by: PF Louis

(NaturalNews) A study led by Dr. Patricia Boyle of Rush University Center in Chicago has concluded that people with greater life purpose maintained cognitive ability better than those who weren't leading a purposeful life.

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The typical epidural is a combination of two powerful opiates: Fentanyl and Bupivacaine. Fentanyl has 80 times the potency (and side effects) of morphine. Bupivacaine has the ability to cause tingling around the mouth, tinnitus, tremors, dizziness, blurred vision, seizures, depression, loss of consciousness, respiratory depression and/or apnea. Bupivacaine has caused several deaths by cardiac arrest when an anesthesiologist accidently inserted the epidural analgesia into a vein instead of the epidural space in the spine.

Today, health authorities tout epidural analgesia as the safest, most effective method of pain relief available for childbirth. You could not pull that off on my generation. We lost enough creative artists—Janis Joplin, John Beluchi, Jim Morrison and Lenny Bruce to injectable pain killers. We are aware of the potential of painkillers that are injected into your body—let alone into the delicate spinal cord—by someone else. We know that epidurals do not compare in safety to asserting the power of mind over body, hypnosis or even group high. Those three involve no danger and are all as effective as epidural anesthesia. Pain, more than any other sense, is open to individual interpretation. This is particularly true when it comes to the pain of childbirth.

Watching a woman get an epidural reminds me of watching a teenager have a bad drug trip. Birth is not a terribly painful process in the comfort of home, although going to the hospital doubles it. At home, the part that hurts enough so that you can’t sleep through it typically lasts 2–12 hours, and even then, the pain is neither continuous nor pointless. Labor is a series of 30 seconds of pain followed by 2–, 3– or 4–minute intervals without pain. During that interval between pains, a woman can sleep, talk to friends, work, paint, cook, sing, read, do absolutely anything her imagination can dream up. She is in no pain. The task of labor is to breathe and relax for 30 seconds of contraction. This can easily be accomplished by the most unimaginative person by walking slowly and counting 10 slow breathes. An imaginative person can connect to the place in her body where she can release her natural endorphins and get a natural high. She can surround herself with a few people who love her and get a contact group love surge. She can connect to her power or whatever power she wants to let flow through her—it’s much like the energy you get watching a great concert, or a shooting star, or a child take his first step. As this energy flows through her she can imagine herself powerful and giving life force to others, praying for the health of sick people she may know. She can kneel down in soft, green grass and suck in nature’s bounties. It can be tiring, but the longest it will last at significant strength is 12 hours. If labor lasts longer than this, the contractions usually slow down and the woman can sleep a bit. If one needs pain relief to help release endorphins or sleep, three acetaminophen or acetaminophen with between 8 to 15 mg codeine work.  Most women who hear that Tylenol works in labor ask me why they don’t give it in the hospital. I tell them that I have absolutely no idea.

Walking through labor on her own path helps establish the type of self-confidence that is needed for mothering. You are upright and in your own home. No one is shaping your birth for you. You create your own reality. You find strength for the challenges of nursing and motherhood.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned from 25 years of assisting births is that there are no two people on earth alike. Each woman is a completely unique entity with different tastes, needs and desires. By enabling a woman to birth at home—or in any place she chooses—where she can find the position, place, smells, atmosphere and surroundings she needs to birth, she can birth practically without pain. I am not only referring to people who meditate and do hours of yoga every day. I’m talking about Mrs. Couch Potato, too. I could describe hundreds of women who did not feel much pain during birth.

