Viva For Your Health

If you are a celiac, your miracle cure is under way – being trialed in Melbourne Australia from April 2009! It could conceivably desensitize people with celiac disease to the point that the villi in their small intestine are not damaged by the gluten protein. However with the need for extensive testing in this three phase trial, the vaccine may not be ready for release for several years.

Before we go into the details of such a cure it should be noted that this vaccine might not be a â??magic bullet’ that makes people permanently immune to the gluten protein, it might ‘only’ desensitize them. Also be aware that if you choose to undertake the â??therapy’ there are no guarantees of how you will react, and the only way to regularly check to see if you have been â??cured’ would be regular intestine biopsies. As it is known that some people take over two years to heal their intestines from gluten damage, how risky will this strategy be? It is expected that testing will be extensive so these questions may all sit under the â??devil’s advocate’ category, and all may be well.

An even more philosophical question is what effect covering up the cause of your disease will have on your body. Books have been written that suggest that it is the increased gluten potency in wheat and other gluten grains as well as increased use in manufactured foods that has led to an overdose of gluten. Our bodies then pass a â??tipping point’ where our genetic predisposition to CD turns into an active disease. If this is true, how wise would it be to continue ingesting unnaturally high levels of gluten, once â??cured’ just because we can? Sure it would make life simpler not following a gluten free diet, however maybe we should wait for gluten to be decreased at the source, the growing fields, before we return to a gluten filled diet.

Different types of celiac disease identified

With all these issues under consideration, I am sure that every celiac would still be interested in a â??cure’. A July 2007 article based on research conducted in Victoria, Australia, showed that “Celiac disease – is strongly associated with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) DQ2 and to a lesser extent with HLA DQ8.”

“HLA genes are part of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), which plays a pivotal role in the immune system. HLA-DQ2 mediated celiac disease is common in people of European ancestry, with about 90 per cent of sufferers positive for DQ2. Another five per cent possess HLA DQ8. In China and East Asia, DQ2 genes are rare while DQ8 genes are as common as in Europe.”

So it appears that this preliminary research has been able to isolate two main versions of celiac disease. However the molecular workings of the immune response in the two antigens appear to be very different. The researchers discovered that T-cells in people with DQ8-associated celiac disease reacted quite differently to the small proteins in gluten than the T-cells in people with the DQ2 form of the disease.

“At the moment a gluten-free diet is the only treatment for celiac disease but nearly half the people on the diet still have damage to their small intestine. Consequently other therapies, including a vaccine and three different drugs, are in various stages of development. The research team believes celiac disease might be the first example of an immune disease where treatments are customized according to the genetic make-up of the patient.”

The celiac vaccine discovery

The discovery that lead to the creation of the vaccine was that the one critical part of wheat gluten protein that was toxic was the common genetic version (HLA DQ2) of celiac disease. “As much as the identity of the toxic component of gluten was important, it was the way in which it was found that has proven to be even more important. By eating gluten in wheat, rye, or barley for three days (even a single meal will suffice in some people), immune cells (T cells) that damage the small intestine are mobilized into blood for a few short days. The T cells in blood can be monitored and analyzed to define what part of gluten they recognize. The parts of gluten recognized by the vast majority of T cells involved in celiac disease can be condensed to a few “short” fragments of gluten that remain after its digestion in the gut. These gluten fragments can be synthesized using fairly standard chemistry and are the basis for the celiac vaccine.”

The Celiac Vaccine Trials

The original research began at Oxford England in 1997. The work continued in Australia in 2002 and by April 2009 Bob Anderson from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical research (Melbourne, Australia) will commence the first world trials of a celiac vaccine that could reduce or eradicate the need for being gluten free. In fact Bob Anderson calls the vaccine a “next-generation desensitization therapy” that has been successful in mice and is soon to be tested on celiacs.

