Salt - Good, Bad or What?

PART I One of my first forays into the world of alternative medicine took place soon after my arrival in Japan when I was in my early 20’s. Not feeling particularly energetic and without any helpful feedback from conventional sources, I sought the advice of elderly Japanese man who placed me on a diet. The diet basically consisted of brown rice, beans, vegetables, fermented soybean products like soy sauce and miso, sesame oil and a few, mostly salty condiments.

Some people might recognize this as basic “Macrobiotic” fare. Macrobiotics was a diet and philosophy based on an idealized concept of the traditional Japanese food before the widespread use of milled white rice and foreign dietary influences. I was excited by the idea of feeling better and took up the challenge of changing the way I ate immediately. I remember standing on the train platform waiting to catch the train home after my first meeting with “my advisor”. I pulled out a cheese sandwich I had packed for the ride home and most ceremoniously dumped it in the garbage.

Looking back after over a quarter century of experience, I marvel at the consequences of my enthusiastic embrace of this idea. Admittedly, I will give myself a A for effort, but more importantly, I’d get a D- for common sense and an F for results.

The first 2 weeks were great. My energy increased, I felt light, I slept well... But after that initial honeymoon period of clean eating, the metabolic imbalances of insufficient protein, too many carbohydrates and especially too much salt gradually led to an ever decreasing level of health. My energy started to slide downward, my muscles felt tight and stiff, my emotional and mental outlook became increasingly narrow. Within six months I was a wreck and worst of all I had no understanding of how bad things were. I just wasn’t well enough in any sense of the word to see or evaluate my own condition.

Fortunately, a somewhat crazed American Zen devotee snapped me out of it. I hardly knew him, but through a mutual friend, it was arranged that he be put up at my house for a few days. At one point during his stay, he said to me, “The problem with you is that you aren’t eating any food at all, you are just eating theoretical concepts!” That comment, which I still remember with great clarity and appreciation, was like a lightening bolt, cutting through my dazed state and awakening in me a sense of perspective about my condition.

In retrospect it was a very destructive - and instructive episode in my life. Even after returning to an appropriate balanced diet, some of the symptoms that developed during that half year took years to disappear. Unfortunately, some of them still linger on in a ghostlike fashion, reappearing now and again.

The lessons I did learn have also stayed with me and I have had many occasion to share them with clients over the years. First and foremost, never delegate total responsibility for one’s own health to anyone else, even an “authority”. This is especially so in regard to dietary regimens. There are many ideas and theories, most of which worked for someone at some time, none of which work for everyone. It is important to keep an open mind, a sense of perspective and trust one’s common sense while trying out any diet. It might work marvelously for your best friend and be a disaster for you; and your mother might say you look too thin and pale, but you might feel absolutely fantastic.

Secondly, I experienced firsthand how diet is an extremely powerful tool, for better or for worse, to change one’s state of health and well-being. While I have studied and employed many different healing modalities over the years, there is no other tool as fundamental as considering the food a patient eats. It isn’t simply a matter of what is eaten, but also the amount that is eaten, the way it is eaten and, most importantly, the attitude with which it is eaten.

Third on the list is the necessity to consume adequate amounts of appropriate forms of protein. With all the publicity concerning the Atkins, Zone and other low carb diets, this certainly is a secret no longer. (When bakeries around the country are reporting that bread sales are off as much as 40% around the country and RJ’s Diner in downtown Bellows Falls advertises LOW CARB MEALS on the sign in front, you know the idea has taken hold...) Actually, it took me a long time to fully appreciate this particular lesson, but I firmly embrace it and written about it frequently over the years.

Lastly, it is important to respect the effect of salt on one’s health. Either too much or too little can make a critical difference in how one feels. The single most destructive aspect of my dietary adventure back in Japan was the over-consumption of salt. That is why I became so stiff and rigid - both physically and mentally. I was so dried out that it was nearly impossible to muster the energy to bend my legs to climb a flight of stairs.

My youthful “joie do vivre” was replaced by a rigid, narrow mindedness that I could no longer even see what was taking place. True excess salt intake and the fluid imbalances that it causes can also disturb the circulatory system and the function of the heart, resulting in elevated blood pressure, palpitations, headaches and a generalized anxiety.

Over the last 30 or more years, salt intake has become one of the standard tools of conventional medicine to regulate blood pressure. Next time we will explore this issue in greater detail.

PART 2

Baseball is by far the most popular spectator sport in Japan - and nothing is followed with greater interest than the national high school tournament played every summer in one the most historical professional league ballparks. During the week or two (I can’t remember clearly how long it goes on anymore) that the teams representing each of the provinces fight it out in the single elimination tournament, the country’s attention is firmly fixed on these adolescent athletes.

Each day promises 3 or 4 consecutive games beginning around 9 am. Just about every office and public place has a TV or radio tuned in to the action. For the Japanese, this tournament is the embodiment of “ganbaru ki” or “fighting spirit”: true amateur athletics played with the intensity of samurai warriors. One might compare it with the Little League world series held every year in Pennsylvania or college basketball’s March Madness tournament, but the high school tournament has much higher skill levels than the former, the absence of the masqueraded professionals of the latter, as well as an intensity and a nearly universal popularity that is unequaled by both of them put together.

