Magnesium

Most of this information is taken from an article from Wise Traditions:

Magnesium is safe to take since it will be absorbed depending on the deficiency and if you take too much you will get loose stools. If you are really deficient and most people are the following ways to get magnesium can be used. People have had great results with using the first 5 listed below in concert.


-magnesium citrate and magnesium malate- fairly well absorbed (esp. in powdered form added to water) divide dosage during the day- early morning and late afternoon. If you cannot overcome laxative effect try magnesium taurate and magnesium glycinate. Dosage recommendations 3-10mg per lb of body weight.

-homeopathic magnesium-- magnesia phosphorica 6x (mag phos) will help eliminate or reduse loose stools when taking magnesium supplements- so you can absorb it better. This remedy is also used for muscle spasms and cramps.

-ionic magnesium in liquid form, by Trace Minerals Research. This is reduced concentration of sea water form Great Salt Lake with sodium reduced. One teaspoon= 400 mg of magnesium. You can add a few drops to soups and water and such or add to your smoothies.

-Epsom salt baths (magnesium sulfate) eases muscle aches and pains and helps detox. Or magnesium  chloride for baths.

-magnesium "oil"--not really an oil, you apply it topically gets absorbed in next to intravenous magnesium this gets you the greatest amount of magnesium absorbed. Your magnesium levels will be restored in weeks rather than months.

-intravenous magnesium- for acute asthma attacks, onset of myocardial infarction.

Please see other posts on this blog on why magnesium is good for you. Although the last article from Wise Traditions  is the most thorough, you can borrow my copy if you know me. I will post an overview in the future.

Please do NOT turn on A/C as soon as you enter the car.

I'm not sure what source this is from (or if it is true--something that needs more research--anybody know more about this?)--

Open the windows after you enter your car and then turn ON the AC after a couple of minutes.

Here's why:   According to research, the car dashboard, seats, air freshener emit Benzene, a Cancer causing toxin (carcinogen - take time to observe the smell of heated plastic in your car).

In addition to causing cancer, Benzene poisons your bones, causes anemia and reduces white blood cells. Prolonged exposure will cause Leukemia, increasing the risk of cancer. Can also cause
miscarriage.

Acceptable Benzene level indoors is 50mg per cu.ft.  A car parked indoors with windows closed will contain 400-800 mg of Benzene.  If parked outdoors under the sun at a temperature above 60 degrees F, the Benzene level goes up to 2000-4000 mg, 40 times the acceptable level.

 People who get into the car, keeping windows closed will inevitably inhale, in quick succession, excessive amounts of the toxin. Benzene is a toxin that affects your kidney and liver.. What's worse, it is extremely difficult for your body to expel this toxic stuff.

  So friends, please open the windows and door of your car - give time for interior to air out -dispel the deadly stuff - before you enter.

How do you treat leaky gut syndrome?

from: Care2.com:

This is where things get tricky. Every alternative medicine doctor has their own recipe of elimination diets, supplements, yeast-fighting treatments, gut healing potions, and the like. Because there is no standardization about treatment, there is little proof that any one regimen works better than others, so the diagnosis can lead to treatments that risk falling into the category of snake oil.
Personally, I use a leaky gut protocol created by the pharmaceutical grade company Integrative Therapeutics, which combines digestive enzymes, factors to promote healthy permeability (L-glutamine, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, Gamma-oryzanol, phosphatidylcholine, and gamma-linolenic acid), quercetin to promote mast call function in the intestines, Ginkgo biloba to protect the intestinal mucosa, probiotics to support healthy bacteria in the gut, lactoferrin (an anti-oxidant involved in immune response), a fiber formula to promote healthy digestion, factors to support intestinal detoxification such as flax, slippery elm, and marshmallow, and a heavy-metal reducing blend.
The treatment requires 3-6 months of a supplement protocol that can be expensive and time-consuming. But if you boost your mood, improve intestinal conditions, heal chronic illnesses, eliminate your food allergies, reclaim your vitality, and get your life back? Oh yeah, baby… Now we’re talking.
posted by Lissa Rankin Jun 23, 2010 9:06

Healthy Food Storage, by R.J.

From Survival blog:

We make sure to have loads of food that will last a long time (grains, legumes and corn) and do not realize that eating these very things help contribute to cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and cardiac syndrome X (just to name a few).

Studies of modern hunter-gatherers like the Maori, Inuit, Aborigines, Masai and !Kung show a lack of diseases like cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and had incredible dental health.  But these same people contracted these diseases like cancer, diabetes and tooth decay when they adopted foods not indigenous to their lifestyle.  These tribes ate lots of protein (land and sea) but not just the muscle.  They also enjoyed the organ meats like the liver, heart and kidneys, which provide great amounts of fat soluble vitamins.  Vegetables were enjoyed (though not by the Inuit whose diet is almost all protein and fat), with some tubers and the occasional fruit.

What these people did not eat was a lot of sugar or refined grains.  These two items are the main causes of cancer, heart attacks and the whole host of diseases that society faces today.  So much so that these diseases are referred to as diseases of civilization (DOC).  Sugar, for example, is the food stuff cancer cells like most and thrive when there is an abundant supply of glucose (sugar in the blood) in the blood while people without cancer will have normal glucose levels.  And refined grains turn straight away into sugar directly in the blood when ingested and raise glucose and is often the precursor of diabetes.  Any doctor worth his salt will tell someone with a glucose level above 100 to stay away from refined carbohydrates (read grains). Though great civilizations are built on these things it does not negate the fact that these societies have health problems stemming from these foods and doesn’t mean that we cannot take protective measures to ensure that we live beyond what our government tells us is healthy.

So what the heck do I do with all my wheat, corn and beans?  These foods cannot be eaten raw.  They were the world’s first processed food.  If one were to try to eat these three foods in plain form you would become sick.  And when you eat them without the proper preparation you will in all likelihood contract one of the above mentioned diseases.  Not a happy proposition especially after TEOTWAWKI.

Grains have a great deal of Phytic acid, which is bound to phosphorus.  This is in the outer part of the grains (husk), which is the healthiest part.  Phytic acid combines with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc in your intestinal tracks and blocks their absorption.  Now if you go without these minerals there will be a lot of problems with overall health.  There are also enzyme inhibitors that slow down digestion and stress your pancreas.  Irritating tannins, complex sugars which can’t be broken down and gluten.          
Animals in the wild that have multiple stomachs and various acids to break these properties down but people don’t have these things and need external preparation to properly digest grains.  This is accomplished through soaking, sprouting and fermenting.  Take your grains that you are about to make into pancakes, cake or whatever and soak them in buttermilk, kefir or yogurt for twelve to 24 hours before baking or cooking.  This process enables the cultures in the fermented food to predigest the grains so that the anti-nutrients are rendered harmless and allowing the body to digest more of what is good about grains like the mineral and vitamin content.

