage DNA, causing mutations that further compromise a cell’s ability to fight off disease. Viruses and bacteria normally living in your body, without causing harm, will suddenly be activated in a low-oxygen environment, causing infection. Our physicians then blame the “germs” and give us antibiotics, instead of normalizing our pH.
It’s All About Energy
Beyond acidity and alkalinity, pH has another critical dimension in the realm of energy. While most of us don’t think of it this way, the body is a battery-powered electronic device. Each cell is a little battery, and because pH is actually a measure of voltage, your cellular pH reflects the strength of your batteries. Remember this about your batteries:
• When your batteries are strong, you are strong and healthy.
• When your batteries are weak, you get tired and sick.
• When your batteries are very weak, you are seriously ill.
• When your batteries are dead, so are you.
To be healthy, you must keep your batteries fully charged. Electricity plays an enormous role in almost every function in the body. One example is your heart. Physicians measure the electrical activity in the heart with a test called an electrocardiogram. Electricity generated by your cell batteries signals the heart to beat; weak batteries cause problems with your heartbeat. Many heart patients have been given pacemakers, surgically implanted commercial batteries, to treat abnormal heart rhythms. A far better alternative is to strengthen your electrical system and use your own batteries as Mother Nature intended—surgery not required. Medicine in the future will be focused more on the body’s electronics and energy systems. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait for the future; you can take care of your electronics now by paying attention to your pH.
Like any electrical device, the body is designed to run at a certain voltage. Cells operate normally at a voltage of –20 to –25 millivolts (mV). There is a direct correspondence between the voltage and the pH of your cells. A voltage of –20 mV corresponds to a pH of 7.35, and –25 mV corresponds to a pH of 7.45. The minus sign in front of the voltage number means that the system is electron giving, which indicates your batteries are strong. This is what you want in order to be healthy. On the other hand, a plus sign means that the system is electron stealing and your batteries are weak. When your cell voltage is a plus, you will not be able to generate the electrons you need to operate your electrical system or to create healthy new cells; this is disease. Keeping your pH in the normal, slightly alkaline range maintains your voltage in the normal range. This keeps your electrical system strong and healthy, therefore keeping you strong and healthy.
While cells normally operate at –20 to –25mV, making a new cell requires a much higher voltage: –50 mV. So unless your cell batteries are strong, and you are capable of producing and storing such a high voltage, you will be unable to make healthy new cells. To prevent repair deficits, to heal your body, and to stay young and healthy, you must be able to produce healthy new cells. In fact, the body must produce millions of healthy new cells every second of every day. If you are unable to create these cells, the result is repair deficits, degenerative disease, and aging.
When your pH is low (acidic) and your batteries are weak, your cells are unable to generate the energy they need to do their regular jobs, including the movement of nutrients into the cell and toxins out of the cell. This results in deficiency and toxicity—the two causes of all disease. Chronic disease is always defined by low voltage and low pH. For example, cancer patients typically have a voltage of +30 mV, which corresponds to a cellular pH of about 6.5 and a urine pH of 5.7, with terminal cancer patients often down to 4.5. Weak batteries and low pH are catastrophic to your health.
Measuring Your pH
Fortunately, pH is simple and inexpensive to measure. Anyone can do it with some pH paper, which you can buy at health food stores and at www.beyondhealth.com. If your pH is wrong, you can correct it. This puts you in charge of an extremely important determinant of health, contributing to your power to both prevent and cure almost any disease and to slow the aging process.
An indirect indicator of your body’s cellular pH and voltage is the pH of your first morning urine, before you have had anything to eat or drink. This is an approximation of the alkaline reserves in your body and the strength of your batteries. Wet a small strip of the pH paper with urine and compare the color against the scale provided. Your test paper should be graduated from pH 5 to pH 8 with incremental readings. Always keep pH paper on hand, and have the whole family use it. It is estimated that at least half the U.S. adult population has a urine pH of 6.5 or lower, which helps explain our epidemic of chronic disease. Here is how to interpret your pH reading:
Below 6.5 Too acidic
6.5 to 7.5 Healthy range
Above 7.5 Too alkaline
When Your pH Is Too Low (Too Acidic)
Most chronically ill people have low pH. When your pH consistently measures below 6.5, you will begin to notice symptoms, such as fatigue, chronic pain, or frequent infections. As your pH continues to drop, the oxygen levels in your body will drop; you will get sicker and sicker, and you will be a prime candidate for cancer.
