General information

Sugar and monosodium glutamate have one thing in common. People are more likely to buy products containing them if they are called something else. Consumers trying to avoid sugar have started reading food labels. Many have begun to think that sugar by another name is not really sugar. Manufacturers know that calling sugar evaporated cane juice for instance, fools people into thinking there is less sugar in the product. Many label readers have caught on to the fact that ingredients have to be listed in order, from the largest amount contained down to the smallest. By using different names for sugar, manufacturers can split the content among the different names, putting the idea of sugar further down on the label without actually reducing the amount of sugar in the product.

Once upon a time health food stores did not carry products containing sugar. Today what we think of as a “health food store” is often a type of hybrid resulting from the cross breeding of true health food stores with traditional grocery retailers. These new stores are trying to capitalize on having a healthy image, while their shelves are stocked with products containing processed sugar, often listed by one of its other names.

However, both evaporated cane juice and white sugar are both sucrose, and both contain 400 calories in 100 grams. Both evaporated cane juice and white cane sugar have been heavily processed to remove the molasses content. During this processing the vitamins, minerals, fiber, amino acids, and trace elements that make molasses nutritious have been striped away, leaving one of the purest chemicals ever manufactured. Only tiny amounts of vitamin A and calcium remain in evaporated cane juice. Following processing, evaporated cane juice is 99.5 percent sucrose, and white sugar is 99.9 percent sucrose. Turbinado sugar  is 99 percent sucrose.

Whether sugar is eaten in the form of white sugar, evaporated cane juice, turbinado, or any of the other names for it, its effect on the body is the same. When eaten in large amounts, or eaten without fat or protein, each of them will produce the same sort of insulin spike, weight gain, immune system suppression, and increased chance for diabetes. It has been implicated in Syndrome X and heart disease as well.

The big difference between evaporated cane juice and granulated sugar is the price, which runs about 8 to 10 dollars a pound for evaporated cane juice compared to about 1 to 3 dollars a pound for white sugar. If manufacturers are willing to spend the extra money to put the words evaporated cane juice on their labels, it means they know the public is seriously trying to avoid eating sugar and needs to be tricked into eating it anyway.

Our collective sweet tooth goes back to the days when we lived in caves and life was a physical event rather than a mental one, as it is now. We needed to eatfoods high in nutrients in order to have energy to get through the physical challenges of the typical day. Sweets eaten back then were primarily berries and other fruits that contained beneficial nutrients, enzymes and many phytochemicals to keep us going strong. Back then, a sweet tooth was not a bad thing. But sugar craving still exists for the purpose of compelling people to seek high energy nutrition. Until that nutrition is obtained, sugar craving continues, leaving today’s people in that vicious circle where more nutrient depleted sweets are eaten, and more sugar craving signals are sent. For many people, sugar has almost completely replaced nutrient dense foods, with obesity and health issues as the results. Next time you want something sweet, eat some fruit.

Be well

Dr Sundardas

Do you find yourself at the mercy of your emotions, a victim of reaction, behaving in ways that you’re not proud of and often regret? Are you one of the millions of people who avoid conflict and confrontation because you don’t know how to deal with other people’s emotions? Perhaps you avoid emotions entirely, not allowing yourself to feel deeply – out of fear or simply because you never learned how to experience, enjoy, and manage deep emotions such as love, joy, sadness, or happiness.

Perhaps you have become numb to emotions, not recognizing what or that you’re feeling something. Without the skills to handle them, you might “stuff” your emotions, exploding at some later time when you reach your breaking point.

Then there are those who were taught not to feel, who grew up learning that feelings were bad and you shouldn’t have them at all. And when you do feel something, you cannot let anyone know about it. Well, you’re not alone. Everyone has emotions and many people have no idea what to do with their emotions when they experience them. So, welcome to the Club.

Learning more about emotions, understanding what happens to you when you become emotional; learning to control yourself and your responses to emotions are your personal responsibility as an adult – regardless of what you may have learned or witnessed as a child – and they a big part of living a successful life.

Success cannot only be defined by what you do or what you have; it’s defined in your heart by how you feel about how you are living your life, the things you do, and the impact you make on others including how you make other people feel. Emotions are what make life grand. Emotions bring life to living.

What does it mean to be intelligent about your emotions?

It means being able to recognize and manage your emotions as well as control your behavior in response to emotion. It also means you are aware of the emotions of others and are able to manage relationships using empathy and competence. This is the practice of becoming emotionally confident and it takes time, vigilance, and practice in order to enjoy your emotions and respond to them appropriately as well as becoming more adept at handling the emotions of others and dealing with conflict.

Obviously, the better you are at knowing and managing yourself and your emotions, the better you become at dealing with other people’s emotions. The first step in learning about emotions is to become more conscious to what you are feeling in any given moment.

When your friend, employee, child or spouse doesn’t behave or perform in the way you had expected, it may seem natural to feel very angry, frustrated or resentful. But ultimately, will a strong flood of uncontrolled emotion get you the results you need? How do you find a better way?

A staff member doesn’t handle a problem with a customer well, and you, as the manager, are upset. You think to yourself, “Why on earth would he do such a thing? Doesn’t he know better? He should know that’s not how to deal with a customer!”

Your young child is playing upstairs. You decide to go and check on her and discover that she’s been drawing on the wall. “Look at my beautiful picture!” this small face smiles up to you. You, of course, are enraged and think before responding, “Haven’t I taught her not to draw on the wall? Doesn’t she know better?”

