5″ Grain Belly Then Some!

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Grains anyone?

I have never ever given this a thought. I ate bread and grains all my life and never ever thought of opening any book about grain like the Grain Brain by Dr. David Perlmutter or the Wheat Belly Total Health by William Davis, MD but that has changed. The change came in 2 steps and only the second step connects to these two books.

The first step was that as a migraineur, if you read my book, you know that carbs disrupt electrolytes and simple flour breads are high in carbs so I switched to Ezekiel, which is a terrific bread! Not as high in carbs as other breads since it is from sprouted grains and legumes, like lentils. It is also rich in fiber with lower glycemic index (GI) than other breads so I thought I am doing great by switching but otherwise retaining my old habits.

Not so fast, said my body, and decided that while this bread is certainly healthier, it is still grains! I was still clueless at this point so I purchased Farro and Bulgur and Couscous. All three are high wheat (read gluten) foods though they are high in fiber and protein so I thought they were super foods (they in fact are considered as such) and cooked up a batch only to end up running for a Benadryl from starting to have my throat close up. I first tried Farro and so that was out. Next (still clueless) I cooked Bulgur (and Indian wheat version of even higher fiber and protein) and ran straight for a Benadryl. Then I ate Couscous that at first was just fine. It was Israeli Couscous with mushrooms and I had no problems. Later I purchased plain Couscous to flavor it myself and again, throat was tightening from 10 little grains of it on a fork.

This time though I did not take Benadryl albeit had it in my hand. I wanted to know if it was truly an allergy or just an irritation. Sure enough, after drinking some cold water and milk, the swelling went down. So it is not an allergy but what the heck is it? I asked for a blood test to check for food allergy and while waiting for the results, I went on a grain free diet and purchased the above mentioned two books.

I was 5 days into my grain free diet when my hubby said “it looks like your body is changing shape” but since my weight was the same I did not notice. The tape measure was used next that showed I lost 4 inches of belly! I found that amazing and started to spread the news among friends and my migraine group. Then the 7th day came about and I wanted to see if the 4 inches still stood or was that an accident and wow: 5 inches are gone!!!

Allergy or Inflammation Caused Resentment by the Body?

In the meantime my blood test came back completely negative, showing no allergies to gluten at all. It is interesting how much belly can be dropped from something you have no allergies to! If not allergic, it must be that wheat does something else: inflammation. Inflammation can give you close to allergic reaction if it passes a threshold and I suppose I reached that point!

So does it matter if I am allergic to gluten or not? I absolutely don’t care!!! Grains will no longer touch my lips! Ever! Because as a migraineur we are sensitive to carbs. Maintaining a low carbs level is important. Now imagine also that if I lost 5 inches of belly on my waistline, how much inflammation have I lost in my brain? Probably a ton! And how much carbs have I also not eaten by not gaining back the 5 inches of belly? Great migraine foods start with carbs cutting.

My recommendation: stop eating breads and pastas–do not go gluten-free and eat GF breads and pastas because they are made from higher carbs non-grains like corn or rice. Instead, grab two slices of cheese and make a sandwich from the cheese (no bread) if you are a sandwich person or eat food without any need for bread or pastas!

Comments are welcome, as always!

Angela

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In the Jungles of Panama: Sugar is Not Permitted!

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Sugar – the Disguised Drug of Pleasure that Future Illnesses are Made Of

I received a most amazing message from one of my migraine sufferers that I want to share because I found it so amazing and it underlies our clueless doctors society where sugar is pushed down our throats so that we can get sick and make everyone rich at our expense!

The message:

Hello Dr. Stanton This week I had the opportunity to visit an Embera Indian village in the jungle of Panama. It is fairly remote, accessible only by canoe. The Medicine Man, after taking us on a hike where he pointed out the various plants he uses, told us that before he will attempt to treat anyone they must agree to give up all sugar. I thought you would find this primitive wisdom interesting.

Cheers PL (name kept for privacy)

Well let me ask you this: Don’t you find this amazing that a “primitive wisdom” of no formal Westernized education is of higher quality in terms of nutrition than the wisdom of billions of educated people on the planet? So America: Stop all added sweets that include all sugars (honey and maple syrup as well!) and all sugar substitutes (that includes Stevia and Agave as well!). Stop all sweet!

