August 25, 2001
AnemiaGREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS from Arnold's Way!
Tiredness wreaks havoc on sterile feet.
Body's glow. Stranger's cry. A mother of three stays in bed.
Wake up Angel of Gladness. A new dawn awaits
It was a welcome breeze. It was a heavy sigh.
Being alive means Eating Right.
Which foods do we choose tonight?
So beings this week's newsletter on anemia. One of those crazy ailments,
which no one says they have yet "it's like so out there!" You
begin with the tiny rumblings in the morning, stretching your way out the door,
and end with the rush, rush to the local coffee shop. America the
beautiful is inundated with energy lag. This insight was the impetus for
this week's newsletter. We at Arnold's Way see it, hear it, and feel
it. This week we spread the news to change it. It is making a switch
from low energy to rockin' and rollin'. The time is 11:10pm, the time I
normally start writing these newsletters. This is technically when my day
should be finished since I get up early (6:15-6:30am) exercise, eat, exercise,
go to work (which usually ends around 6:45-8pm), come home, relax, play with my
grandson, talk to my wife, and hang out with my younger daughter who is now 19
(the other three have already left the house). By 11pm I am free at last
to begin writing, but there, my friends, between the getting up and beginning to
write this newsletter, lies the answer to why anemia is so prevalent in the US.
T.C. Fry, author of Natural Hygiene text states, "Anemia is a condition
wherein the body is without sufficient white blood cells containing enough iron
and other nutrients to properly transport the body's needs, especially
oxygen."
In my research, there is either a lot of information or none. The Merck
Manual 17th edition went bonkers with 39 pages devoted to anemia of which ½ a
page was dedicated to why (which I had to read several times and still didn't
understand). Why does medical information have to be written in such a way
so that no one can understand? It states, "Symptoms are caused by a
sudden decrease in blood volume and by subsequent hemodilution with a decrease
in the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood." That, my friends,
is not good enough. It doesn't explain what causes this sudden decrease;
it only states what happens. Is it a spontaneous knee jerk reaction that
out body in its magnificent intelligence just allows this to occur? Are we
as a people made up of accidental combustions that just so happen to come
together without any type of master plan?
Anemia is virtually unheard of in third world countries that live close to
nature. In this country it affects 20% of all women that are childbearing
age, so there is a pattern being formed. According to John Robbins, author
of Diet for a New America, anemia in women is, "primarily due to their
monthly loss of iron in their menstrual flow, coupled with their intakes of
sugar, dairy products, and fat, none of which provide any iron to replace
that which is lost." To add a twist to the complexity of iron and whether
it is essential, Neal Barnard, M.D., author of Food for Life states, "Iron
is a key component of the free radical theory of disease." All those
women who are taking iron, take heed. Dr. Barnard further states,
"Iron catalyzes the formation of free radicals, which then damage the
tissue around them." The recommended daily allowance for iron is 10
milligrams, which for a
healthy person is plenty since, "the body recycles 95% of the iron in
expiring red blood cells," as stated by T.C. Fry.
Once again as in practically every disease we see a gap. There are too
many different stories. It's difficult to determine who to believe and
what to believe. The force of nature creates a set of standards for us,
meaning the living creatures of this planet, to follow. There is no magic
bullet, no easy path. Our bodies carry a 6-month supply of usable iron,
which is normally carried in the liver. Our bodies create 200 billion red
blood cells daily. The universe has created a system that can produce
whole foods that contain enough iron to sustain us disease-free, fat-free,
depression-free, and anemia-free to be able to enjoy life in a loving, caring,
happy environment. We are given this great opportunity in life to feel the
goodness of what life has to offer. To be robust with energy, to see the
good, to taste the sweet nectars of our creator, to be in a perpetual state of
receiving and giving, to walk humbly through time as a tree stands tall without
words of what's in it for me.
I search for Viktoras Kulvinskas, author of Survival into the 21st
Century, who wrote about Dr. Barbara Moore, a well-known British
physician-scientist known for her athletic endurance. She walked 110 miles
in 26 hours and 29 minutes. Her diet consisted of fruit and vegetable
juices. Her diet is simple: four small glasses of mixed juices, water, and
a little honey. She is 57 and states, "I have the body of a woman of
32, the vigor, stamina, and endurance of a man of 24." Viktoras later
goes on to say, "Every study in longevity shows that frugal eating
predominantly of liquids promotes health and prolongs life."
To begin the journey to recovery from anemia one has to make choices. What
to eat, what not to eat. This is not an easy road. "If any man
will come after me, let one deny himself and follow me."
The answers have been around a long time. Truth is truth. There is
absolutely no way to get around it. Overcoming anemia is rather
easy. It means, according to T.C. Fry, adding "sea vegetables and raw
food,
especially dulse, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, squash, green leafy vegetables,
especially peaches, apricots raisins, and nuts, plenty of daily exercise and
sunshine, and anemia will be quickly overcome." Can you
believe that it is that easy? No supplements, no tests and best of all you
can go back to giving blood (yuck!). The answers are so obvious that the
scope of consciousnesses is shaded by the opinions of many. What does that
mean? Jenning, an early hygienist (believer of raw fruits and vegetables)
wrote the Law of Conditionality. It states, "Give the body the
conditions for health and you get optimum health." What does that
mean? A diet of fruit, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, exercise every day for
20-30 minutes, plus sunshine for the same amount and presto! You have
optimum health. There is no magic pill, no special surgery, and no special
radiation to make a disease disappear. It just doesn't work that
way. We are governed by the laws of nature. What's true for optimum
health is also true for optimum disease. According to Jenning, "Give
the body conditions for disease and that is what you get." There is
absolutely no intelligence in figuring this out.