There are probably thousands of examples of these moments, moments when you think “What would make someone do that?” It is at this very moment when we reach a fork in the road and quite often, we get stuck. The stuck point is the assumption that the person knows better. This is the expectation. You have an expectation for how an employee should behave, how your children should behave, how things should function, even how you should be and what you should do. This the tyranny of the “shoulds”.

Expectations in and of themselves are not bad. We need to have some direction, some vision, and some idea of what we want. Of course, some expectations are unrealistic and this causes tremendous stress, anxiety, anger, struggle, and discontent. But other expectations are reasonable and realistic. Whatever the case, it’s not having the expectation that gets us in trouble; it’s when the expectation is not met that gives us difficulty.

When your expectations are not met, you can experience a psychological response including anger, resentment, anxiety, frustration, disappointment, etc. In fact, disappointment always points to an unmet expectation. This physiological response often causes people to choose the path at the fork that leads to what I call “The Ugly,” the inappropriate, unproductive, and unprofessional expression of emotion – loss of temper, yelling, conflict, bad feelings, name-calling, gossip, etc. In fact, this response leads to poor relationships, decreases morale, and can be deadly to a leader’s reputation as well as detrimental to the environment or culture of the workplace or your home. It leads to fear, causes shame, and requires effort to correct as well as time to heal. The opportunity for choosing a better response is at the stuck point, that moment when you feel the anger start or the frustration creep in. What are you assuming here? Take a step back and question your assumption. That is the beginning of running your mind. This is the beginning of making a choice to embrace peace and happiness.

The pursuit of happiness is not about embracing hedonism. It is about recognizing what matters to you. What matters to the others in your life. Then armed with this you pursue the outcomes in a way congruent with you and your values. Along the way, stop and smell the flowers. When you run into obstacles and road blocks embrace the leaning.

Be well

Dr Sundardas

http://www.biologyofbliss.net/

The human intestine maintains within its inner cavity a complex, crowded environment of food remnants and microbial organisms (called “the intestinal flora”) from which the body derives nourishment and against which the body must be protected. The relationship between the human host and her army of microbes is described by the Greek word, symbiosis, which means “living together”. When symbiosis benefits both parties, it is called mutualism. When symbiosis becomes harmful, it is called dysbiosis.

The first line of protection against dysbiosis and intestinal toxicity is strict control of intestinal permeability, the ability of the gut to allow some substances to pass through its walls while denying access to others. The healthy gut selectively absorbs nutrients and seals out those components of the normal internal milieu which are most likely to cause harm, except for a small sampling which it uses to educate and strengthen its mechanisms of immunity and detoxification.

Bacteria form the largest segment of the intestinal flora. The number of bacteria in the large bowel (about a hundred trillion) exceeds the number of cells in the human body. Intestinal bacteria perform some useful functions, so that our relationship with them is normally one of mutual benefit. They synthesize half a dozen vitamins, supplementing those which are obtained from food. They convert dietary fibre–that part of food which humans cannot digest–into small fatty acids which nourish the cells of the large intestine. They degrade dietary toxins like methyl mercury making them less harmful to the body. They crowd out pathogenic bacteria like Salmonella, decreasing the risk of food poisoning. They stimulate the development of a vigorous immune response. Four-fifths of the body’s immune system is located in the lining of the small intestine.

Bacteria are dangerous tenants, however, so that dysbiosis is a common problem. As powerful chemical factories, bacteria not only make vitamins and destroy toxins, but also destroy vitamins and make toxins. Bacterial enzymes can inactivate human digestive enzymes and convert human bile or components of food into chemicals which promote the development of cancer. Some by-products of bacterial enzyme activity, like ammonia, hinder normal brain function. When absorbed into the body, they must be removed by the liver. People whose livers fail this task, because of conditions like cirrhosis, develop progressive neurologic dysfunction resulting in coma and death. For them, the administration of antibiotics which slow the production of nerve toxins by intestinal bacteria can be life saving.

The immune reactions provoked by normal intestinal bacteria may be harmful rather than helpful. Inflammatory diseases of the bowel, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease (ileitis), and several types of arthritis have been linked to aberrant immune responses provoked by intestinal bacteria. Two types of aberrancy have been described. First, intestinal bacteria contain proteins which look to the immune system very much like human proteins; they confuse the immune system and may fool the body into attacking itself. Second, fragments of dead bacteria may leak into the wall of the intestine or into the blood stream due to a breakdown in the mechanisms which regulate intestinal permeability. Circulating through the body, bacterial debris is deposited in tissues such as joints, provoking an attack on those tissues by an immune system trying to remove the foreign material.

Unlike bacteria, parasites appear to serve no useful function. The part of the immune system which they stimulate does not strengthen the organism to resist serious infection; instead it contributes to allergic reactions, so that parasitic infection increases allergic tendencies.

Our digestive system is perhaps the most significant system in terms of its importance to us. It is simply not possible to live and continue growing if we cannot digest and assimilate the food we take in. It has also been labelled the “brain” of the body. In Oriental Medicine, the abdominal area which houses the Hara for the Japanese and the Tan Tien for the Chinese is the reservoir of life force and vitality. It is also our early warning system. When we are feeling a little under the weather, we often feel queasy when we think of food. When we are feeling nervous and agitated, we say we have butterflies in our stomach.