For all its appeal, I didn’t find high school baseball the most intriguing spectator sport during my time in Japan. For me, it didn’t have the same allure as the primeval, ritualized sport of Sumo wrestling. These modern day athletes still live by social and athletic traditions that originated several thousand years ago. They are descendants of ancient warriors who, it is said, fought until death.

At the professional level, the 6 major tournaments consist of two weeks of matches, every day beginning with the lowest ranked wrestlers in the morning and ending with the highest around 6 pm. Each wrestler has a precise rank based on his performance history, and that rank is re-evaluated after each tournament. The matches themselves are quite brief, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to two or three minutes - until the opponent is forced outside of a ring or is made to fall on his knee or back.

What takes just as much, or perhaps, even more time are the stylized rituals that the fighters perform. Some take place as a joint presentation when a group or class of wrestles is introduced, others as the two wrestles prepare to face off against each other. To my foreign eyes, they always had an almost mesmerizing effect. Naked except for special silk loin clothes with detachable aprons that display their place of origin and rank, these behemoths slowly perform a series of arm motions and various types of stomps with their legs, all the while maintaining the same expressionless demeanor which is there code of honor.

Compared to the self-aggrandizing, demonstrative athletes of contemporary american sport, Sumo wrestlers are trained to never show a hint of emotion. This is especially so after a match. Whether they have been humiliated by a lower ranked opponent or have won the tournament championship, these fellows never betray any feeling whatsoever.

An integral part of the Sumo ritual is the use of salt. This, no doubt, is due to the fact that one of the four basic principals of Japan’s native Shinto religion is that before praying or approaching a religious shrine, a person must be cleansed through the sprinkling salt and then washing.

Likewise, the Sumo ring, known as a Dohyo, which is a clay platform with a straw circle, is purified with salt and sake each day before each tournament by a tournament referee and a Shinto priest. And before each match, the ring is again ritually cleansed with salt to ward off evil spirits. As the wrestles warm up, stretch and go thru their stylized motions before they face off, they once more grab handfuls of salt, sprinkle it on various body parts to ensure their personal protection and then toss the remainder into the ring .

A similar ritual was performed in Japanese theaters, where salt was sprinkled on the stage before each performance to prevent evil spirits from casting a spell on the actors and ruining the play.

The central role of salt in these rituals is not unique to Sumo or Japan. A fascinating article about salt by Dr. Paul Rosch, many similar examples are given .1

Many people are familiar with the superstition of throwing three pinches of salt over your left shoulder. This was because it was considered so valuable a substance that spilling any was thought to bring on bad luck. The idea was that some evil spirit was behind you causing the accident, and thus throwing salt in its direction would blind it and send it away.

The Biblical covenant of salt gave the rule over Israel to David and his descendants forever, while the Law of Moses required that all offerings contain salt.

Leonardo da Vinci painted an overturned salt dish in in front of Judas which represented an ill omen for the traitorous act. Another example are the ancient Druid rituals performed at Stonehenge that incorporated salt because it was “a symbol of the life-giving fruits of the earth”.

The importance of salt originated not only from its nutritional value as a mineral source, but also from its usefulness in preserving foods for seasons when people would otherwise have starved.

It became so valuable that many societies used salt as a form of currency. The expression "not worth his salt" comes from the practice of trading slaves for salt in Greece. The word “salary” comes from “salis”, the Latin word for salt, with which Roman soldiers were sometimes paid. "Soldier" is a derivative of “sal dare”, meaning “to give salt”. .

Salt was used to seal an agreement or contract, in the way a signature is used today, in many cultures. In Arabic countries, it also signified safety and friendship.

Participants at medieval feasts were seated in order of importance based on the location of the salt dishes. Distinguished guests dined at an elegant elevated banquet table "above the salt." Lesser lights sat "below" in the boondocks in progressively lower trestle type tables.

Indeed, as Rosch points out with the Latin saying “Nil sole et sale utilius”, there is nothing more useful than the sun and the salt.

1 Rosch, Paul J., M.D. “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”, Health and Stress newsletter of The American Institute of Stress

PART 3

For thousands of years, salt has been considered an irreplaceable component of the human diet. Without adequate amounts of salt, people suffered from mineral deficiencies and metabolic disorders. Yet, for the last several decades, instead of being celebrated as the essential, life-giving food that it is, salt has been gained notoriety as a cause for high blood pressure.

Dr Paul J. Rosch, a professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the New York Medical College has written a fascinating overview of both the history of and our contemporary attitudes towards salt in an article entitled, “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”.1

Millions of dollars have been spent on government sponsored salt related research. This generally negative attitude toward salt has been most famously codified by the 1979 "Surgeon General's Report on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention" which identified salt as a major factor in hypertensive conditions. Five years later, a huge government sponsored study concluded that in general societies with higher salt intake will also have higher average blood pressure.

Even more damning was a 1999 study that followed over 20,000 Americans for more than a quarter century. The results were that people who ate more salt “had 32 percent more strokes, a whopping 89 percent more deaths from stroke, 44 percent more heart-attack deaths, and 39 percent more deaths from all causes.”

What is most interesting about this research is that although the statistics were technically correct, the conclusion was actually false. It is a classic example how numbers can be manipulated to prove just about any preconceived opinion.

