Sesame Seed Oil has been used as a healing oil for thousands of years. Sesame oil is mentioned in the Vedas as excellent for humans. It is naturally antibacterial for common skin pathogens, such as staphylococcus and streptococcus as well as common skin fungi, such as athlete's foot fungus. It is naturally antiviral. It is a natural anti inflammatory agent.
It has been used extensively in India as a healing oil, including in experiments which showed it was useful in unblocking arteries. In recent experiments in Holland by Ayurvedic physicians, the oil has been used in the treatment of several chronic disease processes, including hepatitis, diabetes and migraines.
In vitro, sesame seed oil has inhibited the growth of malignant melanoma (a skin cancer): PROSTAGLANDIN LEUKATRINES and ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS 46: 145-150, 1992.
Also in vitro, sesame seed oil has inhibited replication of human colon cancer cells: ANTI CANCER RESEARCH 11: 209-216, 1992.
Research shows that sesame seed oil is a potent antioxidant. In the tissues beneath the skin, this oil will neutralize oxygen radicals. It penetrates into the skin quickly and enters the blood stream through the capillaries. Molecules of sesame seed oil maintain good cholesterol (HDL) and lower bad cholesterol (LDL).
Sesame seed oil is a cell growth regulator and slows down cell growth and replication.
In both the small intestine and the colon, some cells are nourished by fat instead of sugar. The presence of sesame seed oil can provide those cells with essential nourishment.
In an experiment at the Maharishi International College in Fairfield, Iowa, students rinsed their mouths with sesame oil, resulting in an 85% reduction in the bacteria which causes gingivitis.
As nose drops, sniffed back into the sinuses, sesame seed oil has cured chronic sinusitis. As a throat gargle, it kills strep and other common cold bacteria. It helps sufferers of psoriasis and dry skin ailments. It has been successfully used in the hair of children to kill lice infestations. It is a useful natural UV protector.
Used after exposure to wind or sun it will calm the burns. It nourishes and feeds the scalp to control dry scalp dandruff and to kill dandruff causing bacteria. It protects the skin from the effects of chlorine in swimming pool water. Used before and after radiation treatments, sesame seed oil helps neutralize the flood of oxygen radicals which such treatment inevitably causes.
On the skin, oil soluble toxins are attracted to sesame seed oil molecules which can then be washed away with hot water and a mild soap. Internally, the oil molecules attract oil soluble toxins and carry them into the blood stream and then out of the body as waste.
Used as a douche mixed with warm water, the oil controls vaginal yeast infections.
Sesame seed oil absorbs quickly and penetrates through the tissues to the very marrow of the bone. It enters into the blood stream through the capillaries and circulates. The liver does not sweep sesame seed oil molecules from the blood, accepting those molecules as friendly.
Sesame seed oil helps joints keep their flexibility. It keeps the skin supple and soft. It heals and protects areas of mild scrapes, cuts and abrasions. It helps tighten facial skin, particularly around the nose, controlling the usual enlargement of pores as skin ages chronologically.
Teen boys and girls have learned, wrongly, that all oil is bad for their facial skin. Heavy oils and toxic oils and creams are bad for all facial skin. But sesame seed oil is the one oil which is actually good for young skin. It helps control eruptions and neutralizes the poisons which develop both on the surface and in the pores. With sesame oil, no cosmetics are needed. The oil will cause young facial skin to have and display natural good health.
Used on baby skin, particularly in the area covered by a diaper, sesame seed oil will protect the tender skin against rash caused by the acidity of body wastes. In the nose and ears, it will protect against common skin pathogens.
For children going to school, who will be in the presence of other children with colds and sniffles, sesame seed oil swabbed in the nose can protect against air borne viruses and bacteria.
When using the oil as a massage oil, stroke the long limbs up and down. Use circular motions over all joints to stimulate the natural energy of those joints.
WHY WE USE ORGANIC, COLD PRESSED OIL.
ALL creams lotions and oils put on the skin are absorbed into the tissue and then move through the capillaries into the blood stream.
When poisons (insecticides, herbicides, fungicides) are use by agribusiness to grow seed, nut and vegetable oil crops, molecules of those poisons show up in the extracted oil. To fully extract the oils, heat and a powerful solvent, hexane are used. Molecules of hexane can be found in commercial oils.
Heating to 450 degrees F in the extraction process changes the nature of the oil molecule from a normal trans fatty acid to an abnormal configuration. Not only is it abnormal, it is poisonous.
This is true of all of such currently popular commercial oils for the skin, such as grape seed, almond, peanut and olive oils.
Commercial oils used as the base oils of skin care lotions and creams bring whatever poisonous molecules are in the oils to the user. These are trace amounts but they are poison to the body. The liver will extract some to be excreted as waste but some will be stored in the body tissues. These stored poisons do not go away.
Organic cold pressed sesame seed oil has been extracted simply by squeezing the seeds in a big press. The process is not as efficient as using heat and hexane, but the oil remaining from organic cold pressed seeds, nuts or vegetables has no trace farm chemicals, no hexane molecules, no poisonous trans fatty acids.
Organic, cold pressed seed and nut oils are substantially more expensive than commercial oils. Though they start off infinitely better than commercial oils, more processing must be done to complete the ayurveda protocols and make the oils fully beneficial and appropriate for human and animal use. Those are the protocols we follow at YOUTHING STRATEGIES.
http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Regular/mcintyre81.htm
http://www.youthingstrategies.com/qualities.htm
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=84
Infections are good for You !!
Infection can actually be beneficial to health, it is essential to
have a clear understanding of the symptoms of infection and their
real purpose. Whenever a child develops measles, chicken pox,
whooping cough or any of the other common childhood infections, it
will experience several of the following symptoms;
Fever - speeds up bodily elimination of toxic waste.
No Appetite - when a fever is present, the digestive system shuts
down thus removing the need and desire for food.
Vomiting/Diarrhoea - the body's way of eliminating undigested
foodstuff from the digestive tract.
Tiredness/Lethargy - the body's way of forcing a sick person to rest
thus conserving its energy for the vital tasks of cleansing and
repair.
Glandular Swelling - the lymph glands filter the blood for toxic
substances. Swelling of these glands greatly increases their
filtering capacity.
Skin Rash - represents an elimination of toxic waste, the skin being
a major eliminative organ. pimples dry blisters are also covered here
and author deals with it a later paragraph.
Mucus Elimination - also an elimination of toxic waste. Mucus is made
up of the body's white blood cells which are the body's garbage cans
containing toxic residue. A good example is the runny nose.
Inflammation - serves the same purpose as fever, to cleanse and
repair damaged or poisoned tissue in the body.
In reality, the symptoms do not constitute the disease but the cure.
In other words, measles is not the disease but the cure. Whooping
cough is not the disease but the cure. Chicken pox is not the disease
but the cure. The real disease is Toxaemia out of which the symptoms
arise. This will explain the words of Hippocrates, who to this day is
referred to as the Father of Medicine. Over 2000 years ago he wrote;
"Diseases are crises of purification, of toxic elimination. Symptoms
are the natural defences of the body. We call them diseases, but in
fact they are the cure of diseases."
By clearly understanding the true purpose of symptoms, the beneficial
nature of infections becomes readily apparent. These so-called
infections serve to restore internal purity thereby promoting the
health. This will explain why alternate health practitioners make no
attempt to suppress these symptoms, instead they believe that the
symptoms should be allowed to run their course so that complete
detoxification is achieved.
On the other hand, should these symptoms be suppressed by medical
drugs or other suppressive measures, then the body will be forced to
retain within its own tissues the poisonous wastes that it is
striving to remove. This can not only result in increased suffering
and complications, but it can lay the foundations for chronic disease
in later life. If you know of a child who has ever suffered
complications or died from a childhood infection, then find out how
the child was treated, for in the opinion of many doctors, it is
incorrect treatment including suppressive drug therapy that lies
behind most complications and fatalities. In many cases poor
underlying health is also a factor.
Modern science energy laws tell us that dead matter is black. IF you
take wood and burn it, its energy is converted to heat and charcoal
remains. The author has seen the color of the toxins stored in the
bile ducts, when they come out, just charcoal color. same is the
color of the cancer tumors, when they leave the body externally. When
they are about to die, total black color. Come to skin disease now.
be it boil, erruptions, pimples, final color when it forms the head
is black, when it can easily leave the body without giving any
trouble. You will see that most matter leaving the body through skin,
when it itches intensely, it is black. (only living matter, termed
young, is hair when they are black, as an exception! Why hair are black and God gave us, no satisfactory answer till now)
When ayurvedic drugs are used in Cancers and HIV+ patients to boost
their immunity, it is invariable that some form of healing crisis
arises. And this healing crisis is a sure symptom that immunity is
boosted, body's natural defence is now active. One can use relief
remedy to ease the discomfort, but do not suppress the healing crisis.
To reduce the digestive load, one can take fruits/veggies to get
natural enzymes, vitamins etc but let digestive system know its job
by taking cereals, sprouts, legumes etc also. Exercise to all systems
including Central Nervous system (e.g. quizzes, intellectual
discussions, reading, etc) essential. Do not overload it by non-veg food.
People often go to the alternate healer when conventional methods
have been tried and found without success. Alternate methods require
personal exertion, self control, changing the cherished habits. The
first sign of improvement in the treatment of a chronic disease does
not mean a cure. An abatement of symptoms is also not a sign of real
and permanent cure. Under the influence of various natural
detoxification methods, when the body becomes purified and
strengthened, the period of marked improvement will set in. The
improvement is not to be judged by patient but by non-medical
neighbors and family members will see the skin glow, sparkele in eyes
and general euphoria of the patient. It is worth noting that some
microbes cause cravings, depression, obesity! Once immune system
strengthens it finishes microbes by itself, without need of any anti-
microbial drugs. A real healer, if he finds healing crisis to become
more strong, he may give relief by reducing or backing off the dose a
little, but not give any suppressive or anti-microbe treatment.
What is important is vitality, energy levels, sleep quality. Immune
system is active in sleep maximum. It is just like Prime minister
visiting the city, where roads are cordoned off, police everywhere to
guard his security. same way, when other functions are in low key,
immune system is at peak. doing detoxification of liver, lungs,
spleen etc. The soil (blood) is important not the germ contained
therein. germ finishes off some of the morbid matter which is waste for body. Viral fever does not get tamed by drugs, but immune system
itself finishes it off within 5-10 days. Certain microbes cant
multiply at higher temperatures, so body raises the temperature.
While a naturopath tries to cover the body by a blanket or cold
compress, we like to reduce the fever by a anti-pyretic. Fever must
run through its course, and we should starve the fever, as discussed
in some posts on this list.
So do not worry by blisters, pimples etc. The black heads, as soon as
they are formed, they will leave the body. The blemishes, dark spots
may be finished off by blood purification herbs/detoxification drugs
later. The skin fairness is surprising result in sincere patients
after detoxes!
The most potent toxin in the body is scare by pathology numbers..all
time game of life insurance of meidcal science and its practitioners! Health is personal experience, as much as self-realization. It can not be defined by numbers. numbers are observations useful for future interpretation, but when nature goes in uncharted waters (Global warming) who can do anything.
So next time when you have an infection dont try to suppress it.
have a clear understanding of the symptoms of infection and their
real purpose. Whenever a child develops measles, chicken pox,
whooping cough or any of the other common childhood infections, it
will experience several of the following symptoms;
Fever - speeds up bodily elimination of toxic waste.
No Appetite - when a fever is present, the digestive system shuts
down thus removing the need and desire for food.
Vomiting/Diarrhoea - the body's way of eliminating undigested
foodstuff from the digestive tract.
Tiredness/Lethargy - the body's way of forcing a sick person to rest
thus conserving its energy for the vital tasks of cleansing and
repair.
Glandular Swelling - the lymph glands filter the blood for toxic
substances. Swelling of these glands greatly increases their
filtering capacity.
Skin Rash - represents an elimination of toxic waste, the skin being
a major eliminative organ. pimples dry blisters are also covered here
and author deals with it a later paragraph.
Mucus Elimination - also an elimination of toxic waste. Mucus is made
up of the body's white blood cells which are the body's garbage cans
containing toxic residue. A good example is the runny nose.
Inflammation - serves the same purpose as fever, to cleanse and
repair damaged or poisoned tissue in the body.
In reality, the symptoms do not constitute the disease but the cure.
