Blind Spots In Health

There are 2 major schools of thought in the world of health: mainstream and alternative. In the mainstream school of thought, pharmaceuticals are the primary solution to most health ailments. Most alternative health advocates think Pharma is big business and largely evil. While I largely agree with this premise, I also view this through an economic lens. Why is it set up this way? Drugs cost money and have a massive amount of liability. No business can spend money to test a product and carry the risk for a product that they can't patent and standardize. Without a patent, it would be like buying a house anyone off the street could walk into. The standardization piece is the idea that any drug is absolutely the same no matter where you take it or where it comes from. These limitations make preventative medicine a poor option for generating profit.

Now lets look at the alternative health side. Alternative health is largely unregulated and is also based on generating profit (as much as people might like to think it's purely altruistic). I worked in the supplement field for years and by the end of it, I felt like a big pharma salesmen disguised as a hippy. Alternative health products are looking to make money just like any other business. They have to keep cranking out new stuff, new packaging, etc. every quarter in order to stay relevant. Many of the companies are using trash studies, trash ingredients, or simply have no idea or don't care that their products are useless and in many cases unhealthy. Several times I confronted alternative health company executives about inaccurate and dishonest product advertising. Some executives acknowledged my concerns as valid but did nothing to correct it. Another (one of which I was working for as a research consultant) threatened me with legal action. It's all about money and perception. Feel-good supplement companies are really no different than Big Pharma. I currently consume very few supplements. After moving to the midwest from CA, I see many of the trends that were popular in CA 5 years ago popping up in the midwest as a great new health trend (i.e. juicing, red light therapy, natropathy, muscle testing, etc). I can't help but smile when I think about how ridiculous many of them are. Alternative health (like mainstream health) also struggles with factors like location and seasons. True health is directly tied to nature and cycles.

I researched and tested so many health trends over the years both while I was working in the alternative health industry and since. I have had some terrible experiences with supplements, fake guru's, chiropractors, muscle testers and beyond. So many "quantum" devices plugged into A/C wall pugs promising health because they play soothing sounds and vibrate. I recently heard a local alternative health practitioner explaining how her tech bed is the only one in the country with specific frequencies. She has no idea how it works, but said it "exercises the cells." Cells don't "exercise". So many terms like "quantum, resonance, full-spectrum, transform, embody, harmonize...etc." are thrown around in the marketing of these devices to help make them appear relevant.

Ok, all that was said to get you comfortable with the idea that everything has pros and cons. In my last blog post I explained what I was learning and experiencing regarding oxalate. I on a carnivore diet, which is a no-oxalate diet. The only deviation is hot chocolate with powered cacao and butter in the morning. I have this almost every day because it is something I get to look forward to and it helps keep oxalate dumping symptoms from being so severe. As long as I keep my oxalate significantly below what my body can process out daily, my residual oxalate levels will continue to decrease.

I have not had any kidney pain in weeks. I feel strong, clear, and amazing. I am so surprised after being in the alternative health world focused on plants as food & medicine to realize plants are not only unnecessary, but in many cases contributing to gradual toxic overload. I went to the dentist 3 months ago and they were concerned with deep gum pockets and excessive gum bleeding, so they recommended I come back in 3 months. As you'll know if you've read my previous blogs, I have had some severe dental issues (oral spirochetes and metal amalgam poisoning). I went back a couple weeks ago after about 6 weeks on the carnivore diet and my dentist could not believe the difference. The dentist was amazed. I explained I hadn't eaten any plants or carbs of any kind for over a month and the hygienist immediately said "well there are other factors"....but I know I've done nothing different besides the diet.  I am experiencing some truly amazing health changes. I don't think a carnivore diet is for everyone but I am most excited about shedding the oxalate. I do believe in general people should eat less plants in the winter and more in the summer which matches what is naturally seasonally available. I personally need a longer oxalate-free season because I have been on a high-oxalate diet for over 40 years and have symptoms of heavy oxalate detox.

Mainstream medicine doesn't like anything it can't test. It relies heavily on blood and urine tests. For most of my life I was metal poisoned from amalgam dental fillings. My childhood dentist lost his license for doing unnecessary procedures like filling a children's mouths full of metal fillings just to bill insurance and get paid (but this is another story). The point is that metal accumulation in the body can't be measured. This makes it a blind spot in modern medicine. Alternative health also can't measure it and the only real way to measure it is to monitor symptoms. When I was eating a high-oxalate vegan diet for several years, much of the "detoxing" I was doing was really just symptoms of a toxic diet that was destroying my health.

It is important to understand the concept of toxicity accumulation in the body. It's obvious when someone accumulates fat, because we can visually see the change. You don't have to test someone for fat gain when you can see it plain as day. I was a fat person for much of my life. What is this process of fat accumulation? Simple: a person takes in more calories/food than they expend. It would be ridiculous to ask a doctor to test our blood or urine to tell us if we are fat. The issue with metal and oxalate accumulation is you cannot see it like you can see fat. In other words, overweight individuals are highly likely to have metal and/or oxalate accumulation in conjunction with high body fat, but individuals who are not overweight can still and often do have metal and oxalate accumulation as well.

An interesting point about accumulation of toxins in the body is that a fat body may help to diversify the oxalate that has built up in the system. A person can loose fat eating a high oxalate diet and end up with serious oxalate toxicity in a skinny body. Losing the fat, if done unwisely can result in even worse health. The same concept is true for metals and this happened to me when I lost my weight. It is important to make health the focus and not just fat loss.

It is important to note that aging is a reduction in electro-magnetic charge potential that then diminishes the functionality of the bodies systems and in turn results in higher accumulation of substances like metals and oxalate which then reduces charge potential and on it goes. If you can intervene in this process then it can greatly slow aging and biological decline.

I fought and overcame my battle with metal accumulation. The Magnetico sleep pad has been hugely helpful, but mainstream and alternative health, many supplements, and muscle testing did nothing for me. Now I am fighting my battle with oxalate. Do you have massive amounts of oxalate build-up causing health issues like I did? There's no way to test it and the alternative health world will tell you to consume massive amounts of plant super-foods that contain dangerous oxalate levels in the form of juices, plants, smoothies, powders, nut milks and flours, supplements and beyond. The alternative health world is pushing many of these products, not Big Pharma. The secret to detoxing oxalate accumulation is to stop consuming more than your body can process out. Your body will naturally do the rest. Since oxalate is a toxin, it is always trying to rid itself of it.

I have tried it all and find it almost comical that all it took was eating meat, eggs, raw yogurt, cheese, fish, bacon and nothing else for me to thrive. I was extremely sick and unhealthy as a vegan. The sad thing is that perhaps despite the general intentions, the alternative health world is pushing so many food and health products they don't really understand, and they don't want to because these products are good for profit. You don't need a muscle test to tell you if spinach is bad or not. Its one of the highest oxalate foods and it is toxic. To put it into perspective, half a cup of cooked spinach has over 750 mg oxalate and the normal daily oxalate range for someone who isn't already oxalate toxic is 125-200 mg oxalate max. Mainstream medicine can't measure oxalate and alternative health can't stop selling it.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that health may be far more simple than we thought. The main change it requires from modern thought is a mental shift. I used to walk into the produce section of the grocery store and look at all the colors and plants with wonder. Trust me, I lived and breathed alternative health for many years and wasted tons of money on stuff that only damaged my health further. Lucky for me, I can measure my oxalate detoxing through my kidney pain. Never ask someone who makes a living selling a product if their product is dangerous. I'm not saying that everyone has oxalate over-accumulation, but I think many of the people heavily invested in alternative health are consuming massive quantities of "super foods" believing there is no downside whatsoever, and often telling others to do the same. No one should consume more than 250 mg of oxalate in a day (because the kidneys can only process out about 25 mg/day and you absorb around 10% of the oxalate you consume). I wish someone had told me about this back when I was a suffering as a vegan. Hopefully this information is helpful for you on your journey.