What an independent review of the data showed was that the correlation of high salt intake and cardiovascular disease was only true for persons who were overweight. If overweight persons were removed from the study, the correlation disappeared. In fact, Michael Alderman, an epidemiologist and past president of the American Society of Hypertension, concluded quite the opposite and wrote that for persons who were not overweight, "the more salt you eat, the less likely you are to die."

While it is undoubtedly true that certain hypertensive persons are sensitive to salt intake, it is simply impossible to conclude that high salt intake is a cause of high blood pressure. For instance, in one of the salt studies, one group of Chinese all from a particular province had the highest salt intake of any group in the study - and very low rate of hypertension. Conversely, another group from Chicago with low salt intake had above average incidences of high blood pressure. Another group, a Brazilian rain forest tribe had low salt levels also had mean blood pressures that ran 20 to 30 points lower than what is considered normal.

The fact of the matter is that while it is possible to manipulate or cherry pick the data to “prove” any number of theories that may contradict each other, restricting salt can also have negative health consequences. For instance, after reviewing data in a study of 3,000 people with relatively moderate hypertension, Dr. Alderman concluded that “those who consumed the least sodium had the most myocardial infarctions and other cardiovascular complications.”

An article published in the Lancet, a prestigious British medical journal, in 1998 similarly concluded that people “who eat lots of salt live longer than those who avoid it.” The 25% of people who consumed the lowest amounts of salt had a higher risk of death compared with the 25% who consumed the highest amounts of salt (23 deaths per 1,000 compared to 19 per 1000 person-years). Likewise, in an eight-year study of hypertensives in New York, those on low-salt diets had more than four times as many heart attacks as people with normal sodium intake.

Rosch states that reduced salt intake actually has a number negative consequences including: increased levels of renin (an enzyme that is associated with hypertension), increased levels of LDL (Low density lipids - the “bad” type of cholesterol), insulin resistance (the cause of adult onset or “type II) diabetes), reduced sexual activity in men and cause cognitive difficulties and anorexia in the elderly.

Reductionist thinking, that is an attempt to reduce complex phenomena to a single simple factor, is always tempting because it makes things simple. But the human metabolism is too complicated to reduce the cause of cardiovascular disease to a single culprit, be it salt or anything else.

There are many factors that influence blood pressure. For instance, it is known that deficiencies of other minerals such as calcium, potassium, and magnesium, correlate with hypertension. Excessive dietary intake of carbohydrates can also have a similar influence.

Balancing the amounts of sodium, magnesium and potassium can reestablish a healthy blood pressure when it is raised. Sodium, potassium and magnesium also act to regulate fluid balance in the body, allowing nutrients and oxygen to reach necessary destinations within the body.

That is why for anyone concerned about blood pressure, it is important to use a high quality of salt such as Celtic Sea Salt from France or Real Salt from Utah, both of which contain not only sodium chloride, but a plethora of other minerals essential for maintaining a healthy metabolism. Unfortunately, most of the commercial salts commonly available, even those labeled as sea salt or kosher salt, are heated and bleached. This results in a chemically altered, mineral deficient product which, though inexpensive and easy to pour from a shaker, is best avoided.

1 Rosch, Paul J., M.D. “Take the Latest Low Sodium Advice With a Grain of Salt”, Health and Stress newsletter of The American Institute of Stress

Smallpox & Other Poisons

PART I I hadn’t heard from him in quite a while, but as soon as I answered the phone and heard the voice at the other end, there was little doubt who it was. The combination of the thick Eastern European accent, breathy smoker’s tone and the plaintive quality brought instant recognition.

“Dr. Jonas, it seems we’re having a problem and we were wondering if you could help.” “Alexi, I haven’t heard from you in years,” I replied. “What’s going on?” “Dr. Jonas, it’s Irina. You see, last month she was feeling very weak and was complaining of dizziness. We took her to the doctor here, and after many tests they diagnosed her with diabetes...” “Wow! She just suddenly developed juvenile diabetes?” “Yes, it appears that way. Nina and I want to know if there is anything you can do to help.” “There might be... It only just happened, maybe there is something we can do. But it’s important to find out what pushed her body into that state. Was there anything unusual happening? Any illnesses or stresses?” “No, not that we can think of... The only thing that was any different was that Irina was given a flu shot a month before this all happened. The doctor assures me there is no connection.” “No connection, my ass!” I couldn’t contain my frustration. “Didn’t we talk about giving Irina vaccinations? Her medical history makes her the most vulnerable type of person to suffer side effects from them.” “I know that you had told us. But she had been doing well and her pediatrician wanted her to get the shot. She even showed us all this information about it and said it was absolutely safe.”

Irina (not her real name - nor are Alexi’s and Nina’s) is a 10 year old girl who I began treating four years earlier for chronic recurring pneumonias and gastric reflux as a result of an esophageal fistula (an abnormal hole in the esophagus which usually opens into the trachea and is present at birth). In point of fact, I had never met Irina nor her parents face to face. Living too far away for office visits, we had consulted on a consistent basis for several years over the phone. In spite of her delicate constitution, Irina made steady progress over that time until regular consultations were no longer necessary.

