Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby's Total Health Newsletter #7. Week ending July 5th 2009
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Menu:
- Toxoplasmosis and Behavior
- How Despicable Is Despicable?
- How Big Are Your Sperm Guys? Ladies listen up too...
- Vinegar May Aid In Fat Loss
- Longing To Get Back With Your Ex?
- Joe's Big Mistake About Alcohol
- What's In A Word?
- This Week's Quote (2 actually)
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1. Toxoplasmosis and behaviour here
I used to run a column called "I Told 'Em". As the years go by I realize more and more I was about 25 years ahead of the curve (fortunately this outrageous boast is documented in print, as I shared with readers of my former "Wholesome Living Letter").
In the 1980s I was teaching about toxoplasma, behaviour, fatigue and "woolly brain". I had a section on it in my 1993 allergy book "Thorson's Complete Guide To Food Allergy And Envirimental Illness" (Thorson's, an imprint of Harper-Collins).
Now Tox is in the news. There is science to back up what I found clinically.
Toxoplasma is a very widespread parasite and a major cause of fatigue syndrome and other symptomatic disorders.
What is toxoplasma? We mean Toxoplasma gondii, a species of parasitic protozoa in the genus Toxoplasma. It's actually related to the organisms which cause cryptosporidiosis and malaria.
The definitive host of T. gondii is the cat, but the parasite can be carried by all known mammals. Toxoplasmosis, the disease of which T. gondii is the causative agent, is usually minor and self-limiting but can have serious or even fatal effects on a fetus whose mother first contracts the disease during pregnancy or on an immunocompromised human or cat.
The key words there are immune compromised. See, to the daffy thinking of orthodox doctors, only people with AIDS, leukemia and similar diseases, or having bone marrow transplants are immune compromised. But that's very extreme.
The truth is we are all immune compromised in varying degrees. Many things combine to limit the efficacy of our immune systems. Most import, without doubt, is our diet. Poor nutrition means poor immunity. That's the whole story of TB (consumption) in one sentence!
We know from the budding science of psychoimmunology that emotions and psychic trauma can also severely compromise the immune system.
Then there are pesticides and pollution. Worst of all pollution, in this respect, is toxic heavy metal poisoning. Mercury, cadmium, aluminium, lead and arsenic are deadly destroyers of immune function. Anyway, I don't want this to be a diatrible on lifestyle, so much as to say that for 30 years or more I've been teaching that Toxoplasma pathology is much more widespread and serious than is being given credit for.
Then, suddenly, Tox is in the news. Guess what? Scientists have just figured out that Tox is much more widespread and serious than hitherto given credit for!
See, in animals Toxoplasma is very clever. It infects small rodents (rats and mice) but wants to get into cats. They are its favored host, where it matures in its sexual lifecycle. So how does it leverage this? It rots the brains of rodents and makes them stupid, sluggish and silly.
In fact, here's the really biologically clever bit: it makes mice drawn towards a cat smell, instead of being fearful of it. Neat, huh? In short, they become an easy, easy target for even a half-witted cat!
We're not supposed to be in the picture. Humans are not a natural host for this animal (that may have to be revized one day). We get Tox because we act unnaturally and slobber over pussy cats, let them lick us around the mouth, and thus we get infected with cysts.
Infections are usually mild and just feel like the flu (though occasionally overwhelming and fatal).
No surprise--it goes to our brain, makes us stupid, sluggish and silly too (encephalitis). Because that's what Tox does. But the results for humans can be an incredible amount of suffering that is just not being diagnosed enough. Obviously, if nobody looks for it, it won't be found. It's like Lyme but being going on for centuries, not just a few decades.
Toxoplasma infections are especially difficult to treat because they recur. Once Tox forms cysts, they can't be killed because scientists can’t get medication inside the cyst. The cysts eventually rupture and release proliferating parasites, which can cause a recurrence of the illness if the immune system is weakened and in those with eye disease (Tox is very bad for eyes and a cause of blindness).
Now here's my advanced theory and it isn't universally accepted yet, but a number of doctors are on to it:
There is increasing evidence that acute episodes of psychosis, mania and depression are associated with increases in circulating inflammatory mediators. There is also intriguing new data that both psychosis and depression can be improved by giving people COX2 inhibitors (this class of drugs settles down inflammation). Not so definitive in itself.
There has also been the strange observation that bipolar disorder may have been becoming more common in recent years, over and above our greater ability to recognize the illness.
There has been recent evidence that being born and raised in a city increases your chance of developing schizophrenia.
Several years ago the well-known psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey first suggested that Toxoplasma gondii might be responsible for all of these observations.
There is a fascinating book: Parasites and the Behavior of Animals, in which the author – Janice Moore from Colorado State University – cataloged some of the extraordinary ways in which parasites can impact the behaviors of a vast array of animals, including us humans.
2. How Despicable Is Despicable?
We all know that drug companies fake their science, right? They just lie or hide the truth, even to the detriment of patients.
