If you have tendon, cartilage, joint, ligament or other connective tissue problems, it’s a distinct possibility that these were caused from a chronic lack of magnesium.

I know that you probably think that you couldn’t possibly have magnesium deficiency, but if you problems with any of these body structures it’s actually most likely that you absolutely DO have moderate and maybe even SEVERE magnesium deficiency- and that you’ve had it for many years.

The reason that you probably think that you don’t have magnesium deficiency is that you simply aren’t aware that the Signs of Magnesium Deficiency include common problems like:

Constipation

Anxiety

Insomnia

Feeling stressed

Low back pain

And a whole host of other problems that people consider a ‘normal’ part of living in a stressful society. But these are NOT ‘normal everyday’ problems, they are distinct symptoms of magnesium deficiency that neither you nor your doctor recognizes. The fact that everyone has these symptoms doesn’t mean that they aren’t problems with a real and fixable cause- and there ARE doctors who DO recognize these problems as being from magnesium deficiency. The doctors who DO understand this, such as Dr. Caroline Dean author of The Magnesium Miracle and Dr. Marc Sircus author of Magnesium Medicine, know that magnesium deficiency is epidemic and actively promote magnesium supplementation in the vast majority of their patients.

Connective Tissue Synthesis

While most of the problems mentioned above can be corrected within several weeks to several months of aggressive magnesium replacement, connective tissue problems are both less recognized as being due to magnesium deficiency as well as requiring a longer to correct. As a result, most people can’t imagine these problems as being caused by magnesium deficiency since the long term nature of the connective tissue degeneration makes it hard to link the two since it might take years or even decades for this problem to manifest.

Magnesium is a critical component of collagen formation and repair, but calcium will fill up cells and ‘calcify’ cells in magnesium’s place when there is a deficiency of magnesium. This can lead to defective collagen formation over time in the presence of a chronic magnesium deficiency. One study explained it by showing that magnesium ‘hinders the mechanism by which fibroblasts (collagen creating cells) degrade defective collagen’. In other words, when magnesium deficiency is present, the old collagen cells that need to be replaced get replaced with unhealthy calcified cells rather than flexible new healthy cells. In the case of connective tissue such as joints, ligaments and tendons, this can lead to a susceptibility to joint problems, tendonopathies, fibromyalgia (meaning literally connective tissue pain), worn cartilage, osteoarthritis and even certain heart problems that are related to connective tissue dysfunction.

Quinolone Antibiotic Toxicity

Another extremely concerning area for readers is not JUST the fact that long term magnesium deficiency can weaken connective tissue and lead to the problems above, but long-term magnesium deficiency apparently makes one more susceptible to the damaging effects of a common class of antibiotics called the Quinolone Antibiotics.

The problems that occur from these antibiotics are called Cipro Tendonitis or Quinolone Toxicity and they are of particular interest to me as I’ve done extensive research and work with people suffering from this disabling life-altering problem and have written the book The Levaquin Tendonitis Solution in response to the great need for an effective solution to this problem.

One of the questions about the damage from Quinolone Antibiotics is why certain people are more susceptible than others to the effects of these drugs. When millions take these drugs every year and only a small percentage is affected, the problem is baffling to both researchers and sufferers alike. One of the answers lies in the fact that magnesium deficiency is epidemic and long term magnesium deficiency weakens and replaces healthy connective tissue cells with calcified unhealthy cells. To show this point, a study done on rats with magnesium deficiency were given dosages of Quinolone Antibiotics and their joints were examined. (3,4)

The joints of all of the animals showed damage and swelling- regardless of whether they received the Quinolone antibiotics or not. In other words, magnesium deficiency BY ITSELF created painful and swollen joint lesions in these animals from the unhealthy calcium deposits that the magnesium deficiency allowed. The unhealthy cells created by magnesium deficiency allows small amounts of damage to the existing healthy cells become a HUGE problem of cellular death and destruction that can lead to widespread connective tissue pain and even tendon rupture with just a few doses of these toxic drugs.