“The vaccine will be tested on 40 volunteers with celiac disease over 11 months to establish that it does not harm them. In a subsequent phase 2 trial, which is designed to find out if the treatment is effective, volunteers will receive the treatment and then be challenged with foods containing gluten. Their immune response and intestines will then be examined to see if a tolerance to gluten has developed. The therapy involves repeatedly injecting solutions of gluten at increasing concentrations. The aim is to desensitize the subjects slowly, in a similar way to hay fever and dust allergy desensitization treatments.”

Testing process

“For a new drug to be accepted for use in people in Australia, Europe, or North America it must have progressed successfully from Phase 1 (safety) studies usually involving up to about 30 volunteers, to Phase 2 (efficacy) studies to show that “it works” in people with the medical condition of interest (typically about 200 volunteers in several locations around the world), and to Phase 3 (similar to Phase 2 but involving several thousand volunteers in many sites around the world).”

The celiac vaccine future

Due to difficulties in funding, Bob Anderson (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute) co-founded a commercial company called Nexpep to develop the vaccine. Nucleus Network, Centre for Clinical Studies (CCS) in the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, will be conducting the Phase 1 clinical trial.

The difficulty he has faced, besides the technical issues, is the low diagnosis level of celiac disease and the mass of associated symptoms has made a vaccine cure unattractive to traditional pharmaceutical companies. These companies always prefer well defined markets to accurately forecast payback periods for their R&D and marketing expenses.

The facts are that for this vaccine to prove financially viable, The US will need to approve the drug and doctors and celiacs will need to accept the treatment. One report estimates that only 600,000 people are diagnosed with celiac disease (out of the 5 million with celiac disease in North America and Europe). Â

Compounded to the funding challenges is that previously, globally, there have only been three “randomized, controlled” studies of the gluten free diet – one in children and two in adults – the largest with 57 participants.”

The assessment of the vaccine treatment will require repeated endoscopy and collection of small intestine biopsies which are expensive and un-enjoyable for volunteers. However a recent trial in Italy has shown that biopsies are still the only â??almost’ guaranteed method of assessing gluten damage. The study findings showed that “two years after adopting a gluten free diet, about half those people diagnosed with celiac disease continued to have villous atrophy as severe as when they were first diagnosed. Only about one in five of those with severe intestinal damage (villous atrophy) on a gluten free diet had raised (abnormal) blood levels of transglutaminase antibody, meaning that standard blood tests to monitor disease activity were relatively ineffective.”

So while the development of this vaccine is an important step in potentially eradicating celiac disease, philosophical questions still remain as issues for the long term efficacy of the vaccines. As an Australian first, this research is applauded by the gluten free community. We wish the researchers and medical staff all of the best in demystifying this illusive disease.

Article references are available on the gluten free pages website.Â

Health Warning: Belief happens when someone makes you believe something. But What if they were wrong? And even worse, what if they know they were wrong?

“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.” Herophilus

“If you eat all your greens up you will grow up big and strong.”

Does that sound familiar?

It should! It is what I heard when I was younger and it is most likely what you heard at some point too.

But long gone are the lessons that we learnt from our mothers and fathers. We now have a new mother and father and they are called:

THE MEDIA

The Media has consistently groomed us since we were little kids and we have unwisely followed every one of their steps and lessons by the book!

But is what they told us right?

That all depends upon whom it is right for! It is definitely not right for us, so it must be for the people who are making all of the money. Any guesses who?

For years we have followed fad diet after fad diet in the attempt to get healthy.

“Just go on this diet and you will feel better than ever” rings out from every advertisement.

You have heard it all before and fallen for it time after time.

So many lies infest our minds that we do not know which ones are true or false. That is why I am here to help you find your way through the myriad of lies and find the truth that is going to help you defeat your illness.

Just take a look at some of the lies that we are stupid enough to fall for:

“Prescription drugs will make you healthier.”

They do not make you better. Get this simple lesson into your head: they suppress the symptoms and only make illness worse in the long run.

“The U.S. health care system is the best in the world.”

