One of its uses is as an astringent for wounds and bug bites. Simply chewing plantain leaf or crushing and grinding it makes an effective poultice to draw out poisons from the skin and prevent infections and scarring.
“Because it draws toxins from the body with its astringent nature, plantain may be crushed (or chewed) and placed as a poultice directly over the site of bee stings, bug bites, acne, slivers, glass splinters, or rashes,” explains Life Advancer.
Plantain aids in healthy digestion
If you suffer from constant digestive problems due to antibiotics, food allergies or genetically modified organisms (GMOs), plantain might be a simple cure. Many have reported that the leaves and seeds of the plant aid in reducing inflammation and help repair damage to the gut lining.
The seeds of plantain are also useful in maintaining a clean digestive tract, acting similarly to psyllium husk in absorbing toxins and creating firmer stools. When steeped, plantain leaves can be turned into an extract for use as a gut healer.
Since it is rich in the mineral silica, plantain also makes an excellent expectorant. This means that it helps clear up congestion and mucus, effectively treating coughs, colds and various other respiratory ailments.
“Plantain acts as a gentle expectorant while soothing inflamed and sore membranes, making it ideal for coughs and mild bronchitis,” wrote David Hoffmann, FNIMH, AHG, in his book Medical Herbalism: The Science and Practice of Herbal Medicine.
Plantain helps treat hemorrhoids
The same astringent properties that make plantain an effective wound-healer also make it an effective remedy for hemorrhoids. When processed and turned into a lotion or ointment, plantain can be applied to hemorrhoids to stop the flow of blood, which is also useful in the treatment of cystitis accompanied by bleeding.
“Plantain is one of Western herbalism’s primary topical healing agents, used as a lotion, ointment, compress, or poultice for cuts and bruises,” adds Hoffmann in his book. “It may be applied topically for hemorrhoids and skin ulcerations.”
Plantain treats all blood diseases, and nearly all other diseases
Truth be told, there seems to be very few health conditions that plantain can’t treat. According to The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, written by Dr. Finley Ellingwood, MD, in 1919, plantain is effective against virtually all blood diseases, many glandular diseases, mercury poisoning, diarrheal conditions, female disorders, and injuries, bites and rashes on the skin.
“Plantain is almost a panacea for the human body, treating everything from all menstrual difficulties, all digestive issues, to nearly all skin complaints, and even arthritis,” adds Life Advancer about the amazing healing potential of plantain.
“Add to salads, chew to ease thirst, or enjoy in stir fries. This versatile wild vegetable will keep you in good health for years to come!”
To learn more, be sure to read Dr. Ellingworth’s plantain entry as it was published in his 1919 book: Henriettes-Herb.com.
Until recently, we in allopathic medicine have largely viewed bone health as a product of primarily calcium and vitamin D absorption, as well as healthy hormone levels contributing to proper functioning of the cells that build bone (osteoblasts) and break down bone (osteoclasts). But we are slowly appreciating bone health as a complex interplay between many nutrients including vitamin K, magnesium, and others, in addition to calcium.
Ayurveda couldn’t agree more. It is said in Ayurveda that the membrane of the colon (purisha dhara kala) is intimately connected to the membrane of the bone (asthi dhara kala). This is why basti (enema) is widely used in Ayurveda to help support healthy bone tissue (asthi dhatu). Supporting a healthy colon will support healthy bone.
There is genius in this insight. Here is a quick summary of the science behind Ayurveda’s ancient wisdom.
Important micronutrients for the bone are calcium, phosphorous, fluoride, magnesium, sodium, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B6, folate, and vitamin B12 (a lot more than just calcium and vitamin D!).1
The colon is largely responsible for water absorption and the absorption of vitamins that the gut flora produces (vitamin K, vitamin B12, thiamine, riboflavin).2
Vitamin K1 (from leafy green vegetables) is what we normally hear about (usually vitamin K is mentioned in relation to proper blood clotting). But vitamin K2 (produced by our gut flora) travels to the bone tissue and helps activate osteoblasts.3
While most calcium and magnesium is absorbed by the small intestine, when absorption in the small intestine is compromised, the large intestine can increase its absorption of these and other vital minerals.4
A healthy colon proves to be important for bones. Those individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (like Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis) commonly also have osteoporosis5, and these individuals also tend to have a poor microbiome.6
From an Ayurvedic point of view, it is quite simple: the nutrients, or proper rasa, fail to make their way to the bone tissue when the dhara kala cannot do its job of absorption because it is either dried out (due to poor hydration or poor flora) or if the channels are clogged with toxins (ama). While science is rapidly catching up to the former factor, it still has a way to go to understand the latter factor of ama. Thankfully, we have Ayurveda.
Signs of Poor Asthi Dhatu
This tissue is the fifth tissue layer. Its function is to provide support (dharana), giving a sense of confidence, stability, security, and stamina. By understanding that the wastes (mala) of asthi dhatu are the nails and hair, and the refined byproduct (upadhatu) of bone tissue is the teeth, you can identify these signs of poor asthi dhatu.7
Joint pain
Osteoporosis
Arthritis
Hair loss
Brittle hair
Split hair ends
Cracked teeth
Frequent cavities despite good oral hygiene
Joint pain
Dry, brittle nails
Spinal misalignment (scoliosis)
Lordosis, hunch back
Fractures
Thus, caring for the bones takes more than calcium supplements, a little sunshine, and balancing hormones. It requires us to view the whole human being as one integral unit, looking at the nutrients (rasa), the central digestive tract (colon), toxins (ama), and the energetic aspect of this important tissue (having a sense of stability and confidence). We will look at all of these factors and how to optimize their functionality in the next part of this series.
About The Author
Vrinda Devani, MD
As an Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Vrinda Devani, M.D. has a passion for women’s health and empowering women towards vibrant health and living. She is a believer in unfolding the human body’s potential through a blend of complementary and allopathic medicine. She has studied Ayurveda extensively under Dr. Vasant Lad and furthered her studies in Ayurvedic women’s health with travels in Nepal with Dr. Sarita Shrestha. In addition to being a physician and certified Ayurvedic practitioner, she also has a love for yoga and is a certified AyurYoga teacher.
4 Shiga K, Hara H, Kasai T, “The large intestine compensates for insufficient calcium absorption in the small intestine in rats,” Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, 44, no 6 (Dec 1998): 737-44.
5 Ali T, et al, “Osteoporosis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” The American Journal of Medicine. 122, no 7 (July 2009):599-604.
6 Ilseung Cho and Martin Blaser, “The Human Microbiome: at the interface of health and disease,” Nature Reviews Genetics, 13, no 4: 260-270.
7 Lad, Vasant. Textbook of Ayurveda, Volume 2: A Complete Guide to Clinical Assessment. (Albuquerque: The Ayurvedic Press, 2006), pp. 263.
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Story at-a-glance
The smart grid is part of a clandestine surveillance network that violates privacy rights. Following the installation of smart meters, many also report devastating health problems, and there have been numerous fires and explosions
“InPower Episode #1: A Mass Action of Liability” reveals a new method of how you can take back your power, “balance the scales” and prevent or reverse the installation of a smart meter in your home
Phase 1 involved 200 homeowners in three cities. Having achieved strong results, phase 2 is a call to mass action, with the goal of stopping the smart meter agenda and ensuring safe, noninvasive technology
By Dr. Mercola
Last month I published an article discussing the documentary “Take Back Your Power,” directed by Josh del Sol Beaulieu, in which he investigated some of the many problems associated with smart meters — including the devastating health effects they’re having on some people, and how these meters are part of a much larger covert surveillance system designed to spy on and track users, and to profit from the sale of user data.
“InPower Episode 1: A Mass Action of Liability” is the follow-up to that film, released August 26. In this film, del Sol Beaulieu reveals how people are using commerce to leverage their power against politicians and corporations to ensure the right and ability to refuse smart meters.
As revealed in “Take Back Your Power,” many feel powerless in the face of government and large corporations that seem to dictate the rules without regard for an individual’s safety. But there are a wide variety of actions you can take to protect yourself and your family. This strategy, used in three communities in the United States and Canada, has already produced results indicative of a huge potential.
Smart Meters Linked to Chronic Health Problems
I’ve warned about the hazards of microwave radiation from cellphones, routers, portable phones, smart meters and other wireless technology for decades. Now, armed with the mechanism of harm presented by Martin Pall, Ph.D., in a series of papers1,2,3,4 I’m more convinced than ever that excessive exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are a significant health hazard that needs to be addressed — especially if you struggle with heart, brain or reproductive issues.
In a nutshell, nonionizing microwave exposures are a major source of mitochondrial dysfunction, and we’ve now come to appreciate that this is at the heart of virtually all chronic disease. It’s no wonder, really, that so many are reporting serious health problems after having a smart meter installed in their home.
What Pall discovered is that microwaves emitted from devices such as cellphones, Wi-Fi routers, computers and tablets — when not in airplane mode — increase intracellular calcium through voltage gated calcium channels (VGCCs), and the tissues with the highest density of VGCCs are your brain, the pacemaker in your heart and male testes.
Once these VGCCs are stimulated they trigger the release of neurotransmitters, neuroendocrine hormones and highly damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) that significantly raise your risk for health problems such as anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, brain cancer, arrhythmias and infertility, just to name a few. Anyone struggling with any of these conditions would be wise to take EMF exposure very seriously, and take steps to limit exposure to wireless technology.
Simple measures include eliminating Wi-Fi in your home or at least turning it off at night. It is also helpful to keep your phone in airplane mode most of the time. This will radically increase your battery life and keep you safe.
My phone is in airplane mode nearly the entire day as I discovered that it provided high levels of radiation up to 30 feet away, even though it was not on a call — especially when the signal strength is only one or two “bars.” Obviously keep your phone in airplane mode when you are carrying it on your body. I actually take another step and put my phone in a Faraday bag.
When it comes to smart meters, many find they’re not given a choice in the matter. As shown in “Take Back Your Power,” utility company employees have literally broken into homes to forcibly install the meters. So, what can you do? That’s the focus of the InPower Movement, a new Indiegogo-funded project from Beaulieu and his team.
The Power of Liability
According to Beaulieu, social justice can be obtained by exercising the power within the body of rules and principles codified in modern commerce, which is a descendant of what’s known as “Law Merchant.” This can offer a highly effective lawful strategy to prevent and reverse the installation of a smart meter in your home and community.
It involves holding corporate executives and government agents financially accountable for their decisions. Cal Washington, co-founder of the InPower Movement, is an “empowerment advocate” who has spent several years fighting for justice for people who have been abused by corruption within the justice system.
Is it possible to hold corporate individuals accountable for their actions? Yes, it is, “and this has the potential to change everything,” del Sol Beaulieu notes, within his Episode 1. “The next 40 minutes is an overview of how this works.” Washington summarizes the Notice of Liability action he’s developed, which del Sol Beaulieu is sharing with the world through their film and website, as follows:
“It’s basically a counter-offer [to the] contract that is being implemented to put a device on everybody’s house. They’ve got us into a tacit agreement. This [Notice of Liability document] clarifies and expresses the counter-offer in such a way that those who don’t want the meter can say ‘I don’t want a meter,’ and if [the power company] does put a meter on the house it’s going to cost [them] X amount of dollars per day … in order for you to carry out this contract.”
In other words, you are currently in a contract with your power company. By changing your analog meter to a smart meter, they are changing the contract and you have to agree to this change in terms. However, codified in commerce there’s something known as tacit agreement — an agreement that is implied or understood without being directly expressed. Unless you object, you have tacitly agreed to this change in terms. As noted by Washington, “If you don’t say no, you’ve said yes.”
By understanding that the installation of smart meters is a commercial contract issued to you by your utility company, you level the playing field. All you’re doing is entering into a contract negotiation. “All the tricks they use against you, we use against them,” Washington says.
Notice of Liability
According to Washington, anyone can issue a Notice of Liability at any time, whether you still have an analog meter or have already received a smart meter and/or have tacitly agreed to the new meter. The “Notice of Liability” generally applies worldwide, as it is based on the system of commerce that governs corporate commerce everywhere. This is a system that virtually none of the general public is aware of, “and now you can actually use it,” Washington says. “You’re now playing the proper game in the proper court.”
Importantly, the Notice of Liability lays accountability at the feet of an individual. Corporate employees and agents can no longer hide behind their corporate post where they have no personal accountability. This includes government employees as well, because the U.S. government is actually run as and functions as a corporation. As noted in the film, the U.S. code defines the United States as a federal corporation, and Canada is listed as a company located in Washington D.C. on the U.S. securities and exchange.
Understanding Corporate Jurisdiction
In the film, Washington explains a key misunderstanding relating to jurisdiction. To explain the crux of the problem, he offers the following analogy: You’re hired as an employee in the auto department at Walmart. When hired, you agree to a basic contract that stipulates that you will work a certain number of hours for a certain pay. One day, your manager asks you to come in to work at 2 a.m. — a time when the store is closed.
While the auto department manager has jurisdiction over you, he’s under the jurisdiction of the store manager. Hence, you can file a complaint with the store manager, notifying her that what you’re being asked to do goes against company policy.
Walmart, in turn, has to obey the rules of the city in which it is located. In this example, the store is in Detroit, and must therefore follow employment rules and regulations of the city. Detroit, in turn, is under the jurisdiction of Michigan, and all businesses in Detroit must obey state laws. Next you have the United States, and this is what most people don’t know — the United States is functioning as a corporation UNDER the jurisdiction of The United States of America, the country. While they sound the same, they are not identical.
Courts operate under the corporation of the United States. In other words, according to Washington, the court system can be likened to a corporation within a corporation. Importantly, Americans believe they’re under the jurisdiction of the country called the United States of America, but in reality, you’re operating your day-to-day life under the jurisdiction of a corporation called the United States (or U.S.), and you’ve tacitly agreed to this, whether you realize it or not.
Lastly, the corporate United States is under the jurisdiction of Law Merchant, which governs commercial law, which in turn is under the jurisdiction of Common Law — which is where you find the Constitution of the United States of America (the republic). Both the United States of America and Canada were founded on the Common Law — the highest laws of the land — and still operate under their jurisdiction, “but you have to know how to invoke them,” Washington says.
There will no doubt be some who are resistant to what Washington and InPower are revealing. But I find it highly interesting that even before addressing the smart meter problem, he produces evidence of an extraordinary long list of people in high-level positions resigning from office, shortly after he sent them certain documentation.
Invocation of Personal Liability Is a Powerful Tool
The above example illustrates corporate jurisdiction. Even if a company allows their employees to work around the clock, they cannot force you to do so if it violates the laws of the city, state or the corporation of the U.S. In this case, the notice of liability action takes advantage of the fact that the corporation of the U.S. is under the jurisdiction of merchant and common law. Hence, by invoking these laws you supersede all others.
How does this make government officials personally liable, though? Government officials swear an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. Their oath is a contract. So, if they do not honor your constitutional rights, then they are not protected by their position within the corporation of the United States — they are personally liable because they’ve overstepped their role, just like the Walmart auto department manager did in the hypothetical illustration.
He did not have jurisdiction to tell you to clock in for work at 2 a.m., and a government official does not have the authority or jurisdiction to negate or violate the Constitution, merchant or common law. The only way they can practically get away with it is by your tacit agreement — you must actually waive your rights. The notice of liability that Washington created explicitly invokes your rights.
Phase 1 Results
Phase 1 of the InPower project involved three “seed” groups with a total of 200 participants who sent out liability notices. Similar to Washington’s previous experiences, a number of officials who received liability notices resigned from their posts. del Sol Beaulieu clarifies that, “while there’s no saying for certain what factors are involved in each resignation,” respondents are indeed resigning.
For example, on January 30, 2015, Brett Hodson, CEO of Corix Group, which installs smart meters, received more than 100 notices from residents in Kelowna, BC, Canada. On February 4, he received a separate Notice of Default from Washington. Hodson announced his resignation that same day.
Kelowna was one of the three seed groups. Groups in Seattle and Detroit also launched Notice of Liability actions. In Seattle, after receiving 21 Notices of Liability, three of the nine City Council members announced they would not seek reelection, including one who resigned before the end of her term.
“In Detroit, it is all-out war,” del Sol Beaulieu says. “The utility DTE has cut electricity to several homeowners who have refused smart meters.” However, after receiving 21 default notices (a later stage of the liability action), the Michigan attorney general suddenly began calling for free opt-out. Four of the eight officers in the Michigan Public Service Commission who are being held liable appear to have resigned — though it is yet unconfirmed by the utility.
Phase 2 Plan of Action and Summary
While del Sol Beaulieu states the focus of Phase 1 was to prove that the concept works, Phase 2 is a call to mass action across North America and Canada, with the goal of stopping the smart meter agenda completely and reversing back to safe, noninvasive technology. In summary, the Notice of Liability is part of a contractual negotiation process between you and your utility company. A contract has four basic components:
1. An offer. In this case, your utility may mail you a notice or post a notice on its website, telling you they are upgrading your meter. Unless you say no, you’re saying yes (tacit acceptance)
2. Negotiation/meeting of the minds. Whenever you present a contract to someone, they have the right and ability to negotiate the terms. (On a side note, to be valid, a contract must include full disclosure of relevant facts and terms, or else the contract is null and void. One could argue that since utility companies are not providing full disclosures about the potential health effects of the meters, they’ve voided the contract)
3. Unconditional acceptance. In this case, by sending out a notice of liability, you are issuing a counter-offer to their initial offer. You’re giving conditional acceptance, and to be valid, a contract must be unconditional. This means your conditions must either be met or removed.
As above, consent to conditions can be gained tacitly. This means if they do not reply to your notice of liability, and ratify the contract by installing the meter, they’ve accepted your terms — including the financial liability spelled out in your counter-offer.
For example, your notice may state that “If you put a meter on my house, I shall charge you $10,000 per week.” If they install a smart meter, or fail to remove the smart meter, your terms are deemed accepted, and the individual to whom you sent the notice is personally liable for this financial obligation. Within your legal rights are the use of liens, collection agencies and more.
They cannot fight you in court, because your notice restricts the jurisdiction — it’s part of the negotiation process of a personal agreement or contract between you and the individual. It’s no different than purchasing their house. Since they put the offer out, they cannot back out of the deal — your notice is part of the negotiation and these are your terms to their contract
4. Money exchange or performance ratifies the contract. “Performance” is the action of doing something based on the contract, which in this case is the installation or non-removal of the smart meter. By performing the act, the contract — entered into with your conditional acceptance — goes into effect and the individual is financially liable per your counter-offer
Join the InPower Movement
I am extremely excited about this project as it can serve as a template for not only removing smart meters, but wireless technology in schools. It is important to understand that children are at much higher risk of EMF damage. As noted in the InPower trailer,5 this strategy may also be used to stop deployment of 5G, forced vaccinations and other problems of “profits before people.”
On a call with del Sol Beaulieu and Washington last week, they explained to me how this process differs from others because it comprehensively lays the groundwork for the actual enforcement of the liability. “This isn’t the only possible solution,” del Sol Beaulieu said. “But we feel strongly about addressing the problem at its root, which is how money has corrupted social governance.”
“Those who get it, get it — and they will be enough,” Washington said. “There’s a certain percentage of people who have been waiting for this, and who can see through propaganda — for example from the utilities and lawyers, who will try to convince you that using commerce is bunk, even though it’s THEIR system.”
“This is about correcting the system which has become extremely out of balance. It’s to the point where the imbalance will threaten life as we know it, if allowed to continue. We can actually help to restore balance, and make big changes, when enough people catch onto this.”
To learn more and participate, go to InPowerMovement.com and sign up free. Once you’re signed up, you’ll receive Episode 2, which has step-by-step instructions on how to proceed, and additional support.
Shocking Admission Reveals How Smart Meters Are Used for Clandestine Surveillance
Last but not least, even if you do not believe smart meters have any ill health effects, I urge you to join the movement to eliminate them, if for no other reason than to block the global rollout of these clandestine surveillance devices. There can be little doubt that they are infringing on personal privacy, and indeed were designed with that in mind.
Rights advocate Jerry Day came across the following video, which del Sol Beaulieu calls “the most startling admission I have seen regarding in-home surveillance as the real focus of smart meters.” The video is a marketing video for Onzo, a large data aggregator that works with over 100 utilities globally. In this video, they explain what your power usage data is really used for:
“We then use this characterized profile to give the utility… the ability to monetize their customer data by providing a direct link to appropriate third-party organizations based on the customer’s identified character.”
In 2015, the director of grants and research at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners also stated that, “I think the data [harvested by ‘smart’ meters] is going to be worth a lot more than the commodity that’s being consumed to generate the data.”6
About the Directors
I believe in bringing quality to my readers, which is why I wanted to share some information about the directors, Josh del Sol Beaulieu and Cal Washington, from the InPower Docuseries and movement. We sat down with del Sol Beaulieu and Washington to learn a little more about what goes in to making these films. Thank you both for sharing with us.