To control your pH, first pay attention to how your body is producing energy. If you are fatigued, hypoglycemic, or experience shortness of breath upon exertion, you may be producing energy through fermentation, which makes the body acidic. If your body has shifted to producing most of its energy through fermentation, you need to restore proper oxygen metabolism in your cells. Restore oxygen metabolism through detoxification, regular exercise, and supplementing with essential fatty acids, B vitamins, folic acid, CoQ10, magnesium, carnitine, and lipoic acid.
Avoid acid-forming foods such as sugar, grains, dairy, meat, and cola drinks. Eat an alkalizing diet with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, and take alkalizing supplements. Alkalizing supplements include calcium, magnesium, potassium, and zinc in highly bioavailable forms. Keep a diary of the foods you eat and record your first-morning pH. This will allow you to monitor how different foods affect your pH. As you begin eating more foods that are alkaline and fewer acid-forming foods, you should see an improvement in your pH. To choose the right foods, see the acid/alkaline chart in Appendix B.
If diet and supplements are not able to control your pH, there are other factors to consider. Stress is one of them. Chronic stress creates acidity. Meditation techniques help to control this factor. Allergic reactions create acidity. Find out what foods you are allergic to and take care to avoid them. Avoiding just wheat and dairy can have a major positive impact for many people. Not only are these foods acid-forming to begin with, they are also highly allergenic. Chronic dehydration, many environmental toxins, most prescription drugs, and chronic infections all promote acidity. Chronic sinus infections or dental infections contribute to acidity and need to be addressed.
When Your pH Is Normal
If you have normalized your pH, congratulations! You are on your way to getting well and staying well. Monitor your pH regularly. First-morning pH should consistently run in the acceptable range. Occasional readings outside the acceptable range are okay, but consistent readings are not. If your pH falls below the normal range, follow the recommendations in the above section. Fortunately, you are in control of this critical factor, and you can use that control to choose health over disease.
Digestive Health
The digestive system is the most complex system in the body, and our health completely depends on it. Digestion also plays a huge role in immune function, with about 80 percent of immune activity located in the gut, and it directly impacts emotional and cognitive health. Unless you can properly digest and then assimilate nutrients from your food, there is no way you can be healthy. Symptoms of digestive malfunction include poor digestion, constipation, diarrhea, excess gas, belching, cramping, nausea, indigestion, acid reflux, bloating, abdominal pain, heartburn, bad breath, painful joints, chronic headaches, and vomiting. Many people think these digestive disorders are mere inconveniences. They are in fact symptoms of serious health problems and the warning signs of even bigger problems to come.
Unfortunately, most of us suffer from at least some degree of digestive malfunction. If you already have a health problem, to get well, you must place a high priority on improving digestive health. Our digestive problems have numerous causes, including the consumption of sugar, processed foods, prescription drugs, chlorinated water, GMO foods, and nonorganic meat and dairy products that are loaded with antibiotics. Regular use of antacids and thyroid deficiency both cause an insufficiency of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which then results in maldigestion, poor nutrition, production of toxins, and numerous associated problems. But the largest single cause of digestive malfunction has been the irrational and irresponsible use of antibiotics by our obsolete and misguided medical establishment.
Few people, including most physicians, have an appreciation for the value of the microbes living in our digestive systems. The human body is home to trillions of microbes, living mostly in the gut. Your body has more microbes than human cells (they are smaller than human cells). These microbes act like another organ that performs tasks we need done but cannot do for ourselves. Gut bacteria do far more than help digest food; they have a major controlling effect on our physical and mental health. Our immune system depends on these microbes for many functions.