This made the news of her latest problem all the more disheartening — especially in the light of the fact that her parents had been duly warned against her vulnerability to the possible side-effects of vaccinations.

If this were the only story I have to tell about vaccine related illness, perhaps it wouldn’t disturb me so much. But it isn’t. This week a woman related to me how she developed chronic fatigue syndrome within weeks of a rubella vaccine. Two weeks before that I saw a 13 month old child who broke out with eczema within days of his first immunizations. The pediatrician swore there was no connection and insisted that the child continue with the series of scheduled shots. After each subsequent vaccination, the eczema would flare up again and his mother would be reassured that it had nothing to do with the shots. Now, unless he is lathered in cortisone creams, his intolerably itching and burning skin condition rages out of control.

Day in and day out, these stories are so commonplace in my practice. And that doesn’t include the patients who, although not consciously aware of it, have a hidden “vaccine connection” as a factor in their illness which becomes apparent either through careful review of their medical history or by energetic testing such as electro-dermal screening.

One would think that these complications would be generallly recognized by the medical establishment. Instead, they are either dismissed as an acceptable rate of “collateral damage” or, more frequentely” pointedly denied. Patients and parents of patients suspicious that a vaccination has caused a medical problem rarely are taken seriously.

But there is clear data that indicates otherwise. For instance, Dr. J. Bart Classen, an immunologist working at his own private laboratory, has presented data showing that, in his words, “80% of cases of insulin dependent diabetes in children who have received multiple vaccines starting after 2 month of life.”

Classen made a public presentation September 11, 2000 - of all dates - revealing that his research showed “causal relationship between many different vaccines and the development of insulin diabetes. “1 The data indicated that it was not a problem with a specific vaccine per se, but was connected with a broad range of them such as pertussis, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, hemophilus influenza and others. This indicates that the entire concept of immunization shots needs to be reconsidered. What makes the problem even more insidious is that his data indicated it may take 4 or more years after the vaccination for people to develop vaccine induced diabetes.

And now in the wake of our concern over biological terrorism we are faced with the spectra a host of other vaccinations such as smallpox and anthrax being forced on us. Several persons have already died from heart attacks after receiving the smallpox vaccine. And that is surely only the tip of the iceberg.

Nearly 4 years ago, the Dr. Classen tesified in front of the Committee on Government Reform of the United States House of Representatives that his research indicated “an increased risk of autoimmunity following immunization in the military and the link between vaccines and diabetes.”2

How long will it be until the “see no evil, hear no evil” attitude toward vaccinations of most medical authorities is replaced with the clear recognition that they pose a severe threat to the well being of a large number of people. This is especially, the true of the most vulnerable and valuable segment of our population — the immunologically undeveloped infants who on the receiving end of an ever increasing number of vaccine insults.

PART II

The notion that vaccinations are the the magic bullet of preventative medicine is deeply ingrained in both philosophy of the public hygiene establishment and the public imagination. When there is a perceived threat from any biological agent, the implementation of preventative vaccinations is often the first - and perhaps only - strategy that is either suggested or enacted.

Yet, there is far too little recognition that we are paying a price for our reliance on this strategy. There are widespread side-effects associated with the ever increasing number of vaccinations that have become part of the standard healthcare protocol for infants, children, the elderly and military personnel.

The deleterious side-effects go far beyond the acute distress, sometimes fatal, that develop in a relatively small percentage of immunized persons. There is evidence that vaccinations compromise our immune and nervous systems, leading to increased incidence of autoimmune disease, behavioral disorders and mental impairment. Research has linked diabetes, rheumatism, autism and other conditions to vaccinations. Recent reports of several deaths from heart attacks suffered after smallpox vaccinations suggests that the cardiovascular system is not immune from similar damaging consequences.

How much of a “vaccination load” can the immune system bear? The numbers of suggested vaccinations keeps on growing every year. The three or four childhood vaccinations of my youth have blossomed into many times that number. Over the past few years, vaccinating for various strains of hepatitis has become standard, vaccinating for various forms of the flu has become an annual autumnal ritual amongst the geriatric population and our concern with a terrorist attack using biological agents such as anthrax or smallpox has once again stimulated renewed interest in adding yet another series to the regimen. No doubt, a vaccine for SARS is in the pipeline...

It is easy to dismiss the negative consequences of vaccines as the inevitable collateral damage, a necessary evil so to speak, associated with a successful public hygiene policy. Yet, the widespread and severe nature of these side-effects suggests that this policy is perhaps neither successful nor wise, and that the risks may outweigh the benefits. In other words, the possibility of conferred immunity is too high a price to pay for the long term - and, in some cases, immediate - problems associated with vaccinations.

Consider the case of Kathy (nor her real name), a 26 year old woman who consulted with me in the fall of 2002. She has been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and fibromyalgia, suffering from joint and muscle pains, inability to concentrate, disturbed sleep, and recurring respiratory infections for over 2 years.

Her problems are clearly related to a vaccination for hepatitis C. The day after receiving the shot, Kathy had for the first time what she refers to a ‘seizure’. In her own words, she described the experience thus: “I know they are coming and I lose the ability to focus on anything. I begin to feel numb. This numbness passes through me, from my nose to my back, from my shoulders down my arms and fingers. It goes into my lips. The right side of my body will start shaking first and I’ll need to lie down and just concentrate on my breathing”. This used to occur several times a day, but with time had diminished in frequency. Along with this phenomena, Kathy also developed an inflamed liver with internal bleeding.