Most literature on detoxification refers to liver enzymes, as the liver is the site of the majority of detoxification activity for both endogenous and exogenous compounds. However, the first contact the body makes with the majority of xenobiotics is the gastrointestinal tract. Over the course of a lifetime, the gastrointestinal tract processes more than 25 tons of food, which represents the largest load of antigens and xenobiotics confronting the human body. Furthermore, since most drugs are consumed orally, the gastrointestinal tract is also the first contact with many drugs. It is not surprising, then, that the gastrointestinal tract has developed a complex set of physical and biochemical systems to manage this load of exogenous compounds.

Several factors influence how much of a chemical ends up in the system, requiring detoxification by the liver. The gastrointestinal tract initially provides a physical barrier to exogenous components. As previously discussed, the gastrointestinal tract is the second major site in the body for detoxification. Detoxification enzymes such as Cyp3A4 and the antiporter activities have been found in high concentrations at the tip of villi in the intestine. Adequate first pass metabolism of xenobiotics by the gastrointestinal tract requires integrity of the gut mucosa. Compromised barrier function of the mucosa will easily allow xenobiotics to transit into the circulation without opportunity for detoxification. Therefore, support for healthy gut mucosa is instrumental in decreasing toxic load.

In the last 20 years of practice, I have found all allergies and complex chronic disease have their origins in some kind of gut dysfunction. Keep your gut healthy. For the last twenty years I have been helping people have healthier “guts”.

http://www.naturaltherapies.com/detox.htm

Be well
Dr Sundardas

Your brain has three parts: the stem or “reptile brain”, the limbic or “mammalian brain” and the neocortex. Researcher Dr. Paul MacLean has termed it the “triune brain” because of the three parts, each of which developed during a different time in the evolutionary history.

In the neocortex are all the higher intelligences that make human beings unique as a species. Psychologist Dr. Howard Gardner has identified many specific intelligences or “ways of knowing” that may be developed within a human being. Among these intelligences are linguistic, mathematical, visual/spatial, kinesthetic/tactical, musical, interpersonal and intra-personal.

Probably the highest of the intelligences and the greatest form of creative thought – is intuition. Intuition is the ability to receive or perceive information that is not available to our five senses. This ability is extremely acute in children between the ages of four and seven. Too often it is suppressed and crushed by authority figures who view it as irrational behaviour.

All of the higher intelligences including intuition are present in the brain at birth and over the first seven years they can unfold properly if nurtured. For these intelligences to be nurtured, several conditions must be met:

* the lower neurostructures must be sufficiently developed to allow energy
to move to a higher level;

* the child must feel physically and emotionally safe;

* there must be a model to provide the appropriate stimulus

Consider the timing of these developing intelligences. Linguistic ability unfolds while a person is still in the womb. A child isn’t taught its native language, if the mother has the ability to speak, she can’tprevent a child from learning it. In fact if a child is exposed during the first seven years, the liguistic intelligence will be activated.

In the first year of life, the sensory motor functions get going. This is accomplished through direct contact by the infant with its environment, by continual interactions with its mother and the things in its immediate world.

By age one or two, the sensory motor brain is suficiently advanced, and the baby shifts up to the next level of development. There is a great increase in neuron connections, and as the emotional-cognitive system fires up, the baby’s behaviour changes almost overnight. This is the period of the “terrible twos” and is dreaded by parents the world over. But consider this, this phase is essential for the higher development of the neocortex.

A traumatic event in a child’s preschool years may disrupt a key period when the brain is collecting and storing massive amounts of information, researchers say. A review of studies on animals, however,
suggests that extensive corrective experiences can help over time.

The report, “How a Child Builds Its Brain,” was based on studies that measured neural plasticity ‚ the molding of the brain ‚ in animals as they underwent training and learning experiences. It was one of several studies published in the March-April issue of Preventive Medicine, which was devoted to the
proceedings of a 1996 conference on the “Critical Period of Brain Development.”

Researchers at the conference agreed that a critical period exists when brain development is most ready for stimulation and synapse formation, and that a deprived child may never fully or healthily develop without careful and expensive intervention. They suggest mandatory preschool for all children.

The brain stores new information in systems ‚ one tied to its own developmental timetable and another that extracts potentially useful information for later use, said James E. Black, a physician and professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago and visiting professor at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. at Urbana-Champaign.

In essence, Black said, “Experience alters brain structure to form persisting memories, not in a monolithic or rigid fashion, but rather utilizing multiple, flexible brain systems that can encode different types of experience and often on different developmental schedules.”

Animal studies ‚ particularly experiments on rats by Black and William T. Greenough, a neuroscientist and psychologist at the Beckman Institute ‚ suggest “positive, enriching experience will likely produce more synaptic connections in human children,” Black wrote.

While young mammals learn, an overproduction of synaptic connections is followed by a substantial decrease when information is stored or pruned and organized. If a species relies on the quality and timing of experience, Black said, the organization becomes vulnerable to disruption. On the other hand,
unique and individualized experience-dependent input ‚ where a squirrel hides a nut or a child’s mastery of a second language ‚ is stored in new neural connections. When a rat is exposed to an enriched environment, brain weight and thickness increase, and new synapses and new blood vessels form.

“While adults certainly retain neural plasticity and can be traumatized by experience, children are likely to be far more vulnerable to pathological experience, either abuse or deprivation, particularly during periods of rapid creation or modification of synaptic connections,” Black said.

The animal studies, he said, suggest that extensive and caring intervention can often break the cycle and heal the damage. Even if a critical period is misused or neglected, humans retain the potential to use corrective experience to make up for their early loss. By the same reasoning, he said, failure to
help abused or neglected children can lead to lifelong patterns of distress and dysfunction.