It may just do the following:

  1. reverse diabetes 2 if you already have it
  2. reverse hypoglycemia (pre-diabetes)
  3. reverse high cholesterol
  4. reverse heart disease or at least halt its progression to heart attack
  5. reverse your chances for stroke
  6. reverse your fatty liver
  7. reverse your metabolic syndrome
  8. reverse obesity
  9. reverse some types of headaches
  10. reverse some forms of depression
  11. reverse some forms of phantom mental disorders such as ADD/ADHD
  12. increase your strength – even for athletic performance

This is a short list of things that can happen when you stop sweeteners. Food for thought (and health)!

Enjoy your sweetener free day!!

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Banana Detox? Oh My! Run That By Me Again Please!

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Recently I see “banana detox” ads going around on Facebook and elsewhere! Before you believe this and go after doing something like this, you need to know the following important fact: Your body already has a detox machine. It is called: liver. If you want to detox, stop eating the things that are bad for your liver!

What is a Banana?

An average sized banana is 27 grams of carbs, from which 3 grams is fiber, so 24 grams of the remaining carbs turn into sugar in your body. 24 grams of sugar is 6 teaspoons of table sugar. A large part of this sugar in a banana (about 50%) is fructose. Fructose is not ever going to become glucose in the body for energy use. Rather fructose first turns into alcohol. It becomes ethanol. As you know, ethanol is the fuel additive we have in our fuel tanks mixed with gasoline to improve performance. Feeding your car engine with bananas may be better for you than to eat many yourself.

Alcohol is the worst possible thing you can give to your liver. Alcohol consumption in large amounts causes alcoholic fatty liver disease. Going on a banana detox can land your liver in a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Not exactly detoxing, is it?

Potassium: The Good

Now there are good things about a banana too. It has around 420 mg of potassium and potassium is great. We need potassium for healthy life, for the voltage assist with salt in our brain, heart and muscles, and to reduce water from within cells (not edema that is water in between cells). Potassium is a diuretic so eating much of it will remove enough water from your cells to reduce your blood pressure because the volume of your blood will be less—not that your blood pressure improved in any way otherwise permanently.

Potassium: The Bad

Potassium, however, has a problem associated with it. In a Petri dish, potassium can ignite a seizure1. This makes sense for several reasons. Since potassium is a diuretic and thus it reduces water from your cells, if taken to the extreme, as in banana detox, it can literally collapse a cell. Where does it collapse cells? Everywhere in your body but obviously the ones that collapse first are those used most: brain and heart. A collapsed cell can do nothing. It is void of fluids and nutrients.

Potassium is also used for the inmates’ execution on death row. Not in the form of banana, of course, but I suppose you get my message: everything in large proportion outside of the range of normal is not good.

Detoxing: The Truth

Not only are there no health benefits but there are dangers associated with any detox, especially those advertised as juicing or the banana detox or any other kind.

Assume you have your own orchard full of fruit trees and you just picked the tastiest fruits you could find. Now you place them in the juicer or the blender to make a juice, a smoothie or a shake. Anything you do other than eat the fruits whole, separates the sugar from the insoluble fiber of the fruit and what you end up drinking is pure 100% sugar-water with a little fruit taste and color2. The same also goes for vegetable juices, shakes, and smoothies: all pure sugar-water.

There is also the problem of the liver and what it does or does not like. Sugar is one of the things your liver really does not like! It is a ton of work to convert the glucose of the sugar into fuel for the brain and body, for which insulin is spiked of course. Eating only banana and a lot of it means a lot of glucose will hit your brain. You will first end up in a euphoric high and then after in a very steep sugar crash.

A sugar crash that falls onto people who know nothing about it can end in fatality.

The second half of the sugar from such banana or juicing detox is fructose. As noted earlier, fructose does not add to our energy but converts to ethanol in the liver, making the liver sick. Plus after your liver finally managed to convert the alcohol with great trouble, it converts it to the type of fats that are responsible for clogging up your arteries and increasing triglycerides, the sticky cholesterol in your LDL—the worst of your bad cholesterol.

Sugar eaten without fiber is equivalent to sugar eaten by the spoon. Sugar is the guilty one in causing high blood pressure and not salt3-12. So at the end of your detoxing, be it banana detox or juicing detox, you may end up with sick liver, high levels of bad cholesterol, hypertension, and a very bad heart.