In other words, measles is not the disease but the cure. Whooping
cough is not the disease but the cure. Chicken pox is not the disease
but the cure. The real disease is Toxaemia out of which the symptoms
arise. This will explain the words of Hippocrates, who to this day is
referred to as the Father of Medicine. Over 2000 years ago he wrote;
"Diseases are crises of purification, of toxic elimination. Symptoms
are the natural defences of the body. We call them diseases, but in
fact they are the cure of diseases."
By clearly understanding the true purpose of symptoms, the beneficial
nature of infections becomes readily apparent. These so-called
infections serve to restore internal purity thereby promoting the
health. This will explain why alternate health practitioners make no
attempt to suppress these symptoms, instead they believe that the
symptoms should be allowed to run their course so that complete
detoxification is achieved.
On the other hand, should these symptoms be suppressed by medical
drugs or other suppressive measures, then the body will be forced to
retain within its own tissues the poisonous wastes that it is
striving to remove. This can not only result in increased suffering
and complications, but it can lay the foundations for chronic disease
in later life. If you know of a child who has ever suffered
complications or died from a childhood infection, then find out how
the child was treated, for in the opinion of many doctors, it is
incorrect treatment including suppressive drug therapy that lies
behind most complications and fatalities. In many cases poor
underlying health is also a factor.
Modern science energy laws tell us that dead matter is black. IF you
take wood and burn it, its energy is converted to heat and charcoal
remains. The author has seen the color of the toxins stored in the
bile ducts, when they come out, just charcoal color. same is the
color of the cancer tumors, when they leave the body externally. When
they are about to die, total black color. Come to skin disease now.
be it boil, erruptions, pimples, final color when it forms the head
is black, when it can easily leave the body without giving any
trouble. You will see that most matter leaving the body through skin,
when it itches intensely, it is black. (only living matter, termed
young, is hair when they are black, as an exception! Why hair are black and God gave us, no satisfactory answer till now)
When ayurvedic drugs are used in Cancers and HIV+ patients to boost
their immunity, it is invariable that some form of healing crisis
arises. And this healing crisis is a sure symptom that immunity is
boosted, body's natural defence is now active. One can use relief
remedy to ease the discomfort, but do not suppress the healing crisis.
To reduce the digestive load, one can take fruits/veggies to get
natural enzymes, vitamins etc but let digestive system know its job
by taking cereals, sprouts, legumes etc also. Exercise to all systems
including Central Nervous system (e.g. quizzes, intellectual
discussions, reading, etc) essential. Do not overload it by non-veg food.
People often go to the alternate healer when conventional methods
have been tried and found without success. Alternate methods require
personal exertion, self control, changing the cherished habits. The
first sign of improvement in the treatment of a chronic disease does
not mean a cure. An abatement of symptoms is also not a sign of real
and permanent cure. Under the influence of various natural
detoxification methods, when the body becomes purified and
strengthened, the period of marked improvement will set in. The
improvement is not to be judged by patient but by non-medical
neighbors and family members will see the skin glow, sparkele in eyes
and general euphoria of the patient. It is worth noting that some
microbes cause cravings, depression, obesity! Once immune system
strengthens it finishes microbes by itself, without need of any anti-
microbial drugs. A real healer, if he finds healing crisis to become
more strong, he may give relief by reducing or backing off the dose a
little, but not give any suppressive or anti-microbe treatment.
What is important is vitality, energy levels, sleep quality. Immune
system is active in sleep maximum. It is just like Prime minister
visiting the city, where roads are cordoned off, police everywhere to
guard his security. same way, when other functions are in low key,
immune system is at peak. doing detoxification of liver, lungs,
spleen etc. The soil (blood) is important not the germ contained
therein. germ finishes off some of the morbid matter which is waste for body. Viral fever does not get tamed by drugs, but immune system
itself finishes it off within 5-10 days. Certain microbes cant
multiply at higher temperatures, so body raises the temperature.
While a naturopath tries to cover the body by a blanket or cold
compress, we like to reduce the fever by a anti-pyretic. Fever must
run through its course, and we should starve the fever, as discussed
in some posts on this list.
So do not worry by blisters, pimples etc. The black heads, as soon as
they are formed, they will leave the body. The blemishes, dark spots
may be finished off by blood purification herbs/detoxification drugs
later. The skin fairness is surprising result in sincere patients
after detoxes!
The most potent toxin in the body is scare by pathology numbers..all
time game of life insurance of meidcal science and its practitioners! Health is personal experience, as much as self-realization. It can not be defined by numbers. numbers are observations useful for future interpretation, but when nature goes in uncharted waters (Global warming) who can do anything.
So next time when you have an infection dont try to suppress it.
Take care....Your pets can make you ILL
I once met a person who said her family consists of four members. Next she said she's an only child. Doing the math was easy, so I couldn't help but ask about the two-member discrepancy. "Oh! The cats of course!" was the answer that I got, but did not expect.
Like this person, pet owners have for a long time confessed to feeling that their pets are part of their families. While planning their meals, their outings and their travel, some form of arrangement must include these non-human family members. While understanding the responsibilities of keeping the pet healthy, very few, however, believe that they can get sick from their own pets. Trips to the vet are in fact a tool not only to keep the animal healthy, but also to keep the owner safe from zoonotic diseases.
"Zoonotic diseases are the diseases that are transmitted between man and animal. These diseases are transmitted both ways," explained Dr. Rabei Saleh, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine in Suez Canal University .
This disease does not have to be physical. Dr. Saleh explained that even being frightened of animals could be considered a zoonotic disease. However, zoonotic diseases are commonly defined as contagious diseases transmitted by microscopic living organisms.
With the world now facing a potential pandemic as bird flu spreads, pet owners are becoming more aware of the latent danger that lurks behind their beloved pets.
These dangers depend on the kind of pet as well as the kind of health-care it receives. Dr. Saleh emphasized the importance of frequent trips to the vet among other needed precautionary measures.
Cats and Dogs
Rabies is the disease most commonly transmitted from cats and dogs to humans. Dr. Saleh noted that pets should be vaccinated annually against the disease from the age of four years. Animals that are kept at home are safe from the disease. However, the problem can arise when they are taken outside, like when you take your dog out for a walk. "If the animal is bitten by another infected animal it can contract the disease," he explained.
When dealing with rabies, it is important to note two things, Dr. Saleh said. The first is that the disease is only transferable through biting. The second is that a quick response is vital should this occur.
"If you have a dog and notice any kind of behavioral changes such as mad behavior or lack of recognition of the owner, you need to immediately send the dog to a veterinarian hospital. If for any reason medical attention for the animal can't be sought, then it must be put to sleep immediately or it becomes a health hazard," he said.
Dr. Saleh explained that there are two kinds of rabies; furious and dumb. In furious rabies, the symptoms are evident. Dumb rabies is more dangerous because the infected animal does not show any symptoms but still carries the disease. "In both cases there needs to be a history of being bitten by another animal," he said.
So what should one do when bitten by an animal? This depends on the degree of laceration (tear) in the bite as well as its location. The disease enters through the nerve fibers that feed the area of the wound. Hence, the closer the bite is to the brain, the more dangerous.
As soon as the bite occurs, the wound needs to be flushed out with water. "When doing that, the patient is in fact doing two things: mechanically removing the virus or diluting it. Also, the wound should not be covered or stitched because the virus is more potent when isolated from air," explained Dr. Saleh.
The second step to take after being bitten is to receive rabies shots. The first shot against rabies should be taken immediately on the same day of the bite. The following shots are taken three days later, then after one and two weeks. The final shot is taken 28 days after the bite. The animal that bit the person should be located and placed under observation. If the animal is rabid then it will die within two weeks. At this point the person must take all five shots. If the animal lives, then the two remaining shots are not necessary.
A parasitic disease more commonly related to cats is toxoplasmosis. The disease, explained Dr. Saleh, is caused by a microscopic, crescent-shaped parasite which is found in the blood. The parasite might go through other intermediary hosts during its life cycle, but its final host and site of reproduction is the cat. Eventually, the parasite is transferred through the cat's feces and so any contact with the litter box of an infected cat is dangerous.
The most dangerous effect of toxoplasmosis is on pregnant women. According to Saleh, it can result in miscarriages. It can also result in encephalitis (infection of the brain) in the fetus, which could lead to blindness in the newborn baby. Other congenital diseases that might arise as a result of infection with this disease include hydrocephalus (a head filled with water) and microcephalus (small head), depending on the stage of pregnancy at the time of infection. "This is why pregnant women should never change the litter box. If the woman must do so, the scooping method should be employed to avoid breathing in its vapor," explained Dr. Saleh.
Intermediary hosts of the parasite include sheep, rodents, cattle and birds. Since the disease can be acquired by eating uncooked processed meat, cats should not be allowed to catch mice or hunt for their food and should always be fed cooked food. The disease, while having no symptoms in animals or cats, can be diagnosed by a vet. After three to four months, the infection goes away on its own. There is no vaccine for cats or humans against the parasite.
Dogs can transfer roundworms to their owners. In some extreme cases these worms can cause damage to the liver, eyes or brain. Dogs need to be taken on a regular annual visit to their doctors for de-worming and their stool should be checked every six months, said Dr. Saleh.
A parasitic dermatological disease that could be passed on to humans from their dogs is mange (or scabies in humans). The parasites make tunnels under the skin. "Symptoms for dogs include itching, hair loss, wrinkling skin and a terrible smell. As soon as a dog contracts the disease, it needs to be treated in a pet hospital and to be isolated from people. If the disease becomes difficult to treat, the vet may need to put the dog to sleep in order to avoid contaminating humans and other dogs," he said.
If the dog or the owner show symptoms of itching, medical attention needs to be sought immediately. An important note, Dr. Saleh said, is that dogs normally shed hair twice a year and this should not be confused with mange. However, if circular or irregular patches of hair loss are discovered, a visit to the vet is in order.
Birds
Psittacosis, or the parrot disease, is transferred by birds that live in the wild. Sick birds show signs of sleepiness, shivering, weight loss, breathing difficulties and diarrhea. Human symptoms include fever, headaches and pneumonia.
The disease is contracted through the handling of infected animals. In addition, the waste or dust from the cages of infected birds could cause eye-irritation so they should be handled with care.
Fish
Fish form the least hazard in terms of zoonotic diseases. The most important precaution that needs to be taken is when you feed them live worms since these come from waste channels and carry along with them any presiding diseases in those channels, Dr. Saleh explained.
"The water in which [fish are] kept also needs to be clean and the filters disinfected regularly otherwise the fish owner may get gastro-intestinal disorders such as diarrhea or vomiting. Also, it is important to wash the hands after any contact with aquarium water. Water should be changed frequently and the filters should be disinfected regularly," he said.
In Need of Attention
Overall, Dr. Saleh said that it's important to note that all pets are generally safe if the right precautions are taken. "The most important thing is to look at the place where this pet will stay, the capabilities of the owner and the general health status of those in the house."
Pets are not toys, he stressed. They should be taken care of, even mentally, and they need to be taken to the vet regularly. "Small animals don't need much exercise, but bigger animals do. They need to walk half an hour in the morning and another in the evening. It could be the case that you can only take care of some fish in the water. Dogs, however, are the most demanding."
Additionally, Dr. Saleh advised that it is best to avoid all kinds of wild pets such as turtles and wild birds like parrots. For all animals though, feces are mostly the carriers of diseases and litter boxes must be handled with care. "It's important to wash the hands well after handling the pet and not to kiss it on the mouth or allow it to lick us," he said. When feeding the animal, it's important to feed them either pet food or leftovers which the owner himself could eat; not spoilt food, said Dr. Saleh.
Pet owners should always check with a doctor if they or their animals develop any kind of symptoms such as the flu, rash, skin irritation or itching. "It's important at this point to tell your doctor that you have a pet," he said.
Finally, Dr. Saleh stressed that despite the potential problems, keeping pets is beneficial for children because it teaches responsibility and discipline that remain with the child till the end of life.
Like this person, pet owners have for a long time confessed to feeling that their pets are part of their families. While planning their meals, their outings and their travel, some form of arrangement must include these non-human family members. While understanding the responsibilities of keeping the pet healthy, very few, however, believe that they can get sick from their own pets. Trips to the vet are in fact a tool not only to keep the animal healthy, but also to keep the owner safe from zoonotic diseases.
"Zoonotic diseases are the diseases that are transmitted between man and animal. These diseases are transmitted both ways," explained Dr. Rabei Saleh, Professor of Preventive Medicine at the Faculty of Veterinarian Medicine in Suez Canal University .
This disease does not have to be physical. Dr. Saleh explained that even being frightened of animals could be considered a zoonotic disease. However, zoonotic diseases are commonly defined as contagious diseases transmitted by microscopic living organisms.