For the last 20 years I have been working with adults to process traumatic childhood programming
That was significantly impacting them with brilliant results. I called this program “Success Permission”

Be well
Dr Sundardas
http://www.fftcentre.com/spseminar.html

If you are reading this section, you are probably suffering with pain or you may know someone who is.  Please continue reading, because this page contains very important information on pain.

Because the cause of pain can vary from patient to patient and effective treatment methods vary as well, it is important to have a wide range of treatment modalities available to you . Acute pain is the most common symptom for which patients seek medical evaluation. New pain complaints result in 40 million visits to the doctor annually, and 45% of persons in the United States will visit a doctor for pain at some point in their lives. The prevalence of various chronic pain syndromes in the United States is estimated to range from 2% to 40%. Approximately 75 million persons in the United States live with “serious pain,” and nearly 50 million are partially or totally disabled by pain.

According to Western science, pain is associated with complex inter-relationships between the nervous system, spinal cord, thalamus, higher brain, neuro-peptide substances and emotions derived from cultural and past personal programming. Traditional Asian medical systems relate pain more to short-term or longstanding blockages in the flow and integrity of Blood, vital energy (Qi). In either case, pain can be viewed as a kind of alarm, an urgent message from the body-mind-spirit entity that something is out of balance in the system, and must be corrected to maintain health and homeostasis, or even life itself. In this way pain is useful, in fact a lifesaver at times, when it alerts us to take urgent action for survival and self-care. Yet in a lot of cases, pain becomes a self-perpetuating experience that remains long after the actual damage to the body is resolved. In some cases, such as with fibromyalgia or some neuropathies, severe pain can arise when there is no apparent injury to the body. It is these chronic pain cases that most challenge the Western pain paradigm.

One of the great contributions Oriental Medicine has made is the understanding of the Root and Branch of pain (and other disorders). In its simplest form, the Root refers to underlying causative factors that pre-dispose a patient to pain. These may involve longstanding emotional upsets and repression, viral or parasitic effects, organ imbalances, unresolved old injuries, or hereditary influences. The Branch of pain refers to the actual sensations of pain, restricted range of motion, joint degeneration or vertebral mis-alignments. The sensation of pain can be associated with any dysfunctional bodily system, not just the nervous system. Different types of pain are handled differently.

Pain is the #1 reason people go to the doctor, and one of the top reasons they seek out an complementary medicine practitioner. It is easy to find treatment for pain symptoms, but when pain becomes chronic, lasting   several weeks or more, people want answers and will seek out practitioners who will listen and help.

So any pressure that is placed on the emerging spinal nerve will create challenges both at the surface of the spinal segment (ARTT) as well as affect the visceral organs or other tissue. This gives rise to the Facilitated Segment. A facilitated segment results from trauma — either an accident of some sort or continued misuse. Whether or not the alignment of the vertebrae shifts, there is almost always a loss in range of motion. You might experience stiffness, soreness, or lack of flexibility in your back and neck. You might have some pain, or you might not.

Regardless, your body will be affected in some way! But facilitated segment are complex, and the problems they cause are a little bit more widespread. When the vertebrae are out of alignment, the ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and muscles — what we call connective tissue — is also affected. Damage to the connective tissues, mostly in the forms of very, very small rips or tears, usually is painful and does result in inflammation.
The following approaches to Pain Management in my practice has proved invaluable:

1) For acute injuries use an ice pack
2) For chronic injuries use an heat pack
3) Homeopathic remedies and creams that contain Arnica, Ruta can be very useful
4) Body work that involves Spinal manipulation ( for vertebral joint involvement) or Dorn, soft tissue therapy, trigger point therapy or Strain-Counterstrain methods, or even craniosacral if the injury was related to whiplash type trauma can be useful
5) Specific nutritional therapies to reduce inflammatory response like pancreatic enzymes and herbs like ginger and curcumin
6) Acupunture for pain mangement and balancing the meridians
7) Pulsating electromagnetic fields that send pulses of electromagnetic energy to switch off pain and accelerate healing.
8) Following the blood type diet can reduce inflammatory responses and reduce pain. (Look at previous posts on Blood Type)

Be well
Dr Sundardas

Under the Free Reports Section you can get: “ Pain Free Living”

http://www.naturaltherapies.com/pain/treatment.htm

http://www.naturaltherapies.com/neck n back.htm

Very often, Western Medicine has maintained the claim that the procedures in Western Medicine are well researched, done by impartial scientists and there are multiple checks and balances in place to ensure that there is no abuse. The gold standard in Western Medicine is the placebo-controlled double blind study. Outlined below are the facts about what actually happens.

If a doctor (or a friend) tries to push a flu vaccine on you, ask them this one simple question: “Do you think there have been any placebo-controlled studies that prove flu vaccines actually work?” Your doctor will, of course, say, “Sure there are. There must be.” You then answer, “I’ll bet you my flu shot against your hundred dollars that you can’t cite even one such study.” After a few days of being scoffed at while they try to dig up a study that doesn’t exist, you’ll walk away $100 richer. (Remember, the study has to be a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on the efficacy of the flu shot. Such studies have never been done!)

