Volume 2  Number 5

Natural Health Techniques
Monthly Newsletter
Produced and edited by

Dr. Denice Moffat

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May, 2006

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Health In the News:

Beware of Possible Contaminated Moldy Food

Contamination of a certain brand of dog food with moldy corn was discovered December 20, 2005. The food had been recalled, and the company set up a toll-free hotline to answer questions related to the incidence. I received the tip from an email. As I didn’t want to put out misinformation, I did not put this into last month’s newsletter. Instead, I called the hotline and did some digging.

The reason why I bring this up is that something like this could happen at any time.  Aflatoxin is a naturally occurring toxic chemical that comes from a fungus found on corn and other grains that causes severe liver damage.  This is a reminder that feeding moldy food can cause life-threatening, permanent liver damage. So, eat fresh, rotate your stock, and use high-quality foods or foods that you can trust the source of.

My email buddies tell me to check out www.Snopes.com  chronicles hundreds of scams and misinformation that fly through the internet world. For this article, I just called the source.

The Hazards of Soy

For years I have purchased soy milk, stocked it on my shelf, told myself I should open it and include it into my diet. After opening it though, it just sits in the refrigerator for a month or two. Then, of course, it’s too old to drink, so I throw it down the sink and the cycle repeats itself a couple months later. Now I believe that my body was telling me that it didn’t want the soy milk as I’ve been reading up on the soy controversy lately. Here is a summary of that information. . .

Those magical isoflavones—the estrogen-like hormones that all work to help you stay young and healthy may not be the magical food that you have been led to believe. Soy is just one example of the many fad foods/ supplements/ cures that I find myself exposed to in trying to decipher the long-term health benefits before sharing them with my clients.

Soy has been marketed as a health food when, at one time, it was only a toxic by-product of the vegetable oil industry. To this day, use of soy protein is labeled as GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) only for use as a cardboard binder. This means that soy protein must be subject to pre-market approval procedures each time manufacturers intend to use it as a food or add it to a food.

Hmm. . . .that doesn’t sound right, does it? Don’t we eat soy in lots of things now?

Advances in technology make it possible to produce Soy Protein Isolate (SPI) from what was once considered a waste product—defatted, high-protein soy chips—transforming something that looks and smells terrible into products that can be consumed by human beings. Flavorings, preservatives, sweeteners, emulsifiers and synthetic nutrients have turned SPI, the food processors' nightmare into a virtual fat hog.

All soybean producers pay a mandatory assessment of one-half to one per cent of the net market price of soybeans. The total—something like $80 million annually—supports United Soybean's program (http://www.ams.usda.gov/lsg/mpb/rp-soy.htm) to "strengthen the position of soybeans in the marketplace and maintain and expand domestic and foreign markets for soybeans and soybean products."

Soy milk, made from raw soy, has posted the biggest gains, soaring from $2 million in 1980 to $300 million in the United States last year. Recent advances in processing have transformed the gray, thin, bitter, beany-tasting Asian beverage into a product that Western consumers will accept.

The soybean did not serve as a food until the discovery of fermentation techniques, some time during the Zhou Dynasty around 690-705 A.D. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Dynasty . The first soy foods were fermented products like tempeh, natto, miso and soy sauce. At a later date, possibly in the 2nd century BC, Chinese scientists discovered that a purée
of cooked soybeans could be precipitated with calcium sulfate or magnesium sulfate (Plaster of Paris or Epsom salts) to make a smooth, pale curd they called tofu or bean curd.

The Chinese never ate unfermented soybeans as they did other legumes such as lentils, because the soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients." These antinutrients are not completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in these antinutrients called trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of the pancreas, including cancer.

Other harmful substances in soy products include haemagglutinin, goitrogens, phytic acid, nitrates, phytoestrogens (in large amounts)

Haemagglutinin is a clot-promoting substance that causes red blood cells to clump together.

Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors that are deactivated during the process of fermentation. In precipitated products (like tofu,) enzyme inhibitors concentrate in the soaking liquid rather than in the curd. Thus, in tofu and bean curd, growth depressants are reduced in quantity but not completely eliminated.

Soy also contains goitrogens - substances that depress thyroid function. This is a major concern of mine as I see our population having more and more thyroid issues with each passing year.

