Exploring Optimal Nutrition

I found this delightful parody song about dieting.  Within its humor, it does bring up some important issues.  Enjoy!

Due to health issues that I won’t get into here, I’ve been forced to look into natural anti-microbial products.  I found a few that I have now made part of my morning routine.  I cannot promise that any of these will keep you from getting sick, but it’s possible that they could improve your odds.  As always, check with your doctor.  Always follow recommended dosing.  More is not necessarily better.  Excess, even of natural remedies, can cause health problems and even death.

Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate)

Yes, I’m talking about that stuff that’s probably already on the baking shelf in your kitchen.  I became interested in baking soda when I noticed that it was mentioned in a video made by Mrs. Edna Register Boone, who had survived the 1918 flu.  No one in their family got sick with the flu, even though they were helping others in their community get through it.  She mentioned in the video that her mother had given them baking soda in water every morning.  I wondered if perhaps there was something to this.

I did a bit of research and quickly found this article on Dr. Mercola’s site: Overlooked 150 Year Old Household Cleaner a Remedy for Swine Flu?  A 1924 booklet published by Arm & Hammer stated, “In 1918 and 1919 while fighting the ‘Flu’ with the U. S. Public Health Service it was brought to my attention that rarely any one who had been thoroughly alkalinized with bicarbonate of soda contracted the disease, and those who did contract it, if alkalinized early, would invariably have mild attacks.”  That in itself, in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, was cause enough to add baking soda to my regimen.  It’s so cheap, why not?  Here’s another good article on baking soda for colds and flu by Dr. Sircus:  Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) for Cold And Flu.

But read on in Dr. Mercola’s article.  There’s more!  He suggests that baking soda may have anti-cancer properties as well.

Many chemotherapy treatments actually include sodium bicarbonate to help protect the patient’s kidneys, heart and nervous system. It’s been said that administering chemotherapy without bicarbonate could possibly kill you on the spot.

Could it be that while mixing chemo poisons with baking soda, any improvements seen are the result of the baking soda, and not the toxic poisons? Dr. Sircus believes that may be the case.

“There are no studies separating the effects of bicarbonate from the toxic chemotherapy agents, nor will there ever be,” he says.

There are contraindications, as mentioned in another article by Dr. Mercola: Baking Soda, an Inexpensive Way to Combat Autoimmune Disorders.  “According to research at the University of California, if you notice you’re experiencing an irregular heartbeat, or if you’re taking thyroid medication, starting on a regimen that includes baking soda is not advised.  If you notice itching, hives, swelling or tingling in your mouth or throat, stomach pain, headache or shortness of breath after using a baking soda solution orally, discontinue use.”

Boron/Borax

This is another household basic that may already be in your house.  I had three boxes of 20 Mule Team Borax in my laundry cabinet when I went out to the garage to check.  I looked into borax when someone claimed that borax was the only thing that could disable nanobots.  I am not here to argue whether nanobots are really a thing or not.  In the end, it doesn’t matter to me.  Nanobots are a little too sci-fi for me to wrap my mind around anyway.  I was more interested in the fact that this person said that he felt much better after beginning to use borax, and so I looked into it.  And I have to say, this one really surprised me.  Who would have thought that a laundry product could have health benefits?

I found this article by Deirdre Layne about borax benefits on her Earth Clinic site: Borax Cures and Health Benefits.  As you can see in the article, there is quite the laundry list of benefits (pun intended).  Detailed information can be found in The Borax Conspiracy by Walter Last.  The focus of his e-booklet is arthritis, but other benefits are detailed as well.  “Due to their content of boron, borax and boric acid have basically the same health effects, with good antiseptic, antifungal, and antiviral properties but only mild antibacterial action.”  In other words, that box of borax in your laundry room is probably as good as any other boron supplement you might use.  Just take care to use the doctor recommended amounts, which are very tiny.

I found this comment in Deirdre Layne’s article to be particularly interesting:  “Chemical fertilizers inhibit the uptake of boron from the soil:  an organic apple grown in good soil may have 20 mg boron, but if grown with fertilizer it may have only 1 mg of boron.  Fertilizers combined with poor food choices have greatly reduced our boron intake compared to 50 or 100 years ago.”  Could this be why I am increasingly hearing of people having bone and tendon problems?  Has boron deficiency become rampant due to modern agricultural practices?  When I went looking for information about boron deficiency, there was a surprising dearth of information about deficiency in humans.  The majority of search results were agricultural.  But if deficiency is a problem in plants, then most certainly humans can be deficient as well.  We are what we eat.  I did find this article: Boron is probably important to human health – 2003.  Could it be that we are just now still figuring out how important boron is for health?

Walter Last’s e-booklet does provide some information about boron deficiency:  “Boron deficiency causes the parathyroids to become overactive, releasing too much parathyroid hormone which raises the blood level of calcium by releasing calcium from bones and teeth.  This then leads to osteoarthritis and other forms of arthritis, osteoporosis and tooth decay.  With advancing age high blood levels of calcium lead to calcification of soft tissues causing muscle contractions and stiffness; calcification of endocrine glands, especially the pineal gland and the ovaries; arteriosclerosis, kidney stones, and calcification of the kidneys ultimately leading to kidney failure.  Boron deficiency combined with magnesium deficiency is especially damaging to the bones and teeth.”