So is detoxing a scam? You bet! Are you gullible for such a scam? At least now I can say: I told you so! You can now make an educated decision!

So how do you detox your liver? Why would you? It does the detoxing for you! So keep your liver safe and healthy; it is one of the most important gems you have! Eat well: avoid sugar, avoid alcohol, and avoid a ton of protein all at once. If you treat your liver well, your body will be healthy and well. There is nothing to be detoxed!

Sources:

1          Wei, Y., Ullah, G. & Schiff, S. J. Unification of Neuronal Spikes, Seizures, and Spreading Depression. The Journal of Neuroscience, 11733-11743 (2014).

2          Robert H. Lustig M.D., M. S. L. Fat Chance; Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease.  (Penguin, 2012, 2013, 2014).

3          Nichols, H.     (2015).

4          Rodrigues, S. L. et al. High potassium intake blunts the effect of elevated sodium intake on blood pressure levels. Journal of the American Society of Hypertension 8, 232-238, doi:10.1016/j.jash.2014.01.001.

5          DiNicolantonio, J. J. & Lucan, S. C. The wrong white crystals: not salt but sugar as aetiological in hypertension and cardiometabolic disease. Open Heart 1, e000167, doi:10.1136/openhrt-2014-000167 (2014).

6          Roysommuti, S., Suwanich, A., Jirakulsomchok, D. & Wyss, J. M. Perinatal taurine depletion increases susceptibility to adult sugar-induced hypertension in rats. Advances in experimental medicine and biology 643, 123-133, doi:10.1007/978-0-387-75681-3_13 (2009).

7          Badar, V. A., Hiware, S. K., Shrivastava, M. P., Thawani, V. R. & Hardas, M. M. Comparison of nebivolol and atenolol on blood pressure, blood sugar, and lipid profile in patients of essential hypertension. Indian Journal of Pharmacology 43, 437-440, doi:10.4103/0253-7613.83117 (2011).

8          Sharma, N. et al. High-sugar diets increase cardiac dysfunction and mortality in hypertension compared to low-carbohydrate or high-starch diets. Journal of hypertension 26, 1402-1410, doi:10.1097/HJH.0b013e3283007dda (2008).

9          Kim, Y. H., Abris, G. P., Sung, M.-K. & Lee, J. E. Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Blood Pressure in the United States: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006. Clinical Nutrition Research 1, 85-93, doi:10.7762/cnr.2012.1.1.85 (2012).

10        Cohen, L., Curhan, G. & Forman, J. Association of Sweetened Beverage Intake with Incident Hypertension. Journal of General Internal Medicine 27, 1127-1134, doi:10.1007/s11606-012-2069-6 (2012).

11        Mirmiran, P., Yuzbashian, E., Asghari, G., Hosseinpour-Niazi, S. & Azizi, F. Consumption of sugar sweetened beverage is associated with incidence of metabolic syndrome in Tehranian children and adolescents. Nutrition & Metabolism 12, 25, doi:10.1186/s12986-015-0021-6 (2015).

12        Soleimani, M. & Alborzi, P. The Role of Salt in the Pathogenesis of Fructose-Induced Hypertension. International Journal of Nephrology 2011, 392708, doi:10.4061/2011/392708 (2011).

Your comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Drugs of Shame #1: Topamax and Its Dangers

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

PRESS RELEASE

Topamax: The Drug with 9 Lives

is published by HormonesMatter as part of my ongoing effort of awakening doctors and patients about the dangers we face when we take medicines. Doctors prescribe them in good will because they have little information about how the medicine works, what it interrupts. Based on my recent analysis of the many members in my migraine group about what medicines they take, most doctors do not have enough information about these drugs to see interactions or duplication.

My goal is to review each drug migraineurs and others are prescribed for pain that are not actually pain killers. These drugs change how the brain works. As a result of this change, your pain remains (if you are well enough to actually feel it) but your brain and body may suffer permanent damage.

Drugs of Shame Series #1

I chose Topamax as the first medicine of the Drugs of Shame Series because it is the #1 drug prescribed for migraineurs as a preventive.