What was your inspiration for launching the InPower Movement?
Washington: Through a long process of learning the hard way, I had managed to go from a life tormented by the “system” to total freedom, and was left alone to live my life, which I was doing. Josh knew of my journey, and asked if anything I had learned could be used to stop the “smart” meter implementation. Based on my experiences over a 10- to 12-year period, we then put together the liability action, used it in three different cities, and got some results.
We have since become inspired to make it as simple as possible for people to do together. So our Phase 2 plan is to offer a website with semiautomated document completion, print and video resources, and a hub to create a community experience.
del Sol Beaulieu: Seeing how so many well-intentioned people trying to preserve their rights and keep their families safe were getting just steamrolled by their utilities. I wanted to provide another option to restore accountability within the utilities and commissions — a process to which I am fully committed.
And I believe that it’s going to happen, as more people get connected with tools like what Cal’s bringing forward, because relatively it’s really only a few people who want a lawless corporatocracy.
What was your favorite part of creating this video series and solution?
Washington: I would have to say watching eyes light up when something was said. I saw many people have epiphanies and heads nodding, when things were explained from a different point of view. “It all makes sense now,” was a comment I heard a lot.
del Sol Beaulieu: Watching how people respond at live presentations and group meetings. I believe at our core we all recognize truth. And for better or worse, we are actually now forced to go deeper in order to access a tangible solution.
I really enjoyed the process of people walking through these shifts in groups, because as we take a stand it brings out the best in us. When I did the first liability action document with a group in Seattle, it felt like a new energy was created amongst us.
Where do the proceeds of your Indiegogo campaign and DVD go?
del Sol Beaulieu: Expanding the InPower Movement, and making it super easy for people to participate in community. Phase 2 will simplify, add support and expand the Liability Action with a feature-rich community website which makes it easy to do and manage your own process.
That’s what is needed for the numbers; and the numbers will drive the major change. We’ve had amazing support so far on our IndieGogo campaign, though we’ve got a ways to go with two weeks left.
We want to continue our plan to give free as many resources as we possibly can, because we feel this solution needs to go viral. If you’re inspired by our mission, come stand with us as a founder!
“Dirty” Electricity is a National Problem Affecting Everyone’s Health in the United States
Comments by Brian Shilhavy Editor, Health Impact News
Electricity is a part of all of our lives today, and we seldom give much thought to it unless it is not there when we expect it to be.
Like many stories regarding diseases and potential cures that are not widely known, I stumbled upon this one due to a friend who had a health condition, cancer, and his search for what was causing it. He was not finding answers from the standard medical community and their treatments for cancer, which seldom, if ever, look for the underlying causes.
My friend is Amish, and he is part of a community in Wisconsin that raises healthy food that Tropical Traditions sells on the GrassfedTraditions.com website.
This Amish community lives “off the grid” and seldom uses electricity. But in my friend’s search for causes as to why he was struggling to overcome cancer, he contacted a local resident in their area of western Wisconsin who was an expert on the harmful effects of electricity. This person came to his farm, and determined that his farm had large concentrations of electrical current passing through it, something those in the power industry describe as “stray voltage.” With the help of this local electrician, he was able to install some some copper wiring as a “shield” around his living quarters. He reported:
“Headaches, stomach aches, and inflammation which were common before are now much improved.”
So this intrigued me. How could a local “electrician” in rural Wisconsin have such knowledge, I wondered. I decided to look him up, and found that his name is Dave Stetzer. Here is Dave Stetzer’s bio, from his website:
Dave Stetzer has been an electrician by training, education and experience for over 30 years. He joined the United States Air Force in December 1970 and began his career in electricity when he attended electronics school at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi Mississippi from February through November 1971. At that time, Keesler AFB was known as the world’s #1 electronics school.
During this training Dave was given top-secret military clearance, as much of the electronic equipment he worked on was, and still remains, highly classified. Dave completed training as a ground radio communications electronics technician and was assigned to the 676 Radar Squadron, Antigo Air Force Station, Antigo, Wisconsin. There he diagnosed and repaired a variety of electronic equipment, including PC boards, Klystron tubes and integrated circuits, as well as highly classified military electronic equipment, employing among other things, spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes, signal generators, and digital frequency counters.
In February 1972, Dave received an assignment to go to Vietnam and was sent to KY8-38 Crypto School at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas where his top-secret military clearance was upgraded to include crypto access. Upon completion of this training, Dave returned to the 676 Radar Squadron at Antigo Air Force Station pending his November port call to Vietnam; his assignment was subsequently changed due to the official ending of the Vietnam War in September 1972. Dave’s duties continued as before, with the additional tasks of diagnosing, maintaining, and repairing highly classified crypto electronic equipment. Upon completion of his tour of duty, Dave received an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force.
There is much literature in the alternative health field regarding the dangers of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) from items such as cell phones, but Dave Stetzer explains that the hazards of electrical current generated by power companies are greater than most of us realize, and that electromagnetic pollution is not strictly a wireless device problem. Mr. Stetzer has been called as an expert witness in lawsuits against electrical power companies due to his vast expertise on this subject.
I seriously doubt there is anyone in the U.S. today more knowledgeable than Dave Setzer on this topic, so I had Health Impact News’ own health writer John Thomas investigate this very important topic that affects each one of us. Much of the research presented here is based on the years of knowledge accumulated by Dave Setzer. Much of how this “dirty electricity” affects our health is based on the research of Dr. Magda Havas, who will be introduced below.
High Frequency Voltage Transients in the Power Grid may be Causing Life Threatening Health Problems for You and Your Family
by John P. Thomas Health Impact News
In New York City, Jodie Lane was walking her dog when she stepped on a metal plate in the sidewalk and was killed by electricity. [1]
This was not a one-in-a-billion occurrence. Ground current is pulsing through concrete sidewalks, metal grates in sidewalks, manhole covers, metal street light poles, fire hydrants, and even bus stop signs throughout North America.
In Seattle, Lisa McKibbin was walking her 68-pound German shorthaired pointer Sam through a neighborhood when the dog stepped on a metal plate by a lamppost and was electrocuted. Ms. McKibbin indicated that she thought her dog was having a heart attack or having a seizure. She said,
“I opened up his mouth, stuck my hand in his mouth and I received a jolt … I received a jolt of electricity in my hand.” [2]
In a Baltimore public park, 14-year-old Deanna Green was about to go to bat in a church softball game when she touched a metal safety fence. She was killed by 280 volts of electricity that had leaked out of the ground into the fence. [3]
The problem of ground current or stray voltage is so bad that warnings have been issued to residents of New York City, Toronto and other major cities. Pet owners are being warned to take precautions when they walk their animals on city sidewalks to avoid having their pets electrocuted. The problem of ground current is also a greater threat to young children, because of their smaller physical size.
The Today Show recently featured the problem of stray voltage:
Public Warnings about Ground Current or “Stray Voltage”
The Toronto Star recommends that people watch their step. Pedestrians should walk closer to storefronts and away from street lights. Pet owners should also walk their dogs before dark, using leashes made from non-conductive material such as nylon. [4]
The New York Daily News warns that if pet owners suspect that a dog is receiving a shock, then do not touch the dog or the ground with your bare hands. It is best to use the leash or other non-conductive object to move the pet back away from the area. Voltage may increase if you keep going forward, so it is best to go back to a spot that you know was safe. [5] You should do this before you examine your dog for injuries.
Ground Current Dangers are NOT Rare, and Affect Everyone Living on the Grid
Electric utility companies want us to believe that ground current and the electrical shocks that occur to people and animals are a rare occurrence caused by old faulty wiring that has been buried in the ground. It is true that there are cases when damaged wiring leaks electric current into the ground and it electrifies metal pipes, sewer lines, and even concrete.
However that is not the whole story. The problem of ground current is not limited to this single cause and it is not limited to major cities. It actually is a threat to all people who live near electrical lines or have electricity in their homes.
To help us get the full picture of the ground current problem in North America, I spoke with Dave Stetzer, one of the leading researchers in the field of electrical power quality and high frequency voltage transients. [6]
Ground Current Dangers Are a Recent Problem in the U.S. – Not Present in Europe
Dave Setzer explained that ground current has become a major problem in North America since 1992 when the electric utility companies started using the physical earth as if it was an electric wire. The single neutral wire that utility companies have been using to return unused electricity to their substations for redistribution to the electrical grid is now too small to carry the flow of electricity.
Thus, instead of taking down the small wires and replacing them with larger wires or just adding an additional neutral wire to the power poles, they decided to just run wires down the side of electrical poles into the ground. Electrical current then can flow through the earth back to the electric substation. Electricity that is put into the earth spreads out for miles in all directions as it meanders back to the electrical substation.
Dr. Sam Milham, MD, MPH, estimates that 80% of the current that is returned to electrical substations actually travels through the ground. [7] This practice is not done in most of Europe, where they have adequate capacity in their distribution lines.
This means that the ground we walk on in North America, regardless of whether it is in a city or in the country, is electrified. When conditions are right, the ground current can become a serious threat for us and our animals. The levels of ground current will vary during the day with local electrical usage rates and can spike as certain types of equipment is turned on and off. Moisture also affects the possibility of experiencing shocks from ground current.
Dairy Cows Harmed by Ground Current
Dave Stetzer was contacted by dairy farmers in the 1990s when the farmers suspected that the health and productivity of their herds of milk cows were being harmed by electricity. He monitored the electrical current in the soil and in the barns over an entire period of cow gestation. He measured currents, milk production and the occurrence of illness and miscarriages. It soon became clear that rapidly fluctuating ground currents were disturbing the cows, cutting down on milk production, and leading to disability and early death.
Dr. Magda Havas, PhD, provides more details about the problems that dairy cows are facing. Dr. Havas is a Canadian researcher who has conducted research on the health effects of ground current, high frequency voltage transients, and radio frequency radiation. She described the situation that cows are facing:
Cows exposed to ground current have swollen joints, open sores that fail to heal, and they “dance” (lift their feet) as they try to break the flow of electricity through their body coming from the ground. Milk production is reduced and many have difficulty conceiving. Once they are unable to stand they are no longer useful to the farmer. [8]
The following video clip shows how cows lift their feet in a hopeless attempt to escape the ground current that is pulsing through their bodies.
How the Electrical Grid Causes Illness
In the late 1990s, Dave Stetzer was also approached by people from rural areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota who believed that they were being made sick by their exposure to electricity. He saw the relationship between their symptoms and symptoms of radio wave sickness that had been identified by the military many decades earlier.
The problem was that these people were not in the military and they were not living near military installations or even large airports where radar and similar equipment were located. At that time, there were very few cell phone towers in these rural areas, and that type of radio wave activity didn’t seem to be a likely cause of what he was observing.
He began to suspect that the human illnesses and animal illnesses were coming from the same source – the electrical grid.
Measuring High Frequency Wave Forms Generated by Electricity
In 1998, Dave Stetzer began to look more deeply into the electrical activity that is present in the wiring of homes and barns. He knew that in addition to the normal 60 Hz electrical frequency that was in electrical wiring, there were many other high frequency wave forms that he could see with an oscilloscope.
He set out to determine which frequencies in the electrical system were the most biologically active. In other words, he wanted to know if these high frequencies were harmful, and if they were, then which frequencies were the most dangerous for human life and for animal life.
Researching Russian Electrical Frequency Weapons: HFVT
To answer these questions, Dave Stetzer travelled to Russia and Kazakhstan to consult with scientists who had been researching this question for the purpose of developing weapons. He learned that frequencies between 2 kilohertz and 100 kilohertz were the most harmful to human health. He took many measurements of the electrical frequencies found in North American homes and realized that there are a large number of these harmful electrical frequencies in our wiring.
The normal electrical frequency that is in North American electrical systems is 60 hertz. This is the frequency that is used to operate our refrigerators, our washing machines, and lights.
However, it was the high frequencies that were causing serious health problems. These harmful electrical frequencies are called High Frequency Voltage Transients (HFVT).
High Frequency Voltage Transients are Created in Our Homes
HFVTs are actually produced from electrical equipment that we have in our homes. HFVTs are sometimes called “dirty electricity.” They are found in ground current and in the wiring of our homes and businesses. They are also created by certain types of electronic devices that are in our homes and in the homes of our neighbors.
Dave Stetzer and other scientists have determined that these high frequency voltages come from our computers, televisions, game boxes, printers, copiers, tube fluorescent lights, compact florescent light bulbs, dimmer light switches, variable speed motors, treadmills, vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, solar energy inverters, wind turbines, smart meters, and other electronic devices. All of these modern electronic devices add high frequency transients to the electrical wiring in our homes.
It is our own electronic devices that are harming our health, the health of cows, and our pets.
High frequency voltage transients can also be caused by arcing on power lines during storms when lines touch trees. HFVTs can also be created from unfiltered cell phone and broadcast frequencies from nearby antennas.
High frequency voltage transients in our electrical wiring have been linked to many modern diseases and health conditions. As will be explained, symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis, elevated blood sugar, obesity, migraine headaches, Attention Deficit Disorder, asthma, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, miscarriages, infertility, depression, suicide, and cancer have been shown to increase with long-term exposure to high frequency voltage transients.
How Do High Frequency Voltage Transients get Created in Our Homes?
Dave Stetzer explained that most modern electronic devices use DC (Direct Current) power. These electronic devices have a power switch mode converter that converts the AC electrical current from wall outlets into DC current.
These AC to DC power mode converters create high frequency transients, which are then added to our electrical wires. These converters are the plastic cubes and rectangular boxes that fill up our surge protector strips or plug directly into our wall outlets. On larger electronic devices, the converters may be built into the equipment.
Compact Florescent Light Bulbs Worst Contributors to HFVTs
Compact florescent light bulbs are among the worst contributors to high frequency voltage transients. They are pulsed electronic technology.
The standard incandescent light bulb that everyone once used, were linear load devices. The AC power went into the light bulb, light was produced, and unused current was simply returned to the electrical system. High frequency transients were not added to the current. 60 Hz went into the linear devices and unused 60 Hz was passed back into the electrical system.
Compact florescent light bulbs add large amounts of high frequency voltage transients to the wires. HFVTs come from the pulsing of the electrical current as it goes through the light bulb. This means that there is an electronic switch that rapidly turns the current off and on again many times per second.
In the case of a compact florescent light bulb, the switch is activated 20,000 times per second. It is the switching activity, which breaks up the normal 60 hertz sine wave of electrical power into fragments and returns the unused electrical fragments to the electrical system. These fragments are high frequency voltage transients.
Compact florescent light bulbs add energy to wiring at the 50 KHZ to 100 KHZ level. One compact florescent light bulb can contaminate the electrical system of an entire house when it is in use.
(60 kilohertz has a frequency that is 1,000 times higher than 60 hertz.)
High Frequency Voltage Transients Cause Disease
Dr. Magda Havas, PhD, has been studying the biological effects of high frequency voltage transients and other forms of electromagnetic pollution since the early 1990s. She has conducted research on the health effects of ground current, high frequency voltage transients, and radio frequency radiation from wireless technology and cell phones. She works with diabetics as well as with individuals who have Multiple Sclerosis, tinnitus, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and those who are electrically hypersensitive. She also conducts research on sick building syndrome as it relates to power quality in schools. She described the situation that we are facing today:
Most of the research on the biological effects of nonionizing radiation is done at one of two frequency ranges: extremely low frequency (ELF) associated with electricity (50/60 Hz) and radio frequency (RF) associated with wireless telecommunication devices (800 MHz to 2.5 GHz range).
An intermediate frequency range [high frequency voltage transients], at the low end of the RF spectrum (kHz), flows along and radiates from wires and thus has characteristics of the two major types of electromagnetic pollution mentioned above.
Scientists doing research on the biological effects of power line frequencies seldom measure this frequency range and thus ignore the effects it might have on health. [9]
How Does Electrical Power in a Wire become a Health Risk?
This question has several answers. First, as has been discussed, ground current is a health risk regardless of whether we live in the city or the country. Ground current is everywhere; however, its dangers become even more hazardous in the presence of large amounts of high frequency voltage transients, which flow through the ground and our electrical wiring.
High frequency voltage transients pose an even greater risk to our health, because they are in our homes. These high frequency voltages behave differently than regular 60 Hz current that we use for our electrical devices.
HFVT does not like to travel through electrical wiring along with the 60 Hz current. It exhibits the skin effect. It prefers to travel on the outer skin of electrical wiring. It travels on the surface of the wire and easily radiates through the walls into our living spaces.
These high voltage frequencies are invisible and undetectable with normal human senses. Fortunately, high frequency voltage transients can be easily seen with an oscilloscope and measured with electronic meters designed for that purpose. Such equipment can measure the amount of high frequency voltage transients in our electrical system and identify the sources that produce it.
Technically speaking, human exposure to high frequency voltage transients harms health by capacitive coupling. These high frequency electrical fields pass into our bodies and the bodies of our animals, and are a source of exogenous electrical currents that exist outside of cells.
Such currents were never intended to be in the human body. Researchers are able to measure the high frequency voltage transients that are in electrical wiring. They can measure these same frequencies in the electrical fields that pass out of our walls into our living spaces, and the same frequencies can be measured in our bodies when we spend time in our homes.
High frequency voltage transients easily pass through walls and enter our bodies, and then couple with the human energy system and alter its normal functioning. The result is weakness, depression, and numerous illnesses. [10, 11]
Even though our five senses cannot detect HFVT, some people know that it is present, because they experience the symptoms of radio wave sickness.
Radio Wave Sickness is Well Documented
Radio wave sickness was first documented among radar workers during the Second World War. People with radio wave sickness had constant exposure to high frequency radio waves while they worked, and would also have lived near the radar installations.
The list of these symptoms resembles those now experienced by people who have electrohypersensitivity. It is no longer necessary to live near a radar installation, military base, major airport, or weather station to experience symptoms of electrohypersensitivity.
Many people feel as if they are living in a World War II radar installation, because of the combined effects of high frequency voltage transients, radio waves used for digital cordless phones, microwave radiation used for wireless internet devices (Wi-Fi and WiMAX), and even higher frequency microwave radiation used for cell phones and cellular communication towers.
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is experienced by people in most areas of the United States. Rural areas are no longer exempt from exposure.
According to Philips and Philips (2006) 3% of the US population has electrohypersensitivity and 35% have symptoms of electrohypersensitivity. [12] This means that people are made sick by the high frequency voltage transients in their homes and by radio wave radiation from cell phones, cell towers, and wireless computer equipment and phones.
Common Symptoms of Radio Wave Sickness and Electrohypersensitivity
Symptoms of radio wave sickness were summarized by Arthur Firstenberg in a 2001 article. These symptoms are similar to the symptoms of electrohypersensitivity, which people experience today. He identified the following symptoms:
Neurological: Headaches, dizziness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, irritability, depression, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, weakness, tremors, muscle spasms, numbness, tingling, altered reflexes, muscle and joint paint, leg/foot pain, “flu-like” symptoms, fever. More severe reactions can include seizures, paralysis, psychosis, and stroke.
Cardiac: Palpitations, arrhythmias, pain or pressure in the chest, low or high blood pressure, slow or fast heart rate, shortness of breath.
Ophthalmologic: Pain or burning in the eyes, pressure in/behind the eyes, deteriorating vision, floaters, cataracts.
Other: Digestive problems, abdominal pain, enlarged thyroid, testicular/ovarian pain, dryness of lips, tongue, mouth, eyes, great thirst, dehydration, nosebleeds, internal bleeding, altered sugar metabolism, immune abnormalities, redistribution of metals within the body, hair loss, pain in the teeth, deteriorating fillings, impaired sense of smell, ringing in the ears. [13]
Of course, the symptoms vary from person to person. Some people experience debilitating levels of symptoms, while other people experience mild or no symptoms when exposed to the same frequencies.
Sometimes people experience certain symptoms and then assume that their symptoms are caused by a specific disease. They do not look for environmental causes. They might think that they just have bad luck or were genetically predisposed to certain diseases, when the truth is that their illnesses could be caused by high frequency voltage transients or by devices such as wireless routers, cordless phones, cell phones, and cell towers.
High Frequency Voltage Transients Can Come From Neighboring Homes
High frequency voltage transients are created by our own electronic devices, but they also come into our homes from the electronic devices in other homes or businesses that share the same electrical transformer with us.
Transformers are the large metal cylinders that are located on electric poles. In a residential area, many homes will be connected to the same transformer. The homes share the same power source and they share the high frequency voltage transients that are created by everyone else that is connected to the same transformer. [14, 15]
Dave Stetzer described how HFVT created in neighboring homes effects the level of HFVT in our homes.