It was after the resolution of the acute liver inflammation and hemorrhage that the chronic symptoms of fatigue, pain, respiratory infection and so on began. Fortunately, in Kathy’s case, she has responded well so far to a regimen of homeopathic cleansing where quite literally the information and energetic grip of the vaccines on her system has been neutralized and the related toxins expunged from her body. The process is by no means completed, but many of her most troubling symptoms have abated.

Although there are healthcare practitioners who, through various protocols involving homeopathics, vitamin and mineral supplementation, diet, botanical medicines and other modalities, are able to assist people who have suffered the negative consequences of vaccinations, their efforts are no match for the size and depth of the problem.

For one, the number of practitioners is miniscule in comparison to the number of persons affected by the vaccinations. Secondly, the general population is for the most part unaware that these remedial therapies exist and, to a great extent, unaware that there is a connection between the problems they or their children suffer and the vaccinations that caused them.

This situation will not change unless several things happen. People on the front lines of the healthcare delivery system - healthcare providers of every type - need to understand how serious the problem is, how widespread it is and learn to recognize it in individual cases. Only then will the “hear no evil, see no evil” attitude of denial in the medical profession begin to disappear.

Secondly, the coercive tactics of the medical establishment to force infants, school aged children, healthcare works and the elderly to be vaccinated needs to stop. No mother ought to be scolded, belittled or otherwise made to feel guilty for questioning the wisdom of vaccinations for her child. People, both professional and lay person alike, need to be educated about the pros and cons in order to make informed recommendations and decisions.

As a corollary, the grip of the pharmaceutical industry, which obviously has a very strong economic incentive to encourage widespread immunization campaigns, must be loosened. Of course, immunizations are only one aspect of the much large issue concerning the undue influence of drug companies on the way medicine is currently practiced in this country.

Finally, it is important for us to recognize that true preventive medicine does not necessarily rely on this prophylactic tinkering with our immune system which has so many known and unknown consequences. Proper hygiene, nutrition, and lifestyle, along with cohesive family and societal structures are the foundations upon which health is preserved and disease avoided.

http://www.909shot.com http://www.cure-guide.com> http://www.vaccines.net http://www.access1.net/via/ http://www.mercola.com/forms/vaccine_teleconference.htm

The Pill

A few years back I consulted with a young woman who had a number of problems related to her menstrual cycle. By far the most distressing symptom she experienced was an extreme swing in her moods that turned her into a cynical, despairing and nearly violent individual for nearly half the month. Her mother, who I had already seen as a patient for a number of years, had referred her to me. The mother had responded nicely to homeopathic treatment, and because her daughter seemed to share a number of personality and physical traits, I was confident that the daughter, too, would do quite well. Unfortunately, that was not to be the case – at least, for the first several years of treatment.

It wasn’t that she didn’t respond to treatment at all, otherwise I am quite certain she would not have had the patience to continued working with me for the length of time that she did. But the responses to the remedies I prescribed for her would not last. She would feel much better for a month or two, then her symptoms would reappear and subsequent doses of the remedy would only produce diminishing returns.

We tried a few remedies – all of them well indicated by her symptoms and constitutional traits, but each one acted temporarily and the treatment itself began to reflect the cyclical swing of her labile moods. The addition of nutritional supplements and a dietary regimen, although helpful to a certain degree, also proved to have a minimum effect.

One of the best and most challenging qualities of homeopathic treatment is that the practitioner has, for all practical purposes, an endless variety of choices when determining the most appropriate prescription in any particular case. Thousands of remedies, each of which can be selected in a variety of potencies and dosing frequencies, provides us with the opportunity to tailor the treatment to the needs of the individual. If a case is not showing signs of adequate improvement, there are options upon options available to change the treatment.

So, on the one hand, there are always ways to adjust the treatment to improve on the results, and on the other, one can embark on a seemingly endless quest for the solution. Depending on the person and the situation, sometimes one is given leeway to ‘work through’ the case and sometimes one isn’t.

But in this case, we got lucky, so to speak. The adjustment came not via a new homeopathic remedy, but rather by the patient herself. She heeded a piece of advice that I had offered when we first met: stop the Birth Control Pill. Within a week she was a changed person and, now looking back with a few years retrospect, that simple act changed her life.

The extreme mood swings were a thing of the past. The same homeopathic remedies that previously had seemed to work only partially and temporarily had a more enduring and positive action. The extreme cynicism and suppressed hostility toward the people in her life – be it colleagues, bosses, friends or her boyfriend, was greatly reduced. Over time, the ambivalent indecisiveness toward vocation and relationship that had paralyzed her for years gave way to a focused and determined career path and a commitment to her partner.

It is always difficult to advise a young, sexually active woman to consider stopping the birth control pill, but the consequences of using it are too serious to ignore. I have seen too many instances where young women just feel awful from it. Mood changes, digestive disorders, weight gain, headaches, bloating, lethargy, sleep disturbances… Oddly enough, often they don’t make the correlation between using the pill and their symptoms. Perhaps that is the case because they usually assured by the prescribing physician that it is a perfectly harmless medication.

