* Migraine Headaches- I will be getting to this soon. In the meantime, please read Pain, Pain Go Away in my Pain Management section. Migraines are complex, but there is a definite relationship between the development of these oftentimes debilitating headaches and the concepts purported in the pain paper.

* Mononucleosis (Epstein-Barr)- This ugly virus is the glaring example of the critical concept of latent viruses. The Answer goes into detail here, but I want to re-emphasize the importance of this idea at this time. It is crucial for people to understand that we (both humans and their pets) have become virus hotels over our lifetime, with Epstein-Barr virus being one of the first to check in. The medical texts say that over 50% of kids have this critter in their body by age five. The majority of the rest of us get it later in life, particularly in our teenage years as mononucleosis. This virus is capable of remaining dormant for years and years, laying in wait until our immune system begins to have trouble keeping it under control. Once our immunity wanes, this opportunist rises up and goes to work.

What sort of problems does the E-B virus cause? First of all, it is the cause of mononucleosis. However, an interesting question arises when our teenager gets mono. Did this individual just acquire Epstein-Barr or is it a flare up of the virus that was acquired as a young child? Great question, and there is an answer worth examining. I believe the answer lies in the clinical course of the mono in that person. For example, when I had mononucleosis at age 12, I was out of school for 6 whole weeks. I then had a relapse about two years later and was out for another month. However, when my daughter had it at age 15, she was sick for 3-4 days and went back to school. Why the huge difference? I am a celiac (gluten intolerant) and my daughter is not. My immune system was seriously compromised by the celiac disease and this allowed the E-B virus free reign for a while. My daughter crushed that guy in 3-4 days, like a healthy immune system should. Therefore, it is very likely that she acquired the virus just before becoming ill. In my case, I may have acquired in before age 5 and that the worsening celiac condition unleashed it at age 12. This just makes sense and is just how latent viruses behave.

So, it should be no surprise that it raised its ugly head again two years later and then again at about age thirty-eight. How did it manifest then? As chronic fatigue. Yes, Epstein-Barr IS involved in chronic fatigue syndrome as illustrated by the fatigue that accompanies mononucleosis and which kept me out of school for 6 weeks. (I know of some teenagers who developed mono and have yet to recover from the fatigue. They have not done what is needed to get this virus back under control.)

Shortly after the chronic fatigue was in full swing, I developed fibromyalgia, which is the other warning sign telling us that Epstein-Barr is on board. Researchers know that this virus is a part of the chronic fatigue-fibromyalgia syndrome and I am a living example of this. Only one out of ten people with fibromyalgia are men, but I was destined to have it with my medical history, wasnt I?

However, I am here to tell you that this latent virus...this terrorist...can be controlled. For the same reason that he was allowed to come out of his cave, we must know that we can shove him back into it. The waning of the immune system does NOT have to be a permanent thing, especially in a nineteen year old (ugh!). Like always, the main thing we have to do is to stop doing what it is that we have been doing to crush that immune system. Anyone who has spent any time on this site knows what to do from here. If not, Email me.

Focus completely on the health of the immune system. Remember that the failure occurred as a result of that system being overworked and underpaid. Start having it do less work (stop eating the primary allergens) and start paying it more (eat your vegetables and fruits). Also, the foods that are overworking the immune system are the same ones causing the pain (glutamate) and the fatigue (casomorphins and gliadorphins). So, the short-term recovery comes quickly...the pain and fatigue starts resolving within days of changing the diet in many cases.

However, we are really after the long-term recovery. We want to become healthy enough to overcome this virus completely. Why? It has also been tied to two forms of leukemia and one of lymphoma. Oh oh! But that could help explain why celiacs have a much higher rate of lymphoma than the general population, couldnt it? Uh huh. Some bad news is a real motivator, isnt it?

* Morgellons Disease- (New!!!) This is one of the most fascinating and, I believe, one the most important conditions to come along in a very long time. The following is a letter I sent to group of doctors and nurses studying this landmark disease state. You'll quickly see why I call it that.

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* Multiple Sclerosis- The following is an Email I just sent to some clients about MS (degenerative myelopathy). I got three Emails in one day about this, two from people with MS and one from a dog owner with degenerative myelopathy (German shepherd). So, I wrote something that I had been thinking about for quite some time.

