Things They Don’t Teach You

When I was 20 years old, I hurt myself pretty severely. Not just once, but several times.   I blame God for this, because for some reason when I was manufactured, the owner’s manual was not included with my model (I’m sure you got yours).   So I didn’t know you could not do stupid things, and expect no long lasting ramifications.

As a result, I live with pain on a daily basis.   I have learned to live with constant pain, work long hours, and have a happy family— all without becoming an alcoholic or prescription drug junkie.   I think I would have made a good spy; I can take pain.   So when the KGB started pulling out my fingernails, I would just smile through gritted teeth, tears rolling down my face—- AND TELL THEM ANY DAMN THING THEY WANTED TO KNOW!!

The years of pain pushed me to be in the best physical shape I could be in.   I took martial arts, I peddled thousands of miles on my bike, swam hundreds of miles in the pool, lifted weights, ate right, and took a zillion supplements.   Initially, I did all this to reduce the pain.   By and large, it works.   Along the way there have been unfortunate miscalculations (Oh my God, I took 2000 mg instead of 20 mg??!), as well as brilliant revelations (Wow, I can lift a truck!).

I promised I would outline the supplements that I take, why I take them, and what they do.   And I’m almost to that point.   But for this column, I want to talk about a mistep that brought a revelation.

About 10 years ago, I tried my hand at day trading.   I was getting fairly good at it, and was making some nice change on the side.   Unfortunately, I don’t have the personality to do this!   When you’re shuffling $10k-20K around with only minutes to react, your stress level goes up astronomically.   And I developed constant heartburn which evolved into esophageal reflux (GERD).   At its worst, it no longer felt like heartburn, but more like someone driving a stake through my chest, as the hydrochloric acid ate little holes in my esophagus.   I could easily  identify with a vampire’s death at the hands of Buffy.

After months of doctor visits and dreadful tests, and wearing a ph monitor for several days (a wire stuck up your nose and into your belly. Nonstop fun that DeSade would have enjoyed), I was finally put on Prilosec, then ultimately Nexium.   And this seemed to control it.   The only side effects was muscle cramps (no acid in stomach to absorb minerals and B vitamins), and constipation (poorly digested food in intestines because of no acid).   Over time, I could deal with the reflux thanks to Nexium.   But, I progressively began to feel “not quite right.”   To the point that it would interfere with my bike rides and swimming (muscle cramps).

Then I read an interesting article by Dr. Robert Rowen ( go to http://www.secondopinionnewsletter.com to join).   He quoted an article by Dr. Ricardo Pereira that followed 351 patients with heartburn.   The study lasted almost 4 years.   Patients were given a proton pump inhibitor (omeprazole  )  or a supplement cocktail (proton pump inhibitors are drugs like Nexium or Prilosec).   After 40 days, 100% of those patients taking the supplement cocktail said their symptoms were gone; whereas only 67.5% of the omeprazole group showed improvement.   So as usual, I decided to experiment on myself.

Before I go into the supplement cocktail, let me tell you about proton pump inhibitors.   The proton pump (think of them as acid factories) are used throughout your body, not just your stomach; but also in your bones.   If you take a drug to shut down the proton pumps, then your stomach and bones no longer use them.   Alkaline minerals in your stomach (like calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, etc.) need acid to be dissolved; suddenly you’re not getting these life essential minerals.   In your bones, there are two cells that work constantly to make strong bones; osteoclasts (break down old bone), and osteoblasts (build new bone).   Osteoclasts and osteoblasts are constantly tearing down and rebuilding vibrant, strong bone.   But, if the osteoclasts can’t tear down the old bone (because proton pumps are shut down), then the osteoblasts deposit new bone on top of old, making bones denser and more brittle.

Dr. Yu-Xiao Yang of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine published a study in JAMA that detailed hip fractures in people over 50, compared to a similar group of healthy people.   They found that after just 1 year of using proton pump inhibitors (PPI), your risk of hip fracture increased 44%!   Long term PPI users’ (taking higher doses) risk of hip fracture increased 260%!!

That’s not good, and I didn’t want any of it.   I’ve take care of osteoporotic patients whose spinal bones have collapsed; constant agony and debilitated.   Not for me, thanks!