It is especially important to educate these patients when they have been put on the pill for non-pregnancy related problems like menstrual disorders. Not only do they suffer from side effects, but also the pill is not a fundamental solution to their problem. It acts merely on a symptomatic level to band-aid the problem.

And this isn’t even the worst of it. No one is absolutely clear what the long term side effects of hormonal treatments are. But the role of estrogen mimicking substances found in plastics, foods, drugs and other synthetics is becoming clearer over time. The potential risks are deadly – from endometriosis, a disease that hardly existed 50 years ago to heart attacks and strokes to various forms of cancers.

There are healthier ways to prevent pregnancies and to treat gynecological issues.

What Needs To Be Cured

In treating a patient, one of the basic decisions a healthcare practitioner must make is, “What is it that needs to be cured in this particular person?” At first glance, this might not seem like a particularly difficult question to answer, but the simplicity is deceptive. A person complains of a bloated abdomen, but what needs to be addressed may be weak digestion that leads to a build-up of gas, or perhaps a tumor that is causing an abundance of fluid to accumulate. Similarly, persons with chronic headaches or migraines can temporarily remove the symptoms with pain relief medications, but the headaches are rarely cured with them. What needs to be addressed can vary from hormonal imbalances to dental problems to upsurges of suppressed rage to any number of possible causal factors – or a combination of factors.

Often a patient presents with a chief complaint that is in the context of their state of health relatively inconsequential in and of itself. The practitioner then must understand the larger context in which this complaint arises and based on that, decide which health issues are truly of consequence. A treatment plan, while also taking into account the perceived needs of the patient, should be focused on the more important problems.

Ignoring the more consequential health issues for the lesser ones is, in a sense, a form of pandering and a breach of responsibility. More importantly, it also can violate the first rule of medicine, which is ‘to do no harm’. For instance, if a person complains of facial blemishes or acne, but during a thorough consultation one learns that there is an ongoing history of cardiac problems or endocrine (hormonal) imbalances, a treatment solely focused on the skin not only ignores the opportunity to treat the more severe conditions, but will most likely also have the effect of making them worse. A blinkered focus on the elimination of symptoms often leads to such a result because the larger consequences are ignored. Symptoms in and of themselves must be understood in some context. Skin eruptions, on the face or elsewhere, are part of a larger picture and as such are usually an attempt by the body to discharge toxins.

There is an internal wisdom to the body in its attempt to maintain health. One aspect of this is to shunt toxins from the interior most part to the exterior part, and from the vital organs to the less vital ones. To stop this process without understanding and addressing the larger issues is harmful – akin to stopping a vent from discharging foul water or air.

Not only is the build-up of this discharge harmful, the methods by which the venting must be obstructed go against the natural mechanisms of the body and thus necessarily must be quite forceful. A classic example is the drug Isotretinoin, more commonly known by its most popular trade name Accutane.

Isotretinoin belongs to a class of chemical compounds known as ‘retinoids’. Chemically related to vitamin A, when taken orally retinoids act by regulating the growth of skin cells. Although this drug sounds benign enough on the surface, it actually turns out to be quite dangerous. Pregnant woman are strongly warned not to take it because it is known to cause severe birth defects such as mental retardation and physical malformations. Amongst a host of other side-effects, it is also known to induce fatigue, bleeding, inflammatory bowel disease and suicidal thoughts.

While acne, especially where the eruptions are inflamed or painful, can be very discomforting emotionally and physically, it is still essentially a manifestation of toxins on the most superficial area of the body. The body has been successful in keeping it far away from the most vital organs. To eliminate the symptoms without addressing the underlying disposition of the body that produce them is playing with fire.

Not only is one exposed to the potential side-effects of allopathic drugs, there is a more insidious part that few people will ever perceive unless they understand this process. A young adult who was ‘successfully’ treated for acne develops allergies several years later or rheumatic joint pain a decade later or has premature hypertension…

Who will make this connection? Certainly not a layperson, nor the allopathic professional, who would more than likely would ascribe the later problems to ‘bad genes’. It would be fair to say that even a majority of ‘wholistic’ or ‘alternative’ practitioners are probably not trained to connect the dots on how most of these pathologies progress.

While certainly not in the class of the side-effects of most allopathic drugs, natural remedies – whether herbs, vitamins, homeopathic remedies or others – have the potential to be harmful in a similar manner if they likewise are used to eliminate a particular symptom without due consideration being given to the context in which that symptom appears.

For example, the homeopathic remedy created from potassium bromide (known as ‘Kali-bromatum’) primarily affects the nervous system and can be indicated for in certain cases of epilepsy, ataxia, anxiety and even schizophrenia, amongst other disorders. However the choice of Kali-bromatum, as with any appropriately selected remedy, is not based on the diagnosis, but on certain characteristics of a patient with the diagnosis.

A conscientious homeopath will look for a very restless, agitated person. Kali-bromatum patients are famous for their hand-wringing, they often sigh, fearful in the dark and they are often troubled by a strong sense of guilt or remorse believing they have or will commit a great crime for which they will suffer punishment. There is a sense that s/he is in danger and must leave.