In my migraine group, migraineurs learn how to prevent their migraines and once that is established, all members slowly stop Topamax. The ratio of members with migraine to Topomax prescription is about 50% at entry. The percentage of members remaining on Topomax for migraines after the use of the Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM is zero. This clearly shows that Topamax is not needed for migraine and, in fact, no medicine is needed for migraine.

To learn more, please send a note to me on Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM  website or at the comments below and I set you up with the program!

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Artificial sweeteners, Sugar alcohols, Novel, & Natural non-sugar sweeteners

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I have an article to post about aspartame but just so you know, this goes for all sugar substitutes and artificial sugars. According to Mayo Clinic, sugar substitutes are broken down into 4 groups:

  1. Artificial sweeteners (i.e. aspartame),
  2. Sugar alcohols (i.e. Xylitol),
  3. Novel sweeteners (i.e. Stevia), and
  4. Natural sweeteners (that are not sugar)(i.e. honey).

See the table below:

Sugar substitutes

Sugar substitutes

Of all of these, I want to talk about one class in particular: Artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweetener means: not sugar though it tastes sweet. You may recall some of your early history lessons: water and wine kept in led storage containers in ancient Roman and Greek times for a reason: led is sweet. It is not sugar but sure would make an awesome sugar substitute! We do not use it because of its weight obviously and because we have been able to identify it as a major toxin. This shows you a key point: not everything that tastes sweet can safely be used as a sugar substitute for human consumption!

Now let’s take a look at one of the sugar substitutes on the list: Aspartame. Aspartame is in many of our foods and drinks and as of late I even heard that it appeared under a new name in Japan (something cute for kids) but I do not have confirmation of that. Nonetheless I have some acquaintances who suffer from “Aspartame toxicity.” Go ahead and search for “Aspartame Toxicity” in any internet search engine and there is going to be a very high likelihood that 90% of the sites that pop up will call this a hoax toxicity. After all, it does not affect test rats and other non-human mammals, why would it affect humans?

General Mammalian Brains versus Human Brains

Of course we know that rat and other mammalian non-human brains are not as evolved as human brains but we tend not to give that a deeper though at a chemical level. Could that be that in addition to its size and lacking some features, may there be some additional difference between the two types of brains?

As it turns out there are many differences, some of which are evolutionarily very different from what you think, but also different in how the two types of brains metabolize certain energy and chemicals that enter the body. As you know, we have a blood brain barrier that few things can cross. Aspartame is one that does albeit not in the form of Aspartame but as formaldehyde after a few chemical changes that include conversion to methyl alcohol, aspartic acid, phelylalnine and then methanol.

There is a major biochemical problem here. Methyl alcohol is known now, and has been known since 1940, to be metabolized differently by humans from every other animal. (Dr. Woody Monte)

Aspartame is primarily made up of aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The phenylalanine has been synthetically modified to carry a methyl group, which provides the majority of the sweetness. That phenylalanine methyl bond, called a methyl ester, is very weak, which allows the methyl group on the phenylalanine to easily break off and form methanol…humans are the only mammals who are NOT equipped with a protective biological mechanism that breaks down methanol into harmless formic acid. This is why animal testing of aspartame does not fully apply to humans. (Dr. Mercola)

Formaldehyde: Aspartame in the brain!

In the human brain, aspartame becomes formaldehyde, a rather toxic chemical as you very well know if you have ever taken a biology class of dead bugs and organs that are kept floating in formaldehyde to prevent rotting… ‘nough said from what that is!

But what does formaldehyde do in the brain? Well for one thing, it prevents organic changes–hence we use it to preserve dead organic tissue to stay unchanged forever. So a chemical like that will do the same in the human body. It modifies the DNA in the human cells so it cannot change: namely methylation. Formaldehyde turns the protein production of the DNA off. This process may be reversed, according to Dr. Monte, using Ubiquinol (a CoQ10 formulation), and also by optimizing leptin and insulin signaling.

Aspartame or Being Floxed? Can they be treated the same way? 

To optimize leptin and insulin signaling, one has to actually follow the Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM, which is a totally coincidental finding. It is coincidental since the Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM is for migraines. One of the goals of that protocol is to reset the metabolic processes and to keep blood sugar and electrolyte as steady and stable as possible 24/7 no matter what a person eats or drinks. Thus using the Stanton Migraine ProtocolTM in combination with the recommended Ubiquinol may in fact reverse the negative effects of having damaged cellular DNA. This may also work for those who had been floxed! Fluoroquinolone drugs damage the mitochondrial DNA and not the human cellular DNA but it may just work! Try it!