The health of U.S. citizens is declining rapidly. U.S Citizens pay double, triple, and even quadruple the price for prescription drugs than any other country.

“You can get all the nutrition you need from three balanced meals a day.”

Again, believe it if you want to. In fact, today’s foods are nutrient depleted, and they come from depleted soils. They are also processed and manufactured which kills almost all the nutrients. Which in turn is absolutely no good for the body.

Not to say that all is wrong, they do have the right ideas about the balancing of the food we eat. The human body needs food that indeed balances, but unfortunately the food we are eating today certainly does not provide the necessary ingredients for a balanced life. The human race is in for a rude awakening very soon, but that won’t save the people who don’t get off their butts and do something about it.

We Have Used the Wrong Ingredients and this has unbalanced our health scales.

Which side of the scales are you on? I needn’t be a psychic to find this one out.

For as far back as I can remember, people have been saying:

“You need to have a healthy Balance”.

Listen up; this could be one of the most important things you will ever hear. You are living out of balance, hell so many people today are living out of balance, and as I do hope you can figure, this is not the best way to live.

What you don’t know about your health is hugely affecting how your life is and what it will eventually become.

? Our Body functions are a mystery to us, we are not told a thing!
? We are not told what we need to live and have a vibrantly healthy life, even a normal life!
? And we are not taught about the little intricacies that are within us, which we should be looking after.

Your Body has to perform millions of complex functions every moment in order for it to survive.

The Clock & You

Try to imagine that your body is a clock. Everything within the Clock needs to work in harmony for it to run smoothly and for it to tell the correct time. That is exactly the same for the Human Body. If things are not running smoothly, this is when the trouble starts.

Your body operates on an electro magnetic current. A fine balance that exists in your biochemistry creates electrical power in your body.

This electrical power within your body depends on your blood stream to make it function properly. So, you can imagine what happens when your blood is out of balance.

Our blood stream relies on the balance of its pH Level.

When we have imbalance in our bodies we start to show signs of disease, which could include the following symptoms:

Low energy,
Fatigue,
Poor digestion,
Excess weight,
Foggy thinking,
Aches and pains,
As well as major disorders.

What you have to do is bring all the good things back into your life, and with my help & The Health Warrior Way we certainly will.

Say goodbye to disease, and hello to:

Health
Energy,
Clear thinking,
Smooth operation of all body systems,
Clear, bright eyes and skin,
And a lean, trim body.

Everywhere I look I can see that people are out of balance. I for one was tired, fat, ill, feeling old before my time, and I always told myself, that was my life. That was what nature had intended. But nature didn’t, and I learnt that. I got off my lazy ass and did something about it. I wasn’t always The Health Warrior.

I can almost guarantee, that you know at least one person who is suffering from one of the top three Killers in the United States-Heart Disease, Cancer, or Diabetes.

Just look at the shocking statistics, this will be you, this will be your kids and this will be the whole planet if we don’t get off our lazy fat guzzling asses and do something about it.

1/2 of the population will die from Heart Disease or Diabetes &
1/3 will die from Cancer.

Do you want this? Hell, do you want your kids to have this?

Well this is it, but the absolutely mammoth news to get into your head is that….

…..These 3 KILLERS are Preventable and Reversible, each one of them being a direct result of poor diet and nutrition. So Simple, But yet so far away from most sufferers.

If you eat the proper foods and get the best nutrients, in balance, this will help you avoid illness, together with the pain and horrific quality of life that so often we are stuck with before our demise, sometimes by decades.

You don’t want that, I don’t want that for you, that’s why I’m trying to get this simple but powerful message across.

Even mainstream medicine agrees:

“Foods contain nutrients essential for normal metabolic function, and when problems arise, they result from imbalances in nutrient intake and from harmful interaction with other factors.”

According to the 1988 Surgeon General’s Report on Health and Nutrition, this is related to:
“What we EAT”

Since this report, people have stupidly made attempts to follow one diet craze after another. They are killing themselves. This is not only an attempt to drop excess weight, but also as a way to find their way back to good health. However,

“We (as a country) are now fatter than ever. And we’re certainly no healthier.”