A great many more details fill out the picture of this remedy, but this is the gist of it. Nevertheless, suffice it to say that the selection of this remedy for someone with acne, who does not fit the profile, on the one hand, may or may not successfully eliminate the acne. On the other, it is asking for trouble – a trouble which may not arise for weeks, months or years and which very few people will recognize as having a connection to the ‘successful’ use of the remedy.

PART II

Though it wasn’t more than a hundred yards, walking down the hall took forever. “How we take our health for granted!” was the thought rattling around in my head as the elderly woman ushered me back to her room. On my own, I might have covered the distance in two or three minutes, but my patient had met me at the door of her senior living facility and I had to follow along at her pace.

In retrospect, it wasn’t at all a bad experience. First of all, I got to appreciate my own relative health. Second, I had the opportunity to step back from the rushed blur that so often is my daily life to savor a moment of being mindful of her pace, of taking one step at a time, to consciously slow down and confront my own impatience. And, most importantly, it afforded a chance to share the experience of a slice of this woman’s life; to feel a bit how it is to ‘walk in her moccasins’, so to speak.

Although we shared a bit of conversation en route, I had a sense that she was just trying to be polite and that her real focus was on mustering the energy and determination to take those steps without mishaps or giving in to exhaustion. A cane in one hand and the wall railing firmly grasped by the other seemed to provide just the support she needed to successfully negotiate this journey.

But it was about all she could manage. Having reached her unit and opened the door, she made headed straight for the recliner into which she immediately dropped her weary body. While she settled in, I pulled up a chair and surveyed the compact, snug room.

It was filled with a menagerie of objects – some utilitarian, some aesthetic, some nostalgic – from the huge television that was placed no more than two feet in front of her recliner to pictures of family to kitchen utensils to various and sundry knickknacks. It occurred to me that these were the remaining artifacts of a long life, of a much bigger life. They were the survivors of a life pared down to a small room in a recliner in front of a very big television set.

Before we could talk, she needed to settle in and recoup her energy. She closed her eyes for a few moments and took a number of long deep breaths. When the eyes opened and her head turned toward me, I asked simply, “What is it I can do for you?”

She gave a half-hearted smile and replied, “I’m not sure, but I’m exhausted all the time. I can’t sleep more than a few hours…” She gave me the ‘Doctor Report’. Doctor X said this, Doctor Y did that test, Doctor Z suggested such-and-such… Then there was the history of the medical interventions: this surgery and that surgery, this procedure and that procedure… Finally, she handed over a piece of paper that inventoried all the medications and supplements she was consuming daily.

Seventeen different prescriptions drugs were listed along with a few vitamins… (I counted them to be sure.) Some of the names I recognized, some I didn’t. Some of them she could explain what they were for, most of them she had not a clue. But she was sure that her sleep problem began after starting the latest drug. When she told a doctor about it, he had replied that she needed to take it to control another problem - a problem, it turns out, that was a side effect from a different drug.

I explored as much as I could about the drugs and what they were doing to her, trying to sort out the cascade of effects and side effects. Above all, I was trying to understand what was this woman experiencing that truly was from her own body and what was just a result of this pharmaceutical onslaught.

As I queried the woman and listened to her replies, it became clear that there was no way to sort it out. She herself had become lost in and inseparable from this drug haze. Putting aside my own sense of frustration with the difficulty of it all, my own indignation at the perversity of the system that had led to such a situation and a touch of pity for the person who passively, trustingly was enduring its consequences, I tried to focus on one question: what needs to be cured? Put another way for these circumstances, what possible positive change can I effect?

Without the authority or facilities to initiate any change in her drug regimen, without any clarity about what symptoms this woman was truly having, I knew I needed to explore her condition from a different perspective altogether. There is an old maxim that one learns almost from day one when studying homeopathy. It is that homeopaths treat people with symptoms, not symptoms of people. Keeping that in mind has served me well innumerable times over the years.

So, I started to search for the person amidst all of the drugs and pain and exhaustion. And surprisingly, it wasn’t so difficult to find… I began by asking, “What is the worst thing about your situation?” The answer came back quickly: “I don’t go out now. I was always out before. I feel caged in.”

“So, tells me what is it like to be caged in? “I used to be so friendly, but I’m bored with the people here. They only talk about their doctor visits and their illnesses. This is like a jail, I’m not free. Rules, regulations, renting… It isn’t my own place. I don’t belong. I don’t feel like myself.”

“You don’t feel like yourself?” “With freedom, I’m more of a person. Even my family, they think they are right and tell me what to do… I don’t feel like my own person. I have a mind of my own and don’t want to let people talk me into things I don’t want.”

I don’t feel like a person. This was her story, her experience of life. And it wasn’t just in this situation or this stage of life, it was the same experience with her marriage which ended 3 decades earlier, where she was treated “like a vegetable”, like she “wasn’t there” or “didn’t exist”. And it was true of her childhood as well, when she felt “tossed aside” and that her mother “wanted to get rid of us”.

It was the same experience she had in the one dream she could recount for me - of reaching the top of a staircase only to feel empty, sad and alone. And it was for this reason that she compensated by going out, by wanting to be with people, especially her friends, of making sure she was wanted.