While all of us share similar microbes in our digestive systems, modern research shows that the makeup of this population is unique to each of us, unique as a fingerprint. Each of us is also biochemically unique, and our unique microbe population helps to support our unique biochemistry. Normally, these microbial communities remain stable over time. In fact, microbe populations even seem to run in families, similar to genes.
Problems arise when we damage the balance of these microbes, which can happen in a number of ways. Changing the pH of the gut diminishes levels of helpful bacteria. Prescription drugs such as NSAIDs and birth control pills also disrupt the balance. Drinking chlorinated water has a significant effect. Consuming nonorganic meat and dairy destroys beneficial bacteria due to the antibiotics they contain. However, the single largest problem is taking a prescription antibiotic; it is like dropping an atom bomb into this unique and vital community. Antibiotics indiscriminately kill everything in sight. Once this happens, your uniqueness is lost. As the microbe population reestablishes itself, you end up with a new set of players. Your original population that helped to keep you healthy and fight disease never returns to normal, and the new population opens the door to disease. This is why taking an antibiotic even once can damage your health for the remainder of your life.
For example, more and more studies are showing a relationship between antibiotic use and cancer. A study in a 2004 Journal of the American Medical Association determined that women who have taken antibiotics are at increased risk for developing breast cancer, and as the number of prescriptions for antibiotics increased, the risk of breast cancer steadily climbed. The researchers suggested that antibiotics kill off bacteria needed to metabolize and remove estrogen in the gut, which causes an excess of estrogen that stimulates cancer growth. Compared to women who took no antibiotics, those who had taken fewer than twenty-five antibiotic prescriptions had a 50 percent greater risk of breast cancer, while those who had taken more than twenty-five prescriptions had a 200 percent greater risk.
Antibiotic use is even causing infections. Widespread use of antibiotics creates antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria are now ravaging our hospitals and are moving out into the general population. They cause illnesses that are difficult, if not impossible, to treat with antibiotics.
The microbes in your gut even affect your weight. A normal, healthy microbe population digests more fiber and produces more short-chain fatty acids, which boosts calorie burning and causes less fat to accumulate. Obese people have fewer of these beneficial bacteria. A healthy diet filled with fresh vegetables increases the population of the microbes associated with leanness.
A properly functioning intestinal tract is one of your first lines of defense against disease, and declining levels of friendly intestinal bacteria precipitate the onset of chronic disease. A 2013 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that specific bacterial species within the gut are critical to protecting the airways against allergens and viral respiratory infection. By destroying the normal assortment of flora in the gut, antibiotics contribute to virtually every imaginable disease—from the common cold to autism, asthma, and psoriasis.
The disruption of intestinal flora, called dysbiosis, is a major contributor to our epidemic of chronic diseases such as accelerated aging, allergies, autoimmune syndromes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. Dysbiosis disrupts your ability to digest food, assimilate nutrients, and eliminate waste products; it impairs the immune system, impairs the body’s repair function, causes chronic inflammation, and accelerates the aging process. Dysbiosis can be measured with something called a CDSA (comprehensive digestive stool analysis) test.
Supplementing with fiber and beneficial bacteria has become a necessity to make up for our poor diets, stressful lifestyles, and use of prescription drugs. Avoid the use of antibiotics. There are a number of safe alternative treatments for infections, including vitamin C, olive leaf extract, and oil of oregano. Intravenous vitamin C, ozone, and ultraviolet light treatments can be used for serious infections. Supplemental digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid are often necessary to address dysbiosis. However, all these must be of high quality, as most don’t work very well. A good idea is to include raw, live-culture sauerkraut or kimchi in your diet.
Hormonal Balance
Hormones are part of the body’s communication system. They are messenger molecules that provide instructions to help the body self-regulate. For example, when you eat sugar, insulin is released by the pancreas to instruct cells to take up sugar to restore proper blood sugar levels. However, insulin helps to manage many other things, including fat storage and the conversion of proteins to fat for storage. When you artificially increase insulin by eating sugar, you send out a lot of unintended messages. This upsets estrogen and testosterone levels in the body. In fact, eating sugar upsets your entire hormonal balance, sending a flood of incorrect messages throughout the body, throwing the body out of self-regulation. This reason is one of many that sugar is so dangerous and deadly.