Walter Last further quotes Dr. Rex Newnham:  “Most of his later research was devoted to the relationship between soil boron levels and arthritis.  He found, for instance that the traditional sugarcane islands, due to long-term heavy use of fertilizers, have very low soil-boron levels.  Jamaica has the lowest level and arthritis rates are about 70%.  He noted that even most dogs were limping.  Next comes Mauritius with very low boron levels and 50% arthritis.  The daily boron intake in these countries is less than 1 mg/day.  An interesting comparison is between Indian and native Fijians.  The Indians are estimated to have an arthritis rate of about 40% and eat much rice grown with fertilizer while the native Fijians with an estimated arthritis rate of 10% eat mainly starchy root vegetables grown privately without fertilizer.”

The bottom line, based on these statements, is that if your food comes from regions with depleted soil (which is more likely than not) or is grown with fertilizer (also more likely than not), it is not possible to get sufficient boron from your diet.  Hopefully, in areas where borax is not sold, you can at least get boron supplements.  This does not appear to be a well-studied nutrient, and it does appear that it is possible to get too much of it as well.  As always, consult your doctor if you believe that you may not be getting enough boron.

Zeolite (Clinoptilolite)

This one was recommended as a heavy metal detoxer and as a remedy for Herxheimer Reaction that results from microbial die-off.  It is the negative charge and unique structure of zeolite that makes this possible.  The zeolite molecules allegedly trap toxic metals and other substances in their cage-like structure and allow these toxins to be safely passed out of the body.  This article, while lacking in detail, has references for just about everything stated:  The 19+ Benefits Of Zeolite And Clinoptilolites.  At the top of his list are the antimicrobial properties.

The heavy metal detoxifying effect is thought to assist in recovery from autism, among other ailments; so zeolite could be a good choice for someone who was damaged by vaccines.  These usually contain heavy metal of one form or another.  (See also my post, My Vaccine Stance.)  The following is a transcript of a conference call with Dr. Peter Prociuk:  Zeolite for Autism.  In the transcript, Dr. Prociuk said, “I’ve been using it [liquid zeolite] with a wonderful degree of success, and without the problems associated with traditional Chelation.”  This is good news, considering the extensive damage that the autism epidemic is doing to our society.

For internal use, zeolite does require some processing to clean it up and break it down into small particles for best efficacy.  This makes zeolite somewhat more expensive as a supplement than baking soda or borax.  A term to look for when choosing a zeolite product is “micronized” or “micronization”.  This is different from simply crushing zeolite rocks into powder, which can damage the structure of zeolite that provides the desired benefits.  And as one manufacturer says, “There is NO SUCH THING as liquefied zeolite.  If zeolite was liquefied, it would destroy the cage structure, which is essential for detoxing.  Without this structure intact, zeolite cannot possibly detox.  Liquid zeolite supplements are merely just a miniscule amount of powdered zeolite in a liquid, (usually water).”  I would not rule out some sort of homeopathic effect that would explain reported success with liquid zeolite products, but I do not know of any writings that explore the possibility.  For my own use, I chose the powder.  At the rate of one gram a day, my 400 gram jar will last over a year.

Preliminary Results

I have been using baking soda, borax, and zeolite in water first thing in the morning for just a few days so far.  Already, I am feeling better than I have in a very long time.  To be fair, I did start a new prescription for Fluconazole at about the same time, but I don’t believe all improvements can be attributed to Fluconazole.  It is possible, too, that my morning tonic is helping to prevent issues that I might otherwise have with the Fluconazole.  Time will tell.  Eventually, I will come back to this post and provide an update.  My health condition has been such that I have been getting extensive testing done every month since last August.  The next set will be drawn next week.  I will get the results the following month.  It will be interesting to compare the numbers.  As always, please consult a physician before including any of these substances in your own regimen.

Update – March 22, 2020:  I’ve continued using the baking soda, borax, and zeolite in water first thing in the morning.  Also, I have been doing foot soaks with the borax.  I’ve been putting a bit of borax into the soak basin with water, dipping my feet and hands in the water and then pressing powdered borax onto them, letting that remain a minute or two, and then putting my feet into soak solution.  It does sting a bit on open wounds, but it has not been creating inflammation or anything like that.  So far, wounds are healing, and the texture of the skin is normalizing.  Healing of the skin is not complete yet, but healing is taking place.  Arthritis issues are mostly gone, too.  I am also using a terbinafine cream, but I have been using that for several months now.  The marked improvement has taken place in just the past week or so.  I am still convinced that the Fluconazole is of small effect for me.  I am still on it for the time being and will complete the course.  The real improvements with my skin came after I began the borax soaks.  I am on a lot of other supplements as well at this time.  If improvement continues, I will likely begin eliminating some of those.  I had to pass on getting blood tests done last week due to a concern that I might have been exposed to coronavirus, but I will get them done as soon as it is feasible.  Scientifically, there is a lot of confounding going on in my case, so I can’t be absolutely sure which item is doing what.  Time will tell.  I’ll check back later with another update eventually.