The problem is that while diet and nutrition is the key to a healthy weight, overall health and well being, it simply must be a diet that properly balances our body chemistry.

The diet trends and crazes that have swept over the nation in recent years only cause more damage to us by making our bodies more out of balance than ever. Get this into your head… These useless diets Are Killing You!

Diets, which are hugely popular, including the “Popular Celeb” diets, Health regimes, low-fat diets, the food pyramid, and vegetarianism all create wildly imbalanced body chemistry. And this is completely messing up the human body.

Even if one way of eating does get rid of extra pounds (usually temporarily), lower cholesterol levels and lessen digestive trouble for some people, it does not fulfil the promise of simple good health.

A good thing for you to do is to FORGET what you have heard in the doctors’ office and diet books about your health! Forget it all, start from new, can’t you see that what you thought you knew is a load of rubbish.

Have YOU ever heard your doctor talk about YOUR pH when you have gone for a check-up?

The single most important measurement to your health is the pH of your blood and tissues. By keeping this in BALANCE, you will keep yourself HEALTHY!!!

It’s not that simple when we live in a toxic world and the food we eat has been all but destroyed.

Disclaimer

The author of this material believes in a natural, no drug approach to creating vibrant health, energy and vitality throughout life. A main part of his views are placed on promoting and maintaining the perfect balance within the human body. The author realizes that within medical and scientific fields there are widely differing opinions and attitudes. This material is written for the sole purpose of sharing educational information and scientific research gathered from the studies and experiences of healthcare professionals, scientists, nutritionists, informed health advocates and the author. The information contained in this eBook is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to constitute medical practice nor medical advice. It is not intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease, nor is it intended to prescribe any of the techniques, materials or concepts presented as a form of treatment for any illness or medical condition. Please, before beginning any practice relating to health, diet or exercise consult a suitably licensed & qualified physician, medical practitioner or healthcare provider about the appropriateness of any opinions or recommendations in regard to what symptoms you have or your own medical state. Should you choose to make use of the information contained herein without first consulting a health care professional, you are prescribing for yourself, which is your natural right. However, the author assumes no responsibility for which choices you choose to make after your review of the information contained herein and your consultation with a licensed healthcare professional.

None of the statements in this article or in the book have been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), or the American Medical Association (AMA).

Everyone is aware that sugar causes cavities, makes their children hyper, induces cravings and will eventually make you crash. Unfortunately, sugar is so pervasive in our food supply that most of the time we don’t realize that we are eating it. And for that reason we are relatively unaware of the degree to which sugar can affect our health. Sugar has been linked in studies posted in well-known medical journals to everything from depression to arthritis. There is even empirical evidence that sugar may be a contributing factor to the growth of cancerous tumors.

The following case studies represent the effects of sugar on our lives and our health:

Case Study #1

Patient: Female in her mid-forties.

Symptoms: Complains of aching joints during movement or exercise.

What she tried: Anti-inflammatory drugs.

What resulted: Minimal decrease in joint pain.

Alternative approach: A Naturopathic physician had the client eliminate sugar and grains from her diet; supplementation of fish oil.

What resulted: Complete alleviation of presented symptoms; elimination of abdominal bloating.

Case Study #2

Patient: 10 year old boy

Symptoms: Hyperactivity/ADD/ADHD traits

What they tried: Ritalin

What resulted: Temporary decrease in symptoms; dependency on drug to maintain behavior

Alternative approach: A Naturopathic physician had the patient eliminate sugar and white flour to balance blood sugar; supplementation of magnesium and calcium to correct deficiencies; introduction of healthy bacteria to correct intestinal dysbiosis from previous use of antibiotics

What resulted: Behavior showed improvements immediately and continued to improve with diligent attention to diet and loving care.

That has sugar in it?

To reiterate the point, the number of processed foods that food manufacturers manage to stick some form of sugar in is astounding. Take a look at this list of commonly consumed foods and their % of sugar content:

Wrigley’s Spearmint Chewing Gum

•62.8% sugar

Pillsbury Instant Breakfast

•47.5% sugar

Heinz Sweet Gherkins

•21.9% sugar

St. Joseph Cough Syrup

•40.6% sugar

Heinz Tomato Ketchup

•28.9% sugar

Hamburger Helper

•23% sugar

Shake n Bake Barbecue

•50.9% sugar

Mostly due to lack of awareness many people don’t pay attention to the ingredients in their foods. And also due to lack of awareness people don’t notice the immediate physical effects of sugar in their food. The immediate effects of sugar on the body are noticeable and your body does send you signals but it’s difficult to read them when the body is flooded with food additives, trans fatty acids and other unrecognizable chemical compounds. For instance, that headache that you had last night may very well have been a signal from your body that the Weight Watcher’s® Boston Crème Pie was not the right thing to eat.  It is very important to start to listen to these signals from your body in order to get your health on track. The long-term effects may be much more alarming and eye opening than the short-term signals. The following diseases have been linked to the consumption of sugar:

·       Diabetes

·       Kidney Disease

·       Liver Disease

·       Atherosclerosis

·       ADD

·       Candida Albicans

·       Osteoporosis

·       Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

·       Colon Cancer

·       Diseases of malnutrition

It should be clear at this point that sugar’s negative effects are much more far reaching than most believe it to be. It’s not just about the fact that you might get a cavity or you might need a nap after the bowl of ice cream. It is about your health and your family’s health. The short term satisfaction of eating something sweet seems insignificant when you realize that ten or twenty years from now you could suffer from a serious medical condition that could have been prevented by better choices. And since you always do have a choice, the following are some choices that you can make to dramatically influence your health tomorrow and years beyond.

Instead of CHOCOLATE

•Raw Nuts

•Seeds and Fruits

Instead of WHITE BREAD or WHITE RICE

•Sprouted grain breads

•Wild or Brown Rice

Instead of Processed CEREAL

•Raw Steel-cut Oats

Instead of MANGOS or PAPAYAS

•Green Apple

Instead of CANDY or DESSERT

•Sweet Potato

•Butternut Squash

(Choose organic meats and produce when possible because nutrient deficiencies often contribute to sweet cravings; organic produce contains far greater quantities of important nutrients such as Magnesium and Calcium)

*Disclaimer: The preceding is intended to inform as to the effects of sugar in a persons diet. Always consult a physician if you have a medical condition or if you want to make any changes to your diet. This information does not necessarily represent the opinion of Own Health and is not intended to be medical advice.

How can you expect a child to recover from disease, become and stay vibrantly well by just taking a course of antibiotics or medicines? Often, relief from the symptoms is seen but this is followed by substandard health, which is the opposite of vitality, and many times the disease will re-occur again. I commonly see children that have had three, four and more repeat prescriptions of antibiotics for the same condition in the same season.

This is not only unhealthy for the child and a statement as to the effectiveness of ‘the method’ of modern medicine in this application, but is also really a reflection that the parent is out of control of their child’s health. It reveals a deficiency in the method of medical disease care in the modern society. It also reveals that ‘preventative medicine’, which I call ‘lifestyle education’, is not being practiced by the parents in relation to their children. In my experience I have seen very little evidence of parents being educated as to how to create healthy robust children.

Very often I see children after they have been treated by many courses of medicines designed to remove symptoms and not causes. The result is these children are, without exception, run down and unhealthy. And this is not because of their original condition. It is because of all the strong drugs used to ‘fight the disease.’ No wonder the problem keeps coming back! Often the symptoms may change and become more deep-seated and chronic and then taking on a new name with different but related symptoms.