With the world now facing a potential pandemic as bird flu spreads, pet owners are becoming more aware of the latent danger that lurks behind their beloved pets.
These dangers depend on the kind of pet as well as the kind of health-care it receives. Dr. Saleh emphasized the importance of frequent trips to the vet among other needed precautionary measures.
Cats and Dogs
Rabies is the disease most commonly transmitted from cats and dogs to humans. Dr. Saleh noted that pets should be vaccinated annually against the disease from the age of four years. Animals that are kept at home are safe from the disease. However, the problem can arise when they are taken outside, like when you take your dog out for a walk. "If the animal is bitten by another infected animal it can contract the disease," he explained.
When dealing with rabies, it is important to note two things, Dr. Saleh said. The first is that the disease is only transferable through biting. The second is that a quick response is vital should this occur.
"If you have a dog and notice any kind of behavioral changes such as mad behavior or lack of recognition of the owner, you need to immediately send the dog to a veterinarian hospital. If for any reason medical attention for the animal can't be sought, then it must be put to sleep immediately or it becomes a health hazard," he said.
Dr. Saleh explained that there are two kinds of rabies; furious and dumb. In furious rabies, the symptoms are evident. Dumb rabies is more dangerous because the infected animal does not show any symptoms but still carries the disease. "In both cases there needs to be a history of being bitten by another animal," he said.
So what should one do when bitten by an animal? This depends on the degree of laceration (tear) in the bite as well as its location. The disease enters through the nerve fibers that feed the area of the wound. Hence, the closer the bite is to the brain, the more dangerous.
As soon as the bite occurs, the wound needs to be flushed out with water. "When doing that, the patient is in fact doing two things: mechanically removing the virus or diluting it. Also, the wound should not be covered or stitched because the virus is more potent when isolated from air," explained Dr. Saleh.
The second step to take after being bitten is to receive rabies shots. The first shot against rabies should be taken immediately on the same day of the bite. The following shots are taken three days later, then after one and two weeks. The final shot is taken 28 days after the bite. The animal that bit the person should be located and placed under observation. If the animal is rabid then it will die within two weeks. At this point the person must take all five shots. If the animal lives, then the two remaining shots are not necessary.
A parasitic disease more commonly related to cats is toxoplasmosis. The disease, explained Dr. Saleh, is caused by a microscopic, crescent-shaped parasite which is found in the blood. The parasite might go through other intermediary hosts during its life cycle, but its final host and site of reproduction is the cat. Eventually, the parasite is transferred through the cat's feces and so any contact with the litter box of an infected cat is dangerous.
The most dangerous effect of toxoplasmosis is on pregnant women. According to Saleh, it can result in miscarriages. It can also result in encephalitis (infection of the brain) in the fetus, which could lead to blindness in the newborn baby. Other congenital diseases that might arise as a result of infection with this disease include hydrocephalus (a head filled with water) and microcephalus (small head), depending on the stage of pregnancy at the time of infection. "This is why pregnant women should never change the litter box. If the woman must do so, the scooping method should be employed to avoid breathing in its vapor," explained Dr. Saleh.
Intermediary hosts of the parasite include sheep, rodents, cattle and birds. Since the disease can be acquired by eating uncooked processed meat, cats should not be allowed to catch mice or hunt for their food and should always be fed cooked food. The disease, while having no symptoms in animals or cats, can be diagnosed by a vet. After three to four months, the infection goes away on its own. There is no vaccine for cats or humans against the parasite.
Dogs can transfer roundworms to their owners. In some extreme cases these worms can cause damage to the liver, eyes or brain. Dogs need to be taken on a regular annual visit to their doctors for de-worming and their stool should be checked every six months, said Dr. Saleh.
A parasitic dermatological disease that could be passed on to humans from their dogs is mange (or scabies in humans). The parasites make tunnels under the skin. "Symptoms for dogs include itching, hair loss, wrinkling skin and a terrible smell. As soon as a dog contracts the disease, it needs to be treated in a pet hospital and to be isolated from people. If the disease becomes difficult to treat, the vet may need to put the dog to sleep in order to avoid contaminating humans and other dogs," he said.
If the dog or the owner show symptoms of itching, medical attention needs to be sought immediately. An important note, Dr. Saleh said, is that dogs normally shed hair twice a year and this should not be confused with mange. However, if circular or irregular patches of hair loss are discovered, a visit to the vet is in order.
Birds
Psittacosis, or the parrot disease, is transferred by birds that live in the wild. Sick birds show signs of sleepiness, shivering, weight loss, breathing difficulties and diarrhea. Human symptoms include fever, headaches and pneumonia.
The disease is contracted through the handling of infected animals. In addition, the waste or dust from the cages of infected birds could cause eye-irritation so they should be handled with care.
Fish
Fish form the least hazard in terms of zoonotic diseases. The most important precaution that needs to be taken is when you feed them live worms since these come from waste channels and carry along with them any presiding diseases in those channels, Dr. Saleh explained.
"The water in which [fish are] kept also needs to be clean and the filters disinfected regularly otherwise the fish owner may get gastro-intestinal disorders such as diarrhea or vomiting. Also, it is important to wash the hands after any contact with aquarium water. Water should be changed frequently and the filters should be disinfected regularly," he said.
In Need of Attention
Overall, Dr. Saleh said that it's important to note that all pets are generally safe if the right precautions are taken. "The most important thing is to look at the place where this pet will stay, the capabilities of the owner and the general health status of those in the house."
Pets are not toys, he stressed. They should be taken care of, even mentally, and they need to be taken to the vet regularly. "Small animals don't need much exercise, but bigger animals do. They need to walk half an hour in the morning and another in the evening. It could be the case that you can only take care of some fish in the water. Dogs, however, are the most demanding."
Additionally, Dr. Saleh advised that it is best to avoid all kinds of wild pets such as turtles and wild birds like parrots. For all animals though, feces are mostly the carriers of diseases and litter boxes must be handled with care. "It's important to wash the hands well after handling the pet and not to kiss it on the mouth or allow it to lick us," he said. When feeding the animal, it's important to feed them either pet food or leftovers which the owner himself could eat; not spoilt food, said Dr. Saleh.
Pet owners should always check with a doctor if they or their animals develop any kind of symptoms such as the flu, rash, skin irritation or itching. "It's important at this point to tell your doctor that you have a pet," he said.
Finally, Dr. Saleh stressed that despite the potential problems, keeping pets is beneficial for children because it teaches responsibility and discipline that remain with the child till the end of life.
Secret behind Dates
Dates are one of the most nourishing fruits and it is sometimes called the "bread of desert." More than two third of dates' weight is natural sugar.
This fruit was highly esteemed by the ancient civilizations more than 5,000 years ago. Ancient Egyptians considered dates as a symbol of fertility, while the Romans and the Greeks used it to ornament their stately triumph pageants. Today, dates are widely grown in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Spain, Italy and the United States. There are more than 600 varieties of dates.
Dates and the pre-birth period
Dates stimulate the uterus by regulating and hastening its contractions to facilitate delivery. The uterus is a relatively large muscular organ and it urgently requires an adequate supply of natural sugar during labor and delivery.
Being a laxative, dates are essential for pregnant women before delivery in order to purge the colon and intestine and to facilitate delivery. The Qura'nic verse explains this, as Allah tells Mary: And shake the trunk of the palm tree towards thee - thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee [Mariam - 25]
Nutriment and medicine for children
Dates contain natural sugar which is easily absorbed and digested. Thus, it is safe and comforting for children's stomach and intestine. And date juice is useful especially if we mix it with milk - it becomes a very nourishing and restorative drink for children and adults. Dates and honey paste, taken three times a day, is used for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery in children,
This paste also comforts and hardens the gums during teething and it facilitates the process.
Treatment for obesity
The wide variety of nutritious elements in dates makes it hunger resistive. The cause behind obesity is a persisting feeling of hunger and an appetite for food which drives a person to consume larger amounts of fats and sugar when he eat his meal.
So, treatment by eating a few dates when feeling hungry helps reduce hunger and be filled. These dates provide the body with the necessary sugar and stimulate the intestine, which reduce hunger greatly, and eventually, reduce food consumption. The Prophet's saying shows this: A household that has dates doesn't feel hunger. [Narrated by Muslim].
Remedy for liver and other inflammations
Dates remedy the liver and purge it from toxins. Breaking the fast with dates is one of the most magnificent of natural remedies for the maintenance and purging the liver from accumulated toxins. Also, drinking dates' juice the treatment of sore throat, various types of fever, rhinorrhis and common cold.
Having high medicinal and nutritious value, dates are expected to be the best food for the future. Dates contain as high a percentage as 88 percent of carbohydrate (starch), 2.5-5 percent) of fat, (2.3-5.6 percent) of Protein and (6.4-11.5 percent) of vitamins and dietary fiber. The flesh contains (0.2-5 percent) of oil, whereas the seed's weight is (7.7 -9.7 percent) oil. The weight of the seed is ( 6.6 - 14.2 percent) of the date's weight.
Dates contain Vitamins A, B1 and B2, and fluorine which prevents teeth decay. Other minerals found in various proportions in dates include boron, calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorous, sodium and zinc.
Additionally, the seeds contain aluminum, cadmium, chloride, lead and sulfur in various proportions. Selenium, element believed to help prevent cancer and important in immune function, is also found in dates.
If you are feeling weak, don't hesitate to take seven dates (70 gm) in the morning. You will actually be taking 70 milligrams of calcium, which is very useful for the bones, joints and nerves; 35 milligrams of phosphorus, which is nutritious for the brain; and 7 milligrams of iron, which strengthens the body in general and the heart in particular.
It's also suitable for reducing weight as it contains only 0.25 gm of fat. This prophetic meal also regulates and stimulates the bowels with the 10 gm of dietary fiber it contains.
This fruit was highly esteemed by the ancient civilizations more than 5,000 years ago. Ancient Egyptians considered dates as a symbol of fertility, while the Romans and the Greeks used it to ornament their stately triumph pageants. Today, dates are widely grown in the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Egypt, Iraq, Spain, Italy and the United States. There are more than 600 varieties of dates.
Dates and the pre-birth period
Dates stimulate the uterus by regulating and hastening its contractions to facilitate delivery. The uterus is a relatively large muscular organ and it urgently requires an adequate supply of natural sugar during labor and delivery.
Being a laxative, dates are essential for pregnant women before delivery in order to purge the colon and intestine and to facilitate delivery. The Qura'nic verse explains this, as Allah tells Mary: And shake the trunk of the palm tree towards thee - thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee [Mariam - 25]
Nutriment and medicine for children
Dates contain natural sugar which is easily absorbed and digested. Thus, it is safe and comforting for children's stomach and intestine. And date juice is useful especially if we mix it with milk - it becomes a very nourishing and restorative drink for children and adults. Dates and honey paste, taken three times a day, is used for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery in children,
This paste also comforts and hardens the gums during teething and it facilitates the process.
Treatment for obesity
The wide variety of nutritious elements in dates makes it hunger resistive. The cause behind obesity is a persisting feeling of hunger and an appetite for food which drives a person to consume larger amounts of fats and sugar when he eat his meal.
So, treatment by eating a few dates when feeling hungry helps reduce hunger and be filled. These dates provide the body with the necessary sugar and stimulate the intestine, which reduce hunger greatly, and eventually, reduce food consumption. The Prophet's saying shows this: A household that has dates doesn't feel hunger. [Narrated by Muslim].
Remedy for liver and other inflammations
Dates remedy the liver and purge it from toxins. Breaking the fast with dates is one of the most magnificent of natural remedies for the maintenance and purging the liver from accumulated toxins. Also, drinking dates' juice the treatment of sore throat, various types of fever, rhinorrhis and common cold.
Having high medicinal and nutritious value, dates are expected to be the best food for the future. Dates contain as high a percentage as 88 percent of carbohydrate (starch), 2.5-5 percent) of fat, (2.3-5.6 percent) of Protein and (6.4-11.5 percent) of vitamins and dietary fiber. The flesh contains (0.2-5 percent) of oil, whereas the seed's weight is (7.7 -9.7 percent) oil. The weight of the seed is ( 6.6 - 14.2 percent) of the date's weight.
Dates contain Vitamins A, B1 and B2, and fluorine which prevents teeth decay. Other minerals found in various proportions in dates include boron, calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorous, sodium and zinc.
Additionally, the seeds contain aluminum, cadmium, chloride, lead and sulfur in various proportions. Selenium, element believed to help prevent cancer and important in immune function, is also found in dates.
If you are feeling weak, don't hesitate to take seven dates (70 gm) in the morning. You will actually be taking 70 milligrams of calcium, which is very useful for the bones, joints and nerves; 35 milligrams of phosphorus, which is nutritious for the brain; and 7 milligrams of iron, which strengthens the body in general and the heart in particular.
It's also suitable for reducing weight as it contains only 0.25 gm of fat. This prophetic meal also regulates and stimulates the bowels with the 10 gm of dietary fiber it contains.
Circumcision: New Weapon Against AIDS?
Circumcised men are up to 60% less likely to get HIV, and now the World Health Organization and the UNAIDS program recommend adult surgery to slow the AIDS pandemic.
The recommendation comes only weeks after the WHO and UNAIDS officials asked an expert panel for advice. The advice is based on three clinical trials suggesting that circumcised men are 50% to 60% less likely than uncircumcised men to get HIV during heterosexual sex.
Circumcised men can and do get infected with the AIDS virus. There is, yet, no evidence that male circumcision protects women. But widespread circumcision would have a major impact on the AIDS pandemic, says Catherine Hankins, MD, chief scientific officer for the UNAIDS.
"This is an exciting development. It is only partial protection for men -- still, it is not to be scoffed at. We have not had good news like this in quite a long time," Hankins said at a WHO/UNAIDS news conference.
Ronald Gray, MD, professor of reproductive epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, led a clinical trial of male circumcision in Uganda. He was also a member of the WHO/UNAIDS expert panel.
"This is unique. We have never before used surgery for prevention of infectious disease," Gray tells WebMD. "We are going to have a steep learning curve. But all the evidence is it will have a substantial impact on the AIDS epidemic over the next 10 to 20 years."
Male Circumcision Does Not Replace Safe Sex
Circumcision will have a major impact only if properly implemented, warns Kevin De Cock, MD, director of HIV/AIDS for the WHO.
"Male circumcision should now be considered as an additional strategy for HIV prevention in the context of comprehensive prevention programs," De Cock said at the news conference. "This is important protection but incomplete protection. It is an additional rather than a replacement strategy."
The key WHO/UNAIDS recommendations:
1.Countries should implement free or low-cost male circumcision programs if a high percentage of their population is uncircumcised, if HIV is widespread, and if HIV spread is predominantly heterosexual. Most such nations are in southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, in eastern Africa.
2.Circumcision programs initially should target sexually active men -- that is, young men and adolescents.
3.Circumcision should be part of a comprehensive AIDS risk-reduction program. "It does not replace promotion of safer sex, delay of onset of sexual relations, abstinence, reduction of penetrative sex, reduction in number of partners, and provision of male and female condoms with education on their use," Hankins said.
4.Medical ethics and human rights must be respected. This included informed consent, confidentiality, and lack of coercion.
5.Circumcision must be provided by trained personnel in a hygienic manner, with medical follow-up to prevent and treat complications.
6.After circumcision, men must abstain from sexual relations for at least six weeks after surgery, to ensure that their wounds have healed.
7.Circumcision must be offered in ways that do not offend cultural norms.
8.Circumcision is not advised for men already infected with HIV, but circumcision
should not be denied to HIV-positive men who want the procedure.
Who Will Pay?
The recommendations have one major drawback: money. Although WHO and UNAIDS say they will provide technical support to any nation that wishes to start a circumcision program, details on funding such programs remain vague. The WHO and UNAIDS say only that funding must not come at the expense of funding for other health care programs or HIV prevention programs.
"Money is going to be the key. If additional resources brought to bear, we can have very substantial effects on the AIDS epidemic in East and Central Africa," Gray says. "These are not cheap resources. There are the costs of training, the costs of equipment and supplies, the costs of all the complexities of providing surgeries and providing postsurgical care and managing any problems that arise."
If money is not forthcoming, the recommendations may do more harm than good. Men in areas with high HIV prevalence are very much aware of the news that circumcision lowers HIV risk. "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that men already are lining up asking for circumcision, " Gray says. "And if we do not provide safe services, they will seek unsafe services."
The same message comes from Kim Dickson, MD, medical officer at the WHO department of HIV/AIDS.
"In certain countries we have reports of interest by men for male circumcision services," Dickson said at the news conference. "Yes, if safe services are not in place, then there will be practitioners who will provide unsafe services. The thing that must be done is to set up safe circumcision services with trained practitioners. "
Despite this major obstacle, Gray is highly optimistic. "It is doable," he says. "This one-time procedure is likely to confer very long -- perhaps lifelong -- reduction in HIV risk."
Meanwhile, studies are under way to determine whether male circumcision reduces women's HIV risk and whether circumcision offers protection to homosexual men.
SOURCES: World Health Organization and Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, "New Data on Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention," March 28, 2007. Ronald Gray, MD, professor of reproductive epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. News conference with Kevin De Cock, MD, director of HIV/AIDS, WHO; Catherine Hankins, MD, chief scientific officer, UNAIDS; and Kim Dickson, MD, medical officer, department of HIV/AIDS, WHO.
The recommendation comes only weeks after the WHO and UNAIDS officials asked an expert panel for advice. The advice is based on three clinical trials suggesting that circumcised men are 50% to 60% less likely than uncircumcised men to get HIV during heterosexual sex.
Circumcised men can and do get infected with the AIDS virus. There is, yet, no evidence that male circumcision protects women. But widespread circumcision would have a major impact on the AIDS pandemic, says Catherine Hankins, MD, chief scientific officer for the UNAIDS.
"This is an exciting development. It is only partial protection for men -- still, it is not to be scoffed at. We have not had good news like this in quite a long time," Hankins said at a WHO/UNAIDS news conference.
Ronald Gray, MD, professor of reproductive epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, led a clinical trial of male circumcision in Uganda. He was also a member of the WHO/UNAIDS expert panel.
"This is unique. We have never before used surgery for prevention of infectious disease," Gray tells WebMD. "We are going to have a steep learning curve. But all the evidence is it will have a substantial impact on the AIDS epidemic over the next 10 to 20 years."
Male Circumcision Does Not Replace Safe Sex
Circumcision will have a major impact only if properly implemented, warns Kevin De Cock, MD, director of HIV/AIDS for the WHO.
"Male circumcision should now be considered as an additional strategy for HIV prevention in the context of comprehensive prevention programs," De Cock said at the news conference. "This is important protection but incomplete protection. It is an additional rather than a replacement strategy."
The key WHO/UNAIDS recommendations:
1.Countries should implement free or low-cost male circumcision programs if a high percentage of their population is uncircumcised, if HIV is widespread, and if HIV spread is predominantly heterosexual. Most such nations are in southern Africa and, to a lesser extent, in eastern Africa.
2.Circumcision programs initially should target sexually active men -- that is, young men and adolescents.
3.Circumcision should be part of a comprehensive AIDS risk-reduction program. "It does not replace promotion of safer sex, delay of onset of sexual relations, abstinence, reduction of penetrative sex, reduction in number of partners, and provision of male and female condoms with education on their use," Hankins said.
4.Medical ethics and human rights must be respected. This included informed consent, confidentiality, and lack of coercion.
5.Circumcision must be provided by trained personnel in a hygienic manner, with medical follow-up to prevent and treat complications.
6.After circumcision, men must abstain from sexual relations for at least six weeks after surgery, to ensure that their wounds have healed.
7.Circumcision must be offered in ways that do not offend cultural norms.
8.Circumcision is not advised for men already infected with HIV, but circumcision
should not be denied to HIV-positive men who want the procedure.
Who Will Pay?
The recommendations have one major drawback: money. Although WHO and UNAIDS say they will provide technical support to any nation that wishes to start a circumcision program, details on funding such programs remain vague. The WHO and UNAIDS say only that funding must not come at the expense of funding for other health care programs or HIV prevention programs.
"Money is going to be the key. If additional resources brought to bear, we can have very substantial effects on the AIDS epidemic in East and Central Africa," Gray says. "These are not cheap resources. There are the costs of training, the costs of equipment and supplies, the costs of all the complexities of providing surgeries and providing postsurgical care and managing any problems that arise."
If money is not forthcoming, the recommendations may do more harm than good. Men in areas with high HIV prevalence are very much aware of the news that circumcision lowers HIV risk. "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that men already are lining up asking for circumcision, " Gray says. "And if we do not provide safe services, they will seek unsafe services."
The same message comes from Kim Dickson, MD, medical officer at the WHO department of HIV/AIDS.
"In certain countries we have reports of interest by men for male circumcision services," Dickson said at the news conference. "Yes, if safe services are not in place, then there will be practitioners who will provide unsafe services. The thing that must be done is to set up safe circumcision services with trained practitioners. "
Despite this major obstacle, Gray is highly optimistic. "It is doable," he says. "This one-time procedure is likely to confer very long -- perhaps lifelong -- reduction in HIV risk."
Meanwhile, studies are under way to determine whether male circumcision reduces women's HIV risk and whether circumcision offers protection to homosexual men.
SOURCES: World Health Organization and Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, "New Data on Male Circumcision and HIV Prevention," March 28, 2007. Ronald Gray, MD, professor of reproductive epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. News conference with Kevin De Cock, MD, director of HIV/AIDS, WHO; Catherine Hankins, MD, chief scientific officer, UNAIDS; and Kim Dickson, MD, medical officer, department of HIV/AIDS, WHO.
CELL PHONES COOK YOUR BRAIN, PERMANENTLY
It is getting quite difficult to imagine a world without mobile communications. Wireless internet access is set to blanket the planet, just like cell phone networks already do. There has been an explosive development - practically all during the last three decades - that brought mobile to the farthest corners of the earth. But the technology is not without danger. The microwaves that carry bits and packets of data also carry a germ of destruction. Some people - as many as 120,000 Californians - and by implication 1 million Americans - are actually unable to work as they suffer from the incapacitating influence that this cacophony in the ether has on them.
We might say they are the unlucky ones who have to suffer for progress to continue - but have you ever heard of canaries in the mines? They were the first ones to die when a potentially deadly but otherwise undetectable accumulation of " mine gas" threatened the lives of the miners working underground. What if those 120.000 Californians and the one million Americans and by extension tens of millions of people world wide are in a very real sense our equivalent of deep-mine canaries? Are we not ignoring their plight at our own very imminent peril?
Arthur Firstenberg, himself a sufferer of what the Russians call "microwave sickness" has put together the salient facts about the largest biological experiment ever, in a very readable article published in the Eldorado Sun.
We cannot call ourselves informed in the wireless debate unless we start looking at its dark side as well as all the positive aspects. Firstenberg's article is as good as any to get us going in this direction ...
Sepp Haselberg
The Largest Biological Experiment Ever by Arthur Firstenberg
(original in Eldorado Sun )
In 2002, Gro Harlem Brundtland, then head of the World Health Organization, told a Norwegian journalist that cell phones were banned from her office in Geneva because she personally becomes ill if a cell phone is brought within about four meters (13 feet) of her. Mrs. Brundtland is a medical doctor and former Prime Minister of Norway. This sensational news, published March 9, 2002 in Dagbladet, was ignored by every other newspaper in the world. The following week Michael Repacholi, her subordinate in charge of the International EMF (electromagnetic field) Project, responded with a public statement belittling his boss's concerns. Five months later, for reasons that many suspect were related to these circumstances, Mrs. Brundtland announced she would step down from her leadership post at the WHO after just one term.
Nothing could better illustrate our collective schizophrenia when it comes to thinking about electromagnetic radiation .
We respond to those who are worried about its dangers — hence the International EMF Project — but we ignore and marginalize those, like Mrs. Brundtland, who have already succumbed to its effects.
As a consultant on the health effects of wireless technology, I receive calls that can be broadly divided into two main groups: those from people who are merely worried, whom I will call A, and those from people who are already sick, whom I will call B. I sometimes wish I could arrange a large conference call and have the two groups talk to each other — there needs to be more mutual understanding so that we are all trying to solve the same problems. Caller A, worried, commonly asks what kind of shield to buy for his cell phone or what kind of headset to wear with it. Sometimes he wants to know what is a safe distance to live from a cell tower. Caller B, sick, wants to know what kind of shielding to put on her house, what kind of medical treatment to get, or, increasingly often, what part of the country she could move to to escape the radiation to save her life.
The following is designed as a sort of a primer: first, to help everybody get more or less on the same page, and second, to clear up some of the confusions so that we can make rational decisions toward a healthier world.
