TED'S ADVICE FOR FAMILY MEMBERS' MULTIPLE AILMENTS
Dear Ted:
First, thank you so much for all of your advice on earthclinic.com -- I've been coming back to the site again and again over the past year, trying to address a number of different issues for myself and my family members. While all of your suggestions have been extremely helpful, I have been getting a little bit overwhelmed by all of the different kinds of advice -- I've tried to organize it all but end up getting more and more confused about what I should prioritize, how much of what I should take, when, etc.
In addition, I've been trying to figure out how to help my parents, both of whom are older, and neither of whom are in great shape.
So apologies in advance -- I've been thinking about all this for a long time, so this will be quite a long email. If you don't have enough time to address all of it (or any of it) I totally understand -- but if you can only look at a little bit of it, please let me know what you would advise for my parents!
FATHER
My father (72) recently had a kidney transplant, and is now pre-diabetic because of all of the meds he's required to take to keep his immune system repressed. He continues to have high cholesterol, as well as high blood pressure. I'm pretty sure he's also got major liver issues (he's always grumpy!) and a chinese medicine doctor said also that his gall bladder was filled with sludge (something confirmed by later scans).
-- Is it safe to recommend for my father to try the alkalinizing remedies (e.g. baking soda, citric acid) and also take some sodium ascorbate? I'm concerned because I know when he had kidney failure, he had to severely restrict all sodium. If not, are there other alkalinizing remedies he could try?
-- I'm guessing that magnesium would be good for him as well. Is it okay for him to take magnesium citrate or magnesium chloride? (I've made magnesium chloride oil before, and generally put drops of it in alkalinizing remedies for myself, but wasn't sure if someone with less than totally functional kidney could handle that). Or perhaps would it be better for him to take magnesium transdermally?
-- Any other advice for supplements that he might be able to take? He sometimes has muscle cramps, especially in his hands, and he also sometimes still has muscle cramps at night...
MOTHER
My mom (70) has a bunch of different issues that are worrisome to me as well (though she always likes to say she has no problems at all!). One of the most disturbing to me is that she often has numbness in her legs (she falls quite a bit, though she's still active and working -- her doctor says that she is not diabetic, however). She also has pain in her head (scalp area), and often her ears (earlobes etc) are so sensitive that she can't even massage them (I'd heard that massaging the ears was good). She also has a weird white thing on her inside lower lip, kind of like a canker sore, that's been there for years, but apparently doesn't cause her any pain (the doctors say it's not a problem, I'm guessing because they have no idea what it is). She also has arthritis in her hands and legs (she used to play piano but hasn't been able to for many years). And most recently, she's had a weird discoloration around the bottom of her right eye -- it looks reddish, as if one of the stages of a bruise.
-- My guess for her was that I should try to address her alkalinity first, and perhaps the arthritis. Does this seem the best place to start? (using the recommendations you've posted on earthclinic of course!) In addition to baking soda, citric acid, and sodium ascorbate, I'm going to try to get her to take lecithin (she also has high blood pressure). I've also encouraged her to stop drinking coffee, and to try to get off of breads and gluten and dairy (except that she's discovered that she likes green tea with a spot of milk). I also gave her some potassium citrate capsules (apparently she's low in potassium).
-- Any other suggestions for supplements?
-- Do you think the discoloration around her eye might be some kind of mycoplasma? Should I try some of the things you suggested for that?
MYSELF
For myself, I've been diagnosed over the years with ovarian cysts, fibroids, blocked fallopian tubes, and adenomyosis/endometriosis. I was told two years ago by an IVF doctor that because of my fallopian tubes, I wouldn't be able to conceive unless I soldered off my fallopian tubes and had an artificial implant. Needless to say, I wasn't a fan of that particular option -- and in fact, using your alkalinizing remedies, and some other things you recommended (borax, chromium, occasional zinc and selenium) -- as well as extensive acupuncture -- I found out late last year that now one of my tubes is open! So there is some chance at least!
