Can Medicine Be Cured? PaleoJay's Smoothie Cafe Podcast

Can Medicine Be Cured?  

Subtitle:  The Corruption Of A Profession.

This is the title of a new book by Seamus O'Mahony, a physician at Cork hospital in Ireland.  This is an impressive book, since he goes out on a limb and says what most physicians are actually thinking:

He challenges the usefulness and credibility of medical research; the illusion of progress; our stubborn belief that we can be perfected; over-prescribing; poly-prescribing; the efficacy of many drugs that are routinely administered; the corruption of academic medical research; our collective failure to accept that medicine cannot cure everything, and indeed can cause trouble of its own; over-reliance on metrics; the pharmaceutical industry and its vast reach and influence, and far more.

There was, he points out, a 'Golden Age' of medicine, from the 1930s to the 1980s, during which a number of huge advances were made. TB, smallpox, polio, all huge killers, were effectively eradicated in the developed world. This Golden Age ended "just as I came into it, I caught the end of it. There have been very big advances since then, but nothing like that accelerated level of discovery and innovation that occurred in those 50 years." Since then, medicine has increasingly lost its way.

Starting with 'research' - that great hope that will save us all - he is fairly scathing. I suspect that many of us believe (as I did) that medical research is being conducted in a coherent, structured, completely credible way, such that it will gradually solve all ills. That all one has to do is wait, and research will do the rest, finding cures for sicknesses long before we succumb to them. Maybe not, it seems. 

"Contemporary bio-medical research is itself very sick as an endeavour," O'Mahony says. "There is even an acknowledgement and a consensus within bio-medical science that it has lost its way. It's been estimated that anything up to 85 percent of all bio-medical research is a waste of time. 

And that's at a cost of $170bn annually."  

There is a fairly negative trickle-down effect to this; "frontline workers, GPs, hospital doctors, who may not be carrying out any of the research, who just do what they're told in a way. I've drawn a parallel between modern medicine and medieval church: the higher level lay out dogma, the lower level work on the front line and implement it. They are not supposed to question any of it".

At a more practical level, there's the routine over-prescribing that goes on. "Pushing people into patient-hood," as O'Mahony describes it, "for marginally elevated cholesterol levels, for example. The statin story is a great example of how the medical-industrial complex works. The overwhelming majority of people prescribed statins for high cholesterol levels are never going to benefit from taking this medication, and may experience harm."

Connected with that, is poly-pharmacy, in which patients are prescribed further medication to deal with the side effects resulting from the primary medication, to the point where many elderly patients in particular are now taking five or more medications daily, all with their own side effects and possible complications.

What would he like readers to take away from this book? "I write about the bogus contract between doctor and patient that has existed for several decades. The basis of this contract is that we can diagnose everything, fix most things, we never make mistakes and medicine is not dangerous. All of these things are untrue. We have limited powers. Medicine is very often ineffective and sometimes dangerous. We can't fix everything, particularly social and existential problems. I think society needs to lower its expectations around what medicine can deliver. That's one message I'd like people to take away with them.

"Then, there's this cultural thing where a consultation with a doctor must conclude with a prescription.

 I'd like people to think, 'Is this medication really going to help me?' I'd think about that in particular when it comes to drugs like statins, drugs for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis - these drugs that you're going to take for the rest of your life, maybe 40 years, with an overwhelming likelihood that it will not give you any benefit whatsoever."

There is also a strong current of social conscience that runs through the book:

 "Medicine and healthcare has relatively little effect, now, on overall population health," he points out. "Your health is far more likely to be determined by your education, your income, your job and where you live. Take the USA where they spend around 20pc of the GDP on healthcare and yet they have some of the worst outcomes, healthwise, in the world in terms of infant mortality, longevity and so on. We're spending an ever-increasing amount of money on healthcare, but the benefit to us as a society is getting less and less as time goes on." 

That healthcare budget should be put into housing, education, the eradication of deprivation, a boost in opportunity, the arts - "that's a more effective way to treat the health of the population."