Yesterday, I had just such a birth. When I arrived, she was in early labor, 12 hours after her water broke. We all agreed that perhaps she was stopping herself from going into strong labor for all kinds of psychological reasons. It was her third child. We all went to sleep for a couple of hours. When her husband woke me up two hours later, the mother seemed fully dilated, sitting on the toilet spraying herself with the water from the shower handle. The bathroom was covered with water and an inch or two of water covered the floor. Although it was her third vaginal birth, she said she did not believe in her ability to push. She did not want to get in the bathtub, where I suggested she could be surrounded by water and have something to lean her back against. She did not want to go to her bedroom either. She decided to sit on the floor of her tiny bathroom leaning her head on the toilet seat, sitting in an inch of cold water. It didn’t seem comfortable to me, but it was for her. In fact, she said that in this position, the labor was painless. She said it then and she repeated it after the birth. She sat there for an hour, not pushing during contractions. During the hour, the fetal heart rate was reassuring and I told her so. I occasionally whispered to her how great she was doing. Finally, she gave a very large, strong push and pushed the baby out. She said, afterwards, that for the first hour, she just didn’t realize, "It was up to me!" She said it was a lesson that applied to her life in general, not just birthing. This could have never been learned in a place where she could not direct and choose the path of her birth, i.e. sitting in an inch of cold water on the floor in no pain, learning the lessons of life. This kind of emotional growth does not take place under the influence of epidural anesthesia. You have to be in a position to make personal choices for yourself.

How to Take an Epidural Trip

If women could take an epidural themselves, the FDA would make it illegal for women to do so, (probably using the same excuse they have used to ban other products that women can use themselves, for example  Epi-no to prevent perineal tears): i.e. it is deadly and lacks adequate research. Although the euphemism, "She took an epidural." is universally used, No woman can take an epidural. She has to be given it. She doesn’t get to administer the drug herself or choose the dose or the timing. The only active part of epidurals is agreeing to one and signing the triplicate, multi–colored consent forms.

The procedure is as follows:

  First the current drug birth culture doubles the laboring woman’s pain by putting her in a $10,000 hospital bed with two sensors (each three inches in diameter and about the weight of a coffee cup) strapped tightly around her belly with wide, elastic belts. The continuous fetal monitor makes her constantly aware of being in a hospital and focuses her attention on the pain. She can’t turn, walk, or lie in a bath. There are two hospitals in Canada, though none in the US, that routinely use epidurals that permit walking and avoid some of the other "side effects" of epidurals, but most physicians and midwives have never seen it. 

 Then the woman has to have a two–inch long plastic cannula placed into a vein in her arm to really convince her that she’s being treated for a severe car accident or a ruptured appendix rather than the birth of her child. Then the authorities ask her in a sweet, kindly voice whether she is interested in an epidural. It will have no effect on the baby, they tell her. Any other pain relief will affect the baby, they tell her. It is true that for the purpose of anesthesia during cesarean, epidural anesthesia causes less respiratory depression of the baby than general anesthesia. But extrapolating from the relative safety of its use for cesareans to stating that epidural is the safest anesthesia for vaginal birth has no basis. Not until long after she has verbally agreed to the epidural and the IV is loaded and the woman is beached in bed with her monitor, only then will a distant, impossible–to–track–down anesthesiologist appear. Like street drug pushers, the anesthesiologist often seems to makes him or herself scarce. For stories about this go to the website: www.MyOBsaidwhat.com. The comparison does not stop there. Often the midwife, nurse or doctor will make it clear that there might be no anesthesiologist available for hours. The streets are dried up. When the anesthesiologist arrives, the woman is usually relieved by her luck that this hard–to–find anesthesiologist happened to have a minute to supply her. The doctor enters, picks up the chart, and with barely a glance at the woman, asks the same 10 questions that the woman has repeatedly answered since her arrival: allergies, general health, no previous surgeries, etc. In the same monotonous tone, without ever making eye contact, the anesthesiologist pushes the consent form and pen into the woman’s lap, rattling off all the possible bad effects of epidural while the woman is sitting up on the bed, already in position to have the epidural, and often while having a contraction and unable to pay attention to what is being told to her. The anesthesiologist is reluctant to answer questions. In response to questions, there is usually a "I have better things to do" tone of discourse. The nurse is already gloved and masked, waiting to hand sterile objects to the anesthesiologist.

What a surprise that the woman in labor, who’s been waiting for her fix, says, "Why yes. Give me what you’ve got."

Now the fun really starts.

The anesthesiologist takes a large gauge needle on a 5 or 10 cc syringe and starts digging into the laboring woman’s back. The hole has to be large enough to fit the drug–bringing cannula which goes in 4 inches, or 10 cm, in and up her spine. Blood flows down her back in a half–centimeter stream from the hole. It hurts to be stuck. The hole will hurt for a few days like any wound. During this time, the woman in labor has to stay absolutely still during her contractions. The anesthesiologist explains to her that if she moves, the needle may tear the epidural membrane in her spine. The anesthesiologist threatens her that she can cause a terrible headache if she makes a slip or, alternatively, cause a hematoma which may result in permanent spinal damage. Amazingly, this woman who was writhing and moaning with pain just a few minutes before is now absolutely silent and doesn’t move a hair during the contractions that were so very painful just a minute before the anesthesiologist arrived.

Is she aware of her ability to have strong contractions at 5 cm dilation, seated under fluorescent lights while a total stranger carves a hole in her spine, merely by breathing in a careful, concentrated manner? No one points this out to her. The epidural is her choice, the midwife whispers to me. I certainly would get thrown out of the hospital by the cultural majority if I went around pointing this out to women. But I must write it for those who desire to know. Anyone who has the mental and physical strength to sit through strong, painful contractions without budging a single muscle, in the bent–over, uncomfortable sitting position required for getting an epidural, for 10 long minutes, on a raised bed, under bright fluorescent lights, while a strange, unknown anesthesiologist sticks a large needle in her back, can have an easy attended labor in the comfort of her own home, without any need for pain relief beyond a few Tylenol capsules. This is a fact that needs to be told to her.

Once the epidural is in, she is expecting full pain relief for her efforts. At least 5% of women get no relief whatsoever from the epidural. The epidural does nothing, except leave a painful wound in her back. The risk factors for receiving no pain relief from an epidural include (3):

* obesity

* multiparity

* history of a previous failure of epidural anesthesia

* cervical dilation of more than 7 cm at insertion

* the use of air to find the epidural space while inserting the epidural instead of other things like N2O saline or lidocaine

* being a regular opiate user

Due to the intervention of the normal labor process, this woman—1 out of every 20 women who get an epidural feels no pain relief—must now go through the pain of labor on her back with a fetal heart monitor attached to her belly and an IV running into her veins through her arm. She will not be allowed to get up to urinate or defecate in the toilet, but will have to use a bedpan. She may be catheterized for urine and given suppositories to defecate. She is a beached whale and will not have any pain relief whatsoever. The staff will tell her that she is mistaken. They will tell her the epidural is working.

For the other 95% of women, the epidural will either work partially or fully for 30 minutes to an hour. I do notice that many young women today are excited about what is often their first drug experience. They get a little buzz and feel a bit tingly high from the relief of pain and the fentanyl and smile from the high. It seems a shame that they are unaware that they could get that high by learning how to find the place inside themselves that releases it naturally, or by surrounding themselves with other high people. Also, if the woman feels the fentanyl high, then the baby must be getting it also, which probably accounts for the many babies who have difficulties nursing after an epidural birth.(4) Obviously, sometimes the fentanyl comes out of the spinal column and enters the bloodstream. This also explains why many women get the "fentanyl itch," a full–blown red, itchy rash that spreads across the woman’s chest.

Although high doses of epidurals can bring complete anesthesia for use during surgery, including cesarean surgeries, anesthesiologists resist using high doses during labor because of the possible side effects.(5) The anesthesiologist gives a large loading dose, but then the woman receives a low continuous dose after that. Usually this means that the epidural only works for 30 minutes to an hour and then the main effect wears off. After that, the woman starts feeling the pressure of her contractions and, frequently, the pain of contractions. However, again, she is unable to get up and walk around and use her imagination and power, because she is forced to stay in bed, attached to the monitor, having to urinate in bedpans or be catheterized until after she delivers.

The epidural slows down labor significantly—meaning a longer labor overall, which equals more pain, not less. The following are accepted explanations for why this happens:

1. The release of oxytocin is decreased with epidurals.(6)

2. Lack of gravity: the woman is lying down instead of standing up.

3. Lower blood pressure, which also slows oxytocin release.

4. Mal–positioning of the baby’s head to transverse or posterior.

Epidurals cause a relaxation of the pelvic muscles, which were previously working to help the baby descend in the correct position. With the relaxation of the pelvic muscles, the baby frequently turns into a posterior position or some other non–optimal position, with the heaviest part of his head falling to the back of the pelvis, leaning on the spine with his face facing up. This causes the contractions to be less effective. Posterior position increases the length of labor. It is a harder, longer, more painful labor because the back of the head, instead of the face, is pressing against the spine.

Most women with epidurals feel the sensations of the second, or pushing, stage of labor. They feel the baby’s head pressing on their rectum. They usually experience this as pain. Although the first stage may have been painless, now they feel the labor after full dilation because the epidural is wearing off. Once the woman is fully dilated, the woman often feels everything as if she had not had an epidural, or worse because her expectation was full pain relief. Now she is feeling all the pain of pushing and it’s worse because she didn’t expect it. She is disappointed in what she may think of as her body’s failure to be anesthetized.

Finally the baby comes out. It always does. No matter what you do to women, the baby comes out one way or another. You can’t put the baby on her belly, because first you have to open the belts holding the two large monitor sensors and then take the monitor sensors off her belly. Then you can pass her baby to her. Finally the baby is on her mom’s belly. The monitor is off, the mother is relieved. Administration of epidural analgesia has been found to delay onset of breastfeeding and to shorten breastfeeding duration in women.(6) In this first study looking at breastfeeding two days after epidural anesthesia, it was discovered that epidural analgesia in combination with oxytocin infusion causes the woman to have significantly lower oxytocin and prolactin levels in response to the baby breastfeeding, even two days after the birth, which means less milk is being produced. This is a critical side effect, because most women with epidurals do end up with a Pitocin augmentation because the epidural decreases the release of natural oxytocin.

At an empowered woman’s birth, the baby’s land life starts with a reassuring breastfeed, easing his transition into extra–uterine life with associations of unrestricted love, warmth and happiness, laying the groundwork for a life in which he searches for more experiences of the same kind and questions authorities that offer other types of experiences.

Judy Slome Cohain, CNM since 1982, MS, is devoted to illuminating the field of women’s health with objective evidence, based on the scientific method.

[For additional research visit the GreenMedInfo.com page on natural pregnancy and childbirth]

References:

1. Van den Bussche, E., et al. 2007. Why women prefer epidural analgesia during childbirth: the role of beliefs about epidural analgesia and pain catastrophizing. Eur J Pain 11(3): 275–82. PMID: 16624602

2. Ibid.

3. Agaram R., et al. 2009. Inadequate pain relief with labor epidurals: a multivariate analysis of associated factors. Int J Obstet Anesth 18(1): 10–14.

4. Mothering magazine web site. http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_preparation/hidden–risks–epidurals.html Accessed 23 Mar 2009.

5. See Reference 3.

6. Jonas, K., et al. 2009. Effects of intrapartum oxytocin administration and epidural analgesia on the concentration of plasma oxytocin and prolactin, in response to suckling during the second day postpartum. Breastfeed Med 4(2): 71–82.

SIDEBAR

Possible Side effects of epidural on mother:

* Severe restriction in mobility due to epidural wire in spine, partial or complete leg paralysis, continuous fetal monitoring and IV in arm during labor despite frequent occurrence of either no pain relief (5%) or inadequate pain relief (10%).

* Lowered oxytocin, endorphin and adrenalin levels in blood, which prevents the fetal ejection reflex and the ecstatic feeling after birth.

* Fentanyl itch — a common itchy red chest rash in reaction to opiates. Painful wound in the back, where needle entered, lasting 1–2 days. Short– or long–term generalized backache lasting weeks to months (5% chance). Full–blown migraine headache following birth, lasting 1 to 7 days (5% chance).

* 1 in 250,000 will be paraplegic for the rest of their lives.

* Loss of empowering birth experience. Decreased confidence in ability of body to function and ability to mother compared to empowering birth experience.

Remember: A woman who can sit still long enough to have an epidural inserted during labor can have a relatively painless, un–medicated birth if she were provided adequate birth support in the home setting. If and when she figures this out, she may be resentful that no one informed her of this beforehand.

Possible Epidural side effects on baby

* Frequently causes deep drop in maternal blood pressure causing fetal anoxia. When maternal fever intrapartum exceeds 100.4 F or 38 C (true for 15% of women who received an epidural; 1% of women not receiving an epidural), neonatal seizures are more likely.

* Epidural use makes the baby more likely to undergo neonatal sepsis evaluations and neonatal antibiotic treatment.

Possible effects on mother and baby:

* Doubles the risk of vacuum extraction and concomitant bruising to head and face, increasing perineal damage and risk of permanent incontinence of mother.

     * Frequently increases risk of cesarean surgery by lowering oxytocin levels causing slower labor and relaxes pelvic muscles causing fetus to turn posterior.

  * Infrequently, an epidural can prevent cesarean surgery. There are two situations in which this may be the case: a woman who is in adrenalin overload, who has not been offered any pain relief other than epidural (Hot bath, Tylenol with Codeine, Pethidine, Laughing Gas) (and the adrenalin is presumably interfering with progress of dilation) gets so much relief from the epidural that her contractions actually improve without any need for augmentation. In the second situation, presume that a woman who is at 8 cm with a persistent posterior baby needs Pitocin augmentation to make her contractions stronger to help turn the baby, but she is already exhausted due to the long haul to get to 8 cm. In this case, an epidural may allow her to cope with IV Pitocin augmentation, and she will progress with stronger uterine contractions, sometimes spontaneously turning the fetus to an occiput anterior position.

    * Lowers chance of mother successfully breastfeeding, short and long term.

* It would be simplistic to assume that epidural would not have a significant effect on the neuro-hormonal processes, about which we know very little. It would also be simplistic to think that its effect is the same in every woman or every baby.

by: PF Louis

(NaturalNews) We need to hydrate with pure water to retain our physical and mental health. All our tissues' cells need to be hydrated to function properly. Would you believe that most of us are dehydrated?

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by Stuart Lindsey, PharmD

(OMNS May 28, 2012) Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the drugstore, we are going to question authority yet again. Readers may remember Dr. Stuart Lindsey as the Frustrated Pharmacist (http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v08n05.shtml). He's back and at it once more, this time presenting an important supplement-based approach to type 2 diabetes. This essay presents ideas that are very possibly a large part of the solution. As with all OMNS releases, it is not meant to substitute for medical advice. Persons should consult their own doctor before making any health decision. – Andrew W. Saul, Editor

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The current treatment of diabetes is among the least successful in medicine, despite billions of dollars spent on research. Many scientists make a career of studying diabetes. Medicine has succeeded in making diabetes very expensive for the patient while making the disease a cash cow for the numerous businesses that cater to the diabetic. We should expect to see some improvement in diabetic treatment, but in fact the basic protocols haven't changed much in twenty years. Is research getting close to a solution? In my opinion as a practicing pharmacist, the answer is no.

For fifteen years I was the pharmacy manager for an independent neighborhood drug store. I saw the results of many people over the long term as they were introduced to the "sugar-med treadmill." After prolonged consumption of their diabetic medications, their health did not improve. This was disturbing to me. The long term diabetics all seemed to have the same group of symptoms: they were overweight (due to hyper-insulinemia), edematous (having swelling under the skin), and they all suffered from poor exercise tolerance and had a generally unhealthy appearance. Many of them had peripheral neuropathy (malfunction of nerves), often associated with pain in their hands and feet. Only rarely did they believe their diabetes treatment was actually improving their health.