The biggest thing for me, though, is that I have a weird lump in the lower right side of my pelvis -- apparently, it's a super enlarged uterus, probably from adenomyosis. Every time I get my period, I can feel this area pulling painfully. This last period (just began yesterday) I thought I might be getting better -- or might even be pregnant, since i was on day 31 -- but then at night I got got terrible cramps. (However, after I took the citric acid + baking soda + sodium ascorbate + magnesium chloride + zinc I felt much better).
The main thing for me is that I would very much like to be able to have a kid (my husband and I are both only kids after our siblings died). I'm turning 40 this year in July, and I'm worried that unless I start being more organized about my health, the opportunity will go away. But I'm extremely reluctant to do surgery, or to take any standard meds (unless absolutely necessary!).
I've been trying to figure out what to do, but the problem is that I get so confused by all of the possible things to address that I end up not really doing a good job of staying on top of any of it (with the exception of the alkalinizing remedies, which I do more or less regularly, though with days off sometimes as well). (I've also been taking maca powder and some wild yam progesterone drops)
I've stockpiled a bunch of supplements etc. over this past year, trying to keep up with various recommendations you've made for various problems that I think I might have, but it would be wonderful if I could get some advice on how to start taking things in a more focussed way.
To give you a little bit more background:
I've taken some tests with a naturopathic doctor before, which found that I had super high levels of mercury (2x normal) and lead (3x normal) -- I did some EDTA suppository chelation with her, and those numbers went down somewhat (though that was a couple of years ago).
I also spent some time putting a weird paste (from Korean old fashioned medicine doctor) over my pelvic region -- it was a mix of Korean soybean paste and other herbs and seeds, kind of mucky, and used apparently for cancer. I'd put the paste on a cloth and place it over my pelvic region throughout the night. The result of this is that I got a bunch of huge welts or sores in the area that had been covered -- actually, they were kind of more like enormous zits, many of them white. Still, while using the pack, I felt MUCH better (even though it was painful at night -- the pack would sometimes burn) -- I lost weight, felt better, had problem free periods, etc.
Also, my lower pelvic region, which had previously always been cold, started to warm up.
Then I went to Japan and didn't drink enough fluids, started getting bad constipation, etc, and I think doing this paste application at the same time as I was having constipation didn't help. I felt like I wasn't getting better, so I stopped the paste pack (even though more zit-like things -- itchy now -- were still coming up). I still have scars from this incident -- more like discolored skin -- although it's been more than a year. Sometimes, right around my period, the areas where those scars still are get itchy, and are raised a little bit. (FYI, I tried some of the keloid scar remedies you mentioned, but they didn't seem to have much effect -- I don't really know if they're keloid scars, and plus, I probably didn't do any of those treatments long enough!)
I can also tell that right around my period, my liver gets all stuck up (I check to see if I have a weird taste in the back of my mouth in the morning). In general, my liver seems okay (no weird taste in the mouth) but in the past, I've had an enlarged liver, and also a cyst on my liver (according to ultrasounds) -- plus people who've massaged me say that my liver region seems to be very tight.
I noticed the lump in my lower right-hand side pelvic region (what one doctor said was probably adenomyosis in my uterine wall) AFTER I had done the paste/pack for about a month or two -- so I'm wondering if those two things are related somehow...
At any rate, any advice that you could give me about how and where to start with my issue (specifically with getting my body in shape so I can get pregnant! with a healthy baby! -- and hopefully in the process address some of these other issues!) would be very much appreciated.
Based on various recommendations of yours that I've read on earthclinic, I've stockpiled a number of supplements you suggested. Here is the list I now have on-hand (for both myself and my parents! and this is not even taking on my husband and father in law, both of whom have very round stomachs, acid reflux, and possible hypothyroidism!):
ACV
B5
Baking Soda
B Complex Capsules
Borax
Chromium Polynicotinate
Citric Acid
Clove Oil
Disodium EDTA (for photography I think)
D-Mannose Powder
Fulvic Acid (though I think it's for gardening)
Glycine
Inositol
Lecithin
Lugol's Iodine
Maca Powder
Magnesium Citrate
Magnesium Chloride
Manganese Picolinate
Potassium Citrate
Sodium Ascorbate
Sodium Thiosulfate/EDTA (it's combined)
Vitamin K2
Xylitol
Zinc Gluconate powder
Again, any help that you might be able to give in terms of possible protocols or even just recommendations on how to most effectively approach any of these issues (for my parents or myself) would be VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!
