Townsend Letter The Examiner of Alternative Medicine
Alternative Medicine Conference Calendar
Check recent tables of contents

From the Townsend Letter
October 2009

Dispatches from the Front Lines of Autism and Lyme Disease
by Mary Budinger

Search this site

 

Page 1, 2

Super Destructive Bugs
Dr. Wulfman sees that the idea of a variety of pathogens being responsible for a long list of illnesses is further defined by the notion that a few biotoxins have turned into superstars of destruction.

Dr. Klinghardt agrees, and underscores the importance of mold in the equation. "We all have molds – Candida, Aspergillus, et cetera," said Dr. Klinghardt. "Many of us were looking at mold years before the Lyme thing happened. The microbes that live in us symbiotically for tens of thousands of years are feeling under attack. This is what creating autism, symptoms of Lyme, the learning disabilities, ALA, Parkinson's, short-term memory loss, insomnia – it all goes back to a few biotoxins in us produced in unprecedented rates."

In the absence of fully understanding the hows and whys of infections, have we developed an erroneous construct of a multitude of diseases, each caused by a different pathogen? But what if one, or several, familiar pathogens are capable of unleashing a storm of symptoms?

Dr. Wulfman suggests we have a "perfect storm" of environmental factors that could account for this. "Never has there been the excess of sugars, never the level of toxins before," he said. "And there is a ubiquitous heavy metal load underneath this. We are weaker and less able to handle infection agents which leads to more chronic, low-grade infectious states."

Dr. Klinghardt pointed out that Borrelia infections have been around for thousands of years. "What is new is the behavior of the illness that is making us so sick."

Electrosmog
Evidence is building that one element of that "perfect storm" is daily bombardment of electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) to which we are exposed. Dr. Cowden points out that microwave illness is identical to chronic fatigue syndrome and autism. "Is this the smoking gun?" he asks.

There was common agreement that pathogens feed on electrosmog.

Bau-biologist Vicki Warren (Institute for Bau-Biologie & Ecology) spoke of two theories about that: "First, the microbials within the body think they are under attack and so they start proliferating and producing toxins. Second, our healthy cells also feel like they are under attack and also go into locking down and close their cells walls. Because the cells are not releasing the toxins, you get a free-radical buildup and DNR repair is disrupted. So the healthy cells die off early and the bad stuff grows rapidly – it's like a double whammy. This is the path for the development of tumors associated with cell phone usage. Johnny Cochran and his doctor were convinced cell phone use was the cause of his cancer."

For whatever reason, a number of the Lyme and autistic children are hypersensitive to electrosmog. It interferes with the body's own communication among its cells. Cells know when to divide by vibrating. "Brain cells, nerve cells, bone cells, all vibrate at different rates in order to communicate with one another," Warren explained. "Our bodies act like tuning forks. When you vibrate a tuning fork (external electrical influence), any tuning fork (like our body) in its vicinity will start vibrating at the same frequency or rate, and therefore will be confused as to how fast to grow."8

Increasingly, doctors and parents are finding that the best defense is to create a "sleeping sanctuary" so there is no bombardment at night when the body does the bulk of its detoxification and healing.9

"Electronics stimulate cortisol; no wonder we have no immune response," said Dr. Toby Watkinson of California.

Dr. Klinghardt shared an experience that gave him new respect for how EMF feeds mold. "I worked with the main mold researcher in Switzerland. He could measure the amount of mycotoxins produced on a daily basis. One culture we protected with a Faraday cage, the other we left in the room. Three weeks later, we measured. The protected culture had a low amount of mycotoxins. The unprotected had 600 times more mycotoxins. Molds are now exposed to unprecedented amounts of EMF."

GMOs
Another element gaining recog­nition for its contribution to immune system dysfunction is the rise of genetically modified (GM) foods.

Jeffrey Smith, best-selling author of Seeds of Deception and executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology, made the case. "No safety studies were ever done on GM foods," he said. "The FDA declared in 1992 that foods derived by these new methods do not differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way. Yet the process of insertion and cloning produces unexpected changes in the DNA. The RNA, proteins, phytochemicals and other natural compounds in plants are affected. The FlavrSavr tomato was the first GM food. They fed it to rats. The animals developed stomach lesions and died."

