Re: about muscular dystrophy

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Muscular Dystrophy
A Cure for Muscular Dystrophy? Dr. VanMeter, in the October, 1953, issue of California Medicine, announced that he had used amino acids and selected vitamins in 10 muscular dystrophy patients over a period ranging from two months to a year, with noticeable improvement in the patients. No drugs were involved. Dr. VanMeterâs reasoning went like this: he figured that there might be, in dystrophy patients, a failure of the digestive system to split protein foods into amino acids. Normally, proteins (which are composed of amino acids) are broken down into these various amino acids by the digestive system. Then they are recombined by the various body enzymes, into new body-building tissues, like muscle tissue. If anything goes wrong in this process, the proteins cannot be utilized to build tissue.

Dr. VanMeter prepares amino acids by having them predigested so that the body does not have this job to perform. Certain doses of vitamins are also given in conjunction with the treatment, since vitamins form a part of the chemical structure in which enzymes can work in the body. The results obtained in patients included increase in size of wasted muscles, restoration of normal respiratory action and relief of depression. Says Science News Letter, reporting on the article, one woman, a complete invalid, was able to resume all her household chores, after treatment. We do not know what causes muscular dystrophy, but all research has pointed to the fact that it is nutritional in origin. In 1861, it was first described as a disease separate from other forms of paralysis. Boys are affected more often than girls.

The disease quite often afflicts members of the same family. Then, too, it has been found that the mother often gives a record of very poor diet before the birth of the child who later develops muscular dystrophy. The child may be born after several recurrent abortions, for instance, which appear to indicate serious lack in the diet of many important factors, including vitamin E.

In general, the disease may come on in the form of great muscular weakness in the legs and back, so that the patient has trouble walking. Gradually, the paralysis spreads until he is unable to move at all. Respiratory muscles may be affected to such an extent that the patient is unable to cough, so if he contracts even a slight cold, he may suffocate since he cannot cough to remove mucus from his throat or chest. Weakness of legs, lateness in beginning to walk, slowness in running, frequent falls, lordosis (sway back) and prominent stomach-these are easily recognized symptoms of muscular dystrophy in children. In some cases, the disease attacks the arm, shoulder and face muscles before the legs, resulting in a strange expression on the face and possibly inability to close the eyes.

Dr. VanMeter believes the answer lies in the body not being able to use proteins correctly. Earlier researchers have believed the cause of the disease to be the inability to use vitamin E properly. Perhaps the two are related. Perhaps diseases that result in destruction of vitamin E (such as sprue, celiac disease and other diseases involving diarrhea) may also bring about inability to use proteins properly. Perhaps vitamin E is necessary for proper usage of protein by the body. At any rate, whether or not both these factors turn out to be involved in producing this tragic disease, we can be sure that medical science is at last on the right track in ferreting out the cause of muscular dystrophy.

Muscular Dystrophy A Multiple Deficiency? In rabbits and other laboratory animals, muscular dystrophy (which means literally ãfaulty nutrition of musclesä) results from a diet in which there is no vitamin E. One might believe that the same thing is true for human beings, except for two things: first, most human beings get some vitamin E, no matter how poor a diet they eat; second, most human beings do not get enough of the other vitamins necessary for good nutrition. Laboratory animals which live on carefully planned diets get plenty of all these. So perhaps the answer lies in combinations of vitamins. A good diet should be rich in all the vitamins and minerals.

Here is an article strengthening this point of view. E. L. Hove and D. H. Copeland, of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, wrote, in the July, 1954, Journal of Nutrition, on progressive muscular dystrophy in rabbits as a result of chronic choline deficiency. Choline is a B vitamin. These authors tell us that one of the functions of vitamin E in the body is to bring about the synthesis of a substance called acetylcholine from choline and acetate. This tells us that vitamin E is bound closely with this particular B vitamin, choline, in at least one important body function. Another B vitamin, pantothenic acid, is also involved to a certain extent.

Therefore, say these authors, a deficiency in choline should produce muscular dystrophy as well as a deficiency in vitamin E. To see if it does, they designed a diet in which there was little or no choline, and placed a group of laboratory rabbits on this diet. Other groups of rabbits, eating the same diet, were given choline so they would not have this deficiency. All of the rabbits whose diet was deficient in choline developed muscular dystrophy between the seventieth and hundredth day on the diet. The symptoms of muscular dystrophy were identical in all respects to those of the dystrophy of rabbits deficient in vitamin E. When choline was added to the diet, all signs of muscle weakness disappeared in 4 days.

When the rabbits were examined at postmortem, it was found that the degeneration of muscle which had taken place was similar to that found in vitamin E-deficient rabbits. Then the investigators tried something else. They knew that a deficiency in choline produces damage to the liver. Damage to the liver interferes with the bodyâs assimilation of vitamin E. Perhaps, reasoned the researchers, the muscular dystrophy produced by lack of choline was really the same thing they had seen before.

Maybe the lack of choline simply resulted in a lack of vitamin E-and what they were actually seeing was the same thing they saw in rabbits who got no vitamin E in their diet. They would have to devise some way to test the choline-deficient diet only. So they began to give their rabbits vitamin E in large quantities about 10 times the amount they know is needed. Interestingly enough, they knew, from former experiments, that animals who develop liver disorders as a result of choline deficiency have a greatly increased need for vitamin E! So, at the same time their liver disorder is preventing them from making use of whatever vitamin E is in their diet, this same disorder is causing them to need more vitamin E than they normally would!

By giving large doses of vitamin E, other researchers managed to see to it that the animals were not deficient in vitamin E. They could tell this by testing the vitamin E content of their blood. In this way, they knew for certain that the disease was not produced by a vitamin E deficiency, but by a deficiency in choline. In some respects, they tell us, the kind of disorder produced by choline deficiency is more like that seen in human beings. The significance of the present findings, they say, is that vitamin E deficiency may be from a choline deficiency. However, in human muscular dystrophy, there is not usually evidence of severe liver damage.

We have here another chain in the link showing the complexity of nutritional relationships and the harmfulness of tampering with food. Vitamin E (a fat-soluble vitamin) is closely related in its function to one of the minor B vitamins. Perhaps a deficiency in both of them might be partly responsible for human dystrophy. How are we to know what other vitamins will be found in future experiments to be related to these same functions?

We Are Deficient in Vitamins B and E. Would it be possible for a modern human being to be deficient in both vitamin E and choline? It is not only possible, but almost completely certain that anyone who eats refined foods is bound to be short in both these vitamins. They are most plentiful in the germs of cereals-those living parts of our grains which we remove and discard when we make white flour, white rice, when we produce cold breakfast cereals, pearled barley, refined corn meal, cornstarch and all the many products made from these devitalized foods. ãUse enriched flour,ä say the articles in the womenâs magazines.

Cereal products are enriched by replacing synthetically a few of the vitamins and minerals that have been removed when the germ is removed. Iron and a few of the B vitamins are added. Vitamin E is not replaced. Choline and all the other minor members of the B complex of vitamins are not replaced. Since cereals are our richest, practical, everyday source of both these food elements, do you see what damage may have been done by food refining-especially to those people who may have abnormally large requirements for one or both of these vitamins?

In addition, remember that both vitamins are destroyed by a number of chemicals to which most of us are exposed frequently. Chlorine destroys vitamin E. Does chlorinated water? We donât know, but it seems likely. Most of us are eating many foods that have been bleached with chlorine compounds. Rancid fats destroy vitamin E. Foods fried in fats used over and over again are bound to contain rancid fats. How many Americans eat fried foods almost every day?

Proof of Vitamin Therapy. As proof of the importance of all the elements of good diet for prevention of muscular dystrophy, we present the following facts: Dr. Walter Eddy, writing in Vitaminology (Williams and Wilkins), states that definite improvement was noted in muscular dystrophy patients treated with wheat germ oil. He said, too, that adding the vitamin B complex to the vitamin E-rich wheat germ oil ãappeared to increase the value of the vitamin E.ä Stone, writing in Archives of Pediatrics, Vol. 49, 1949, tells us of 25 muscular dystrophy children treated with fresh wheat germ oil, vitamin E, B, and vitamin C every day, all of whom improved and one of whom recovered completely.

Finally, there is the muscular dystrophy case completely cured by Dr. W. Coda Martin, as described in International Record of Medicine and General Practice Clinics for February, 1954. Dr. Martin cured this 17 month-old girl with a diet and diet supplements, after she had been discharged as hopeless by physicians at Babies Hospital. His article stresses the fact that diet therapy, to be successful, must be complete, intensive and persistent. No laxness which permits you to ãbreak rulesä one or two days a week. No relaxing on rules for holidays or trips. Diet therapy must be complete, intensive and persistent. We are going to print here the exact diet on which this little girl returned to perfect health after a diagnosis of ãhopeless.ä

1. Low cholesterol, low fat diet, free of refined sugars and carbohydrates. (The first provision is not to be recommended for normal children whose bodies can handle fat successfully, but the ãfree of refined sugars and carbohydratesä is surely an excellent recommendation for all.)