Equally, he has simple, obvious solutions to the growing gap in global health inequality: "If we simply applied evenly and fairly across the world what we know currently works, medicine and society would be transformed. If we never did another new research project, and just took what we know now, and gave everybody access to it, global health would be transformed."

I certainly agree with this last!  If everyone would live in a rural or small town area, with pure water and air, low congestion and stress, that is half the battle right there.

If you also added in daily natural, perfectly paleo types of exercise, eliminated wheat and most sugar, and slept a good 8 hours per night in a blacked out room with no TV or screens present- why, that alone would solve most health problems right there!

And if we gardened organically, eliminated herbicides and pesticides from our areas, if we also ate organic fruits and veggies, pastured eggs and meat and dairy, and consuming a daily green smoothie…

We would rarely need a doctor or hospital at all!  Most diseases and conditions would simply evaporate, healed (as they are meant to be) by the healthy body itself!

Bone Broth and Kidney Stones- podcast

Chanca Piedra

And so is chanca piedra, which I promised I would mention after my previous podcast about my kidney stone!

Now, these two items- bone broth and kidney stones are related, so stay tuned and I will explain.  I got my kidney stone from, I believe now, actually overdosing on spinach for years and years!  Contrary to popular belief, spinach has gotten a “halo of virtue”, and we all think it is nothing but loads of beneficial vitamins and minerals, all in a pretty green package.  But it also has oxalates, which are a chemical or ester that protects the spinach plant.  And the wheat plant, the rhubarb, the raspberry- in fact, many plants that we tend to regard as all good!  

They’re not.  And if you, like me now, have ever experienced the utter pain of a kidney stone, you will realize that.  But in addition, this chemical, which is stored away in the form of calcium crystals throughout the body of those of us mammals that dare to eat the plant that contains them, can cause all sorts of pain and illness in the human body.  

From joint pains, to tooth and bone density issues, to sleep troubles and digestive issues!  Oxalates are like gluten and gliaden- insidious, harmful, and hard to track or trace.  Kidney stones are just one of the more obvious contamination issues.  But I have two suggestions for you:

First- get rid of your kidney stone, if you have one, as fast as possible- pass by the urologist and the incredible pain and expense he will offer you, and order a bottle of chanca piedra for about $12.  Take a dropper full in each of the many, many glasses of water you should also be drinking to get rid of the dang thing, and hold on tight!

And above all, from now on go on a low oxalate diet!  I would drop spinach entirely, along with rhubarb, beets, and raspberries- oxalate levels in each of these are off the charts.  Of course, I hope you are already off of wheat, since that is also high in this poison as well as gluten.  And step two?

Heal your gut!  A leaky gut opens you to every disease under the sun, so get to healing it.  Bone Broth is the best tool for this that there is, helping to sooth, heal, and finally seal your gut lining- this is really job #1 in both health maintenance and health restoration!  As Hippocrates said so long ago: “All health begins in the gut.”  And it turns out he was right.

Once again, the best web site I have found on oxalates and their dangers is this one: https://sallyknorton.com/  Read through what she has to say, and take it to heart.  I have no affiliation with her whatsoever, but I recognize excellence and knowledge when I see and hear it, and Sally Norton has it.  Take her advice, along with mine, and heal thyself!

YOU are responsible for your Health!

I can help you!

In this time of snowflakes, or those who cannot experience one moment of discomfort in their lives, one of the worst trends, health-wise, is that of folks relying- actually worshipping medical clinics and standard doctors!  

I have nothing against M.D.’s, they are wonderful to have around when you have stopped a bullet or been run over by a bus.  They are trained, since the Civil War (which, by the way snowflakes, was a war where white men fought and died to free black slaves), to save men that have been traumatized dramatically, and help them to survive, ultimately to return to the battle field.  Really, this is when modern western medicine really got in its stride.  Emergency medicine!

But, in terms of staying healthy, getting healthy, or regaining health- sorry, it is all up to you.  