While there are certainly other factors involved in being susceptible to Levaquin Tendonitis, chronic long-term magnesium deficiency is most likely one of the most predominant risk factors. Unfortunately, for various reasons, few people or their doctors are recognizing magnesium deficiency. But when you understand the powerful effects that magnesium has on the body, then you begin to see many ‘chronic health problems’ through the lens of being symptoms of the avoidable problem of magnesium deficiency.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System
Side Effects

PS: If you found this website helpful, please consider using the
Easy Immune Health Product Store the next time you purchase your supplements online. Your support allows me to keep this site running and educating as many people as possible. Thank you!

Research

1) Magnesium deficiency in the pathogenesis of mitral valve prolapse.
2) Synergistic Effect of Ofloxacin and Magnesium Deficiency on Joint Cartilage in Immature Rats
3) Integrins on joint cartilage chondrocytes and alterations by ofloxacin or magnesium deficiency in immature rats
4) Magnesium deficiency induces joint cartilage lesions in juvenile rats which are identical to quinolone-induced arthropathy

The mitral valve is one of the valves of the heart that keeps blood flowing in the proper direction when the heart beats and pushes the blood into the next chamber. Mitral Valve Prolapse is a common problem where the ‘leaflets’ of this valve don’t fit perfectly together and can lead to an abnormal backflowing of blood that causes problems in some people that experience this condition.

There have been a large number of studies showing that people with mitral valve prolapse have magnesium deficiency, but it’s extremely interesting to note that some studies have shown that chronic magnesium deficiency may have actually been the cause of the mitral valve prolapse in the first place!

Symptoms of Mitral Valve Prolapse

When mitral valve prolapse causes symptoms that affect people’s lives, then it is often termed Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome (MVPS) and it can lead to problems such as:

Shortness of breath

Chest pain

Heart Palpitations

Activity intolerance

Anxiety

These symptoms can really affect people’s lives in a negative way on a day to day basis. Those with MVPS go to the emergency room frequently and can sometimes feel that they are dying due to their severe symptoms.

The Magnesium Connection

There have been MANY studies showing that those with mitral valve prolapse often have low Magnesium Levels in their blood. This is especially interesting since blood magnesium levels are almost worthless and only show magnesium deficiency when levels are EXTREMELY low. This leads me to believe that if accurate intracellular magnesium testing (an accurate way to do magnesium testing) were used that even higher numbers of those with MVPS would show functional magnesium deficiency.

Several studies also show that these same people have fewer symptoms and better quality of life when they take magnesium supplementation on a regular basis. While this is interesting, it’s not very surprising to those who are familiar with the Signs of Magnesium Deficiency and actually see everyday that these types of symptoms, whether related to MVPS or not, resolve when high doses of magnesium are taken.

What IS interesting, however, is that some studies suggest that the magnesium deficiency may not be a result of the mitral valve prolapse, but that the mitral valve prolapse may actually have been CAUSED by the Magnesium Deficiency! This is possible because magnesium is required for the proper formation of collagen and collagen is a major component of heart valves. Therefore, a disruption of collagen formation could affect a wide variety of structures in the body, with heart valves only being one example.

Another example is the damage that is done to tendons when a class of drugs called Quinolone Antibiotics are taken. These drugs cause magnesium to be ‘chelated’ from the body and some people experience connective tissue pain, damage and even full tendon rupture after taking these drugs. My extensive studies have shown that the lack of magnesium causes many of the problems that make one vulnerable to this condition known as Levaquin Tendonitis.

But these studies that are showing that magnesium may actually disrupt collagen formation leading to Mitral Valve Prolapse makes me even more convinced that those susceptible to Levaquin Tendonitis likely have had a chronic magnesium deficit with subsequent collagen disruption for many many years before they were damaged by these antibiotics.

These findings make me more and more convinced that Dr. Carolyn Dean of The Magnesium Miracle and Dr. Mark Sircus the author of ‘Magnesium Medicine’ are correct in their assessment that magnesium deficiency is an ‘epidemic’ that is simply being overlooked by those in the health care industry due to their inability to recognize the many many symptoms of deficiency of this nutrient and the fact that the tests that they are using are outdated and completely inaccurate. If YOU are experiencing chronic health problems, could they be due to magnesium deficiency?