A note on terbinafine:  I tried using oral terbinafine a few months ago, but my liver could not tolerate it.  The few days I was on oral terbinafine was long enough to see improvements other than with the liver, including approximately a 35-40 point drop in systolic blood pressure from the 170s to the 130s.  I had a hunch when I began it that this would happen, but it surprised my doctors.

This article is somewhat off-topic for this blog, but it does have some relationship to the general theme of seeking out that which is healthiest to consume.

Let me go on record here and say that I am NOT anti-vaccine; however, I strongly believe that vaccination policies need to be responsible, and I am not convinced that current policies are responsible.

The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 essentially removed any liability for vaccine products from the drug companies.  Since then, I am not convinced that testing of vaccines has been adequate, leading to the entry of many questionable formulations into the market, some of which have been made mandatory for certain segments of the population.  This has led to an increase in damaging side effects of vaccination, including death.  Consider the following article:  Lawsuit Proves HHS Hasn’t Filed Required Vaccine Safety Reports with Congress in 30 Years.  It would seem that with no financial motivation to test, testing is no longer being done.  This puts the public at risk.

The vaccine industry likes to play on our insecurities.  Policy makers at the behest of vaccine lobbyists have sought to quell those insecurities by requiring more and more vaccines without adequate consideration for the risks and societal costs.  For instance, who is to say that a life of disability or tortuous pain due to a vaccine side effect is better than a death from the disease it was intended to prevent?  Are we as a society willing to take on the cost of maintaining a damaged person for the rest of their lives?  What if there are many such damaged people?

One specific set of vaccine risks is due to their heavy metal content.  The location where the molecules of these metals choose to lodge in the body can affect the functioning of that organ.  If conductive metal particles lodge in the brain, short-circuiting of the neural network is certainly possible, potentially leading to difficulties of mental functioning.  This article reports the proof of how this might be happening:  Researchers show where the aluminum travels to in the body and stays after vaccination.

Autism is a very expensive disease, requiring the services of several types of experts such as doctors and special education teachers.  The strain of raising an autistic child often leads to broken homes, creating additional financial and societal costs.  Many autistic adults are not capable of providing for themselves, requiring continuing welfare from their parents and society for the rest of their lives.  And autism is just one type of chronic disability that can result from vaccine injury.

Too many of these chronic cases can break a society.  These days, just about every young parent I talk to has at least one child with some level of issues.  What will happen when all of these children become adults?  What percentage of them will need continuing care?  Where do we draw the line?  Should we not be doing more to prevent such costly and devastating outcomes?  Isn’t that supposed to be the purpose of a vaccine in the first place?

It is also possible that the body can handle only so many vaccines.  We may have to limit the number of vaccines in protocols and choose vaccines that prevent the most damaging diseases.  Certainly, knowing what we know already, we should be limiting how many vaccines are given during any single office visit, possibly to as few as one.

All vaccines need to be able to pass a reasonable cost/benefit analysis that considers all risks and societal costs against the expected benefits.  This is not an anti-vaccine stance.  It’s a responsible vaccine stance.

Lest you doubt that there’s a problem, consider the following video compiled from the WHO Global Vaccine Safety Summit in December 2019.

The industry scientists KNOW that they have a problem.  They need to stop vilifying those who challenge them on the safety issues, get back into the lab, and fix the problems.  Continued vilification of challengers only deepens distrust of the industry.  If the industry wants the populous to trust them, then they need to be honest with the public and do their due diligence.  That’s true for anyone, really.

OK, I’m climbing off my soap box now.

I recently did a course of the antibiotic Azithromycin to treat an ear infection. I dreaded the thought of unbalancing my system, but the infection was affecting my hearing. The thought of losing my hearing to an infection was out of the question.

Anyway, soon after taking the antibiotic, I noticed that my weight was beginning to go up again. Continue reading »

It seems that the rules for what is optimal in a diet change when radiation is present in the environment, as it is now since the Fukushima Daiichi event on March 11, 2011.  A great amount of radiation has been released into the atmosphere and water since that time, and the release has not stopped.  This has resulted in the contamination of not just the local area, but much of the Pacific Ocean and Northern Hemisphere. Continue reading »

I finally after many months of consideration bought a Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream Maker.  Why, oh, why did I wait?  It has turned out to be one of my favorite kitchen appliances.  Not only is this appliance very easy to use, but I can now make my own low-carb high-fat ice creams that fit the guidelines of my desired diet.  Specifically, this means that I can have ice cream made with natural no- or low-calorie sweeteners such as stevia and xylitol.  Let me be clear here that the ice creams are not less expensive that ice cream available in your local supermarket; rather, my purpose in making my own ice cream is to obtain a nutritionally superior product while accommodating my sweet tooth. Continue reading »