Paavo Airola - Nutrition Forum - Let's Live - March 1977 Index

Fluoride for Osteoporosis

Q. I am 28 years old, and have had rheumatoid arthritis since age nine. My present rheumatologist wants me to start taking massive doses of fluoride because my bones are very osteoporotic. Just how safe would it be for me to take the fluoride? What alternatives would you be able to suggest? I have severe, almost intolerable pain from my neck to the base of my spine, and, of course, orthopedists urge surgical fusion. - J.B., Albuquerque, N.M.

A. Your doctor's thinking is based on the assumption that massive doses of sodium fluoride will strengthen your bones. He may be right. Fluorides will probably help to calcify your bones to some extent. What he does not realize, however, is that massive doses of sodium fluoride are extremely toxic, and will cause severe systemic poisoning and possibly serious tissue damage and even cancer. It has been statistically proven by Dr. John A. Yiamouyiannis' studies that the prevalence of cancer is greater in areas where water is fluoridated.

My alternative to fluoride treatment would be to mineralize your bones with chelated minerals. Most health food stores now sell such mineral supplements. Take calcium orotate, magnesium orotate, and zinc gluconate, plus multiple chelated minerals and trace elements, every day. Also, take raw bone meal tablets, brewer's yeast, vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and hydrochloric acid to help in mineral absorption. Cortisone, which you may have been using for your arthritis, has a de-mineralizing effect on the bone structure of your body. If possible, contact a nutritionally-oriented doctor and discuss this suggested program with him.

Cracked Lips

Q. I have been getting cracks in the corners of my mouth, which get quite sore at times. I have had these for a couple of years. They come and go. I especially notice it more when I eat oranges or grapefruit. Is there anything I can take for it? - Mrs. V.I., Milwaukee, Wis.

A. Cracks in the lips or at the corners of the mouth are often indicative of vitamin B2 deficiency.

I would suggest the following supplementation daily (for two months):

Also, follow the Optimum Diet, but completely avoid all citrus fruit, and especially citrus juices, for several months.

Pasteur: Genius or Con-Man?

Q. Throughout your writings, both in this Forum and in your books, you seem to question the Pasteurian concept of disease and belittle his great discovery of germs as a cause of disease. If Pasteur was wrong, as you say, how could the whole medical science be misled for 100 years? Could thousands of brilliant minds be so easily deceived. Isn't our whole Western medicine built on his concept of disease? Are you actually telling us that one man, Dr. Airola, is right, while the entire, worldwide medical community is wrong? Don't you think this is rather preposterous? - G.P., Boston, Mass.

A. I wish I had more space within this Forum to give comprehensive answers to your questions. I must refer you to my article, What is Biological Medicine?, in the April, 1976 issue of Let's LIVE Magazine, and to the introduction in my book on natural healing, How To Get Well.

Here, in a nutshell, are the facts that you can ponder upon:

  1. Pasteur did not discover bacteria or germs. His great contemporary, Dr. Pierre Jacques Antoine Bechamp, made the discovery. Pasteur, a publicity-oriented opportunist, merely borrowed the Bechamp idea and publicized it as his own. Incredible? Nevertheless, this is a well-documented historical fact.

  2. While Pasteur claimed that the bacteria or germs are the vicious invaders that attack healthy organisms in their way, the actual discoverer of bacteria, Dr. Bechamp, considered the microorganisms (microzymas) as being "wonderful things", the scavengers, that do not cause disease, but develop in the body as the result of disease. He knew that germs are always present in man's environment, but are totally harmless and impotent until the organism is weakened and the resistance is lowered. Only then will the germs become natural scavengers, fulfilling the natural law; of "returning to dust" the body made unfit to live. When the true medical history will be written, Bechamp, not Pasteur, will be hailed as one of the greatest medical geniuses of all times.

  3. It is well known that Pasteur had a change of heart during the last years of his life, and confessed on his deathbed, saying, "I was wrong - Bechamp was right."

  4. How can the whole medical establishment be so deceived? Easy. Throughout medical history, the philosophies and concepts of disease and the approved methods of healing have been changing almost every generation. At one time, doctors believed that diseases were caused by demons. Later, generations of doctors used bloodletting as cure all, since "bad blood" was considered to be the cause of all disease. Although accepted philosophies of disease have varied almost with every generation, somehow orthodox medicine has never seriously considered Hippocrates' philosophy of health and disease: that most ills are of man's own making and are the result of his violation of the elementary rules of health. So, when Pasteur came up with the bacteria theory, it was met with immediate acceptance. The germ theory removed health maintenance and disease prevention from the domain of man himself and put it in the doctors' hands. The idea that they are the only ones able to defend mankind from the germs appealed to doctors.

  5. And, finally, I am not alone against "undivided medical consensus" in rejecting the Pasteurian concept of disease. Two of the greatest geniuses of medical science, Hippocrates and Galen, both believed in the philosophy that the human organism, when its health level and resistance are high, will not be subject to disease - germs or no germs. Also, a long line of brilliant contemporary doctors (several of them Nobel Prize recipients), notably Bircher Benner, Are Waerland, Ragner Berg, A. Lwolf, Albert Schweitzer, H.A.Schweigart, Weston Price, Hans Selye - to name a few - agree 100% with the biological medical concept of disease: that the primary cause of most disease is mental, nutritional, and physical stresses that weaken the resistance and cause biochemical and metabolic disorders in the body, leading to a variety of pathological conditions which orthodoxy diagnoses as separate and specific diseases. Although the majority of the world's medical orthodoxy still clings to the obsolete and out-dated Pasteurian germ concept of disease, there are now thousands of doctors, both in the United States and abroad, who subscribe to the biological medical concept of disease as expounded in my writings.