I think this is the whole disconnect, right there.  Nowadays, people want to think that medical doctors and clinics can save them, literally.  Save them from themselves!  The vast majority of people do not want to change what they eat, and their lifestyle, one bit.  They want to continue to eat cereal for breakfast, but they will use skim milk, since that will save them.  (Low fat)

They also want to eat fast food for lunch, and sometimes they will eat a salad with the supplied soybean rancid seed oil dressing, washing it down with an artificially sweetened beverage, and having a bun or some other GMO crap topped with loads of more rancid seed oil, in the form of margarine. (Because it’s low fat, don’t you know)  

Supper can be a thick crust, Chicago style pizza, since you have been “good” all day, eating low fat, and watching those calories!  You are starving, so you eat the whole thing- after all, you walked in your cushioned sneakers at the mall for a good 30 minutes this morning.  You stay up late, watching CNN and feeling virtuous, since you are doing so well- and you can’t wait for your doctor’s appointment at the clinic next week, since you know you will do so well, since you follow all of their recommendation to the letter!  You just want to ask your doctor why you can’t lose weight; you just keep yo-yoing up and down- and you have constant headaches, and then there is your acid reflux that is becoming chronic.  You are so depressed as well…

What a surprise at the clinic when the doctor raises alarm bells- your health appears to be horrible!  Your triglycerides are sky high, and he recommends a statin, high blood pressure medication- and- oh yes, it’s time for a colonoscopy, along with a series of tests that need to be scheduled, since you are over 50 now, and everyone over 50 needs lots of medications and continual tests, since otherwise you can never stay alive.

You go home with your bags and bags of pills you got from the pharmacy.  You feel virtuous!  You are doing everything right!  You eat lots and LOTS of whole grains, not too much white flour, (except maybe your pizza, but you do mostly right- wheat chex every morning, right?)  And the doctor says that mall walking is probably the best exercise that you can do, along with Zumba, which you plan to start next month.  Things are looking great!

But, as you watch the bluish glow from your large-screen TV, you kind of wonder why you feel like crap?  You remember Grandma and Grandpa, who lived on that hardscrabble farm in the midwest… How had they survived so long?  They ate bacon and eggs every morning like clockwork, and slaughtered their own animals as well.  They never made near as much money as you do, out in the suburbs, but the always seemed healthy and happy, Grandpa out cutting wood in his late 80’s while Grandma was frying bacon and then doing all of the household chores, including weeding the huge vegetable garden on a near daily basis.

You look distractedly at Rachel Maddow, your hero, and remember that Grandma and Grandpa always were in bed by 9, while you never go to bed before midnight, despite having to get up at 5.  YOU are no stick-in-the-mud like those old fossils, even thought you love them dearly.  Those poor, benighted souls…all of that butter, and red meat, and just a high fat diet!  How can they stay alive??

Shrugging, you remember you need to take your pills- blood pressure, statins, anti-depressants, acid-blockers- well, the list goes on and on.  You feel great as you take them, knowing you are destined, through medical science, to live the longest, healthiest life in the history of the human race, thanks to worshipping the medical science developed in the 1970’s!!

Finally, you go to bed.  Since you live in a metropolitan area, since of course the job prospects are so much more lucrative there, you lie in bed listening to the sirens and urban clamor all around you.  The bright lights from the street lights shine in on your bedroom, so you sure don’t need a nightlight!  You smile.  Grandma and Grandpa have been sleeping for hours!  What kind of life is that, anyway?  You lie back, waiting for sleep to come- tomorrow will be a stressful day, in fact they are all stressful days- high pressure!

You lie there, light shining in your windows, noise outside as it will continue all night.  You can’t sleep, in fact you almost never can sleep.  ‘Have to ask the doctor about  sleeping pills next week,’ you think.  You pull out your phone, and check out facebook- you sigh.  This will be one long night; hopefully you will get a few hours of sleep.

At 6 AM the next morning, Grandpa gets out of bed, and goes lightly downstairs to make the coffee for the two of them.  He starts his morning exercises, doing limbering and stretching ones mostly, but concluding with pushups and situps, of which he can do a surprising number, strictly.  

