Sleep Well Tonight

Having trouble sleeping?  

You are not alone.  Up to 74 percent of Americans do not get enough sleep.  Many of them could get a good night's sleep if they stopped doing the things that keep them awake—stopped stimulating their minds and bodies too much before trying to sleep.

There is a science to sleep.  We know what contributes to a good night's sleep and what will make it hard to fall asleep, or will wake you up in the early morning hours.  It is worth your time to learn a little about sleep.  Getting adequate rest makes a big difference in your day.

Everyone has lain in bed tossing and turning.  Some toss and turn every night with their mind racing through a thousand seemingly random thoughts.  Others fall asleep but find themselves wide awake in three or four hours and can’t get back to sleep.  If these are chronic they are considered insomnia.

There are simple changes in behavior that will fix the problem for most people.  If these don’t work there’s doctors who will help you get to sleep one way or another.

Tips for sleeping effectively:

• Avoid sleeping pills whether prescription or over-the-counter.  These should only be used for unusual, short term, problems.  Long-term use of sleeping pills will actually cause sleep problems.
• Avoid alcohol at night—it really doesn’t help.  It may produce unconsciousness but it doesn’t produce effective sleep.
• Avoid coffee, tea or other stimulants in the evening.  Each person needs to learn how these affect them and take stimulants early enough in the day that their effect has waned by bedtime.
• Avoid eating for five hours before lying down for the night.  This will give the digestive system time to work and a rumbling stomach won’t disturb the sleep.
• Avoid drinking anything for two hours before lying down.  There’ll be less chance of having to urinate during the night.
• Avoid TV or movies that increase adrenaline.  Violent or frightening movies will keep parts of the mind and body active for hours.
• Get the children and pets quiet--hopefully sleeping!--two hours before the adults go to sleep.  Then the adults will have time to relax themselves.
• Actively relax during the last two hours before bedtime.  The best method of relaxation will be different for each person.  It may be meditation, breathing, music, reading, massages with their partner, sex or funny movies.  Consider Yoga Nidra, a remarkable yoga technique that puts the mind’s attention on various parts of the body to reach profound relaxation.
• Get regular exercise.  The body is designed to move.  You should be tired at the end of the day.  
• The Meridian Tapping Technique (MTT) or Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT).  This is effective is dealing with thoughts and emotions that are disturbing your sleep.  
• Listen to white noise or relaxation CDs.  Don't listen to voices or songs; sounds of water or a forest are more effective.  
• Darkness helps the body sleep.  Get dark curtains.  Cover the lights on electronic gadgets.  If you get up in the middle of the night, use the smallest possible night-light to avoid stubbing your toes.  Don't turn on the main room lights.  If you do, your body will trigger hormones that say the night is over.  Use an eye mask if you can't darken the room.  
• Get your body temperature right.  Some people are too cold and some too hot for real rest.  Maybe you need socks for your cold feet.  
• Reading something spiritual can get your mind in the right place for sleep.  It should be relaxing and uplifting.  
• Wake to music.  Alarm clocks can be jarring.  
• Journaling can help people with too many thoughts.  Getting some of those thoughts down may help set them aside for eight hours.  
• Go to bed fairly early and at the same time each night.  Pushing ourselves to finish a few more tasks before bed is likely to disrupt our sleep.  Your body is designed to rebuild overnight at certain times.  If you're still scrubbing the kitchen at midnight, your body won't rebuild as designed.  
• Check your bedroom for electro-magnetic fields (EMFs).  You might be surprised what is buzzing around your bedroom.  There are machines you can rent or buy to do this.  Keep electronics, including clocks as far away as possible from your sleeping location.  
• A high-protein snack at dinner will generate a little melatonin and serotonin to make you sleep when you're ready to lie down.  
• A little fruit (very little) in the late evening will also help you sleep.  
• Talk to you doctor about your medications.  Many will disturb your sleep.  Ask for a medication change or help in timing the medication to maximize sleep.  
• Lose weight.  
• Avoid foods that you may be sensitive to.  Many people are sensitive to grains and dairy.  A little nasal congestion can be very disturbing.  
• Take a hot bath, shower or sauna before bed.  
• Only use your bed for sleeping.  Don't use your bedroom to organize your life or watch TV; that encourages your mind to go there when you need to be sleeping.  
• Check with your doctor.  You may have a physical problem that is contributing to a disturbed sleep cycle.  Women who are perimenopausal may want to check with a physician to see if their hormones are preventing sleep.  

What if you still can’t fall asleep quickly

If all the good things above haven’t worked and all the bad things have been avoided, consider a low dose of melatonin (1 to 3 mg) before going to bed.  This is a chemical that the brain produces that induces sleep.  For some of us, a little extra melatonin does the trick.  A study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that melatonin helped people fall asleep by as much as 17 minutes faster.  The safety of long-term use of melatonin is unclear so it’s best to limit its use to a few weeks.

What if you fall asleep OK but don’t stay asleep?

• If sleep lasts only a few hours and sleep doesn’t seem to happen after that, learn a meditation technique such as yoga nidra, breath-mindfulness, or muscle relaxation.  The benefit is that they can be done lying in bed with the lights off.
• Mind your breath.  Simply focusing the mind on the feeling of the cool air entering the nostrils followed by the feeling of warmth as the air is breathed out can be very relaxing.
• If muscle tension is present, learn to tense and release one area at a time, e.g.  tighten the right fist, then release, tighten the right forearm, then release.  Continue tightening and releasing each arm and leg, the upper and lower torso, the shoulders, the neck, the face.  Somewhere in that process you should find yourself asleep.
• If sleep still doesn’t come then it’s best to get up and move around.  Do some gentle activity until you feel sleepy again.

Summary

All of us have trouble falling asleep occasionally but chronic loss of sleep can affect your health and happiness.  Avoiding the many things that create sleeplessness is usually sufficient for getting a good night’s sleep.  Adding meditation and other techniques can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep.  For those who still have trouble professional help is available.  There are doctors in every city that specialize in sleep disorders.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

What drives me crazy is the TV commercial from the corn industry that says that corn sugar is the same as cane sugar--Sugar is Sugar!

Well, of course sugar is sugar. The point is that high fructose corn syrup isn't sugar--surprise!--it's high fructose corn syrup, which causes obesity and diabetes.

Avoid any product with high fructose corn syrup and you will be healthier.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Latest on H1N1

I've reported before that the H1N1 scare was overblown for the drug companies' benefit. I advised that only a very few people should be vaccinated because healthy people could expect milder symptoms than the normal flu.

Now it seems that the "scientists" who were making recommendations to WHO had connections to the drug companies.

The British Medical Journal reported:

"The investigation by the BMJ/The Bureau reveals a system struggling to manage the inherent conflict between the pharmaceutical industry, WHO, and the global public health system, which all draw on the same pool of scientific experts.

Our investigation has identified key scientists involved in WHO pandemic planning who had declarable interests, some of whom are, or have been, funded by pharmaceutical firms that stood to gain from the guidance they were drafting.

Yet these interests have never been publicly disclosed by WHO and, despite repeated requests from the BMJ/The Bureau, WHO has failed to provide any details about whether such conflicts were declared by the relevant experts and what, if anything, was done about them.
It is this lack of transparency over conflicts of interests—coupled with a documented changing of the definition of a pandemic and unanswered questions over the evidence base for therapeutic interventions—that has led to the emergence of these conspiracies."

 It's time for governments, and the WHO, to focus on what's best for the population rather than the medical establishment.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

GMO Foods May Make You Sterile

Well--not you specifically but quite possibly your grandchildren. The evidence is mounting around the world but you won't hear about it in the US--at least not from the government.

Russian Scientists found problems related to fertility, birth weight of offspring, and infant mortality among animals raised on GMO soy. for two years, one group of hamsters was fed a normal diet without any soy whatsoever, a second group was fed non-GMO soy, a third ate GM soy, and a fourth group ate an even higher amount of GM soy than the third.

Using the same genetically modified (GM) soy that is produced on over 90 percent of the soy acreage in the US, the hamsters and their offspring were fed their respective diets over a period of two years, during which time the researchers evaluated three generations of hamsters.

The second generation raised on GMO-soy had fewer pups and infant deaths were 5 times higher.

The third generation was sterile.

Other studies using rats had similar results except that the sterility occurred in the second generation rather than the third. In the rat study the testicles of the rats eating GMO-soy changed from pink to blue along with changes in the sperm themselves. There are also plenty of reports about pigs, cows and other livestock having reproductive problems when fed genetically modified feed.

