Ephedra
Well, as predicted, the FDA has launched its final attack on ephedra and announced its intention to have it banned. As I have stated before, I am not a great fan of ephedra for weight-loss. Yes, despite claims to the contrary by the establishment, it does help people lose weight (as several million people can attest to). And no, also despite claims by the establishment, it is not particularly dangerous when used responsibly. Certainly not as dangerous as aspirin or hamburger, for that matter.
The problem I’ve always had is that people don’t use it responsibly. They use it as a crutch, and stay on it too long — eventually draining their adrenals. But that was never the issue for the holier-than-thou hounds of hell. Indeed, the hypocrisy from the medical commentators on television and radio proclaiming the dangers of ephedra, and how the FDA didn’t go far enough and acted too slowly is sickening. Please! These are the same doctors who promoted fen-phen and Hormone Replacement Therapy and who knows what else on the same venues over the past few years, and then flipped 1800 the moment research pointed in a different direction. Oh, and did I forget to mention that you will still be able to buy pure ephedrine, the active ingredient in ephedra, to your heart’s content, in cold capsules available in supermarkets and pharmacies all over the world with no restrictions. It really is true; hypocrisy has no bounds.
Anyway, the purpose of my diatribe is not to bemoan the loss of ephedra for weight-loss, but rather to remind you once again about the way it was done. The danger is not to ephedra, but in the precedent that has been set.
- Turn loose the media hounds with inflated scare stories about an herb or supplement.
- Create enough noise so that the insurance companies refuse to issue policies to any company that manufactures or sells those herbs.
- Get enough companies to stop selling the supplement so that eventually when you ban it, there is very little outcry since few people have a vested interest in selling it anymore .
- And so, while all of the herb companies and alternative health consumer action groups jump up on en masse to attack any major piece of legislation that appears threatening, the FDA can literally work quietly in the background outside their mandate to pick off any herb or supplement they want one-by-one — and no one seems to notice.
But enough of that. Let’s get to some health issues.
Dealing with SARS and the Flu
By now, virtually everyone of us has either had, or knows someone who has had, the really nasty flu making its way back and forth across the world right now. Also, almost unnoticed, SARS has appeared once again in China. Now, it’s unlikely that we need to fear a major outbreak, but just in case, the same steps apply to dealing with both the flu and SARS. Both are viral, and both love to hang out in the lungs. So what should you do?
Prevention
It’s a whole lot easier to prevent these diseases, or nip them in the bud, than to reverse them once they’ve taken hold. The odds of getting either are minimal if you:
- Minimize your intake of refined carbohydrates and dairy which severely compromise your immune system.
- Keep your immune system optimized with supplements of
- Echinacea (As you can see, I don’t think very much of the recent JAMA study.)
- Acemannan
- Beta Glucan
- Take lots of garlic or olive leaf extract at the first sign of illness. This is key. We always get warning signs before these things hit — scratchy throat, thickening mucous, the first sign of a dull achy feeling, increased blowing of the nose, etc. These warning signs appear a good 24 hours before the virus really takes hold. If you ramp up the garlic and/or olive leaf extract at that point, you almost always stop the virus in its tracks. If Kristen and I ever notice any of these symptoms, we will down a whole bottle of Mega Garlic that evening. Invariably, all symptoms are gone the next morning.
- And be sure to increase the amount of proteolytic enzymes you are taking. They actually work to digest the viruses throughout your body.
If you come down with the full blown flu
As I said, it’s much harder at this point, but it’s still possible to greatly shorten the length of your illness — something antibiotics will not do.
- Increase your intake of echinacea, acemannan, beta glucan, garlic, and olive leaf extract
- Use a nebulizer with colloidal silver to get the mist into the lungs where it can work directly on the virus
- Increase your intake of proteolytic enzymes to digest the viruses
Remember, prevention is much easier. Just look around you. Every season, some people get sick, and others don’t. And it’s not the flu shot that makes the difference. It’s the strength of the immune system. Take the steps you need to put yourself among the healthy. And if you do get sick, attack the virus aggressively and minimize your down time.