Your comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Neurogenesis: Change Your Destiny in Life

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I just watched part of a TV program titled Brain Change on the local public TV station and while I only had the chance to watch 10 minutes, in that 10 minutes I learned 2 very important things that may be life savers for you:

Turn Off Your Chances for Switching on Undesired Genes

1) The doc explained how neurogenesis (new neuron growth) can totally modify your genetic predisposition and prevent the switches from turning on. We now know that we grow new neurons all through our lives so even at age 90 we still are able to grow new neurons! That means that any genetic condition that is in your family, you have the chance to modify as long as you know how to do it. Many of these genetic predispositions are highly possible to measurably change: diabetes 2, high BP, things like that. We are already able to reverse much of these kinds of conditions in the migraine group with the use of the Stanton Migraine Protocol so I suspect that if we get our children to eat/drink the “right way,” given that they have a 50% chance of inheriting genetic factors of predisposition from either parent, we may change their future “history” in terms of the diseases they will deal with if we give them what they need rather than what they want from an early life on.

Good Fats Are Really Good For You!

2) The second thing he mentioned was very interesting and true; I never thought about it in connection to anything: the brain is 70% fat. Thus low-fat foods are harmful for the brain. This is similar to the body, salt and water: over 70% of our body is salt water so not replenishing salt and water is harmful, as we found out in the migraine group. The replacement needs to be in the ratio that retains this brine at over 70% all the time. Brain fat is an interesting thought especially since we know that low-fat foods are higher in sugar as well, so while we already are avoiding sugar, we also really need to avoid low-fat.

We may find mental ability enhancement, and even dementia reduction, in those of us who move on to regular fat foods and even increase good fats–we are not talking about going out and eating pork and beef fat all day long but we are indeed talking about milk fat, butter, avocados, etc. Whether cholesterol is good or bad has already been debated for a few years since a longitudinal study (30 years and ongoing) of a senior center population showed that those who have higher than “normal” cholesterol and higher than “normal” BP in their senior years actually live longer and have healthier lives (According to AARP senior is at 50+). That study also disproved the theory of the white plaque connection to dementia… So far in the history of human science that particular study is the most valuable one since the same people who are being studied for life from the moment they enter the senior home, also volunteer their brain for research. They are examined twice a year so that the researchers and doctors can see what is what in life versus after death!

They found that some people who showed dementia in life had absolutely no white plaques (but they had thousands of mini strokes) and those who had a ton of white plaque actually had no dementia while alive at all–this shows that white plaque is not connected to dementia and all studies that base their research findings on that are wrong. They disproved a lot of scientifically mismanaged information so far and I am eagerly awaiting further results. The study is done by UCI if anyone is interested to follow.

For us it means that we need to work hard on changing our genetic predispositions that we can: stop eating sugar and sugar substitutes in every shape and form (discontinue the predisposition to metabolic syndrome of any kind) and start eating whole foods with fat and cholesterol (do not trash the egg yolk but eat the whole egg) as they naturally come. In other words, enjoy what your body can digest well without pain at full flavor!

Comments and questions are always welcome!

Angela

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How Pharmaceuticals Make Mountains of Money from Molehills of Illnesses!

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Nothing new here; we have always known it. It did not even surprise me to read in the Scientific American MIND about it. What surprised me is how comfortable the world is with this picture. So let me present the picture so you can see what I mean.

The Molehill

You see an advertisement on TV for a backache medicine. You really do not have any backache but suddenly you become more conscious of your body and you feel you can associate with the actor or actress pointing out to you what is available to treat that condition that you do not actually have… but you will after the commercial. It is quite similar to watching a food commercial during dinner time before you ate; you are much more likely to head out or order out one of the food types advertised. It works the same way with medicines.

One would think that it only works with over the counter medicines but actually it also works with prescription medicines as well. This is well demonstrated with a few sample medicines by the MIND article “RAISING AWARENESS OR DRUMMING UP SALES?” (For subscription only so you may not be able to see it all unless you buy the issue).