The body uses about fifty different hormones to help self-regulate. All of these are in a delicate balance with each other. Most people today suffer from hormonal imbalances, throwing their bodies out of self-
regulation. Hormones act as genetic switches, activating certain genes and deactivating others. It is extremely important to your health that you normalize hormone function. The correct hormonal balance is antiaging, and the wrong balance speeds up the aging process. Hormonal balance is why getting the right amount of sleep is so important and why stress hormones can kill you. It is also why consuming meat and dairy products, and the hormones they contain, contributes to aging and disease. Our problems result from mineral deficiencies, improper pH of tissue fluids, poor diets, toxic exposures, prescription drugs, and exposure to hormonelike chemicals in our environment.
Particularly alarming is our ever-increasing exposure to hormonelike, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs). EDCs mimic hormones and give all the wrong signals to our genes. Increasingly, EDCs are turning up in scientific studies as causes of birth defects, infertility, diabetes, cancer, and even obesity. Even very low dose exposures to these chemicals can cause long-term health problems. Yet endocrine disrupters are everywhere, and other than taking bisphenol A out of baby bottles, the FDA has done almost nothing to protect us. These chemicals are present in almost all canned foods and beverages, cosmetics, sunscreens, pesticides, plastic water bottles, other plastics, food packaging, clothing, furniture, and the paper receipts one gets from stores, restaurants, and gas pumps. As much as possible, protect yourself from exposure to EDCs. Do not drink from plastic bottles, do not consume canned foods and beverages, eat only organic meats, and do not store foods in plastic wraps.
Thyroid Malfunction
Thyroid malfunction is epidemic today. This manifests as either too much or, in about 80 percent of cases, too little thyroid hormone. Low thyroid affects approximately 20 to 25 percent of the female population and about 10 percent of males. An additional 30 percent of persons over the age of thirty-five may also have subclinical or mild hypothyroidism.
Every cell in the body uses thyroid hormone to regulate numerous metabolic processes. Typical symptoms of malfunction include fatigue, sensitivity to cold, cold hands, hair loss, weight gain, dry skin, digestive problems, depression, and achy joints and muscles.
Like any disease, thyroid malfunction is the result of cells malfunctioning due to deficiency and toxicity. One of the most critical deficiencies is iodine. In 1999, global health experts announced that iodine deficiency continues to be a serious threat to global health; about 12 percent of Americans have been found iodine deficient. Selenium is another key thyroid nutrient, yet the majority of the U.S. population lives in areas having less than optimal selenium levels in their soils. Other key nutrients that support the thyroid include zinc, B vitamins, and vitamins C, D, and E. Omega-3 fats and amino acids are also essential, and coconut oil is helpful.
In addition to deficiency, toxicity also has a huge effect on thyroid function. This delicate system is easily disrupted by toxic chemicals from the environment. Chemicals such as phthalates, flame retardants, and bisphenol-A are known to disrupt thyroid function. Phthalates are found in many plastic products as well as fragrances and personal care products. Flame retardants are in furniture, carpets, upholstery, clothing, mattresses, electronics, and more. Bisphenol-A is present in plastic water bottles, food packaging, toys, paper receipts, dental sealants, and more.
Fluoride and perchlorate are both thyroid inhibitors and are found in tap water, which is one of many reasons that we need to filter tap water. Pesticides also inhibit the thyroid, and they are found in tap water as well as in food.
Be aware that, even at very low levels, environmental chemicals can impact your thyroid function, and even small changes in thyroid function damage your health. This is just one more reason to reduce your exposure to environmental toxins.
Another source of thyroid malfunction is autoimmune disease, such as Graves’ disease and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Gluten and the artificial sweetener aspartame are thought to trigger autoimmune response in the thyroid.
In addition to paying attention to deficiency and toxicity, regular exercise is critical for optimal thyroid function.