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System
Side Effects

PS: If you found this website helpful, please consider using the
Easy Immune Health Product Store the next time you purchase your supplements online. Your support allows me to keep this site running and educating as many people as possible. Thank you!

Resources

Recent data on mitral valve prolapse and magnesium deficit.

Magnesium deficiency in the pathogenesis of mitral valve prolapse.

The importance of magnesium status in the pathophysiology of mitral valve prolapse

Neurotic, neuromuscular and autonomic nervous form of magnesium imbalance.

Pharmaceutical drugs designed to control abnormal heart rhythms have been used for decades and have been ‘presumed’ to work without exacting clinical trials to prove this. While it has been taken for granted that these drugs work the way the drug makers claim, recent studies have shown that many of these drugs actually do exactly the opposite. Not only can these drugs cause an INCREASE in some heart rhythm disturbances, but they are also actually increasing the overall rate of death from dangerous heart rhythms.

Most problematic heart rhythms, known in the medical world as ‘arrhythmias’, are electrical disturbances that can be worsened by electrolyte disturbances, exercise or excessive stress and can be painful and frightening for those who experience them. Some rhythms are dangerous and some are not, but most people who experience these heart problems end up having some form of medical intervention to correct or reduce the frequency of these occurrences. Different forms of ‘Anti Arrhythmic’ drugs have been around for decades and have been used by cardiologists and even heart surgeons as a ‘first line’ treatment for heart rhythm disturbances, but new research is showing that taking these drugs may be more dangerous than doing nothing at all.

“In the last decade or so, numerous experimental
and clinical studies have revealed that drugs that act by delaying
conduction, while markedly suppressing ventricular arrhythmias, have
the proclivity to increase mortality
in subsets of patients with significant cardiac disease.”
‘The coming of age of the class III antiarrhythmic principle’

The reason that these drugs are so dangerous is that they can cause a condition called Prolonged QT Interval. Unlike other abnormal heart rhythms, prolonged QT syndrome causes no symptoms whatsoever and the majority of people who have it don’t know that anything is wrong. But it is EXTREMELY dangerous because it increases the possibility of the heart suddenly going into a fatal heart rhythm with as little stress as the alarm clock going off in the morning.

When young people or fit athletes make the news for suddenly having a heart attack and dying when there was no apparent reason, the culprit is very often prolonged QT interval. Even more cause for concern is that the heart rhythm caused by prolonged QT doesn’t respond to the standard medical care used to restart hearts in the hospital, and the majority of people who experience a lethal heart rhythm caused by a prolonged QT interval will die even when the most advanced medical care is available.

While there are some cases where antiarrhythmic drugs are lifesavers, in many cases heart rhythm disturbances can be corrected with stress management and intensive electrolyte replacement that includes high dose magnesium. Subtle Magnesium Deficiency almost always exist in those with heart rhythm problems, but the ‘standard’ blood Magnesium Level is outdated and ineffective for determining whether magnesium would provide a benefit. While there are better and more useful tests for magnesium, the medical community simply does not use them to discover and correct the real underlying cause of these heart problems. Instead, hospitals and doctors prefer to use pharmaceutical drugs that temporarily stabilize the original heart problem while causing an overall increased risk of an even worse problem- one that won’t cause any symptoms at all until it kills.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Doctors and nutritionists often cite high fat diets as a risk factor for breast cancer, but more important than the AMOUNT of fat eaten is the TYPE of fat. In particular a component of certain vegetable oils, Linoleic Acid, is a huge risk factor for breast cancer in animals and may be for humans as well.

Linoleic acid, not to be confused with Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) or alpha-linolenic acid, is a polyunsaturated fatty acid found in corn and safflower oil: oils that require modern centrifuges, heat treating and solvents in order to be made. Calling them ‘vegetable oils’ makes them sound healthy, yet because they require extensive processing they have only been a part of the human diet for a few decades.

Interestingly, only the total amount of linoleic acid in the diet was important; whether the animals were given 3% or 23% of calories from fat, if 3% or more came from linoleic acid, the diet promoted breast cancer.