In 2008 the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggested that a major sponsor of clinical trials, the drug company Merck, may have used misleading statistics to downplay the risks Vioxx might pose to people with Alzheimer's disease. Another article in JAMA reported that clinical-trial and review articles about Vioxx often were written by company-hired ghostwriters and later signed by researchers who had little to do with the actual study or review.
That's bad. But the over-arching truth is MUCH worse. When I had my clinic in Dublin, back in the late 80s, I met with a young doctor engaged in research "studies" for the drug industry (they do them in Dublin, by the way, because they can tread all over the Irish people without fear of being sued).
He told me that if a trial didn't show any benefit, or showed that the drug was useless, they simply threw it away and did the trial over. If that didn't work either, they tossed that one, then the next, then finally hitting one that showed- maybe- about 2% benefit (pure fluke), that was the one that got published. All the failures indicating there was NO REAL BENEFIT TO THE PATIENT were simply buried.
After all, Big Phamra science isn't about patient benefits, it's solely about profits.
This dirty little game went on for decades. Everybody knew it did, including editors of prestigious journals, like JAMA and The Lancet. Then a new generation of "honest" editors sprang up in the last few years. They got together and decided to block this crooked little game. They said they would refuse to publish any study which had not been publicly pre-registered.
Brilliant! At a stroke they got rid of this trick. Drug companies could no longer sweep the studies they didn't like under the carpet. By being pre-registered, the ones that showed failure were already out in the clear light of day, even before they had begun, in fact. They could no longer be ignored.
So that means the drug companies have since cleaned up their act and carry out only publicly conducted, honest trials, right?
Oh no... They are too devious and despicable for that. They do trials in the way I have suggested. But those are no longer the vehicle for scamming the system and the public. Now drug companies produce their own "in house" journal, with fancy names that sound like REAL journals. But they are not. These new publications are the way they get faked science to doctors.
Their operatives get to the MDs and give out these cooked up journals. They look convincing. Few doctors realize they are not genuine peer reviewed journals. After all Pfizer and Merck wouldn't pull a fast one, would they?
So doctors are still swayed in their prescribing by faked science that is whole designed to make money for the companies, not to benefit patients.
Scientific publishing giant Elsevier put out a total of six publications between 2000 and 2005 that were sponsored by unnamed pharmaceutical companies and looked like peer reviewed medical journals, but did not disclose sponsorship, the company has admitted.
Elsevier is conducting an "internal review" of its publishing practices after allegations came to light that the company produced a pharmaceutical company-funded publication in the early 2000s without disclosing that the "journal" was corporate sponsored.
"I understand this issue has troubled our communities of authors, editors, customers and employees," said Michael Hansen CEO of Elsevier's Health Sciences Division, in a statement issued by the company. "But I can assure all that the integrity of Elsevier's publications and business practices remains intact."
Yeah, right Michael!
[Source: TheScientist.com 7th May 2009, 04:27 PM GMT]
3. How Big Are Your Sperm Guys? (ladies listen to this too...)
Here's something to give any timorous, blushing guy an inferiority complex. Scientists have found HUGE sperm from an ancient species. When I say BIG I mean 2 inches long. You could wrap 'em round your finger!
Giant sperm are found in a variety of existing animals, but until now, there has been no evidence of this in ancient species. Thanks to the ultra protection of the fine-grained sediment at a geological site in Brazil, we now know that an extinct shellfish called on ostracode had sperm ten times its body size! (coiled of course, before you ask)
"It was always held that a sperm was a sperm was a sperm," said evolutionary biologist Scott Pitnick of Syracuse University in New York, when in fact, "sperm are the most diverse cell type there is."
The discovery of a 10 mm sperm in a 1.4 mm ostracode in the middle of the 20th century contradicted the accepted dogma that sperm were cheap and that the male sexual strategy was to maximize the number of sperm produced.
Since then, researchers have reported even bigger sperm, reaching 58 mm in length (2.28 inches).
Doesn't worry me. I had a vasectomy over 30 years ago. I'm not competing!
(ostracode sperm from an extreme electron miscroscope image)
[Source: Science 19 June 2009 324: 1535 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1173898] (in Brevia) ]
4. Vinegar May Aid in Fat Loss
Would you feel happy if you weighed 10% less? Here's some good news for you then...
Ordinary household vinegar appears to turn on genes that help fight fat. Well, they would say that, since they are obsessed with genes. Of course it may just be a metabolic effect. But it works!
Vinegar, especially cider vinegar, has long been touted as a cure-all for many ills. The substance has been used as a folk medicine remedy since ancient times. Modern medical evidence is slowly adding credence to some of the claims. In recent years, research has suggested that the main chemical in vinegar, called acetic acid, can help control blood pressure and blood sugar.
The current findings suggest that vinegar might help a person lose weight or fight obesity. Researchers in Japan gave acetic acid or water to mice via a stomach tube. All were provided a high-fat diet to eat normally.
Researchers found that the mice developed a lot less body fat (up to 10% less) than mice who didn’t receive the vinegar compound. The amount of food eaten by the mice was not affected. OK, it was mice not humans, but that certainly rules out any psychological or placebo effect. The 2 groups of mice lived identicical lives, except for the vinegar.