Fundamentals
The most basic fact about cell phones and cell towers is that they emit microwave radiation; so do Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) antennas, wireless computers, cordless (portable) phones and their base units, and all other wireless devices. If it's a communication device and it's not attached to the wall by a wire, it's emitting radiation. Most Wi-Fi systems and some cordless phones operate at the exact same frequency as a microwave oven, while other devices use a different frequency. Wi-Fi is always on and always radiating. The base units of most cordless phones are always radiating, even when no one is using the phone. A cell phone that is on but not in use is also radiating. And, needless to say, cell towers are always radiating.
Why is this a problem, you might ask? Scientists usually divide the electromagnetic spectrum into "ionizing" and "non-ionizing." Ionizing radiation, which includes x-rays and atomic radiation, causes cancer. Non-ionizing radiation, which includes microwave radiation, is supposed to be safe. This distinction always reminded me of the propaganda in George Orwell's Animal Farm: "Four legs good, two legs bad." "Non-ionizing good, ionizing bad" is as little to be trusted.
An astronomer once quipped that if Neil Armstrong had taken a cell phone to the Moon in 1969, it would have appeared to be the third most powerful source of microwave radiation in the universe, next only to the Sun and the Milky Way. He was right. Life evolved with negligible levels of microwave radiation. An increasing number of scientists speculate that our own cells, in fact, use the microwave spectrum to communicate with one another, like children whispering in the dark, and that cell phones, like jackhammers, interfere with their signaling. In any case, it is a fact that we are all being bombarded, day in and day out, whether we use a cell phone or not, by an amount of microwave radiation that is some ten million times as strong as the average natural background. And it is also a fact that most of this radiation is due to technology that has been developed since the 1970s.
As far as cell phones themselves are concerned, if you put one up to your head you are damaging your brain in a number of different ways . First, think of a microwave oven. A cell phone, like a microwave oven and unlike a hot shower, heats you from the inside out, not from the outside in. And there are no sensory nerve endings in the brain to warn you of a rise in temperature because we did not evolve with microwave radiation , and this never happens in nature. Worse, the structure of the head and brain is so complex and non-uniform that "hot spots" are produced, where heating can be tens or hundreds of times what it is nearby. Hot spots can occur both close to the surface of the skull and deep within the brain, and also on a molecular level.
Cell phones are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, and you can find, in the packaging of most new phones, a number called the Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, which is supposed to indicate the rate at which energy is absorbed by the brain from that particular model. One problem, however, is the arbitrary assumption, upon which the FCC's regulations are based, that the brain can safely dissipate added heat at a rate of up to 1 degree C per hour. Compounding this is the scandalous procedure used to demonstrate compliance with these limits and give each cell phone its SAR rating. The standard way to measure SAR is on a "phantom" consisting, incredibly, of a homogenous fluid encased in Plexiglas in the shape of a head. Presto, no hot spots ! But in reality, people who use cell phones for hours per day are chronically heating places in their brain . The FCC's safety standard, by the way, was developed by electrical engineers, not doctors.
The Blood-Brain Barrier
The second effect that I want to focus on, which has been proven in the laboratory, should by itself have been enough to shut down this industry and should be enough to scare away anyone from ever using a cell phone again. I call it the "smoking gun" of cell phone experiments . Like most biological effects of microwave radiation, this has nothing to do with heating.
The brain is protected by tight junctions between adjacent cells of capillary walls, the so-called blood-brain barrier, which, like a border patrol, lets nutrients pass through from the blood to the brain, but keeps toxic substances out. Since 1988, researchers in the laboratory of a Swedish neurosurgeon, Leif Salford, have been running variations on this simple experiment: they expose young laboratory rats to either a cell phone or other source of microwave radiation, and later they sacrifice the animals and look for albumin in their brain tissue. Albumin is a protein that is a normal component of blood but that does not normally cross the blood-brain barrier. The presence of albumin in brain tissue is always a sign that blood vessels have been damaged and that the brain has lost some of its protection .
Here is what these researchers have found, consistently for 18 years: Microwave radiation, at doses equal to a cell phone's emissions, causes albumin to be found in brain tissue . A one-time exposure to an ordinary cell phone for just two minutes causes albumin to leak into the brain. In one set of experiments, reducing the exposure level by a factor of 1,000 actually increased the damage to the blood-brain barrier, showing that this is not a dose-response effect and that reducing the power will not make wireless technology safer. And finally, in research published in June 2003, a single two-hour exposure to a cell phone, just once during its lifetime, permanently damaged the blood-brain barrier and, on autopsy 50 days later, was found to have damaged or destroyed up to 2 percent of an animal's brain cells, including cells in areas of the brain concerned with learning, memory and movement .1 Reducing the exposure level by a factor of 10 or 100, thereby duplicating the effect of wearing a headset, moving a cell phone further from your body, or standing next to somebody else's phone, did not appreciably change the results! Even at the lowest exposure, half the animals had a moderate to high number of damaged neurons.
The implications for us?
Two minutes on a cell phone disrupts the blood-brain barrier, two hours on a cell phone causes permanent brain damage, and secondhand radiation may be almost as bad. The blood-brain barrier is the same in a rat and a human being.
These results caused enough of a commotion in Europe that in November 2003 a conference was held, sponsored by the European Union, titled "The Blood-Brain Barrier — Can It Be Influenced by RF [radio frequency]-Field Interactions?" as if to reassure the public: "See, we are doing something about this." But, predictably, nothing was done about it, as nothing has been done about it for 30 years.
America's Allan Frey, during the 1970s, was the first of many to demonstrate that low-level microwave radiation damages the blood-brain barrier.2 Similar mechanisms protect the eye (the blood-vitreous barrier) and the fetus (the placental barrier), and the work of Frey and others indicates that microwave radiation damages those barriers also.3 The implication:
No pregnant woman should ever be using a cell phone.
Dr. Salford is quite outspoken about his work. He has called the use of handheld
cell phones "the largest human biological experiment ever." And he has publicly warned that a whole generation of cell-phone-using teenagers may suffer from mental deficits or Alzheimer's disease by the time they reach middle age.
Radio-Wave Sickness
Unfortunately, cell phone users are not the only ones being injured, nor should we be worried only about the brain. The following brief summary is distilled from a vast scientific literature on the effects of radio waves (a larger spectrum which includes microwaves), together with the experiences of scientists and doctors all over the world with whom I am in contact.
Organs that have been shown to be especially susceptible to radio waves include the lungs, nervous system, heart, eyes, testes and thyroid gland. Diseases that have increased remarkably in the last couple of decades, and that there is good reason to connect with the massive increase in radiation in our environment, include asthma, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, autism, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, cataracts, hypothyroidism, diabetes, malignant melanoma, testicular cancer, and heart attacks and strokes in young people . Radiation from microwave towers has also been associated with forest die-off, reproductive failure and population decline in many species of birds, and ill health and birth deformities in farm animals . The literature showing biological effects of microwave radiation is truly enormous, running to tens of thousands of documents, and I am amazed that industry spokespersons are getting away with saying that wireless technology has been proved safe or — just as ridiculous — that there is no evidence of harm .
I have omitted one disease from the above list: the illness that Caller B has, and that I have. A short history is in order here. In the 1950s and 1960s workers who built, tested and repaired radar equipment came down with this disease in large numbers. So did operators of industrial microwave heaters and sealers. The Soviets named it, appropriately, radio wave sickness, and studied it extensively. In the West its existence was denied totally, but workers came down with it anyway. Witness congressional hearings held in 1981, chaired by then Representative Al Gore, on the health effects of radio-frequency heaters and sealers, another episode in "See, we are doing something about this," while nothing is done.
Today, with the mass proliferation of radio towers and personal transmitters, the disease has spread like a plague into the general population . Estimates of its prevalence range up to one-third of the population, but it is rarely recognized for what it is until it has so disabled a person that he or she can no longer participate in society . You may recognize some of its common symptoms: insomnia, dizziness, nausea, headaches, fatigue, memory loss, inability to concentrate, depression, chest discomfort, ringing in the ears. Patients may also develop medical problems such as chronic respiratory infections, heart arrhythmias, sudden fluctuations in blood pressure, uncontrolled blood sugar, dehydration, and even seizures and internal bleeding.
What makes this disease so difficult to accept, and even more difficult to cope with, is that no treatment is likely to succeed unless one can also avoid exposure to its cause — and its cause is now everywhere. A 1998 survey by the California Department of Health Services indicated that at that time 120,000 Californians — and by implication 1 million Americans — were unable to work due to electromagnetic pollution.4 The ranks of these so-called electrically sensitive are swelling in almost every country in the world, marginalized, stigmatized and ignored. With the level of radiation everywhere today, they almost never recover and sometimes take their own lives.
"They are acting as a warning for all of us," says Dr. Olle Johansson of people with this illness. "It could be a major mistake to subject the entire world's population to whole-body irradiation, 24 hours a day." A neuroscientist at the famous Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Dr. Johansson heads a research team that is documenting a significant and permanent worsening of the public health that began precisely when the second-generation, 1800 MHz cell phones were introduced into Sweden in late l997.5,6 After a decade-long decline, the number of Swedish workers on sick leave began to rise in late 1997 and more than doubled during the next five years. During the same period of time, sales of antidepressant drugs also doubled. The number of traffic accidents, after declining for years, began to climb again in 1997. The number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease, after declining for several years, rose sharply in 1999 and had nearly doubled by 2001. This two-year delay is understandable when one considers that Alzheimer's disease requires some time to develop.
Uncontrolled Proliferation
If cell phones and cell towers are really deadly, have the radio and TV towers that we have been living with for a century been safe? In 2002 Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson coauthored a paper titled "Cancer Trends During the 20th Century," which examined one aspect of that question.7 They found, in the United States, Sweden and dozens of other countries, that mortality rates for skin melanoma and for bladder, prostate, colon, breast and lung cancers closely paralleled the degree of public exposure to radio waves during the past hundred years. When radio broadcasting increased in a given location, so did those forms of cancer; when it decreased, so did those forms of cancer. And, a sensational finding: country by country — and county by county in Sweden — they found, statistically, that exposure to radio waves appears to be as big a factor in causing lung cancer as cigarette smoking!
Which brings me to address a widespread misconception. The biggest difference between the cell towers of today and the radio towers of the past is not their safety, but their numbers. The number of ordinary radio stations in the United States today is still less than 14,000. But cell towers and Wi-Fi towers number in the hundreds of thousands, and cell phones, wireless computers, cordless telephones and two-way radios number in the hundreds of millions. Radar facilities and emergency communication networks are also proliferating out of control. Since 1978, when the Environmental Protection Agency last surveyed the radio frequency environment in the United States, the average urban dweller's exposure to radio waves has increased 1,000-fold, most of this increase occurring in just the last nine years. 8 In the same period of time, radio pollution has spread from the cities to rest like a ubiquitous fog over the entire planet.
The vast human consequences of all this are being ignored. Since the late 1990s a whole new class of environmental refugees has been created right here in the United States. We have more and more people, sick, dying, seeking relief from our suffering, leaving our homes and our livelihoods, living in cars, trailers and tents in remote places. Unlike victims of hurricanes and earthquakes, we are not the subject of any relief efforts. No one is donating money to help us, to buy us a protected refuge; no one is volunteering to forego their cell phones, their wireless computers and their cordless phones so that we can once more be their neighbors and live among them.
The worried and the sick have not yet opened their hearts to each other, but they are asking questions. To answer caller A: No shield or headset will protect you from your cell or portable phone. There is no safe distance from a cell tower. If your cell phone or your wireless computer works where you live, you are being irradiated 24 hours a day.
To caller B: To effectively shield a house is difficult and rarely successful. There are only a few doctors in the United States attempting to treat radio wave sickness, and their success rate is poor — because there are few places left on Earth where one can go to escape this radiation and recover.
Yes, radiation comes down from satellites, too; they are part of the problem, not the solution. There is simply no way to make wireless technology safe.
Our society has become both socially and economically dependent, in just one short decade, upon a technology that is doing tremendous damage to the fabric of our world . The more entrenched we let ourselves become in it, the more difficult it will become to change our course. The time to extricate ourselves, both individually and collectively — difficult though it is already is — is now.
NOTES
1. Leif G. Salford et al., "Nerve Cell Damage in Mammalian Brain After Exposure to Microwaves from GSM Mobile Phones," Environmental Health Perspectives 111, no. 7 (2003): 881–883.
2. Allan H. Frey, Sondra R. Feld and Barbara Frey, "Neural Function and Behavior," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 247 (1975): 433–439.
3. Allan H. Frey, "Evolution and Results
of Biological Research with Low-Intensity Nonionizing Radiation," in Modern Bioelectricity, ed. Andrew A. Marino (New York: Dekker, 1988), 785–837, at 809–810.