Beans contain a lot of alkaloid toxins.  While these protect the beans in the wild these toxic cyanogens like cyanide in Lima beans do nothing for health.  Beans and peas contain hemagglutins that cause blood to clump along with substances that inhibit digestion of protein.  Fava beans contain vicin, covicince and isouramil, which can’t be broken down by some people.  These toxins keep red blood cells from delivering oxygen to the rest of the body, which can cause, headaches, nausea, vomiting and fever (stay away from the fava).  Soybeans negatively affect the thyroid and cause estrogen in men to spike.  Asians never eat the amount of soy products like in America.  The only soy products that are consumed are fermented soy like miso, tempeh, and kimchi in small amounts.  Soak beans for 24 hours before cooking to make beans fully digestible (helping to eliminate gas) and enable the body to digest all of the good stuff.  These steps neutralize phytic acid and the enzyme inhibitors and breaks down the hard to digest complex sugars.

Corn has spread all over the world but the proper preparation has not.  Nixtamalization is the process that enhances the nutritional quality of corn.  This process helps make the amino acids more like a complete protein and making niacin more easily absorbed.  Cultures that do not use this process often develop pellagra (niacin deficiency) and kwashiorkor (a protein deficiency).  Soak for twelve to 24 hours and cook with lime-the alkaline substance and not the fruit.  This process is even briefly discussed in the revised edition of “Where There Is No Doctor” on page 117 under “lime soaked maize.”

Get the books “Nourishing Traditions ” by Sally Fallon for great recipes using these techniques, “Wild Fermentation” by Sandor Katz for more recipes but know that the author of this books swears and is a bit of a commie in my humble opinion and “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes for the total science and history behind the studies (a bit dry but very knowledgeable).  Good luck.

Cholesterol

 Cholesterol is the most important antioxidant in the body but it is a great selling point for the pharmaceutical industry.  Cholesterol is the mother of 90% of your hormones and also it is in every cell in your body.  Do you know that your body makes 60% of your cholesterol?  Did you know that your brain, if you pull the water off, is almost all fat?
Did you know that if your cholesterol is less than 155 after 55 or 60 the chances of dying of cancer or suicide increases by 3000%?

Cholesterol lowering doesn't mean a thing unless you have extreme numbers and that is your body telling you something is going on.  Did you know that if your cholesterol is high, it may mean that your hormones are low, and because it has to produce more hormones it has to dump more cholesterol into the blood so it can make the hormones necessary to be alive?  Did you know that normal cholesterol levels 10 years ago were 250 and now the doctors want to lower that number to 150?

If the body was really made to only eat vegetables, which I can tell you it is not, then we wouldn't make a hormone or an enzyme called elastin.  Only carnivores produce this enzyme hormone, and guess what, humans do.  Now if you go back to prehistoric era, you have never seen a man building a garden, but there is plenty of evidence they used to kill or cut so they could eat.  The reason they needed meat and skin was to protect themselves from the elements and other animals.  Agriculture didn't exist until the Egyptians took over the world.  They could feed people in one place due to agriculture, but before that time we were mostly nomads, meaning we  moved with the food and the seasons.  Yes, we ate vegetables, fruits and nuts, but we never stopped hunting to grow vegetables.  The best way to really follow vegetarians, is by following a culture that is pure vegetarian, and we still haven't found one, and the closest one is the people from India and they are not pure vegans.

Your body requires B12, vitamin D and other natural sources of necessary or essential nutrients that are provided by meat or fish, and sorry, but vegetables will not give you any of those nutrients.  Also, where are you going to get the fat that you require to be alive?  I would like to know how much energy, and sex drive you have in 6 months, please let us know.

The problem is the quality of the meat, and not the meat itself.  If I give poison to my meat, what do you think you are eating?  If you find a dead animal that was poisoned with a lethal dose and you eat it, you are going to get sick, this of course is an extreme but that is what we are doing with our children when we eat the commercially grown meats and non-organic vegetables. Also, where are your vegetables coming from?  Are they from a hydro farm, are they fresh, who picked the vegetables, what type of soil was used?  Did they use artificial fertilizers, and who touched them before you ate them?

We have to eat fish, meat or eggs so we can survive, if not you will get sick, trust me.

Thank You,

Dr. Serrano

Various cut and pastes from different sources on Gout

Soak the feet in Epsom Salt if the pain is concentrated in the big toe.
Epsom Salt is a staple in almost every grandma's house. Older people use Epsom
Salt for everything from a laxative to a bath salt to sooth aching muscles.
Epsom salts contains Magnesium. Raising your magnesium levels may improve your
heart and circulation and lower blood pressure. It will also help flush
away the toxins and heavy metals from the body. Most importantly it helps to
reduce stress. Soaking your feet in a warm tub of Epsom salts will give you
almost immediate relief from gout pain.
For a leisurely bathe: Add two cups of Epsom Salt to the warm water as the bathtub
fills. Soak leisurely in the tub until the water starts losing heat.
For an extra treat, add a few drops of scented essential oil.
5) Eat strawberries fresh strawberries also help neutralize uric acid, as do nuts,
seeds, although to a lesser extent. The berries contain high concentrations of vitamin C as well as fruit acids and minerals, like potassium, magnesium zinc,
manganese, calcium and iron.
6) Eat some cherries - Consume cherries and cherry juice often. Cherries are an
old nutritional remedy known to help reduce uric-acid levels
7) Drink water in abundance 8-10 glasses per day will flush way toxins and dilute
the uric acid levels.
10) Apple Cider Vinegar is a wonderful old-timers home remedy, cures more
ailments than any other folk remedy. Try 2 tbsp of organic apple cider
vinegar mixed with 2 tablespoons of organic honey (2 times daily).
within a few hours the pain of gout will start to subside.

_______
http://www.natural-cure-remedy.com/gout.html

What Increases Uric Acid Levels?

• Too much alcohol -- more than one or two drinks a day
• Being overweight
• Diabetes
• Narrowing of the arteries (arteriosclerosis)
• High blood pressure drugs
• Low-dose aspirin can increase uric acid levels
• Genetics -- many people with gout have a family history of gout
• Exposure to lead
• Diuretics can decrease the amount of uric acid passed in the urine

Things You Can Do For Immediate Pain Relief From Gout

Make a charcoal/flaxseed poultice. Mix 1/2 cup activated powdered charcoal and 3 tablespoons finely ground flaxseed. Add warm water until you create a paste. Put paste directly on the affected area and cover with cloth or plastic. Change the dressing every four hours or leave on over night. Be careful as charcoal can stain your bedding or clothing.
You can also take activated charcoal orally to lower uric acid levels. Take 1/2 teaspoon when you first wake up, at midmorning, at mid-afternoon and again at bedtime.
Use a castor oil pack. Soak a piece of white flannel in warm castor oil, wring out excess and place over the affected area. Cover it with plastic wrap and apply heat using a heating pad or hot water bottle. Do this twice daily for about one hour.
Alternate hot and cold applications to alleviate pain. Soak in hot water first for three minutes and then in cold water for a half minute. Do this about three times.
Take an Epsom salt foot bath. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of Epsom salts in a pan/basin of hot water big enough to put your feet or foot in. Soak for about a 1/2 hour. Taking a whole body bath in Epsom salts is also beneficial. There are usually instructions on the Epsom salts package but you should use about one or two cups.