Vaccines are the quackery of modern medicine. Mass vaccination programs not only fail to protect the population from infectious disease, they actually accelerate the spread of disease in many cases. Many website have cropped up over the last few years to counter the pro-vaccine propaganda put out by drug companies (who profit from vaccines) and health regulators (who serve the drug companies). One of those sites is www.VaccinationDebate.com , which lists the following historical facts about vaccines:

• In the USA in 1960, two virologists discovered that both polio vaccines were contaminated with the SV 40 virus which causes cancer in animals as well as changes in human cell tissue cultures. Millions of children had been injected with these vaccines. (Med Jnl of Australia 17/3/1973 p555)

• In 1871-2, England, with 98% of the population aged between 2 and 50 vaccinated against smallpox, it experienced its worst ever smallpox outbreak with 45,000 deaths. During the same period in Germany, with a vaccination rate of 96%, there were over 125,000 deaths from smallpox. (http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/020…)
The Hadwen Documents

• In Germany, compulsory mass vaccination against diphtheria commenced in 1940 and by 1945 diphtheria cases were up from 40,000 to 250,000. (Don’t Get Stuck, Hannah Allen)

• In 1967, Ghana was declared measles free by the World Health Organisation after 96% of its population was vaccinated. In 1972, Ghana experienced one of its worst measles outbreaks with its highest ever mortality rate. (Dr H Albonico, MMR Vaccine Campaign in Switzerland, March 1990)

• In 1977, Dr Jonas Salk who developed the first polio vaccine, testified along with other scientists, that mass inoculation against polio was the cause of most polio cases throughout the USA since 1961. (Science 4/4/77 “Abstracts” )

• In the UK between 1970 and 1990, over 200,000 cases of whooping cough occurred in fully vaccinated children. (Community Disease Surveillance Centre, UK)

• In the 1970’s a tuberculosis vaccine trial in India involving 260,000 people revealed that more cases of TB occurred in the vaccinated than the unvaccinated. (The Lancet 12/1/80 p73)

• In 1978, a survey of 30 States in the US revealed that more than half of the children who contracted measles had been adequately vaccinated. (The People’s Doctor, Dr R Mendelsohn)

• The February 1981 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 90% of obstetricians and 66% of pediatricians refused to take the rubella vaccine.

• In 1979, Sweden abandoned the whooping cough vaccine due to its ineffectiveness. Out of 5,140 cases in 1978, it was found that 84% had been vaccinated three times! (BMJ 283:696-697, 1981)

• In the USA, the cost of a single DPT shot had risen from 11 cents in 1982 to $11.40 in 1987. The manufacturers of the vaccine were putting aside $8 per shot to cover legal costs and damages they were paying out to parents of brain damaged children and children who died after vaccination. (The Vine, Issue 7, January 1994, Nambour, Qld)

One in seven scientists report that they have known colleagues to falsify or slant the findings of their research, according to a study conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and published in the journal PLoS One.

A number of scientific data falsification scandals have emerged in recent years, such as the case of a South Korean researcher who invented data on stem cell research. At the same time, increasing controversy over close industry ties to medical research has called into question whether researchers who take money from drug companies might be induced to falsify their data.

“Increasing evidence suggests that known frauds are just the tip of the iceberg and that many cases are never discovered,” said researcher Daniele Fanelli.

The researchers reviewed the results of 21 different scientific misconduct surveys that had been performed between 1985 and 2005. All respondents were asked whether they or anyone they knew of had taken part in either fabrication (outright invention of data) or “questionable practices.”

Questionable practices were any improper procedure short of fabrication, including failing to publish results contradicting one’s prior research, modifying data based on a “gut feeling,” changing conclusions after pressure from a funder or selectively choosing which data to include in an analysis.

One in seven scientists said that they were aware of colleagues who had engaged in fabrication, while nearly half — 46 percent — admitted to knowing of colleagues who had used questionable practices. Only two percent, however, admitted to fabricating results themselves.

While two percent is higher than previous estimates of the prevalence of data fabrication, researchers believe that the number is still too low. In all likelihood, it reflects both a reluctance by researchers to admit to serious misconduct and a tendency to interpret one’s behavior as favorably as possible — questionable instead of fabrication, or acceptable rather than questionable.

Researchers in the medical and pharmacological fields were the most likely to admit to misconduct than researchers in other fields.

Sources for the above include: www.timesonline.co.uk

Be well
Dr Sundardas

Excitotoxins are substances added to foods and beverages that literally stimulates neurons to death, causing brain damage of varying degrees. They can be found in such ingredients as monosodium glutamate, aspartame (Nutrasweet®), cysteine, hydrolyzed protein, and aspartic acid. Dr. Blaylock’s Book “Excitoxins: The Taste That Kills” describes what excitotoxins are, where they are found, and how they react in the body. Dr. Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon, presents the latest research findings to demonstrate how exposure to excitotoxins will damage nerve cells in the brain. The use of aspartame, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and monosodium glutamate in prepared foods and beverages continues to increase on a yearly basis. Dr. Blaylock clearly demonstrates that the neurotoxic potential of excitotoxins such as MSG and aspartame is so overwhelming that it can no longer be ignored. The message contained in this book is of particular importance to members of high-risk groups; the elderly, young children and those people at risk or with a family history of neurodegenerative diseases.

There is clear evidence of the dangers of MSG & Aspartame to children. Dr Blaylock writes a story of brain damage and betrayal worthy of wide attention, especially among women of child-bearing age and parents. He presents clear evidence of severe damage to the hypothalamus, the regulator of most hormone systems, when glutamates and aspartates are ingested by pregnant and nursing women or by children. The relationship between low blood sugar levels and enhanced damage should be a wakeup call for diabetics and hypoglycemics, as well. The future of our children is truly endangered!