Fortunately I read Dr. Rowen’s article, but also another study (http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2007/may2007_report_cimetidine_01.htm) about cimetidine.   Cimetidine was sold for years as Tagamet, and is used for heartburn relief.   It decreases acid production by inhibiting the acid producing cells in the stomach, a different pathway than proton pump inhibitors.   A side benefit of cimetidine is that it was discovered to inhibit tumor cell growth and metastasis.   That’s for me!

So I took   Dr. Pereira’s supplement cocktail for relieving reflux (GERD) and added the cimetidine 200mg at night.   My thinking was that I didn’t need acid production in my stomach at night; so no night acid that could splash or ooze into my esophagus when I went to sleep.   Putting blocks of wood under the head of my bed to keep my head elevated (so acid wouldn’t run downhill out of my stomach), was now a thing of the past, and unneeded.

Here is Dr. Pereira’s supplement cocktail: melatonin (6 mg daily), L-tryptophan (200 mg daily), vitamin B6 (25 mg daily), folic acid (10 mg daily), vitamin B12 (50 mcg daily), methoinine (100 mg daily), and betaine (100 mg daily) to fight heartburn.   I take the melatonin and tryptophan at night because it makes you sleepy.   Melatonin inhibits acid production and reduces nitric oxide which relaxes the doorway between your stomach and esophagus (this doorway, sphincter, keeps acid in the stomach).

So what did I learn?   Pharmaceuticals are not always blessings.   And when we interrupt one process in the body, we fail to consider that we may be disrupting thousands of functions we didn’t know about—until it’s too late.

As for me, my reflux is gone and I haven’t taken a proton pump inhibitor for 2 years.

As you know, I base my life on current clinical studies.   This was a a big mistake 20 years ago.   Fat was evil back then, so I swore off all fat.   Never realizing the damage this was doing to my body.   We need fat to build many of our hormones and enzymes. As time passed, I adapted and so did the studies.

As it turns out, it’s not fat that is evil.   There are 3 things we need to fear.   Whether you believe in evolution or not is irrelevant.   We creatures called homo sapiens were either designed or evolved, or both.   However, we got here, the DNA of our ancestors grew up on, and adapted to, a particular type of fuel.   We definitely need the polyphenols from plants to stabilize us.   But, it is not animal fat that is our enemy and causing bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels.   The 3 DNA enemies are:

• Processed sugar;
• Omega-6 fatty acids;
• Heavy metal contamination (lead, mercury, cadmium, etc.)

These 3 are given and accepted. Over and over again we see comparisons of natives migrating from non-Western diets that are very low in sugar intake, to areas of Western diets high in sugar.   The end result is that peoples with low heart disease, low cholesterol, and low blood pressure, now have dramatically higher values once they start eating the Western sugar diet.   The Tokelau Island Migrant Study is an excellent example of this.

Omega-6 fatty acids are found in vegetable oils, poultry, eggs, etc.   Omega-6 actually increases pro-inflammatory compounds in the body.   There is a delicate balance here.   We need omega-3 fatty acids to balance the omega-6.   But with soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup in everything we buy, we are tilted to inflammation—which equates to accelerated aging.   People living in high fish consumption areas (Japan, Norway) have much lower cancer than people eating Western diets (which are low in omega-3).

And heavy metal contamination of our food supply   is rampant.   Jets flying overhead dump unburned jet fuel into the eco system by thousands of tons.   Mercury in the oceans (only buy distilled fish oil) and lightbulbs (break a CFL and you have a biohazard).   And good Lord, lets don’t talk about lead poisoning!   Sexual dysfunction, mental decline, hypertension, heart disease.   A study published by New England Journal of Medicine said that for every 10 mcg/dl of lead increase in the blood, IQ drops by 4.6 points!

But, there is one additional enemy that you may not be aware of.   Its called the FDA.   http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/hazard/independent.html

The FDA is owned by Big Pharma; pharmaceutical companies pay for the majority of FDA funding.   Very much like the fox watching the henhouse.