You and your children are eating GMO foods now but you've only been eating it for 14 years--not even one generation. The effects of GMO soy will not appear until after 2016 and the sterility problem in your grandchildren would not be apparent until 2036.

The US government has conflicts of interest that prevent the science behind GMO crops from reaching your grocery store. Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto attorney is in charge of US food safety and Clarence Thomas, also a former Monsanto attorney, sits on the US Supreme Court.

Monsanto is behind GMO crops and Roundup, a prominent herbicide.

Your government will not protect you from harmful foods, it's up to you to educate yourself and end GMO-foods with your pocketbook.

Remember there are eight genetically modified food crops:

• Soy
• Corn
• Cottonseed (used in vegetable cooking oils)
• Canola (canola oil)
• Sugar from sugar beets
• Hawaiian papaya
• Some varieties of zucchini
• Crookneck squash

Avoid any GMO varieties of these foods and their derivatives. The easiest way to avoid ending up with GM foods in your shopping cart is to do some pre-planning using the free non-GMO shopping guide, available at www.NonGMOshoppingGuide.com.

The Institute for Responsible Technology has also created a free iPhone application that is available in the iTunes store. You can find it by searching for ShopNoGMO in the applications.

The shopping guide lists the various derivatives of each crop to be avoided, and even better, it lists hundreds of brand products in 22 food categories that are non-GMO, so if you’re still buying processed foods, at least you can easily select a brand that does not use genetically modified ingredients.

Getting into a shopping habit of continually avoiding GM food products will create pressure on the marketplace, without which there is little hope. So take this one step! Download the shopping guide, and make note of which brands to buy and which ones to avoid like the plague that they are.

You can find loads of additional information about GMOs on the site www.ResponsibleTechnology.org.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

AminoSweet is Aspartame -- Avoid it!

There is currently a PR campaign to rebrand Aspartame as AminoSweet.  This is really good news; it shows that we are having an effect on the use of this dangerous chemical.

You may have heard that the methanol from aspartame is no more dangerous than the methanol from fruits.  This is a carefully crafted lie.  Here is a very detailed discussion of the question of methanol metabolism from fruits and aspartame.

If you'd like to read more about aspartame, here's my article on LesTout.com and a recent article by Dr. Mercola.

Please avoid aspartame as NutriSweet, AminoSweet, or any other name they come up with for this unhealthy chemical.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Dr. Mercola summarizes the dangers of H1N1 vaccine

Check out the various articles that Dr. Mercola has written on the H1N1 controversy.

There's a great interview with neurologist Dr. Blaylock which is especially important to pregnant women.

I continue to believe that very, very few people should be receiving this vaccine.  If you're healthy and you contract the H1N1 virus, you will have mild symptoms.  You may not notice it at all if your immune system is healthy enough.

For healthy people, and especially for healthy pregnant women, the vaccine is more dangerous than the H1N1 itself.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

H1N1 Outbreak Appears to be Overstated

Watch this video interview with the founder of the National Vaccine Information Center.

It appears that the numbers of H1N1 deaths being reported include people who are dying of other illnesses such as pneumonia or other forms of flu.  Only 2% of people with flu-like symptoms suffer from H1N1.  Most people who get H1N1 have relatively mild symptoms.

Dr. Mercola continues to urge the population to protect themselves with proper hygiene.  Read his article here.

People who are truly in danger of dying if they catch the flu because they are frail or their immune system is compromised should get the vaccine if their physician recommends it.  Healthy people don't need the vaccine.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Kids and Smoking

As we beg people to stop smoking (or not start), rather than warn them of cancer, it might be more helpful to emphasize the damage that is done with every single puff of every cigarette. Cancer is a bit like Russian Roulette; some people don't get cancer, but everyone suffers the immediate poisoning of the blood and emphysema. The damage of emphysema starts immediately with the first cigarette. It may not be diagnosable for decades but that is because of the limitation of medical science. Doctors can only diagnose emphysema when a huge amount of damage has been done.
When you think of the elegant design of the respiratory system and how it efficiently moves oxygen from the lungs to the blood, it is sickening to think of young people replacing that oxygen with cigarette smoke, deadly parts of which are just as efficiently introduced into the blood, and the remaining components of the smoke coating the delicate air sacs in the lungs which will eventually harden, collapse and no longer support life.
My mother died in 2002, coughing up blackened bits of lung. She never got cancer.


Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Pharmaceutical Companies Mislead the Public

Dr. Mercola has posted an hour-long film that describes the efforts by the big pharmaceutical companies to increase their profits. They are masterfully enticing both doctors and patients to use more and more drugs. Very little of this has to do with health. Many of the new drugs advertised on TV aren't new drugs--just an old drug dressed up in a new box. Many of the drugs are less effective than natural remedies.

Watch the movie.

Few people need pharmaceuticals. Instead, most people need lifestyle and wellness education. I hope you'll take the time to visit www.alliswell.org and www.mercola.com for straight talk on wellness.

You deserve good health at little cost.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

What Model for Health Care?

We've all heard of Obama's health care plan. I thought I'd toss in my two cents. Let me first say that I love Obama and support almost everything he's done. I think he's a brilliant and effective leader who is struggling under titanic and opposing forces.

Let me start off with a shocker--an illuminating model for effective health care is not England, or Canada, or France, it's Cuba. Cuba spends a total of $250 per person on health care per year because they spend it on prevention not on symptom-manipulation after the person gets sick. We spend over $6000.

Another, even better, model was ancient China, where you paid the doctor for wellness advice on a monthly basis, but if you got sick, you stopped paying him until you got better.

There must be an incentive in a health care system to keep the patient well rather than sick! The US system makes people sick and keeps them sick for the benefit of the corporate monopolies.

This is the problem with our current system: we are a country run by corporate monopolies--the food industry keeps us sick and the insurance industry, the medical monopoly and the big pharmaceutical companies make a fortune. No one wants us to get well. Private business is always about increasing quantity. Have you ever heard a car dealer say he wants to sell fewer cars? Hospitals want to keep their beds full, insurance companies want more claims, big Pharma wants to sell more pills. You get the idea.

I feel sorry for Obama. If he were to truly fix the broken US system, the pharmaceutical companies, the insurance companies and the medical monopoly would all shrink by 80% to 90% shedding thousands of excess jobs and worsening the economy. The political pressure must be incredible--to put a band-aid on the broken system so that it looks like he did the right thing but that makes even more money for the corporate monopolies.

At this point there is no right thing to do; there is no win-win solution. Obama will have to smoke-screen so that it appears that he helped the American people (and therefore gets re-elected) at the same time improving the profits for the corporate monopolies and therefore appeasing the Republicans and the lobbyists.

Perhaps the best of all the bad alternatives is to let the corporate monopolies fail (that is, create a UK-like one-payer system) while opening up health care to wellness experts who have real influence on law-makers so that the damage done by the US food industry and our chemical industries can be exposed and corrected. The US economy will suffer but at least we will be paying the price now rather than forcing the costs onto our children and grandchildren.

If we simply convert to a one-payer system without (1) emphasizing prevention through education, (2) correcting the broken food system and (3) cleaning up chemical pollution, we will have all the problems the UK has. We can't fix health care without cleaning up the food system and chemical pollution. The cost of manipulating the symptoms of people who are being poisoned though food and pollution is too high for any health insurance system whether private or public.

If we fail to provide the US with good food and a clean environment, if we prop up the current private system and help the corporate monopolies extract even more money from us for ineffective health care, the system will crumble of it's own weight at some point. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price of our cowardice and stupidity.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Thimerosal and Autism

Do you ever wonder why doctors don't know what causes autism? It's because they are trained to believe what the drug companies tell them. It is well documented that big-pharma has known about and covered up the dangers of many drugs and their components.

Read Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s article: Tobacco Science and the Thimerosal Scandal

Autism was unknown until we started putting way-too-many chemicals in our bodies. Among those chemicals is thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines. There have been 1500 studies showing that thimerosal is dangerous, yet the FDA and the CDC have repeatedly failed to protect the American public, preferring instead to protect the drug companies. As one doctor said, “What if the lawyers get hold of this? There’s not a scientist in the world that can refute these findings.”

The National Autism Association describes the use of thimerosal in vaccines as neither safe nor effective. Read their summary of the history of autism and the use of thimerosal.

Where does this leave a mother who wonders whether she should allow her child to be injected with a vaccine? I don't know. She will probably get distorted information from her doctor, and information like this blog is too general to be helpful. The mother needs to do her own research on the specific vaccines that are to be given to her children.

The drug companies will tell you that they don't use thimerosal any more. Whatever they're using as a preservative now probably has not been tested by independent labs so we may only find out after thirty years that some other disease is caused by the new preservative.

We want to immunize our children against serious diseases, but we want the government to protect us from the drug companies who appear to control the FDA and the CDC.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

More on Swine Flu

I know there's lots of scary news about Swine Flu. Once again Dr. Mercola has done a good job of cutting through the advertising fog from the pharmaceutical companies to bring us the straight story.

The most important point to me is this--during the time that we've had the "Swine Flu" there have been more deaths from the ordinary flu than from the Swine Flu.

Even the WHO organization says that this is a mild flu where many patients completely recover without any treatment at all.

Read Dr. Mercola's article, take the precautions that he recommends, and you'll be fine.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

The Possible Truth About Swine Flu

The swine flu is a serious threat and we should all prepare for it. The best possible preparations may not be what you think.

Read this excellent article by Dr. Mercola that puts the swine flu in the proper perspective. For most people, the bottom line is that vaccines are a greater risk than the flu itself. So get healthy and you'll survive the flu if it comes your way. Your healthy body may even take care of it without you realizing you had it.

How to get healthy? Check out my website for many spiritual and physical things you can do to build up your immune system.

If you want a short but incomplete list of preparations for the flu, Dr. Mercola recommends:

• Maximize your vitamin D levels. Get a little sunshine.
• Avoid sugar, wheat, corn, dairy and other allergens
• Rest
• Learn a technique like EFT to deal with stress
• Exercise regularly
  
• Take an Omega-3 supplement like Krill oil
• Wash your hands often
• Eat garlic
• Stay away from vaccines and hospitals

Remember that germs don't cause disease; they just enjoy life and reproduce when they find an unhealthy body to live in. So keep your body healthy and when the H1N1 bug, or any other for that matter, drops in to visit you, they'll be quickly taken care of by your robust immune system.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Multiple Sclerosis drug identified

In an Italian study, MS was arrested in 39 out of 40 patients. The drug used was naltrexone, a cheap generic drug. Many doctors are not aware of this drug because drug companies don't push cheaper drugs.

Here's the information from the study:

Multiple Sclerosis. 2008 Sep;14(8):1076-83.
A pilot trial of low-dose naltrexone in primary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Gironi M, Martinelli-Boneschi F, Sacerdote P, Solaro C, Zaffaroni M, Cavarretta R, Moiola L, Bucello S, Radaelli M, Pilato V, Rodegher M, Cursi M, Franchi S, Martinelli V, Nemni R, Comi G, Martino G.

Institute of Experimental Neurology (INSPE) and Department of Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina 58, Milan, Italy; Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, IRCCS, Milan, Italy.

Abstract: A sixth month phase II multicenter-pilot trial with a low dose of the opiate antagonist Naltrexone (LDN) has been carried out in 40 patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). The primary end points were safety and tolerability. Secondary outcomes were efficacy on spasticity, pain, fatigue, depression, and quality of life. Clinical and biochemical evaluations were serially performed. Protein concentration of beta-endorphins (BE) and mRNA levels and allelic variants of the mu-opiod receptor gene (OPRM1) were analyzed. Neurological disability progressed in only one patient. A significant reduction of spasticity was measured at the end of the trial. BE concentration increased during the trial, but no association was found between OPRM1 variants and improvement of spasticity. Our data clearly indicate that LDN is safe and well tolerated in patients with PPMS.

Be sure to share this post with your loved one's with MS.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Boycott Florida Tomatoes?

Part of natural health is spiritual health, and part of spiritual health is doing no harm to other sentient beings. If you buy fast food that uses Florida tomatoes, or you buy tomatoes at a supermarket that buys from large regional growers rather than small local farms, you may be supporting slavery. Please put pressure on fast food restaurants and grocery stores to ensure that their produce is produced ethically and farm workers are treated fairly.

Here's a portion of a January 2009 letter from a farm worker:

In this season of the New Year in which, across the country, families and friends gather to celebrate and share their hopes for the future, we, the Immokalee workers, wanted to take this opportunity to share our hopes and wishes too.

Today, while the rest of the country celebrates, we in Immokalee continue to live an unimaginable life -- overcrowded, with wages that have been stagnant for thirty years, no respect on the job, violence, wage theft, and, in the most extreme cases, slavery. This past December 19th, 2008, the most recent slavery case was closed in federal court, in which workers were beaten and chained inside trucks at night so that they couldn't escape. Enslaved, the food they produced was distributed by restaurants and supermarkets throughout the country. And there can be no doubt that at this very moment, in some field in this state of Florida, there are compañeros being forced to work against their will who produced the food consumed today in New Years celebrations by families across this nation.

Today we ask, how many more slavery cases must occur before our humanity is taken into account? I ask the agricultural industry, their buyers, and the governor -- how many more abuses?...

With these questions in my mind, I want to express the following hopes of my community:

• We hope for an end to slavery and other abuses in agriculture.
• We hope for respect, a fair wage, and to be treated with dignity.
• We hope that more buyers join the agreements we have established and that the FTGE allows the workers to receive the penny per pound.
• We hope that the governor takes responsibility and the appropriate action in all of this. We are not hoping for these changes solely because they are our hopes, but because these are questions of universal Human Rights and we all have a moral obligation in this.

Here's some links:
http://www.ciw-online.org/
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2008/04/15/0415slavery.html
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/391546/in_the_trenches_and_fighting_slavery
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/28/act-now-to-stop-slave-labor-in-floridas-tomato-fields/

Support your local, and especially your organic local, farms. Their food is much healthier for you than commercial produce.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

The Toxic Source of Autism

This video from Dr. Joe Mercola makes a lot of sense to me. It presents a "cause" of autism that is consistent with all the data about autism that I've seen.

Click here for video

If you're dealing with a loved one with autism, take a look, and

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Extremely Drug Resistant Tuberculosis

There's a new bug going around that is killing 85% of the people who contract it. Most of us think that TB is under control, but about 1/3 of the planet has the bacterium. Most forms of TB are treatable when good medical care is available and if the patient is treated early. But TB isn't being controlled around the world and it will show up in your home town if we don't help out in the parts of the world where TB is a problem.

A website has been set up to increase awareness of the disease. Here's a video about drug-resistant TB.





Pass the word to your friends and your government.

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Slow Food Nation

Too often, I think, I'm telling you about bad news. Here's some good news:
"Over 60,000 people participated in Slow Food Nation last weekend and celebrated the birth of a broad and inclusive food movement to build an American food system that is sustainable, just, and delicious."
Help spread the word about Slow Food Nation. Eat local! Eat organic! Grow your own! Start a community garden and get to know your neighbors.

This is a breath of fresh air.

Take a deep breath!

Dr. Ron

Aspartame and Sudden Cardiac Death

I've written about aspartame before. This is a serious poison found in diet drinks and NutraSweet. I just saw a reference to Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) being caused by aspartame. This is a sensitive subject for me since my cousin, a healthy young sailor, died of SCD. So I did a little research. Here's an excellent article about the relationship between SCD and aspartame.

Here's a link to a site dedicated to the horrors of aspartame and the commercial interests that fight to keep it legal.

Read about the bizarre arrest and trial of a Sunday-school teacher who was sentenced to life imprisonment after her husband died of aspartame poisoning.

Please folks, don't eat or drink anything that contains aspartame!

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron

Women and heart attacks

I received an email recently with the text below. I hope you'll share it with your friends.

Women and heart attacks (Myocardial infarction).

Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack—you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest and dropping to the floor that we see in the movies? Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack:

“I had a heart attack at about 10 :30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might've brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, like when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation—the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasming), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. 'AHA!!' NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening—we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we?

I said aloud to myself and the cat, 'Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!'

I lowered the footrest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, 'If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else—but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up.'

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics. I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts. She said she was sending the paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to unbolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.

I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the Cardiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance. He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?') but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stents to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the Paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St. Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stents.

Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail?

Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body—not the usual men's symptoms—but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).

It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up—which doesn't happen.

My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before. It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

Note that I said 'Call the Paramedics.' And if you can, take an aspirin.

Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE! Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER; you are a hazard to others on the road. Do NOT have your panicked husband, who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road. Do NOT call your doctor; he doesn't know where you live, and if it's at night, you won't reach him anyway. If it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics. He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr. will be notified later.

Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count. Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure). MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.

Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know the better chance we could survive. Please be a true friend and send this article to all your friends (male & female) you care about!”

Take a deep breath,

Dr. Ron