After showering, Grandma comes down, and they make a large breakfast together of eggs, meat, and a big smoothie made in their Vitamix- their offspring would be startled and horrified, since it is a high fat smoothie, and a high fat meal altogether!  They laugh together, and talk, planning their day.  Grandpa needs to mow their rural acreage with his tractor, which he loves, so Grandma will run to town to get some ribs and steak for later on, along with some baking potatoes, that she will load with sour cream and pastured butter.  The sun shines down on their rural place, and Grandpa smiles as he goes out to his tractor- this will be a fulfilling day!

You kind of wake up, after the alarm on your phone goes off, on the nightstand right next to your head.  You really don’t know if you ever slept, really, or not.  You only know you feel groggy.  You stumble downstairs, and put some whole wheat bread in the toaster, and pull out the margarine.  ‘How am I going to make it through this day?’ you think.  ‘I feel like crap, what will I do later when I’m even more tired?”  You munch your tasteless bread, topped with an even more tasteless and nutrition less fake fat.  You drink your coffee, laced with skimmed milk and artificial sweetener.  You finally take a shower with fake soap that is mainly Sodium Lauryl Sulphate.  You remember that you have to also ask the doctor about why your skin is so dry, red and flaking!  My goodness, this doctor list of questions keeps growing and growing.

You smile, thankful that you are ultimately saved!  Modern medicine is a miracle- you will live a really long life, unlike Grandma and Grandpa and others like them.  They don’t know about science- they are hicks- rubes, really- the fact that they are so old shows that they don’t know anything!

pjsc 128 No Gym Needed!

One of the biggest deterrents to someone actually doing the exercise that their body is crying out for is this: they think they need to join a gym (expensive and intimidating to the uninitiated), and then of course they have to find the time to get there.  Driving over, getting into your special workout clothes, waiting in lines to use fancy machines or heavy weights on supports and on benches covered with the previous users sweat…

and music you may hate is often blaring at you, and lines of folks peddle away on bicycle trainers, going nowhere, watching TV…

Doesn’t sound too appealing, does it?  And so, unsurprisingly, most people simply give it all up, and say “I just walk!” when the subject of exercise comes up.  While walking is fine, most people just walk really fast for exercise (this is silly and unproductive- walking is not meant to be rushed!), and then drive the rest of the time when they are not on their 1/2 hour really fast, dorky looking walk through the mall or the neighborhood.

So, I will agree: rule #1 of Perfectly Paleo Exercise: walk, but walk barefoot, outside in the grass when you can.  Pumping small weights ala Heavyhands is ideal, and a great total body workout can be had, pleasantly if not easily, in 10-15 minutes!  And otherwise- just walk into town if you can, or at least just park at the very back of the parking lot when you shop.  It never adds more than a few minutes at most to your trip, and makes parking easy and safe for your vehicle, and adds health to your life.

Rule #2: Exercise at home!  That’s right, in your living room, your den, your basement- wherever.  I have my gymnastic rings hanging in the basement, and it is so fast and convenient and productive to just go down there and do some pushups, pull ups, flies, and one-legged squats and rows.  Never takes longer than about 30 minutes to totally stimulate the entire musculature, safely and very productively.  No spine compression like with a barbell on your back, or shoulder destruction from bench pressing a heavy barbell- and flexibility is also enhanced. 

Rule #3: Work out, hopefully daily, and do it first thing in the morning.  Come up with a sequence that works well for you- I vary mine slightly from day to day, but each day usually has a focus- for instance, tomorrow is pushup day.  I’ll get up nice and early, to have the living room (and the television) to myself, and then I’ll walk in, coffee in hand, and start my Netflix show as I begin slowly flexing and working out.  Virtual resistance is always how I begin, slow, intentional flexing of each muscle group in the body throughout the entire range of motion, for 7-10 reps each.

Rule #4: Stretch! After my whole body has been worked via virtual resistance, I get down on my floor mat and go through a series of stretches.  I also work my ankles, my hands, massage my bare feet, ( I always exercise barefoot when I can), and finish with a long hold of a back bridge, adjusting my spine while I get the blood into my head- it feels great!