The article mentions medicines advertised by celebrities to bring more awareness. Big pharma does not sell to the public so they fund organizations that then push to doctors. So it is a below-the-belt sort of hit that is legal—for now. Let’s hope it will not be legal for long. I truly appreciate articles, such as the one in MIND, that bring serious issues to the surface for us all to see! Because we are blind! And blind we are.

We often laugh on a new drug being advertised and all the small prints and the legal disclaimers and make comments about when the next lawsuit is about to happen but… when it comes to us going to a doctor and if that doctors recommends that very same drug, will we refuse it? Nah… And that is the problem.

Here are some examples the article brings up about illnesses that are molehills often not even illnesses but are fake, as per the doctor who invented them, and yet they still sell drugs for those invented diseases and people are still taking them!

ADD/ADHD

One of these illnesses the article brings up is ADD/ADHD (now only called ADHD). Dr. Leon Eisenberg, the inventor of ADHD, admitted before his death that ADHD “is a prime example of a fictitious disease.” It is also interesting to note that

“ADHD was merely a theory developed by Eisenberg. It was never actually proven to exist as a verifiable disease, despite the fact that Eisenberg and many others profited handsomely from its widespread diagnosis. And modern psychiatry continues to profit as well, helping also to fill the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry by getting children addicted early to dangerous psychostimulant drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Adderall (amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts)” (found here)

In spite of the knowledge that it is a fake disease and Ritalin & Adderall are drugs that cause serious problems to the brain, particularly in the brains of children, this “disease” is listed in the MIND article as #1 of the most profitable fake diseases that people (and many doctors) buy into and believe. I run a migraine group on Facebook where my protocol is applied by over 1800 members at the moment; all learning how to prevent and get rid of their migraines without any medicines (yes you can!) and several members claim to have ADD/ADHD. I recall major arguments about the fact that this disease is an invented one and for my biggest amazement the people who take these unnecessary drugs are not possible to convince that they are not sick! In fact they all have high IQ and are likely having the problem of being different and smarter and unable to focus on boring tasks. That does not mean a drug is necessary! It means they need to do things that can elevate them to their level of abilities!

I may add that medicating ADHD falls under the discussion about “creativity.” Are we killing creativity in the name of bringing all people to average by these drugs so they fit into the society?

Social Anxiety

The second condition listed by MIND is Social Anxiety disorder. It is interesting to see how this condition was advertised to become an illness in people’s minds, one that needed medicinal help! Does it need help if people get anxious in crowds? Hell no! It is normal! Our hormonal makeups differ and some people do not enjoy the hormones released for self-preservation in larger crowds. It is a Darwinian evolutionary process to not trust strangers! Try trust in ape world! A stranger is a dead x-ape… Only humans adapted to trust large unrelated social groups of people but not everyone has an equal amount of trust! Does trust need to be medicated into people? Really? Trust is driven by the hormone oxytocin. Those with less oxytocin trust less. It is natural and there is nothing wrong with that.

Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS)

There are others illnesses discussed in MIND but there is one I specifically need to mention because it is part of the process that leads to migraine: restless legs syndrome (RLS). I know many people who have them—I was one of them. I never took medications for this since I understood it connected to something. I had other issues, which later I discovered all related to migraine. Collectively they are called prodromes.

The symptoms of prodrome vary but it usually includes the following: anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), RLS. There are hundreds of others but these are the most important. Migraine is a symptom of a brain in energy crisis (read Fighting the Migraine Epidemic to understand why). The energy crisis is the result of the hyper sensory organs migraineurs have [1, 2], the multiple sensory receptor connections in the brain [3], the constant state of alertness [4] and a variety of other factors that imply the following: migraine-brain is a unique brain equipped with an evolutionary advantage of more sensitive sensory organs. Thus when this brain picks up any signs of danger, the biological process of fight-or-flight kicks in. This brings with it anxiety (adrenaline to make the heart beat faster, more oxygen for muscles and lung), causes vomit and bowel emptiness (IBS) because non-essential body functions shut down. The extra energy helps the body run faster but we do not run in our office chairs (so we run in our sleep hence RLS). And so on, there are many additional symptoms all swept under “prodrome” or labeled as separate illnesses. They are not illnesses! They are essential survival skills that were extremely beneficial at one time. Migraine brain needs extra energy and not drugs.