Smith believes that GM foods trigger a host of health issues, including leaky gut and allergies. "In Australia, they fed GM peas to mice and found they developed MCS [multiple chemical sensitivity]. Allergists know that the burden of a single immune reaction can easily spread to other foods. And an allergen is resistant to digestion. In the last 10 years, we've seen an epidemic of digestive and learning disorders. What we find today is people typically have multiple chronic illnesses. Autism, obesity, certain cancers have all been on the rise since GM foods have been introduced."  

European consumers have resisted GM foods more than have Americans. Smith says that this is because the American media have avoided the story. "The Brits decided to test GM safety and awarded the study to Dr. Arpad Pusztai. He looked at GM potatoes and found all kinds of abnormalities. When he presented his report, he was fired from his job and his 20-person research team was disbanded. In 1999, the gag order on Dr. Pusztai was lifted. Within 10 weeks after he was able to speak, the tipping point was reached, and the first announcement was made that a European company would not market GM foods. His data, subsequently published in Lancet, shows the process of GM is unstable. If Oprah Winfrey would speak of GMOs, it would be over in 60 seconds. GM foods are that vulnerable. Nine out of 10 Americans want GMOs labeled."

The LIA Foundation agreed to pass a resolution urging all doctors to prescribe a non-GMO diet to their patients.

Jeffrey Smith

Jeffrey Smith cautions us that we are playing genetic roulette when we eat genetically modified foods.

Nutritional Famine
The "Standard American Diet" is another contributor to immune-system dysfunction.

"Never has there been the excess of sugars, never the level of toxins before," said Dr. Wulfman. "Food and drink is the number one contributor to chronic disease that I see. A study this year out of Canada found 90% of the children deficient in omega-3s. A study last year shows Splenda reduced beneficial fecal flora. The primary source of calories consumed in USA today is GM corn syrup. Next is white flour. There is a nutritional famine going on."

He shared that many of his patients switched to gluten-free cereals, pancakes, pretzels, and cookies – but these are still nutrient-deficient foods. "The diet history of a gluten free child shows that there is no real food in it. You need complex, nutrient-dense, living food. Nutritional deficiency affects genetic expression for the individual and the next two generations of offspring. The most pronounced effects of persistent deficient diet are on the 3rd–4th generation. We are now in the 3rd–4th generations."

Science is confirming what our instincts should have told us all along: vitamins in nutrient-dense foodare good for us. Dr. Gordon pointed to a 2008 study that found that vitamins can reset DNA that is not working properly. It makes sense; vitamins have a major effect on enzymes.

Dr. Joseph Mercola of Chicago pointed out that for two decades, we have been running on fumes for vitamin D. "We are modern day cavemen," he said. "We don't get exposed to sun. A hundred years ago, sun exposure was much higher and skin cancer rates were much lower. Vitamin D is antimicrobial. It upregulates some 3000 genes that keep you healthy. Obese people need a lot more vitamin D, because toxins are held in fat cells."

Dr. Mercola summed up much of the nutritional famine from the consumers' point of view: "The vast majority of our culture has traded health for convenience."

The famous Pottenger cat studies of 900 cats over 10 years documented the effects of an unnatural diet on successive generations: adverse personality changes, hypothyroidism, and most of the degenerative diseases encountered in human medicine. The cats died out completely by the fourth generation. The changes that Pottenger observed in cats on the deficient diets paralleled the human degeneration that Dr. Weston Price found in tribes that had abandoned traditional diets

The Fix Is Detox
If the doctors at this conference were less enamored with testing, it is because experience reveals that the effort and money are often better spent on treatment. And detox is the place to start.

"You can never get a Lyme patient well unless you start with detoxification," said Dr. Klinghardt. "That is also true of all chronic diseases. I learned to look at the whole family. We detox, then address infection."

Dr. Gordon, recognized as a long-time leader in detox, advises that the first two elements of a simple detox are zeolite and silver. "Zeolite is a natural volcanic mineral. It will take out most known toxins. Zeolite is particularly good for removing mercury and other heavy metals, based on charged density. Zeolite grabs it and escorts it out. Good colloidal silver allows you to get Candida, MRSA, and other infectious microbes out of the body. People need to focus on lowering their total body burden of pathogens and toxins." Then you need lots of vitamin C, because when the body is destroying bacteria it becomes acidic. Vitamin C is also a great antioxidant.

Once you start to lower the pathogen level, you lower the inflammation level, and then the biofilms start to decrease. This creates a cascade of events in the right direction. "It doesn't happen overnight," Dr. Gordon reminds us. "We have a lot of toxins stored in us, and more come at us every day from every direction. We also need to focus on keeping the bad stuff out. Learning how to avoid GM foods and EMF is something we can all do, today. GM foods modify your intestinal flora, which sets the stage for tumors and other problems. No probiotic will overcome it. GM corn and soy puts a pesticide in the gut and it replicates."

Dr. Klinghardt said he has more recoveries by percentage than other practitioners he knows by simply addressing the issue of sleeping with EMFs.

"We are all hoping for the magic bullet, some pill, that will take us out of the morass of ill health," said Dr. Gordon. "But it's not going to happen. The level of toxins in the body correlates directly with the level of infections. If you go after the infections just with antimicrobials, the effort will fail. Toxins set the stage in the body for pathogens to multiply and become very destructive. You must go after the body burden of toxins through detoxification to stop the downward spiral."

In the mainstream world of medicine, detox is simply the beginning of recovery from a drug or alcohol addiction. But in the integrative health world, detoxification is the tool to turn around the epidemics of chronic disease fueled by chronic infections with their defensive biotoxins being produced inside us in unprecedented rates.

Mary Budinger
4546 E. Cortez St.
Phoenix, Arizona 85028
602-494-1999

Mary Budinger is an Emmy Award-winning journalist who writes for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Mary Budinger

Notes
1. Markert RJ, Haist SA, Hillson SD, et al. Comparative value of clinical information in making a diagnosis. MedGenMed. 2004;6(2). Available at: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1395780.
2. Xie Jianping, Li Yao, Yue Jun, et al. Exploring Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection-induced alterations in gene expression in macrophage by microarray hybridization. Sci China C Life Sci. 2003;46(4):337–347. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=15104245.
3. Haemer MA, Huang TT, Daniels SR. The effect of neurohormonal factors, epigenetic factors, and gut microbiota on risk of obesity. Prev Chron Dis. July 2009;6(3). Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/Pcd/issues/2009/jul/ 09_0011.htm.
4. Allergy Research Group. Dissolve biofilms with fibrinolytic enzymes: a novel approach to chronic infection in autism spectrum disorders. Focus. March 2009. Available at: http://www.allergyresearchgroup.com/Mar-2009-Focus-Newsletter-Biofilms-and-Fibrinolytic-Enzymes-sp-90.html.
5. Mah TF, O'Toole GA. Mechanisms of biofilm resistance to antimicrobial agents. Trends Microbiol. 2001;9:34–39.
6. Mah T F, Pitts B, Pellock B, Walker GC, Stewart P S, O'Toole GA. A genetic basis for Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm antibiotic resistance. Nature. 2003;426:306–310.
7. Patel R. Biofilms and antimicrobial resistance. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2005;437:41–47.
8. Oschman, James. Energy Medicine. London: Churchill Livingstone; 2000.
9. Wings of Eagles Healthy Living. Creating a sleeping sanctuary [Web page]. http://www.wehliving.org/sleeping_sanctuary.pdf.

Page 1, 2

Consult your doctor before using any of the treatments found within this site.

Subscriptions are available for Townsend Letter, the Examiner of Alternative Medicine magazine, which is published 10 times each year.

Search our pre-2001 archives for further information. Older issues of the printed magazine are also indexed for your convenience.
1983-2001 indices ; recent indices

Once you find the magazines you'd like to order, please use our convenient form, e-mail subscriptions@townsendletter.com, or call 360.385.6021 (PST).

Who are we? | New articles | Featured topics |
Tables of contents
| Subscriptions | Contact us | Links | Classifieds | Advertise | Alternative Medicine Conference Calendar | Search site | Archives |
EDTA Chelation Therapy | Home

© 1983-2009 Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients
All rights reserved.
Website by Sandy Hershelman Designs
August 28, 2010

Order back issues
Advertise with TLDP!

Visit our pre-2001 archives