Lower Uric Acid Levels and Improve or Eliminate Gout

Apple Cider Vinegar -- Take one tablespoon of organic raw apple cider vinegar in a glass of water twice a day. ACV creates a more alkaline environment which is beneficial in improving gout.
Cherry Juice -- Drink 100% cherry juice. Cherries contain anthocyanins that are effective in reducing inflammation and reducing uric acid levels in your blood. Or take 1 teaspoon 2 times per day of cherry juice concentrate (without the sugar). You should continue to take cherry juice for the rest of your life to prevent recurring episodes of gout.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids -- Eat flaxseed, walnuts and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids as well as vitamin E as they limit the production of leukotrienes that can cause inflammation.
Cod Liver Oil -- Take 1 teaspoon per day of high-vitamin cod liver oil to supply vitamin A. Vitamin A reduces uric acid buildup and is good for kidney health.
Devil's Claw -- It is a powerful anti-inflammatory. Do not take if you have stomach ulcers or a heart condition.
Boswellia -- It is known to relieve pain and inflammation.
Celery Seeds -- Cook 1 tablespoon of celery seeds in 2 cups of water. When seeds become soft then drain and keep the water. Drink half a cup 4 times a day. Celery seeds reduce uric acid.
Berries -- Eat strawberries, blueberries, goji berries whenever possible.

Finally, you should eat a healthy diet rich in raw fruits and vegetables. Stop eating packaged, processed, deep fried and fast foods and don't drink too much coffee or alcoholic drinks.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#drafts/129a0a9ad2697d49

[YEA]  05/13/2010: Ed from Irving Township, Minnesota writes: "I suffered with gout for 9 years. 12 years ago I began taking cranberry capsules. It helped, however, the gout would return, just not as often or severe. I researced more on the internet and learned that Alfalfa tablets cause the uric acid to be removed through the other end and I have not had a gout attack for 11 1/2 years. I drink, eat red meats, seafood, spinach, venison and other foods not recommended. I take cranberry, garlic, alfalfa, milk thistle a multivitamin once a day in the morning for maintenance. I have been able to resume use of my treadmill and I lost 50 lbs, and no more worries about walking, yard work or hunting. I have told many others about this system and every single person said it worked for them. Your doctor won't tell you, there is no profit in this for them. So much for the hippocratic oath."

----

Here are a few recommendations:
Read the following pages, they are related with alkalizing formulas -
http://www.earthclinic.com/CURES/gout_questions.html#Question_1246

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/alkalizing_formulas.html

As a quick fix I would try the baking soda or BS ACV formulas to see if it helps. Careful with BS if you have water retention. But a better formula would be the [ACV or Lemon Juice or Citric Acid] [Baking Soda] [Potassium Bicarbonate or Potassium Citrate] [with a pinch of Epsom Salt (Magnesium Sulphate)]. For the correct amounts see Ted's formula.

Drink a lot of good water to cleanse the system and help dissolve uric acid crystals.

You can also try these and alternate to see what may work. Soak a paper towel with ACV or Epsom Salt concentrated sollution or Milk of Magnesia, and wrap the painful area (then wrap with saran wrap plastic).

Buy yourself some pH paper and measure the pH of your urine. You should see that the pain will decrease as the pH of your urine will increase (I assume that your urine pH will show it is acidic). I recall that after using alkalizing formulas and drinking a lot of water of lot of pain disappeared after 10 hours. During that time, the pH of my urine went from below 5 to above 7.

BS formulas are quick fixes, some say they should not be done foe an extended amount of time. There are formulas that are more complete mineral wise.

I suggest you search the web for alkalizing diet. Seek food that are not detrimental to the liver and kidneys. Avoid alcohol (very acidic), processed food, sugar, synthetic sugar. Reduce red meat and shellfish ... Unfortunately it will probably mean a change in lifestyle, eating more natural. No soda pops, no coffee. When you will find alkalizing food charts you will know what is good and what is wrong.

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My husband went to a medical Doctor who trained in alternative healing with a famous MD and authority on Alternative healing. His prescripion was very simple..but also complex in other ways. He claimed that Gout is a sympton of clogged internal filters which need to be cleansed by detoxing. Basically the kidneys and liver are not functioning to capacity. He gave my husband a protocol which I did with him for support and why not optimize my own health.
For the first 2 weeks cut out everything acidic. Alcohol, caffine, animal fat (all red meat). Basically become a vegetarian. No white flour, refined sugar or gluten or wheat products. 64 oz of water and or herbal tea..no caffine. The next 7 days consists of 16oz of Green Juice from organic greens 4X per day. 8am 11am 2pm and 5pm in addition to 64 oz water/herbal tea. Enzymes and probotics are also recommended as well as other dietary supplements like a quality multivitamin.
Last but not least..get ready for this one..Daily Tap Water Retention Enema 1x per day. 1qt. water in bag with 4 drops lemon juice. Hold water in roll to left side hold 3 minutes if possible, come up to all 4's head slightly lower than your butt..hold 3 min..roll to right side hold 3 minutes..finally position self against wall and raise legs up wall..hold 3 minutes..after this release into toilet. If cramp deep breaths help. and messaging lower abs...This routine helps to relieve toxic substances and toxic effects from fast such as headaches and edginess. Rigourous exercise not recommended. Important to slow down.
The juice fast ingredients are: 1/2 cucumber, handful of parsley, 5 stalks of kale, 3 stalks fennel, 3 stalks of celery and 5 stems of dandelion, all organic. Add a small piece of ginger root. Coming off the fast is very important. Just some brown rice and steamed green vegitable, salads..no vinegar very acidic use lemon juice and olive oil. You cannot jump back into old eating pattern. Vegetarian life style works well for gouts sufferers or limit your animal protein. Rice pasta is a good alternative with olive oil and garlic. Light fish such as sole, flounder, snapper, cod..no shellfish..highly acidic. Try to substitute green tea for coffee which is also very acidic.
My husband has been gout free for 3 years. If it comes back he will just go through the protocol again. A small price to pay for good health and no more pain! Check out the work of Gabriel Cousens and the Tree of Life Rejuvination center. They are very radical and proponants of eating only raw vegetarian food but they have good tips on detoxing and how to do it safely. You can find them on line. Also retreat centers like Kripalu in Lenox Mass. and Omega in Rhinebeck NY offer supervised week long fasts. Good Luck!!! Oh yes..yoga and meditation are great ways to heal the body and the mind and learn to slow down."

[YEA]  07/07/2009: Dave from Lancashire, England writes: "I last had gout 8 years ago. It was a very bad attack and the doc gave me Naprosyn but unfortunately the attack lasted for weeks. Last week after too much cheese and wine, I felt another attack coming on. My big toe started swelling and was inflamed and red. The pain was building up and I prayed it wasn't going to be another fully-fledged attack. I found this site and sent for some organic acv. I took a couple of tablespoons in a glass of water 3 times a day and adapted my diet to include lots of water, celery, cherries,strawberries, salad, radish and other healthy stuff. I also took some turmeric, vit C, chelated magnesium and milk thistle.

I bought some comfrey oil and put some on the toe. (I once cured a badly frozen shoulder with a poultice of comfrey leaves from my garden). Within about 3 days, the pain lessened, the swelling went down and I could walk again. Boy was I relieved. It was like winning the lottery. I have had several attacks of gout over the years and I do not want that pain again. I refused to see a doctor after the tablets he prescribed last time had little or no effect - except possibly side-effects.
I will take a maintenance dose of ACV and I sincerely hope that anyone who has gout can control it with ACV and the right diet. Keep off those drugs."