Ingestion of monosodium glutamate (MSG) is also known to produce a variety of adverse reactions in some people. These reactions, although seemingly dissimilar, are no more diverse than the reactions found as side effects of certain neurological drugs. We do not know why some people experience reactions and others do not. We do not know whether MSG “causes” the condition underlying the reaction, or whether the underlying condition is simply aggravated by the ingestion of MSG. We only know that the reactions listed below are sometimes caused or exacerbated by ingestion of MSG.

Ingredients that contain processed free glutamic acid (MSG) and free aspartic acid – known neurotoxins — are used in baby formula. The fact that neurotoxins are present in baby formula is of particular concern since the blood brain barrier is not fully developed in infants, allowing neurotoxins to be more accessible to the brain then is the case in healthy adults.

The amounts of aspartic acid and glutamic acid found in the formulas analyzed have been listed separately in the above schedules. However, in studies using experimental animals, neuroscientists have found that glutamic acid and aspartic acid load on the same receptors in the brain, cause identical brain lesions and neuroendocrine disorders, and act in an additive fashion. Symptoms of MSG toxicity are;

Cardiac: Arrhythmia, Extreme rise or drop in blood pressure, Angina
Rapid heartbeat (tachycardia), Circulatory Swelling

Muscular : Flu-like achiness, Joint pain Stiffness

Respiratory : Asthma, Shortness of breath, Chest pain, Tightness, Runny
Nose, Sneezing

Neurological : Depression, Migraine headache, Dizziness, Light-headedness,
Loss of balance, Disorientation, Mental confusion, Anxiety, Panic attacks,
Hyperactivity, Behavioral problems in children, Lethargy, Sleepiness,
Numbness or paralysis, Insomnia, Seizures, Sciatica, Slurred speech

Visual : Blurred vision, Difficulty focusing, Loss of Vision

Gastrointestinal : Diarrhea, Nausea/vomiting, Stomach cramps, Irritable bowel
Bloating

Urological : Swelling of prostate, Nocturia

Skin : Hives or rash, Mouth lesions, Temporary tightness or partial paralysis,
(numbness or tingling) of the skin, Flushing, Extreme dryness of the mouth

Millions of people in over 90 countries will suffer and even die due to FDA approved food additives currently found in over 5000 products. These deadly chemicals called excitotoxins are as common as every sugar-free and salt-free label you see in your supermarket. The most deadly is probably being consumed in mass quantities by yourself and your children RIGHT NOW! Aspartame commonly known as Nutrasweet, Equal, or Spoonful and soon to be many other brands now that may trigger clinical diabetes.

When the temperature of Aspartame exceeds 86 degrees F, the wood alcohol in Aspartame coverts to formaldehyde and then to formic acid, which in turn causes metabolic acidosis. (Formic acid is the poison found in the sting of fire ants.) The methanol toxicity mimics multiple sclerosis; thus people were being diagnosed with having multiple sclerosis in error. The multiple sclerosis is not a death sentence, where methanol toxicity is. Aspartame as Andy Ho the health writer in Straits Times has pointed out is deadly ant poison. I treated a patient who was incorrectly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when it was actually aspartame poisoning. We reversed the condition right down to the threatening loss of vision in the left eye in three months with a precision nutritional program that detoxified the toxic by by-products of aspartame in three months.

be well
Dr Sundardas

http://www.naturaltherapies.com/detox.htm

Much of the treatment for prostrate cancer is completely unwarranted. Remember, the majority of prostate cancer is pseudodisease. Most men die with it, not of it.

What Tests Should You Get?
So which tests should you get and when should you get them? It depends on who you listen to. Unfortunately, there’s no clear consensus among expert panels and advocacy groups, so confusion reigns.

I hesitate to make blanket recommendations. However, before you have a test, I strongly encourage you to understand both the pros-the slim but potentially lifesaving possibility that early-stage, clinically significant cancer will be found and treated-and the cons-the high risk of false positives, additional testing, anxiety, and unnecessary treatment. That way, you’ll be better prepared to deal with the outcome, whatever it may be.

Think Twice
I understand that this is an emotionally charged issue. Cancer is scary and the treatments for it are as frightening as the disease itself. If you have symptoms of cancer, by all means see a doctor and discuss appropriate testing. Otherwise, think twice. If your physician orders a cancer screening test, question its necessity. Doctors sometimes suggest these tests for all the wrong reasons: fears of malpractice, financial incentives, and even patient demand. Find out what course would be recommended if your results were positive. Then review the information in this article, and make your own educated decision. Next time you hear that someone who died of cancer would have been saved if only he’d had regular testing, realize that’s nothing more than unsubstantiated opinion. And, whatever you do, don’t let anyone make you feel irresponsible if you elect not to undergo cancer screening.

Two major Issues Associated with Ageing and Cancer are :
A) Anabolic/Catabolic Balance – Anabolism refers to cellular buildup. Catabolism refers to cellular breakdown. These two processes are involved in ageing. As you age poorly, catabolism increases much faster than it should.

“BIOMARKERS”- By William Evans, PhD and Irwin H. Rosenberg MD,Tufts University, Huyman Nutrition Research Centre on Ageing, Publisher – Fireside, Simon and Schuster – A very good book to read about this process.

B) Oxidative Stress –Environmental Damage and Hidden Infections. Oxidative Stress is a significant marker in disease and ageing. As we age faster, oxidative stress increases faster

A surprising number of studies report that excess serum insulin (hyperinsulinemia) is a major health problem. It appears that excess insulin promotes hypertension by impairing sodium balance. Too much insulin harms the kidneys. The vascular system is severely damaged by prolonged exposure to excess insulin. By acting as a catalyst in promoting cell growth, excess insulin increases the risk and progression of certain cancers. Excess insulin is a contributory factor to benign prostate enlargement because it promotes overgrowth of prostate cells. One of the first class markers for Syndrome X is the Hip to Waist ratio.

