Over the Counter Natural Cures (19 page)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 10.3 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, while an additional 5.4 million undiagnosed diabetics are waiting in the wings for vision to go bad.

The risk of diabetic retinopathy can be reduced with nutrient logic and also through the control of blood sugar. Chapter 10 will teach you how to do this in ninety days. Without a doubt, this is the cheapest, safest, and most effective remedy. Many eye doctors will usher you in at the drop of a hat for laser treatments like photocoagulation to try to mediate the risk of sight loss.

They may even suggest focal photocoagulation to destroy leaking blood vessels. Maybe it's just me, but destroying blood vessels in the eye doesn't sound like a good idea. These vessels probably wouldn't be leaking in the first place if patients weren't eating massive amounts of hydrogenated oils and refined sugar, and popping aspirin daily as the TV and print ads recommend.

In scatter photocoagulation, another laser treatment, a large number of spots are zapped by the beam to control the growth of abnormal blood vessels. Do any of these procedures sound like fun to you? I didn't think so. If you don't want Star Wars being waged in your peepers, consider nutrient logic, cut the sugar, and use my simple protocol for reversing diabetes, as found in chapter 10.

BOOST THE DYES IN YOUR EYES

The dyes in your eyes aren't made of thin air. You have to obtain them through nutrient logic, either directly via supplementation or indirectly from your diet. This will prevent damage to eye anatomy as well as boost the dye in your eye.

The yellow dye in your cones and the purple within the rods are made
from carotenes and vitamin A, respectively. When these nutrients are consumed, the body uses a menagerie of chemical reactions to convert them into the protective dyes. Then, an army of various proteins escort the protective pigments to the proper area of the eye—your health intelligence at work. Their concentration is 10,000 times greater than that found in the blood. Once there, the dyes perform their job of reacting to and protecting the eye from light.

Food sources of the yellow xanthophylls include eggs, kale, spinach, turnip greens, collard greens, romaine lettuce, broccoli, zucchini, corn, garden peas, and Brussels sprouts. The best way to get plenty of rhodopsin is by obtaining its metabolic precursor vitamin A from butter, beef, elderberries, or chicken liver.

Chicken liver is the longevity jackpot. It contains more nutrients, gram for gram, than any other food and is a superior source for getting enough purple dye in our eye. It offers:

1. An excellent source of high-quality protein.
   
2. Nature's most concentrated source of vitamin A.
   
3. All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12.
   
4. Nineteen amino acids.
   
5. A highly usable form of iron.
   
6. Trace minerals, such as copper, zinc, chromium, magnesium, selenium, phosphorus, potassium, and manganese.
   
7. A bonus antifatigue factor.
   
8. CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardiovascular function.
   
9. A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.
   

Many people shy away from eating liver because they think it's filled with toxins. This is a misnomer. The liver is not a storage organ for toxins, but it
is
a storage compartment for important nutrients that rid the body of toxins. Paradoxically, it's one of the cleanest organs in the bodies of both humans and animals.

Pilgrim's Pride makes excellent chicken livers that are available in the meat section of Wal-Mart. This is my recommendation for vitamin A supplementation. At around $1.50 for a 20-ounce container big enough to serve an entire family, this is an affordable solution that will provide many nutritional benefits.

I contacted Pilgrim's Pride to find out how their chickens are raised and what they're fed. According to a company spokesperson, the chickens are housed in a climate-controlled caged environment. They claim this is superior to free range because the quality and health can be better controlled (a subject open for debate). Their chickens are fed a diet of corn, soy, and milo (grass) with no synthetic vitamins, hormones, or steroids added.

Chicken liver is listed on the USDA National Nutrient Database as containing 13,328 IU of vitamin A per 100 grams (just under ½ cup). The recommended daily allowance listed in the same database is 3,000 IU for men, and 2,333 IU for women. As you can see, you don't have to eat a lot of the product to replenish your vitamin A stores. Cholesterol is 490 milligrams per 4-ounce serving, a little high, but as you already learned in chapter 3, this isn't a problem. If you prefer the taste of beef liver, it has even more vitamin A at 31,714 IU per 100 grams.

AVOID THESE VISION SUPPLEMENTS

The rise of vision disorders has popularized many supplements that are purported to ward off age-related vision loss. Since beta carotene and vitamin A are known to yield the dye in your eye, they are often touted
as worthy vision-preserving supplements. They're not. In supplement form, beta-carotene and vitamin A (even from cod-liver oil) are inferior, synthetic mimics—what I call “Fraken-Chemicals.”

Born in a pharmaceutical lab, Fraken-Chemicals don't yield the same dye-boosting benefits (or full-spectrum activity) as their natural counterparts and might even be dangerous. In nature, beta-carotene exists as a rich array of nutrients that have similar structures. In the body, they work together to provide health benefits. The conversion rate of natural beta-carotene into readily available nutrients by the body is up to ten times higher than that of synthetic beta-carotene. That means synthetic carotene supplements are not being assimilated and used by the body. Furthermore, synthetic carotenes may cause cancer among certain at-risk populations like smokers. The same is true for vitamin A.

In nature, vitamin A describes a ton of nutrients that have similar structures. The synthetic version of vitamin A is merely one of these structures—the cubic zirconium of vitamin A. A poser, supplemental vitamin A fools the body into thinking that the host of nutrients is present when they really aren't. The end result is that you're not getting the full production of the purple pigment or any of the other full-spectrum health benefits—like immune boosting and the maintenance of strong bones and teeth—that come with natural vitamin A intake.

The total effects of this ruse have yet to be determined by science, but an ever-increasing body of evidence points to the conclusion that synthetic vitamin A may be harmful. Wouldn't it make sense to err on the side of caution and start moving away from synthetic versions of essential nutrients? Simple logic, the most underused tool of the vitamin and processed food industries, says yes. Get the real thing for the real benefits by getting carotenes and vitamin A from natural sources, not pharmaceutical ones.

THE OVER-THE-COUNTER NATURAL CURE FOR FAILING VISION

Whether the result is macular degeneration, cataracts, or glaucoma, losing vision usually results from not having enough “dye in our eye” to help us interpret the world around us and serve as protective antioxidants and light filters that preserve visual anatomy.

Unless you eat at a salad bar every day, you might consider augmenting your diet with the
Over-the-Counter Natural Cures
for failing vision. It uses no Fraken-Chemicals and comes loaded with eye-dye boosting nutrients. And unlike most vision supplements, it doesn't carry the inflammatory soy oil adulterant. Meet CarotenAll by Jarrow Formulas.

CarotenAll, sold by The Vitamin Shoppe or found online, contains a large variety of health-giving, naturally occurring antioxidants and is my recommendation as a product that can effectively boost the dye in your eye, ensuring optimum eye health. The price is just under $10.00 per month. The company has assembled a “who's who” of vital eye nutrients into a potent blend.

Each soft-gel capsule contains a mixture of naturally occurring beta-carotene, lutein (marigold petal extract), zeaxanthin (from marigold petal extract), lycopene (from GMO free tomatoes), and other supporting ingredients.

Take one or two capsules daily with eggs, meat, dairy, or other animal products because lutein and zeaxanthin are fat-soluble and require animal fats to metabolize. More is not better with this product as lutein and zeaxanthin compete for cell receptors above a certain dose and, therefore, may potentially diminish the effects.

Jarrow proudly notes they do not use any wheat, gluten, soybeans, dairy, egg, fish/shellfish, or peanuts/tree nuts in this product. It contains no sodium, sugars, yeast, preservatives, or artificial colors or flavors. My
independent lab analysis showed it to be free of adulterants or excess fillers. Verification with the certificate of analysis can be found at my website, www.overthecounternaturalcures.com.

THE EYES ARE THE WINDOWS TO YOUR WELLNESS STATUS

Shakespeare wrote, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” But to a skilled ophthalmologist, the eyes are much more than this. They are the windows to the inner functioning of your entire body, optical snapshots of how healthy you are. Therefore, failing vision might be a sign of failing health.

Peering into the depth of your eyes with an ophthalmoscope, the specialist is able to see the blood vessels behind your retina. This is the only place where arteries, veins, and nerves can be viewed without entering your body. If micro blood clots are detected in the retinal capillaries, it's probable that blood vessels throughout your body are similarly affected. If your optic nerve is light in color due to lack of blood flow, it can be assumed that there is impaired flow elsewhere in your circulatory system. If your iris is inflamed, it's likely that there's inflammation elsewhere in your body.

The effects of nature's repair response to cell damage, cholesterol, can be seen as a gray ring around the inside of your clear cornea. Signs of diabetes, hypertension, and neurological problems can also be detected. The eyes truly are the windows to your body's wellness status.

These eye conditions reflect poor nutrient logic and are a heads-up that changes need to be made before it's too late. With
Over-the-Counter
Natural Cures
to failing vision and the nutrient logic found in this chapter,
such changes are easy, inexpensive and nonevasive.

 

 

 CHAPTER 9 

“Low-fat diets cure cancer.”

“Eating twigs and berries like a vegan hippie can eradicate it, too.”

“If it's really bad, you can hop the border for a jillion cancer-cure cocktails that are so good the U.S. government had to ban them for fear of losing money to the competition.”

The natural cure camp is always promoting wide-eyed theories. But very little is based on science. It's mostly hype and hope. The same can be said of the conventional medicine camp.

“Chemotherapy drugs have a great success rate and are a good bet in the fight against cancer.”

“Radiation will curtail cancer's deadly path.”

“Painkillers known as NSAIDs can halt cancer growth in its tracks.”

“Early detection can help you live longer.”

“The war on cancer has made great strides in preventing this pandemic killer.”

Corny conventional cancer cures abound. And as with the natural cure purveyors, very little is based on science. It's mostly hype and hope.
Whether natural or conventional, all cancer cures are ripe for the taking as they appeal to emotion, not logic. But who's to blame?

Cancer is a gargantuan topic, and very few people have wrapped their brains around its ever-expanding politics, biology, and biochemistry. Inundated with the barrage of information and choices, most cancer patients simply get scared and either “jump the border” or “get chemo.” Very few realize what they're doing or why they are doing it. In this wake of blind faith, such decisions may be more dangerous than cancer itself. Don't roll the dice with your life.