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Allergies |
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Allergies |
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I
don't know if the world is full of smart men bluffing Common-sense caution: The author is not a physician and, as will become abundantly clear from reading this article,
is certainly not a close colleague of very many allergists. If you have a known allergy, work directly with your doctor before making any medication or other treatment changes.
Most allergies usually disappear while you wait if you use the
safest, most powerful, cheapest and most effective antihistamine-antitoxin in
existence: vitamin C. As Jacob Marley's ghost said to Ebeneezer Scrooge,
"You don't believe in me." Well, you don't, do you? How can a
simple vitamin replace a medical specialty, and I'm telling you, it very nearly could. You could start a drive-in allergy clinic, with only one
prescription: "Take C.
Ninety dollars, please. Do you want fries with that?" Wisdom is inherent
in simplicity and safety. Hippocrates, the father of medicine so-called,
said: "Of several remedies, the physician should choose the least
sensational." That is genius, and it is practical, reproducible
advice good for modern man. Vitamin C therapy is safe, simple and
effective. So you question
this naive approach? Naturally, since we've all been taught that
anything safe and simple cannot possibly be medically effective. So I
give you the case of my friend Tim. Tim brought in his
wife and family to talk about scarlet fever. They'd had a touch of it in
their family, and a touch is enough of that. We discussed vitamin C's
role as an antipyretic (fever-lowerer) and value as
an antibiotic. They were keen to focus on this. Just in passing, Tim
also mentioned some unspecified allergy problems. I briefly mentioned
that vitamin C had great usefulness there as well. Tim called me a few
weeks later. "Good
resolution with the fever," he said. "We gave all the kids
grams of vitamin C and only one of them had scarlet fever symptoms. That
was Jeffrey, and he got over it much faster than the doctor expected him
to." "That's really
good, Tim," I said. "There's more
to tell," he responded. "I was stung by a bee last week." "And?" "And I'm
allergic to bee stings." Ulp.
He hadn't previously told me that. "I have
medicine and an inhaler," Tim continued. "The whole kit
and kaboodle. When I was stung, I took 25,000
milligrams of vitamin C in the first hour. By the end of the day, I'd
taken 100,000 milligrams. No symptoms at all. Not even any
swelling. You had to look hard to find where the sting was, even." "But you used
your medicine, right?" "No!" Tim
said. "That's the amazing thing. Normally I would have had to,
or I would probably die. But this time, all I did was the C. Talk
about an antitoxin-antihistamine! That vitamin C really works." I was unnerved at
the high stakes Tim had played for, but impressed with his findings. Allergy, like most
disease names, tells you little about cause and nothing about cure. Robert
F. Cathcart, MD, looks at allergy (and many other conditions as well) simply
in terms of how much vitamin C it takes to cure it. He has much
experience as a clinician and has published numerous papers on the topic. And he is correct. A young woman, age
20, was brought to see me once by her family. She was allergic to horses
and hay. Since she loved to ride, and her parents kept several horses in
their barn, this was a big problem. The young lady was not readily going
to change her eating habits, but was willing to take a lot of vitamin
C. It was effective, as she tells it: "Whenever I
was taking 20,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day, I had no allergies at
all. The only time I got them back was when I drank beer. So I
either avoided beer, or if I drank, I took an extra 10,000 mg of C. I
never had problems with horses or hay again." I had a client once
who was allergic to everything, literally. She said that she'd tested out
positive as allergic to 72 different substances. I'd never heard of that
severe a condition before, and apparently, neither had her allergist. He said
that she could take a "megadose" of perhaps 1,000 milligrams a
day. It was not doing anything. I suggested she take vitamin C to
bowel tolerance, and hold the C level just below the amount that caused loose
stools. This turned out to be nearly 40,000 milligrams a day. She took all the C
she could hold. That was the end of her 72 allergies. And I've seen more
of the same with children and teenagers, friends and neighbors, all ages and
stages. Take enough C to be
symptom free, whatever the amount might be... but stay a few thousand
milligrams under the amount that would cause loose bowels. Think about this:
what would actually happen if everyone were actually healthy? If each person
took vitamins? If doctors and hospitals and pharmaceuticals, all of
which prosper from sickness, were not needed? In The United States
Recommended Daily Values (or Dietary Allowances, or Reference Intakes, or
whatever other claptrap they offer you) are forms or nutritional communism,
or dietetic socialism. The government-set levels are incontestably right
and ample for all, and that's the end of it. A socialist state might say
that you may earn your pay, but only keep a subsistence income, say a few
thousand dollars above the federal poverty level. Would your needs be
met with ten or twelve thousand dollars a year? Would you be best off that
way? Does the government have either the knowledge, or the right,
to decide either your financial needs or your nutritional needs for
you? RDA's: one size
fits nobody. Let's temporarily
assume that orthodox dietitians are correct when they tell us that vitamin
supplements can only cure vitamin deficiency diseases, and nothing
else. If this is true, when any disease is cured by supplements, it
indicates deficiency. If zinc speeds recovery from the common cold (and many
studies do confirm this), then people with colds are zinc deficient. If lots
of vitamin C shortens the intensity and duration of the common cold (and
there are dozens of scientific studies that prove this), then people with
colds are vitamin C deficient as well. The RDA's and pitiful American
intakes are therefore below the deficiency levels. LAW: The quantity
of a nutritional supplement that cures an illness indicates the patient's
degree of deficiency. It is therefore not a megadose of the vitamin,
but rather a megadeficiency of the nutrient that we
are dealing with. Allergies evidently
constitute one such megadeficiency. You must use
vitamins correctly to get the job done. Large amounts work; small
amounts don't. The dose depends on the patient. Think big: you have to
use as much as it takes to get results. Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner
said, "If you want results, use adequate ascorbic acid. Don't send
a boy to do a man's job." If I were to die tomorrow, I'd want you
to remember that I told you this today: "Take enough C to be symptom
free, whatever that amount might be."
The safety of
vitamin C therapy is unassailable. Dr. Klenner writes, "Vitamin C is the
safest substance available to the physician." Vitamin therapy:
don't knock it until you've tried it. And especially, until you have
personally read Nutritional Influences on Illness, by Melvyn Werbach, MD; How
to Live Longer and Feel Better by Linus Pauling; The Vitamins in
Medicine, by Bicknell and Prescott; Clinical Guide to the Use of
Vitamin C, edited by Lendon Smith, MD; The Healing Factor, by Irwin stone; The Vitamin C Connection,
by Emanuel Cheraskin, MD; A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular
Medicine, edited by Roger Williams; and Orthomolecular Psychiatry,
by David Hawkins, MD and Linus Pauling. Do not be dismayed by these
high-falutin' titles. "Orthomolecular" is
usually just another term for megavitamin. These are the books you want
to look into.
I raised my kids
all the way into college without either of them ever having a single dose of
any antihistamine (or antibioic), not even once. Why? Because we used vitamins instead,
that's why. And this especially meant lots of
vitamin C. Vitamin C very effectively treated their influenzas and
mononucleosis; it promptly stopped their coughs and their bronchitis; it
lowered their fevers and cured their sore throats. I repeat: they never
once had an antibiotic. Because of the C, they never once needed an
antibiotic. It is not that kids won't get sick, because they do. Natural
healing is not about avoiding doctors and drugs. Natural healing is
about not needing doctors or
drugs. And orthomolecular therapy is about using vitamins instead of drugs. Vitamin C is but
one of many vitamins, vitamins are but one part of
nutrition, and nutrition is but one aspect of health. And even then,
look what just the one vitamin can do. Vitamin C
replaces antibiotics, antihistamines, antipyrretics,
antitoxics, and antiviral drugs at saturation
(bowel tolerance) levels. This is the single most inflammatory
statement in medicine. First of all, what we now
label "allergies" could just as easily be called
"undernutrition" and I think should
be. The majority of Americans are demonstrably scorbutic, or on the very
verge of scurvy (McCormick, 1962). Insufficient vitamin C results in
exaggerated sensitivity to even average levels of irritants, toxins,
chemicals, pollution and microorganisms. Deficiencies of vitamins
A, B-complex and E frequently manifest as skin problems or hypersensitivity
to foods, stress, germs or shock. Millions of vitamin deficient but