It’s believed that acetic acid turns on genes that produce proteins that help the body break down fats. Such an action helps prevent fat buildup in body, and offsets weight gain.
The findings are scheduled to be published in the July 8, 2009 issue of Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
So, out with the vinegar. I like Balsamic, myself. Brits use lashings of malt vinegar on "fish and chips" (Fish and Fries). But we can all add it healthily, to make oil-and-vinegar salad dressings. Maybe some pickles too?
5. Longing To Get Back With Your Ex?
Sometimes nothing is more painful and filled with anguish than the longing for a lost love. I know; I've been there. When my first wife ran off with someone else, I couldn't function for years.
The trouble was (being a guy), I couldn't really accept help. The way out for me (typical of men) was just to start dating other women. I had several girlfriends, including Telly, a 28-year old Belgian sweetie. She taught me a lot and you'll meet her in my writings.
Looking back I think I was mentally sick. Unquestionably it brought down my huge international clinic empire. In less than 3 years it all lay in ruins and I had to start the long road back.
I remember writing to my ex that surveys showed that over 80% of divorced couples wished they were back with their first partner. She scoffed and ignored me.
So five years later, when she wanted me back, it was too late. I had moved on karmically.
I have always taught that getting back together is usually the right thing to do. Divorce solves NOTHING. The same emotional baggage and patterns will be with you in the next relationship, and the next... until you take steps to fix them. You have to deal with things, not run away.
I did and now I am happily married to a wonderful woman, Vivien.
You can learn some hot science on making up from this guy Travis:
or click here for more info
6. Joe's Big Mistake About Alcohol
It's not often I criticize Joe Mercola for making mistakes (I make them too and he doesn't criticize me!)
However in the interests of good science, I must take him up on one of his newsletters this week. He reported negative effects of alcohol and completely ignored two glaring errors in the science.
He was commenting on a study published in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (15 June 2009).
Only 6 minutes after consuming an amount of alcohol equivalent to three beers, changes had already taken place in the human brains being studied by MRI. Their brains began to run on the sugar in alcohol instead of glucose, the normal brain food.
The concentration of substances such as creatine, which protects brain cells, decreased as the concentration of alcohol increased. Choline, a component of cell membranes, was also reduced. This probably means that alcohol triggers changes in the composition of cell membranes.
Joe Mercola extrapolated from that to say it might increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
This is what Joe missed: it may have been the equivalent of 3 beers but it was not beer, or wine, or spirits. It was a synthetic industrial chemical called ethanol. I've been battling this substance for decades and I was warning people off it in the late 70s/early 80s. It's bad news.
I know it damages brain tissue, without ever doing a clinical trial! I heard countless stories of chemically sensitive people who couldn't think straight when they encountered small inhaled doses of this and other synthetic chemicals. We used to do ethanol challenge testing and saw some very bad reactions. My early mentor, Richard Mackarness, wrote a whole book on this: "Chemical Victims".
Now I've never been a supporter of beer and spirits. They are not natural and cause problems. Beer is just a ferment of sugar, wheat and corn. Not good, given my level of knowledge about food allergies.
But wine is different. It's a rich mixture of protective natural polyphenols. Resveratrol is the most famous and has proven protective merits. Natural fermented alcohol, in the presence of Nature's many healing compounds, is very different from a laboratory chemical.
There's something else got missed. A REALLY BIG SOMETHING, OK? Nobody could possibly drink the equivelant of three beers in 6 minutes! Yet the whole trial was based on this stupid folly. I imagine anybody's metabolic control panel would light up with red flashing lights if they tried to drink 3 beers in 6 minutes. I'm not saying it can't be done: freshmen can do ANYTHING they set their mind to. But it's not normal, not often repeated and has no meaning in terms of human science.
Sorry Joe.
Besides, it's bad methodology to take one small study and ignore the TORRENTS of evidence that moderate drinking is protective. It's true that correlation does not equal causation. But if wine drinking were harmful, you'd have to get round the fact that serious wine drinkers live far longer than other alcohol abusers and don't get so much Alzheimer's.
Also, you'd have to explain the well-known fact that non-drinkers don't live as long as moderate drinkers.
7. What's In A Word?
Perfidious. Now there's a word you don't hear on TV any more! Not with the present illiterate standards.
There was a pop tune "Perfidia" made a hit by the Ventures (hear it on YouTube, click here). Well, it wouldn't sell today. Kids would just stand scratching their heads, not knowing what it means.
Perfidious means treacherous, dishonest, untrustworthy, traitorous. You wouldn't choose this word for strangers, it's more for somebody who let you down, behaved badly, cheated on you.
It comes from the Latin: per, through or beyond and fides, faithful (same root as fidelity).
8. This Week's Quotes:
"A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments, soccer games, romances, best friends, location of friend's houses, favorite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house."
---Unknown
"The truth is that parents are not really interested in justice. They just want quiet."
---Bill Cosby
So, that's all for this week!
Be well; find the sacred in all you do, otherwise don't do it!
Prof.
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