Tinnitus

From various sources as noted:

http://www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/herbal-tinnitus-treatment.html
Natural and holistic tinnitus remedies can be effective in assisting with the relief of symptoms, as well as addressing the individual’s overall health and well-being.
Herbal and homeopathic remedies are gentle, yet effective - without the harmful side effects of conventional medicine. Tinnitus herbal remedies can be used to support all body systems involved in helping the earto perform its tasks of clear hearing and balance, as well as the circulatory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems.

• Ginkgo biloba is an extremely effective herb used in traditional Chinese medicine and derived from one of the oldest trees on earth. Its beneficial properties have only been discovered by the West during the last 20 years, where clinical studies have indicated its effectiveness in supporting the functioning of the circulatory system and improving common conditions associated with the normal aging process. Ginkgo is an excellent tonic for the brain and many people swear by this natural ingredient.
• Rosmarinus officinale is often used to support health and strength in blood vessels and is also an excellent circulation tonic. Rosemary acts as an invigorating herb, promoting balanced mood and imparting energy and a zest for life, 
• Avena sativa is made from the wild oat plant and is a well known restorative and nerve tonic. Avena sativa is effective in maintaining healthy cholesterol within normal levels, thus also benefiting circulation. This herb is also used as a nervous system tonic, promoting healthy libido and energy levels.
• Verbena officinalis is well-known for its ability to relieve common tension and stress and to promote balance and harmony in the nervous system, supporting feelings of well-being.
• Salicylic ac. (homeopathic strength) is indicated for those who need to support balance, clear and undisturbed hearing as well as the health of the circulatory system. This homeopathic remedy will provide many of the benefits of modern aspirin, without the dangerous side effects.

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http://www.best-home-remedies.com/ear_problems/hearing_loss.htm

Natural home remedies for the treatment of hearing loss

• Echinacea aids poor equilibrium and reduces dizziness. It also fights infection and helps reduce congestion. It can be taken in tea or capsule form.
• To soothe inflammation and fight infection, mullein oil can be used as ear drops. If mullein is not available, garlic oil or liquid extract (Kyolic) may be substituted.
• Eat fresh pineapple frequently to reduce inflammation. Also include plenty of garlic, kelp, and sea vegetables in your diet.
• For an ear infection, put 2 to 4 drops of warm (not hot) liquid garlic extract in the affected ear. (If both ears are infected, do not use the same dropper for both ears, as it may spread infection.) This treatment is very helpful for children.
• Pound fenugreek seeds and put them in hot oil. Filter and cool it to a bearable temperature. This oil should be used as eardrops.
• Wash the ear with water in which neem leaves or neem bark has been boiled. This is very effective for a earache.
• For earwax buildup, clean or irrigate your ears using either a solution of 1 part vinegar to 1 part warm water, or a few drops of hydrogen peroxide. Using an eyedropper, place a few drops in your ear, allow them to settle for a minute, then drain. Repeat the process with the other ear. Do this two or three times a day. Do not use cotton swabs to clean inside the ear canal, as this can push wax further into the ear canal and exacerbate the problem. If the wax is hard and dry, apply garlic oil for a day or two to soften it. Then wash out the ear with a steady stream of warm water. Be patient, continue to irrigate the ear canal, and flush with warm water. Most cases of ear wax buildup can be treated by this method. Another method of removing excess ear wax, called ear candling, uses special candles available at health food stores. Instructions for the procedure are included with the candles. The candling procedure requires assistance, so do not attempt this by yourself.

Prevention for hearing loss

• Always wear ear protection (disposable plugs or ear phone-style headset) when using loud appliances such as power tools or lawn mowers; and when you know you will be exposed to sudden loud noises, such as when shooting a gun.
• Protect your hearing when listening to music. A general guideline is to keep the volume low enough that you can easily hear the telephone and other sounds over the music. If you are using a personal stereo unit with headphones, you should be the only one able to hear your music. If someone standing next to you can hear it, it's too loud.
• Limit your consumption of alcohol and sugars, which encourage the growth of yeast. This is particularly important if you have recurrent ear infections and have been treated with antibiotics. Also eliminate or keep to a minimum your intake of caffeine, chocolate, and sodium.

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http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/03/this-fat-can-actually-protect-against-hearing-loss.aspx

Increased intakes of omega-3 fats may reduce the risk of age-related hearing loss, says a new study.High omega-3 intake was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) in people over the age of fifty.Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder in the U.S.

NutraIngredients reports:

"Other micronutrients have been linked to reducing the risk of age-related hearing loss. In 2007 scientists from Wageningen University reported that folic acid supplements delayed age-related hearing loss in the low frequency region ...
Another study ... indicated a role for beta carotene and vitamins C and E, and the mineral magnesium in preventing prevent both temporary and permanent hearing loss in guinea pigs and mice."

According to statistics from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), approximately 17 percent, or 36 million American adults suffer from some degree of hearing loss.
Over the age of 45, the prevalence rises to 18 percent. Thirty percent of seniors aged 65-74 years old, and 47 percent of Americans over the age of 75 report having a hearing impairment.
In this study, participants who regularly ate a minimum of two servings of fish per week had a 42 percent reduction in risk of age-related hearing loss, compared to those who ate less than one serving a week.
Although these results are preliminary, and more research is necessary to firmly establish the potential connection between omega-3 fats and hearing, it's a plausible connection since omega-3 fats are so intricately tied to overall health and aging.

What Actually Causes Age-Related Hearing Loss?

Interestingly enough, although some cases of age-related hearing loss stem from mechanical dysfunction or ear-related issues, much of the problem is actually caused by faulty signaling in your brain, affecting how your brain processes information, which results in reduced hearing.
Your brain does an amazing job of sorting, filtering and making sense of all the information that flows through your senses, from colors and shapes seen, to textures and objects felt, to the range of sounds you hear.
It is this sorting and interpreting ability of your brain--not hearing itself--that diminishes with age. Furthermore, it's your brain's ability to provide proper feedback to your ear, by filtering out unwanted information that declines when you reach your 40s and 50s.
Without this "filtering system," you're more likely to be overcome by a mass of sound information that is difficult to sort out.
The good news, however, is that age-related hearing loss doesn't have to happen just because you get older, and may even be retrievable if it does occur.