But once again, we as a people are swayed into thinking otherwise. If we
skip forward to the Merck Manual's 17th edition 39-page explanation, it states,
"Primary mechanism for Fe deficiency, the most common cause of
anemia, must always be considered to be blood loss." There is
absolutely no mention of diet.
Let's shift gears for a minute. It's my normal writing time - 11pm.
This is my third day writing about anemia and actually one of the hardest
diseases to poetically prose. The information out there can be labeled
quasi-informative without being complete to keep my mind working. I'm
eating oranges, actually clementines; by the end of the night I will finish
eating about 30 while writing feverishly, which is exactly what this is always
about for me. I require a tremendous amount of fuel, hence tonight I eat
clementines. Last night it was grapes, an easy 2-3 lbs. The
reason? I am commanded to write. It comes from a higher power.
At whatever cost at
whatever time, and for no other reason than it has to be done by someone,
anyone. Today it's my turn; tomorrow it may be yours.
If we follow the Merck Manual's thought process in its writing about the
treatment, it also explains why drugs are so prevalent in the county. Why
are over 100,000 deaths from doctor prescribed over medication? Why are
Medicare bills are soaring? Why they haven't found a cure for
cancer? As quoted, "Fe therapy without pursuit of the cause is poor
practice. The bleeding site should be sought in cases of mild
anemia."
At this point everything sounds honky dory until you realize that primarily
sufferers of anemia are women - a known fact. For women, the time they
lose most of the iron is during menstruation - a known fact. So doctors, mostly
men, are going to check the "periodic bloodletting in the sloughing off of
the uterine lining during menstruation?" I don't think so. It
will be a bloody mess. So much for intelligence. As we continue
reading further in the Merck Manual about treatment it states, "Fe can be
provided by various Fe salts (ferrous sulfate, gluconate fumarate) 30 minutes
before a meal." At this point, as a raw foodist, my first consideration is
whether it's useable or not. Useable iron must be from
a raw food source so the body can use it as part of a whole food complex along
with the other nutrients. "If it is cooked or chemically altered it
reverts back to an inorganic form, which is technically unusable by the
body."
The point is I'm not a doctor and the American women, meaning 20% of all women
of child bearing age, have anemia. They are being checked thoroughly
during menstruation and are given iron supplementation as the main source of
treatment. I want to restate what Dr. Neal Barnard says in his book, which
is, "Iron is a key component of the free radical theory of
disease." And let's quote Dr. Randall B. Lauffer, a biochemist at
Harvard University from his book Iron Balance, where he clearly states,
"Iron can be like a detonator in a munitions warehouse."
We scan, we skip, and I am now on my second box of clementines, number 32. We
read T.C. Fry who states, "Anemia is a condition that arises from abnormal
blood loss and insufficient intake of usable organic iron to
properly imbue easily created red blood cells (RBC) of which the body creates
200 billion daily." Not thousands, not millions, but billions.
Day in. Day out. That fact alone needs to be emphasized.
Anemia is no simple disease that can easily be handled by an iron pill that will
supposedly be able to produce 200 billion RBC. My gut reaction is that
this pill can't even produce 1 RBC let alone 200 billion on a day-to-day basis.
The words of Herbert M. Shelton ring out very so clearly on the futility of
giving these inorganic iron supplements. He states, "Only an idiot
would expect such abuse to restore these or any other patients to health."
In the Merck Manual, the 39 pages about anemia did not mention cure rate. It did
not mention in specific length of time either having it or losing it. So when
somebody speaks about healing anemia with specific causes with
specific time lengths for healing, with specific names, dates of real people who
have gotten not only better but are thriving, then we as objective people have
to sit down and listen, for truth is truth. There is no argument with
that. Anna-Inez, teacher of Life Science, trains those who don't know to
become those who know. She trains people in lifestyle choices rather than
in medical supplementation. Therein becomes a transference of
power from, "What can you do to help me?" to "What can I do to
help myself?" She stated that for an average person to stabilize problems
with anemia one not only has to be on a raw food diet, but also has to include
exercise, a minimum of 20 minutes daily (specifically the trampoline) in
addition to 20 minutes of sunshine, which enables one to receive useable vitamin
D which in turn will help the nutrients to be better absorbed in the
system. In addition, our bodies, our complex mechanisms, require daily
recharging. Sleep is the vehicle in which this is to occur. Sleep means
total rest in total darkness in total quiet, for we are creatures of habit that
demand excellence in what we do either awake or asleep. If it takes using
an eye mask to achieve this sleep then do it. If it requires the window to
be blackened then do it. Do whatever it takes for there is no price higher
than the price of our well-being.
As it begins so it ends. The time is past 12 midnight and my body aches
for sleep. In the time span of approximately 2 hours I have devoured
approximately 32 clementines and a half-pound of grapes. I fell asleep
briefly from 11:30pm-12am, yet I reached my goal of finishing this by Friday
morning. So ends this newsletter. Next week - depression.
I thank you for your time.
Arnold
Resources:
Food for Life by Dr. Neal Barnard
Alternative Medicine by Burton Goldberg
Diet for a New America by John Robbins
Survival in the 21st Century by Viktoras Kulvinskas
Life Science Text by T.C. Fry
Hygiene Review by Dr. H.M. Shelton, edited by Victoria Bidwell
Interview with Anna-Inez, Life Science Educator
Merck Manual 17th Edition
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Upcoming events at Arnold's Way
Arnold's Way presents: 2nd Tuesday Raw Lecture Series
Tuesday October 9th - 6:30pm
Barbara Cap shares her story about Lyme Disease and how she became symptom-free
in 4 months after she went on an 80% raw diet.
Tuesday November 13th - 6:30pm
Dan Goodman will talk about his story about MS.
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