Rule #5: Do pushups.  You don’t need to do them every day, I like to concentrate them into 2 times per week, Sundays on the rings, and Thursdays on the Perfect pushup rotating pushup handles.  I do them with my legs elevated, and I do sets with regular width grip, wide grip, and then narrow grip.  30, 25, and 20 lately.  Then I repeat, for at least four sets; sometimes up to 10! 

If I do the 4 sets, that’s a total of 260 reps.  I pause briefly between sets, and sometimes to isometrics and self resisted exercises as I do so.  This is much more beneficial than any sort of heavy weight training, or long distance running, since it develops the entire body in a very beneficial way, giving your body a symmetry of proportion, not bulky, blocky muscles and a protruding stomach.

Rule #6: Get a rebounder!  I don’t want you to spend a lot on anything, after all, I haven’t asked you to join a gym, get special shoes or clothes, or anything much.  Ideally, you will have a one time purchase and installation of gymnastic rings, buy the heavy duty Perfect Pushup handles (the standard ones wear out quickly), and a mat for the floor. (I got a rubber yoga mat at Target). But, do get a rebounder, which is a mini-trampoline!  Nothing comes close to stimulating your lymph system, which processes your waste products from the body, and it naturally enhances the virtual resistance exercises as you gently bounce on it.  You actually have to experience rebounding to realize how healthy it is (I always finish up with the “Ab bounce”), and all you need is a cheap rebounder.  Mine, like my mat, was from Target- $30.00.  I’ve had it, and used it daily, for years!

Rule #7: Do sit ups!  I’m really coming to believe my grade school gym teachers had it right- back in the 1950’s and early 60’s, they had us doing multiple sets of pushups and sit ups, along with jumping jacks and burpees, chin ups and rope climbing!  What could be more paleo than that?

Somewhere along the line, body builders started doing “crunches”, which were said to totally isolate the abs.  BS!  I think they caught on because they are really easy!  Do sit ups!  Put your hands behind your head, do not anchor your feet under anything, and sit up all the way, getting your head down as low in front as you can.  After awhile, you will be touching your nose to your knees, or close to it. 

This is not just for the abs in isolate, like the crunch- this, like the pushup, is a total body exercise, and is particularly beneficial to the back and the spine. 

Tuesdays are sit up day, along with hindu squats (high rep squats to the floor, swinging the arms as you go), slow regular pushups with hands flat on the floor, and several other exercises I have adopted over the years.  All are detailed in my eBook Perfectly Paleo Exercise, and in PaleoJay’s Smoothie Cafe paperback.

Rule #8: EXERCISE!  It’s not optional, just like eating, our Ancestral bodies really require regular exercise, natural exercise that satisfies our flexibility, strength, and aerobic needs.  Good sleep, good natural foods made by God, not man, (this means no gluten!), and exercise are all necessary for health and well-being.   Get started tomorrow- just go in the living room and do some pushups and sit ups.  I don’t care if you can only do one of each!  Do one, rest, do another, and so on.  If that’s all you can do, then that is as good for you as hundreds are to someone else.  Do a little stretching, eat well that day in a Paleo sort of way, go to bed early, and do it again tomorrow- I guarantee it will be easier the very next day. 

Rule #9 & 10:  REPEAT

Check out this episode!

pqtd #115 Paleo Time Machine!

Recently, I built a time machine!  It was amazing, that first time I fired it up- the rainbows of lights that surrounded me in my little contraption as I spun away through time, into the past.  The walls of my machine were vibrating rapidly, and a strange music of deep, resonant chords seemed to go right through me- and then, with a thud, I landed.

I had gone into the past, as planned.  I looked out upon a scene at once strange and familiar: in front of me was a typical street in an American town, but it was subtly different from what it had been in my time.  I could see a glass telephone booth around the corner, for I had fortuitously landed in an alley between two large brick buildings. 

Leaving my machine, I covered it with large sheets of plywood that were strewn through the alley, disguising it.  Then I walked up to the telephone booth in the street ahead. 