According to the press, in southeast Queensland, more medications such as antibiotics are prescribed than any other place on the earth. Antibiotics are in most cases routinely prescribed for most ear, nose, throat and bronchial problems. The prescriptions are often written so that they can be repeated many times. This is not only unsuccessful, it’s also unhealthy and thus is not a wise choice of the method of treatment. The effects of strong medications are harmful to the body. Particularly new, young, developing bodies and minds, as you will shortly see.

“Australians are prescribed more antibiotics per head than any other western nation. Their widespread over-use may also contribute to the growing problem of bacteria developing resistance to the drugs,” reports Dr Christopher Del Mar, in his research paper published in the Australian Medical Journal 1992: “We are at the top of the league in prescribing, yet there is no demonstrated benefit.”

“Side effects of antibiotics include rashes, thrush, and possible allergic and fatal reactions. Antibiotic sales have doubled since the mid 80S.” (The Bulletin with Newsweek, April 1994.)

There are more adverse side effects of antibiotics than these cited in Newsweek. One significant side effect of allowing you child to have repeated courses of antibiotics is that of slowing down the development of your child. This is a very serious side effect and warns against their value of this form of treatment for your child.

“The difference in the occurrence of developmental delays between children who take high doses of antibiotics and those who don’t is outstanding,” says a co-founder of the US Developmental Delay Registry.

In a survey including children aged between 1 and 12 years of age, it was found that those who had taken more than 20 courses of antibiotics are over 50% more likely to suffer developmental delays. Children who had three or fewer courses of antibiotics were half as likely to become developmentally delayed. A nutritionist with the Registry cautions:

“Parents should be put on notice that utilizing antibiotics as a prophylactic could jeopardize their children’s development. We believe alternative approaches to treating ear infections should be considered.” (The New Vegetarian and Natural Health, Autumn 2000.)

It is an unhealthy and serious problem. More and more medicines are being prescribed every year and to what effect? According to the reports, this form of wide spread over-prescribing is doing no good at all. A common example of prescribing medicines to treat the symptoms of disease and not the cause is in the case of the condition known as asthma.

What is the result if this method of treatment and ‘medicine mentality’ continues? The child has a very good chance of remaining on this medication for the rest of its restricted life. This is an example of the tragic situation of what is happening to our children in this and most modern countries. This is not only because the medicines are not removing the cause, but also because parents are not taught to consider the cause of the disease and take an active role of prevention and building health in their children. Permanent medication is a danger to the long-term health of the individual taking it.

Taking permanent medication has four main dangers:
• The body is adaptive and can become ‘more reliant’ on the medication.

• The body becomes more encumbered, unhealthy and reactive to new chemicals in foods and the environment because the cause has not been removed.

• The toxic side effects of the medicine over years of consuming it have a negative effect on the liver, kidneys other internal organs including the brain and its function!

Lastly and very importantly, taking medicines on a permanent basis will give a ‘false sense of security’ because it removes or, at least reduces and to an extent controls the annoying symptoms (which are the body’s warning signs that something is wrong). This is extremely dangerous as the following story reveals.

I have a newspaper report of a 29-year-old nurse. She had suffered from asthma all her life and was on medication for it. One weekend she went to Brisbane (72 km away from the Gold Coast) for the weekend and forgot to take her medication. While there she went to a party and had some foods and drink that brought on an asthma attack. With no medication handy, she suffocated and died because she could not breathe!

My question is this: Was the medical ‘drug’ treatment she had followed all her life successful? NO! The treatment all those years was only suppressing (hiding) the symptoms and the underlying cause was never considered exposed and removed! Because of this, it was only a matter of the combination of the wrong conditions to be present for the person get into trouble.

This is what is happening all over Australia and the modern world because people are brought up not to think but to foilov along what everybody else does and not asking the golden questions, “it is causing this condition?” and” How can we remove the cause and overcome it completely!” And if you are not satisfied with the anwers. Seek out another opinion from an alternate source!

That’s what you need. That’s what you’re paying for your children’s! And that’s what you demand!