And this is the state for which I choose a medicine, a constitutional homeopathic remedy, a medicine for her not her symptoms. About the remedy, I feel pretty confident. Whether it will penetrate through the wall of drugs and side effects to impact her beneficially, to increase her vitality, to reduce her suffering, only time will tell.

Part III

Hydrocyanic acid, also known has Hydrogen Cyanide or Prussic acid (because it was first derived from a pigment known as ‘Prussian Blue), was discovered two centuries ago. It can be found in the pits of a number of fruits such as plums, apricots and peaches, and is also present in bitter almonds as well as in the leaves of the laurel plant. A powerful poison, it has some industrial uses, most significantly in mining because it facilitates the extraction of gold and silver. It is also used in the production of nylon and other synthetic fabrics. Due to its toxicity, it has been used in fishing to stun the fish and also for insect fumigation.

It is as a poison that Hydrocyanic Acid is best known. It acts with great rapidity, paralyzing the respiratory centers of the body affecting the central nervous system and the heart. When inhaled, it first causes irritation in the throat, the tongue burns, mucous membranes turn, and, then there appears a general restlessness and anxiety, headache, and nausea. As the effects progress, the breathing becomes difficult and then spasmodic. Finally, as consciousness is lost, the blood pressure falls suddenly and respiratory paralysis sets in.

The poisonous effects are so toxic and rapid that the use of hydrocyanic acid has been a favored method to end human life. There is a long history of state sanctioned executions, assassinations and suicides having all been carried out by means of it. Most notoriously, hydrocyanic acid was the agent used by the Nazis in the gas chambers of the Holocaust. (Many members of the German high command committed suicide with it as Allied forces closed in on Berlin at the end of the Second Word War.)

In contrast to this infamous legacy, homeopaths have used homeopathic dilutions of hydrocyanic acid as a medicine almost as long as it has been known. Ailments as varied as angina, epilepsy, stroke, sunstroke, hiccough, cholera and whooping cough, amongst others, fall within its curative influence. Regardless of the pathology, what is common to those needing this remedy is the sudden onset of symptoms, spasms, debilitating death-like exhaustion, bluish hue to the skin and lips (‘cyanosis’), coldness and great anxiety. A well known symptom is “fear of imaginary toubles” – an irrational fear, like being crushed by a falling house or of being hit by a car while crossing the street even though it is quite a distance away. The remedy, in fact, has been called ‘a great frigthener’.

About a decade ago, a Dutch homeopath, now residing in New Zealand, published a number of cases in which Hydrocyanic Acid acted curatively.1 What was most interesting about these cases – and the reason that she wrote about them – was that while they presented with many of the common traits of this remedy, mostly exhaustion, coldness, and fear, these Europeans all had something else in common.

For instance, one woman in her mid-40’s, presented with a long history of illness, asthma, allergies to foods and chemicals, kidney inflammation, acute fevers, amongst other things. She appeared very ill – thin, pale, bluish lips, and said that almost everyone, on looking at her, assumed that she was dying. Many visits to various doctors had not produced any diagnosis as to her underlying problem except for those who concluded that she was a hypochondriac. No treatment had been helpful, including previous homeopathic prescriptions.

What was exceptional about this woman was a special affinity she felt for the Holocaust. As a child she used to “play concentration camp” with her dolls and had dreams of “being in a place full of soldiers and singing songs to make them like me.” She would get flashbacks of being squeezed in with groups of naked people, a feeling of disgust as she is “pushed up against bare, stinking buttocks”. Even though a Protestant, she always had a fascination with Jews, Hebrew, Israel and the Second World War. She would vacation in Israel, “not for fun, but because I needed to be there”. None of this came from her parents, who were always puzzled by this special connection.

She was convinced that her experiences as well as her illness were rooted in a past life. Previously, in a trance state during a session of regression therapy, she found herself being a Polish child witnessing arguments at home whether or not to flee, then being crammed into a train, disembarking under the glare of powerful spotlights, clinging to a teddy while losing his parents in the chaos, and being told to undress in order to shower. Finally, there is the remembrance of a ghastly scene with people jammed into the chamber, screaming, falling over him and gasping for breath in great terror as he inhales the Zyclon B, the term the Nazis used for hydrogen cyanide.

Whether one is inclined to believe that the woman actually had this previous life or believes rather that this is a deep-seated delusional state is actually less critical than the fact that these images, feelings and interests reflect her actual experience in her current life.

And, most significantly, a homeopathic preparation of Hydrocyanic Acid produced remarkable changes in this woman. For the first time in her life she began to put on weight, she re-grew a full head of hair and her energy increased. Over time, she made a wonderful recovery.

Collins has treated a number of Europeans with similar connections to the Holocaust. And she is not the only one to recognize this phenomenon. I myself have had patients with a similar connection to the Holocaust. An American rabbi named Jonassen Gershom, has written two books, “Beyond the Ashes, Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust” and “From Ashes to Healing”, recording many cases of people who came to him with a sense that they had suffered through the Holocaust in a past life as a Jew and that there lives had improved by the conscious acceptance of this reality.

When a patient presents with illness and suffering, it is not always readily apparent what really needs to be cured.

1. Morrison, Roger. “Carbon: Organic and Hydrocarbon Remedies in Homeopathy”, pg. 469-472; Hahnemann Clinic Publishing, 2006