2. Only whole grain bread and cereal (sprouted or boiled is even better). (No bakery bread; no ready to-eat cereal, in spite of all the inducements of the prizes every box top will bring.)

3. Certified raw milk (rather than pasteurized or evaporated milk, raw goats milk is best).

4. Fresh raw fruits and vegetables daily extra vegetable and fruit juices. (We suspect that most mothers these days try their best to get their children to eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables, but, we might as well face it, a child who has filled up on candy, ice cream and pop simply cannot be interested in a raw vegetable. And note that this child ate not only fresh fruits and vegetables every day, but fruit and vegetable juices, in addition, every day.)

5. Raw fresh calvesâ liver (juice or rare broiled liver) daily. (It seems logical to expect that eating liver, especially raw liver, would work wonders for someone with a liver disorder. Liver is a wonderfully healthful food for all of us, and how many children are brought up without ever having tasted it! Serve it at least once a week.)

6. Lean meat (lamb is the best of red meat), fish or fowl. (To supply protein. If your children get enough first-class protein they will not be so hungry for the forbidden sweets.)

7. Nutritional supplements. Vitamin E (natural tocopherols). Desiccated liver capsules. (What, in addition to liver every day at meals? Yes, indeed.) Multiple vitamins (including all the B vitamins, as well as vitamins C, A and D). Lipotropic substances. Crude liver and vitamin B, intramuscularly daily.
Suggested Products
Begin your morning with a warm cup of 4427 Daily Health Tea, 1 cup, 2 hours before breakfast, then again 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours after dinner.

Add the following into the tea:
4339 Trumanâs Essiac Tea ----- 2 oz.
1013 Arthritis Formula ----- 24 drops.
1017 Bones/Hair/Teeth/Fingernails ----- 24 drops.
1072 Rheumatism ----- 24 drops.
1284 Immune System ----- 24 drops.
7017 Gland Formula ----- 1 tsp.
1477 CAC (colon & liver cleanser) Liquid ----- 1 Tbs (more or less as needed to keep bowel movements very soft).

And take:
8968 L-Carnitine ----- 250 mg (1 capsule).
8969 L-Cysteine ----- 500 mg (1 tablet).
8975 L-Phenylalanine ----- 500 mg (1 capsule).
8972 L-Histidine ----- 600 mg (1 capsule).
8976 L-Taurine ----- 500 mg (1 capsule).
8964 Glucosamine Sulfate ----- 750 mg (1 tablet), 2 times daily between food.

1/2 hour before Pineapple Drink take:
8413 Acidophilus powder ----- 1/4 teaspoon.
8415 Colostrum ----- 1/4 teaspoon.

To Pineapple Drink add the following:
3600 Super Veggie Powder ----- 1/4 teaspoon (and take again in evening with juice, water or on food).
3349 Fiber ----- 1 teaspoon - 2 tablespoons (as needed, to keep bowel movements thick).
8560 Bentonite Clay ----- 1 teaspoon.
8970 Lecithin powder ----- 1 tablespoon.
2408 Beta Carotene ----- 50,000 USP (2 softgels), 2 times/day for one month only, then 1 time/day.
2364 Esterified C ----- 4,000 mg (4 tablets), 2 times/day (AM and PM).
2801 Hi-C 500 w/bioflavinoids ----- 500 mg (1 tablet), 3 times/day.
2805 B Complex ----- 100 mg (1 capsule), 2 times/day (and extra B-1, B-12, biotin, niacin, pantothenic acid).
8371 COQ-10 ----- 30 mg (1 tablet), 3 times/day.
9986 Mineral Complex ----- 3 tablets, 2 times/day (AM and before bed).
9983 Cal-Mag ----- 3 tablets, 2 times/day (AM and before bed).
9984 Super EPA Fish Oil lipids ----- 2 softgels, 2 times/day.
8981 Pycnogenol ----- 60 mg (2 capsules), 3 times/day.
6932 Garlic (odorless) ----- 1000 mg (2 capsules), 3 times/day (or 1 raw clove, minced).
2806 E-400 ----- 800 UI (2 softgels), 1 time/day.
8026 Digestive Enzymes ----- 1 - 2 with each cooked meal.
2397 Multi-Vita-Herb ----- 1 tablet with Pineapple Drink.

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