A Novel Treatment for Hearing Loss

According to Dr. Jonathan Wright, MD, medical director of the Tahoma Clinic in Washington, certain cases of age-related hearing loss may be reversed by increasing a specific bioidentical hormone called aldosterone.
Aldosterone is a type of hormone that is essential to life because it regulates the amounts of electrolytes in your body. Secreted naturally by your adrenal cortex, it simultaneously regulates your sodium and potassium levels, helping to maintain both your blood pressure and bodily fluids.
If aldosterone levels in your body are out of sync, a variety of symptoms can result. Low levels of aldosterone have been indicated in diseases such as diabetes, for example. Your body is amazingly interconnected and being deficient in any nutrient, anti-oxidant, vitamin, mineral or hormone can lead to a whole host of physical dysfunctions, and this may be yet another perfect example of this.
In this case, it appears that low aldosterone levels may negatively affect your hearing.
Dr. Wright is currently seeking research volunteers to further study the use of aldosterone to restore hearing at the Tahoma Clinic.
In one of his reported case studies, an 87-year-old man who was diagnosed with hearing loss in 1994 was found to have low aldosterone levels. After six weeks of taking aldosterone, the man visited his audiologist and found that his hearing had increased 30-50 decibels in one ear, and 20-30 in the other. His ability to discriminate words from a noisy background had also increased significantly.
An animal study has also suggested that the hormone aldosterone was able to restore hearing.
Other hormones have also been shown to have an impact on hearing. In the case of progestin, the synthetic form of progesterone commonly used in conventional hormone replacement therapy has been linked to increased hearing loss in women taking it.
This is exactly why I consistently try to impart the importance of whole nutrition and whole health; eating a diet based on your individual nutritional type, getting proper sleep to allow your body to perform vital restorative functions, and getting sufficient exercise.
A comprehensive healthy lifestyle approach is always going to be your best bet for preventing age-related ailments.

How You Can Protect Yourself Against Hearing Loss

While aging is a natural part of life, it's important to realize there are many things you can do to keep your body young and healthy. It's not a quick fix and there is some effort involved, but the rewards are well worth the effort.
I find Dr. Wright's experience to be an amazing testimony to the power of your body and brain to overcome what is traditionally believed to be irreversible processes, and it reinforces other scientific findings that hearing loss may be either prevented, or greatly restored, through all natural means.
Using energy psychology tools like EFT, for example, can be useful if you are struggling with hearing loss.
Other studies have showed that a combination of vitamins A, C, and E, as well as magnesium, can protect your hearing. NutraIngredients also cites research supporting the use of folic acid to ward off age-related hearing loss.
As for medicines, certain drugs have been linked to hearing loss and deafness. Specific drugs that are ototoxic and can damage your hearing include:

• Aminoglycoside antibiotics (such as streptomycin, neomycin, kanamycin)
• Salicylates in large quantities (aspirin)
• Loop diuretics (lasix, ethacrynic acid)
• Certain chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin, carboplatin, nitrogen mustard)

Naturally, some hearing loss can be due actual damage to your eardrum, so protecting yourself from loud noises is prevention 101.
Sound is created when noise beats against the eardrum and the vibrations stimulate nerves deep inside your ear. There, fine hair cells called cilia convert the vibrations into nerve impulses, which are transmitted to your brain.
Continued exposure to noise of 85 decibels or more will eventually destroy these fragile hair cells in your inner ear that convert sound vibrations into nerve impulses -- the basis of hearing. The volume of portable compact disc players ranges between 91 and 121 decibels, and earphones increase the volume. The louder the noise, the quicker the hearing loss.
For instance, 100-decibel stereo headphones can cause harm in two hours, and a 120-decibel rock concert damages the ears in only 7.5 minutes. So, using an inexpensive set of ear plugs during loud noise activities is your first step to prevent damage that is not related to the physical process of aging.

Related Links:

  Lost Hearing Found With Vitamin E's Help 

  Hard of Hearing? There May Be a Surprising Cause 

  Keeping Your Ears Safe From the iPod
I awoke one morning in my forties to have totally lost the hearing in my left ear. After going the mainstream route and finding out it wasn't a brain tumor or something else they told me it was normal to have a sudden hearing loss and they have nothing to help except a hearing aid. I went to my D.O. who recommended the Tomatis group, I found a similar group here in the U.S. They made a tape for me, after a complete hearing exam that I listened to twice a day. In two months All the lower and mid ranges came back.I thought great! lets go for the high ranges,I did a new tape, listened and lost all frequencies again. Went back to the original tape and got back 75%, minus the high end and it has stayed good for 8 years now.

I have hearing loss in both ears.  It improves greatly when I first hum and while humming, open my mouth directing the loud sound produced up to one ear and then the other.  This vibration must stimulate the nerves.  One must do it repeatedly and as often as possible to maintain the hearing improvement.  I read about this method years ago in a natural healing book.
I am 57 years old and suffer a lot from tinnitus.  When I flew long distance I ended up with ruptured middle ear (and thought I was jetlagged for 2 weeks afterward), and feel fairly sure this has something to do with my hearing loss, along with a mercury overload, which causes it too.  About 6 years ago I discovered that the problem I had with flying was because I have green eyes and a naturopath told me that people with green eyes usually have an intolerance to dairy (they don't produce enough enzymes to break down the dairy protein) and clogs up the sinuses which are connected to the tubes to the ears.  I now take enzymes when I eat dairy and have flown since and never any problem any more, thankfully. Because of the mercury my doctor, who specialises in natural medicine, gave me a few injections of vitamin B12 and on the 3rd one my hearing started to become more clear. I am so grateful that I have been helped in these 2 areas.  My hearing is far from perfect still, but it is a lot better than it was :
Ossie - G'day! Here's some advice from one 57 year old in North America to another "Down Under". Try massaging the nape of your neck very firmly with one thumb. Find the most sensitive spot. Usually one side or another will be more tender to the touch, and concentrate on that side. Essentially you are giving yourself a chiropractic adjustment. If your body works anything like mine, in a minute or two after you stop you will notice a reduction and eventually elimination of the tinnitus. This resembles how DD Palmer discovered chiropractic over 100 years ago; a deaf janitor restores hearing after massaging a bony lump in the neck back into place.

Cholesterol Myth that is Harming You

Cholesterol could easily be described as the smoking gun of the last two decades.

It"s been responsible for demonizing entire categories of foods (like eggs and saturated fats) and blamed for just about every case of heart disease in the last 20 years.
You are probably aware that there are many myths that portray fat and cholesterol as one of the worst foods you can consume. Please understand that these myths are actually harming your health.

Not only is cholesterol most likely not going to destroy your health (as you have been led to believe), but it is also not the cause of heart disease.

And for those of you taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, the information that follows could not have been given to you fast enough.

What is Cholesterol, and Why Do You Need It?

That"s right, you do need cholesterol.

This soft, waxy substance is found not only in your bloodstream, but also in every cell in your body, where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D and bile acids that help you to digest fat. Cholesterol also helps in the formation of your memories and is vital for neurological function.

Your liver makes about 75 percent of your body"s cholesterol and according to conventional medicine, there are two types:

1. High-density lipoprotein, or HDL: This is the "good" cholesterol that helps to keep cholesterol away from your arteries and remove any excess from arterial plaque, which may help to prevent heart disease.
2. Low-density lipoprotein, or LDL: This "bad" cholesterol circulates in your blood and, according to conventional thinking, may build up in your arteries, forming plaque that makes your arteries narrow and less flexible (a condition called atherosclerosis). If a clot forms in one of these narrowed arteries leading to your heart or brain, a heart attack or stroke may result.