Old, antique-looking street lamps flickered on overhead, as it was early evening.  A man was talking on the telephone in the booth, wearing a wide-lapeled suit, a felt hat, and smoking a cigarette.  “I’ll tell ya’, Harry,” he said, “the doc says my ticker ain’t so hot!”  He had a loud, aggressive voice.

To the side of the booth was walking an attractive middle-aged woman, with a long dress, a big slouch hat, and a cigarette in a long holder.  She was walking a small dog. 

I felt woefully underdressed, for in 1945 no one would dress like someone from 2016 unless he was a beggar.  A t-shirt and blue jeans, along with sneakers was completely inappropriate for a grown man!  ‘I should have anticipated this’, I thought.  I decided to kind of lurk in the shadows, so as to not draw attention.

More people came by, most walking, some in the big flashy sedans of that era.  And almost all of those folks were smoking cigarettes!  I wanted to walk up to them, and warn them about the dangers of smoking, but I knew what would happen- they would be angered, and think I was insane, especially since I had no qualifications and was dressed so poorly.  Anyone who did notice me looked at me either with faint contempt, or else pity at my forlorn appearance, dressed as a bum.

On the wall to my right, just up the street, was a large advertisement in the form of a sign:

More Doctors Recommend MARLBORO Cigarettes than Any Other!!

There was a picture of a smiling Medical Doctor, wearing one of those big shiny metal head mirrors and a stethoscope.  In his mouth was a cigarette, smoke lazily drifting up as he looked down the throat of a patient!

I knew it was hopeless; no one would listen to me warn of health dangers well known in the future.  They all just believed the common paradigm of the time, which was that cigarettes were fine and dandy, and nothing would shake that conviction!

I went back down the alley, and went back to 2016.

In 2016, I continued with my blog and podcast, warning people about the extreme dangers of glyphosate, or Roundup in destroying the health of their micro biome!  I continually talked about gluten and gliadin, two of the most pernicious allergens in modern wheat, and how they could destroy your health by making the very walls of your intestine leaky, subjecting you to all sorts of anti immune diseases.  I talked about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, and the horrors of the rancid margarines and other industrial seed oils that most were eating. 

Then, walking out on the street, I saw a man walking along, eating a Big Mac.  He had a giant soft drink in his hand, as big as his head, and his belly bulged beneath his shirt.  A woman on the other side of the street had stopped at a soft pretzel stand, and had bought an extra large pretzel, topped with sugar sprinkles.  She ate it with big bites, as if starving; one look at her and you could certainly see that she wasn’t!

On the wall was a sign:

BARIATRIC SURGERY!

THE ANSWER TO YOUR PROBLEMS!

Beneath was the photo of a very slim woman, smiling widely.  “My weight melted away, as did my diabetes!”  The name of a prominent medical clinic followed, along with a telephone number.

I realized that although I knew what advice I should give in this era as well, almost no one wanted to listen!  If the woman on the sign would have just stopped eating wheat, most sugars and started eating a good paleo diet, coupled with ample sleep and perfectly paleo types of exercise, out in nature, she would have achieved the same results without going through a dangerous and expensive surgery!  She would have improved her gut microbes as well, and thus improved her mood and her total health at the same time. 

I got back into my time machine, and went into the future.  When I stopped the machine, people walked by me on the green paths that served as sidewalks in this time.  They were all slim, healthy people, brimming with vitality and energy.  Most were barefoot, and looked at my sneakers with surprise and disgust.  None were eating as they walked.

Swift hovercraft skimmed by, noiselessly, the passenger standing atop them casually, looking about as they drove themselves.  There was a sign, lit up in the air in letters of light:

GUT REJUVENATION!

Eat Real Foods, and Regain Your Health

Perfectly Paleo Exercise for a Perfect YOU!

YOU are Your OWN Doctor- U.S. Department of Health

Beneath these words was a picture of the bust of Hippocrates, the founder of Western medicine.  And inside of a speech bubble coming from his lips, was this dialogue: “All things related to true, natural health such as probiotics, supplements, exercise equipment, and good natural foods are totally TAX DEDUCTIBLE!” 

I went home, feeling really good about the future.  And did you know, you can have that future NOW? 

Check out this episode!