For people trying to reduce body fat, excess insulin suppresses the release of growth hormone and prevents fat from being released from fat cells. High serum insulin is associated with the development of abdominal obesity and a number of health problems, including atherosclerosis and impotence. Obesity is associated with excess insulin and reduced insulin sensitivity, both risk factors for Type II diabetes.

Perhaps the simplest method of evaluating the toxic effects of excess insulin is to look at its effects on human mortality. One early study showed that over a 10-year period, the risk of dying was almost twice as great for those with the highest levels of insulin compared to those with the lowest. The scientists stated that hyperinsulinemia is associated with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, independent of other risk factors (NIH 1985). Aging people experience a wide range of degenerative diseases that are directly attributable to elevated insulin.

Most of us want to grow old and age gracefully. We know that the most common enemies to growing old gracefully are heart disease (50% of men, 33% of women), cancer (33%), diabetes (12%) and hypertension (12%).

It takes 8 years for a tumour/growth to become significant enough to be detected on a X-ray or scan. It takes another 8 to 15 years for the tumour/growth to first start . So it takes anything from 16 to 23 years for you to develop a growth/tumour.

So before a tumour/growth develops or you become ill:
• Your cells start ageing faster (Biological Age)
• Your metabolic rate slows down and you becomes fatter (BMI)
• Specific systems in your body slow down or dysfunction
• Your hip waist ratio changes for the worse (Syndrome X)
• Your cells becomes more dehydrated and you lose muscle mass (Fluid Levels)
• Your saliva and urine become more and more acidic (< Ph6.8)

I have developed a system to measure these changes called the
Optimal Health Assessment.

Be well

Dr Sundardas

www.naturaltherapies.com/cell rejuvenation program.htm

Pthalates used in food packaging could be linked to childhood obesity, according to two recent studies conducted by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine that included research conducted on more than 900 children in East Harlem and surrounding communities. The studies have added to a growing body of evidence that link phthalates to health problems.

One of the studies, according to the Mount Sinai researchers, focused on 400 girls in the East Harlem community. The results showed that the heaviest girls had the highest levels of  HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/phthalates.html” phthalates metabolites in their urine.

Another significant research project called Growing Up Healthy in East Harlem examined the diet and other factors for 520 East Harlem children aged 6-8 with the results indicating that the level of phthalates in the children tested was higher than the national average.

About 40 percent of children in East Harlem are considered to be overweight or obese. “When we say children, I’m talking about kindergarten children, we are talking about little kids,” said Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, a professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai, one of the lead researchers on one of the East Harlem studies. “This is a problem that begins early in life.”

Health concerns over phthalates have been debated for more than 10 years, as shown by a New York Times article from 1999 that describes opposing views on their use and mentions an FDA investigation into the matter. At that time, a major concern was the use of  HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/chemicals.html” chemicals in children’s toys.

Previous reports linking phthalates to  HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/health.html” health disruptions have shown that they are connected to abdominal  HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/obesity.html” obesity, insulin resistance, poor semen quality in men, and changes in reproductive organs in infant boys.

Phthalates can be found in personal care products like cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, paint and pesticides. They are also used to make  HYPERLINK “http://www.naturalnews.com/plastics.html” plastics more pliable. Phthalates are absorbed into the body and are a type of endocrine disruptor – a category of chemical that affects glands and hormones that regulate various bodily functions.

Increasingly when I am doing hair mineral testing on young children because of health issues, I am noticing higher amounts of toxic substances like lead, arsenic, mercury and tin. Substances like boron, copper and iron which are supposed to be nutritional become toxic at higher levels. The parents then ask me, “Where does it come from? How could all these heavy toxic substances and heavy metals be impacting them?” That’s when I tell them about the 100, 000 or more toxic substances that re now present in the environment that were not present before. The various authorities have not even established safety levels for multiple chemicals in the human body.

The FDA continues conducting ongoing investigations into potential risks, but notes that while there have been studies on laboratory animals demonstrating carcinogenic effects of certain chemicals, “there are no studies in humans that are adequate to serve as the basis for regulatory decision-making.”

Other packaging chemicals that have recently caused consumer concern include Biosphenol A (BPA) and perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). PFCs, which are found in grease-resistant packaging such as that used in microwaveable popcorn bags and pizza boxes, have been linked to infertility in women.

My wife’s colleague passed on this information to me. One of her friends whose father works for the government health inspection passed on his information. Their job is to inspect all hawkers, their cooked food, their store hygiene, etc. They found sugar cane juice has the highest content of bacteria among all food. In fact, it has exceeded the set limit.

Hence, these guys had to find out why. They went round all sugar cane stores and watched the way the hawkers handled their sugar cane, wash their glasses, their entire
procedure. But they couldn’t find the problem.

One day, they stayed till closing time and discovered some shocking facts! Whenever, the hawkers closed their stores, they would wash the floor with detergent.. As we know, the
remaining sugar canes will be placed at the back of the store, vertically standing and as sugar canes are very porous, they tend to absorb whatever liquid around them. Besides the soapy water, the dirt on hawkers’ boots, cats’ urine, etc, will all be absorbed?? Now, whenever I eat at a hawker centre, I would warn all my friends about this and of course I stopped drinking my favorite sugar cane juice.