Also making up your total cholesterol count are:

• Triglycerides: Elevated levels of this dangerous fat have been linked to heart disease and diabetes. Triglyceride levels are known to rise from eating too many grains and sugars, being physically inactive, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol excessively and being overweight or obese.
• Lipoprotein (a), or Lp(a): Lp(a) is a substance that is made up of an LDL "bad cholesterol" part plus a protein (apoprotein a). Elevated Lp(a) levels are a very strong risk factor for heart disease. This has been well established, yet very few physicians check for it in their patients.

Understand this:

Your Total Cholesterol Level is NOT a Great Indicator of Your Heart Disease Risk

Health officials in the United States urge everyone over the age of 20 to have their cholesterol tested once every five years. Part of this test is your total cholesterol, or the sum of your blood"s cholesterol content, including HDL, LDLs, and VLDLs..

The American Heart Association recommends that your total cholesterol is less than 200 mg/dL, but what they do not tell you is that total cholesterol level is just about worthless in determining your risk for heart disease, unless it is above 330.

In addition, the AHA updated their guidelines in 2004, lowering the recommended level of LDL cholesterol from 130 to LDL to less than 100, or even less than 70 for patients at very high risk.

In order to achieve these outrageous and dangerously low targets, you typically need to take multiple cholesterol-lowering drugs. So the guidelines instantly increased the market for these dangerous drugs. Now, with testing children"s cholesterol levels, they"re increasing their market even more.

Number of people with total cholesterol levels over 250 who actually were at low heart disease risk due to their HDL levels. Conversely, even more who had cholesterol levels under 200 that were at a very high risk of heart disease based on the following additional tests:

• HDL/Cholesterol ratio
• Triglyceride/HDL ratios

HDL percentage is a very potent heart disease risk factor. Just divide your HDL level by your cholesterol. That percentage should ideally be above 24 percent.

You can also do the same thing with your triglycerides and HDL ratio. That percentage should be below 2.

Keep in mind, however, that these are still simply guidelines, and there"s a lot more that goes into your risk of heart disease than any one of these numbers. In fact, it was only after word got out that total cholesterol is a poor predictor of heart disease that HDL and LDL cholesterol were brought into the picture.

They give you a closer idea of what"s going on, but they still do not show you everything.

Cholesterol is Neither "Good" Nor "Bad"

Now that we"ve defined good and bad cholesterol, it has to be said that there is actually only one type of cholesterol. Ron Rosedale, MD, who is widely considered to be one of the leading anti-aging doctor in the United States, does an excellent job of explaining this concept:

"Notice please that LDL and HDL are lipoproteins -- fats combined with proteins. There is only one cholesterol. There is no such thing as "good" or "bad" cholesterol.
Cholesterol is just cholesterol.
It combines with other fats and proteins to be carried through the bloodstream, since fat and our watery blood do not mix very well.
Fatty substances therefore must be shuttled to and from our tissues and cells using proteins. LDL and HDL are forms of proteins and are far from being just cholesterol.
In fact we now know there are many types of these fat and protein particles. LDL particles come in many sizes and large LDL particles are not a problem. Only the so-called small dense LDL particles can potentially be a problem, because they can squeeze through the lining of the arteries and if they oxidize, otherwise known as turning rancid, they can cause damage and inflammation.
Thus, you might say that there is "good LDL" and "bad LDL."
Also, some HDL particles are better than others. Knowing just your total cholesterol tells you very little. Even knowing your LDL and HDL levels will not tell you very much."

Cholesterol is Your Friend, Not Your Enemy

In the United States, the idea that cholesterol is evil is very much engrained in most people"s minds. But this is a very harmful myth that needs to be put to rest right now.
"First and foremost," Dr. Rosedale points out, "cholesterol is a vital component of every cell membrane on Earth. In other words, there is no life on Earth that can live without cholesterol.
That will automatically tell you that, in and of itself, it cannot be evil. In fact, it is one of our best friends.
We would not be here without it. No wonder lowering cholesterol too much increases one"s risk of dying. Cholesterol is also a precursor to all of the steroid hormones. You cannot make estrogen, testosterone, cortisone, and a host of other vital hormones without cholesterol."

Vitamin D and Your Cholesterol

You probably are aware of the incredible influence of vitamin D on your health. What most people do not realize is that the best way to obtain your vitamin D is from safe exposure to sun on your skin. The UVB rays in sunlight interact with the cholesterol on your skin and convert it to vitamin D.

Bottom line?

If your cholesterol level is too low you will not be able to use the sun to generate sufficient levels of vitamin D.

Additionally, it provides some intuitive feedback that if cholesterol were so dangerous, why would your body use it as precursor for vitamin D and virtually all of the steroid hormones in your body?

Other "evidence" that cholesterol is good for you?

Consider the role of "good" HDL cholesterol. Essentially, HDL takes cholesterol from your body"s tissues and arteries, and brings it back to your liver, where most of your cholesterol is produced. If the purpose of this was to eliminate cholesterol from your body, it would make sense that the cholesterol would be shuttled back to your kidneys or intestines so your body could remove it.

Instead, it goes back to your liver. Why?

Because your liver is going to reuse it.
"It is taking it back to your liver so that your liver can recycle it; put it back into other particles to be taken to tissues and cells that need it," Dr. Rosedale explains. "Your body is trying to make and conserve the cholesterol for the precise reason that it is so important, indeed vital, for health."

Cholesterol and Inflammation – What"s the Connection?

Inflammation has become a bit of a buzzword in the medical field because it has been linked to so many different diseases. And one of those diseases is heart disease … the same heart disease that cholesterol is often blamed for.
Well, first consider the role of inflammation in your body. In many respects, it"s a good thing as it"s your body"s natural response to invaders it perceives as threats. If you get a cut for instance, the process of inflammation is what allows you to heal.

Specifically during inflammation:

• Your blood vessels constrict to keep you from bleeding to death
• Your blood becomes thicker so it can clot
• Your immune system sends cells and chemicals to fight viruses, bacteria and other "bad guys" that could infect the area
• Cells multiply to repair the damage

Ultimately, the cut is healed and a protective scar may form over the area.

If your arteries are damaged, a very similar process occurs inside of your body, except that a "scar" in your artery is known as plaque.

This plaque, along with the thickening of your blood and constricting of your blood vessels that normally occur during the inflammatory process, can indeed increase your risk of high blood pressure and heart attacks.

Notice that cholesterol has yet to even enter the picture.

Cholesterol comes in because, in order to replace your damaged cells, it is necessary.

Remember that no cell can form without it.

So if you have damaged cells that need to be replaced, your liver will be notified to make more cholesterol and release it into your bloodstream. This is a deliberate process that takes place in order for your body to produce new, healthy cells.

It"s also possible, and quite common, for damage to occur in your body on a regular basis. In this case, you will be in a dangerous state of chronic inflammation.

The test usually used to determine if you have chronic inflammation is a C-reactive protein (CRP) blood test. CRP level is used as a marker of inflammation in your arteries.

Generally speaking:

• A CRP level under 1 milligrams per liter of blood means you have a low risk for cardiovascular disease
• 1 to 3 milligrams means your risk is intermediate
• More than 3 milligrams is high risk

Even conventional medicine is warming up to the idea that chronic inflammation can trigger heart attacks. But they stop short of seeing the big picture.