Human Studies

Human studies are harder to `control` for and the effects of these oils are not as clear, but there IS some evidence that they are a worse choice than `traditionally eaten` fats. Studies that show high fat diets contributing to breast cancer often look at the AMOUNT of fat and not the TYPE. Those that DID control for the type of fat did not distinguish between healthy polyunsaturated fats and linoleic acid polyunsaturated fat. Another problem in these studies is their failure to take into consideration the amount of processed foods eaten. Because processed foods almost always contain small amounts of these oils, it`s impossible to rule out the effect that a small amount of processed food with linoleic acid containing oil might have.

But there are a few studies that showed negative effects from these oils. One that followed a group of men over an 8 year period showed that vegetable oils contributed to a higher rate of cancer, while another linked rising rates of breast cancer to the rising use of vegetable oils. In addition, observational studies of cultures that consume high fat diets show that they have low breast cancer rates when those fats come from natural oils like fish, olive or coconut oil.

“… an increase in the consumption of n-6 fatty acid rich
vegetable oil and a concomitant reduction in the ratio of n-3
to n-6 fatty acids suggested that this change in dietary fatty acid

intake may be related to the rising breast cancer risk in Japan.”
`Dietary Fatty Acids and Cancer`

Therefore government recommendations to eat oils containing linoleic acid in place of traditional fats could be devastating, yet this is exactly the advice that has coincided with a HIGHER rate of obesity and breast cancer in the US. While countries, such as France, who have essentially rejected this advice in favor of high fat diets containing almost no vegetable oils have maintained low levels of breast cancer and obesity. While there isn`t overwhelming proof that these oils are a risk factor for cancer, there is a growing argument that they are unsafe; conversely, there is certainly no evidence that they ARE safe in any amount. Because these foods DO promote cancer in animals, the burden for proving safety should be on the manufacturers. Until then, it would be prudent to avoid these highly processed `modern` oils entirely.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Most people would identify sun exposure as the primary risk factor for getting skin cancer, but few would think of antibiotics as a contributing factor to this deadly disease. Yet there is an entire class of antibiotics that are known to cause a condition known as photocarcinogenesis that can multiply the damage normally done by the sun and lead to an increase in the risk of skin cancer.

The Quinolone class of antibiotics, which includes such common antibiotics as Levaquin (Levofloxacin) and Cipro (Ciprofloxacin), has a LONG history of causing dangerous toxic conditions. In fact, no less than nine different Quinolone Antibiotics have actually been approved by the FDA and released onto the market only to be found to be so dangerous that they had to be removed and recalled.

While each one was removed for various different toxic reactions, at least four were removed due to a problem called ‘Phototoxicity’. Phototoxicity is a common occurrence with many prescription medications requiring people using them to stay out of the sun because of the excess sun damage and sunburn that can result. But the phototoxicity that is caused by the Quinolone antibiotics may be so bad that it is causing genetic damage to the cells and contributing to a more damaging form of phototoxicity called ‘Photocarcinogenesis’.

A carcinogen is a substance that is known to cause cancer; therefore, photocarcinogenesis refers to a substance that can actually cause skin cancer in the presence of sunlight. Yet this fact was only discovered AFTER these drugs had been released onto the market and significant numbers of complaints of severe skin problems from sunlight exposure were reported.

While it would be logical to think that the FDA might be extra cautious and require more extensive studies for sun damage from Quinolone antibiotics considering their checkered past, this does not seem to be the case. Several Quinolones have been approved since these nine have been recalled and all Quinolones have a warning on them to stay out of the sun. But few people read package inserts and doctors and pharmacists can’t possibly discuss every warning of every drug with each patient – so this fact often remains unknown to the millions of people taking these antibiotics every year.

Even more disturbing is that there is now a Quinolone cream approved for use of skin infections – such as acne. This cream will be used primarily by teenagers who are not known to be cautious about going out in the sun. Not only that, but the possibility that teens and young adults will be using this drug for years and even decades, as acne drugs generally are, combined with even a small increase in photocarcinogenic damage at such a young age could significantly increase lifetime skin cancer risk.