* Pain (chronic) Management- For now, please read my paper on pain titled Pain, Pain Go Away in the Pain Management section. It is about 15 pages long and goes into the neurophysiology of pain as well as chronicles my recovery from fibromyalgia. Anyone...ANYONE...who is in chronic pain needs to read this paper. You will be surprised to find out how easy it is to reduce your pain by raising your pain threshold. The paper goes into detail concerning just what we are consuming (and breathing) every day that is making the pain center in our brain so sensitive, so over-reactive. By eliminating the neurostimulants in our diet (such as MSG and aspartame), miracles can occur...and quickly. Too good to be true? In this case, the good news is completely true. 

* Parkinson's Disease- This is a condition that became near and dear to me during the early part of my research. Michael J. Fox was in the news and I just had to know why that talented guy had Parkinson's Disease. Little did I know that the interest I had in him would lead to so many of the principles that I would later use to illustrate how chronic illnesses develop and ravage our bodies.

Once again, I will return to this section and write a piece on Parkinson's that will really get you going. But for the time being, please read about this rising problem in The Answer. There are many references to Parkinson's in that paper, but the principle ones are shown in the Table of Contents. This paper shows how a single virus may have been (partly) responsible for over 6.5 million cases of Parkinson's disease and illustrates my "theory" on the relationship of viruses and dietary proteins. It is worth reading even if this serious condition has not personaly touched your life...yet.

* Post partum Depression- If the viewer has read the above section on menopause, they have a good idea of what I have to say about post partum depression. This often terrifying syndrome has a number of fascinating and, I believe, very explainable aspects to it. If you have not read the section on menopause, I would encourage you to do so before proceeding. It lays some very important groundwork for what is written next.

It IS all about hormones, as women so commonly volunteer in their defense. "Yes guys, they are right about this." Once again, the pregnancy is maintained by our new friend progesterone. As the reader now understands, progesterone is a powerful hormone and is actually stronger than cortisone in its anti-inflammatory effect. During pregancy, this compound coursing through the mother's veins makes her nearly "bullet-proof" when it comes to immune-mediated events and reactions. For example, many moms-to-be have reported an abatement of food and inhalant allergies during pregnancy. I previously mentioned one that was totally milk intolerant unless she was pregnant. This speaks to the powerful effect of progesterone...one that "covers up" otherwise significant reactions on the part of the immune system. This is good and bad, I'm afraid. More on that in a second.

One of the major "side effects" of cortisone therapy in the pet is an increased appetite. Hmmm... That sounds a bit familiar when it comes to the pregnant woman, doesn't it? Certainly a pregnant individual needs more calories for the proper development of the life inside of them BUT most would agree that the amount of weight (fat) gained by many woman in this condition is abnormal and is now frowned upon.

Then there is the matter of those "cravings". As I wrote in the Food Addiction section, cravings are usually for something that your brain has become addicted to and start once the level of these addictive substances have dropped below a threshold level. The two most addicting foods are dairy and wheat due to the fact that they have both "downers" (the casomorphins and gliadorphins) and "uppers" (the neurostimulants glutamate and aspartate) in them. Cheese just has to be the most addictive food on the planet. Other food addictions include chocolate, diet drinks, and sugar. And as we established earlier, there are no physical addictions that are healthy for you...none.

So, let's tie this up now. We have a pregnant woman with progesterone running through her veins to maintain the pregnancy. She begins having cravings induced by that cortisone-like hormone. This same "drug" is serving to reduce the inflammatory and any other type of reaction that she may otherwise have to the foods she is eating to satisfy those cravings. (Remember that dairy intolerant client of mine.) The cravings are for foods that are addictive in many cases...those that will do her harm....when the progesterone levels drop. Oh, oh.

 Yes, all good things must come to an end and the "drug abuse" that has occurred during pregnancy suddenly has to come to an abrupt halt. Those women that had problems such as wheat, dairy, or soy intolerance prior to the pregnancy (and who either did or did not know that beforehand) have been suddenly subjected to a serious crisis. Their anti-inflammatory "medication" was just yanked away from them. This has the potential for resulting in a myriad of problems, ranging from allergic reactions (with subsequent histamine release, a very depressing substance) to gut damage, as seen in celiac disease, with a sudden drop in blood serotonin levels. (Celiacs very commonly suffer from acute endogenous depression from a rapid depletion of serotonin, a mood moderating hormone.) Add to that the fact that she is probably having some withdrawal symptoms from the drop in progesterone levels alone (as in cortisone withdrawal) and the reader can see why some individuals literally come apart at the seams. Depression in many of these cases can be acute and severe and can even result in violent behavior toward the child or spouse. It doesn't just happen on Law and Order.