In the eyes of conventional medicine, when they see increased cholesterol circulating in your bloodstream, they conclude that it -- not the underlying damage to your arteries -- is the cause of heart attacks.

The Insanity of Lowering Cholesterol

Sally Fallon, the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, and Mary Enig, Ph.D, an expert in lipid biochemistry, have gone so far as to call high cholesterol "an invented disease, a "problem" that emerged when health professionals learned how to measure cholesterol levels in the blood."
And this explanation is spot on.

If you have increased levels of cholesterol, it is at least in part because of increased inflammation in your body. The cholesterol is there to do a job: help your body to heal and repair.

Conventional medicine misses the boat entirely when they dangerously recommend that lowering cholesterol with drugs is the way to reduce your risk of heart attacks, because what is actually needed is to address whatever is causing your body damage -- and leading to increased inflammation and then increased cholesterol.

As Dr. Rosedale so rightly points out:
"If excessive damage is occurring such that it is necessary to distribute extra cholesterol through the bloodstream, it would not seem very wise to merely lower the cholesterol and forget about why it is there in the first place.
It would seem much smarter to reduce the extra need for the cholesterol -- the excessive damage that is occurring, the reason for the chronic inflammation."

If Your Cholesterol is Too Low …

All kinds of nasty things can happen to your body. Remember, every single one of your cells needs cholesterol to thrive -- including those in your brain. Perhaps this is why low cholesterol wreaks havoc on your psyche.

One large study conducted by Dutch researchers found that men with chronically low cholesterol levels showed a consistently higher risk of having depressive symptoms.
This may be because cholesterol affects the metabolism of serotonin, a substance involved in the regulation of your mood. On a similar note, Canadian researchers found that those in the lowest quarter of total cholesterol concentration had more than six times the risk of committing suicide as did those in the highest quarter.

Dozens of studies also support a connection between low or lowered cholesterol levels and violent behavior, through this same pathway: lowered cholesterol levels may lead to lowered brain serotonin activity, which may, in turn, lead to increased violence and aggression.

And one meta-analysis of over 41,000 patient records found that people who take statin drugs to lower their cholesterol as much as possible may have a higher risk of cancer while other studies have linked low cholesterol to Parkinson"s disease.

What cholesterol level is too low? Brace yourself.

Probably any level much under 150 -- an optimum would be more like 200.

Who Decided What Cholesterol Levels are Healthy or Harmful?

In 2004, the U.S. government"s National Cholesterol Education Program panel advised those at risk for heart disease to attempt to reduce their LDL cholesterol to specific, very low, levels.

Before 2004, a 130-milligram LDL cholesterol level was considered healthy. The updated guidelines, however, recommended levels of less than 100, or even less than 70 for patients at very high risk.

Keep in mind that these extremely low targets often require multiple cholesterol-lowering drugs to achieve.

Fortunately, in 2006 a review in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that there is insufficient evidence to support the target numbers outlined by the panel. The authors of the review were unable to find research providing evidence that achieving a specific LDL target level was important in and of itself, and found that the studies attempting to do so suffered from major flaws.

Several of the scientists who helped develop the guidelines even admitted that the scientific evidence supporting the less-than-70 recommendation was not very strong.

So how did these excessively low cholesterol guidelines come about?

Eight of the nine doctors on the panel that developed the new cholesterol guidelines had been making money from the drug companies that manufacture statin cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The same drugs that the new guidelines suddenly created a huge new market for in the United States.

Coincidence? I think not.

Now, despite the finding that there is absolutely NO evidence to show that lowering your LDL cholesterol to 100 or below is good for you, what do you think the American Heart Association STILL recommends?

Lowering your LDL cholesterol levels to less than 100.

And to make matters worse, the standard recommendation to get to that level almost always includes one or more cholesterol-lowering drugs.

The Dangers of Cholesterol-Lowering Medications

If you are concerned about your cholesterol levels, taking a drug should be your absolute last resort. And when I say last resort, I"m saying the odds are very high, greater than 100 to 1, that you don"t need drugs to lower your cholesterol.
According to data from Medco Health Solutions Inc., more than half of insured Americans are taking drugs for chronic health conditions. And cholesterol-lowering medications are the second most common variety among this group, with nearly 15 percent of chronic medication users taking them (high blood pressure medications -- another vastly over-prescribed category -- were first).
Disturbingly, as written in BusinessWeek early in 2008, "Some researchers have even suggested -- half-jokingly -- that the medications should be put in the water supply."
Count yourself lucky that you probably do NOT need to take cholesterol-lowering medications, because these are some nasty little pills.

Statin drugs work by inhibiting an enzyme in your liver that"s needed to manufacture cholesterol. What is so concerning about this is that when you go tinkering around with the delicate workings of the human body, you risk throwing everything off kilter.

Case in point, "statin drugs inhibit not just the production of cholesterol, but a whole family of intermediary substances, many if not all of which have important biochemical functions in their own right," say Enig and Fallon.
For starters, statin drugs deplete your body of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which is beneficial to heart health and muscle function. Because doctors rarely inform people of this risk and advise them to take a CoQ10 supplement, this depletion leads to fatigue, muscle weakness, soreness, and eventually heart failure.

Muscle pain and weakness, a condition called rhabdomyolysis, is actually the most common side effect of statin drugs, which is thought to occur because statins activate the atrogin-1 gene, which plays a key role in muscle atrophy.

By the way, muscle pain and weakness may be an indication that your body tissues are actually breaking down -- a condition that can cause kidney damage.

Statin drugs have also been linked to:

• An increased risk of polyneuropathy (nerve damage that causes pain in the hands and feet and trouble walking)
• Dizziness
• Cognitive impairment, including memory loss
• A potential increased risk of cancer
• Decreased function of the immune system
• Depression
• Liver problems, including a potential increase in liver enzymes (so people taking statins must be regularly monitored for normal liver function)

And recently a possible association was found between statins and an increased risk of Lou Gehrig"s disease.

Other cholesterol-lowering drugs besides statins also have side effects, most notably muscle pain and weakness.

IMPORTANT NOTE

If, for whatever reason, you or someone you know or love does not believe the information in this report and chooses to stay on statin drugs, then please make sure they at least take one to two Ubiquinols per day.

This will help prevent all the side effects mentioned above.

Ubiquinol is the reduced version of Coenzyme Q-10 and is far more effective if you are over 35-40 years old. It is the form of the supplement that actually works, and if you take CoQ-10 and your body can"t reduce it to uniquinol you are just fooling yourself and wasting your money.

Are Cholesterol Drugs Even Effective?

With all of these risks, the drugs had better be effective, right? Well, even this is questionable. At least, it depends on how you look at it.

Most cholesterol lowering drugs can effectively lower your cholesterol numbers, but are they actually making you any healthier, and do they help prevent heart disease?

Have you ever heard of the statistic known as NNT, or number needed to treat?

Most doctors didn"t think so. And herein lies the problem.

NNT answers the question: How many people have to take a particular drug to avoid one incidence of a medical issue (such as a heart attack)?

For example, if a drug had an NNT of 50 for heart attacks, then 50 people have to take the drug in order to prevent one heart attack.

Easy enough, right?