4. California EMF Program, The Risk Evaluation: An Evaluation of the Possible Risks From Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMFs) From Power Lines, Internal Wiring, Electrical Occupations and Appliances (2002), app. 3.
5. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "1997 — A Curious Year in Sweden," European Journal of Cancer Prevention 13, no. 6 (2004): 535–538.
6. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "Does GSM 1800 MHz Affect the Public Health in Sweden?" in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop "Biological Effects of EMFs," Kos, Greece, October 4-8, 2004, 361–364.
7. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "Cancer Trends During the 20th Century,"
Journal of Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine 21, no. 1 (2002): 3–8.
8. David E. Janes Jr., "Radiofrequency Environments in the United States," in 15th IEEE Conference on Communication, Boston, MA, June 10–14, 1979, vol. 2, 31.4.1–
We might say they are the unlucky ones who have to suffer for progress to continue - but have you ever heard of canaries in the mines? They were the first ones to die when a potentially deadly but otherwise undetectable accumulation of " mine gas" threatened the lives of the miners working underground. What if those 120.000 Californians and the one million Americans and by extension tens of millions of people world wide are in a very real sense our equivalent of deep-mine canaries? Are we not ignoring their plight at our own very imminent peril?
Arthur Firstenberg, himself a sufferer of what the Russians call "microwave sickness" has put together the salient facts about the largest biological experiment ever, in a very readable article published in the Eldorado Sun.
We cannot call ourselves informed in the wireless debate unless we start looking at its dark side as well as all the positive aspects. Firstenberg's article is as good as any to get us going in this direction ...
Sepp Haselberg
The Largest Biological Experiment Ever by Arthur Firstenberg
(original in Eldorado Sun )
In 2002, Gro Harlem Brundtland, then head of the World Health Organization, told a Norwegian journalist that cell phones were banned from her office in Geneva because she personally becomes ill if a cell phone is brought within about four meters (13 feet) of her. Mrs. Brundtland is a medical doctor and former Prime Minister of Norway. This sensational news, published March 9, 2002 in Dagbladet, was ignored by every other newspaper in the world. The following week Michael Repacholi, her subordinate in charge of the International EMF (electromagnetic field) Project, responded with a public statement belittling his boss's concerns. Five months later, for reasons that many suspect were related to these circumstances, Mrs. Brundtland announced she would step down from her leadership post at the WHO after just one term.
Nothing could better illustrate our collective schizophrenia when it comes to thinking about electromagnetic radiation .
We respond to those who are worried about its dangers — hence the International EMF Project — but we ignore and marginalize those, like Mrs. Brundtland, who have already succumbed to its effects.
As a consultant on the health effects of wireless technology, I receive calls that can be broadly divided into two main groups: those from people who are merely worried, whom I will call A, and those from people who are already sick, whom I will call B. I sometimes wish I could arrange a large conference call and have the two groups talk to each other — there needs to be more mutual understanding so that we are all trying to solve the same problems. Caller A, worried, commonly asks what kind of shield to buy for his cell phone or what kind of headset to wear with it. Sometimes he wants to know what is a safe distance to live from a cell tower. Caller B, sick, wants to know what kind of shielding to put on her house, what kind of medical treatment to get, or, increasingly often, what part of the country she could move to to escape the radiation to save her life.
The following is designed as a sort of a primer: first, to help everybody get more or less on the same page, and second, to clear up some of the confusions so that we can make rational decisions toward a healthier world.
Fundamentals
The most basic fact about cell phones and cell towers is that they emit microwave radiation; so do Wi-Fi (wireless Internet) antennas, wireless computers, cordless (portable) phones and their base units, and all other wireless devices. If it's a communication device and it's not attached to the wall by a wire, it's emitting radiation. Most Wi-Fi systems and some cordless phones operate at the exact same frequency as a microwave oven, while other devices use a different frequency. Wi-Fi is always on and always radiating. The base units of most cordless phones are always radiating, even when no one is using the phone. A cell phone that is on but not in use is also radiating. And, needless to say, cell towers are always radiating.
Why is this a problem, you might ask? Scientists usually divide the electromagnetic spectrum into "ionizing" and "non-ionizing." Ionizing radiation, which includes x-rays and atomic radiation, causes cancer. Non-ionizing radiation, which includes microwave radiation, is supposed to be safe. This distinction always reminded me of the propaganda in George Orwell's Animal Farm: "Four legs good, two legs bad." "Non-ionizing good, ionizing bad" is as little to be trusted.
An astronomer once quipped that if Neil Armstrong had taken a cell phone to the Moon in 1969, it would have appeared to be the third most powerful source of microwave radiation in the universe, next only to the Sun and the Milky Way. He was right. Life evolved with negligible levels of microwave radiation. An increasing number of scientists speculate that our own cells, in fact, use the microwave spectrum to communicate with one another, like children whispering in the dark, and that cell phones, like jackhammers, interfere with their signaling. In any case, it is a fact that we are all being bombarded, day in and day out, whether we use a cell phone or not, by an amount of microwave radiation that is some ten million times as strong as the average natural background. And it is also a fact that most of this radiation is due to technology that has been developed since the 1970s.
As far as cell phones themselves are concerned, if you put one up to your head you are damaging your brain in a number of different ways . First, think of a microwave oven. A cell phone, like a microwave oven and unlike a hot shower, heats you from the inside out, not from the outside in. And there are no sensory nerve endings in the brain to warn you of a rise in temperature because we did not evolve with microwave radiation , and this never happens in nature. Worse, the structure of the head and brain is so complex and non-uniform that "hot spots" are produced, where heating can be tens or hundreds of times what it is nearby. Hot spots can occur both close to the surface of the skull and deep within the brain, and also on a molecular level.
Cell phones are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, and you can find, in the packaging of most new phones, a number called the Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, which is supposed to indicate the rate at which energy is absorbed by the brain from that particular model. One problem, however, is the arbitrary assumption, upon which the FCC's regulations are based, that the brain can safely dissipate added heat at a rate of up to 1 degree C per hour. Compounding this is the scandalous procedure used to demonstrate compliance with these limits and give each cell phone its SAR rating. The standard way to measure SAR is on a "phantom" consisting, incredibly, of a homogenous fluid encased in Plexiglas in the shape of a head. Presto, no hot spots ! But in reality, people who use cell phones for hours per day are chronically heating places in their brain . The FCC's safety standard, by the way, was developed by electrical engineers, not doctors.
The Blood-Brain Barrier
The second effect that I want to focus on, which has been proven in the laboratory, should by itself have been enough to shut down this industry and should be enough to scare away anyone from ever using a cell phone again. I call it the "smoking gun" of cell phone experiments . Like most biological effects of microwave radiation, this has nothing to do with heating.
The brain is protected by tight junctions between adjacent cells of capillary walls, the so-called blood-brain barrier, which, like a border patrol, lets nutrients pass through from the blood to the brain, but keeps toxic substances out. Since 1988, researchers in the laboratory of a Swedish neurosurgeon, Leif Salford, have been running variations on this simple experiment: they expose young laboratory rats to either a cell phone or other source of microwave radiation, and later they sacrifice the animals and look for albumin in their brain tissue. Albumin is a protein that is a normal component of blood but that does not normally cross the blood-brain barrier. The presence of albumin in brain tissue is always a sign that blood vessels have been damaged and that the brain has lost some of its protection .
Here is what these researchers have found, consistently for 18 years: Microwave radiation, at doses equal to a cell phone's emissions, causes albumin to be found in brain tissue . A one-time exposure to an ordinary cell phone for just two minutes causes albumin to leak into the brain. In one set of experiments, reducing the exposure level by a factor of 1,000 actually increased the damage to the blood-brain barrier, showing that this is not a dose-response effect and that reducing the power will not make wireless technology safer. And finally, in research published in June 2003, a single two-hour exposure to a cell phone, just once during its lifetime, permanently damaged the blood-brain barrier and, on autopsy 50 days later, was found to have damaged or destroyed up to 2 percent of an animal's brain cells, including cells in areas of the brain concerned with learning, memory and movement .1 Reducing the exposure level by a factor of 10 or 100, thereby duplicating the effect of wearing a headset, moving a cell phone further from your body, or standing next to somebody else's phone, did not appreciably change the results! Even at the lowest exposure, half the animals had a moderate to high number of damaged neurons.
The implications for us?
Two minutes on a cell phone disrupts the blood-brain barrier, two hours on a cell phone causes permanent brain damage, and secondhand radiation may be almost as bad. The blood-brain barrier is the same in a rat and a human being.
These results caused enough of a commotion in Europe that in November 2003 a conference was held, sponsored by the European Union, titled "The Blood-Brain Barrier — Can It Be Influenced by RF [radio frequency]-Field Interactions?" as if to reassure the public: "See, we are doing something about this." But, predictably, nothing was done about it, as nothing has been done about it for 30 years.
America's Allan Frey, during the 1970s, was the first of many to demonstrate that low-level microwave radiation damages the blood-brain barrier.2 Similar mechanisms protect the eye (the blood-vitreous barrier) and the fetus (the placental barrier), and the work of Frey and others indicates that microwave radiation damages those barriers also.3 The implication:
No pregnant woman should ever be using a cell phone.
Dr. Salford is quite outspoken about his work. He has called the use of handheld
cell phones "the largest human biological experiment ever." And he has publicly warned that a whole generation of cell-phone-using teenagers may suffer from mental deficits or Alzheimer's disease by the time they reach middle age.
Radio-Wave Sickness
Unfortunately, cell phone users are not the only ones being injured, nor should we be worried only about the brain. The following brief summary is distilled from a vast scientific literature on the effects of radio waves (a larger spectrum which includes microwaves), together with the experiences of scientists and doctors all over the world with whom I am in contact.
Organs that have been shown to be especially susceptible to radio waves include the lungs, nervous system, heart, eyes, testes and thyroid gland. Diseases that have increased remarkably in the last couple of decades, and that there is good reason to connect with the massive increase in radiation in our environment, include asthma, sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit disorder, autism, multiple sclerosis, ALS, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, cataracts, hypothyroidism, diabetes, malignant melanoma, testicular cancer, and heart attacks and strokes in young people . Radiation from microwave towers has also been associated with forest die-off, reproductive failure and population decline in many species of birds, and ill health and birth deformities in farm animals . The literature showing biological effects of microwave radiation is truly enormous, running to tens of thousands of documents, and I am amazed that industry spokespersons are getting away with saying that wireless technology has been proved safe or — just as ridiculous — that there is no evidence of harm .
I have omitted one disease from the above list: the illness that Caller B has, and that I have. A short history is in order here. In the 1950s and 1960s workers who built, tested and repaired radar equipment came down with this disease in large numbers. So did operators of industrial microwave heaters and sealers. The Soviets named it, appropriately, radio wave sickness, and studied it extensively. In the West its existence was denied totally, but workers came down with it anyway. Witness congressional hearings held in 1981, chaired by then Representative Al Gore, on the health effects of radio-frequency heaters and sealers, another episode in "See, we are doing something about this," while nothing is done.
Today, with the mass proliferation of radio towers and personal transmitters, the disease has spread like a plague into the general population . Estimates of its prevalence range up to one-third of the population, but it is rarely recognized for what it is until it has so disabled a person that he or she can no longer participate in society . You may recognize some of its common symptoms: insomnia, dizziness, nausea, headaches, fatigue, memory loss, inability to concentrate, depression, chest discomfort, ringing in the ears. Patients may also develop medical problems such as chronic respiratory infections, heart arrhythmias, sudden fluctuations in blood pressure, uncontrolled blood sugar, dehydration, and even seizures and internal bleeding.
What makes this disease so difficult to accept, and even more difficult to cope with, is that no treatment is likely to succeed unless one can also avoid exposure to its cause — and its cause is now everywhere. A 1998 survey by the California Department of Health Services indicated that at that time 120,000 Californians — and by implication 1 million Americans — were unable to work due to electromagnetic pollution.4 The ranks of these so-called electrically sensitive are swelling in almost every country in the world, marginalized, stigmatized and ignored. With the level of radiation everywhere today, they almost never recover and sometimes take their own lives.
"They are acting as a warning for all of us," says Dr. Olle Johansson of people with this illness. "It could be a major mistake to subject the entire world's population to whole-body irradiation, 24 hours a day." A neuroscientist at the famous Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Dr. Johansson heads a research team that is documenting a significant and permanent worsening of the public health that began precisely when the second-generation, 1800 MHz cell phones were introduced into Sweden in late l997.5,6 After a decade-long decline, the number of Swedish workers on sick leave began to rise in late 1997 and more than doubled during the next five years. During the same period of time, sales of antidepressant drugs also doubled. The number of traffic accidents, after declining for years, began to climb again in 1997. The number of deaths from Alzheimer's disease, after declining for several years, rose sharply in 1999 and had nearly doubled by 2001. This two-year delay is understandable when one considers that Alzheimer's disease requires some time to develop.