overstuffed persons are literally waiting to be allergic to something. Food
that fills and fattens but doesn't fortify the body is like trying to build a
wall with bricks and no mortar: it will hold up only until you lean upon it. Can you imagine how you'd
explain the theory of evolution to a classroom full of kids allergic to housedust? I can't see any way that humankind could
have evolved at all if people were always stopping to itch, scratch or
sneeze. Allergy shots have only been available in recent medical
history. So have allergies. So has our chemical-laden, overcooked,
overly processed, overly meaty-and-starchy
diet. If you look at someone cross-eyed and they get sick, they were
primed and ready by years of bad diet. What's more,
"allergy" tells you nothing. In Botany class, I once learned that
plants turn towards the light because of phototropism. Phototropism
means "moves towards light". The name tells you nothing that
you couldn't have observed yourself. Same with allergies. Rashes,
hives, troubled breathing and such when gathered together in one body are
collectively called "allergy". When some people get near such
and such, they have an "allergic reaction". What do you do,
then? Just keep them away from what triggers the reaction. No milk,
no dust, no cats, no feathers, etc. Nothing concrete is
accomplished. How can avoidance be cure? If your son got sweaty palms,
hives or "butterflies" every time he telephoned a girl to ask her
for a date, would you conclude that he's allergic to women and send him to a
monastery? Of course not. You'd find out why he got so nervous and
strengthen him, encourage him and most of all allow him to get over it. So why not do the same
for your body? "Allergic" tells you nothing more than any other symptom. Symptoms
tell us that our body is not quite right. Naturopaths tell us that if our
body is not quite right, we should take a good look at the way we take care
of it. Check your diet first, not merely for the presence of "allergens"
but rather for an absence of nutrients. You can start with a saturation test
with vitamin C, as mentioned above. Other questions to ask
yourself: Are you avoiding chemical preservatives, artificial food colorings, and other unnecessary food
additives? Avoiding drugs, non-prescription and otherwise? Are you
getting enough rest? Do you need a cleansing fast? Eating a mostly plant-based diet? These questions should replace battery after battery of
allergy tests. Great-grandma might have
said (mine did, anyway) that you have to eat a peck of dirt before you
die. One of my brothers once confidently reassured me that I could eat
dog droppings, flies and all, and it still wouldn't kill me. Regardless
of the merits of that particular gem of wisdom, it is safe to say that a
naturally healthy body will not be troubled by allergies. The way to
have a naturally healthy body is to NOT eat as so many misguided consumers
do. As Dr. John A. Myers said long ago in "The Role of Some Nutritional
Elements in the Health of the Teeth and their Supporting Structures"
from Annals of Dentistry (22)2, June 1958:
"Modern civilized
diet, after much processing, modification, staleness, and complete cooking,
produces children with rampant dental caries, skeletal defects, allergies and
fatigue, along with the emotional and nervous changes seen in the
experimental animals." (p. 38) Rather, the way to be
healthy is almost annoyingly simple: 1.) Stop eating processed meats,
sugar, and junk food. . . or reduce as much as
possible. 2.) Instead, eat whole foods including the seeds, nuts, and grains that do not cause you trouble. Also go in big for fruits, beans, sprouts, lots of greens and lightly cooked or raw vegetables.
And, take
vitamin food supplements, especially vitamin C! 3.) Clean out body wastes
by occasional juice fasts and an everyday natural diet which is high in fiber
and free of artificially colored or preserved foods.. This is more than
"folk" medicine. This is a real remedy for all folks. Copyright C 2009, 2002 and prior years Andrew W. Saul. Revisions copyright 2018. Andrew Saul is the author
of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be
Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html
) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html
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AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision. Neither the author nor the webmaster has authorized the use of their names or the use of any material contained within in connection with the sale, promotion or advertising of any product or apparatus. Single-copy reproduction for individual, non-commercial use is permitted providing no alterations of content are made, and credit is given. |
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