Platelet Stickiness
Platelets are cell-like particles in the blood that form clots to prevent sudden blood loss in the case of injury. However, if blood clots form when they are not needed to stop bleeding, they can cause heart attacks and strokes, and even contribute to the cancer process. Platelets have sticky surfaces, allowing them to stick to each other and to other surfaces. Blood cells that are sticking together absorb less oxygen and deliver less oxygen. Even very small clumps of platelets can block smaller capillaries, causing less oxygen to be delivered to the cells that those capillaries serve. Less oxygen affects the body’s ability to create energy and perform needed functions, and can lead to the formation of cancer cells.
As important as platelet stickiness is, few physicians appreciate its importance and do a platelet aggregation assay test. Most people can tell you what their cholesterol number is, which is not an important number, yet almost no one can tell you what their platelet aggregation number is, which is an important number. Platelet aggregation levels help to explain why some people with high risk factors—such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and blood vessels filled with plaque—never get a heart attack, while some people with none of those factors suffer massive heart attacks. People with the sticky platelets get the heart attacks and strokes. High platelet aggregation has even been associated with migraines and multiple sclerosis. Next time you see your doctor, be sure to get your platelet aggregation measured.
Small clots restrict blood flow into capillaries and deprive cells of needed oxygen. Less oxygen helps to switch cancer on, and the restricted flow also provides an opportunity for cancer cells that have broken off from a tumor to stop moving with the blood flow and start new tumor growth in other places in the body. Cancer deaths could be sharply reduced if these clots were eliminated. Maintaining good blood-flow speed helps to keep tissues well oxygenated. When people die of cancer, 90 percent of the time, they are succumbing to metastases, cancer cells that took root in other parts of the body after being shed by a primary tumor. Cancer cells that would normally travel through the capillaries are held up by the small clots and are able to attach themselves to the blood vessel wall and invade neighboring tissues, which helps to drive the cancer process. Fast-moving blood lessens this opportunity.
Platelet stickiness is caused by the same biologically inappropriate supermarket fats and oils that compromise the integrity of cell membranes, which is why platelet stickiness increases after consuming a typical American meal. Consuming essential fatty acids (EFAs) reduces platelet stickiness, provides good oxygen transfer, and increases blood speed, which reduces the ability for cancer cells to attach and invade new tissues. The EFAs in fish oil and flaxseed oil make platelets slippery so that they don’t stick together. These oils have been shown in numerous studies to dramatically reduce the risk of clots. They also reduce inflammation.
Another source of clots is excess sodium. Excess sodium changes the electrical properties of cells, causing them to become less repellent and, therefore, more likely to stick together. Also contributing to stickiness are smoking, excess alcohol, and iron deficiency.
Sugar causes clots. Eating sugar and refined carbohydrates causes a rapid and dangerous increase in blood sugar. The body responds to this crisis by secreting insulin from the pancreas. Insulin promotes clotting. High insulin inhibits the breakdown of fibrin. Fibrin is the principal component of blood clots, and when it can’t be broken down readily, clots can result. Because diabetics have high insulin, they have more blood clots and suffer more heart attacks and strokes. Eating a diet containing sugar, fruit juices, and refined grains increases insulin and promotes blood clotting. Anything that makes your blood insulin levels go up causes platelet stickiness, which is one more reason that sugar is a deadly poison.
Another problem with sugar is that when you increase the amount of sugar in the blood, the sugar reacts with proteins in the blood in a process called glycation. This has the effect of thickening your blood and making it flow less freely. Clearly, sugar should be eliminated from your diet, along with other “high-glycemic” foods such as grains, baked goods, sodas, and fruit juices.
Olive oil should play a prominent part in any healthy diet. Its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects result in a vascular environment in which platelets are less likely to clump together and form clots. Olive oil is also rich in inhibitors of platelet activating factor (PAF), which begins the clotting process by causing blood platelets to stick together. However, to get the benefits of olive oil, you have to get real olive oil instead of the usual adulterated oils that masquerade as “extra virgin olive oil” at the supermarket. (See Appendix A for high-quality olive oil.)