My apologies for taking up so much of your time with this lengthy email!
Best
Dear Anonymous,
Father:
A pre-diabetic, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, muscle cramps of the hands, and a liver sludge. First I have cured a lot of cases of diabetes ( I had to do that because one of the prerequisite for a cancer cure is the blood sugar). The best remedy I have found to get blood sugar to near normal, within an hour or two, is the beta carotene. It can sometimes get a blood sugar down from 160 mg/dL to around 100 in just one dose. The dosage I used is powdered beta carotene 1000 mg, three times a day before meal. This will prevent blood sugar from going up in most cases. It is always the fruits, sweets, chocolates, bakery product, wheat product, fried foods, olive oil, vegetable oils, for example that gets the blood sugar up. Wheat product contains certain protein that seem to damage to the pancreas, which leads to diabetes type 1. The second set is a longer term blood sugar reduction using the N Acetyl Cysteine, taken at 100-250 mg three times a day. These two can turn around blood sugar to near normal, but there is a catch. You can't use effervescent N acetyl Cysteine, since the pharmaceuticals adds iin aspartame as a sweetener, which leads to worsening diabetes. I don't know if U.S. has bitter gourd, a.k.a. bitter melon, bitter cucumber). By avoiding the foods mentioned will get blood sugar to normal in most cases within a week or two. I have got cancer patients whose blood sugar went from 255 to 120 in a matter of days. In Thailand, we have one green tea product that keeps adding fructose, which can easily get blood sugar up by 100 mg/dL, such as 150 to 250 mg/dL in a matter of a few hours. But by alkalization, beta carotene, N acetyl cysteine and avoiding the food mentioned, this should get them to satisfactory levels.
The alkalization remedy, the simplest I can make it is 1/4 teaspoon after meal, 30 minutes twice a day. This will help clear some of the liver issues as alkalinity is cleansing (most alkaline, has cleansing properties, it is this quality that makes soap and detergents it's cleansing properties.). The liver sludge may be cleared possibly with a coffee enema, being the most well known in the healing community. As for the popular vegetable juices and fruit drinks this has been taken as a failure in some cases. The alternative community didn't bother to observe that certain fruits are very high in fructose and can lead to higher blood sugar issues, which then leads to fatty liver, such as oranges, pineapples, longan, lychees, durian, etc.Should I used any juicing it is most important that this must NORMALIZE the blood sugar, my favorite number for blood sugar is 65-90 mg/dL, but it can be as high as 95, and it is MEASURED exactly one hour after consuming them.
If those above are observed, there is quite often weight loss. One other thing that may help the liver is to take some lysine, such as lysine, no calcium, no vegetable oils (except coconut oils) is taken at 1000 mg x 3 a day. These will lead quite often to clear skin as liver is more cleansed.
For me most westerners have intestinal absorption issue, quite often the long term exposure from wheat products leads to villi of the colons being smaller and limiting their absorption. So in practice most Westerners, except for Axians will respond very well to magnesium transdermally. It should be noted that muscle pain can be a circulation issue (such as sleeping on one side leads to less blood, causing muscle pain in the morning), tightness of the muscle due to lack of magnesium, so this can be applied to the area using magnesium oil. Thirdly we can use Lugol's iodine tincture applied to the area once or twice a day. Quite often the Lugol's usually reduces pain between 6 to 8 hours when applied to the area, such as joint pain after playing a soccer match. The fourth way is to use a DMSO solution and apply to the area. But this leads to itchy skin when applying DMSO. What I used is wash or alcohol clean the area, apply very lightly lavender oil to the skin, then use cotton swab to appy to the area. Some of my volunteer lab rats here, told me if Lugol's applied alone, or DMSO alone may work better without the mixture of either one. This depends on the person's biochemistry. Some respond to DMSO, and some we can alternate with a Lugol's. Once it is applied it is sometimes helpful, especially the tight muscle cramp to massage the area and stretch the muscles after such applications.