Well, drug companies would rather that you not focus on NNT, because when you do, you get an entirely different picture of their "miracle" drugs. Take, for instance, Pfizer"s Lipitor, which is the most prescribed cholesterol medication in the world and has been prescribed to more than 26 million Americans.

According to Lipitor"s own Web site, Lipitor is clinically proven to lower bad cholesterol 39-60 percent, depending on the dose. Sounds fairly effective, right?

Well, BusinessWeek actually did an excellent story on this very topic earlier this year and they found the REAL numbers right on Pfizer"s own newspaper ad for Lipitor.

Upon first glance, the ad boasts that Lipitor reduces heart attacks by 36 percent. But there is an asterisk. And when you follow the asterisk, you find the following in much smaller type:

"That means in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor."

What this means is that for every 100 people who took the drug over 3.3 years, three people on placebos, and two people on Lipitor, had heart attacks. That means that taking Lipitor resulted in just one fewer heart attack per 100 people.

The NNT, in this case, is 100. One hundred people have to take Lipitor for more than three years to prevent one heart attack. And the other 99 people, well, they"ve just dished out hundreds of dollars and increased their risk of a multitude of side effects for nothing.

So you can see how the true effectiveness of cholesterol drugs like Lipitor is hidden behind a smokescreen.

Or in some cases, not hidden at all.

Zetia and Vytorin: No Medical Benefits

Early in 2008, it came out that Zetia, which works by inhibiting absorption of cholesterol from your intestines, and Vytorin, which is a combination of Zetia and Zocor (a statin drug), do not work.

This was discovered AFTER the drugs acquired close to 20 percent of the U.S. market for cholesterol-lowering drugs. And also after close to 1 million prescriptions for the drugs were being written each week in the United States, bringing in close to $4 billion in 2007.
It was only after the results of a trial by the drugs" makers, Merck and Schering-Plough, were released that this was found out. Never mind that the trial was completed in April 2006, and results were not released until January 2008.

And it"s no wonder the drug companies wanted to hide these results.

While Zetia does lower cholesterol by 15 percent to 20 percent, trials did not show that it reduces heart attacks or strokes, or that it reduces plaques in arteries that can lead to heart problems.

The trial by the drugs" makers, which studied whether Zetia could reduce the growth of plaques, found that plaques grew nearly twice as fast in patients taking Zetia along with Zocor (Vytorin) than in those taking Zocor alone.
Of course, the answer is not to turn back to typical statin drugs to lower your cholesterol, as many of the so-called experts would have you believe.

You see, statins are thought to have a beneficial effect on inflammation in your body, thereby lowering your risk of heart attack and stroke.

But you can lower inflammation in your body naturally, without risking any of the numerous side effects of statin drugs.

How to Lower Inflammation, and Thereby Your Risk of Heart Disease, Naturally

There is a major misconception that you must avoid foods like eggs and saturated fat to protect your heart. While it"s true that fats from animal sources contain cholesterol, why this should not scare you -- explain here.
This misguided principle is based on the "lipid hypothesis" -- developed in the 1950s by nutrition pioneer Ancel Keys -- that linked dietary fat to coronary heart disease.

The nutrition community of that time completely accepted the hypothesis, and encouraged the public to cut out butter, red meat, animal fats, eggs, dairy and other "artery clogging" fats from their diets -- a radical change at that time.
What you may not know is that when Keys published his analysis that claimed to prove the link between dietary fats and coronary heart disease, he selectively analyzed information from only six countries to prove his correlation, rather than comparing all the data available at the time -- from 22 countries.

As a result of this "cherry-picked" data, government health organizations began bombarding the public with advice that has contributed to the diabetes and obesity epidemics going on today: eat a low-fat diet.

Not surprisingly, numerous studies have actually shown that Keys" theory was wrong and saturated fats are healthy, including these studies from Fallon and Enig"s classic article The Skinny on Fats:

• A survey of South Carolina adults found no correlation of blood cholesterol levels with "bad" dietary habits, such as use of red meat, animal fats, fried foods, butter, eggs, whole milk, bacon, sausage and cheese.
• A Medical Research Council survey showed that men eating butter ran half the risk of developing heart disease as those using margarine.

Of course, as Americans cut out nutritious animal fats from their diets, they were left hungry. So they began eating more processed grains, more vegetable oils, and more high-fructose corn syrup, all of which are nutritional disasters.

It is this latter type of diet that will eventually lead to increased inflammation, and therefore cholesterol, in your body. So don"t let anyone scare you away from saturated fat anymore.

Chronic inflammation is actually caused by a laundry list of items such as:

• Oxidized cholesterol (cholesterol that has gone rancid, such as that from overcooked, scrambled eggs)
• Eating lots of sugar and grains
• Eating foods cooked at high temperatures
• Eating trans fats
• A sedentary lifestyle
• Smoking
• Emotional stress

So to sum it all up, in order to lower your inflammation and cholesterol levels naturally, you must address the items on this list.

How to Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally …

1. Make sure you"re getting plenty of high-quality, animal-based omega3-fats. New research suggests that as little as 500 mg may lower your total cholesterol and triglycerides and will likely increase your HDL cholesterol. 
2. Reduce, with the plan of eliminating, grains and sugars in your daily diet. It is especially important to eliminate dangerous sugars such as fructose. If your HDL/Cholesterol ratio is abnormal and needs to be improved it would also serve you well to virtually eliminate fruits from your diet, as that it also a source of fructose. Once your cholesterol improves you can gradually reintroduce it to levels that don"t raise your cholesterol.
3. Eat the right foods for your nutritional type.  
4. Eat a good portion of your food raw.
5. Eat healthy, preferably raw, fats that correspond to your nutritional type. This includes:
   • Olive oil
   • Coconut and coconut oil
   • Organic raw dairy products (including butter, cream, sour cream, cheese, etc.)
   • Avocados
   • Raw nuts
   • Seeds
   • Eggs (lightly cooked with yolks intact or raw)
   • Organic, grass-fed meats
6. Get the right amount of exercise. When you exercise you increase your circulation and the blood flow throughout your body. The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of fighting an illness before it has the opportunity to spread.
7. Avoid smoking and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
8. Address your emotional challenges.

So there you have it; the reasons why high cholesterol is a worry that many of you simply do not need to have, along with a simple plan to optimize yours.

If someone you love is currently taking cholesterol-lowering drugs, I urge you to share this information with them as well.
For the majority of you reading this right now, there"s no reason to risk your health with cholesterol-lowering drugs. With the plan I"ve just outlined, you"ll achieve the cholesterol levels you were meant to have, along with the very welcome "side effects" of increased energy, mood and mental clarity.

[I got this from Amazing Facts blog a while ago, but it is not there now. They may have gotten it from some place else. I'm guessing possibly Mercola? I just did a search and yes it is from Mercola]

Words of Marthe Robin:

"My Lord and my God, to You I abandon myself. You wish me here, and here I shall remain, with no thought of leaving; if you wish me elsewhere, that is what I too wish. I know, oh Jesus, that always and everywhere You are saving me for yourself. Oh my Jesus, how thy little victim suffers, but how she loves Thee, with as much love as she has received ... oh Jesus, keep me always. I belong to Thee; give me patience and peace in everything."