Now you see why I would write about such a thing on a "veterinary" site. This condition illustrates a number of the principles about which I write. But, the thing it drives home more than anything to me is the evil nature of food addictions. People make jokes about food cravings, especially within the context of pregnancy. Pickles and what? But...BUT...the cravings are a very real thing and are usually for the foods that we are trying to eliminate here, especially the number one and two allergens. Now that you have a better appreciation for the things that these foods are capable of, it should be easy to see why this topic is on the roster.

* Sickle Cell Disease- I decided that I wasnt going to make you wait for this one. Its way too important and illustrates a huge point. But first, a little background information.

I have been pretty amazed at the number of my Black American clients that have never been told the historical and global significance of the Sickle cell gene. The fact is that this gene protects those who possess it in areas of the world where malaria is a problem. When a malaria organism attempts to infect a red blood cell with the sickle cell gene, that cell turns into a sickle cell that, in turn, will not support the life of that malaria organism. So, without the sickle cell gene in their red cells, the victim of that mosquito bite would develop malaria. In other words, the sickle cell gene saved their life. So, what in the world happened to turn this life-saving gene against its host, creating a condition that the mere mention of its name could strike fear into those members of our population who carry it?

Sickle cell disease is a horrible collection of symptoms that centers around the rupture of red blood cells and the development of clots in blood vessels, leading to growth defects, pain syndromes, vascular damage in the lungs, liver and other organs, and severe anemia.

It is devastating to say the least. But once again, we have to ask (now more in unison due to the opening paragraph) How can something that used to save lives of Black Americans in their native homeland turn on them and cause such serious, life-threatening illness? Well, a good starting point is to look at what changed between there and here.

What did change? The climate, the air, the clothing, the water, and what else? Oh yeah, the diet. The reader had to know that this would be the focus of attention here and it is because I believe it deserves to be. The fact is that those in Africa did not eat wheat or drink cow milk at the time they were being taken into slavery. They lived on all of the gluten-free grains that are suitable for celiacs like myself-millet, sorghum, and maize- and consumed goat milk when they required dairy products. Their first exposure to the newly-improved (actually toxic) common wheat that our European ancestors had created in about 400 AD was on the slave boats during transport. History tells us that nearly 40% of the slaves never made it to their ports of destination, many of them dying of acute dysentery. This is exactly what happened in the years immediately following common wheats creation: acute celiac disease wiped out countless children and adults once the gluten hit their duodenal villi, crushed their immune systems, and allowed the dysentery to run rampant. Black Americans simply became the newest batch of celiacs, the way I see it. Couple that bread with a big glass of cow milk once they did arrive on our shores and you have a real immunological disaster in the making.

This is actually consistent with the clinical signs of sickle cell disease. The night I read a medical manual on sickle cell, I called my brother with a run down of symptoms to an undisclosed disease. I asked him what they sounded like to him. He answered Celiac disease. I told him that it was sickle cell disease. He was amazed. Thats when I offered my theory to him. We agreed that it certainly made sense.

We know that celiac sufferers are very prone to autoimmune diseases. The damage to the duodenum sets them up for this as described all over this site. They have up to 50 times higher rates of thyroid disorders, lupus, rheumatoid, and platelet disorders than the general population. Once we enter what I call safe mode...that time in our lives when the immune system starts reacting to numerous foreign proteins in order to protect us further...our immune system starts to attack these protein invaders (viruses, inhalant proteins, dietary glycoproteins, etc.) wherever they may be. Some are in the tissue of our organs while others are in the blood stream and on the blood cells themselves. Red blood cells, platelets, and even the blood vessels can have these protein antigens attached to or within them.

So, I see sickle cell disease as a horrible cascade of events that starts with the formation of sickle cells from a stimulus other than the one intended: the infection of a red cell with malaria. These sickle cells develop as a result of other antigenic insults on the red cell, the same ones that cause autoimmune hemolytic anemias and thrombocytopenias (platelet deficiencies) in celiacs and other immune-challenged people. But, in the sickle cell sufferer, the pump has been primed in an awful way, being programmed to fold like a card house when challenged.