Since it is WELL known by drug manufacturers and the FDA that Quinolone Antibiotics increase skin cancer risk in animals and cause skin damage in humans, those taking Quinolones regularly for non-life threatening chronic conditions, such as acne, bronchitis and sinus infections, are unwitting test subjects for the drug companies and the FDA to determine long-term skin cancer risk.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

The U.S. embargo of Cuba between 1991 and 1993 caused more than just economic consequences for the tiny island nation; it also caused interesting medical consequences that wealthier nations could learn from. The medical consequences of the embargo included an ‘outbreak’ of a painful nerve problem called ‘neuropathy’ that ended up affecting over 50,000 people. While it was determined that this ‘epidemic’ was caused by a virus, this virus was not treated with antiviral medications, antibiotics or any other pharmaceuticals. This epidemic was completely stopped in its tracks and the more than 50,000 people affected were CURED simply by taking a multivitamin supplement.

Peripheral Neuropathy is a nerve condition that causes pain and decreased sensation in many parts of the body but typically affects the lower extremities where it is called Peripheral Neuropathy. However, it may also affect the hands, the hearing, the face and even the nerves of the eyes causing not only pain and decreased sensation, but also deafness and blindness as well. The Cuban Neuropathy Epidemic, as this outbreak was later called, affected a combination of the extremities, the hearing and the eyes – sometimes in the same person. Young and old alike were affected and medical care was scarce due to many factors related to the embargo:

The poor economic conditions
The limited medical supplies entering the country
and
The vast numbers of people that were seeking medical attention for the epidemic

But in this environment of minimal funds in a so-called ‘third world’ country, the majority of the 50,000 people affected were completely cured of their neuropathy with nothing more than plain over-the-counter vitamin supplements. Even those who were so severely affected that they required hospitalization simply received intravenous vitamin infusions in the hospital while the government instituted a free multivitamin distribution program for the rest of the population. Those with neuropathy were ‘cured’ and the neuropathy ‘epidemic’, except for a few isolated cases, ended completely.

Today in the US, there are tens of thousands of people – primarily diabetics and the elderly – who are suffering with neuropathy and are told that there is no cure. They have blood tests, CT scans, perfusion scans, electrical muscle tests and nerve conduction tests. In the end, they are given pain pills and told that they will have to live with excruciating nerve pain and decreased sensation for the rest of their lives. For diabetics, this decreased ability to feel their feet can mean wounds that don’t heal and amputated limbs; for the elderly, the ever-present risk of falling and breaking a bone is compounded.

Certainly not ALL cases of neuropathy can be cured with multivitamins, but as the Cuban Neuropathy Epidemic teaches us, there certainly are some cases that CAN be improved or cured with vitamins. Yet there are almost no doctors in ‘first world’ countries that will discuss vitamins for neuropathy despite the lessons from Cuba and from some liberated prisoner-of-war camps where the same phenomenon has been observed. Doctors in western countries require formal double-blind placebo-controlled trials to perceive a therapy as being worthwhile.

So the lack of studies using vitamins to treat Peripheral Neuropathy ensure that people in western countries with this debilitating life-altering illness will not be given the same option of simply trying a safe and inexpensive multivitamin supplement as they would be if they lived in a third world country.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Most of us believe that laws requiring dairies to pasteurize milk has made milk safer and has reduced illness. On the surface, it certainly SEEMS as though it has made society safer and healthier, but is this really true? Looking more deeply, it’s evident that pasteurized milk laws have actually made milk more unsafe and unhealthy. Not only has it created more unhealthy milk, but it has created longer term health consequences for society as a whole.

Poor Quality Milk

Rather than creating healthier milk, laws requiring pasteurization immediately and decisively FAVORED the producers of poor quality milk over producers of higher quality healthy milk. Raw milk absolutely must be produced from healthy cows fed on healthy feed (or pasture raised) in clean conditions. By passing pasteurization laws, it has allowed dairies to transform from the local family-owned pastures that they had been for hundreds of years to the unhygienic animal abusing conglomerates that they are today.