Soybeans are also high in phytic acid, present in the bran or hulls of all seeds. Phytic acid can block the uptake of essential minerals—calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and especially zinc—in the intestinal tract. Scientists are in general agreement that grain and legume-based diets high in phytates contribute to widespread mineral deficiencies in third world countries.

The Japanese have traditionally eaten small amounts of tofu or miso as part of a mineral-rich fish broth, followed by a serving of meat or fish. This is not how vegetarians and vegans consume soy. The results of calcium, magnesium and iron deficiency are well known; those of zinc are less so. These are the exact mineral deficiencies I have been seeing in my practice.

Many people in my practice now come in with that tell-tale tan chin, indicative of iron deficiency. They are low in energy and worried about osteoporosis, but  they look like thyroid cases.  Their thumbs point toward their hips as they stand and walk instead of pointing forward, and they carry more weight evenly dispersed on their body. Most of my clients are also low in zinc.

Zinc is needed for optimal development and functioning of the brain and nervous system, it is used in protein synthesis, collagen formation, in the blood-sugar control mechanism thus protecting against diabetes, and is needed for a healthy reproductive system. Zinc is a key component in numerous vital enzymes and plays a role in healthy immune system function.

Soy processors have worked hard to get these antinutrients out of the finished product, particularly soy protein isolate (SPI), the key ingredient in most soy foods that imitate meat and dairy products, including baby formulas and some brands of soy milk.

Nitrites, which are potent carcinogens, are formed during the spray-drying process of making Soy Protein Isolate (SPI). Test animals fed SPI develop enlarged organs, particularly the pancreas and thyroid gland, and increased deposition of fatty acids in the liver.

So, why are SPI and textured vegetable protein used extensively in school lunch programs, commercial baked goods, diet beverages and fast food products? (Yikes!) Soy is also heavily promoted in third world countries and forms the basis of many food giveaway programs.

Researchers studying soy-based foods in one school research project noted several alarming symptoms after children ate soy-based meals including: "occasional" vomiting, periods of moderate diarrhea, upper respiratory infections, rashes and fever.

Do the Japanese really have less cancer than Americans? Some researchers say so. The Japanese, who allegedly eat 30 times as much soy as North Americans, have a lower incidence of cancers of the breast, uterus and prostate. BUT the Japanese, and Asians in general, have much higher rates of other types of cancer; particularly cancer of the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, thyroid and liver.

Just how much soy do Asians really eat? A Cornell study conducted by Colin T. Campbell in 1998 found that the average daily amount of soy protein consumed in Japan was about eight grams for men, and seven for women. This is only less than two teaspoons. Do Japanese really eat more soy than Americans? At this point, I don’t think so.

Except in times of famine, Asians consume soy products only in small amounts, as condiments—not as a replacement for animal foods—with one exception. Celibate monks living in monasteries and leading a vegetarian lifestyle find soy foods quite helpful—because they dampen libido.

So what are the side-effects of too much soy? (These are only in alphabetical order and not by the proportion of incidence.)

Bloating

Breast cancer (Soy isoflavones mimic estrogen)

Calcium deficiencies (soy blocks calcium absorption)

Cognitive decline (esp. in post menopausal women that have increased levels of estrogen in their blood) 

Constipation

Depression

Endocrine disruption      
Fatigue

Goiter

Hair loss

Hot flashes

Hypothyroidism

Infertility

Irregular periods

Lethargy

Loss of muscle tone

Painful periods

Premature aging

Thyroid cancer

Thyroid disease

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone increase

Uterine cysts

Vitamin D deficiencies

Weight gain despite workouts and dieting

In 1991, Japanese researchers reported that consumption of as little as 30 grams or two tablespoons of soybeans per day for only one month resulted in a significant increase in thyroid-stimulating hormone, and 100 grams of soy protein, (promoted for its bone-building isoflavones and cholesterol-lowering effects) contains the estrogenic equivalent of the Pill. In vitro studies suggest that isoflavones inhibit synthesis of estradiol and other steroid hormones.

It is the isoflavones in infant formula that gives me the most cause for concern.

Feeding soy milk replacer began in the 1970’s. By 1998, investigators reported that the daily exposure of infants to isoflavones in soy infant formula is six to eleven times higher on a body-weight basis than the dose that has hormonal effects in adults consuming soy foods. Circulating concentrations of isoflavones in infants fed soy-based formula were 13,000 to 22,000 times higher than plasma estradiol concentrations in infants on cow's milk formula. Approximately 25% of bottle-fed children in the United States receive soy-based formula.

One researcher estimated that an infant exclusively fed soy formula receives the estrogenic equivalent (based on body weight) of at least five birth control pills per day. Almost no phytoestrogens have been detected in dairy-based infant formula or in human milk, even when the mother consumes soy products.

In children, soy anecdotes have included:

Asthma

Changed patterns of sexual orientation (influenced by the early hormonal environment) 

Extreme emotional behavior

Immune system problems

Impairment of spatial perception

Infantile leukemia

Irritable bowel

Learning disabilities—especially in male children

Pituitary insufficiency

Precociousness—Male infants undergo a "testosterone surge" during the first few months of life, where testosterone levels may be as high as those of an adult male.

Thyroid disorders

Visual discrimination tasks required for reading

Can’t have dairy? There are options. Other combinations of formulas that may take a bit more time to make for your baby include mixtures of carrot juice, oat milk, almond milk, goat and rice milk. See: http://www.naturodoc.com/library/children/formula.htm  or http://www.westonaprice.org/children/formula-faqs.html#homemade

If the mother is large-breasted, it also helps to use a breast pump, complete the milking and combine all three fractions of milk. If the baby only gets the first fraction, which is more watery and has less protein, it makes the baby gassy. Also, if the mother eats lots of raw fruits and vegetables, she will have lots of milk and the milk will be healthier for the baby. I’ve personally seen a midwife adopt a newborn baby, take milk-producing herbs, and nurse the baby herself for a year using her own breasts! Herbs can be very powerful when you know which ones to use.

Other purists recommend raw, unpasteurized milk, saying that the baby will not be allergic to this since the proteins within the milk have not been modified from the pasteurizing process or from using microwave ovens. You will have to make your own decisions and choices with this (know your source!) as this type of milk can be contaminated with Salmonella bacteria.

Some references:

http://www.netlink.de/gen/Zeitung/2000/000813.html

http://www.biotech-info.net/soya.html

Case of the Month:

I’m seeing lots of dry skin, psoriasis, and eczema cases lately. It seems that I have a gift for helping people with these challenges although dog and cat cases are not as easy. Why? One reason may be that allergens are absorbed into the body via the skin, nasal passages, lungs, or digestive tract.  Now, 30% of all the toxins we produce in our bodies are expelled through the skin. Let’s face it . . . it’s difficult to give your pet a bath every day, so we don’t have that tool for our arsenal of allergy management.

I thought you’d like some tips on how to manage allergies this month.

I have HUGE amounts of experience with this type of thing. I was gifted with having skin dis-ease most of my life (for about 40 years of it!) As a child I was hospitalized for dermatitis at various times. One time, I was even put in a straight jacket as I self-mutilated on a regular basis (boy, does that feel good!) I guess what bothered me most about the whole thing is that not one doctor asked me what I wanted to do and what kind of treatment I would be comfortable trying. Basically they just used me as a guinea pig, dispensing the latest, greatest treatments that they knew of and occasionally doing a regime of antibiotics, steroids and bowel cleansings. I remember once eating only rye-tack for a week to clear out my body for some allergy skin testing.  I think it was harder on my mom than it was on me to tell me I couldn’t eat with the rest of the family and “Wouldn’t I like another piece of rye-tack?” I was allergic to eggs, chocolate and tomatoes . . . imagine that!

Fortunately I grew out of these allergies, but now have allergies to all kinds of foods, sulfites, nitrates, MSG, antibiotics, phenol, formaldehyde, squirrels, guinea pigs, nuts, peppers (causes fibromyalgia signs), pollens, environmental toxins, paints, petrochemicals, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and who knows what else. These allergies show up in a variety of ways in my system, but the easiest thing to control are the skin symptoms.

I found, over the years, that I was a better doctor by listening to my body and what it liked than the doctors and their allergy tests.  Gee, when a kid almost vomits at the smell of hot dogs or upchucks their cream of wheat, I think that’s a pretty good sign there is a problem with the food . . . The body is rejecting it.

Dogs and cats are pretty good at telling you what they need as well, but if you only give them one choice of food, they just choose not to eat as much. I’m tending towards raw food diets for pets these days, often called BARF diets. They are now quite available in the freezer section of most pet stores. Testing for the individual foods to put into the foods, the volume, and making big batches is often worth the extra effort as specialized allergy diets can be very expensive.

One can’t do much about your hereditary predisposition to allergies, so the next best thing is to minimize, eliminate and manage certain things within the allergy sufferers’ environment.

In general, here is what I’ve found works best for skin signs such as psoriasis and eczyma:

Eat for your blood type (This is an excellent choice of treatment for allergies and for acid stomach—especially when one is a combination of four nationalities or less.) See: www.dadamo.com 

Add Udo’s Choice Oil blend capsules or the bulk oil to the diet. See: www.oilthemachine.com

Support the adrenal glands with products such as Drenamin® and raw adrenal glandulars, managing stress, and cutting back on stimulants.

Support the liver by eating lots of raw green vegetables.

Find out which oils are best to use on your skin after a bath or shower. Often this is olive or sunflower oil.

Treat the underlying viral core cause of psoriasis with homeopathics and/or the appropriate immune builders.

Increase dietary zinc. I most often recommend raw, hulled pumpkin seeds.

Shower once a day, and for heavy pollen times, it’s best to shower before you go to bed to wash off the pollens from your hair. When you shower, wash your hair. I know that seems obvious to some, but to others it isn’t.

Change your pillowcases often. As the pollens get on your pillow from your face and hair, you smash them into your nose and face making your body more sensitive to them. If you wake up in the morning all stuffed up, you might also want to toss those pillows into the dryer once a week for 20 minutes to get the pollens, molds and dust mites out of them as well.

Find out what you are allergic to then minimize or eliminate exposure to those things. If you want me to do this at the time of your exam, I need a list of everything you are exposed to including: supplements, medications, cosmetics, soaps, cleaners, aerosols, work environment, hobbies, household smells, molds, insects, foods that you eat and drink and anything else you can think of. I will go through the list using muscle testing to determine which things you can use and which are causing more problems.  Some pollens can travel a couple miles, so it doesn’t make sense to get rid of some things from your yard when your neighbors won’t be getting rid of theirs. In these cases, I find that homeopathic remedies work best (See Product of the Month section below.)

What's New on the Website? (Nothing this month--I've been out in my yard!)

Product of the Month: Allergy Allersodes

“Can I get another bottle of this? I’m out, it works great, and allergy season is here.” My clients say, as they hold up the tell-tale little brown bottle with its yellow label.

I thought at first that I was manifesting a placebo affect because these products worked so well, but over the years clients have come in every other year or so just to pick up a bottle of Tree Mix I or II when they run out. I never see them any other time. A bottle lasts anywhere from one month to two years depending on what you are trying to manage, how much you need and how short the exposure is.

My favorite allergy remedies come from Professional Complementary Health Formulas. The remedies are called allersodes. Allersodes are homeopathic drops that minutely stimulate the immune system to recognize, glom on to, and expel the allergy-causing organism from the body, usually through the kidneys or bowels. These particular allersodes contain homeopathics to support the adrenal gland and liver as well. I think that is one reason why they work so well.

It has always been difficult for me to comprehend that the more you dilute a homeopathic substance, the stronger it gets and the faster it works. But, you may need only a few treatments. I use low-dose homeopathic remedies in my practice because I can’t monitor my clients on a daily basis and most of my clients have only recently been introduced to homeopathics and natural medicine. It’s extremely rare that anyone has side-effects with using them. They are safer and you can use them for several months at a time if necessary. Each bottle costs $15, but often during an exam I will combine several remedies and make a custom formula for $20 (which saves a person quite a bit of money if they are shifting and changing and don’t need a whole bottle of several different remedies.)

The dosage is normally 17 drops three times daily for acute situations and 15 drops daily for chronic allergies. Here are a few of the remedies my clients and I have utilized over the years for various allergies causing skin problems, rhinitis, itchy eyes, irritability, asthma, depression, feelings of spaciness, and a slough of other symptoms:

Animal Mix—for allergies to Camel, Cat, Chicken, Cow, Dog, Duck, Fish, Goat, Guinea Pig, Horse, Llama, Mouse, Pheasant, Pig, Quail, Rabbit, Rat, Sheep and Turkey. 