My interest in the lack of results from standard treatment of diabetes came into sharp focus when pain in my feet led to my being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. From my observations at work, I already knew that the drug treatments for peripheral neuropathy were questionable. Introducing amitriptyline, gabapentin and Lyrica, which are sedatives and pain killers, made the people sleep a lot. Medically, it's obvious that sedating nerves doesn't solve anything. When such patients step up to daily long term narcotics and finally get some pain relief, they still haven't solved their problems.

Current medical practice relies on the HgbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) level as a measure of blood sugar over several months. The glycated hemoglobin is caused by high levels of sugar binding to hemoglobin inside red blood cells. When it builds up, this means that the body's biochemicals and organs are being damaged by too much sugar. It was interesting to note how many of the diabetic patients were in the normal range (i.e. HgbA1c < 6.5) but were still in agony over their feet. The problem was that seeing a normal value of HgbA1c, the doctor would hesitate to change the treatment. Apparently, severe foot pain wasn't a symptom that needed attention.

I decided to explore the whole HgbA1c issue. The biggest argument you see in diabetes is that diabetes is a 'disposal' issue. A high level of blood sugar is a type of metabolic malfunction that needs to be corrected. Blood sugar has a geography problem. The body seems driven to urinate the sugars out of the body instead of jamming the sugars across supposedly malfunctioning membranes and burning the sugars intracellularly. Medical practice can apply insulin and many types of drugs to insure that the body's tissues metabolize the sugars. Most current diabetic research is targeted at 'breaching the barrier' and making the supposedly malfunctioning membranes more permeable to carbohydrates. When those extra sugar calories are crammed into cells you get advanced glycation end-products (AGE's) that are a threat to the body.

In 2005, a UK researcher named Paul Thornalley wrote a paper detailing how many diabetic symptoms are due to a deficiency of thiamine (B-1).[1] Elevated blood sugar promotes a type of toxicity in the kidneys that causes thiamine to be excreted by the kidney at a rate much higher (sixteen to twenty-five times higher) than normal, leading to an acute deficiency of thiamine. From other studies, it is known that deficiencies in all B vitamins, as well as vitamin C and D are common in diabetics.[2] This can cause most of the symptoms of type 2 diabetes, which include: polyneuropathy, nephropathy (kidney damage), retinopathy (eye damage) and eventually heart failure. This raises the question of whether the symptoms are from diabetes or acute beriberi?

When I was diagnosed with type II diabetes, I immediately balked at taking the standard diabetic drugs. My doctor wanted to place me on statins, metformin and Byetta, all of which I refused to take. Having researched Dr. Thornalley's theory of diabetes being an acute thiamine deficiency, I started a regimen of vitamin and mineral supplements. Although the pain in my feet was quite severe, I wanted to avoid the regular drug regimen because it relied upon taking lots of pain killers that don't cure the problem. I reasoned that when the body's B vitamin levels are depleted due to high blood sugar, replenishing body stores through diet alone is difficult, so supplementation will be necessary.

I started taking a dietary supplement of thiamine (benfotiamine, 250mg 4x/day). I also added of vitamin B-6 (250mg/day) and pyridoxal 5 phosphate (P5P, 100mg/day) magnesium (aspartate, citrate, malate, or chloride) and acetyl-l-carnitine (1000 mg/day) depending on the severity of my peripheral neuropathy symptoms. More recently I've learned of the importance of taking vitamin C to reduce inflammation and prevent oxidation from high blood sugar levels.[2] My doctor did not approve of my self-treatment but was curious. I told him that I was willing to go back to the standard of care if this didn't work.

"Positive factors for treating type 2 diabetes are magnesium, exercise, weight control, chromium, dietary fiber, the B-vitamins, vitamin E, vanadium, vitamin C, and complex carbohydrates. I have been using the positive factors for the past 40 years. When patients followed such a program, the results are very good." Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD [3]

The most overt of the neuropathy symptoms started to subside rapidly. Within a week, the shooting pains in my ankles were mostly gone. All of the other symptoms of numbness of the toes and overall pain of the feet including the "boot effect" (the feeling that you have your boots or socks on) were mostly gone in three weeks. Now I know this treatment may not be a cure for diabetes. But it is a valid and reasonably inexpensive way to control the symptoms, which are held at bay as long as you keep your thiamine levels high. If you quit taking thiamine and the other B vitamins, the symptoms come roaring back.

I looked for the inevitable deterioration of my health that had been predicted. Ignore your blood sugar levels at your peril I was told. I was going to have kidney problems, my pancreas would stop cooperating and my vision would become blurry as the elevated sugars damaged my retinas. But the only sign of an active problem was the neuropathies in my feet which were quite painful at times: numbness of my toe area and shooting pains in my foot joints. I also had the feeling that the circulation of my feet was poor as my feet were always cold.

After two years I finally got blood tests. I still felt very good having lost some weight, with no vision problems, and my energy level and psychological attitude were all fine.I was actually afraid to look at the results and finding out that I had finally outsmarted myself and got hurt. There is a quite a propaganda machine built around the treatment of diabetes. As I drove over to retrieve my blood tests I did a mental check of how I felt. I decided I couldn't have a lot wrong with me as I just felt too good. My blood tests were amazingly free of problems related to elevated blood sugar, and I had few other related discernible health defects. This thiamine treatment did not change my HgbA1c (which is currently 9.1, and that is high) or my resting blood sugars (fasting blood sugars still between 180-190, and those also are high). Values like these are supposed to indicate a poor quality of health. My recent blood tests indicated:

Creatinine, urine 86.7mg/dl. Scale 20-370; low normal.
Microalbumin/Creatinine ratio 9.2mg/GCr. Scale 0-30; low normal.

Creatinine and microalbumineria values are the so called "Canary in the Coal Mine" indicators. The kidneys are supposed to go first when Advanced Glycation Endproducts (AGEs) have started your march to health failure because you didn't keep your HgbA1c values within range. I think my two-plus years is long enough for this to play out. I had my eyes checked for sugar damage to my retinas. I have no sugar damage to my eyes whatsoever. I am 61 years old and have 20-25 vision in both eyes. Jonathan Wright, MD, is among those who have noted that skin tags may be connected to diabetes; interestingly enough the skin tags on my arms have all disappeared.

However, my health hasn't failed due to hyperglycemia, although it is still a problem. In my case, the unusual positive results are evidently due to my nutritional approach. I substituted supplements of several essential nutrients for pharmaceuticals and stayed in relatively good health. And I continue to try supplementing with other nutrients such as antioxidants which are known to help prevent diabetes. [2] This suggests that the health issues are actually caused by nutritional deficiencies that can be easily prevented.

I am hoping this simple (and non-toxic) experiment on myself will lead the field to discussing the validity of substituting vitamins in diabetes treatment. The treatment of diabetes as it now stands is complicated and expensive. I am spending about $130/month on supplements, and during this two year experiment I have not given my doctor a single dime for advice on how to regulate my HgbA1c value. I imagine I've saved more than twice that amount by avoiding paying for drugs and doctor visits. Is this justified? If my health remains good and I have no other serious problems, I believe it is.

If all diabetics would supplement with B vitamins and vitamins C, D, and E, and minerals such as calcium and magnesium, they would lessen their problems with insulin and blood sugar, and the other serious symptoms of diabetes.[2] The reason is that most people in our society, especially including diabetics, have deficiencies of these essential nutrients that are known to be related to diabetes. But this essay is also an attempt to unseat some basic tenets of the medical fiasco known as diabetes. The prevalence in 2011 of type II world-wide according to the World Health Organization (WHO) is 346 million, and some 3.4 million people dies in 2004 as a consequence of the disease. The WHO predicts that the deaths attributable to diabetes will double between 2005 and 2030. [4] With this kind of projection a "Manhattan Project" kind of response seems necessary.

So what is the intellectual problem that seems so intractable to the medical research community? The standard treatments to lower blood sugar and HgbA1c were recently tested in medical trials. The ACCORD trials were meant to validate once and for all that the closer a patient got to a HgbA1c level of 6% the healthier a person became. Instead there was 22% increase in mortality from heart failure.[5] This unexpected value caused the FDA to terminate the trial midstream. Is it possible that the HgbA1c value should not be a primary goal in evaluating diabetes treatments?

If you go to PubMed and enter the keywords "thiamine deficiency" and "diabetes" you will get dozens of references that describe how many symptoms of diabetes are caused by a thiamine deficiency it generates. Deficiencies of B vitamins and other essential nutrients are important in diabetes.[2] This should be required reading for all doctors who treat or research diabetes. Currently in conventional management of diabetes, supplement based nutrition therapy is utterly neglected. The National Diabetes Fact Sheet reported that in 2007, the direct medical costs of diabetes nationally was estimated at $116 billion (USD). [6]

Diabetic patients can feel overwhelmed by a diagnosis of hyperglycemia, but are often comforted by the complicated explanations and sudden increase in activity and attention directed at them. The possibility that they are being misled just doesn't come up. Even if patients decide to do their own research it can be confusing. The cause of diabetes is basically unknown, but they are told that with some major alterations to one's lifestyle and lots of drugs liberally applied they can lead a relatively normal life. However for the truly curious, a large block of mainstream nutrition ideas of which the doctors are mostly ignorant can be freely accessed on the internet. When a patient presents this alternative information to the doctor today, they are comforted and told that they are already getting the cutting edge treatment. But even three years after the revelations of the ACCORD trials there has been no major correction of the type II treatment protocols that addresses the unexplained mortality issues revealed by the trials.

Even if my vitamin arguments are only partially correct, the implications for mainstream medicine are staggering. These ideas need wide discussion the field, because patients with diabetes need some new ideas.

For further reading:

Melvyn R. Werbach's Nutritional Influences on Illness contains a valuable review of research indicating the therapeutic value of supplements, and their specific dosages, for diabetics. Third Line Press, 2nd Edition, 1996 ISBN-10: 0961855053; ISBN-13: 978-0961855055.

Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine (University of Kentucky) J. W. Anderson is perhaps the world's leading researcher on fiber and diabetes. http://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_anderson.html

As much a book about fiber as it is about overconsumption of sugar, The Saccharine Disease by T. L. Cleave (1975) is available in its entirety for free online at http://www.cybernaut.com.au/optimal_nutrition/information/library/saccharine_disease.pdf and also at http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/Cleave/cleave_toc.html

References:

1. Thornalley PJ: The potential role of thiamine (vitamin B-1) in diabetic complications. Curr Diabetes Rev, 2005; 1:287-298

2. Brighthope IE (2012) The Vitamin Cure for Diabetes: Prevent and Treat Diabetes Using Nutrition and Vitamin Supplementation. Basic Health Publications ISBN-13: 978-1591202905.

3. http://www.doctoryourself.com/diabetes.html

4. World Health Organization. Diabetes. Retrieved from [ http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs312/en/index.html ]

5. Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes Study Group, Gerstein HC, Miller ME, Byington RP, et al: Effects of intensive glucose lowering in type II diabetes. N Engl J Med, 2008; 358: 2545-2559.

6. National Diabetes Fact Sheet, 2011. Retrieve from: www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pubs/pdf/ndfs_2011.pdf

(Much of this article is drawn from Lindsey SL Substituting vitamins and supplements for pharmaceuticals in type 2 diabetes J Orthomolecular Med 2012, 27:1; p 5-8. We thank the Journal for permission to reprint it here in edited form .)

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As summer hits the nation, sunburn presents itself as an unwanted side effect of extensive sun exposure. What you may not have heard, however, is the fact that sunburn can actually be fought off by changing your diet to incorporate more ‘living’ fruit and vegetables that are rich in both enzymes and essential nutrients. In addition, a number of natural home remedies for sunburn also exist that can be utilized to help soothe and treat any case of sunburn that has already affected you. From a simple enriched bath to revitalizing foods, many options exist to help alleviate the pain associated with sunburn. Here are 4 home remedies for sunburn.

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