Uncontrolled Proliferation
If cell phones and cell towers are really deadly, have the radio and TV towers that we have been living with for a century been safe? In 2002 Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson coauthored a paper titled "Cancer Trends During the 20th Century," which examined one aspect of that question.7 They found, in the United States, Sweden and dozens of other countries, that mortality rates for skin melanoma and for bladder, prostate, colon, breast and lung cancers closely paralleled the degree of public exposure to radio waves during the past hundred years. When radio broadcasting increased in a given location, so did those forms of cancer; when it decreased, so did those forms of cancer. And, a sensational finding: country by country — and county by county in Sweden — they found, statistically, that exposure to radio waves appears to be as big a factor in causing lung cancer as cigarette smoking!
Which brings me to address a widespread misconception. The biggest difference between the cell towers of today and the radio towers of the past is not their safety, but their numbers. The number of ordinary radio stations in the United States today is still less than 14,000. But cell towers and Wi-Fi towers number in the hundreds of thousands, and cell phones, wireless computers, cordless telephones and two-way radios number in the hundreds of millions. Radar facilities and emergency communication networks are also proliferating out of control. Since 1978, when the Environmental Protection Agency last surveyed the radio frequency environment in the United States, the average urban dweller's exposure to radio waves has increased 1,000-fold, most of this increase occurring in just the last nine years. 8 In the same period of time, radio pollution has spread from the cities to rest like a ubiquitous fog over the entire planet.
The vast human consequences of all this are being ignored. Since the late 1990s a whole new class of environmental refugees has been created right here in the United States. We have more and more people, sick, dying, seeking relief from our suffering, leaving our homes and our livelihoods, living in cars, trailers and tents in remote places. Unlike victims of hurricanes and earthquakes, we are not the subject of any relief efforts. No one is donating money to help us, to buy us a protected refuge; no one is volunteering to forego their cell phones, their wireless computers and their cordless phones so that we can once more be their neighbors and live among them.
The worried and the sick have not yet opened their hearts to each other, but they are asking questions. To answer caller A: No shield or headset will protect you from your cell or portable phone. There is no safe distance from a cell tower. If your cell phone or your wireless computer works where you live, you are being irradiated 24 hours a day.
To caller B: To effectively shield a house is difficult and rarely successful. There are only a few doctors in the United States attempting to treat radio wave sickness, and their success rate is poor — because there are few places left on Earth where one can go to escape this radiation and recover.
Yes, radiation comes down from satellites, too; they are part of the problem, not the solution. There is simply no way to make wireless technology safe.
Our society has become both socially and economically dependent, in just one short decade, upon a technology that is doing tremendous damage to the fabric of our world . The more entrenched we let ourselves become in it, the more difficult it will become to change our course. The time to extricate ourselves, both individually and collectively — difficult though it is already is — is now.
NOTES
1. Leif G. Salford et al., "Nerve Cell Damage in Mammalian Brain After Exposure to Microwaves from GSM Mobile Phones," Environmental Health Perspectives 111, no. 7 (2003): 881–883.
2. Allan H. Frey, Sondra R. Feld and Barbara Frey, "Neural Function and Behavior," Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 247 (1975): 433–439.
3. Allan H. Frey, "Evolution and Results
of Biological Research with Low-Intensity Nonionizing Radiation," in Modern Bioelectricity, ed. Andrew A. Marino (New York: Dekker, 1988), 785–837, at 809–810.
4. California EMF Program, The Risk Evaluation: An Evaluation of the Possible Risks From Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMFs) From Power Lines, Internal Wiring, Electrical Occupations and Appliances (2002), app. 3.
5. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "1997 — A Curious Year in Sweden," European Journal of Cancer Prevention 13, no. 6 (2004): 535–538.
6. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "Does GSM 1800 MHz Affect the Public Health in Sweden?" in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop "Biological Effects of EMFs," Kos, Greece, October 4-8, 2004, 361–364.
7. Örjan Hallberg and Olle Johansson, "Cancer Trends During the 20th Century,"
Journal of Australian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine 21, no. 1 (2002): 3–8.
8. David E. Janes Jr., "Radiofrequency Environments in the United States," in 15th IEEE Conference on Communication, Boston, MA, June 10–14, 1979, vol. 2, 31.4.1–
Precautions for Mobile Users
Please Note:
When you try to call someone through mobile phone,
don't put your mobile closer to your ears until the
recipient answers, Because directly after dialing, the
mobile phone would use it's maximum signaling power,
which is: 2watts = 33dbi.
Be Careful.
Please use left ear while using cell (mobile), because
if you use the right one it may affect brain directly.
This is a true fact from Apollo medical team.
When you try to call someone through mobile phone,
don't put your mobile closer to your ears until the
recipient answers, Because directly after dialing, the
mobile phone would use it's maximum signaling power,
which is: 2watts = 33dbi.
Be Careful.
Please use left ear while using cell (mobile), because
if you use the right one it may affect brain directly.
This is a true fact from Apollo medical team.
Vaccine Against Cancer - By Tijn Touber- Using Patients' Own "Killer" Cells To Battle Cancer
Six months. That was how long 59-year-old Joe Pacini was expected to live—at least according to the doctors who were treating him for pancreatic cancer. Pacini, who could barely walk, wrote his will and waited for the inevitable end. Then he got a call from his son, who had attended a lecture by Robert Gorter, a Dutch cancer specialist working in Cologne , Germany . Gorter, who studied at the University of Amsterdam and University of California medical school in San Francisco , had developed a new treatment for cancer that raised hopes for the family.
So Joe Pacini flew from the U.S. to Germany . After a single treatment, he was able to walk a little. Two days later, he no longer needed any pain medication. On the third day, Gorter suggested they might be celebrating his 80th birthday together.
Gorter’s breakthrough came in 1999 when he developed a procedure to cultivate so-called dendritic cells, which play a key role in fighting off cancer cells. The method attracted international attention, causing quite a positive stir among his colleagues at the conference of the American Society for Clinical Oncology—the international symposium for cancer specialists.
He tested his findings in a study involving 171 women with metastasized breast cancer who had undergone many forms of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and were considered hopeless cases. Following Gorter’s treatment, about 10 percent of the patients were in remission—a surprising result in patients considered terminal. In 60 percent of the women, the treatment greatly extended and enhanced the quality of their lives although they did not recover. According to Gorter, no other treatment offers similar results.
But he isn’t one to rest on his laurels. For 35 years he has been working seven days a week, 14 hours a day, to develop new therapies and refine current treatment methods. His patients can call him any time. Whether he’s in San Francisco, where he is a professor at the University of California, or one of the clinics he heads in Cape Town, Istanbul, Cologne or (shortly) Dubai and Shanghai—he is always on hand to help.
Gorter developed the cancer treatment using dendritic cells in co-operation with Professor Wolfgang Köstler of the University of Vienna in Austria and Professor Hinrich Peters of the University of Göttingen in Germany . These cells are vital to fighting cancer because they systematically scan all the body’s cells searching for aberrations. Gorter explains, “When they discover an abnormal cell, they move at lightning speed to the nearest lymph node, where hundreds of thousands of ‘killer’ cells are stored like soldiers in a barracks. These cells go out on the attack if they are so instructed by the dendritic cells, like generals commanding an army.”
One dendritic cell can simultaneously inform 5,000 “killer” cells of the characteristics of a cancer cell that must be destroyed. The dendritic cells, which look like little octopi, do this by spreading their tentacles. Gorter adds, “The ‘killer’ cells then swarm out and kill every cell with cancerous characteristics. As a result of this process, all the cancer cells that patients produce every day are dead within 24 to 36 hours.”
According to Gorter, cancer often takes root when dendritic cells are malfunctioning. “We’re all a bit cancerous” is his way of explaining that everyone has cancer cells in his or her body. “But things really start to go wrong when the body no longer recognizes or can kill these cells.”
That insight inspired Gorter and his colleagues to develop a method of producing large numbers of healthy, dendritic cells, which are reintroduced into the patient’s system. It works like this: “We take five tablespoons of blood and isolate the monocytes [undifferentiated or immature white blood cells produced in the bone marrow] that can be developed into dendritic cells. One week later we have 15 to 20 million extremely vital cells that are given back to the patient. These are well tolerated. Many people—even when their cancer has metastasized— do much better or recover completely. The therapy works on all types of tumours: both solid tumours—as is the case with colon, breast and lung cancer—as well as non-solid tumours such as lymphomas and leukemia.”
The treatment (which costs 2,600 euros or $3,300 U.S. ) is repeated six times with one-month breaks in between. This is why Gorter refers to it as a vaccine: “When the immune system has to learn something new, or change a particular function, the lesson must be repeated a number of times. The same thing is true with childhood illnesses. You have to repeat the vaccine several times. The patient often shows real signs of recovery after the third or fourth vaccination.”
And indeed, sometimes even after the first treatment, as was the case with Joe Pacini.
When Pacini arrived in Cologne via special transport, he was on his deathbed. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult types to treat. His Californian doctors had given up hope because 80 percent of his liver had been destroyed. Pacini underwent three days of getting vaccinations containing dendritic cells along with hyperthermia treatments (a method which artificially raises the patient’s body temperature) . After that, he says, “I was even able to walk up to the third floor of my hotel without help. After the second day here I didn’t take any more pain medication because I was feeling so good.” Now, three months later, as Pacini returns to Cologne for his second treatment, he feels wonderful: “I feel so fit I’m walking three to four hours a day.” A smile lights up his face. “Yesterday I walked back and forth to Cologne ’s cathedral.”
After the first series of treatments, Pacini’s oncologist in the United States measured his tumour markers—abnormal proteins made only by cancer cells that demonstrate the presence of cancer and its degree of aggressiveness. The doctor was surprised to see a sharp drop in the markers when he had expected a rise. Pacini notes, “My oncologist said: ‘I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s working.’”
Despite promising results like this, research into treatments with dendritic cells is barely getting off the ground. “There’s not a lot of money to be earned from the research,” Gorter states. “You can’t get a patent on it because dendritic cells are autologous [drawn from and reintroduced to a patient’s own body]. Which is why pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested. Classic, random studies have never been done because this type of research is very expensive.” Gorter worries that his treatment, like other alternative methods, will not be approved by influential authorities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because these treatments run counter to the pharmaceutical- based philosophy of the medical establishment. He worries that legal charges may even be brought against doctors applying the therapy.
That’s the reason Gorter ended up working in Germany . The flamboyant professor feels more at home in a climate of professional freedom. All of his life he has lived by his own rules: “I used to wear jeans and shirts with flower prints. But when everyone started wearing them, it was time for a change.” In Germany he can wear his dicky bow ties and experiment with new therapies without any problem. Gorter: “In Germany , doctors enjoy a unique, constitutionally protected freedom to practise.” Recently, in fact, Germany ’s High Court in Karlsruhe ruled unanimously that qualified physicians have complete freedom to treat seriously ill patients as they see fit and that insurers must pay for the prescribed treatments.
this therapeutic freedom means that German doctors are not limited to the standard cancer protocols imposed in other Western countries: operations, radiation or chemotherapy. New treatments can be used alongside conventional ones, and even some traditional healing methods are employed. Gorter, for instance, makes frequent use of hyperthermia or fever therapy, which has been used since ancient times. Hippocrates said: “Give me a fever and I’ll heal every illness.”
This therapy was rediscovered around 1880 by the American doctor William Coley. While researching the relationship between fever and tumour growth, Coley chanced to find a man who’d had several unsuccessful operations to remove tumours on his face and neck. His condition become further complicated by a serious skin infection that went hand in hand with a high fever. Yet the patient survived the high fever and, even more amazingly, discovered his tumours had disappeared.
Coley looked at the medical literature and discovered this was not an isolated case: As soon as patients developed a high fever, their tumours sometimes vanished. Coley started successfully experimenting with artificial fevers among cancer patients. He did this by giving them bacilli. Sometimes these bacilli even erupted into the worst inoperable tumours, only to disappear within hours.
“Fever therapy works amazingly well—alone and in combination with other therapies,” Gorter states. “When you combine chemotherapy with fever therapy you’ll have fewer side effects from the chemo.
“Cancer is a so-called ‘cold illness’ and often disappears when the body’s temperature rises,” he continues. “The immune system also works optimally when a fever strikes. The only down side of Coley’s therapy was that he couldn’t precisely determine the level of the fever. We can now, thanks to special beds in which patients are wrapped to their necks and the temperature is controlled using infrared lamps, rising to around 40 degrees Celsius [104 degrees Fahrenheit].”
When Gorter calls cancer a “cold” illness, he’s not simply referring to the temperature. “The characteristic of many modern illnesses is that they are cooling, debilitating, hardening and chronic. Until recently, nearly all epidemics—such as tuberculosis, malaria and the flu—were caused by parasites or bacteria. But particularly after World War II, bacteria slipped increasingly into the background. They’re still there, but nowadays no one dies of pneumonia. But what has taken its place are the debilitating, degenerative diseases that are mainly caused by viruses like hepatitis B and C. The distinguishing characteristics of these illnesses are hardening or sclerosis. When viruses are isolated, they take on the form of a crystal; it looks like fine table salt.”
Ninety-nine percent of all cancers also show hardening properties, according to Gorter. “If you’ve got a little lump in your breast but you can press into it—if it’s a little spongy—doctors say: ‘We’ll wait a month and see.’ But when a lump is hard and you regularly see calcification in the mammogram, there is cause for concern and usually a malignancy.”
Gorter says this hardening is not only seen in modern diseases like cancer, hardening of the arteries, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome, but also in our values, norms and language use. Gorter observes, “In our society, you’re not well paid for having a warm heart but for being smart. We have to be cool and efficient and above all we must not show too much warmth and enthusiasm. Those who do are quickly considered a little nuts or over the top. It’s a sign of our times.”
But these are the reasons why softness—or love—and warmth are particularly healing when it comes to cancer. Gorter nearly always asks his patients if there’s something that excites them; if they still have ideals. “I ask them: ‘Do you ever do anything for other people?’ Many look at me and say they’ve been busy working for decades and haven’t done anything all those years to help others.”
Gorter knows from experience the healing power of enthusiasm, love and optimism. When, at the age of 26, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that had spread to his stomach and lungs, he decided to heal himself. He took very hot baths—something he doesn’t necessarily advise for older patients as the heat can cause strong heart palpitations and low blood pressure as well as severe dizziness. He also started to live life with even more joy and optimism. Now he says he has learned this: “If something makes you enthusiastic you have a reason to live. Ultimately that is the way to break the vicious circle of hardening and cooling.”
http://www.odemagaz ine.com/article. php?aID=4350
Robert Gorter can be reached via Medical Center Cologne, Hohenstaufenring 30-32, 50674 Keulen, Germany. Phone: +49 (0)221 7886301.
(PLEASE NOTE: DIFFERENT FROM PAPER VERSION OF ODE MAGAZINE)
Email: r.gorter@cologne- model.com.
www.cologne- model.com and www.anthroposophica l-medicine. info
So Joe Pacini flew from the U.S. to Germany . After a single treatment, he was able to walk a little. Two days later, he no longer needed any pain medication. On the third day, Gorter suggested they might be celebrating his 80th birthday together.
Gorter’s breakthrough came in 1999 when he developed a procedure to cultivate so-called dendritic cells, which play a key role in fighting off cancer cells. The method attracted international attention, causing quite a positive stir among his colleagues at the conference of the American Society for Clinical Oncology—the international symposium for cancer specialists.
He tested his findings in a study involving 171 women with metastasized breast cancer who had undergone many forms of chemotherapy and radiation treatment and were considered hopeless cases. Following Gorter’s treatment, about 10 percent of the patients were in remission—a surprising result in patients considered terminal. In 60 percent of the women, the treatment greatly extended and enhanced the quality of their lives although they did not recover. According to Gorter, no other treatment offers similar results.
But he isn’t one to rest on his laurels. For 35 years he has been working seven days a week, 14 hours a day, to develop new therapies and refine current treatment methods. His patients can call him any time. Whether he’s in San Francisco, where he is a professor at the University of California, or one of the clinics he heads in Cape Town, Istanbul, Cologne or (shortly) Dubai and Shanghai—he is always on hand to help.
Gorter developed the cancer treatment using dendritic cells in co-operation with Professor Wolfgang Köstler of the University of Vienna in Austria and Professor Hinrich Peters of the University of Göttingen in Germany . These cells are vital to fighting cancer because they systematically scan all the body’s cells searching for aberrations. Gorter explains, “When they discover an abnormal cell, they move at lightning speed to the nearest lymph node, where hundreds of thousands of ‘killer’ cells are stored like soldiers in a barracks. These cells go out on the attack if they are so instructed by the dendritic cells, like generals commanding an army.”
One dendritic cell can simultaneously inform 5,000 “killer” cells of the characteristics of a cancer cell that must be destroyed. The dendritic cells, which look like little octopi, do this by spreading their tentacles. Gorter adds, “The ‘killer’ cells then swarm out and kill every cell with cancerous characteristics. As a result of this process, all the cancer cells that patients produce every day are dead within 24 to 36 hours.”
According to Gorter, cancer often takes root when dendritic cells are malfunctioning. “We’re all a bit cancerous” is his way of explaining that everyone has cancer cells in his or her body. “But things really start to go wrong when the body no longer recognizes or can kill these cells.”
That insight inspired Gorter and his colleagues to develop a method of producing large numbers of healthy, dendritic cells, which are reintroduced into the patient’s system. It works like this: “We take five tablespoons of blood and isolate the monocytes [undifferentiated or immature white blood cells produced in the bone marrow] that can be developed into dendritic cells. One week later we have 15 to 20 million extremely vital cells that are given back to the patient. These are well tolerated. Many people—even when their cancer has metastasized— do much better or recover completely. The therapy works on all types of tumours: both solid tumours—as is the case with colon, breast and lung cancer—as well as non-solid tumours such as lymphomas and leukemia.”
The treatment (which costs 2,600 euros or $3,300 U.S. ) is repeated six times with one-month breaks in between. This is why Gorter refers to it as a vaccine: “When the immune system has to learn something new, or change a particular function, the lesson must be repeated a number of times. The same thing is true with childhood illnesses. You have to repeat the vaccine several times. The patient often shows real signs of recovery after the third or fourth vaccination.”
And indeed, sometimes even after the first treatment, as was the case with Joe Pacini.
When Pacini arrived in Cologne via special transport, he was on his deathbed. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult types to treat. His Californian doctors had given up hope because 80 percent of his liver had been destroyed. Pacini underwent three days of getting vaccinations containing dendritic cells along with hyperthermia treatments (a method which artificially raises the patient’s body temperature) . After that, he says, “I was even able to walk up to the third floor of my hotel without help. After the second day here I didn’t take any more pain medication because I was feeling so good.” Now, three months later, as Pacini returns to Cologne for his second treatment, he feels wonderful: “I feel so fit I’m walking three to four hours a day.” A smile lights up his face. “Yesterday I walked back and forth to Cologne ’s cathedral.”
After the first series of treatments, Pacini’s oncologist in the United States measured his tumour markers—abnormal proteins made only by cancer cells that demonstrate the presence of cancer and its degree of aggressiveness. The doctor was surprised to see a sharp drop in the markers when he had expected a rise. Pacini notes, “My oncologist said: ‘I don’t know what they’re doing, but it’s working.’”
Despite promising results like this, research into treatments with dendritic cells is barely getting off the ground. “There’s not a lot of money to be earned from the research,” Gorter states. “You can’t get a patent on it because dendritic cells are autologous [drawn from and reintroduced to a patient’s own body]. Which is why pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested. Classic, random studies have never been done because this type of research is very expensive.” Gorter worries that his treatment, like other alternative methods, will not be approved by influential authorities like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because these treatments run counter to the pharmaceutical- based philosophy of the medical establishment. He worries that legal charges may even be brought against doctors applying the therapy.
That’s the reason Gorter ended up working in Germany . The flamboyant professor feels more at home in a climate of professional freedom. All of his life he has lived by his own rules: “I used to wear jeans and shirts with flower prints. But when everyone started wearing them, it was time for a change.” In Germany he can wear his dicky bow ties and experiment with new therapies without any problem. Gorter: “In Germany , doctors enjoy a unique, constitutionally protected freedom to practise.” Recently, in fact, Germany ’s High Court in Karlsruhe ruled unanimously that qualified physicians have complete freedom to treat seriously ill patients as they see fit and that insurers must pay for the prescribed treatments.
this therapeutic freedom means that German doctors are not limited to the standard cancer protocols imposed in other Western countries: operations, radiation or chemotherapy. New treatments can be used alongside conventional ones, and even some traditional healing methods are employed. Gorter, for instance, makes frequent use of hyperthermia or fever therapy, which has been used since ancient times. Hippocrates said: “Give me a fever and I’ll heal every illness.”
This therapy was rediscovered around 1880 by the American doctor William Coley. While researching the relationship between fever and tumour growth, Coley chanced to find a man who’d had several unsuccessful operations to remove tumours on his face and neck. His condition become further complicated by a serious skin infection that went hand in hand with a high fever. Yet the patient survived the high fever and, even more amazingly, discovered his tumours had disappeared.
Coley looked at the medical literature and discovered this was not an isolated case: As soon as patients developed a high fever, their tumours sometimes vanished. Coley started successfully experimenting with artificial fevers among cancer patients. He did this by giving them bacilli. Sometimes these bacilli even erupted into the worst inoperable tumours, only to disappear within hours.
“Fever therapy works amazingly well—alone and in combination with other therapies,” Gorter states. “When you combine chemotherapy with fever therapy you’ll have fewer side effects from the chemo.
“Cancer is a so-called ‘cold illness’ and often disappears when the body’s temperature rises,” he continues. “The immune system also works optimally when a fever strikes. The only down side of Coley’s therapy was that he couldn’t precisely determine the level of the fever. We can now, thanks to special beds in which patients are wrapped to their necks and the temperature is controlled using infrared lamps, rising to around 40 degrees Celsius [104 degrees Fahrenheit].”
When Gorter calls cancer a “cold” illness, he’s not simply referring to the temperature. “The characteristic of many modern illnesses is that they are cooling, debilitating, hardening and chronic. Until recently, nearly all epidemics—such as tuberculosis, malaria and the flu—were caused by parasites or bacteria. But particularly after World War II, bacteria slipped increasingly into the background. They’re still there, but nowadays no one dies of pneumonia. But what has taken its place are the debilitating, degenerative diseases that are mainly caused by viruses like hepatitis B and C. The distinguishing characteristics of these illnesses are hardening or sclerosis. When viruses are isolated, they take on the form of a crystal; it looks like fine table salt.”
Ninety-nine percent of all cancers also show hardening properties, according to Gorter. “If you’ve got a little lump in your breast but you can press into it—if it’s a little spongy—doctors say: ‘We’ll wait a month and see.’ But when a lump is hard and you regularly see calcification in the mammogram, there is cause for concern and usually a malignancy.”
Gorter says this hardening is not only seen in modern diseases like cancer, hardening of the arteries, multiple sclerosis and chronic fatigue syndrome, but also in our values, norms and language use. Gorter observes, “In our society, you’re not well paid for having a warm heart but for being smart. We have to be cool and efficient and above all we must not show too much warmth and enthusiasm. Those who do are quickly considered a little nuts or over the top. It’s a sign of our times.”
But these are the reasons why softness—or love—and warmth are particularly healing when it comes to cancer. Gorter nearly always asks his patients if there’s something that excites them; if they still have ideals. “I ask them: ‘Do you ever do anything for other people?’ Many look at me and say they’ve been busy working for decades and haven’t done anything all those years to help others.”
Gorter knows from experience the healing power of enthusiasm, love and optimism. When, at the age of 26, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that had spread to his stomach and lungs, he decided to heal himself. He took very hot baths—something he doesn’t necessarily advise for older patients as the heat can cause strong heart palpitations and low blood pressure as well as severe dizziness. He also started to live life with even more joy and optimism. Now he says he has learned this: “If something makes you enthusiastic you have a reason to live. Ultimately that is the way to break the vicious circle of hardening and cooling.”
http://www.odemagaz ine.com/article. php?aID=4350
Robert Gorter can be reached via Medical Center Cologne, Hohenstaufenring 30-32, 50674 Keulen, Germany. Phone: +49 (0)221 7886301.
(PLEASE NOTE: DIFFERENT FROM PAPER VERSION OF ODE MAGAZINE)
Email: r.gorter@cologne- model.com.
www.cologne- model.com and www.anthroposophica l-medicine. info
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