A friend, who loved sugar cane juice, was pregnant. She was always drinking sugar cane juice. Anyway, one day she miscarried and the fetus was already like 6 or 7 months old,
I think. When the doctors did an autopsy to find out why all of a sudden the fetus had died inside her, they found traces of some chemical substance, which was found in cat urine… Large traces of it.

While it would not be able to harm adults, it was extremely toxic to babies, what more a fetus? So they tried to determine how this cat urine thing could have ended up in
the fetus. This meant that it had to be digested by the mother, right? And the only logical conclusion they could come up with was that since these sugar cane juice stall holders just leave the canes lying around on the wet and dirty floor, it would not be impossible to think that stray cats could have peed on those sugar canes or near those sugar canes. So think carefully the next time you order that favorite sugar cane juice!

Be well

Dr Sundardas

According to the Washington, D.C. based Environmental Working Group
(EWG), manufacturers dumped more than one billion pounds of toxic chemicals into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water between 1990 and 1994. EWG also estimates that
manufacturers contributed about 450 million additional pounds via sewage.

In the 1940’s, a billion pounds of synthetic chemicals were produced each year. By the 1980’s, production was up to 500 billion pounds. And 1000 new chemicals are introduced each year. Yet the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act only addresses 100 contaminants.

Of the thousands of chemicals found in the water, the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) sets safety levels for only 60. Even with only these 60 standards, the EPA reports almost 1/2 of all municipal water supplies in the U.S. annually violate Federal health standards. In recent years, serious violations have affected over 120 million people. Wells are not much better, with 2/3 of them in violation of at least one of the Safe Drinking Water Act standards. The sorry condition of water in the U.S. is reflected in the remark by President Clinton that 40% of American waterways are unfit to swim
in and in fact will not support life.

We live in a world surrounded by toxins. Every year, 2000 new chemicals will be released on the market, some not fully tested for their effect on the human body. Some are so called PBT’s or Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins, meaning they exist in the environment and our food chain for a long time. These are substances such as DDT, PCB’s, Dioxins and plasticizers. Their effects range from immuntoxicity to endocrine disruption and some may even be carcinogenic. This is compounded by the grasshopper effect, where toxins move from temperate to cold climates. Endogenous toxins are also created in the form of the end products of our metabolism, such as histamine and adrenaline. If these are not detoxified and excreted, they can be as harmful as external toxins.

With the process of industrialisation and urbanization, many time-saving and labour saving devices and innovations have been introduced. We have become a society of mass consumers. We have also developed the habit of instant gratification. Whomsoever could satisfy this need for instant results be it in the arena of food, beverages, entertainment or even medical needs stood to make a fortune. This often resulted in the indiscriminate usage of chemicals, food additives, automation, chemical fertilizers and drugs. We are experiencing the side-effects now.

According to the Washington, D.C. based Environmental Working Group
(EWG), manufacturers dumped more than one billion pounds of toxic chemicals into rivers, lakes and other bodies of water between 1990 and 1994. EWG also estimates that
manufacturers contributed about 450 million additional pounds via sewage.

In the 1940’s, a billion pounds of synthetic chemicals were produced each year. By the 1980’s, production was up to 500 billion pounds. And 1000 new chemicals are introduced each year. Yet the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act only addresses 100 contaminants.

Pesticides are another problem. Two billion pounds of pesticides are used every year. That’s eight pounds for every American. These pesticides enter water systems via disposal sites, animal waste, runoff, sewage, etc. After reviewing published (but not publicized) State data and conducting its own tests, EWG found that a single glass of
Midwestern tap water has three or more pesticides in it. In China, Taiwan and other Asian countries, the presence of chemicals and pesticides in water is reducing the fertility rates of males and females. Even though the incidence of infectious disease is down, the incidence of illness due to environmental toxicity due to water borne pollution is up.

Pesticides are another problem. Two billion pounds of pesticides are used every year. That’s eight pounds for every American. These pesticides enter water systems via disposal sites, animal waste, runoff, sewage, etc. After reviewing published (but not publicized) State data and conducting its own tests, EWG found that a single glass of
Midwestern tap water has three or more pesticides in it.

The following excerpt from Tap Water Blues, produced by the EWG and Physicians for Social Responsibility, states: “Every spring, farmers across the Corn Belt apply 150 million pounds of five herbicides–atrazine, cyanazine, simazine, alacholor and metolachlor to their corn and soybean fields. Every spring, rains wash a substantial
portion of those chemicals into the drinking water of 11.7 million people in the Midwest and Louisiana. According to this article, none of these herbicides are removed by the conventional city municipalities drinking water treatment technologies that are used by more than 90% of all water utilities in the United States.”

A deficiency of specific nutrients may allow some toxins to produce severe damage to our cells by a process of free radical oxidation as we have already discussed above. Oxidation also occurs dramatically when fats inadequately protected by anti-oxidants like Vitamins C and E become rancid. Too much cholesterol/fat in your arteries causes oxidation, damage to their lining and eventually arteriosclerosis. On the obvious level, free radical damage can take the form of poor quality skin and lack lustre hair. It can aggravate whatever skin problems you may have. It can rob you of your energy and leave you feeling lethargic, tired and yes, even depressed. Oxidising heavy metals such as lead, excessive iron or copper and cadmium produces similar damage; as do free radicals in smoke and alcohol. Cells so affected can become cancerous or part of an arthritic or any other inflammatory process. In general free-radical activity can be held responsible for any if not all forms of degenerative disorders from cancer to diabetes.
What are you doing to drink clean water, detoxify and eat clean, healthy food?

Be well

Dr Sundardas