Will any medicines ever help a migraine brain? Not a chance! All medicines today prescribed will join the “Wall of Shame” series I will start soon. For now understand one important thing: Medicines can only make money to pharmaceuticals if people buy them! Educate yourself! Stop buying them and understand your condition first!

As MIND said: ask your doctor about the outcome if you do not take the medicine! How many of you asked that questions before?

Additional Sources

  1. Schwedt, T.J., Multisensory Integration in Migraine. Curr Opin Neurol, 2013: p. 248-253.
  2. Strassman, A., S. Raymond, and R. Burstein, Sensitization of meningeal sensory neurons and the origin of headaches. Nature, 1996. 384: p. 560 – 564.
  3. Tso, A.R., et al., The anterior insula shows heightened interictal intrinsic connectivity in migraine without aura. Neurology, 2015: p. 1043-50.
  4. Liu, H., et al., Resting state brain activity in patients with migraine: a magnetoencephalography study, in The Journal of headache and Pain. 2015. p. 16-42.

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

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Levaquin, Cipro, & Avelox Lawsuit!

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Anyone ever got hurt (floxed) by Levaquin, Cipro, or Avelox, here is a lawsuit you can join.

How do you know if you were floxed?

Not everyone has the same symptoms but what these drugs share in common is that they destroy bacterial DNA. Great for the bacteria you want to get rid of but not so good for the bacteria that actually keeps you alive. One particular bacteria that we cannot survive without is the mitochondria in our cells. Every human cell has mitochondria. Their job is to convert whatever comes into the body to energy so we can function. Without mitochondria we are not alive.

These antibiotics, collectively fluoroquinolones or quinolones, all destroy bacterial DNA and they have caused damage to human mitochondrial DNA. Since mitochondria reproduces on its own in each cell, repair of the DNA is only possible by accidental mutation in synchronous mode in all damaged cells. Not likely… Not everyone got hurt from these drugs equally. The differences are not understood. But the primary adverse reactions of these antibiotics are:

  1. Torn Achilles tendon — these can also become what I call “jumping tendons” that is tendons that are looser than should be and pop left or right on your joints (painful!)
  2. Damage to the nerves of the eye that can cause blindness — partial or full
  3. Peripheral neuropathy — most common and most devastating. This is the case when your mitochondrial DNA is so damaged that the damage is irreversible. People with this version of the damage have committed suicide, here is one example for you but of course there are thousands more. We now also know that the Gulf War Syndrome is also peripheral neuropathy. This is nothing new by the way.
  4. There may even be a connection to these antibiotics causing type 2 diabetes.

I am one of the floxed ones with the torn Achilles and the jumping tendons so far but who knows, I may later come down with other problems. One of the biggest problems with taking these medicines is that any or all of the problems can hit you months after you stopped taking the medicine because the damage has to reach a threshold before it shows up.

At the same time, these medicines are held in high esteem by many doctors because as broad spectrum antibiotics, they can treat some illnesses that others cannot–I should say could, because bacterial resistance now made them quite useless in most cases!

I have a citizen petition against these drugs for almost a year now that the FDA responded to saying they cannot make a decision! Well lets help the FDA make a decision! Either post a comment on my petition (click on “comment now“) and/or apply to be part of the lawsuit. In either case the goal is the same: get these drugs off the market for common everyday prescription possibility! They can keep them for emergency use of life and death but for heaven’s sake, do not prescribe it for a urinary tract infection or a sinus infection! There are safer antibiotics for that!

Act now!!!

Comments are welcomed, as always!

Angela

Posted in Big Pharma, Drugs of Shame, FDA, Fibromyalgia, Must Read, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Let’s Get Active Against Sugar!

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

Since I talk so much about the negative effects of sugar, I would like to share an article with you that I received by email. The article has a “take action” button at the end, which is something I also just filled out so I copy-paste my quickly written letter here as well in case any of you are willing or able to send your message to the government on the decision of added sugar into our foods. Here is the letter I wrote on the form that you reach once you click the “Take Action” button (the Dear… and the Sincerely.. are automatically included so this is just the body):

Please note that the world brought people to be survivors of this planet without any added sugar. We understand that the sugar lobby pays for a lot of government expenditures and thus you are deeply loyal to them but should your loyalty go to the one who pays you in order to sell (sugar lobby) or the one who pays you to survive (we the people)!