Biting Insect Mix—for allergies to Bedbugs, Bees (5 Types), Chiggers, Cockroach, Deerfly, Flea, House Fly, Lice (Head And Body), Mosquito, Moth, Spider (5 Types), Ticks, and Wasps. Excellent product for your first aid kit because it doesn’t need to be refrigerated like epinephrine.

Flower Mix—for allergies to Aster, Camellia, Carnation, Chrysanthemum, Daffodil, Daisy, Daphne, Gardenia, Gentian, Gladiola, Honeysuckle, Iris, Lilac, Lily, Larkspur, Lupine, Marigold, Oleander, Pansy, Petunia, Peony, Poppy, Rose, Snapdragon, and Tulips.

Household Dust & Molds—for allergies to Black Mold, Grain Dust, House Mold, House Dust, Lint, Mattress Dust, Mildew Dust, Paper Dust, Rug Dust, Upholstery Dust, Yeast (Baker’s/Brewer’s) and Dust Mites.

Grain & Seed Mix—for allergies to Barley, Corn, Cotton Seed, Flax Seed, Gliadin (whatever that is), Gluten, Millet, Milo, Oat, Poppy Seed, Rice (Brown/White), Rye, Safflower, Sesame, Sorghum, Soybean, Sunflower and Wheat.

Grass & Weed Mix—for allergies to Alfalfa, Amaranth, Bamboo, Chenopodium, Cocklebur, Dandelion, Fox Tail, Grease Wood, June Grass, Johnson Grass, Kapok, Lambs Quarters, Marsh Elder, Mugwort, Pampas Grass, Pigweed, Ragweed, Sage, Scale (All Scale/ Wingscale/ Lenscale), Scotch Broom, Sheep Sorrel, Yellow Dock, Red Top, Meadow Fescue, Sweet Vernal, Kentucky Blue, Orchard, Perineal Rye, Timothy, Red Clover, White Clover, Goldenrod, Velvet Grass, and Thistle.

Tree Mix I—for allergies to Alder, Ash, Birches, Cedars, Cottonwoods, Cypresses, Elms, Firs, Hemlock, Hickories, Junipers, Maples, Mulberries, Western Oaks, Eastern Oaks, Pines, Redwood, and Spruces.

Tree Mix II—for allergies to Acacia, Aspen, Bay, Elder, Eucalyptus, Fig, Flowering Apple, Flowering Cherry, Lilac, Magnolia, Mesquite, Oleander, Olive, Pepper, Privet, Sycamore, Tulip, and Willow.

Nightshade Mix—for allergies to Chilies, Eggplant, Ground Cherries, Mustard Greens, Peppers (Red/Green), Tobacco, Tomato, Potatoes (Red/White) and Mushroom.

Ask Dr. Moffat:

Question: How do I know if I’m having a stroke?

Answer: Recognizing a stroke—3 Easy Questions to ask.

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke. Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three
simple questions:

Ask the individual to SMILE.
Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.
Ask the person to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE.

If he or she has trouble with any of these tasks, call 9-1-1 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher. I would personally take an aspirin immediately or pop a few capsules of Ginkgo biloba to thin my blood temporarily (to prevent additional clotting.)

After discovering that a group of non-medical volunteers could identify facial weakness, arm weakness and speech problems, researchers urged the general public to learn the three questions. Widespread use of this test could result in prompt diagnosis and treatment of the stroke and prevent brain damage.

And, as an ex-EMT, I would urge EVERYONE to have highly visible house numbers. Every minute is crucial when an emergency like this occurs and it is totally aggravating to be driving around trying to find your house! If you have a partner, you can be sure they will want to stay with you instead of running out into the street to flag down an ambulance! Use highly contrasting colors and numbers big enough to read from the street. If you live out in the country, put your name somewhere on the entrance to your property, and make sure your blue RAIN (Rural Access Identification Number) sign is not covered by plants.

continued in column 2 

Dr. Denice Moffat &
Michael Robison, Water Consultant
1069 Elk Meadow Lane

Deary, ID 83823 U.S.A.
(208) 877-1222
drmoffat@naturalhealthtechniques.com

michaelr@turbonet.com