By its nature, raw milk for human consumption simply can’t be made from cows that are sick, don’t have access to pasture or who have udder infections. Dairies that sell milk intended for pasteurization routinely sell milk from cows that have infections, are ill or a condition called ‘mastitis’, a painful infection of the milk glands. Milk from conglomerate dairies is completely unfit for human consumption- unless it is pasteurized first.

Had pasteurization laws never been implemented, the dairies producing poor quality milk that caused people to become sick would have been boycotted and gone out of business or would have been forced to change their practices. Paradoxically by the government deciding that we needed to be ‘protected’ from unhealthy milk, it created a situation where the vast majority of people ONLY have access to unhealthy milk while healthy milk has been outlawed in most cases.

Lactose Intolerance

Pasteurization not only kills bacteria, but also destroys the natural enzymes that help us digest milk. Lactose intolerance is considered a problem that is natural to adults after infancy and only those societies who have had long exposure to milk products have developed the enzyme necessary to break down dairy products. If this theory were to be true, it requires you to believe that human societies would have kept dairy animals and milked them every day while suffering through a lifetime of bloating, gas, diarrhea and stomach pains in order that someday their ancestors would develop the genes to produce lactase!

In fact, the vast majority of people with lactose intolerance can drink raw milk and cultured milk products without any problems due to the preservation of the lactase, the same way that humans throughout history have ingested milk for tens of thousands of years without problems. Lactose intolerance is actually a government induced health problem directly caused by pasteurization laws.

Chronic Health Problems

In addition, raw milk contains healthy ‘probiotic’ bacteria that populates our bowels and protects us from the overgrowth of ‘bad’ bacteria and yeast that can lead to illness. While pasteurization DOES kill bad bacteria, it also kills the ‘good’ bacteria that naturally inhibit the bad bacteria to begin with. While today, a carton of milk left on the counter overnight would have to be thrown out due to spoilage, before pasteurization, people drank unrefrigerated milk without problems- often in ‘unhygienic’ containers like goat skins and wooden vats that were never cleaned for years at a time. They could do this because the ‘good’ lactobacillus bacteria proliferate creating an acidic environment that inhibits the growth of infectious bacteria.

In generations past, we would have ingested these good bacteria to help populate our bowels AT LEAST on a daily basis and sometimes 3 to 4 times per day in butter, cream, yogurt, whey, kefir milk, ‘sour’ milk, ‘cultured’ fruit drinks and even meats and vegetables that were preserved by culturing. But since the advent of pasteurization, unless we consciously eat the few available cultured products that are available, we rarely ingest the good bacteria that we would have continually ingested in decades past.

And this may have more long term consequences than you would believe. These bacteria in our digestive tract are responsible for a VAST array of metabolic processes. Aside from inhibiting bad yeast and bacteria, they produce vitamins and fatty acids, prevent inflammation and are an integral part of our immune system. Current research has linked such common chronic illnesses as:

Eczema
Allergies
Food Allergies
Irritable Bowel Disease
Crohn’s Disease
Most autoimmune disease

with a lack of probiotic bacteria in the gut. And even more research is beginning to show improvements in many of these chronic problems when probiotic supplements are taken. In reality, raw dairy products are long term probiotic supplements that could have been preventing these illnesses all along.

While many would say that these laws were necessary to prevent thousands of people from becoming sick and dying from bad milk, it is ridiculous to believe that outbreaks consumers would have continued to purchase milk from dairies that were making them sick. Left to decide for themselves, consumers would have forced milk producers providing unhealthy products out of business, allowing only producers of high quality milk to flourish. By the government stepping in to protect us, they not only gave an economic advantage to poor quality milk producers and set the stage for the conglomerate dairies that we have today, they have caused most of the population to only have the choice of unhealthy milk unfit for consumption UNLESS it is pasteurized. In addition, these laws have directly contributed to the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of people suffering from chronic illness today.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Many major media outlets are reporting an ‘Outbreak’ of a new ‘Deadly’ strain of fungus called Cryptococcus gattii. They are calling it ‘Potentially Lethal’ and saying that many of the victims have been ‘Healthy’ and so this new fungus could be a big problem.

Well, the media MUST be bored because this new fungal strain is HARDLY deadly and the ‘healthy’ people that they are reporting are dying like flies from this problem are anything but. This is simply propaganda that no one should be worried about in the LEAST! Here are the facts:

270 CASES have been identified in the past 11 years
40 people have died in that time period

That is HARDLY something to worry about. More people die of heart attack or breast cancer every MINUTE in JUST the United States than people have been DIAGNOSED in 11 years!! If you want to worry about something that might kill you, worry about heart disease and breast cancer. This infection is SO overrated in the US media right now that a Canadian website that is dedicated to reporting and informing travelers to Canada about this infection and is run by the University of British Columbia, Cryptococcusgattii.ca, hasn’t been updated since a May 8, 2009 news report of ONE woman dying a year previously!!

Now lets take a look at this propaganda about these ‘Healthy’ people that are dying from this. Well, a Medscape report broke down the health problems that people who were diagnosed with Cryptococcus Gattii had. Lets take a look at these healthy people:

The Mean Age of Infected Persons was 62 years old
48.6% were on oral steroids (which suppress the immune system)
29.9% had invasive cancer
12.7% had chronic lung disease
4.2% had HIV
3.1% had a history of an organ transplant

That’s nearly 80% of people with SERIOUS health problems that contracted this fungal infection. VERY VERY few people get this problem without having underlying health problems, but most people would consider themselves healthy unless they actively have a life threatening illness anyway!! If you have:

Arthritis
Fatigue
Chronic Pain
Don’t exercise
Eat Processed Foods
Don’t expose your skin to sunlight regularly

Then you are NOT healthy and are probably, at the very least, very vitamin d deficient if you are not taking high dose supplementation or are not sunbathing regularly. While it’s unlikely that we will know more about these sad cases of people that were previously ‘healthy’ before they died, the fact that the average age of victims is 61 and male, that is nearly EXACTLY the same demographics that usually kill otherwise ‘Healthy’ men who have sudden massive heart attacks. These men who die of sudden heart attacks were not exactly healthy either, although that’s the way the media portrays it.

So, how healthy are YOU? I’m not worried about getting Cryptococcus gattii. But those of you who take ANY medications are NOT healthy and are at risk, particularly those of you with autoimmune diseases. The fact is that some medication Side Effects, like the Side Effects of Remicade or Corticosteroids predisposes you to getting these infections that only AIDS patients used to get- and Cryptococcus gattii is no different. The vast majority of people who are getting this have health problems- and as more and more of the population accepts that health problems are ‘random’ and that lifestyle, exercise and diet have nothing to do with their health problems, then more and more people will be getting these diseases and infections previously reserved for those with HIV or other immune system problems.

Got vitamin D?

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Lately, I’ve been getting people writing in asking if they should worry if they Store Vitamin D. Now, I’m not sure where people have got the idea that storing vitamin d is something that is worrisome or something harmful, but let me set the record straight that you should not worry if you store vitamin d.

Vitamin d is a FAT SOLUBLE vitamin and you do not excrete it through the sweat, urine or stool as you would if it were a Water Soluble vitamin. Vitamins and minerals such as the B vitamins, magnesium and Vitamin C Supplements must be taken on a daily basis because they get excreted if you do not use them in a short period of time (a few hours to a few days depending upon the vitamin). But the fat soluble vitamins like vitamin d are not excreted this way. In fact it is a GOOD thing that you store vitamin d because this was how humans were designed!

When we evolved as humans, we did not always have consistent sunlight- and for most populations, sunlight was the only way to obtain vitamin d. Only populations, such as the Inuit and Sami people of the far Northern parts of the world have access to abundant year round vitamin d food sources- and ‘NO’, milk in its natural form is NOT a food source of vitamin d, it has had synthetic vitamin d supplements added artificially.

Since Vitamin D and Sun is an inconsistent way to obtain vitamin d, nature designed us to be EXTREMELY efficient at collecting the vitamin d that we do get when we get it. And the way that we do that is to Store Vitamin D when there is an excess of it. And we DO store vitamin d in our fat and it gets sort of ‘time- released’ as we need it. In fact the ‘half-life’ of natural vitamin d from sun or from Vitamin D3 Supplements is a long 3 WEEKS in order to get us through monsoon season or a long and snowy winter.

In fact, to illustrate this point, Dr. Robert Heaney, one of the foremost Vitamin D Researchers, found that if you take 2,200 IU per day, you only have about 12 days supply of vitamin D in your body. “What this indicates,” he explained, “… is that fat reserves of the vitamin are essentially running on empty.” So, according to Dr. Heaney, storing only 12 DAYS of vitamin d is inadequate to really meet your needs.

Sometimes doctors will give extremely large-sounding dosages, up to as much as 600,000 IU’s all at once, and some forums out there are saying, “Oh no, that’s bad because you store the Vitamin D”, there is just simply no worry about this. To store vitamin d when it’s in excess is what our bodies do. While certainly too high of dosages for too long can lead to Vitamin D Toxicity, but that is NOT the same thing as storing vitamin d. Too much is TOXIC, but storing vitamin d is a natural healthy body process that no one should ‘Worry’ about.

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

Television ads featuring heart inventor, Dr. Robert Jarvik, who, by the way, cannot row a skull and never practiced medicine, claims that Lipitor will lower heart attack risk by 36%. Now, who wouldn’t want that but let’s look at the fine print. The fine print required says:

Let’s do the math.

For every 100 people in the trial that lasted 3 l/2 years, 3 people on the placebo and 2 people on Lipitor had heart attacks. That is one less heart attack for every 100 people. In other words, 100 people had to take Lipitor for 3 l/2 years to prevent one heart attack. What this really means is, 99 out of 100 people taking Lipitor received no benefit from taking Lipitor.

There is a little known statistic, “Number Needed To Treat,” (NNT) defined as the number of patients who need to be treated in order to prevent one bad outcome. In the case of Lipitor, 100 patients needed to be treated for 3 l/2 years to possibly eliminate one heart attack. Let’s compare that number to today’s antibiotic treatment to eradicate ulcer causing H Pylori Stomach Bacteria. The Number Needed To Treat H. pylori is 1:1. That means if you give the antibiotic to 11 people, 10 will be cured.

Several recent scientific papers peg the NNT for statin medications at 250. That means 249 of 250 would receive no benefit. Dr. Jerome R. Hoffman, Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCLA asks:

Marketing Over Medicine

Drug companies have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a profit. We need drug companies to develop new medicines; however, when they grossly overstate benefits and spend enormous dollars influencing physicians, it leads to potential corruption. The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) 2004 guidelines lowered the targets for
cholesterol treatment and recommended more Americans take statins. The panel that issued the guidelines was comprised of 9 experts, 8 of which had ties to the drug industry. We physicians who speak out take great risks as medicine and government agencies do not like criticism. For example, Dr. Henry C. Barry of the Michigan State University College of Medicine recently stated, “The NCEP guideline and process went awry.”

Very, very few.

Dr. Barry and 34 other experts sent a petition of protest to the National Institutes of Health saying the evidence was weak and the panel biased because of its ties to the drug industry. Dr. Rodney A. Hayward, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical school said, “current evidence supports ignoring LDL cholesterol altogether.” In response, The National Cholesterol Education Program stated strongly, “Dr. Hayward should
be held accountable in a court of law for doing things to kill people.” We might expect this kind of harsh response from zealots and extremists but not from government agencies or scientists. If we spent just a fraction of the money we now do on cholesterol testing, cholesterol lowering drugs and doctors visits, on educating people about
proper diet, exercise and weight loss, we’d be far healthier.

–Dr. Dwight Lundell

Dr. Lundell is a former cardiothoracic surgeon who has been campaigning for the natural treatment of heart disease through inflammation reduction. His book, “The Great Cholesterol Lie” can teach you how to manage cholesterol- and what is more important, reduce your risk of heart disease at the SOURCE.