Supplementing with vitamin C, vitamin B6, essential fatty acids, and ginger substantially helps to prevent clots. For those on blood-thinning drugs, work with your doctor to wean yourself off the toxic drugs and substitute with antifibrin enzymes, such as nattokinase, to reduce the risk of clotting as well as cancer metastasis. Curcumin is especially good at reducing the high fibrinogen levels that promote clotting. Ginkgo biloba is a good blood-thinning herb. Like olive oil, it inhibits PAF, decreasing clotting and improving circulation. Ginkgo is also an antioxidant, and it reduces high cholesterol. Vitamin E also helps to prevent clotting; most of us are deficient in vitamin E. Magnesium slows clotting speed and stimulates fibrinolysis (the breakdown of fibrin and clots); most of us are deficient in magnesium. Garlic also reduces platelet stickiness and clotting.
Fat Storage
Most people look at being overweight as a cosmetic problem. To the contrary, overweight is a serious chronic disease caused by a malfunction in fat storage regulation. Fat storage is out of control in more than two out of three Americans because deficiency and toxicity have disrupted their ability to regulate and balance this body function.
Your body is programmed to regulate and balance appetite, fat storage, fat burning, and weight, along with body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar, hormonal balance, and thousands of other factors. When fat storage regulation is disrupted by deficiency and toxicity, the resulting excess fat creates a cascade of consequences. It disrupts normal body chemistry, accelerates aging, and causes a wide variety of disabilities and health problems, including cancer. Being overweight promotes platelet stickiness and blood clots. Fat cells in overweight people produce estrogen, disrupting hormonal balance and increasing the risk of blood clots and certain cancers. Fat cells also produce a flood of inflammatory chemicals, promoting systemic inflammation. Excess fat is a disaster.
Numerous studies have proven that overweight people suffer from higher rates of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and triglycerides, breathing disorders, sleep disorders, arthritis, asthma, kidney stones, premature aging, and early death. Obese mothers are at least twice as likely to have children with debilitating birth defects. If you are overweight, your life expectancy is reduced.
Very simply, lean people live longer and have less disease, more energy, and a higher quality of life. This is why maintaining normal weight is so very important. A number of studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study, a large ongoing health study that began in 1976, have shown that the leanest 20 percent live the longest, with mortality increasing progressively for each added pound. Perhaps even more important than living longer, lean people have higher-quality lives because they suffer less disability and dependence on others. Even if you are only ten pounds overweight, you are at risk for increased health problems, more disability, and shorter life.
Healthy people are not overweight, and overweight people are never truly healthy. Having excess weight is not just a cosmetic problem; it is a disease that makes you old and sick. In fact, predicting long-term health may be as simple as taking a waist measurement. Fat around the waist has been linked to higher mortality and the long list of diseases cited above. But the good news is even modest weight reduction can have significant health benefits, including lower triglycerides and cholesterol and better blood sugar balance. Some diabetics can even go off insulin.
In my book Never Be Fat Again, I identified overweight as a serious chronic disease caused by deficiency and toxicity. Recognizing overweight as a disease opens a world of possibilities, not only for weight management, but also for ending our epidemic of chronic illness. When you make yourself overweight, you throw your body out of balance. Your job is to help your body to do its job by keeping it balanced and properly self-repairing and self-regulating. When you interfere with the body’s self-regulating systems by eating a poor diet, creating nutritional deficiencies, and exposing yourself to toxins, you will get sick—guaranteed.
Use the Six Pathways
The above maintenance items address major health issues and some very fundamental biochemistry. Controlling them is critical if you want to get well, stay well, and never be sick again. This can be done by using the Six Pathways to health and disease. By moving yourself toward health on each Pathway, you will automatically perform your required maintenance. This will allow you to become biologically younger, healthier, and filled with vitality. The Pathways offer a comprehensive program to empower you to create health and increase the length and quality of your life. If you are moving toward health on all six Pathways, you can’t lose.
At the end of each Pathway chapter, you will find a list of the above maintenance items and a reminder of how choices you make can affect them for better or worse. This will provide you with a simple reference to help you control your maintenance and never get sick again.