This can be demonstrated with the use of the microvoltage meter that was developed by Dr. Martin Graham, Professor Emeritus, College of Engineering, University of California at Berkeley. This meter measures high frequency voltage transients. The test will require the use of a dimmer switch used for a light fixture. Dimmer switches produce large amounts of high frequency voltage transients. Begin by inserting a microvoltage meter into a wall outlet of your home. Write down the measurement. Then ask your next door neighbor to vary the dimmer switch on a light fixture in his home while you watch the meter in your home. You will literally see the reading for high frequency voltage transients on your meter go up and down as your neighbor changes the current that is flowing to his light.
HFVT and Ground Current are Entering Homes
We might assume that the ground current that we have previously discussed simply stays in the soil and is not a problem for us in our homes.
Unfortunately, this is not true.
It is easy for ground current and the high frequency voltage transients that it contains to enter our homes. These high frequency voltages can enter our homes by way of metal water pipes and metal gas pipes, and by way of metal grounding rods.
If a home has a forced hot air heating/cooling system, for example, and it is grounded to the earth, then high frequency voltage transients can travel up the ground wire and enter the metal of the central heating/air conditioning system. HFVT then can travel along the metal ducts throughout a home. [16]
Case Studies and Research Findings
At this point, I will share some case studies and research results to illustrate how high frequency voltage transients affect human health. I will begin by looking at a select group of people who do not use electricity from the power grid and who do not have devices that produce high frequency voltage transients.
Old Order Amish
The religious communities of the Old Order Amish in the United States and Canada continue to live without electrical power. There are several important observations that can be made from their health and disease status.
Dr. Milham reports the following information about the health of the Amish who still live with very little electrical exposure:
By way of contrast, the Amish in the United States and Canada, who live without electricity, have a current pattern of morbidity and mortality remarkably similar to that of United States rural residents in the early part of the twentieth century. Their type 2 diabetes prevalence rates are about half those of the non-Amish, even though their obesity rates are comparable.
Also like the early rural residents, the Amish have lower rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and suicide. The life expectancy of the Amish is above seventy years and has been stable since 1890. At the turn of the twentieth century, when almost all United States cities were electrified, urban residents had an average life expectancy below fifty years. [17]
Dr. Milham continued his discussion of the Amish:
A recent study, “Low cancer incidence rates in Ohio Amish,” by an Ohio State University Medical Center group (Westman, et al. 2010), showed that the low cancer incidence in the Amish cannot be explained solely on the basis of their tobacco abstinence or other factors. I’d postulate that another major factor in their low cancer incidence is that many Amish, especially the Old Order Amish (OOA), live without exposure to electricity.
Alzheimer’s disease has also been reported to have a low prevalence in the Amish. A pediatric group practice, in Jasper, Indiana which cares for more than 800 Amish families, has not diagnosed a single child in this group with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Childhood obesity is also virtually nonexistent in this population (Ruff 2005). [18]
Multiple Sclerosis and Electrohypersensitivity
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disorder. Many of the symptoms of MS overlap with electrohypersensitivity. Sometimes people with electrohypersensitivity may be misdiagnosed with MS and some may have both conditions.
Dr. Magda Havas explains this situation in more detail:
In a study we conducted a few years ago, we found that some people diagnosed with MS improved when power quality was improved in their home environment. Subjects documented better sleep, more energy, clarity of thought, improved balance and motor coordination, better mood among other symptoms. Changes were documented within a matter of days and weeks. However, not everyone who participated in this study noticed benefits.
One might expect that people who have a compromised nervous system and an impaired immune system may be particularly vulnerable to electromagnetic energy. MS patients have both. The myelin sheath around nerves cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged and this is believed to be an autoimmune response. [19]
Dr. Havas concluded that people with MS may be able to get relief from their symptoms and some may be able to delay, halt, or reverse the progression of this disease by reducing exposure to high frequency voltage transients and radio wave radiation from cell phones and wireless technology. The steps that can be taken will be presented below.
Diabetes and Electrosensitivity
Dr. Magda Havas described the relationship between high frequency voltage transients and elevated blood sugar:
If you have difficulty regulating your blood sugar and you are electrically sensitive you may have type 3 diabetes according to research published in the Journal Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine in 2008.
Unlike Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) that is largely genetically controlled, and Type 2 diabetes (adult onset) that increases with obesity, Type 3 diabetes is influenced by environmental exposure to electromagnetic pollutants. [20]
The research of Dr. Havas was published in a peer-reviewed article. She presented 4 case studies that showed marked changes in blood sugar associated with exposure to high frequency voltage transients. She converted her research paper into a short video called “Diabetes and Electrosensitivity.” If you have diabetes or know someone who does, please watch this video. Dr. Havas advises those with diabetes to watch this video, and to share the information with their doctor. She advises diabetics to clean up their electromagnetic environment. Steps for doing this will be presented below.
Attention Deficit Disorders and Asthma in Schools Related to Electric Power Quality
In other research, Dr. Havas evaluated the effects of electric power quality on teacher well-being and student behavior in public schools. I will summarize her research in this area.
High levels of high frequency voltage transients are common in schools with fluorescent lights and computers. Nearby high voltage transmission lines and antennas for wireless communication add to power quality concerns. Previous studies have shown a relationship between the presence of HFVT and student behavior problems. HFVT was also shown to be associated with the occurrence of health issues in the teachers.
In this study, researchers evaluated the use of HFVT power line filters to reduce high frequency voltage transients in three Minnesota schools. This research was done prior to the use of wireless internet routers in the school. They documented changes in health and behavior among teachers and students when HFVT was minimized.
Researchers either installed Graham Stetzer HFVT filters or installed dummy filters in schools. The Graham Stetzer filters reduced high frequency voltage transients by 90%. The dummy filters did not alter HFVT levels. Teachers completed a daily questionnaire regarding their health and the behavior of their students for an 8-week period. Teachers were unaware of which filters were installed at any one time.
Researchers found that teacher health improved during the period of the study. Headaches, general weakness, dry eyes/mouth, facial flushing, asthma, skin irritations, overall mood including depression and anxiety improved significantly among staff. Of the 44 teachers who participated 64% were better, 30% were worse, and 6% did not change. Behavior of high school students did not improve but elementary/middle school students were more active in class; more responsive, more focused; had fewer health complaints; and had a better overall learning experience. In another case, in a Wisconsin school that was experiencing sick building syndrome, children with asthma no longer needed daily use of their inhalers after HFVT filters were installed. This was documented by the school nurse. [21]
Tips for improving the learning environment in homes and schools are presented below.
Other Dangers from HFVTs for Children Documented
I want to provide a warning to parents who have provided cell phones to their children. High frequency voltage transients, wireless internet routers at home and in schools, and cell phone radiation can work together to cause a large number of developmental problems for children such as attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, and learning disabilities. These exposures may also set the stage for the development of cancer later in life. [22]
A new study published in December of 2014, indicates that children absorb more microwave radiation from cell phones than adults because their brain tissues are more absorbent, their skulls are thinner and their relative size is smaller.
Radiation from cell phones and other devices that use microwave technology has been declared a possible human carcinogen. Children are at greater risk than adults when exposed to any carcinogen. Because the average latency time between first exposure and diagnosis of a tumor can be decades, tumors induced in children may not be diagnosed until well into adulthood.
Babies in utero are particularly vulnerable to negative health effects from microwave radiation. Exposure to this form of radiation can result in degeneration of the protective myelin sheath that surrounds brain neurons. Microwave-emitting toys are being sold for use by young infants and toddlers. Digital dementia has been reported in school age children. A case study has shown that when teenage girls place cellphones in their bras, multiple primary breast cancer can develop in the area where the phones are placed. [23]
You also may wish to watch this very informative video to help your children be better learners and have better health.
Other Electronic Technology that Causes Harm
Even though high frequency voltage transients are the most biologically active frequencies for harming human health, it will be necessary to address other electromagnetic frequency sources to bring about health improvements for people with serious modern illnesses. The resources below will introduce you to research findings that relate to other specific conditions.
Recommendations for Reducing Exposure to HFVT and other Radiation
Here are some tips on how to practice good electromagnetic hygiene. The goal is to reduce exposure to high frequency voltage transients in your home and to reduce exposure to radio wave and microwave radiations.
HFVT from sources such as computers, televisions, electronic game boxes, printers, copiers, compact florescent light bulbs, dimmer light switches, smart meters, and various energy efficient appliances is the most bioactive and potentially harmful type of radiation. Sources of microwave radiation from cordless phone base stations, DECT phones, and baby monitors represent serious threats to health. Wi-Fi, WiMAX, cell towers, and cell phones have clearly been shown to be related to cases of cancer and other illnesses.
It is of course impossible to escape exposure to all the sources just mentioned. The goal is to reduce and eliminate as much exposure as possible. Sometimes we can make no-cost or minimal cost changes that will substantially reduce our exposure. In some situations we may need to invest money to protect our health.
These recommendations were compiled from the work of Dave Stetzer [24], Dr. Magda Havas [25], and Dr. Sam Milham [26]. I have also added comments based on my personal experiences with reducing exposure in my own home.
1. Do NOT use compact fluorescent light bulbs. As mentioned, this technology adds high levels of HFVT to your electrical wiring. These bulbs also emit high frequency energy into the air. Just sitting or standing under one exposes you to energy currents that will enter your body. The best alternative is the traditional incandescent light bulb which is being phased out. Buy up a stock for future use. Compact florescent bulbs contain mercury and are extremely dangerous if broken. Also, they are nearly impossible to recycle in most areas. If you cannot obtain incandescent bulbs, then purchase LED lights, but be sure they are not the dimmable type. Dimmable LED lights produce HFVT. If you have florescent tubes in your office, try keeping them turned off and use a desk lamp equipped with an incandescent bulb or LED light.
2. Electric Equipment: Separate yourself from electrical cords and electric equipment. Move power strips at least 3 feet away from your feet. Use a wired keyboard with a cord extender to increase your distance from the computer screen. This will reduce your exposure to magnetic field. Do NOT use electric blankets or water beds. Laying down in close proximity to such devices will irradiate your entire body with electrical fields and high voltage transients. If you use an electric blanket, just warm your bed before going to sleep, and then unplug it before retiring for the night.
3. Do not sit or work near an electrical panel or electrical utility room. Stay at least 10 feet from electric panels and avoid working in rooms that are adjacent to the utility room. These sources produce high levels of magnetic fields. Keep alarm clock radios at least 6 feet from your bed. These devices emit electrical fields and have antennas, which attract radio waves.
4. Replace cordless phone with corded phone. The old fashioned phones that have a wire that plugs into a phone jack emit very little harmful radiation. If you can buy phones that do not have an AC power converter cube, then you will also avoid the creation of additional HFVT.
5. Measure high frequency voltage transients in your home & install filters if values are above 50 GS units. GS units are measured with a Graham microvoltage meter designed for measuring HFVT. Graham Stetzer filters can be installed in electrical outlets to bring down the HFVT to 40 GS units or lower.
6. Replace Wi-Fi routers with equipment that uses Ethernet cables for your computer. It is true that Wi-Fi is convenient; however, most of us set up our computer and then never move it even if it is a laptop. Replacing a wireless router with a less expensive Ethernet wired router will eliminate substantial radiation. Wireless routers emit a constant stream of microwave radiation 24 hours a day regardless of whether you are connected to the internet. If you must have a wireless router, then at least turn it off at night. You are not using your computer while you sleep. Some wireless keyboards and mice also use microwave frequencies. Replace these with wired versions.
7. Use cellphones as little as possible and only in speaker mode. Hair dressers are now noticing discolored skin on the side of the head where cell phone users hold their cell phones for many hours per day. I would be very concerned about using cellular technology when it has the power to change the color of my skin and change the temperature of my brain. A better option is to use the phone in speaker mode or with a headset that uses a hollow tube to bring the sound to your ear. Text messaging may be the safest method of cell phone use, because the message is sent in a quick burst of energy and does not require constant exposure as when speaking on the phone.
8. Ask your electric utility provider to remove wireless smart meters and replace them with a wired smart meter. In some areas you can pay a fee to keep the standard analog meters that do not broadcast microwave data and which do not create HFVT. Wireless smart meters constantly emit both microwave radiation and add high frequency voltage transients to the electrical power in your home. If you need to purchase a new appliance such as a refrigerator or freezer, try to avoid purchasing units that are configured to communicate with smart meters. Most all new appliances broadcast and receive microwave communication from the smart meter. Sometimes this is actually being done every 20 seconds — 24 hours per day.
9. If you are already seriously ill, consider measuring radio frequency in your home & install radio frequency-reflecting window film or fabric to shield from external sources. This can be important if you have a wireless smart meter that uses a microwave broadcast transmitter.
10. If you are already seriously ill, then you may need to consider moving if your residence is within 6 tenths of a mile of transmission lines or within ¼ of a mile of cell phone antennas. This precaution is recommended for everyone even if you are not yet aware of health problems.
Many people have become concerned about imbalanced electrical activity in their bodies which has been caused by various types of electronic equipment in their environment. To solve this problem, products have been created to help ground us and to balance energy in the body. Dr. Milham and Dave Stetzer have explained that grounding mats and sheets may actually increase our exposure to high frequency voltage transients. I have summarized their comments below. [27, 28]
We now know that our homes are contaminated with high frequency voltage transients. The ground wires in our homes actually are bonded to the neutral wires in our circuit breaker boxes. This means that the high frequency voltage transients that are created and released into the neutral wires of our home also are present in the ground wires. Thus, if you plug in a grounding mat into the ground wire portion of an electrical outlet, then the high frequency voltage transients flow into the grounding pad and into your body.
The alternative is to plug the grounding mat into a grounding rod that has been pushed into the ground outside your home. The problem here is that the physical earth that we walk on, drive on, and that our homes are built on, contains high frequency voltage transients from ground current. Thus, if you plug in a grounding mat into a grounding rod, then the high frequency voltage transients can flow up the wire into the grounding pad and into your body.
Dave Stetzer and Dr. Sam Milham recommend another alternative to balancing one’s biological energy system. Dave Stetzer explained to me that there is a common misunderstanding concerning the use of grounding mats. Most people think they are draining excess energy from their body that they picked up during the day. A better way to describe grounding is to bring balance or restoration to our energy that has been disturbed by exposure to high frequency voltage transients and radio wave radiation. We do not need a grounding mat to accomplish this.
Dave Stetzer recommends balancing our electrical activity by simply standing on a piece of aluminum foil in our bare feet for 30 to 60 seconds. Our feet will act like two electrical terminals, and the aluminum foil will conduct the electrical activity in our body back and forth between our feet until it reaches a point of balance. If you don’t like aluminum, then you could stand on stainless steel. It doesn’t matter whether the foil is on wood or carpet. Nothing is being drained off.
Dr. Milham explained that grounding mats can be used safely in Europe and they will work as designed, because the European electrical grid does not put voltage into the earth. All electrical current in Europe is contained in electrical wires. In North America, we must contend with ground current.
Conclusion: Research Shows Correlation Between Increased Electricity Use and Disease Rates
Dr. Sam Milham prepared a very interesting analysis of disease rates in relationship to the availability of electricity in rural verses urban locations. He suspected that the rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and suicide increased when electricity became available in the first part of the twentieth century. [29] I will summarize his findings below.
When the electrical grid was being installed throughout the United States, the process began in the large cities. As a result, there were several decades during which people living in the cities had electricity, and people in most rural areas throughout the US did not yet have electrical power.
Dr. Milham studied US vital statistics and census records for 1920–1960 and compared the health of these two groups. He found that urban death rates were much higher than rural rates for cardiovascular diseases, malignant diseases, diabetes and suicide in 1940.
He believed that his statistical analysis shows that the 20th century epidemic of the so-called diseases of civilization including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and suicide was caused by electrification, not by lifestyle. Therefore, a large proportion of these diseases could be prevented today if appropriate steps were taken to reduce the harmful effects of ground current, high frequency voltage transients, and radio waves.
There always seems to be a small number of scientists who question the safety of modern advances. Researchers such as Dave Stetzer and Dr. Magda Havas, and physicians such as Dr. Sam Milham are not willing to assume that new and modern means are always helpful and safe. They are not afraid to make scientific measurements and to raise a warning when harmful patterns of illness have been found. The evidence is strong that high frequency voltage transients should be taken seriously. HFVT causes costly damage to sensitive electronic equipment; and most importantly, it is a threat to our health.
Governmental agencies, and the corporations who create high frequency voltage transients with their products, both continue to underestimate the potential harm of HFVT and radio wave radiation. This is the same pattern we have seen with the underestimation of the risks associated with pesticides, chemicals, GMO food, highly processed food products, vaccines, antibiotics, and other pharmaceutical products.
Even though government agencies and corporations continue to overlook the harmful effects of HFVT and radio wave emitting devices, we do not need to resign ourselves to being victims of modern technology; rather, we can make choices to limit our exposure.
Dr. Milham believes that the problems with high frequency voltage transients and radio wave radiation are so pervasive that we could achieve huge changes in our health status by simply following the recommendations for controlling our exposure that were presented in this article. He explained it this way:
If the rest of the US population had the disease incidence and prevalence of the Old Order Amish, the US medical care and pharmaceutical industries would collapse. [30]
Dr. Milham is not advocating that we remove the electrical wiring from our homes and discard most everything that runs on electricity, and live like the Amish. He is challenging us to be smarter users of electricity and technology. He and the other experts that I have mentioned are encouraging us to take steps to protect our health and to advocate for the creation of a safer electrical system and for the creation of safer electronics. They are encouraging us to be smart and live longer.
John P. Thomas is a health writer for Health Impact News. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) from the School of Public Health, Department of Health Administration, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[9] Magda Havas, PhD; “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Biological Effects of Dirty Electricity with Emphasis on Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis,” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 2006, ISSN 1536-8378, DOI: 10.1080/15368370601044192.
[10] Dirty Electricity: Electrification and the Diseases of Civilization, Dr. Samuel Milham, MD, MPH, 2nd Edition 2010-2012, page 60.
[12] A Philips and J Philips, 2006, The Power Watch Handbook. London: Piatkus Books Ltd., 294 pp. (Reference provided by Dr. Magda Havas in “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Biological Effects of Dirty Electricity with Emphasis on Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis,” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 2006, ISSN 1536-8378, DOI: 10.1080/15368370601044192.)
[13] Arthur Firstenberg, No Place to Hide, Volume 3 (1): April 2001, Special Issue on Russian and Ukrainian Research, Cellular Phone Taskforce, Mendocino, CA.
[14] Magda Havas, PhD; “Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity: Biological Effects of Dirty Electricity with Emphasis on Diabetes and Multiple Sclerosis,” Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine 2006, ISSN 1536-8378, DOI: 10.1080/15368370601044192.
[15] Health Impact News Telephone interview with Dave Stetzer at Stetzer Electronics, 1/20/2015 and 2/3/2015. http://www.stetzerelectric.com/
[21] Havas M, Olstad A.; Power quality affects teacher wellbeing and student behavior in three Minnesota Schools. Sci Total Environ (2008), doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.04.046.
[23] L. Lloyd Morgan, Santosh Kesari, Devra Lee Davis; “Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults: The consequences,” Journal of Microscopy and Ultrastructure, Volume 2, Issue 4, December 2014, Pages 197–204. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213879X14000583
Bravo is classified as a home-made preparation kit composed by food and supplements. The end result (the liquid yogurt) may be defined a food containing probiotics and supplements similar, in principle, to milk (a food) fortified with vitamin D (a supplement).
Foods containing supplements cannot be categorized as “pharmaceutical grade” at variance with pure supplements and, therefore, the concept cannot apply to Bravo since it is not composed by a single ingredient at variance with a tablet of vitamin D where 99% of the tablet has to be vitamin D.
However, we can definitely state – and this statement is corroborated by the technical data sheet and by the analyses – that Bravo is pure (that is, it does not contain anything else than what is reported in the label), is composed only by ingredients coming from natural sources and does not contain excipients, binders, fillers, dyes or unknown substances.
I take this opportunity to share with you our most recent research that, most likely explains the result you are reporting and many others.
Bravo, in addition to modulating the immune system as the decrease of Nagalase demonstrates, is a very powerful detoxifying agent that eliminates toxicants that affect the immune system, the bone marrow, the brain and the endocrine system.
Please attached find the latest study of ours as it appears in the bioRxiv archive of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory describing the effects of Bravo yogurt consumption associated with intermittent fasting (intermittent fasting is a means to achieve nutritional ketosis).
This study describes the results observed by Dr. Jerry Blythe, MD, a long-time cancer survivor and marathon runner, who embarked in a three-month experience of intermittent fasting and Bravo consumption.
The results observed by Dr. Blythe present exciting, observations that open novel perspectives for the use of Bravo as a detoxifying agent.
In our study, we demonstrate that Bravo yogurt leads to elimination through the urine of a number of chemical toxicants. Bravo yogurt detoxifies the body of the harmful chemicals that may negatively affect the immune system, the endocrine system and the brain.