I think you should know that while you certainly keep the sugar lobby happy, you are killing the very people who otherwise make it possible for you to stay in office.

I suppose the problem will eventually be solved since either we all get too sick to pay you as a result of our metabolic syndrome, in which case you will not have any pay from us only from the sugar lobby, or you will get too sick as a result of the same disease in which case we will have to discuss the matter with whoever replaced you.

In either case, if you have not noticed, the US population is suffering from your decision of the benefits of added sugar in our diets: diabetes 2, obesity, and fatty liver disease plus of course heart disease that salt is named responsible for but is in fact sugar. I am a scientist so I know!

Your decisions make sure that all who do not read labels with a magnifying glass get sick and cost trillions in healthcare, which of course you as the government will have to pay out of your other pocket. I wonder which pocket has more money in it: the one filled on one side with the money from the sugar lobbies or the other that you are spending for the medical coverage for those who are eligible for that payment via Medicare or other governmental aid for healthcare. Eventually this second pocket will empty faster than the first one can be filled and you will end up with a bunch of very sick people as a result of your decision today!

Please change your decision and for once consider the good of the people and not politics!”

I hope some of you will take the time and rebel against the sugar labeling guideline that is going to mislead everyone!

Your questions are always welcome!

Angela

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The FDA: Approving Treatments of Unfamiliarity

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Angela A Stanton, Ph.D.

I subscribe to the FDA updates by email on many subjects. Here is an email I received today:

FDA email on obesity device

FDA email on obesity device

It is hard to read since it is long but note the first paragraph last sentence: ” The device likely works by occupying space in the stomach, which may trigger feelings of fullness, or by other mechanisms that are not yet understood.”

Should the FDA approve a medical treatment it does not understand?

Should we not know how a device works before we are told it is safe to use? Is it safe? I have heard of other procedures where the lack of understanding made them fail–slipping of the band away from the place it originally was placed, for example, and several other types of injuries. Should these not be tested for some time in a proper laboratory setting as well as in life on volunteers before it is approved as a procedure? I can hardly wait to see the first lawsuits pop up!

But more importantly: should we not prevent obesity the first place?

Instead of preventing obesity, the FDA apparently supports its development and encourages even more people to become obese!  We know what causes obesity: added sugar into every single food items we eat proved and encouraged by the amazing number of enticing advertisements on TV, billboard, newspapers, junk mail, Internet, EVERYWHERE.

Have more sugar!

The FDA is now about to take this obesity encouragement a step further! We now have new FDA label proposal that will change labels to reflect the serving size of what people eat as opposed to what they should eat! Here is what the new label is recommending:

proposed serving size labeling

proposed serving size labeling

So if you now find 2 sizes of soft drinks, say a can of 12 oz and a bottle of 2 liters of the same thing side by side, both will say one serving! I think the FDA confuses selling size with serving size. As will the people who buy them! Today it is still clear that a serving size of sot drink is 8 oz or less but with the new label the serving size will reflect whatever is in the bottle. This provides encouragement and reinforcement to those who buy the larger serving size that it is approved to drink that much by the FDA so it is OK!

I think that we are heading into a very dangerous era where the FDA is beginning to look more and more like an agency serving those industries that lobby more feverishly at Congress. The FDA does not represent the people at all! It represents a disease industry whose business is to cause disease! It is to manage how sick you should get! Quite a turnaround from its original purpose to its final function!

I think the FDA needs a big overhaul! I also think that Congress should eat up their recommended serving sizes of an entire bucket of ice cream several times a day each day so each member gets a good chance to look from the inside what it is like to be obese and have diabetes! Perhaps then the serving sizes will reflect healthy reality–if there is in fact any health associated with eating sugar

Those of us outside are left for our own common sense–or educated guesses–to decide what is right or wrong for us to eat or drink and in what quantity!

Added sugar should be 0 (as in ZERO) grams for all. We do not need to eat sugar. Our bodies need to re-learn how to make blood-sugar by using insulin for conversion from complex carbs like fruits and vegetables. Learn how and what to eat from understanding food and not what the FDA recommends since clearly they are not serving our interests!

Comments are welcome as always!

Angela

Posted in Big Pharma, FDA, Healthcare, Interesting reading, Must Read, This & That, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments