Welcome to Natural Health Q&A

The purpose of this newsletter is to give individuals with questions regarding natural health a forum where their questions can be answered by Dr. Hugh Smith. Dr. Smith has 30 years of experience helping families and individuals live healthier lives. Their complaints range from fibromyalgia and deep vein thrombosis to arthritis and cancer.

Nothing in this newsletter should be construed as medical advice and, as always, you should consult with a physician concerning your health.

The forum is simple. Send us a question and we will endeavor to answer it in as simple a manner as possible in the upcoming issue. I have always believed that simple is usually the answer. Unfortunately, many practitioners attempt to solve every problem immediately even though the symptoms may be linked with each other (and usually are).

If you are buying into the “let’s treat every symptom naturally” routine, you are probably going to be disappointed. I have seen people leave a “natural care” practitioner’s office with hundreds of dollars of supplement only to have nothing happen, but a somewhat lighter bank account.

There are many factors that lead up to a chronic condition and, without seeing a client, it is often difficult to make hard and fast rules and solutions. So please understand that we will try to give you the answer with the available information you supply.

Thank you

Dr. Smith

Our first question comes from a lady in East County.

Q “I’ve had Rheumatoid arthritis for a number of years and have been on several medications including methotrexate. Can I get off my meds and can I get relief without the medication(s)?"

A Actually, there may be two causes that I have dealt with over the past number of years; mycoplasma arthritides and/or parasites.

Both are relatively simple to address. Mycoplasma arthritides is a cell wall deficient form that defies treatment with antibiotics. In essence, it is the smallest piece of DNA that can live without a cell wall. It needs your body’s DNA to survive.

This pathogen does not actually cause the damage it is your leukocytes (white blood cells or macrophages) that, in doing their job, actually cause damage to the joints by overloading the system with super oxides.

It is these super oxides that damage the cartilage and cause the inflammation. (I suggest you Google mycoplasma arthritides for more details).

What we have here is a condition whereby the pathogens cannot be killed by standard means because they are highly pleomorphic. In other words, they can adapt at any given time to act like a virus or bacteria.

The difficulty is that because they are neither bacterial or viral, they cannot be cultured from a standard culture procedure and must be done so in a either a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) or blood agar culturing medium. (These cultures can be “iffy” so I suggest a PCR).

To kill the mycoplasmas, one needs a supplement that will, in effect, stun the pathogen long enough for the white cells to “pick up the trail.” There are several that I have had much success with; olive leaf extract and cat’s claw (with several variations).

The olive leaf extract(s) I have found most effective, contain at least 15% oleuropean (the active ingredient in olive leaf extract) and say so on the label. The best form of Cat’s claw I have used is Samento available from Nutramedix in Florida and some health food stores here in San Diego.

The dosages listed on the labels are usually insufficient ot really help so my suggestions follow.

For olive leaf and Rheumatoid arthritis, I suggest 1 500 mg capsule every two waking hours for 90 days. This is usually sufficient to see results in a few weeks. Once the damaging pathogen is effectively disabled, the patient will probably need to repair the damage done. (We’ll chat about that later).

Samento is actually a purified and concentrated form of Cat’s Claw (Una d’gato). The usual dosage should be either 10 drops in 2 ounces of water 3x daily or 15 drops 2x daily.

This is preferably done on an empty stomach. This too, should be done for three months.

To support repair of the affected joints (after the initial run of Samento or olive leaf is completed), start a dosage of 1500 mg of glucosomine sulfate with chondroitin taken 3x daily.

You may find that a small dosage of Samento or Olive Leaf is required on a maintenance dosage for a while, perhaps 1-2 caps of the olive leaf daily is usually sufficient.

If the arthritis is being caused by mycoplasma arthritides, this protocol has shown to be very effective.

I hope that helps our young lady in East County and look forward to the next question from our readers. Feel free to write your questions to Dr. Smith.

Dr. Smith

Announcement for upcoming lecture held at our offices in Sorrento Valley.
"Hormones; staying healthy and younger longer." 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. January 10, 2009. Seating is limited and RSVP is required.