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flu, Uncategorized, vitamin-d

Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

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I am an herbalist, and that is where I turn first, in most cases.  But Vitamin D is an exception.  It is a hormone used by most of our cells in over 2000 functions,.  As humans ranged north of the African savannah where we evolved and started wearing more clothing, we started lowering our D levels.

Vitamin D
Vitamin D

Vitamin D has the ability to kill off bacteria and that property has been so important that we have retained that property as primates for over 60 million years

Vitamin D  also prevents the over stimulation of our immune system which could cause it to attack ourselves.  This is important for the Swine Flu which can be dangerous if there is an excessive inflammatory response, called a cytokine storm.

Most deaths in the 1918 flu pandemic and more recently from SARS, happened when young healthy people who had a strong immune response provoked a cytokine storm which allowed an excessive response that quickly killed them off.  We speculate that with higher levels of Vitamin D, the regulatory function that caused the excessive inflammation might not have occurred.

This article tells how the process works, but the takeaway is to keep your Vitamin D levels high (blood level around 60) which may require 10,000 iu or more daily and if you get the flu increase it. 

Aug 19 2009, 10:20 AM EST

Regulation of Antimicrobial Peptide by Vitamin D Found to Have Been

Conserved for 60M Years Continue reading Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System →

breast-feeding, pregnancy, vitamin-d

Nursing Mothers, Infants and Vitamin D

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While I used to think otherwise, I firmly believe that nursing mothers should supplement both themselves and their babies with Vitamin D.  The exceptions to this are mothers who live south of Atlanta, who Breastfeedingtogether with their babies are out of doors without sunscreen between 11:00 am and 1:00pm and who don’t use soap when they wash (because it washes away the D2 oil involved in the process of making D3.)  We used to have government programs to encourage parents to take children out into the sun.   See this informative and entertaining video from UCSD.

In Finland, babies were routinely given cod liver oil providing 4500 iu of D (and modern cod liver oil is NOT recommended for it due to lower D/A ratios).  Then, since research showed that rickets could be  prevented at 400 iu, the recommended daily amount was lowered.  As a result, Type 1 Diabetes skyrocketed.  We have very good data showing that 90% of Type 1 Childhood Diabetes can be eliminated by Vitamin D supplementation.

Finland Diabetes and D chart
The link between Vitamin D and Type 2 diabetes in children is less supported but there is good evidence that it may also play a role.

Vitamin D deficiency may also play a role in some autism.  The blood levels of Vitamin D in autistics is generally low.

Vitamin D Council’s John Cannell, MD, (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health/autism/ is convinced that vitamin D deficiency is linked to autism and that the autism “epidemic” started at the exact same time that the vitamin D deficiency epidemic started. As soon as we started limiting sun exposure and using sunscreens, the number of autism cases shot up.  Science Magazine published a similar article.  There are groups of Somali children in Sweden and Minnesota who are hugely overrepresented among autistics, with the only real difference between their lighter skinned peers is that their skin color prevents Vitamin D absorption.  It is correlation, but is compelling.

I have here a number of articles on Vitamin D and its health benefits.  While theoretical toxicity is a potential problem, it is hard to get high enough to be toxic.  And since 13,000  Finnish babies managed on 4500 iu, then we have good evidence that isn’t so high.

While it is very important that a pregnant or nursing mother have high D levels, it isn’t easy to do that from diet alone. Most of us drink less milk,  eat less liver or organ meat, don’t go out into the sun around noon without sunscreen and we wash the oils off of our skin that might be turned into the vitamin.  We are also heavier, which reduces Vitamin D.  Our foods used to have a lot more D:  cattle grazed in the sunlight foraging for wild plants, wild fish ate plankton instead of Purina fish meal, and pigs and chickens weren’t penned indoors.  The supplementation of Vitamin D from irradiated milk is insufficient to make up for the loss.  And your prenatal vitamins won’t have enough because the RDA is too low.

If your skin is dark, chances are that your D levels are low.  The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) found African Americans were low: just 3 percent of blacks sampled in 2004 were found to have the recommended levels compared with 12 percent  two decades ago.  If you don’t have it, you can’t pass it through your milk.  Breastfed infants have been taken away from nursing African American mothers on suspicion of abuse because they had hidden fractures from rickets and were not tested for them.  Since we are out of our ecological niche, we no longer have the natural sources of Vitamin D at our disposal and we probably need to supplement.

I would personally take 10,000 iu during pregnancy and lactation, more if I had conditions that reduce Vitamin D like dark skin, autoimmune disease, diabetes or obesity.  I would personally give my baby 2000 iu, and would massage in a D-supplemented skin oil (even if I had to add it in myself.)  We would both spend time in the noonday sun without sunscreen.  And just to be safe, I would ask for 25-hydroxy-D blood tests to make sure I was getting it high enough.

Research on D in Pregnancy and Lactation from the Vitamin D Council.

alternative-health, cancer, sunlight, vitamin-d

How To Get Vitamin D from the Sun

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How do you get enough Vitamin D from the sun?  If you can fulfill the following, you might get enough:vitamin-d

  1. You live south of Atlanta in the winter.
  2. You are in the sun from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.
  3. Your body is mostly uncovered.
  4. You go without sunscreen for at least 15-20 minutes.
  5. You don’t use soap for 48 hours.
  6. You repeat the process in 72 hours.
  7. Your skin is not dark, either from genetics or suntanning. (You may need six times as much exposure if your skin is dark.)

Unless you fit all of these conditions, you need to supplement.  And a multi-vitamin or calcium plus D supplement will NOT have enough Vitamin D, nor will your milk.  You need to supplement with high iu Vitamin D3, preferably above 4000 iu.  If your blood 25 hydroxy D test is below 70 (ignore “high”, “medium” and “low” because that is based on the averages of a D-deficient population,) then supplement it.  The exception is if you have scleroderma or similar abnormal calcium metabolism.

Other ways to supplement:  frequent consumption of liver, preferably from organic animals.  Shitake or other mushrooms dried gill side up in the sun on a daily dose of about one ounce dry weight, cooked long and low.

Calculations from studies on Vitamin D show that, for every person who dies of skin cancer from UV overexposure, more than two hundred will die from other cancers, like lung, breast, prostate and colon, as a result of low vitamin D levels.

See Related Posts:

Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

Nursing Mothers, Infants and Vitamin D

And More On Vitamin D

Vitamin D Prevents Cancer, Type 1 Diabetes, MS, Heart Attack and Pain

alternative-health, liver, vitamin-d

And more on Vitamin D

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This is a very funny and informative video on Vitamin D, with images that will stick with you.  (I especially liked his publication strategy to get new patients.)

  • Infant chimps, which we have already seen need similar Vitamin D to humans can take 5000 iu per day.
  • Collagen without sufficient Vitamin D is like putting Jello in water- it gets softer and can’t support the bones.
  • Iguana owners have a better idea of Vitamin D needs than most doctors. (And the pictures of Vitamin D deficient iguanas will stick with you.)
  • Vitamin D is responsible for regulating the blood pressure hormone rennin, and for combating elevated levels of C-reactive protein in your body.
  • Malignant melanoma usually appears in areas without exposure to sun, and working out of doors lowers your malignant melanoma rate.
  • Squamous cell skin cancer is the only cancer that occurs more in sunbathers, the ones that will kill you are lower.
  • Vitamin D toxicity occurred in a Florida lawyer who was taking 1 million iu of Vitamin D for two years due to a manufacturing accident.  When they gave him a diuretic and kept him out of the sun for a month, it reversed.
  • While tanning bed enthusiasts get more cancer, they also have higher bone density.

Lots more and hard information:

See Related Posts:

Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

Nursing Mothers, Infants and Vitamin D

How to Get Vitamin D from the Sun

Vitamin D Prevents Cancer, Type 1 Diabetes, MS, Heart Attack and Pain

alternative-health, diabetes, flu, pregnancy, vitamin-d

Vitamin D Prevents Cancer, Type 1 Diabetes, MS, Heart Attack and Pain

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Watching this You-Tube video from the University of California at San Diego might be one of the best things you can do for your health. It explains clearly and in detail which levels of vitamin D3 are necessary to prevent a great variety of diseases. Rickets, the disease our woefully inadequate RDA was designed to prevent, needs very little Vitamin D.    Cancers, diabetes, heart attack, falls, fractures, hypertension, neurological impairment, even pain will be prevented by raising your blood Vitamin D levels to the recommended range.

I have been taking 10,000 iu of Vitamin D3 daily for the last year and am only in the low end of the recommended range.

You can find the charts shown in the video at http://www.grassrootshealth.net

A blood level of Vitamin D (have your doctor test it) should be 40-60 ng/ml, which is likely higher than the reference range of the test. You would need to reach 200 ng/ml to suffer from toxicity. The amount you need to supplement will vary, but is way way higher than you find in any multi.  Unless you seek out a special high concentration vitamin D supplement, you are not getting enough, at least above the Mason-Dixon line (and usually below as well.)

This video puts together the Vitamin D research and offers a public health program designed to raise Vitamin D3 and calcium to levels that would prevent 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer annually in the US and Canada within the next five years. The researchers model also predicted that 75% of deaths from these cancers could be prevented with adequate intake of vitamin D3 and calcium.

In Finland, in the 1960s, mothers gave babies 4500 iu of Vitamin D daily.  When the dosage was lowered to 2000 iu, type 1 diabetes rates began to rise and when the dosage was lowered to 400 iu, the level we usually find in a US multi-vitamin, type 1 diabetes skyrocketed.   With sufficient supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood you can prevent 8/10 cases of type 1 diabetes.  You will rarely find the higher level of Vitamin D recommended for children in the US because we have only focused on the association of Vitamin D and rickets.

Vitamin D helps maintain tight junctions between cells so that signaling is better and viruses or other infectious agents cannot get in between the cells.  Some of those agents will trigger autoimmune reactions.

The chart linked below shows why higher doses are needed for cancer, type 1 diabetes, MS, and a variety of other diseases than rickets- the MDR was based on preventing rickets which responds well enough to low doses of vitamin D.  Note that 35% of all cancers were prevented with at a level of 1000 iu daily, giving a blood level of 38 that is below the recommended range -perhaps much higher prevention would be found if they had tested higher ranges.  Most disease tested were prevented in the 40-60 range, with toxicity not found below 200.   It is all based upon good research:

Disease Incidence Chart

See Related Posts:

Vitamin D Regulates the Immune System

Nursing Mothers, Infants and Vitamin D

How to Get Vitamin D from the Sun

And More On Vitamin D

alternative-health, alzheimers, blood-sugar, coffee, fluids-and-electrolytes

Caffeine Halts Progression of Alzheimers

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More research showing that coffee is not the brew of the devil. Not only does it prevent Alzheimer’s, it stopped the progression of the disease.  But a few caveats: it was caffeine, not coffee; it’s an awfully lot; it was mice, not people and no one asked them if they were jittery.Coffee mouse

From the Times of London:

Daily caffeine dose may delay progress of Alzheimer’s, researchers say

Hannah Devlin

Three large cups of coffee a day could help to slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease and even reverse the condition, researchers say.

A daily dose of caffeine can suppress the degenerative processes in the brain that can lead to confusion and memory loss, a study in mice suggests.

Although drinking coffee has previously been linked to a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, this is the first study to suggest that caffeine can directly target the disease itself.

Alzheimer’s occurs when sticky clumps of abnormal protein in the brain called beta-amyloid build up to form plaques, impairing cognitive function. But mice with a rodent equivalent of the disease showed a 50 per cent reduction in levels of amyloid protein in their brains after scientists spiked their drinking water with caffeine.

The change was reflected in their behaviour as they developed better memories and quicker thinking. In the study, published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers from the University of South Florida studied 55 mice that had been genetically engineered to develop dementia symptoms identical to those of Alzheimer’s as they aged. Before treatment the mice, which were aged 18 to 19 months — about 70 years in human terms — had performed poorly in the memory tests.

Half the animals were given a daily dose of caffeine in their drinking water — equivalent to a human consuming about six espresso shots or 500mg of pure caffeine — while the other half continued to drink ordinary water. By the end of the two-month study, the caffeine-drinking mice were performing far better on tests of memory and thinking than mice given water. Their memories were as sharp as those of healthy older mice without dementia.

The scientists found that when the mice drank caffeinated water their blood levels of beta amyloid protein fell quickly. More importantly, the same effect occurred in the brain. Almost half the abnormal protein previously seen when the brains of Alzheimer’s mice were examined had vanished after two months.

The researchers hope that caffeine could present a safe, inexpensive treatment for dementia.

Professor Gary Arendash, a memory and ageing specialist who led the latest research, said that he wished to conduct human patient trials as soon as possible.

“The findings provide evidence that caffeine could be a viable treatment for established Alzheimer’s disease and not simply a protective strategy,” he said.

A study in 2002 found that people who consumed caffeine in mid-life were 60 per cent less likely to develop the disease.

About 417,000 people in the UK suffer from Alzheimer’s, and numbers are steadily rising. There is currently no cure and although drugs can help stabilise the condition, they are not widely available on the NHS until patients have advanced-stage disease and their effectiveness is relatively unpredictable from person to person.

Taking 500mg of caffeine in tablet form would be safe for most patients and would have relatively few side-effects, Professor Arendash said, although it is not clear how the dosage would translate from mice to humans.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, said that it was too early to say whether coffee or caffeine supplements could help Alzheimer’s patients.

“With no cure yet, research into treatments that could help people with Alzheimer’s is vital. [But] we need to do more research to find out whether this effect will be seen in people,” she said.

Getting perked up

How to get 500mg of caffeine a day:

2 x 250mg caffeine pills

3 x large espresso-based coffees

6 x cans of Red Bull

14 x cans of Coca-Cola

15 x cups of tea

7kg (16 lb) of chocolate

Source: US Food and Drug Administration, University of South Florida

See also:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8132122.stm
 Excerpt:

When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia. Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests.

In addition, the brains of the mice given caffeine showed nearly a 50% reduction in levels of the beta amyloid protein, which forms destructive clumps in the brains of dementia patients. Further tests suggested caffeine affects the production of both the enzymes needed to produce beta amyloid. The researchers also suggest that caffeine suppresses inflammatory changes in the brain that lead to an overabundance of the protein.

See also:  Science Daily article with citations and the mouse picture above.

See Related Posts:

Coffee Herbs

November Herbal Blog Party on Morning Wake Up Beverages

Caffeine Halts Progression of Alzheimer’s

Simple Ways to Support Brain Function

Health Myths About Hydration

Coffee Beats Statins in Reducing Diabetes Inflammation

Fewer Serious or Lethal Prostate Cancers in Male Coffee Drinkers

alternative-health

Male Pelvic Floor Exercises for Sexual Health

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March 25th 2006 – Copyright by Karen Vaughan, L.Ac., MSTOM,  RH (AHG)

I was at a workshop on mens’ diseases recently, and we were discussing ways to keep morning erections and to prevent erectile dysfunction later on.

Men have a lot of assaults on their fertility, hence sexual health in this day and age. Plastics and pesticides put xeno-estrogens into their systems and into the water table. Meats, traditionally good for testosterone, are often from estrogen-treated animals unless organic. Soy, a common meat substitute has high phyto-estrogens levels. Zinc and magnesium, necessary to male health, are missing from the soils. Phythalates from plastic attack androgens (male hormones). Increases in diabetes, coronary artery disease and CVD, along with smoking hurt the arteries filling the penis. Laptops are often used on laps where they heat the scrotum. As a result of stresses to the male system, sperm counts are way down- 3% anually in Europe and 1.5% anually in the US. A recent study showing a 29% decline since the 80s had to be withdrawn because the men were from New York where sperm counts are _higher_ than in most of the rest of the country. So the problem may be worse.

So in addition to avoiding all of the above stressors, studies have shown that pelvic floor exercises can be very useful. You can locate the pelvic floor muscles around your urethra by trying to stop the urine stream while peeing. (Once you find them it is not a good idea to do regularly while urinating.) You can tighten the muscles around your anus by drawing up for 10 seconds. When done properly, the scrotum and base of the phallus should slightly elevate.

To deal with ED, morning erections, or incontinence, do the exercises for 10 seconds each, with 10 seconds in between, 10 times each of three positions: while sitting, standing and lying down. Do three times a day. (Okay if you skip the lying down one at work, do the other two 15 times.) You can also do shorter ones anytime.

Dr. Grace Dorey of Surrey England, a major proponent of pelvic floor exercises undertook a survey of 55 men with an average age of 59 who had experienced erectile dysfunction for six months or more. With the exercises:

40 per cent regained normal erectile function.
35.5 per cent improved
25.5 per cent showed no difference.

The improvement resulting from pelvic floor exercises compared to the use of Viagra had identical results.

Pelvic floor exercises should be combined with squats because strong glutes help the pelvic floor muscles lengthen.  You need good muscle tone when the muscles are both contracted and when lengthened.

All men should do some form of pelvic floor exercises to maintain health and we should teach our sons to do it too. -We teach them all kinds of other exercises and these will be a major factor in their well-being for life. Feel free to forward this onto your sons if you would rather not talk about it with them.

There is a good article with illustrations at:
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/features/pelvicexercises_003841.htm

And there is a good video illustrating male pelvic floor exercises:

Contact Member:
Acupuncture and Herbs by Karen Vaughan, L.Ac.
253 Garfield Place 1R
Brooklyn, NY 11215 US
(718) 622-6755
Credits:
Dr. Grace Dorsey, Peter Deadman, http://www.bbc.co.uk/relationships/sex_and_sexual_health/exercise_pelvicm.shtml http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/features/pelvicexercises_003841.htm
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alternative-health

Vinegar, lemon juice and lactic acid fermented fruits and vegetables can reduce blood sugar spikes, lower the glycemic index of foods being fermented and can cause weight loss. Information on how to make lactic acid fermented foods.

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Vinegar, lemon juice and lactic acid fermented fruits and vegetables can reduce blood sugar spikes, lower the glycemic index of foods being fermented and can cause weight loss. Information on how to make lactic acid fermented foods.

January 29th 2005 – Acidic Foods, Fermentation and Blood Sugar
copyright by Karen S. Vaughan, L.Ac.,MSTOM

Eating acid foods- vinegar, lemon juice or lactic acid fermented foods- can reduce blood sugar spikes after meals, giving glycemic control comparable to Metformin. It has the greatest effect in people who are at risk of diabetes but still test within normal ranges. As such it is a good practice for all meals, and reflects traditional practices of most ethnicities.

Nutritionist Carol S. Johnston of Arizona State University East in Mesa has found that 2 tablespoons of vinegar before a meal can dramatically lower the increased insulin and blood sugar (glucose) levels that typically occur in people who have type 2 diabetes. In her study, she looked at 29 people divided into type 2 diabetics, diagnosed pre-diabetics, and a control with no signs of diabetes. Measuring blood levels after a high-carb breakfast, Johnston found that vinegar improved the readings for all 3 groups, but results were most dramatic among those who were prediabetic. In their case, vinegar cut their blood sugar increase in the first hour after eating by as much as half, a greater reduction than was found with normal participants. Diabetics lowered their blood glucose levels by 25% with the vinegar. The study was a crossover, placebo-controlled study.

In another study, Johnston had half the volunteers take a 2-tablespoon dose of vinegar prior to each of two meals daily for 4 weeks, and the other group members were told to avoid vinegar. Interestingly, the vinegar users had an average 2 pound weight loss over 4 weeks (as much as 4 weeks in some participants), compared to constant average weight in the group not drinking vinegar. There was no improvement in cholesterol, whcih was tested as a likely mechanism for the blood sugar control.

A 2001 paper from Lund University in Sweden evaluated pickles—cucumbers preserved in vinegar—as a dietary supplement to lower the blood-sugar rise in healthy people after a meal. The Swedish team, led by Elin M. Östman, reported that pickles dramatically blunted the blood-sugar spike after a high-carb breakfast. Fresh cucumbers didn’t affect the blood sugar spike.

Traditionally pickled vegetables like sauerkraut, pickles, olives, kimchee, and other lactic and acetic acid fermented foods were served with meals to improve digestion. The probiotic bacteria in these foods as well as the acetic acid can reduce digestive problems. Note that actual vinegar or pickled foods seem to do the trick but vinegar supplements don’t work, because they don’t contain acetic acid, which, based on studies, is the ingredient Johnstons suspects is helping control blood sugar. (1)

Fermented foods also reduce blood glucose levels. The natural fermentation of starch and sugars by a yeast starter culture that produces lactic and propionic acid is what makes sourdough bread. In a third study the glycemic index of sourdough bread was 68 compared 100 for non-sourdough bread. Cornmeal loses 88% of its glycemic index when fermented into the Ghanain dish ga kenkey. Fermented vegetables are a traditional component of Korean, Japanese and traditional European cooking.

Rick Mendoza’s site quotes a woman who tried lactic acid fermentation (fermentation with whey instead of vinegar) of beets and apples and recorded their effect on her mother’s blood sugar after 2 hours. Normally beets and apples will cause her blood sugar to spike, but when fermented they had no effect on the blood sugar. The fermented apples were cooked into apple sauce and did not cause a sugar spike either. (2)

Other acids are believed to be similarly effective. Lemon or lime juice in water can reduce blood glucose, according to Professor Jennie-Brand Miller of the University of Sydney, author of the glycemic index. (3) Kombucha is a vinegar made by fermenting tea and sugar with a gelatinous “mushroom” mother culture drunk for health reasons and its benefits may be due to similar mechanisms.

Note that taking vinegar in salad dressing, over meat or in pickled food may be perferable to the taste of drinking vinegar.  However I routinely drink blueberry or balsamic vinegar diluted in a cup of water and the taste is not objectionable.   Lemon or lime juice in water before breakfast is excellent for the liver and may be more readily accepted in the morning.

Sally Fallon’s excellent cookbook, Nourishing Traditions (4) describes making lactic acid fermented vegetables or fruits which will convert the starches and sugars of fruits and vegetables into lactic acid and creates beneficial enzymes.  The lactobacilli are ubiquitous, present on all living things, especially on leaves and roots. However with our long term transportation of food, it is better to add the whey drained from live plain yogurt.

Chop the vegetables and lay in a clean mason jar. Add 2 Tablespoons whey and 2 teaspoons sea salt per cup of water. Fill to within an inch of the top of the jar and tightly cap as lactic acid fermentation is an anerobic process. Leave in a warm room for two days, then move to cold storage. The vegetables can be eaten at once but develop better flavor in 2 months. They are meant to be eaten as condiments rather than as main courses. Don’t worry about white scum or foam which may form on the top. If a batch goes bad it will smell so bad that nothing could persuade you to eat it.

If the vegetables get soft, throw them into a soup stock made with bones from organic meat and boil down to make the mineral-rich gelled stock that helps prevent blood sugar spikes and lowers the glycemic index of the carbohydrates that accompany it. The acid will help pull the gelatin out of the bones and the minerals from the vegetables.

Resources:
(1) http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050101/food.asp
(2) http://www.mendosa.com/acidic_foods.htm
(3)Brand-Miller, Jennie, Kaye Foster-Powell, and David Mendosa. “What is the advantage of vinegar, lemon juice, and sourdough bread?” in What Makes My Blood Glucose Go Up…and Down? New York: Marlowe & Company, 2003, p. 141-2.
This is by far the most extensive discussion of the advantage of acidic foods in the popular literature
(4) Fallon, Sally, Enig, Mary and Connolly,Pat. Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats. San Diego: ProMotion Publishing. pp81-109
Contact Member:
Acupuncture and Herbs by Karen Vaughan, L.Ac.
253 Garfield Place 1R
Brooklyn, NY 11215 US
(718) 622-6755

Credits:
Rick Mendoza, Sally Fallon

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