Once the individual enters safe mode, all it takes is the right stimulus- a viral infection, a vaccine, a large dose of inhalant or food allergen, a drug reaction, a bacterial infection, etc- and the domino effect takes place, causing massive collapse of red cells and adhesion of these antigenically polarized cells to each other and to the vessels that contain them. The results are almost predictable as the blood vessels supplying the bones and various organs are occluded by these clots. It is truly a medical nightmare.

White Americans have had the longest time to adapt to the serious agricultural mistake their ancestors made back in 400 AD. The creation of common wheat and the subsequent introduction of gluten will live in infamy in the minds of those who understand the consequences of this historical milestone. Even Caucasians have had 1000 less years to adapt to their second big mistake- jumping ship from sheep and goat to cows as the source of milk- than they have to making the wheat. Perhaps thats another reason why cow milk has been incriminated in so many of the conditions that affect us.

But, the groups with the highest rates of immune-mediated diseases stand out and do so for a reason. Diabetes has skyrocketed in the Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Indian American over the recent years. The African American leads the way in heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. These facts should no longer be such a surprise. These groups are the newest to the American (Western European) diet.

With 60-70% of this countrys diet now being made up of those two foods that harmed them most in history, the newcomers should see this correlation and take steps to correct it. The Japanese American women should easily see that it is cow milk consumption (with the help of hydrogenated oils) that is leading them into epidemic rates of breast cancer. The Black American woman should see that it is cow milk that is leading the way into such serious incidence of osteoporosis and diabetes, while it contributes horribly to heart disease and their breast cancer rates.

But for the sake of this discussion, it should be clear why I suggest that diet turned this life-saving trait into a tragic medical condition. To me, this disease illustrates a number of the most important points that I have tried to make on this site. One: Things happen for a reason in our body. Something is idiopathic only because we have not asked the right question yet. Two: We are responsible for the things that go wrong in this body of ours. The holistic proponent is right when they say If something is wrong with your body than you have done something to it. This includes destroying your own immunity. Three: Genetics do not make you sick. They never have and they never will. Genetics simple determine what will happen to you when it all starts to come apart. As long as you stay healthy and out of safe mode, the genetic codes are nothing but a bunch of chromosomes. BUT, once the damage is done and the wall is hit, the genetics will help to determine which plague (or plagues) you get to endure. And four: The love of food is the root of all medical evil. (I thought Id slip that in.) Could that be true? Could the trouble foods that I preach about be the cause of all of our medical woes? If we ate perfectly and the damage to the gut never happened, the malabsorption of the nutrients never happened, the formation of food-related antibodies never happened, and we never went into my mythological safe mode, could we live to be the hundred and twenty years of age we were promised in the Bible?

What I do know is that by eliminating these foods from my diet, my life has done a 180-degree turn medically speaking. Bullet-proof is the term I use these days to describe how I feel most days. Could a person with sickle cell disease become bulletproof by avoiding the protein antigens that trigger the cascade of events described above? Perhaps we should ask those people in Africa and the Mediterranean who carry the gene but rarely suffer from the disease. At least, that used to be true. Watch what happens as the American diet makes its way around the world. Fast food: our gift to the world.

* Sleep- I will be writing an entire paper on this incredibly important topic in the near future. I can not put a number on the importance of sleep. Millions and millions of people have poor sleep habits and it is totally expainable in the vast majority of cases. And, it has potentially cataclysmic effects on our health, ranging from poor decision making to increased cancer rates.

The following is a letter that I just wrote that will serve as a primer for the paper to come. I hope it helps.

Hey H. and Y.,

* Stuttering- It is my belief that there is a very good chance that this condition is akin to epilepsy in that the same foods that are providing the neurologically active proteins described in the epilepsy paper (Idiopathic Epilepsy- The Dietary Solution) are the culprits in this frustrating and embarrassing condition. I have now read accounts of stuttering people with celiac disease who were able to completely control this communication affliction with a gluten-free diet. However, there are also reports of celiacs with this that did not respond. My comment to them would be the same as my comments to other celiacs that are not reaching optimal health: "Gluten is only ONE of the culprits in the deterioration of our health. You MUST consider dairy (casein) and soy protein as being capable of doing every bit as much harm as gluten."

Recovery from this condition may be rapid and complete. Those who know would certainly say that a dietary trial is well-worth the effort.

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