As for your father's kidney failure. The simplest cause of kidney failures are three things, acid urine (or alkaline urine), high blood sugar, or high blood pressure. That's just based on my observation. The fourth one, is less obvious, but amino acid imbalance, and excess protein, fat buildup and stones (usually from calcium). The remedy is obvious. Get the urine pH to 7. It can't be more neutral then that. To get more acid urine, use ascorbic acid. To get more alkaline urine, use baking soda. The target is around 6.5 to 7.3 pH and I am happy. Once the pH is neutral, the urine acidity wont' burn your kidney by acid burns or alkaline burns. Blood pressure is important, or the kidneys tiny blood vessels get damage. I do agree in taking blood pressure medicine, but I prefer a less obvious way. Quite often most people with blood sugar, has high blood pressure diabetic. This means a high blood pressure caused by diabetes. To get blood sugar normal, using N acetyl cysteine, beta carotene (there are studies to show that diabetes may also be caused by a pro vitamin A, beta carotene deficiency, and possibly cryptoxanthines). I always use a pH paper that shows in 0.2 increments for greater accuracy. Vitamin C is absolutely important for healing of kidney. If kidney is important enough, I believe we can experiment going on a vegetarian sabbath (for about 2 weeks at least) to get some improvement, but no vegetable oils, and sweet fruits.
You haven't mentioned about his cholesterol and triglycerides. To get those normal, require a few supplements such as taurine, glycine, boron and beta sitosterol. Perhaps, it's not important for you, so I just mentioned the key supplements I do use. Getting a high quality proteins is essential for kidney healing, but not too much proteins from what you usually eat. My favorite protein that I found to work is soy protein (predigested), moringa, and perhaps whey protein, but taken at 1-2 teaspoon twice or three times a day. The dose of whey is far too high for the kidney to handle on most packaged products, and I prefer concentrated Whey, no sugar, no artificial sugar and obviously no sucralose and preferably cold process, and no flavoring.
A liver sludge may also indicate low levels of digestive enzymes. For most good quality digestive enzymes, I believe it is taken at 2-3 capsule per dose two to four times a day, on an empty stomach. These digestive enzymes will go to the blood stream and breakdown undigested proteins, fats, starch and bacteria in the bloodstream, thus clearing the liver sludge.
Those are the best remedy I can come up with at the moment and diabetes cured using this method has been fairly consistent for me on the result that mostly diabetes are now a thing of the past. However there are a few other remedies I used for diabetes, such as chromium chloride (I do not use chromium picolinate- too much side effects). The chromium chloride I used is 1-10 mg per dose (or equivalent to 1000 to 5000 mcg) on the average, some brewer's yeast, and perhaps bitter cucumbers, if things don't get better. All these remedies mentioned have been tested again and again with consistent results. If diabetes get to extreme to cause edema, the urea powder, potasssium citrate and topical application of aloe vera oil, which I have plenty here in Bangkok, but funny enough are hard to obtain anywhere else.
Ted.
(Will answer your other questions in another email).
03/17/2011
Dear Ted:
Thanks so much for your wonderful advice! Unfortunately, the more you explain, the more questions I have!
To give some further background: my dad only became pre-diabetic after he got the kidney transplant and started taking a lot of steroids -- before that, he had high blood pressure (which they believe is the cause of the kidney failure). So I think the big problem overall for my dad is actually high blood pressure. Though it seems from what you're saying that they key thing to deal with the situation he is in now is to alkalinize and to stabilize his blood sugars.
My dad also has high cholesterol, in particular his triglycerides, and he's on statins as a result. (He's also taking calcium channel blocker I think and maybe some diuretic pills? He does occasionally get swollen ankles and hands -- I think in particular when he eats a lot of high-sodium products. He's also had a persistent toe fungus that he's for many, many years. So he probably is pretty acidic overall.
Just to make sure I properly understand everything that you've written:
For my dad's pre-diabetic-ness:
1. 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda 30 minutes after a meal twice a day.
2. Don't eat pineapples and oranges etc.
3. N Acetyl Cysteine (100-250 mg) 3x/day
4. Try to eat more bitter melon. (Although I think my dad heard from some nutritionist that it was super high in something he was supposed to avoid because of his kidney issues... potassium perhaps?)
5. Lysine 1000 mg 3x/day
6. Vitamin C
Q: What dosage of beta-carotene and what kind of beta-carotene do you recommend? And do you recommend that he take it with some other supplement? (Vitamin E or D?) (You mention that pro-vitamin A can actually lead to kidney damage, so I'm presuming that this means that it's different from beta-carotene?)
Q: Is sodium ascorbate okay for someone with kidney disease? If so, what dosage would be good for someone like my dad?
Q: What kind of digestive enzymes work best? (Just checked at Whole Foods, and all of their digestive enzymes seem to have magnesium stearate! Ditto for all of their N Acetyl Cysteine pills! Will look around some more on-line!)
Q: Is it okay for my dad to use xylitol? Reading your comments about it, I recently tried xylitol myself and found that it's very helpful for my teeth, and was hoping that it might be a good sugar alternative for my dad (who is kind of addicted to either the pink or the blue fake sugar packets -- don't know if it's aspartame or saccharine...) I just bought some packets of xylitol, and was hoping that my dad could use these instead. But perhaps it's not good for him?
For my dad's cholesterol (particularly his triglycerides are high):
1. Only coconut oil.
2. Not too many animal meats. (Preference for soy whey no additives 3x/day.)
3. More vegetables, less vegetable oils.
Q: Does tofu work instead of soy protein? And if I'm trying to get my dad to stay away from gluten, is whey okay?
Q: Are canned sardines in olive oil okay? Is extra virgin olive oil in general okay?
Q: Should he also be taking lecithin? Or is it somehow not advised for someone in his state? (Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to convince my dad to have a coffee enema! He's pretty skeptical about non-Western medicine! Plus he's very grumpy!)
Q: What amounts of taurine, glycine, boron and beta sitosterol would be useful for him?
Q: Do you also recommend potassium citrate? (I can't find any powder form here in the US, but have been able to find relatively filler-free capsules).
Q: How much water should I try to get him to drink per day? (While in End Stage Renal Failure, he became totally paranoid about drinking too many fluids, but I thought he was messing up his kidneys even further by becoming too dehydrated...)
For my dad's muscle twitches:
1. Magnesuim oil
2. Lugol's iodine
3. DMSO (though be careful in case it hurts!) I actually don't know what DMSO is, but presume I can find out with more research on your previous posts on earthclinic!
One last thing -- my dad has had this complaint for a few years now where he has what he describes (reluctantly!) as a kind of "leaking" from his bowels. They've examined his prostate, which isn't in too bad shape, so I'm wondering if it could be from the colonoscopy they did on him a while back? I think they might have taken out some kind of polyp, but can't be sure (my dad isn't too thrilled about sharing these details). But if there is some way to help out with this situation -- apart from probiotics and fiber, which is what the doctors have recommended -- please let me know!
Again, thanks for all of your help! (I had actually been thinking of donating to you for a while now based on what I've already learned from you searching through earthclinic!)
Best
Sorry for the delays, more flood of emails after I answered it!
The answer to your questions:
Pre-diabetes
There are more things that will help. Prediabetes is actually a sulfur deficiency or inability for the body to produce Hydrogen sulfide, garlic contains allyl cysteine compounds that help the diabetes. If he likes clove of garlic, chopped the more the better. The garlic extract is not good as it is either oil based or it is heated, so tablets is ruled out. If he can handle 1500 mg of N acetyl cysteine a day divided over the course of a day is what we aim for but that's the starting dose. Sugar cravings is best handled by (and is needed) by the body is glutamine, 500-750 x 3 times a day.
Digestive enzyme, has to have bromelain and pancreatic enzyme, amylase, lipase at least.
Q: Is it okay for my dad to use xylitol? Reading your comments about it, I recently tried xylitol myself and found that it's very helpful for my teeth, and was hoping that it might be a good sugar alternative for my dad (who is kind of addicted to either the pink or the blue fake sugar packets -- don't know if it's aspartame or saccharine...) I just bought some packets of xylitol, and was hoping that my dad could use these instead. But perhaps it's not good for him?
Yes, but you check the ingredients they should not have aspartame, sucralose, etc. They must only have xylitol.
I favor coconut oil only when necessary, and no fats.
Tofu is ok
For now, no lecithin. He has other issues.
Ted
Anon
06/03/2011
Dear Ted:
THANKS SO MUCH for all of this information! I'm continuing to do many of the different protocols that you recommend in your other postings as well.
But if you do have a chance to respond to the questions about myself (fertility issues) and my mom (arthritis etc. ) that would be wonderful! That said, I completely understand that you must be overwhelmed by all of the different queries that are directed your way!
So please take your time! (Though I might send additional emails every once in a while as well, which I hope you won't mind! ) My deepest, most heartfelt thanks and appreciation for all of your advice and wisdom!
Arthritis is actually caused by mycoplasma and mycobaterium. If you know what to look for you will find it. The method of treatment is actually not tetracycline HCl as the antibiotics of choice, it is actually dioxycycline, taken twice a day for the first day and one tablet every other day. Dioxycycline does produce side effects to some people after taking a month but it may not occur for some. The length of treatment is 9 months. I haven't find get a chance to find a way to detox, but I believe thunbergia laurifolia and milk thistle will do the job. Part of the reason why dioxycycline works is its ability of inhibiting collagenase which digest your bones. Normal people think it is the calcium that makes your bones strong, but what holds your bones together is the complex collagen matrix that holds the calcium together. It also needs silica (sodium silicate) and magnesium (it gives it strength) also. So when arthritis strike, the collagenase breaks down the bones. There may be an easier way but I haven't had too many patients to do any test, but Lugol;s iodine and DMSO, mixed 50/50 apply to affect area 5- 6 times a day should kill some of them too. Mycobacterium are perhaps the slowest organism to grow, that's why it occurs in older people, but it can strike a young person too through weak digestion or severe cuts and it enters that. Killing them also takes time, like 9 months. There is another broad spectrum antibiotics that are natural one I think will work too, namely cinnamon oil and asafoetida (India: Hing , Thailand: Mahahing) that is used too. That can be applied to the area or taken internally, but cinnamon is taken much less because of it's inflammatory nature, I think asafoetida is more preferable.
Fertility is a problem, yes. There's a case I treated a man for is hepatis C issues and he also had fertility issues. It seems that he's been struggling to have a child and then I treated him for hepatitis C and give him something to help his sex life, I didn't treated him for fertility per se, since he didn't mention this problem until he had to children. Well, within one year he had 2 children, and he's worry he's going to get the third child!
The secret of it is take some boron, but also most important is to take Lysine, glutamine, and threonine. You will notice that threonine is prominent in my therapy but it is not emphasize anywhere in internet and is essential. Lysine is taking 1000 mg x 4 and threonine is taken at 500 mg x 4, and boron is taken at 1/16 teaspoon. There was an occasion zinc acetate supplement taken weekly for two months. Is the major remedy I was using. Citrulline is preferably to arginine because it has more effects on nitric oxide and sperm activity as well, but is taken small portions when we compare against lysine, such as 50 to 100 mg per day only. If you need something to boost even more it will be Acetyl L Carnine 500 mg and Alpha Lipoic acid 200 mg. Give and take /- 50 mg. It is meant to be taken by both sexes. There one thing that is needed that gives it viagra like effect besides boron, it's the glycine, say 500 to 1000 mg.
Ted
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