    The complete fiasco of today's orthodox medicine, based on the fallacious Pasteurian concept of disease, is evidenced by the fact that in spite of more doctors, more hospitals, more germ-killing drugs, and more money spent on health than at any time in man's history, we have more disease than ever before. We are witnessing a catastrophic increase in all the chronic degenerative conditions, including heart disease and cancer. Half of all Americans are chronically ill. While orthodox drug-and-knife-oriented doctors are unable to cope with this increased amount of disease, people are losing faith in them, and turning to unorthodox healers - doctors of biological medicine, who restore health by correcting man's eating and living habits, not by combatting germs with toxic drugs. This "new breed of doctors" is known as practicing preventive, orthomolecular, metabolic, nutritional, or biological medicine. These doctors recognize that while the basic causes of disease are to be found in man's own health-destroying eating and living habits, likewise the cure of all disease is inherent in the body's own healing power. The doctor of biological medicine does not cure disease. He cures a sick body by supporting the body's own healing activity with various biological means such as improved diet, herbs, vitamins, rest, exercise, relaxation, etc. Biological medicine puts the blame for man's ills not only the controllable external factors such as germs, but on man's own eating and living habits. Likewise, the responsibility for the prevention and correction of disease is placed on man himself, on his own positive and constructive health-building and disease-preventive efforts. Disease-ridden mankind can finally rejoice and only benefit from the fact that the Dark Era of Pasteurian Germ-Concept Medicine, with its deadly chemical drugs, serums, X-rays, are well on its way to being replaced by the Healing Science of the New Age - Biological Medicine.

    Mineral-Vitamin Imbalances

    Q. I would welcome your comments on the recent Anaheim meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, particularly on their admonition against experimenting with trace mineral supplementation on the grounds that it would cause imbalances in the body and risk heart failure and strokes. This refers especially to the zinc-copper ratio. Let's LIVE readers have been encouraged to consider zinc and other mineral and trace element supplementation. Is it not better to rely on the complex nutrition from the "super foods" for both minerals and vitamins rather than to experiment with specific minerals and vitamins? Could there be a danger in creating imbalances with mineral and vitamin supplementation? - G.F., Lakewood, CA.

    A. This is a very "loaded" question, indeed. I will, however, give you a very honest answer, let the chips fall where they may. There is definitely a danger of creating mineral and vitamin imbalances in the system - with resultant health disorders - if they are taken in excessive amounts and without expert knowledge as to the actual body needs of these substances. Although I am one of the most avid advocates of vitamins and supplements, and am a dedicated supporter of the health food industry, which supplies us with better quality foods and supplements, I realize that there are dangers involved in self medication with isolated high-potency minerals, trace elements, and vitamins. This is why in my book, How To Get Well, where I recommend a long list of vitamins and supplements on practically every page, I also clearly state:

    1. That therapeutic (mega) doses of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements should be taken only during the course of the treatment, then discontinued.

    2. That the exact dosage of supplements and the duration of treatment should be determined in cooperation with a doctor or nutritionist who prescribed and/or supervised the treatment.

    3. That those who are relatively healthy and young and do not suffer from any specific illness should not take isolated or synthetic vitamins or minerals, but should use regularly and continuously such natural "super foods" as brewer's yeast, kelp, bone meal, dolomite, cod liver oil, sea water, rose hips or acerola tablets, etc. These foods are concentrated sources of natural vitamins, minerals, and trace elements and the continuous enrichment of your diet with them will not cause any imbalances in the body.

    4. That when specific high-potency vitamins or minerals are used as a part of treatment for some specific health disorder or illness, or correction of deficiencies, they should be taken for about two or three months, or until the condition or deficiency is corrected, and then discontinued for about two or three months. The treatment can be repeated, if needed, after the interval. To my knowledge, I am the only one in this country who recommends such a pattern of vitamin supplementation. In Europe, however, especially in Russia, the therapeutic uses of vitamins always follow such a pattern. The rationale is that it will prevent possible imbalances and also that the body will respond to vitamins better if it is allowed to function without them from time to time.

    To summarize, since today we all must eat foods that are nutritionally inferior to those of our ancestors, and since we are all subjected to many toxins in the air, food, water, and environment, we can no longer rely on food as the sole source of all nutritive substances we need. Thus, taking special food supplements and vitamins is imperative for the maintenance of optimum health and prevention of disease. This supplementation should be preferably in the form of natural, "super foods" such as those mentioned earlier - brewer's yeast, cod liver oil, kelp, sea water, bone meal, dolomite, rose hips, juices, herbs, etc. High-potency, isolated, even synthetic vitamins and minerals also have their place in the therapeutic programs in the treatment of most conditions of ill health, but they should not be used indiscriminately. Such therapeutic supplementation must be individually designed, preferably in cooperation with an understanding and knowledgable doctor and/or nutritionist, and discontinued after health is restored, thus avoiding undue systemic imbalances that the continuous ingestion of isolated mega-doses of vitamins and minerals, and especially trace elements, may cause.

    Emphysema and Hiatus Hernia

    Q. My doctor said I have emphysema and a hiatus hernia. I would like to know more about hiatus hernia; also, if a person has emphysema, is he subject to external and internal ruptures? - E.M., Iraan, Texas

    A. These two conditions are not related at all, although one can be afflicted with both at the same time. For information about hiatus hernia, please read Nutrition Forum, in the February, 1976 issue of Let's LIVE.

    Index