In this particular case, elimination through the urine of a number of chemicals that are known endocrine disruptors led to significant improvement of thyroid function as demonstrated by the decrease of TSH.
As it is described in our study, the detoxifying effect of Bravo is due to three mechanisms that, in turn, are due to the Bravo proprietary microbial formulation:
Instantaneous binding and elimination of toxicants.
Improved renal function with increased elimination of toxicants.
Increased production of anti-oxidant molecules and enzymes.
In addition, Dr. Blythe describes a significant improvement of immune system function as demonstrated by decrease of Nagalase. These data are consistent with the known immune-modulatory properties of Bravo and with the removal of chemical toxicants that are known to affect the immune system.
There are four biochemical types of violent people. Many have severe zinc deficiency, pyrrole disorder, low blood spermine and methylation defects — an unusual combination of bad biochemistry
While there are hundreds of nutrients that are important for health, in the brain, six or seven dominate. These are nutrients that are either involved in synthesis or functioning of neurotransmitters
Nutrients that have a powerful influence on mental health include zinc, copper, B-6, selenium, folates and S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe)
By Dr. Mercola
Can you use specific nutrients to improve your mental health? Yes, you can. William Walsh, Ph.D., president of the nonprofit Walsh Research Institute in Naperville, Illinois, and author of “Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain,” specializes in nutrient-based psychiatry and nutritional medicine.
He and I are both fellows of the American College of Nutrition. He’s designed nutritional programs for Olympic athletes, NBA players and major league baseball players. More importantly, he’s spent a great deal of his career seeking to improve mental health through nutrition.
“I started off in the hard science. I was an experimentalist,” Walsh says. “I worked, in the beginning, in the nuclear field … with places like Los Alamos, the Institute for Atomic Research and University of Michigan Research Institute. I wound up at Argonne National Laboratory. While working as a scientist there, I started a volunteer project at the local prison, Stateville Penitentiary.
I eventually got really interested in why people were violent … [W]hen we started the ex-offender program, I got to meet the families that had produced a criminal. I found some wonderful families, caring and capable families, that have other children who turned out just fine …
I began to realize we didn’t understand why people had bad behavior. We then asked the question, ‘Could it be something related to their brain chemistry or the body chemistry?’… I started doing lab studies of their blood, their urine and hair. I found out that they were very, very different from the rest of the population. That’s how I got started.”
Biochemistry and the Criminal Brain
Walsh received valuable direction after meeting Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, who was doing work on heavy metals and schizophrenia. As it turns out, levels of metals, including copper, zinc and manganese, were all abnormal in criminals compared to the general population.
Walsh discovered four biochemical types of violent people. One of these was the sociopaths, all of whom had severe zinc deficiency, pyrrole disorder, low blood spermine and undermethylation. In all, it’s an unusual combination of bad biochemistry. A collaborative investigation with Pfeiffer resulted in nutrient therapies for each of the behavior types.
Pyrrole disorder is a stress condition commonly found in brain disorders. A urine test developed by niacin expert Abram Hoffer and Pfeiffer is the gold standard test for this genetic condition, which involves altered biochemistry in your bone marrow and spleen.
People who have pyrrole disorder may produce five to 10 times more pyrroles than normal — a byproduct of natural reactions, like the formation of hemoglobin. While harmless in and of itself, pyrroles bind to and draw out anything that is an aldehyde, such as B-6. It also sharply depletes zinc.
As a result, people with pyrroles disorder have exceptionally low levels of B-6, and zinc which can have serious effects on brain function, affecting their memory and ability to read, for example. B-6 deficiency is quite common among children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as well.
The Earlier the Treatment the Better the Results
“Eventually, [Pfeiffer] and I jointly evaluated 500 patients, mostly violent adults and violent children. We got our best results with the kids, young people with the same kind of chemistry, who were mostly very violent,” Walsh says.
“I have to say we didn’t really succeed in finding a way to help the adult criminals. They would get better for six to eight months, and then I’d find out they were back in prison. That had a lot to do with the fact that they were abusing alcohol and illegal drugs … At about 1990, we decided to focus on children …
It’s been very successful. If we can get a child before their lives are ruined, before they pass puberty perhaps, our success rate [is] very high … The doctors report a striking improvement in behavior. Most of these kids, of course, [are] on drugs, everything from Ritalin to powerful antipsychotic medications. Usually when we’re finished and [have] balanced their chemistry, they can wean off the medication. They usually are fine without it …”
Nutrients Involved in Synthesis or Functioning of Neurotransmitters Dictate Mental Function
Later on, Walsh expanded to also include children with autism and ADHD. Fond of numbers, Walsh began amassing enormous databases. At present, he has one of the world’s largest chemistry database for autism, depression and behavior disorders.
“When you look at these millions of chemical analyses of blood, urine and tissues, it’s obvious that there are very great differences,” he says. “I found that for mental disorders, about six or seven chemical imbalances dominate mental function. There are hundreds and hundreds of important nutrients in the body, but in the brain, there are about six or seven that [seem] to dominate everything. Eventually, I found out why …
[T]hese are the nutrient factors that are either involved in synthesis of a neurotransmitter or the functioning of a neurotransmitter. They include methylation — undermethylation or overmethylation. In our database, 70 percent of all humans in the United States have normal, typical methylation; 22 percent are undermethylated … 8 percent are overmethylated.
About 70 percent of all people who have a mental disorder have one of these methylation disorders. The symptoms are completely different, and the treatment they need is completely different. We also found that most people [who have mental disorders] are depleted or deficient in zinc. That’s the most common [deficiency] we see … Virtually everyone with a mental disorder seems to need zinc and improve on it.”
Copper Overload Linked to Autism, Schizophrenia and Postpartum Depression
Copper is another important trace metal, as it plays a distinct role in the synthesis of norepinephrine, a major neurotransmitter. Divalent copper (Cu2+) is a dramatic factor in the ratio of dopamine and norepinephrine.
Animal studies have shown that when animals are starved of copper until they only have 25 percent of the normal amount of copper in their blood, the ratio between norepinephrine and dopamine is changed by more than a factor of three. Most of us have the ability to homeostatically control copper. However, some do not have that ability.
“It all has to do with an enzyme called metallothionein that is genetically expressed. Some people don’t have that system working,” Walsh explains. “These persons have copper overload, which we find virtually in every autistic patient, most patients with schizophrenia and almost everyone with postpartum depression.
That’s a recipe for very high norepinephrine — which means anxiety and depression — and low dopamine (a feel-good neurotransmitter), which is a hallmark of ADHD … a nasty combination.
We find the sociopaths innately have low copper levels. People who have undermethylation tend to have low normal copper levels … The good news for mental disorders is that there are more than 100 really important biochemicals in the body, but only a few dominate mental disorders.
If we had to do lab testing for 100 of them, it would be really difficult. If we had to adjust the levels of these and normalize 100 different factors, it would make life very difficult. But we found that by just focusing on maybe seven or eight nutrient factors, we could help 95 percent of the patients we see with nutrient therapy.”
How to Measure Your Zinc and Copper Status
Zinc experts typically agree that plasma zinc provides the most accurate measurement. The taste test has some minor value but is among the least reliable. To accurately measure copper, serum copper is the way to go, and most labs throughout the world provide good copper assays.
Walsh recommends doing a ceruloplasmin test at the same time, because then you can determine how much free radical copper you have, which gives you a good indication of your level of oxidative stress. A high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) test would also be useful as a marker of inflammation.
“By the way, oxidative stress runs through every single mental disorder we see, without exception,” Walsh says. “Every one of them seems to have extraordinary oxidative stress — schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, a violent child or an autistic child.”
Unfortunately, our modern lifestyle strongly promotes oxidative stress, with processed foods, processed vegetable oils, excessive net carbs and excessive protein being some of the most potent factors. This kind of diet causes a reduction in ketones and a radical increase in reactive oxygen species and secondary free radicals.
Exposure to non-native electromagnetic fields, glyphosate and other pesticides, fluoride-contaminated water and other toxic exposures only add to the problem. Typically, copper and ceruloplasmin levels tend to go hand in hand, being either high or low together. The ideal level for copper, with respect to mental health, is somewhere between 75 and 100 micrograms per deciliter (mcg/dL) in serum. The ideal amount of ceruloplasmin has to do with whatever your level of copper is.
Ideally, the percentage of copper in your ceruloplasmin should be around 85 to 90 percent. “It’s really great to do both simultaneously, because then you have a really good picture of not only the copper situation, but also the level of oxidative stress,” Walsh says.
The Importance of Methylation in Mental Health
Walsh was among the first people to alert the world to the importance of methylation in mental health, especially autism. The No. 1 causes of undermethylation are single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or mutations in the enzymes for the one-carbon cycle (the methylation cycle).
“The No. 1 factor is the methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), which is one of the enzymes. That’s the rate-limiting step for that whole cycle, for most people,” Walsh explains. “Genetic testing services such as 23andMe can provide this kind of information.
However, most human beings have enormous numbers of SNPs. They’ve already found 10 million snips (or mutations) in the human genome. Every human being has thousands of these SNPs. A really high percentage of people have even the more serious MTHFR SNPs — the C677T, the A1298C that people are always talking about.
The thing that is often mistaken by nutritional scientists is that if a person has the homozygous, the double copies of the C677T, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re undermethylated. It certainly doesn’t mean that they will benefit if you give them methylfolate. That’s one of the problems that we’re finding.
The reason is epigenetics. You have to consider the epigenetics and the methylation at the same time. There are three nutrient factors that affect epigenetics more than anything else: folates, methionine and S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe). These have a really powerful impact on epigenetics.”
How Folates Affect Epigenetics
Folates are serotonin reuptake promoters. However, even if an individual is undermethylated and has a problem related to low serotonin activity, such as depression or anxiety, folates should not be given, Walsh warns. The reason? If you give folate, their methylation will improve and the patient will actually get worse.
The reason for this worsening is because, epigenetically, folates act as deacetylase inhibitors and sharply lower serotonin activity. Most autistic individuals will not have a serotonin problem and will thrive on methyl folate. However, an estimated 10 percent of autistic children and adults do have a serotonin issue and will severely regress if given methyl folate.
“We’ve had thousands of patients who were undermethylated depressives. I’ve seen more than 3,000 cases of clinical depression. I’ve got this huge database. The largest phenotype … is undermethylation.
But if you gave them any form of folate, they would get worse. Their methylation would improve, they would get worse, because it has a dramatic impact on serotonin reuptake. In contrast, methionine and SAMe are natural serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
They do essentially the same thing that Prozac and Paxil do. Folates have the opposite effect. Folates are wonderful if you want to knock dopamine level down in schizophrenics or people who have high anxiety — overmethylated people. It’s counterintuitive because folates are excellent methylating agents..”
To reiterate, some undermethylated people are intolerant to folates, and some overmethylated people thrive on folates even though folates improve methylation. As you can see, there are epigenetic complexities involved here, making self-diagnosis and self-treatment highly inadvisable.
It could be quite risky to take these bits and pieces of information and try to apply them on your own. There are simply too many variables. So, the bottom line here is to make sure you’re being treated by a knowledgeable professional.
Heavy Metals and the Autistic Brain
Walsh has tested 6,500 autistic patients. As a group, they have much higher toxic metal levels than their siblings or the general population. Walsh believes their toxic burden is likely due to an inborn predisposition that makes them more likely to accumulate toxins and/or vulnerable to the effects of toxins.
“Thousands of these parents, maybe more than half, told a very sad story of how they had a child who was developing normally, was beginning to speak and was singing and charming their grandparents. Then maybe the child got sick.
They took him to a pediatrician and the pediatrician — I’ve heard this story hundreds of times — said, ‘Oh, you’re behind on your shots. You’re behind on your vaccinations.’ They took a sick child and gave them multiple vaccinations, at that time, with thimerosal and mercury.
Hundreds of these families said that within a day or two, their child changed forever. Lost all speech, the personality changed, they became sick. They became intolerant to served foods. They were just very troubled little human beings.
When they went to specialists, eventually they wound up with the diagnosis of autism and were told that it was incurable and that there was no hope really for recovery. We’ve seen a lot of human misery just talking with these families. It’s just a shocking and terrible thing.”
Walsh suspects autistic children have an insufficiency of natural antioxidants such as glutathione and metallothionein, rendering them more vulnerable to the effects of environmental exposures, including vaccines and poor diet. It’s worth noting that 1 in 3 children diagnosed with autism does not have true autism caused by epigenetic variations.
Many of these children have a good chance of recovery, whereas classic Kanner autism is a permanent, life-long epigenetic condition (named after Leo Kanner, who discovered autism in the 1940s1), although some measure of improvement can be made even in these cases.
On Thimerosal
Walsh has also investigated the thimerosal issue, looking for evidence of mercury toxicity in the brains of autistic children. In fact, he was the first person to actually measure mercury in autistic brains.
He was able to receive brain tissue samples from Johns Hopkins, and using the Argonne facility called the Advanced Photon Source, he did over 1 million chemical analyses on brain tissue from autistic and non-autistic children. Every autistic child analyzed had received thimerosal-containing vaccinations.
However, no mercury could be found in the brain tissue. One explanation for this is that the tests were done years after the vaccinations. The half-life of mercury in the human body is 42 days. The half-life of ethyl or methyl mercury in the brain is 70 days.
“I think what it amounts to is that mercury is a terrible poison. It’s a terrible insult,” he says. “I think these vulnerable kids should never be exposed to it. However, it doesn’t stay in the body and it doesn’t do continuing damage. I think after a year or so, it has left the body, even though there are tens of thousands of families who are trying therapies that will take the mercury out of their child’s brain when it’s no longer there.”
Metallothionein Promotion Nutrient Therapy for Autism
The fact that autistic children tend to have extraordinary copper and zinc imbalances means their metallothionein protein is not functioning. Metallothionein is required for homeostatic control of copper and zinc. Walsh has developed a metallothionein promotion nutrient therapy: a formulation of 22 nutrients known to enhance genetic expression and function of metallothionein. This protocol has been used on more than 2,000 autistic patients, with measurable improvements in outcome.
“The most important antioxidants in the brain are somewhat different than the rest of the body. I call them the three musketeers. It’s glutathione, metallothionein and selenium. It’s specific to the brain,” he explains.
Technically, selenium is not an antioxidant per se, but it does increase glutathione levels and enhances the function of metallothionein and, in the brain, glutathione and metallothionein work together. Glutathione is your first line of defense. The problem is, autistic children typically have a poor diet (it’s hard to get them to eat anything) and with the oxidative overload, they quickly run out of glutathione. When you run low on glutathione in your brain, your metallothionein level increases.
“Metallothionein doesn’t work unless you have oxidized glutathione. It’s a hand in glove situation. It’s the backup system for glutathione in the brain, and we know that without selenium, that whole system doesn’t work well,” Walsh explains.
I take selenium every day. It’s a trace mineral, so you don’t need much, up to about 200 mcg per day, and you definitely need to be mindful not to overdose. As noted by Walsh, of all the trace metals, selenium has the narrowest division between deficiency and overload, so you need to be careful when supplementing.
Zinc also needs to be normalized, as it is the No. 1 factor for enabling metallothionein to function and support glutathione. According to Walsh, for mental and physical health, you need a plasma zinc level between 90 and 130 mcg/dL. Many mental patients have a genetic weakness in zinc normalization; they’re born with zinc deficiency, and need far higher amounts than typical to maintain a healthy zinc level.
Changing the Face of Psychiatry
Walsh is convinced the use of psychiatric medication will eventually fade away as we learn more about normalizing brain function through nutritional interventions. “These powerful drugs … they do not normalize the brain. They cause an abnormal condition,” he warns. “They might correct depression or anxiety, but you wind up with something that’s not normal.”
The Walsh Research Institute is a public charity with no financial interests, and they are slowly but surely helping to change mainstream psychiatry. Walsh has given talks at the highest levels, including the Surgeon General’s office, the U.S. Senate and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He’s also spoken at American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meetings several times.
“The last time I went there, they finally listened to me … I was there about two and a half years ago. I gave an invited talk on depression. I basically explained to them they’re doing depression wrong. They actually listened to me. I showed them our huge chemistry database and explained that depression is a name given to at least five completely different disorders, each involving different symptoms and each involving different neurotransmitters that are malfunctioning.
Then I described each one of these biotypes and actually showed them that if they would simply do some inexpensive blood and urine testing, they could identify which people would be good candidates for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or which ones would do better on benzodiazepine, but even more importantly, how they can correct it with nutrients.”
There were 17,000 psychiatrists at this meeting from all over the world, and Walsh was 1 of 4 speakers at a well-attended session. Afterward, there was tremendous demand for more information, which gives hope. Walsh also offers a training program for doctors. In the U.S., 45 psychiatrists went through the program last year. In all, 500 physicians and psychiatrists in 32 countries have taken his program so far.
Why SSRIs Induce Violence
One major problem with SSRI antidepressants is the risk of self-harm and aggression as a side effect. Overmethylated, low-folate depressors are intolerant so SSRIs, and evidence suggests this genetic intolerance may have been a factor in many school shootings. Walsh, who has studied this phenomenon, notes 42 of the 50 major school shootings in the U.S. since 1990 were done by teens or young adults taking an SSRI.
“I discussed this … before the APA … I tried to explain to them that they … can do a blood test; they can find out which children or which adults are more likely to become violent if they get an SSRI. I’ve written about this several times; published it in magazines …
If you buy Prozac or Paxil, the insert inside warns that some people … are prone to suicidal or homicidal behavior. We now know which ones they are!”
“Our website has a resources section that recommends quality labs, compounding pharmacies and a list of doctors who we’ve trained, who are now able to do this kind of therapy,” Walsh says.
Research suggests acupuncture can be an effective treatment for pain. Clear and robust effects have been found in the treatment of back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, osteoarthritis and headaches
When properly administered to elicit da qi, acupuncture results in the release of nitric oxide (NO) at the acupuncture site, which in turn encourages the release of natural analgesics in your body
Previous research shows acupuncture deactivates certain parts of your brain, thereby altering your experience of pain
By Dr. Mercola
When it comes to treating ailments such as chronic pain, I definitely prefer nontoxic options to drugs and surgery. Americans use 80 percent of all the opioids sold worldwide1 — a testament to the pervasiveness of pain in this country — and with drug overdoses now being the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S., we clearly need safer alternatives.
Acupuncture is one such alternative. Research shows it can be an effective option for a number of health problems, but pain in particular. Contrary to allopathic, symptom-based medicine, acupuncture aims to eliminate the root cause of your problem, which is said to originate in a dysfunction in your body’s energetic meridian system.
Basic Principles of Acupuncture
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) views the body as a cohesive system where everything within it is interconnected. In other words, it recognizes that each part of your body has the ability to affect all other parts.
There are 14 major energy channels called meridians that flow through your body. An energy called qi (or chi) circulates along the meridians to all parts of your body, including the internal organs and every cell. This qi is the vital force that literally keeps us alive. Vibrant health is a result of balanced, unimpeded flow of energy through your body.
According to TCM, illness and pain are the byproducts of energy blockages somewhere along one or more meridians. Each acupuncture point along the meridian acts like a pass-through or gate. Energy can get “bottlenecked” in these points, slowing down the flow, sometimes to the point of standstill. This is the precursor to pain and illness.
By inserting a thin needle into the congested or “clogged” area, it opens the gate and allows the energy to flow again. With qi flowing smoothly, your body can re-regulate the flow of energy, repair itself and maintain its own optimal level of health. Herbs and other therapies such as guacha, cupping and moxibustion — the burning of herbs on or over the skin — can be used to support the healing.
Acupuncture May Offer Drug-Free Pain Relief
In a 2012 analysis2,3 of 29 published studies involving more than 17,900 participants, researchers concluded that acupuncture has a definite effect in reducing chronic pain — more so than standard pain treatment. Real acupuncture also produced slightly better results than using sham needles, which suggests the benefits of needling are due to more than the placebo effect.
By going the extra mile and retrieving the raw data on self-reported pain, and standardizing the various study participants’ responses, they were also able to more accurately assess and compare them as a whole. Overall, the team discovered a “clear and robust” effect of acupuncture in the treatment of back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, osteoarthritis and headaches.
On a scale of zero to 100, participants who started out with a pain rating of 60 experienced an average 30-point drop (a 50 percent reduction) in response to the real acupuncture treatments (using needles); a 25-point drop when receiving sham acupuncture; and a mere 17-point drop when receiving “standard pain care” that did not include acupuncture. According to the lead author:4
“The effects of acupuncture are statistically significant and different from those of sham or placebo treatments … So we conclude that the effects aren’t due merely to the placebo effect.”
Acupuncture Cuts Pain by Boosting Nitric Oxide
While there’s been a great deal of controversy as to whether or not acupuncture works “for real,” and if so, how, new research presents an answer to this question. The study5,6,7,8,9 in question was conducted by researchers at LA BioMed.10 The research laboratory has developed a noninvasive device capable of sampling biomolecules over specific skin regions.
Using this device, they were able to determine that when acupuncture is properly administered, nitric oxide (NO) is released at the “acupoints” — the acupuncture sites into which the needles are inserted. NO is a soluble gas that is continually produced from the amino acid L-arginine inside your cells. This gas plays an important role in supporting normal endothelial function and protecting your cells’ powerhouses, the mitochondria. It’s also a potent vasodilator.
By relaxing and dilating your blood vessels, NO improves blood flow and lowers blood pressure. NO also encourages release of natural analgesics (pain relieving chemicals) in your body. Together, this helps explain why and how acupuncture works to reduce pain.
A number of acupuncture studies have produced negative results. The reason for this may have to do with the way the acupuncture is done. In order for NO release to occur, “de qi” had to be elicited. De qi feels a bit like an electric shock. Westerners are not accustomed to this sensation, which is why many Western acupuncturists won’t do it.
De qi is elicited by twisting the inserted needle. In this study, they twisted the needle for two minutes or until de qi was elicited. They then manipulated the needles for two minutes every five minutes, for a total of 20 minutes each treatment. Heat can also amplify the effectiveness of the treatment and, here, the application of heat also increased NO release at the acupoints.
Acupuncture Reduces Osteoarthritis Pain
A number of studies support the use of acupuncture for pain. A large, landmark study11,12 published in 2004, which assessed whether acupuncture might work for osteoarthritis pain, produced remarkably positive results.
A total of 570 patients diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee were enrolled for this 26-week-long trial — the longest and largest randomized, controlled phase III clinical trial of acupuncture ever conducted. None of the participants had tried acupuncture before, and none had had knee surgery in the previous six months. Nor had they used steroid injections.
The participants were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: acupuncture, sham acupuncture or self-help strategies recommended by the Arthritis Foundation (the latter served as a control group). Significant differences in response was seen by week eight and 14, and at the end of the trial, the group receiving real acupuncture had a 40 percent decrease in pain and a nearly 40 percent improvement in function compared to baseline assessments — a 33 percent difference in improvement over the sham group.
According to the late Dr. Stephen E. Straus, who served as the first director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which is a part of the National Institutes of Health:13
“For the first time, a clinical trial with sufficient rigor, size and duration has shown that acupuncture reduces the pain and functional impairment of osteoarthritis of the knee. These results also indicate that acupuncture can serve as an effective addition to a standard regimen of care and improve quality of life for knee osteoarthritis sufferers.
NCCAM has been building a portfolio of basic and clinical research that is now revealing the power and promise of applying stringent research methods to ancient practices like acupuncture.”
Other Evidence Showing What Acupuncture ‘Does’
Boosting NO release isn’t the only mechanism by which acupuncture reduces pain. Previous research suggests acupuncture stimulates your central nervous system to release natural chemicals that alter bodily systems, pain and other biological processes. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) conducted an extensive review and analysis of clinical trials involving acupuncture.14 According to this report,15 acupuncture:
Stimulates the conduction of electromagnetic signals, which may release immune system cells or painkilling chemicals
Activates your body’s natural opioid system, which may help reduce pain or induce sleep
Stimulates your hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which modulate numerous body systems
Alters secretion of neurotransmitters and neurohormones, which may positively influence brain chemistry
According to the WHO’s analysis, “Some of these studies have provided incontrovertible scientific evidence that acupuncture is more successful than placebo treatments in certain conditions.” The report again confirmed its benefits for pain, saying:
“The proportion of chronic pain relieved by acupuncture is generally in the range 55–85 percent, which compares favorably with that of potent drugs (morphine helps in 70 percent of cases) and far outweighs the placebo effect (30–35 percent)”
Acupuncture Reduces Pain by Shutting Down Certain Brain Regions
In the BBC documentary, “The Science of Acupuncture,” which originally aired in 2015, a team of researchers conducted an experiment that had never been done before. Using high-tech MRI imaging, they visually demonstrated that acupuncture has a very real effect on the brain. Acupuncture, it turns out, does something completely unexpected — it deactivates certain parts of the brain, particularly in the limbic system, decreasing neuronal activity, opposed to having an activating impact.
Their experiment also clearly showed that superficial sham needling does not have this effect. Your limbic system is associated with the experience of pain, adding further evidence that something unique happens during acupuncture. It quite literally alters your experience of pain by shutting down these deeper brain regions.
Another Simple Way to Boost NO Production
As mentioned, NO can help reduce pain, and a simple way to boost your body’s NO production is by performing high intensity exercises. In the video above, I demonstrate an updated version of the “nitric oxide dump” exercise developed by Dr. Zach Bush. If you have previously watched this video, please review it again as I recently updated it to correct a couple of errors and omissions that sneaked into my previous video.
You don’t need any weights, and all it takes is three minutes, two to three times a day, with at least two hours between sessions. A key component I forgot in my earlier video is to make sure you’re breathing through your nose and not your mouth.
I am convinced that this gentler strategy — although it has not been evaluated or compared to other high intensity interval training protocols (HIIT) — is a far healthier strategy to obtain the benefits of HIIT without any of the downsides. I only wish I had known about this more effective approach earlier. Depending on the type of pain you’re struggling with, you might conceivably be able to control it through this natural NO boosting exercise.
Other Nondrug Solutions for Pain Relief
There are many other ways to address pain beside acupuncture. Below is a long list of suggestions. Clearly, there are times when pain is so severe that a narcotic pain reliever may be warranted. But even in those instances, the options that follow may allow you to at least reduce the amount you take, or the frequency at which you need to take them.
If you need an acute pain reliever, you can consider an over-the-counter (OTC) option. Research16 shows prescription-strength naproxen (Naprosyn, sold OTC in lower dosages as Aleve) provides the same pain relief as more dangerous narcotic painkillers.
However, while naproxen may be a better alternative to narcotic painkillers, it still comes with a very long list of potential side effects,17and the risks increase with frequency of use, which is why I discourage anyone from taking them, especially long term. It would be far better to try some of the nontoxic options below.
Eliminate or radically reduce most grains and sugars from your diet
Avoiding grains and sugars will lower your insulin and leptin levels and decrease insulin and leptin resistance, which is one of the most important reasons why inflammatory prostaglandins are produced. That is why stopping sugar and sweets is so important to controlling your pain and other types of chronic illnesses.
Take a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat
Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, by manipulating prostaglandins.) Good sources include wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies, which are all high in healthy omega-3s while being low in contaminants such as mercury. As for supplements, my favorite is krill oil, as it has a number of benefits superior to fish oil.
Optimize your sun exposure and production of vitamin D
Optimize your vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain. Sun exposure also has anti-inflammatory and pain relieving effects that are unrelated to vitamin D production, and these benefits cannot be obtained from a vitamin D supplement.
Red, near-, mid- and far-infrared light therapy (photobiology) and/or infrared saunas may also be quite helpful as it promotes and speeds tissue healing, even deep inside the body.
Medical cannabis
Medical marijuana has a long history as a natural analgesic and is now legal in 29 states including Washington DC. You can learn more about the laws in your state on medicalmarijuana.procon.org.18
Kratom
Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is another plant remedy that has become a popular opioid substitute.19 In August 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a notice saying it was planning to ban kratom, listing it as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. However, following massive outrage from kratom users who say opioids are their only alternative, the agency reversed its decision.20
Kratom is likely safer than an opioid for someone in serious and chronic pain. However, it’s important to recognize that it is a psychoactive substance and should not be used carelessly. There’s very little research showing how to use it safely and effectively, and it may have a very different effect from one person to the next.
Also, while it may be useful for weaning people off opioids, kratom is in itself addictive. So, while it appears to be a far safer alternative to opioids, it’s still a powerful and potentially addictive substance. So please, do your own research before trying it.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
EFT is a drug-free approach for pain management of all kinds. EFT borrows from the principles of acupuncture in that it helps you balance out your subtle energy system. It helps resolve underlying, often subconscious, and negative emotions that may be exacerbating your physical pain. By stimulating (tapping) well-established acupuncture points with your fingertips, you rebalance your energy system, which tends to dissipate pain
Meditation and Mindfulness Training
Among volunteers who had never meditated before, those who attended four 20-minute classes to learn a meditation technique called focused attention (a form of mindfulness meditation) experienced significant pain relief — a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness.21
K-Laser, Class 4 Laser Therapy
If you suffer pain from an injury, arthritis or other inflammation-based pain, I’d strongly encourage you to try K-Laser therapy. It can be an excellent choice for many painful conditions, including acute injuries. By addressing the underlying cause of the pain, you will no longer need to rely on painkillers.
K-Laser is a class 4 infrared laser therapy treatment that helps reduce pain, reduce inflammation and enhance tissue healing — both in hard and soft tissues, including muscles, ligaments or even bones. The infrared wavelengths used in the K-Laser allow for targeting specific areas of your body and can penetrate deeply into the body to reach areas such as your spine and hip.
Chiropractic
Many studies have confirmed that chiropractic management is much safer and less expensive than allopathic medical treatments, especially when used for pain such as low back pain.
Qualified chiropractic, osteopathic and naturopathic physicians are reliable, as they have received extensive training in the management of musculoskeletal disorders during their course of graduate health care training, which lasts between four to six years. These health experts have comprehensive training in musculoskeletal management.
Physical therapy
Physical therapy has been shown to be as good as surgery for painful conditions such as torn cartilage and arthritis.
Foundation Training
Foundation training is an innovative method developed by Dr. Eric Goodman to treat his own chronic low back pain. It’s an excellent alternative to painkillers and surgery, as it actually addresses the cause of the problem.
Massage
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal Pain Medicine included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain.22
The review revealed massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all. When compared to other pain treatments like acupuncture and physical therapy, massage therapy still proved beneficial and had few side effects. In addition to relieving pain, massage therapy also improved anxiety and health-related quality of life.
Astaxanthin
Astaxanthin is one of the most effective fat-soluble antioxidants known. It has very potent anti-inflammatory properties and in many cases works far more effectively than anti-inflammatory drugs. Higher doses are typically required and you may need 8 milligrams (mg) or more per day to achieve this benefit.
Ginger
This herb has potent anti-inflammatory activity and offers pain relief and stomach-settling properties. Fresh gingerworks well steeped in boiling water as a tea or grated into vegetable juice.
Curcumin
In a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility. A past study also found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the overproduction of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.23
Boswellia
Also known as boswellin or “Indian frankincense,” this herb contains specific active anti-inflammatory ingredients.
Bromelain
This enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form but eating fresh pineapple, including some of the bromelain-rich stem, may also be helpful.
Cetyl Myristoleate (CMO)
This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a joint lubricant and anti-inflammatory. I have used this for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and carpal tunnel syndrome. I used a topical preparation for this.
These contain the essential fatty acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is particularly useful for treating arthritic pain.
Cayenne Cream
Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body’s supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.
Mind-Body Therapies
Methods such as hot and cold packs, aquatic therapy, yoga, various mind-body techniques and cognitive behavioral therapy24 can also result in astonishing pain relief without drugs.
Grounding
Walking barefoot on the earth may also provide a certain measure of pain relief by combating inflammation.
Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist, originally developed in the early 1960s for the treatment of opioid addiction. When taken at very low doses (LDN, available only by prescription), it triggers endorphin production, which can boost your immune function and ease pain.
The fasting-mimicking diet is thus named because it produces the same beneficial effects on your bodily systems as water-only fasting does, but without the potentially detrimental side effects
Intermittent calorie restriction also improves stem cell production, which is important for good health
Restricting protein to just what your body needs, and no more, is an important consideration that promotes longevity and protects against chronic disease
By Dr. Mercola
Your diet can have an enormous influence on how long you live and your likelihood of contracting disease. In this interview, Valter Longo Ph.D., professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California and director of The Longevity Institute, discusses the health benefits of a fasting-mimicking diet.
The fasting-mimicking diet developed by Longo’s team is thus named because it affects important disease and aging pathways in your body, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), IGFBP1, glucose and ketone bodies, in the same way water-only fasting does. Longo has done extensive research in one of my areas of passion, which is optimizing mitochondrial metabolism through dietary interventions. He’s also spent many years looking at the health effects of calorie restriction.
“I was a student of Roy Walford many years ago. Roy was one of the pioneers of calorie restriction. He was a medical doctor [who] was very interested in using diet to prevent and even treat diseases. That started back in the early ’90s.
Then I went on to turn to a more molecular understanding of what connects each ingredient, what connects each amino acid, the sugars, the fats, the type of fats, to the pathways that we were studying, particularly the pro-aging pathways. Two of them we discovered: the RAS-PKA pathway [and] TOR-S6 kinase. Both have now been shown to be central in the aging process, not just in simple organisms and mice but possibly also in humans,” Longo says.
Longo’s lab also discovered the role of the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathway in aging and in the protection of cells. (The TOR pathway itself was discovered by Michael Hall.) Understanding the impact of food on this pathway is essential for understanding how to optimize your diet.
Calorie Restriction and Longevity
You’ve probably heard that calorie restriction has been linked to longevity. However, the scientific evidence for this is still rather weak. Calorie restriction typically refers to cutting calories by 30 to 50 percent on a continuous or consistent basis. According to Longo, most of the long-term studies done on monkeys and other animals have produced questionable results. And, while some studies have found beneficial effects on mortality and diseases, others have not.
“This is why we never really focused on calorie restriction, but tried to get the benefits of calorie restriction and at the same time not the negative effects. That’s where these periodic fasting-mimicking diets come from,” Longo explains.
There’s also the practical challenge of actually applying calorie restriction, as most people simply cannot remain compliant on a general “starvation diet” for years on end.
The Benefits of Fasting-Mimicking Diets
Fortunately, evidence suggests you can get the molecular benefits of long-term calorie restriction by only periodically restricting calories and, more importantly, by restricting mostly proteins and sugars. This includes the long-term effects on GH and IGF-1, one of the factors that regulate growth pathways and growth genes.
IGF-1 seems to be a major player in accelerated aging, and slowing the aging process is one of the effects of Longo’s fasting-mimicking dietary intervention. Calorie restriction has also been shown to boost cellular and intracellular regeneration and rejuvenation (autophagy and mitophagy). As far as aging is concerned, IGF-1 and growth hormone are in the same axis, the growth hormone-IGF-1 axis. Studies have shown that IGF-1 and growth hormone receptor deficient mice have record-long lifespans.
“For a number of years, we followed a group of people in Ecuador who are also growth hormone receptor deficient. They have the same or very similar mutation to the mice that have record longevity.
A few years ago, we showed they seem to be protected from cancer and diabetes,” Longo says. “We suspect that this protection is also extendable to more diseases. Although they may not be very much longer-lived than their relatives, they seem to be much healthier.”
In essence, by optimizing your diet for longevity, you’re indirectly preventing most chronic degenerative diseases, and optimizing the IGF-1-growth hormone axis is a key aspect of this.
Effects of Fasting-Mimicking Diet in Mice
While you cannot fast continuously, for life, or remain on a calorie-restricted diet forever, Longo’s research shows that when you do calorie restriction intermittently, your body maintains a memory of the metabolic switch that can last a long time. This hypothesis was initially tested in simple organisms and mice, and was found to work very well.
For example, Longo placed middle-aged mice on a periodic fasting schedule in which, twice a month, the mice were placed on a restricted diet for four days. Their diet was relatively high in fats while being restricted in proteins and sugars. So, for eight days a month, they were on a low-calorie, low-protein/low-sugar diet.
The remainder of the time, they ate normally. When the volume of food was averaged out over the month, they were actually not calorie restricted at all, as they made up for the temporary restriction by eating slightly more afterward. Still, these mice had half the tumors of the control group, which had no fasting period. Even when tumors did develop in the treatment group, they developed later and were mostly benign. They also maintained better cognition with age, had less inflammation and a longer mean lifespan.
“They don’t have a longer maximum lifespan, and we suspect that is because the very old mice did not like fasting or to be on the fasting-mimicking diet,” Longo says.
“It doesn’t mean that it may not be beneficial, but I think we have to do more studies, and maybe we need to come up with a higher calorie version of the fasting-mimicking diet, which is now about 50 percent calorie restricted, so that we don’t have the good and the bad after [age] 70.
There’s no indication that before [age 70] there are any problems. In fact, mice that are fairly old perform very well under fast-mimicking diet, but the very old ones do not.”
Effects of Fasting-Mimicking Diet in Humans
In the human trial, fasting was done five days per month for three months. The diet was very low in sugar, relatively high in complex carbohydrates, low in protein (no animal products at all) and high in healthy fats. This type of intervention was enough to put most people into temporary nutritional ketosis, which is when your body starts burning fat as its primary fuel rather than sugar.
From a metabolic perspective, clearance of damaged cell and cell content actually occurs during the fasting phase, much in the same way exercise actually produces damage to your tissues. The “magic” occurs during the refeeding phase, when cells are rebuilt and rejuvenated. Longo explains:
“The process is really comprehensive, meaning almost everything changes … For example, the IGF-1 goes way down, the glucose will go way down, the ketone bodies are greatly elevated. The reason is that the body starts burning fat … primarily the visceral fats. This is a really important point. We really did not see much of a significant difference in the subcutaneous fat.
We saw a significant difference in the abdominal fat, indicating that this is coming mostly from one source. Maybe this is the reservoir where the body goes first when the glucose is not coming in. I think the clearance of damaged cells is also very important.
We’ve shown this in a mouse and human preliminary multiple sclerosis trial, in which we were able to show that each cycle of the fasting-mimicking diet is able to kill some of the autoimmune cells and then turn on the stem cells and regenerate cells that are no longer autoimmune.
The human trial is still preliminary, but certainly it was very promising. Especially when you consider, like in the mouse [study], we saw a temporary reduction of the white blood cells in the patients. Over 70 percent of the patients had over 20 percent reduction in the white blood cell number. That told us it is probably working in people like it’s working in mice.
The system tries to … [kill] off white blood cells, turning on the hematopoietic stem cells. Then when you refeed, and only if you refeed, the stem cells are now giving rise to young and functional white blood cells … [The] human clinical trial supports the notion that this is happening everywhere in the human body.”
The Regenerative Benefits of Periodic Fasting
A particularly fascinating aspect is that it also seems to improve stem cell production, which you need to maintain good health. In fact, people undergo stem cell transplantation for a variety of reasons. But it would seem far safer, less expensive, and perhaps even more effective to do it naturally with this kind of dietary modulation.
Longo also points out that when you inject stem cells, the stem cells lack the program that tells them what to do. When you fast, and the level of white blood cells drops, the refeeding phase automatically provides the instructions to rebuild everything that is missing. His book,The Longevity Diet,is expected to be released in the U.S. in January, 2018.
This book details Longo’s decades’ long research into longevity and aging, describing not only the fasting-mimicking diet but also other diets shown to promote longevity. Overall, a pescetarian, or mostly fish- and plant-based diet low in protein and sugar and high in complex carbs and healthy fats, is the most effective.
“The everyday diet has a lot of similarities with the fasting-mimicking diet, but of course, in a way to allow people to maintain a normal weight, and also maintain high nourishment,” he says. “It’s about 55 percent complex carbohydrates, 35 percent fats and 10 percent protein, trying to keep the protein above 0.7 to 0.75 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, or 0.35 grams per pound of body weight per day.”
That would come out to about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of LEAN body mass, which I believe is a more accurate way to assess your protein requirement. As explained in previous articles, restricting protein to just what your body needs, and no more, is an important consideration that promotes longevity and protects against chronic disease, and this has to do with the way protein influences the mTOR pathway.
The Importance of Limiting Protein
As explained by Longo:
“We published a paper,… showing increased mortality in Americans, particularly cancer mortality in Americans, who had a high-protein diet. This makes sense. One of the reasons it makes sense is that proteins, in particular short amino acids (such as leucine and methionine) are central regulators of these growth factors, particularly mTOR and IGF-1 … and have a pro-aging and also pro-damage effect.
The higher level of protein, the higher level these amino acids, the higher activity of TOR-S6 kinase pathway. As a consequence, we now have very clear evidence in many organisms that TOR accelerates aging and also accelerates mortality, meaning that all kinds of organisms will die earlier and develop many more diseases when they maintain this pathway activated …
A good amount of calories come in from proteins, which we have shown … to be able to largely reverse the protection of normal cells. If you have the fasting-mimicking diet or fasting, and then you give mice a normal level of protein, they can reverse a lot of the protective effect …
The other pathway, which is much less known … is the sugar PKA pathway or RAS/PKA pathway (protein kinase A). Now there is starting to be evidence from our lab and others that this may also be conserved. Meaning that, in addition to the protein pathway, there is also a sugar pathway that is as bad, or almost as bad …
The more sugar there is available, the more the PKA pathway … gets activated. This gene then in turn can inactivate certain transcription factors … that are very important for protection of the cell, but also for the reprogramming of the cell into a more what we call a maintenance state.”
Maintaining Protein Adequacy Through Protein Cycling
One of the factors that really intrigues me about Longo’s work is his focus on protein cycling. As mentioned, there are significant downsides to excess protein, but too little is hazardous as well. It’s important to maintain a balance of “just enough” protein in order to avoid losing lean muscle mass as you age, while still avoiding the activation of TOR, which speeds up the aging process.
Longo’s answer to this complexity is to cycle high and low amounts of protein. For example, you could eat 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of lean body weight on days when you’re doing strength training exercises, and then cut back to 1 gram/kilo on non-training days.
“There are a number of groups that are now looking at the relationship between protein and muscle protein synthesis,” Longo says. “I think they’ve clearly shown, for example, that 30 grams of salt proteins are needed in one single meal, associated with strength training, in order for the muscle protein synthesis to occur. I will say that there is an optimal level.
We have also … shown … people that were 65 or younger benefited from the very low protein, but people who were 65 and older did not benefit … Now, the correct study has never been done, meaning there has never been a study where you take 1,000 healthy 80-year-olds and you give them exactly a low level of protein and see how they do compared to the ones that eat 1.5 to 2 grams per kilogram a day. I suspect they will still do better.
[But] there was no evidence in our study that the people [who] had high protein intake, even at older ages, did better. It was sufficient to do the moderate protein intake even in older ages … [T]he pulses are key because that’s all that matters. You just have to have enough protein, TOR activation, the building process occurs and then that’s long lasting …
They haven’t done long-term studies on this, so we don’t know the best way. But certainly, the short-term studies indicate that you don’t need a very high protein, but you do need sufficient protein and you need the training to optimize the muscle building.”
So, in summary, for strength building purposes, the science tells us 30 grams of optimized for branched-chain amino acids combined with strength training is an ideal amount to achieve long-term protein synthesis in the muscle, and more is not better. In fact, while more protein has no beneficial effect on muscle building, it may, however, have an adverse health effect by activating mTOR.
Notably, it is not clear how muscle synthesis would be affected by multiple daily combinations of 30 grams of proteins plus training, but it’s likely not a wise strategy if you want to keep mTOR chronically inhibited.
Feast-Famine Cycling
On a personal note, I engaged in long-term (six months or so) chronic nutritional ketosis. But then I started noticing some adverse effects. I think these effects may be related to action of insulin, which many aren’t aware of. I then discovered a process I call “feast-famine cycling,” which is similar to the protein cycling Longo recommends.
The way insulin works is not by driving glucose into the cells, which is what’s conventionally taught. Insulin actually works by stopping the liver’s ability to produce glucose (hepatic gluconeogenesis). If you have very low levels of insulin, you’re not going to be able to suppress hepatic gluconeogenesis. Paradoxically, your blood sugar will rise pretty dramatically, even though you’re not having any carbohydrates.
Interestingly, when you have relatively high glucose level and really low insulin levels, if you eat sugar, your blood sugar drops, which is absolutely counterintuitive. But again, that’s related to the mechanism of insulin. This was when the importance of cycling became really clear to me, because you really do want to keep your glucose level low. If you restrict glucose and protein too much, it’ll be counterproductive.
So this cycling is absolutely imperative. In fact, I believe feast-famine cycling may be the key to optimizing the molecular pathways involved in chronic disease and longevity. Longo agrees, saying:
“I think you hit it right in the head. Meaning that if you understand the mechanisms, like you just described, this is really important. This is essential. You have to understand exactly what goes on. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get surprises.
I think maybe you were surprised after six months that you’re starting to see problems. I’ve also seen some of that, for example, in the alternate-day fasting. There are papers showing benefits, but there are some papers showing detrimental effects. It’s just up and down, up and down.”
How to Increase Your Longevity
As an aging and longevity researcher, Longo offers the following suggestions for those interested in achieving a long and healthy life:
• Overall, a fish- and plant-based diet has the strongest support. The key is to maintain low protein, but sufficient for your current phase of life. As you get older, you need slightly more, but not a whole lot more protein.
• As you age, keep a normal weight and be highly nourished — even if you have to add more ingredients to your diet that you might not have eaten before.
“For example, I talk in the book about cheeses that several of the centenarian population around the world [eat], like goat cheese. You may not have wanted to use frequently when you were younger, but you can use when you’re older. Or maybe some yogurt or eggs. Some of these things I exclude before 65 to 70, but then I say, ‘They’re really very rich in nutrition.’ A lot of centenarians do it, so it might be a good idea,” Longo says.
• Cycle eating and fasting (time-restricted feeding), 12 hours on and 12 hours off.
• If you’re overweight or have a tendency to gain weight easily, eat only two meals a day. (Longo believes most people do need to eat breakfast.)If you don’t have a weight problem, you can eat three meals daily. Ideally, make lunch your largest meal of the day, and avoid eating three to four hours before bedtime.
• Take a multivitamin every three days.
“Why every three days? Because probably, [taking it] every day, you will eventually find out that’s not good for you,” Longo says. “Some studies suggest that. But every three days, it probably eliminates most malnourishment. At the same time, the chance that it does you damage is extremely low, considering how many studies have been done on them and showing usually neutral effects.”
More Information
To learn more about Longo’s work, you can follow him on Facebook @profvalterlongo. His book will also be published sometime this summer or fall, although the American title is still undetermined.
Transcript for the Video
Fasting-Mimicking Diet: Calorie Restriction and Longevity A Special Interview With Dr. Valter Longo
By Dr. Mercola
JM: Dr. Joseph Mercola VL: Dr. Valter Longo
JM: The foods you eat can have an enormous influence on how long you live and your likelihood and risk of contracting diseases. But what is the optimal ratio of foods that you should be eating? Hi, this is Dr. Mercola helping you take control of your health. Today I am joined by Dr. Valter Longo, who is a professor of gerontology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California. He’s also director of The Longevity Institute. Welcome and thank you for joining us today, Dr. Longo.
VL: Thank you.
JM: You have a long history. You’re a researcher. You’re a PhD, not` a medical doctor, but you’re doing extensive research on one of my areas of passion, which is optimizing mitochondrial metabolism with the use of dietary interventions. You have an interesting history too, and that you come through an area of calorie restriction. Perhaps you can describe your process of how you evolved and eventually focused on your current area of research.
VL: Yes. Actually, I was a student of Roy Walford many years ago. Roy was one of the pioneers of calorie restriction. He was a medical doctor. He was very interested in basically using diet to prevent and even treat diseases. That started back in the early ‘90s.
But then I went on to turn to a more molecular understanding of what connects each ingredient, what connects each amino acid, the sugars, the fats, the type of fats, to the pathways that we were studying, particularly the pro-aging pathways. Two of them we discovered. One called the PKA pathway, one called TOR-S6 kinase, both have now been shown to be central in the aging process, not just in simple organisms but possibly also in mammals.
JM: Is it true that your lab is one of the first ones or the first one that discovered the mTOR pathway, now called the mechanistic target of rapamycin?
VL: We didn’t discover the mTOR pathway. We discovered the role of the TOR pathway in aging and in the protection of the cells. Michael Hall actually discovered the TOR pathway a few years before us in yeast. It was at work in a simple organism called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
JM: Okay. Good. Thanks for that clarification because we’ll talk about that a little bit later because that really plays an essential and profound role in really understanding how to optimize the diet.
But leading back to the calorie restrictions, I’ve interviewed Gary Taubes before and he’s not convinced. I’m not sure if you’ve met or know who he is, but he’s an investigative journalist in biological sciences. He’s not convinced, from his review, that there’s a lot of literature out there
that supports the use of calorie restriction for the extension of human lifespan. I’m wondering if you could provide us with your take on it.
VL: Yes. I would probably agree with him. When you look at calorie restriction, which means about a 30 percent restriction in calories below the normal level, and you do this all the time, even the monkey studies where they took about – at the University of Wisconsin and National Institute on Aging (NIA), they took monkeys and they restricted them like that for 25 to 30 years. The results are questionable.
The Wisconsin showed some effect on mortality and diseases, but in NIA, it didn’t. If you look at overall mortality, even the Wisconsin study showed that the monkeys that were calorie restricted for so long did not live that much longer because they had a lot less diabetes and cancer and cardiovascular diseases, but probably had higher levels of other problems. This is why we never really focused on calorie restriction, but tried to get the benefits of calorie restriction and at the same time not the negative effects. That’s where these periodic fasting- mimicking diets come from.
JM: Okay. Great. In addition to that, of course, there’s a practical challenge with the application of that because people are not going to be very compliant to calorie restricting. I think in one of your earlier interviews, you suggested that maybe 1 in 10,000 people could do that because it’s just not conducive of long-term compliance.
You mentioned this fasting-mimicking diet that provides many of the molecular benefits. Before we dive into that, let’s discuss some of the molecular benefits from calorie restrictions and the ones that you’re seeking to reproduce through this new type of approach that you’ve developed.
VL: Yes. I think there are multiple advantages or potential advantages. One of them, the biggest one actually, turns out to be the long-term effects on insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), one of the factors that regulate growth pathways, growth genes. This IGF-1 really pushes the cells, all kinds of cells – Not just IGF-1, but all the growth factors. But certainly, IGF-1 seems to be the major one that pushes the cells. But there is not much to grow or much room to grow. We have a lot of evidence that this turns into accelerated aging. That’s one of the effects of these dietary interventions.
The other one that we’ve seen is regeneration, rejuvenation, meaning that by killing a lot of cells and part of organs in systems, you get rid of a lot of dead cells, bad cells, damaged cells, and you turn those stem cells and they replace the old damaged cells with new ones. That’s what we think is another major effect. The third one is probably intracellular, meaning that the cell also undergoes somewhat of a cleanup during these dietary interventions.
JM: That would be autophagy or mitophagy.
VL: Autophagy, mitophagy, but maybe there are other processes that we still haven’t quite understood that have to do with repairing the system and giving the time to the system to repair itself.
JM: Would it be fair to say that this influence on IGF-1 is also similar to the growth hormone? Because the IGF-1 and growth hormone are seen to be closely related.
VL: Yes. As far aging is concerned, they seem to be in the same axis, the growth hormone IGF-1 axis. For example, in mice, they have record longevity, are growth hormone receptor or growth hormone deficient. They are also IGF-1 deficient. That axis seems to be the most important.
Now, we followed for a number of years this group of people in Ecuador that are also growth hormone receptor deficient. They have the same or very similar mutation to the mice that have record longevity. A few years ago, we were shown that they seem to be pretty much protected from cancer and also from diabetes. We suspect that this protection is also extendable to more diseases. Although they may not be very much longer-lived than their relatives, they seem to be much healthier.
JM: Okay. Great. Now, one of the reasons I suspect that you’ve undergone or continued along your pathway is initially for longevity. The younger you are, the less important it seems to be, and as the older you get, of course it becomes more important.
Would you say it’s fair to summarize that if you optimized for longevity that you’re indirectly optimizing for actually preventing almost all chronic degenerative diseases and treating them, in many cases, if you optimize those pathways? They’re one and the same. If you’re optimizing for longevity, you’re optimizing for health essentially and prevention of disease.
VL: Yes. Prevention of diseases for sure. Treatment, I think it’s much more complicated. I think in that case, you have to exploit the understanding of normal cells and damaged cells, whether the cancer cells or neurons that are damaged, or whether they are autoimmune cells. That’s much trickier. I think that each requires a much different intervention, for example, for cancer with the combination of chemotherapy or other drugs and the timing. Treatment is much more complex to handle. I don’t think it can be handled simply by intervening on longevity.
JM: Right. But it does seem to form a foundational basis of which you can add other therapeutic modalities.
Can you describe what your fasting-mimicking diet is? It seems there are all these benefits that are being described to fasting. Initially, I wasn’t that strongly in favor of that because I thought there was some negative, like many people, some negative metabolic consequences, but it seems for most, it’s such a powerful intervention. But it’s not something you do the rest of your life, otherwise you’d be dead. Describe to us the evolution and what your fasting-mimicking diet consists of.
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VL: Yes. The hypothesis was when we first started, also considering the negative effects we were seeing from the calorie restriction, they say an immunity, maybe the response to wounds etc. We were thinking this cannot continue. As you just pointed out, we cannot be fasting all the time. You cannot even be calorie-restricted all the time. Is it possible that if you do it once in a
while, the body will have a memory of the metabolic switch and that will last a long time? That was what we tested first in simple organisms, then in mice. It worked very well.
If you take mice at middle age and you give them this periodic fasting. You put them twice a month for four days on a diet that is restricted in proteins, restricted in carbohydrates, but relatively high in fats. For just four days, it’s a low-calorie, low-protein, low-sugar diet essentially. Then you switch them back to the normal diet. It actually turns out that they eat normally, meaning that per month, they consume – they’re not restricted at all – they consume a normal amount of food, and yet they have half of the tumors. And even the tumors that develop, they develop later and a lot of them seem to be benign. They’re protected cognitively so they are much better at performing various cognitive tasks. They have reduced inflammation. They have a longer mean lifespan.
They don’t have a longer maximum lifespan and we suspect that that is because the very old mice did not like it at all to be fasting or to be on the fasting-mimicking diet. We think that now, for example, with their human fasting-mimicking diet, which we’ll talk about in a second, we basically say after 70, we don’t know yet.
It doesn’t mean that it may not be beneficial, but I think that we have to do more studies, and maybe we need to come up with a higher calorie version of the fasting-mimicking diet, which is now about 50 percent calorie restricted, so that we don’t have the good and the bad after 70. There’s no indication that before there are any problems. In fact in mice that were fairly old, they perform very well under fast-mimicking diet, but the very old ones did not.
JM: Okay. You have essentially two four-day periods in a month or a little less than 30 percent of the time in a month where they’re going to be calorie restricted, 50 percent less calories than they would normally take. It’s relatively low in protein and carbs and very high in high-quality fats. Is that a good summary of what you’re doing?
VL: That’s the mouse. The mouse study was designed like that. The human study is instead less frequent, five days a month, about the same idea, very low-sugar, relatively high complex carbohydrates, low-proteins, no animal products at all, and high levels of good fats.
JM: Okay. This is only five days once a month for the human version.
VL: Yes. In the clinical trial, we did three cycles of this once a month for five days. This was a randomized trial. Then we monitor people at the baseline, at the beginning before they started, during the diet, a week after the third cycle and then three months after the third cycle.
JM: Will this type of intervention be enough to put most people who’ve tried this into ketosis?
VL: Yes. Absolutely. They will temporarily be in ketosis. But this will only last about three days or so. It’s important not to push the patients to areas that we did not quite understand as much as we would like. I felt that the five days was an ideal time for compliance, but also for safety reasons.
JM: Most of these individuals who tried this are going to be in ketosis. Would this include the typical American who is overweight, maybe by 50 pounds or so, and has a long history of eating the standard American diet, which is high in refined sugars and processed foods? Or would they require a longer time? Because I know some people who seek to just do simple water fasting with no calories seem to have a struggle for a while to get into nutritional ketosis.
VL: Yes. We wanted to, first of all, reduce the burden to the very lowest point. This is why on Day One, for example, the human diet has got about 1,100 calories. This, I think, helped tremendously, compared to let’s say water only fasting, for compliance and also for safety. Water only fasting at least should only be done in clinics. I mean people do it outside of the clinic, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
In the five days, I think it was also important to keep the sense to patients, especially the ones who are obese like you just pointed out. You only have to do this for five days, and then you go back to what it is that for you is so important. This is, I think, really key because the adjust gradually allows the patient to move into this idea of spontaneously maybe even decide “I don’t need that much sugar anymore because I was five days without it. Now, yes, I still want it but maybe I can reduce it a little bit.” We’re seeing that a lot. It’s a slow process. But in addition to the long-lasting effects, are also some of the behavioral changes that may occur when you can at least do this for five days.
JM: Sure. Also, if they shifted more towards burning fat as their primary fuel, then they’re going to have the ability to reduce their cravings quite dramatically because they are burning fat and they are not craving the sugar as much. When you can’t burn fat, you have to have something for fuel. Your body requires and demands it. If most people are using carbohydrates to supply that fuel, then they’re going to feel miserable. But when they make that shift, it’s going to be a little easier. I think that helps the whole process.
I’m particularly intrigued because I really am fond of what you’re doing and I think that makes a lot of sense. Why don’t you just describe what metabolically goes on during this fast? I think we alluded to it earlier with respect to the autophagy, mitophagy, rebuilding, repair, and improvement of IGF-1 hormones and the magic that truly occurs. That’s sort of a negative. It’s like exercise. It’s good for you overall, but initially it actually damages the muscle tissue. Similarly, when you’re fasting, you’re actually, in some ways, damaging yourself. But the magic, I believe, occurs in this refeeding phase when you’re actually rebuilding the cells. Can you describe that process?
VL: Yes. The process, I think, is really comprehensive, meaning almost everything changes. What I tell patients is, “Work with the doctor. Be careful because this really changes your body in a way that almost nothing has. Nothing that I can think of.”
For example, the IGF-1 goes way down, the glucose will go way down, the ketone bodies are greatly elevated. The reason is, as you pointed out, that the body starts burning fat. It turns out that instead of burning all fats, it burns primarily the visceral fats. This is a really important point. We really did not see much of a significant difference in the subcutaneous fat. We saw a
significant difference in the abdominal fat, indicating that this is coming mostly from one source. Maybe this is the reservoir where the body goes first when the glucose is not coming in.
I think that the clearance of the damaged cells is also very, very important. Now, we’ve shown this in a mouse and human preliminary multiple sclerosis trial, in which we were able to show that each cycle of the fasting-mimicking diet is able to kill some of the autoimmune cells and then turn on the stem cell and regenerate cells that are no longer autoimmune.
Now the human trial is still preliminary, but certainly it was very promising. Especially when you consider, like in the mouse, we saw a temporary reduction, which is counterintuitive, but temporary reduction of the white blood cells in the patients. Over 70 percent of the patient had over 20 percent reduction in the white blood cell number. That told us that it is working in people like it’s working in mice.
The system tries to save and maybe some redistribution but also we believe killing off white blood cells, turning on the hematopoietic stem cells. Then when you refeed, and only if you refeed, the stem cells are now giving rise to young and functional white blood cells. We now, at least in the mice, have evidence that this happens everywhere, but also human clinical trial supports the notion that this is also happening everywhere in the human body.
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JM: Yeah. A particularly fascinating aspect is that it also seems to improve stem cell production. Of course we need those to continue to be healthy. In fact, many people actually undergo stem cell transplantation for a variety of reasons. But it would seem to be far safer, less expensive, and perhaps even more effective if you can do it naturally with dietary modulation like you described.
VL: Yes. I think the big advantage is the coordination, right? When you inject somebody with stem cells, stem cells don’t have a program that goes along with them. Stem cells without an order to do specific things – I think that with fasting, when the level of white blood cells shrinks and it goes to a lower level that is a clear program that is turned down during the refeeding, rebuilding, telling the system to rebuild everything that is missing. I think the advantage is not just having the stem cell, but having the stem cell know exactly what to do.
Now we have a number of papers that are going to come out on this. We’re starting to see a lot of similarities with the embryonic or the developing cells and developing organisms. This may be one of the very few interventions that bring organs and systems back to – well, of course not completely – back to that level. It certainly exploits what they always knew how to build an organ, to partially regenerate it.
JM: Sure. If we can now dive into some of the details and the specifics, I’m wondering if there is a difference in the macronutrient calorie distribution between the fasting phase or the calorie reduced phase and the refeeding or refueling phase. Are they still about the same percentages of nutrients? High percentage of high-quality fats, low in proteins and net carbs, or is that different in the different phases?
VL: Yeah. It’s different. Basically, what we did to us was also important again thinking about how applicable this is. We just told people, “Go back to whatever it is that you eat normally.” Patients just returned to their normal diet. Now, we did give them a transition, one day of transition diet that is relatively light, low-protein, minimal animal products. One day to make sure that it’s not too much of a switch from very low to very high in between diets in less than one day. Then on Day 7 or so, patients go back to their normal diet.
JM: Okay.
VL: Refeeding is using a normal diet.
JM: Okay. The challenge with that, as I’m sure you and everyone watching this understands, is that the normal diet for most people is atrocious. That would be a kind description. I mean they are just consuming fuels that are almost beyond reprehensible and never designed for optimizing longevity.
I’m wondering, with your passion in longevity and your understanding of molecular biology and studying this for decades, if you could design an optimized program, not just put people on what they’re going to be compliant with, which is probably going to be a lousy choice. If you have any thoughts and recommendations on optimizing it for those who would be complying to whatever the ideal might be.
VL: Yeah. I wrote a book on this. Pretty soon it’s going to come to the U.S. By the way, all of the profits go to research. I hope you go buy it. It’s called, at least in the Italian version, it’s called the Longevity Diet. I have to see what the American title would be. I used basically all of the decades that I spent working on aging, not just to describe the fasting-mimicking diet, but also describe the everyday diet based on the centenarian studies, the phenological data, clinical data, mouse data, etc. Putting all that together, then I can map this mostly plant- and fish-based diet. A pescetarian diet that is low in protein and high in nourishment, a lot of legumes and some fish, low sugar, high complex carbohydrates, and high good fats.
It has a lot of similarities with the fasting-mimicking diet, but of course, in a way to allow people to maintain a normal weight, and also maintain high nourishment. We see this all the time in cancer patients, but not just in cancer patients that people often go from one problem to another, from an atrocious diet, like you described, to a deficient diet. The deficient diet, whether it’s B- 12 deficient or is protein deficient, could be as bad as the atrocious diet just by shutting down the ability of the immune system to fight infections or to fight cancer cells. I think if you go too far on each side, you could be in trouble.
JM: I definitely want to explore that. But just before we do that, I’m curious as to the approximate macronutrient ratios that you came up with in your book for the pescetarian version. What were the protein levels, carbs, and fat?
VL: It’s about 55, 35, 10. Fifty-five complex carbohydrates, 35 fats, and 10 protein in percentages.
JM: Sure. Relatively —
VL: Trying to keep the protein above 0.7, 0.75 grams per kilogram of body weight per day, or
0.35 grams per pound of body weight per day.
JM: Which would come out to about a gram per kilogram of lean body mass, which might be a more accurate way to assess it because there’s a wide range of people’s lean body mass. It’s actually what you want to base it on. It sounds like it’s about a gram per kilogram. That, I would assume, underlines your previous focus and work with the mTOR pathway and the appreciation. Maybe you can discuss a little bit about that now because we don’t hardly ever have a change to interview an expert in that pathway since – well, at least initially, many people weren’t studying. There are more researchers now.
But with your specific focus on longevity, I’m wondering if you could talk about the influence of protein on longevity and health, because it’s my impression that most of us are eating far too much protein.
VL: Yes. Absolutely. We published a paper on that a few years ago, showing increased mortality in Americans, particularly cancer mortality in Americans who had the high-protein diet. This makes sense.
One of the reasons why it makes sense is that proteins, in particular, short amino acids, leucine, methionine, they are central regulators of these growth factors, particularly IGF-1, that we just mentioned earlier and that they have a pro-aging and also pro-damage effect. The higher level of protein, the higher level these amino acids, the higher activity of TOR-S6 kinase pathway. As a consequence now, we have very clear evidence in many organisms that this TOR accelerates aging and also accelerates mortality, meaning that all kinds of organisms will die earlier and develop many more diseases when they have this path reactivated.
The other pathway, which is much less known, which also was first described in my lab, is the sugar PKA pathway or Ras/PKA pathway. Now there is starting to be evidence from our lab and others that this may also be conserved. Meaning that in addition to the protein pathway, there is also sugar pathway. That is as bad or almost as bad. I think we’re probably going to hear a lot more about that. We’ve been saying that for 20 years now, but I think finally we’re starting to see this conservation of facts in multiple organisms, and starting to see the data from mice and also some of our own data from human samples. I think that, awfully soon enough, it would be more accepted as another key pro-aging pathway.
JM: I’m sorry. Could you expand a bit about the PKA pathway, because I don’t recall hearing that before and what that acronym stands for?
VL: Protein kinase A. Protein kinase A in yeast, they are known for decades that responds to sugar. The more sugar there is available, the more this pathway, this gene gets activated. This gene then in turn can inactivate certain transcription factors – in yeast, they’re called Msn2, Msn4 – that are very important for protection of the cell, but also for the reprogramming of the cell into a more what we call a maintenance state.
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For the longest time, it was just a yeast story. Now we’re starting to see evidence from mice, both with PKA and also RAS in yeast acts upstream of it. We’re starting to see evidence that this may represent another set of genes that went active, make the organism age more quickly and also develop more diseases.
JM: Okay. Sounds like they’re related to sirtuins, which we know are connected to longevity. VL: Yes. We don’t know how, but it’s likely that sirtuins – I mean we know that they’re
connected to some of these genes. It’s not clear what the relationship is yet.
JM: Okay. One of the factors that really intrigued me with your work was this focus on cycling. As we’ve mentioned earlier, there are many benefits from fasting or calorie restriction, but there’s no way you want to do that indefinitely. It’s going to be, I think, counterproductive. I’m wondering similarly if there’s this goldilocks window of protein. We’ve just finished describing the downside of excess protein. But even if you had optimal protein or you’ve minimized the activation of the TOR pathway with sort of the optimal – 1 gram per kilogram of lean body mass of protein intake.
The goldilocks window I’m referring to is this balance that we have between losing lean muscle mass as we age, or sarcopenia, and sort of keeping the optimized activation level of TOR. Do you think there’s a benefit to going to high levels of protein, maybe 1.5, 2 grams per kilogram for a short period, maybe a day when you’re doing strength training exercises, then go into this cycling method. It’s sort of a similar cycling that you’re doing with the fasting-mimicking diet.
VL: Yes. I think so. There are a number of groups that are now looking at the relationship between protein and muscle protein synthesis. I think that they’ve clearly shown, for example, that 30 grams of salt proteins are needed in one single meal, associated with strength training, in order for the muscle protein synthesis to occur. I will say that there is an optimal level.
We have also, in the paper that I’ve mentioned earlier, we showed that there were before 65 and after 65 groups, meaning that people that were 65 or younger, benefited from the very low protein, but people who were 65 and older did not benefit. We suspect that that is because in the 70-, 80-year-olds, that extreme low level of protein intake may not be as beneficial.
Now, the correct study has never been done, meaning that there has never been a study where you take 1,000 healthy 80-year-olds and you give them exactly a low level of protein and you see how they do compared to the ones that eat 1.5 to 2 grams per kilogram a day. I suspect that they will still do better. Because usually when these studies are done you do a survey among the people that report having low protein are people that are sick, people that are frail, people that are malnourished. You bunch them all together. You might have 10 percent are super healthy, but 90 percent have problems.
It’s amazing that even before 65, that group performs better or much better than the well- nourished group. Anyway, most likely, the lower layering life higher protein intake is better, but
a very high protein intake is probably still detrimental. There was no evidence in our study that the people that had the high protein intake, even at older ages, did better. It was sufficient to do the moderate protein intake even in older ages.
JM: That’s good. I know the studies haven’t been done, but I’m wondering, from your understanding, the molecular biology of it, if it still makes sense to do this after you’re older, 65 or 70, to do this pulsing version, especially integrated with weight, strength training, and exercise program. Not to have high protein or higher protein every day, but to have higher levels every day.
I was not familiar with the 30 grams per meal intake on those days that you’re doing the strength training. Maybe two to three days a week, maybe four days a week. Would that make more sense and then go back to the lower versions? I mean this pulsing seems to be key to biological health.
VL: Yes. But that study, not just one study, many studies have shown that it doesn’t really make any difference if you have 30 grams or 60 grams in one meal. There’s equivalent muscle building effect, right? The 30 gram’s optimized. They have the amount of leucine that was required in the 30 grams. The quality of the protein does matter there. But it showed that —
JM: How many grams of leucine? Would it make a difference if a high amount of branched- chain amino acids are in that? Would you need less?
VL: Yeah. I don’t remember the exact number. But they were talking about leucine as being the key activator for TOR, and TOR being an important trigger for the building process. They basically published that once you push TOR and you start the process, 30 grams are all you need. It doesn’t matter whether you have three times as much. Now if you do that twice, you might get that building twice, occurring twice. If you do it in the morning and do it at night, then of course that makes a difference. This is what the studies really clearly showed.
Answering your question, the pulses are key because that’s all that matters. You just have to have enough protein, TOR activation, the building process occurs and then that’s long lasting. If you just did that once a day, it would probably be sufficient to keep good muscle mass. They haven’t done long-term studies on this, so we don’t know the best way. But certainly, the short- term studies indicate that you don’t need a very high protein, but you do need sufficient protein and you need the training to optimize the muscle building.
JM: Those of us who aren’t researchers don’t really have access to measure the TOR pathway like you do. I have no idea. Once you activate it with the 30 grams of optimized branched-chain amino acids, how long does that pathway stay activated for? Is it an hour, two hours, 12, 24? I have no idea.
VL: I don’t know if anybody has done that in humans, so we don’t know. But we do know that that activation, once you have enough of the amino acids, that activation is sufficient to carry on the long-term protein synthesis in the muscle. It may not matter how long it stays on. It may just matter that the process is activated and maybe the satellite cells in the muscle are going to work to generate new muscle and bring in the amino acids to do the building. I think for people out
there, I don’t know that it’s necessary to know how long TOR is on, but maybe the amount of the amino acids is sufficient to get the muscle effect.
JM: Okay. Thank you for that explanation. Now you also have sought to use this intervention, this fasting-mimicking diet, in the treatment of cancers in the university that you work with. From watching the previous interview that you did, it sounded like it was an arduous process in that it took five or six years before they even got to the point where they were willing to adopt it until you radically modified it. Why don’t you comment on that attempt and where you are now with it?
VL: Yes. The initial diet was fasting, water only fasting. We felt that people wants me to explain what the potential was. They would do it. But patients didn’t want to do it. Oncologists didn’t want to do it. It took us forever to even collect data from 18 patients. We just recently published on that.
Then we went to the National Cancer Institute and they funded a grant to develop what we call “fasting-mimicking diet.” That’s where the fasting-mimicking diet comes from, from our cancer studies actually. We eventually adopted it to normal people. We developed this diet.
The idea was a diet that has the same effect on IGF-1, IGFBP1, glucose and ketone bodies as water only fasting does. We had to match the efficacy. It was important to Dan Klein that this has a reasonable chance to be as good as water only fasting in the a) protection of patients against cancer, and b) desensitization of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Sorry, protection of patients, not against cancer – well, against cancer, but more so against chemotherapy, and then making it worse for the cancer cells once the patient receives chemotherapy.
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This we’ve shown very, very clearly in mice. Now we have data in multiple clinical trials supporting this. I have more studies coming out in the next year or two. Hopefully, soon enough, this would be standard of care.
JM: With the publication of your studies, do you believe that there is an increase in adoption of these fasting-mimicking diets by oncologists to at least use this as an adjunct to their current treatment program?
VL: Yes. Both in oncology and other doctors, I think there are about 600 doctors in the U.S. alone that recommend fasting-mimicking diets developed in my lab. In cancer, of course, it’s a little bit trickier because oncologists are waiting for the more conclusive clinical trials. We understand that. I think soon enough – well, we’ve already seen a big difference.
There are a lot of oncologists that are already saying “My patients can now wait. I will allow them to go on a fasting-mimicking diet or a fasting.” Some of them are resistant. Some of them are very favorable. Some of them even encourage it. But I think it’s going to be much, much higher used once the larger clinical trials are completed.
JM: Great. Another researcher has been doing this for a while using these types of diets to treat cancers, Dr. Thomas Seyfried, who I’ve interviewed. He’s a professor of Biology at Boston College. I’m wondering if you could describe the differences between his approach and yours. My guess is that he’s doing a more chronic long term, although he has some interventions of periodic fasting and water fasting. But I think it seems like you have more cycling in your process.
VL: Yes. Actually completely different. As far as I know, his diet is a ketogenic diet. Very high fat, normal calorie, I think relatively high protein diet.
JM: No, no. It’s not high protein.
VL: But it’s relatively high, right? So —
JM: No. It’s still about a gram per kilogram. Maybe 10 percent are calories, 8 percent of calories, somewhere in that range.
VL: Okay. One gram per kilogram. But it is said there that there is a good amount of calories because it’s normal caloric. A good amount of calories come in from proteins, which we of course have shown, for example, in our mouse studies to be able to completely reverse the protection of normal cells.
If you have the fasting-mimicking diet or fasting, and then you give mice a normal level of protein, they can reverse a lot of the protective effect. That’s why we take it to a much lower level than that. Of course, there is this chronic, meaning you give it to the patient for a long time and we just give it to the patients for five days. As far as I know, their major use has been for myeloma patients, right?
JM: A very difficult cancer to treat. Notorious for being resistant to conventional treatments.
VL: Now, the question for the ketogenic diet. For example, we used it for multiple sclerosis in the mouse model. Even though it was chronic in the mouse model, at least for multiple sclerosis, it didn’t work very well. It worked a little bit, but not very well. One of the reasons for that may be that once you maintain the normal level of calories coming in, the body figures out how to get back by gluconeogenesis, etc. a relatively high level glucose. I’m not sure how it affects for example growth factors.
Those are things that we’d love to look into, especially because we know that growth factors and glucose levels are very important to health. Low levels of this are very important for the effects that we see in both the normal cells and on the cancer cells.
JM: I sort of stumbled onto a process that I call “Feast-Famine Cycling,” which is somewhat similar to what you’re doing. I personally engaged in long term, you know by six months or so, of chronic ketogenic nutritional ketosis. I started noticing some adverse side effects. I think it’s probably related to the mechanism of the action of insulin, which many people aren’t aware of.
The way insulin works is not by driving glucose into the cells, that’s what’s conventionally taught, but it really works by stopping the liver’s ability to produce glucose. If you have very low levels of insulin, you’re not going to be able to suppress hepatic gluconeogenesis. Your blood sugar, paradoxically, even though you’re not having any carbohydrates, it will rise pretty dramatically because your body wants that high level of sugar.
Interestingly, when you have relatively high glucose level and you have really low insulin levels, if you eat sugar, your blood sugar drops, which is absolutely counterintuitive. But it’s related to the mechanism of insulin. That’s when it became really clear to me once I understood that you really have to do the cycling, because you really do want to keep your glucose level low. If you do too much of the glucose restriction and protein restriction, it’ll be counterproductive. This cycling is absolutely imperative. I think that is the key to optimizing the whole molecular pathways that are involved in chronic disease and longevity.
VL: Yeah. I think you hit it right in the head. Meaning that if you understand the mechanisms, like you just described, this is really important. This is essential. You have to understand exactly what goes on. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get surprises. I think maybe you were surprised after six months that you’re starting to see problems. I’ve also seen some of that, for example, in the alternate day fasting.
There are some papers showing benefits, but there are some papers showing detrimental effects. It’s just up and down, up and down. They may not be doing this all the time. It may be not such a good idea. I don’t know. I’m not saying I’m not against it. I’m just saying that you need studies and you need mechanisms. Until those are available, I warn people to be very careful because it could give you surprises.
JM: In another philosophy that I resonated with that you have is basically that a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. By that I’m referring to the use of drugs, specifically metformin and rapamycin, which we know have beneficial effects and may be useful agents in certain disease states, but to be used prophylactically by those who are seeking to extend their lifespan may not be a wise idea. But you see a lot of people recommending and endorsing these strategies and I just cringe when I hear it. But I was just overjoyed to hear your perspective on this, which was “Don’t do it.”
VL: Yeah. I think that whether it’s metformin or rapamycin, we discovered that TOR pathway and aging, so we would have loved to say “Take rapamycin every day, which is a TOR inhibitor.” But I always thought from the very beginning, we actually had the first data on rapamycin in 1997. We never even published it. The reason why is that we felt that if it’s so essential to the cell, how can it be that you block something to essential and it just does good and no bad at all, right? I couldn’t believe it.
Then 2009 came and other studies came and still no negative. Then you started seeing all the negative studies: hyperglycemia, cataract accumulation, testicular degeneration, etc. After the good news came the bad news. I think that’s what people underestimated. When you have a sophisticated blockade but very unsophisticated effect, which is completely block an enzyme, that’s most likely going to have bad effects sooner or later.
JM: Yeah. I think part of those side effects that were described were related to the chronic uninterrupted use of those in relatively high doses completely suppress it. Maybe, just like what we’re talking about cycling, that the smaller doses done intermittently might have some benefits. But certainly, it seems to be far wiser, safer, less expensive and far less side effects is to do it with your food.
VL: I think so. Also because there is a long, long history of use by large clinics, the Buchinger Clinic in Germany, the TrueNorth Clinic in the United States, these clinics see [inaudible 50:04] year. They do much more severe restriction for much longer times.
[—–50:00—–]
The safety record, at least according to them, is extremely good. That was really reassuring for us. I mean we felt that we had to the clinical trials, but it certainly was good to know that thousands and thousands of people that do much more severe intervention every year and they’re fine.
JM: I’m wondering as the director of the Longevity Institute, if you’re still actively involved in longevity research, specifically as it relates to dietary strategies.
VL: Yes. Absolutely. I say 50 percent of my lab works on longevity. In fact, all these series of papers that we continue to publish dealing with regeneration are really focused on rejuvenation. Can you make the brain younger? I think that that’s really going to be a big research effort in the future for us and for many other people. I think, again, the ability to awaken systems that have been dormant for a long time and then know exactly what to do is very much underestimated and underutilized.
I think we need to really exploit these billions of years of evolution that generated these programs that are so good in making a perfect liver or a perfect heart. Of course we’re only beginning to understand that, but if we were able to fully understand how you regenerate or how you generate a heart to begin with, and can you redo it in an adult? We don’t know that. But certainly this fasting-mimicking diet suggests that at least some of that can occur with every cycle. Definitely longevity is our key interest.
JM: Yes. My guess is that some of our viewers may be a little bit distressed when you say billions of years of evolution on that, but that’s not certainly human evolution, but many of these pathways that you’re studying are in very primitive organisms that have been around for that long. Maybe you can touch on that before we go to the next question.
VL: Yes. My work started with bacteria many years ago. You starve bacteria and they live longer. After that, I starved yeast, also unicellular organism, what we use to make bread. A microorganism, and they live a lot longer. It was very obvious that this is something that started billions of years ago, the ability of any organism once it’s starved to stop and go into a protection mode that may be also somewhat regenerating and rejuvenating.
JM: Terrific. I have two questions for you with respect to aging. As an aging and longevity researcher, if you could provide your best recommendation for what to do now on that and would just essentially be just reading your book on the longevity diet that hopefully would be published in the United States soon. Answer that question. I have a follow-up question for that.
VL: Yeah. Before the book comes out, I have a Facebook, Prof. Valter Longo page that people can go to get updates. In the pescetarian diet, that I’ve already described, the key is low protein but sufficient two phases of life. When you get older, keep a normal weight and be highly nourished even if you have to add to your diet more ingredients that might not have been part of your diet before.
For example, I started talking in the book about some cheeses that all the centenarian population around the world, like goat cheese. You may not have wanted to use frequently when you were younger, but you can use when you’re older. Or maybe some yogurt, or maybe some eggs. Some of these things I exclude before 65 to 70, but then I say, “They’re really very rich in nutrition.” A lot of centenarians do it, so it might be a good idea.
The other thing I talk about is 12 hours on, 12 hours off on food, meaning that you can do eight to 16. You only eat for eight hours a day and then you fast for 16. But I think it’s too extreme. There are some data, some studies suggesting increased gallstone incidents. Twelve and 12 is probably a very good compromise. I always liked to say “Let’s get the benefits, but let’s not risk the negative.” Twelve and 12 is really a good thing to do, especially if you tend to gain weight.
I also introduced the concept of two major meals a day for people that tend to gain weight or are overweight, and three meals a day instead for the people that don’t have the problem or tend to lose weight. That’s also very important, that the abdominal fat is regulated and just the overall weight stays healthy, both not being underweight or overweight. Those are the major recommendations and the high nourishment.
I also, for example, give simple advices like, “take a multivitamin every three days.” Why every three days? Because probably every day, you will eventually find out that that’s not good for you. Some studies suggest that. But every three days, it probably eliminates most of malnourishment. At the same time, the chance that it does you damage is extremely low, considering how many studies have been done on them and showing usually neutral effects.
JM: Do you think there’s any concern about using intermittent fasting long term or should that also be cycled up?
VL: Intermittent fasting usually refers to every other day fasting?
JM: Oh. I’m sorry. That’s a good question. Let me be more precise with my question. By intermittent fasting, I’m referring to the 12 to six or eight-hour window of restricting your calorie ingestion. That’s my term. Can you do that long term or should you cycle that up, too?
VL: No. The 12 and 12 is what people have always done, right? It’s called time-restricted feeding. But if you look at centenarians, whether it’s Loma Linda or Okinawa or the Southern
Italians, people that are most successful almost unanimously contain their feeding period within 12 hours, 8 am, 8 pm. I think that the chance that that is going to cause problems is extremely low.
If you go to eight hours, it’s different. Now you start to say 8 am to 4 pm, well it could not have any effects, or maybe it is a contributor to this weight loss a lot of older people will have, which usually is associated with frailty. I don’t think it’s such a good idea. Again, after 65 to 70, people tend to lose weight. I think it’s better to increase the food intake, making sure that a healthy weight is maintained. Some of these things are way underestimated, the importance of them.
JM: Okay, good. The next question to that with respect to the meals, I’ve come to believe from a molecular perspective (I’m studying the mitochondria) that it may be unwise to have your largest meal certainly before you go to bed, but even later in the day.
Ideally, the best timing for your largest meal of the day or the greatest amount of calories would be before your biggest activity. For most people, that’s going to be either in the morning or at noon. When people eat a large dinner, sometimes socially there’s not really a practical alternative. They come home to their family. They’re going to eat at 6 or 7 o’clock at night and they just watch TV and go to bed. I’m not sure that that’s the wisest strategy for optimizing longevity.
VL: Yes. It probably is not. In the book, I talk about staying about four hours away, having about four hours from your last meal to your sleep time, as long as it doesn’t bother you. If you keep it four hours away and you don’t have reflux or other problems, I think it’s fine. I did not see any evidence for that being a problem or any evidence that it shortens your life. But for most people, this could be a problem. I think you’re right. A larger lunch. This is very typical among centenarians, to have a large lunch and very small and early dinner.
JM: Okay. Great. I’m wondering, again, as 50 percent of your research is on longevity, if you’re involved in network with all the other researchers who are doing this. What do you see as the most promising intervention that you could suggest that lies on the horizon that might be able to be utilized in the near future?
[—–1:00:00—–]
VL: I think time-restricted feeding, so that this restricting the time of feeding in the workplace by Satchin Panda and others, I think is the most promising. Of course, metformin would be very nice, once A. Barcelo and others that are studying it come up with large thousands of people studies. That would be very interesting especially because at least a percentage of the people are not going to be able to do either time-restricted feeding or periodic fasting, or fasting-mimicking diet. I think for them, maybe metformin, if it turns out not to have side effects after you do it for 20 years, maybe that’s a good option. But we’d love to wait and see.
JM: Alright. I think I finished my questions. I’m wondering if you have anything you’d like to emphasize or some topic to review that I haven’t already asked you about?
VL: No. I think the main thing is to work with established products, but also doctors and nutritionists and dietitians to make sure that the power of these diets is not underestimated. I think a lot of people think that they can do it at home. They can just cook it up. We’ve seen, both in Italy and the United States, a lot of people ending up in the doctor’s office with a lot of problems because of that.
JM: Okay. Good. We’ll definitely keep posted on your new book. Any idea when it’s going to be out in 2017 in the United States?
VL: I hope by the end of the summer. Again, if people go to the Professor Valter Longo Facebook site, I’ll give them an update on our papers, when we publish things, and also when the book is going to come out.
JM: Perfect. The best way to keep in touch with what your research is doing is your Facebook page, Professor Walter Longo.
VL: Valter Longo, with a V.
JM: Valter. V. Not with a W, with a V. Alright. Thank you for all your research. I greatly appreciate the time and opportunity to capture a portion of what you’ve been learning for the past few decades. It’s always a privilege to connect with people who, like you, are so committed to uncovering some of the details of what it takes to be optimally healthy.
“Once Considered a Trendy ‘Health Food,’ Now a Household Staple – Why Yogurt Belongs in YourDaily Diet”
Back in the 1960s and 70s, if you bought yogurt, you were viewed as a “health enthusiast.” If you actually made your own using one of the popular yogurt makers of that era, you became part of an alternative, do-it-yourself food movement that lives on to this day. If you haven’t yet embraced this decades-old concept, you may be missing out on one of the most important things you can do for your gut health.
America has a love affair with yogurt, and it’s growing stronger each year.
Over the past five years, Americans purchased more than three billion pints of yogurt annually.
Yogurt is enjoyed around the world as a snack and more
While that may sound like a lot of yogurt, the U.S. still lags behind other parts of the world. Residents of several European countries consume several times more yogurt per capita than Americans.
Largely regarded as a snack in the U.S., yogurt has been a diet mainstay for many, many years in other parts of the world.
So what are some of the ways people eat yogurt around the world?
In the Middle East, strained yogurt is mixed with honey, cardamom, nutmeg, and chopped nuts to make a dessert called Shrikhand
People in India and Pakistan create Lassi, a traditional yogurt drink flavored with spices
Greeks make a flavorful dipping sauce called tzatziki by combining yogurt with shredded cucumbers, garlic, dill, and olive oil
Africans prepare a traditional Senegalese soup with yogurt and milk and topped with a dollop of yogurt
Brazilians savor a popular snack and breakfast addition made of cheese and yogurt called Pão de Queijo
No matter how you eat it, yogurt can play an important role in your healthy diet. Before I share with you a simple and nearly foolproof way to get more of it into your life, let’s take a look at what makes yogurt so appealing…
What’s Behind Yogurt’s Universal Appeal?
People of all ages enjoy yogurt. Surprisingly, even many children find its tart and tangy flavor appealing… providing their taste buds haven’t become tainted from the sugary sweetness of commercial yogurt!
All ages find yogurt’s tangy taste appealing
What is it about yogurt that’s created so many devotees?
One study found that people appreciate yogurt’s satiety value – or its ability to satisfy hunger pangs and create lasting fullness.
Because it comes packaged in a handy little container, it’s easy to grab-and-pack along for a snack any time of day.
Satisfying… filling… and easy to pack along. What else could you ask for?
No wonder so many consider yogurt their go-to food when they’re in a hurry!
With an increasing awareness of health, many people are embracing yogurt for one or more of its much-touted potential health benefits – everything from immune support to boosted brainpower to digestive health.
Scientific studies abound on yogurt and the different cultures used in making it, highlighting its support for brain health, digestive health, blood pressure, immune health, bone density and more.
Of all its potential benefits, I’m particularly impressed with yogurt’s ability to provide your gut with beneficial bacteria.
Eating Yogurt May Be One of the Most Important Things You Could Do for Your Gut Health
Eating properly made yogurt can be a boon for your gut health
I along with other experts believe that optimizing your gut microbiome may be one of the most important things you can do for your health.
The single most crucial influence on your gut is the food you eat. For a healthy gut, you must first eliminate processed foods and sugars as they tend to nourish the growth of pathogenic or disease-causing bacteria.
Your gut health will simply not improve until you get this under control!
Once you’ve eliminated the fuel for the pathogenic bacteria, the next thing you want to do is fertilize the growth of your beneficial bacteria.
One of the best ways to do this is to add a variety of healthy organic foods like fermented vegetables and fermented dairy like yogurt and kefir.
Please keep in mind that fertilizing your beneficial gut bacteria isn’t a one-time thing. Most any bacteria you swallow becomes a temporary resident in your gut.
These bacteria need to be replaced on a regular basis!
When you eat fermented dairy foods like yogurt and kefir, you help replace the beneficial bacteria that your gut needs to thrive.
However… it’s important to note that not all yogurt products are the same nor do they nourish your gut equally.
Hidden Ingredients in Store-Bought Yogurt That You Can Live (Very Well) Without
A commercially prepared blueberry yogurt can contain as much as 21 grams of sugar in just one 6-ounce container!
One problem with many commercial yogurt products is that they contain ingredients you don’t want or need.
Sugar, artificial sweeteners, flavors and dyes are just a few. Too much sugar, in particular, can actually cancel out the benefits you get from the beneficial bacteria!
But the problems with store-bought yogurt aren’t just limited to too much sugar…
I have other concerns, too, about many brands of commercial yogurt:
May be made from milk from cows raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that are treated with hormones like bovine growth hormone (RBST) and antibiotics
May contain genetically engineered ingredients like modified cornstarch and certain gums to create an artificially thick, creamy texture
While few yogurt products today still contain high-fructose corn syrup and other corn syrups (thanks to increased consumer awareness), the “sugar” used to sweeten yogurt is usually genetically engineered beet sugar
“Light” varieties contain artificial sweeteners, including acesulfame potassium or Acesulfame-K which may be linked to neuro-metabolic dysfunction with long-term use, and sucralose or Splenda which was recently shown in animal studies to increase risk of cancer
Speaking of Splenda… Recent animal studies also show it can reduce the amount of beneficial gut bacteria by 50 percent. Now there are two very good reasons (and, trust me, there are more) to avoid sucralose and the “light” yogurts that contain it.
Further, unless you buy organic yogurt made from milk from grass-fed cows, your yogurt is likely being made from the milk of factory farm-raised cows being fed genetically engineered corn and soy.
Most U.S. dairy cows consume a diet that contains genetically engineered grains, including the pesticides and herbicides that go with them. Traces of those substances can make their way into the finished food products, including the yogurt you eat!
The Benefits of Making Your Own Yogurt at Home
I recommend using raw, non-pasteurized milk from grass-fed cows for your yogurt
The good news is, you can have yogurt without all these negatives.
When you make your own yogurt at home, you have total control over what goes into the finished product.
You can create yogurt that…
Is freshly made from raw, non-pasteurized milk from grass-fed cows (if locally available) or organic milk
Doesn’t contain hormones and antibiotics, or traces of pesticides and herbicides
Doesn’t contain artificial colors or flavors or unnecessary thickeners (I’ll share with you a simple trick to make your yogurt thicker naturally)
Contains vitamin K2, depending on the yogurt starter you use
One of the greatest benefits to making your own homemade yogurt is that you can control the starter culture and the strains of beneficial bacteria in your yogurt.
Instead of just getting two or three strains of “good” gut bacteria like in many commercial products, you can have more. And that can mean greater numbers of probiotics for your gut health.
Why the Starter Culture You Choose May Be Your Most Important Yogurt-Making Decision
You eat yogurt for the beneficial bacteria or probiotics it provides, right?
So where does that bacteria come from? Your starter culture!
Your yogurt can only be as “beneficial” as the bacteria strains it contains, so what you add as your starter culture determines your finished product.
To get yogurt that’s full of live, active cultures, you need a starter culture that can produce trillions of beneficial bacteria.
Here’s how the process works:
Making homemade yogurt is a simple 4-step process
You warm the milk, and then cool it slightly
Then you add the yogurt starter containing the beneficial bacteria
The bacteria multiply in the warm environment, “eating” the sugars or lactose in the milk
The bacteria produce lactic acid which turns the milk acidic and causes it to gel and thicken
Starter cultures are precise, balanced blends of probiotic bacteria. Since they can vary according to the bacteria strains they contain, the starter you choose will determine the number of probiotic bacteria in the finished yogurt, as well as its flavor and thickness.
How long you culture your yogurt also influences its texture, flavor and thickness. A longer fermentation time typically results in yogurt with a tarter flavor.
If you’re making your own yogurt at home now, I invite you to take a closer look at what you’re using for your starter culture. Does it contain two, maybe three different strains?
How many probiotics does it guarantee? And can those strains survive the hostile gut environment when consumed?
My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter Provides a Minimum of 2.5 BILLION Probiotics from 5 Strains of Beneficial Bacteria – Not Just Two or Three
If you look closely at the label of the yogurt you’re now eating, you’ll find some rather long names listed. These are the bacterial strains used to culture your yogurt.
But are these strains the most beneficial for your gut health – and are they present in great enough numbers?
My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter contains 5 strains of beneficial bacteria for yogurt fermentation – and you get a minimum of 2.5 billion live probiotics in each packet!
Here are the 5 strains:
Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS®-1
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. lactis
Bifidobacterium lactis
Streptococcus thermophilus
How did I choose these strains, you might be wondering?
These five strains excel at producing a high-quality yogurt. Two of the Lactobacillus species – bulgaricus and lactis – work in synergy to produce amino acids from the milk proteins. These proteins are then used by Streptococcus thermophilus, a potent probiotic strain with well-researched health benefits.
Streptococcus thermophilus has been found to support digestive and immune health. It’s an important probiotic strain in that it produces lactase that may help people digest milk more efficiently.
And here’s something else that’s special about my Kinetic Culture Starter… the Lactobacillus and Streptococcus strains produce vitamin K2 in your intestinal tract – a hard-to-get nutrient that works in tandem with calcium and vitamin D to support your cardiovascular and bone health!
Bifidobacterium lactis is yet another powerful probiotic bacteria that has solid science behind it. Studies show it supports immune and digestive health as well as helping to break down body wastes and increase absorption of nutrients in the intestines and colon.
The fifth – and final – strain is one you don’t find every day in yogurt starters…
You Won’t Find This Superstrain in Too Many Starters, but We’ve Included It in My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter
The beneficial bacteria superstrain Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS®-1 is what makes my Complete Probiotics a unique and potent probiotic supplement.
Superstrain Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1 is also in my Complete Probiotics supplement
I’m so convinced of its value for gut health that I made sure it was included in my Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter too!
Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS®-1 is a highly effective strain of lactobacillus, and the “DDS-1” is what sets it apart from other everyday lactobacillus strains…
Several years ago, researchers discovered that this unique strain survives the entire human digestive tract and persists long-term and colonizes in the gut unlike others.
Most probiotic strains don’t stay around long in your gut, but this one is different. Studies show it may survive as long as eight days!
DDS-1 has also been found to be particularly useful in helping to break down lactose, which may be a boon for those who experience difficulties with digesting milk.
A major Midwestern University study showed DDS-1 may support gut health and even help improve occasional bloating and elimination irregularities.
This study suggests that DDS-1 may help create a healthy balance of microflora in your gastrointestinal tract – the exact reason why I recommend eating yogurt!
Let me ask you… If you’re going to eat yogurt, doesn’t it make sense to make sure it’s cultured with superstrain Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS®-1?
I certainly think so…
Invented in the 1970s, Electric Yogurt Makers Have Come a Long Way…
Dr. Mercola’s Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker
Back in the 1960s, an interesting influence forever changed American eating habits. As vacation travel to Europe increased, Americans began discovering a delicacy that Europeans had been long enjoying: yogurt.
For those Americans who didn’t have roots in other cultures where yogurt was already a staple part of the diet, this was likely their first exposure to this tart dairy food.
It didn’t take long for yogurt to catch on in the States, but it didn’t go mainstream until around the 1990s. For many years, yogurt was regarded as a “health food.”
Those who enjoyed yogurt wanted to be able to make it at home, to both save money and to have a ready supply available.
The first electric yogurt maker was introduced in the 1970s – a simple machine that maintained an even temperature for successful culturing.
Now, decades later, my Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker represents a giant step forward in convenience and versatility for making yogurt at home.
With its special advanced technology called PTC, or Positive Temperature Coefficient technology, you can accurately control the temperature of the unit.
And a separate timer allows you to control the length of the culturing period to customize your finished product before the maker automatically shuts off!
How My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker Takes the Chore Out of Making Yogurt
With my Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker, you can set it, leave the house, and come home to ready-made yogurt.
Special features found in my Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker makes homemade yogurt especially simple to do…
Fully automatic for easy operation
Allows you to customize culturing time based on your preference for a thinner, milder, kefir-style yogurt or one that’s thicker and more tart
Maintains the perfect temperature for optimal culturing of your yogurt
Its unique configuration allows for equal heat transmission
See-through cover enables you to observe the fermentation process in action
Includes 7 dishwasher-safe glass jars and plastic lids that go straight from the yogurt maker into your refrigerator
Comes with a complete Owner’s Manual with troubleshooting guide for the perfect yogurt – every time!
With its compact footprint and sleek design, my Yogurt Maker looks attractive in any setting. And with its quiet, soundless operation, you’ll hardly notice it’s there!
Plus, I know that once you taste the delicious yogurt it makes with such minimal effort, you’ll look forward to making yogurt regularly and putting your yogurt maker to good use.
Putting It All Together: What You Need to Know About Making Yogurt at Home With the Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker
Making your own yogurt at home isn’t complicated…
As I’ve pointed out, making yogurt at home is a simple 4-step process: 1) Heat the milk and then cool slightly, 2) Add the yogurt starter, 3) Hold the warmed, cultured milk at an even temperature in the yogurt maker, and 4) Chill the finished yogurt. That’s it!
With my Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter, you have everything you need to start making yogurt in your Yogurt Maker. You just provide the fresh milk.
I recommend using organic raw milk from grass-fed cows that hasn’t been pasteurized, but any dairy milk will work in your Yogurt Maker. Whole milk will give you the creamiest yogurt.
Alternative milks like coconut or almond milk won’t provide the same high-quality results because the Starter Culture contains strains that are designed to work with dairy proteins.
Heating the milk first to a higher temperature helps denature the milk proteins so they set together as “yogurt” instead of forming curds as in cheese making. This step yields a thicker, creamier yogurt, which is why I recommend warming the milk to 185° F (85° C) (and holding it there for 30 minutes with the help of a thermometer).
My Starter Culture contains heat-loving strains that thrive in a heated environment. If you choose to not warm your milk first to 185° F (85° C), your yogurt will be softer and thinner. Adding one or two tablespoons of nonfat dried milk before adding the yogurt culture can help make it thicker.
Before adding the starter culture, make sure the milk has cooled to 110° F (43° C) to avoid any die-off of your probiotic bacteria. Placing your pan of hot milk in an ice bath can quickly lower the temperature. Check your thermometer before adding the culture.
This same temperature, 110° F (43° C), is the optimal culturing temperature for fermenting your yogurt. Your Yogurt Makerwill maintain this temperature during the fermentation period which typically lasts 6 to 8 hours.
Creating Greek-Style Yogurt Is as Easy as 1-2-3!
Half of all commercial yogurt sold today is Greek or Greek-style yogurt. Its fans love its thicker, creamier texture.
You may be surprised to learn that you don’t need a special yogurt maker to make Greek-style yogurt. Greek yogurt is simply regular yogurt that has had the liquid whey strained out.
You don’t need a special yogurt maker to create thick Greek-style yogurt
And the good news is… you can easily create it from the yogurt you make with your Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker.
Here’s how to make Greek yogurt from your yogurt, once it’s finished fermenting in the yogurt maker:
Stretch a piece of cheesecloth or clean tea towel over the top of a bowl and secure it in place with rubber bands to form a strainer.
Open your cups of yogurt and carefully pour onto the strainer.
Place the yogurt in the refrigerator and allow it to drain for at least two hours. The longer the draining time, the thicker your yogurt will be.
Once it reaches your desired thickness, spoon yogurt back into individual serving jars or other storage container and refrigerate.
Wondering what to do with the liquid, or whey, that drains through into the bowl?
Don’t throw it away! It’s full of protein and nutrients like B12, potassium, selenium, and thiamine. You can make smoothies with it (add it as whey protein), use as the liquid in baked goods or other recipes, or in soup for extra protein.
How to Take Your Healthy Homemade Yogurt to the Next Level of Goodness
Create an eye-pleasing and nutritious parfait with yogurt, chia seeds and fresh fruit
Once your finished yogurt has cooled in the refrigerator, it’s ready to eat!
You can enjoy your homemade yogurt as is and savor its fresh, tart flavor, or you can adorn it with any of these nutrition-boosting ideas:
Mix with my Pro Puffs Crispy Rice and Whey Puffed Snack Mix for a delicious breakfast idea
Serve as a snack with a generous sprinkle of my Organic Seed Clusters with Dried Mulberries
Drizzle Pure Gold Raw Honey over the top for an authentic Greek culinary experience
Combine with my frozen Organic Blueberries for a healthy homemade version of blueberry mixed yogurt
Add to your favorite smoothie with a spoonful of my Ketone Energy for an extra burst of brainpower energy
There’s so much you can do with homemade yogurt – your options are limitless. And don’t forget about all the ways I shared earlier from around the world…
Stored in the refrigerator, your containers of yogurt will stay fresh for two weeks – if they last that long!
Are You Ready to Join the Do-It-Yourself Movement for Some of the Freshest, Healthiest Yogurt Ever?
You already know how important gut health is to your overall health. Eating high-quality yogurt each day provides one more delicious way to help you nourish your microbiome.
I wanted to make it easy for you to have your own yogurt readily available. My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker makes it easy to do. Kids even love to get involved and make it themselves with minimal assistance!
My Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter provides a nearly foolproof way to make delicious, healthy yogurt that’s teeming with probiotics from five different strains and vitamin K2. And with all the serving ideas I’ve provided, you’ll have endless ways to serve and eat it!
Why not join the millions who have already made yogurt a daily part of their lives?
Order your Kinetic Culture Yogurt Starter and Kinetic Culture Yogurt Maker today and discover the delicious difference and satisfaction that only high-quality homemade yogurt can provide!
P.S. Don’t forget… I know you’ll be delighted with your purchase – my Money Back Guarantee assures it. Please see complete details below and order with full confidence knowing you’re protected!
Label Snapshot for Kinetic Culture Packets for Yogurt
Nutritional Facts
Serving Size: 1 Packet 0.05 OZ. (1.5 g)
Servings Per Container: 10
Amt. Per Serving
Calories 5
% DV*
Total Fat 0g
0%
Sodium 0mg
0%
Total Carbohydrate 1g
<1%
Protein 0g
Not a significant source of calories from fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, dietary fibers, sugars, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron.
* Percent Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