This has led to medical doctor’s “standards of care.”   Note the next time you visit your doctor.   He/she carries a book that has a list of drugs to treat every disease/symptom.   The doctor may or may not choose to use their diagnostic skill to evaluate your problem and try to help you.   They may just look in their little book and give you the “standard of care” for your set of symptoms.   The standard of care takes away  possibly dangerous medicine, but it also removes the search for what is wrong with you— and creative ways for fixing you.

I discovered this a few years back.   For various reasons (injuries, etc.), I developed low testosterone.   I was lethargic, had no drive or energy to do just the basic things in life (this developed over several years).   I went to the doctor, and it was their opinion that I could be fixed by boosting my T3/T4.   So I was given a script for thyroid hormone.

Over a period of months, I found my energy levels increased.   I was feeling better.   But then I started having trouble sleeping.   And my head was pounding constantly.   I made several trips to the ER because I felt like my head was going to explode.   I went to see my doctor, and my blood pressure was running 160/100.   VERY HIGH!

So he prescribed blood pressure medicine.     The BP medicine fixed the problem, but I rapidly started feeling worse, even though my BP was now normal.   I had the constant feeling that I was about to fall off a cliff; as if any moment, my heart would just stop.

In my research, I read an article that correllated high T4 levels with high mortality.   I was taking Synthroid, which is T4.   I found another article that suggested I should treat low testosterone directly.   So I stopped the Synthroid.   My BP came down once I stopped the Synthroid, and I started Testim (testosterone) 1% gel.   Within weeks, I was feeling great.

What did I learn from this experience?   The Synthroid was causing my high blood pressure.   Instead of taking me off the Synthroid, I was prescribed another medication to lower my BP.   I was starting the classic downward spiral so many Americans have taken:   one med causes side effects, another is prescribed to treat the side effects, it causes side effects, and another med is prescribed to treat those.

Suddenly, you’re on a dozen medications, and you feel like you want to die.   All based on the “standards of care.”   Doctors are not completely at fault.   If they do something beyond the “standards of care,” they could lose their medical license, their livlihood, and be subject to fines, lawsuits, jailtime, etc.   Its terrible that they can’t use their brains to fix the problem.   Remember, the FDA is not here to help you.   The FDA is here to sustain their existence, validate their reason to be.   And Big Pharma pays the light bills.

In the end, I fixed the problem, not the symptoms.   Watch yourself.   Don’t get caught on the drug merry-go-round.

We bought a new house last year; finally moving out of the congested city and back into the country.   My wife and I are both country kids, so working in the dirt, digging, planting, composting, and eating stuff we grow is fun.   20 years ago, we moved to the edge of Katy, TX.   There was 1 fast food restaurant and 1 Walmart.   Now, all the trees are gone, HEB, Best Buy, Applebees, LA Fitness, Kroger, a half dozen gas stations, mattress stores, Burger King, Dairy Queen, Hartz Chicken, & Palais Royal were all a 5 minute walk from my house.   The traffic jams were horrendous!

About 15 years ago, we saw this coming and bought 40 acres in Missouri; out in the middle of nowhere, right next door to nothing.   I figured in 20-30 years, there would be a Walmart nearby and thats all we would need in life.   But, ohhh, there’s something they don’t teach you in high school!

When I bought the land in Missouri, I had no idea that so many of the residents were “disabled.”   It seems that you can go to Missouri, develop a mental or physical ailment, be classified by a doctor as disabled, and live off the taxpayers—early retirement, plus medical!

Now I wonder how the Missouri government pays for all that?   Hmmm?   Well, not only do they have a state income tax, they also have a property tax, AND a personal property tax.   I very quickly learned that Missouri is not where I want to live.   I would immediately take a HUGE pay cut because of all the welfare/disabled folks I would be supporting.

So now the Missouri property is up for sale.   Wished I had learned about researching state taxes in high school BEFORE I bought the property.   The only benefit is that I have met some really hard working, good natured folks in Missouri.   Too bad they have to work so hard to pay for the other folks.

Fortunately, Texas doesn’t tax its citizens to death, so that is where we will stay.   And the added benefit of being out in the country is fantastic.   We have tomatos, peppers, figs (the Celeste version is the best); OMG, the figs are to die for!   Plus growing some hard to grow stuff like an Australian Eucalyptus tree (supposed to grow 6 feet a year and smell like… well.. eucalyptus).   My wife is composting, and we’re going all natural on fertilize and pesticides.

So here’s another thing they don’t teach: sod!   We moved into this house, and its expected that you landscape.   $8,ooo later, we have an irrigation system and Palmetto St Augustine (engineered for this area).   The summers here are hot!   And the $8,000 lawn requires a lot of water.   So our benevolent water company increased their rates 84%.   Because of the water company, we learned quickly about the wild grasses and wild flowers that don’t need much water.

For example, just down the road from us is a lot full of gorgeous Texas Blue Bells.   These are amazing plants (I hate to see the development mowers come each year and mow them down).   We’re in the middle of a drought (no rain for 35 days), and these flowers are bright, huge, and vibrant.   Fantastic!

What did we learn from all this?   We learned not to buy into the standard rhetoric about where to live and how to live.   Stay away from states that tax you.   Don’t plant grasses and flowers that require a lot of water and fertilize.   Avoid water companies (drill your own if you can). Buffalo grass is the natural grass that God planted here, needs very little water, and our wildflowers look fantastic from spring to fall.   Check out these folks:

http://www.wildseedfarms.com/

Two more tidbits:   fireants and black widows.   If you’ve never been stung by fireants, count your blessings!   These aggressive little spawns of Satan deliver a nasty sting that blisters and itches for days.   You can poison the crap out of them, but I guarantee you, they’ll be back.

We also have black widows out here; huge black widows.   These things can deliver a nasty bite that will land you in the hospital, or could even land you 6 feet under (unless you’re a member of Alcor).

I don’t want to use poison out here to kill all my friendly varmints, so I came up with a great way to get rid of both fireants and black widows.   Its called a blow torch.

If you do anything to a fireant mound (pour vinegar on it, water, gas, whatever), they will be back.   But what if you killed the queen and her eggs?   Ah Ha!   So when I find a fireant mound, I carry a garden trowel and a blowtorch.   The moment you touch the mound, 10,000 ants swarm out to sting you to death.   But, I deliver the fire right back and turn them into toast with the blowtouch.   Digging and burning at the same time, I finally reach the queen and her eggs.   Once they’ve been barbequed, the game is over, the mound is dead.   All natural pesticide, with zero environmental impact!

I do the same thing with black widows; hunt down their hiding spots, and roast them.   Can’t have kids accidentally finding these lethal devils.

Oh, almost forgot the armadillo.   This is a destructive juggernaut!   An armor plated digging machine, it is making swiss cheese out of my yard and plants.   Nothing stops it or deters it.   And when struck with a shovel (I would never do this.   I’ve just heard stories), it is amazingly fast, and can outrun a human.   I am in the process of trying to trap them before they dig under my house and disrupt the foundation.   If anyone has any thoughts, please share.

The last 3 months have been very entertaining. I’m the kind of person that loves financial disasters.   I’m an event trader.   I always keep a stash of money aside for these “disaster” buying opportunities. Whenever someone does something ridiculous, if you’re ready, and watching, you can make some cash. I remember a few years ago, the media really hyped Israel retaliating for missle strikes— it was the end of the world! And the market dropped big time. I went on a buying spree and made some quick cash, because within a few days, everybody got used to missles flying in the middle east, and the market went right back up—and put money in my pocket.

The housing bust was the same opportunity, only amplified greatly. I’m glad I was able to keep my job!! But this was a buying opportunity. So when the DOW got down to 6700, I bought AAPL, FXI, QQQQ, and several others. At the worst of the market, my portfolio was down $110k! As of today, I’ve made $36k profit on the purchases I bought at DOW 6700, and am now about only $20k in the hole.   I’m pretty conservative.   Some folks lost half their portfolio, and may take years to recover.

The stimulus package has been more hype than reality. Only about 7% has been spent, so its not doing much. As more of it gets spent, the economy will heat up, inflation will rise, and I’ll start looking for a time to cash in my winners. Once the DOW hits 10,500 ( and/or the S&P hits 1150) around October or November, then I need to back away from the table. Because the next disaster is just around the corner— inflation and credit cards. It will be the end of the world again, and everything will collapse. And another great buying opportunity will present itself. It’s always good to be ready.

One of the things they never teach you in school is investing. Most people learn by trial and error (me), which can be very expensive when you make mistakes. Warren Buffett has the right idea. Buy stuff you know about, that you use, that you understand. For years, I despised Apple products. I didn’t understand them. I’m a PC guy. With a PC, you learn to fix everything—tinker with the OS, the hard drives, video cards, the registry. With Apple, you turn it on and use it. What’s that all about?!? Why would you pay an exorbitantly higher price for that luxury? But, after I played with the IPOD, I got it. The Apple stores are always full, too. So over the last few years, I’ve made some nice bucks off of AAPL.   I bought some at 93; now its 157.

So, what have I learned from the stock market? Research a list of 10 stocks that everybody has to have to live. Keep that list handy, and enough cash on the side to buy what you want. Then wait. Wait for disaster to strike in the news media! Doesn’t matter if its real or absurd. Take that idiot Kim Jong-il. He’s gotten alot of press because of nukes. But, he’s being ignored again because people are used to his idiocy. So what can you do next to get attention? He’s going to have to launch one. Or what about Amadinejad? He’s threatening a nuclear strike on Israel. That would certainly drop the market for at least a day or two.

So, keep your eyes open. Money is out there, you just have to be alert, be informed, and be ready.

Rat poison is an interesting product.   Very simple, very straight forward.   Basically, the rat eats the tasty stuff, and within hours starts bleeding out of every cut, scratch, or orifice until it dies.   Powerful stuff!   And yet approximately 2 million Americans eat rat poison every day.   Its called Warfarin or Coumadin.   The name Warfarin comes from the original discoverers in the 1940’s, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, plus the name of the anticoagulant, coumarin.   Accidentally discovered because rotting clover (where coumarin is naturally produced) was killing cattle that ate the clover.

How does it work? Dicoumarol (the final product after molds eat the coumarin from rotting clover) interferes with vitamin K; shutting down the body’s natural clotting mechanism.   We need to clot.   We have hundreds of injuries each day that we don’t know about.   Clots plug the damage until repairs can be made.   Ever bump your elbow, stub your toe, or bang your head on a shelf?   Good thing you can clot!   Or you’d be dead!   Bleedin out the wazzoo!!

Why would anyone take the main ingredient in rat poison?!? There are many reasons, but the most common is atrial fibrillation.   This is a condition in the heart where the normal electrical wirings get messed up.   The two top smaller chambers (the artria) of the heart don’t fire normally.   Instead, they fire thousands of times more than they should.   The result is that these chambers just sit there and twitch, performing no work.   The blood filling those chambers stagnates, and form clots.   And the atria turn into clot factories, sending clots throughout the body where they don’t belong.   When clots are moving through the blood stream, they’re called emboli.   You get one of these in your brain, your coronary arteries, your lungs, and you could suffer a stroke or even die!   So you take rat poison, which intereferes with vitamin K.   Vitamin K is essential to clotting; without it, no clots.   So, you’re all better now, right?   No, you’ve just created a more painful death.   Here’s how.

As is true with everything in nature, vitamin K doesn’t just have 1 job, it has many.   One that we are only now accidentally discovering is that when patients taking blood thinners that interfere with vitamin K die, and are autopsied, we find their arteries are like concrete ”with heavy deposits of calcium; very severe atherosclerosis.   Why?   Vitamin K (MK7 & MK4 versions of K2 specifically) activates a hormone called osteocalcin (produced by bone).   Osteocalcin takes calcium out of the bloodstream and pushes it into the bone where it belongs.   If you kill vitamin K with blood thinners, then the calcium in your blood stream starts depositing itself on your arteries and veins ”not good!   Plus, the bones are starved for calcium!   After years of this, you end up with atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and osteoporosis (fragile bones).   Wonder if you actually die quicker and more painfully from receiving this miraculous rat poison medicine?   Hmmm, maybe you should have taken a fibrolytic like nattokinase (breaks up clots without interfering with vitamin K) instead of rat poison??   Something to ponder ¦

What’s all this got to do with YOU? The point is this:   Americans have a horrible artificial food supply, and the worst diets as well.   We hardly get vitamin K that is useful these days.   Where do you get it?   Dark green leafy vegetables provide vitamin K1 (which has negligible value).   It helps, but it is strongly bound up in plant fibers, so you get very little of it.   But the best vitamin K is called K2 (specifically MK4 & MK7).   The Japanese get tons of the good stuff (MK7) by eating natto (fermented soybeans); giving the Japanese 7 times higher blood levels than normal. What’s the result?   The Japanese who eat natto have lower rates of heart disease and osteoporosis! But who can eat this stuff?   I can’t even stand to smell it.   Yuck!

However, K2 also comes from organ meats and fermented foods like cheese, sauerkraut, miso, and natto.   There’s quite a bit of evidence to support the idea that K2 stops and might even reverse atherosclerosis.   Basically, if you’re 20-30 years old now, and you don’t want to have concrete arteries and hollow fragile bones, you better eat K2 now!!

And what is all the hoopla about Fosamax?? If you eat right, do you really need it??   I take high dose vitamin K, vitamin D3, boron, and strontium on a daily basis.   Bones are great!   And my jaw hasn’t rotted off (oh, just a minor rare side effect of Fosamax).   Bisphosphonates (Fosamax) does something similar to you as the proton pump inhibitors (Nexium, Prevacid, Prilosec); you get denser bones, so your bone test looks good, but the bone is brittle.   Dense bone is not as good as well constructed matrix bone.   The Israelites figured this out a long time ago while making bricks for the Pharaoh; straw in the bricks make them stronger.   But that’s another discussion, for another day

Oh, but it’s not the swine flu any more! The pork lobby is afraid that bacon and pork chop sales will plummet so they have convinced the media to use a more scientific name—H1N1. So now that swine flu no longer exists and it’s really the H1N1 that we have to fear, we can safely eat our Sausage McBiscuits in the morning.

H1N1 is a new type of influenza, or flu, strain. It has genetics similar to pigs, birds, and people. We all know about the flu. But, this is something our immune systems have never seen before. Hard to fight something you’ve never fought before. Darwinists would postulate that we should let people get it, the susceptible people would die, and the strong would survive. Thereby improving humanity. So, it’s in the best interests of mankind, and our civic duty, for all you weak susceptible people to cough on each other so the rest of us can get on with the business of making Nietzche’s Superman.

From my point of view, I’m one of the survivors. I want to improve the gene pool by living. H1N1 is an influenza A subtype. This type of virus can be vicious like the 1918 pandemic that killed millions, or like the common flu; sick for a week, then you’re done.

All of these viruses have proteins on their surface called hemagglutinin (H), and neuraminidase (N). The number and type of the H’s and N’s determine the name; thus, H1N1. You don’t need to be in Mensa to figure this out.

In my unprofessional opinion, H1N1 is going to turn out to be overhyped. Possibly a bit more serious than regular flu; bad for some, not so bad for others. People die from regular flu as well.

I’m in hospitals (for my job) all the time.   I spend most of my waking hours in the operating room during cases.   A hospital is a terrible place to be sick.   Because, that’s where all the sick people are.   Me, personally, if I were in the hospital because I was ill, I would demand an isolation room with its own separate air supply.

So, here’s what I’m doing to protect myself from any flu (not just porky). Over the past 10 years, I have been sick once (my own doing: more on that later). I don’t take the flu vaccines. If I think I have been exposed to the H1N1 virus (or any flu), I take the following (for 1 week only, following the exposure). I have experienced no ill effects by doing this. After the first week, I return to my regular regimen:

• Vitamin C: 1,000 mg three times a day;
• Vitamin D3: 5,000 units a day;
• Zinc Citrate: 50 mg a day;
• Iodoral: 4 drops per day (25mg)
• Selenium: 200 mcg
• Elderberry: Sambucol, per directions
• Carnivora: www.carnivora.com; per directions
• Resveratrol: 500 mg per day

In the next article, we’ll cover what this stuff does in the body, how to get rid of wild pigs, what I take each day, and why a cattle supplement may be good for humans.

Just for the heck of it, watch these videos: