The function of the skin:

1. It is our largest organ
2. Protects our internal organs from injury and infection.
3. Protects us from dehydration.
4. Helps detoxify wastes through perspiration.
5. Protects our body from sunburns.
6. Provides an important line of defense against infections – barrier to viruses  and bacteria.
7. Protects us against extreme changes in temperature between us and the environment.
8. Produces and stores vitamin D, which is important to our immune system.
9. Sensory perception.
10. Gives information to our brain so you can react to it for self-preservation.

What I recommend to do to care for your skin:

1. Alkaline ionized water for drinking
2. Far Infrared Sauna
3. Acid Ionized Water
4. Showering – hot and cold water
5. Skin brushing
6. Dermatological wash cloth or a loofah
7. Volcanic ash – clay – ex-foliation.
8. Chlorella powder with CGF Powder
9. Witch Hazel (plant extract).
10. Shea Butter for a moisturizer.
11. Snow Fungus – THE BEST!!  Soak in water a few minutes and then apply to the skin.  I love it.
12. Internally: Angstrom silicon, sulfur (MSM), olive oil, coconut oil.
13. Foods: avocado, raw nuts.  Raw potato juice There are also lots of other foods and herbs great for the skin.

Snow Fungus (Dry)

Wet Snow Fungus

One of the worse things are commercial beauty products such as Lancôme, Clinique – They are full of chemicals such as parabens.

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Bob McCauley, CNC, MH

Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of the China Study - The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-Term Health, have been arguing publicly over whether the vegetarian diet is actually healthy for a person.  A vegetarian diet is one in which a person eats no meat at all, and a vegan diet is one where a person does not eat meat, fish, eggs or dairy products.  I am currently a vegan and will remain one for the rest of my life.  I became a vegetarian in 1980 while traveling in India.  I was a vegetarian for 18 years before I became a vegan 13 years ago.

The Wrong Way to Be a Vegan
I believe that Dr. Mercola is completely wrong about the vegetarian diet, which he denounces, and the vegan, which he states is actually dangerous for us.   I could not disagree with those sentiments more.  Mercola sites the actress Angelia Jolie to support his case that veganism is dangerous for us because she was a vegan for a few years and became quite sick.  Another person who claims the same thing happened to him is Daniel Vitalis, the elixir master, who states he was a vegan for five years before his health started to decline and five years later after the same diet he claims nearly killed him.  I don’t doubt that it did, nor do I doubt that Angelia Jolie became ill after living on a vegan diet for a few years.  There is a right way and wrong way to go on a vegan diet and apparently neither of them did so in the right way.

The Healthy Way to Be Vegan
I am an example of someone who has gone about it in the right way.  After 12 years of being on a vegan diet, without any meat, fish, eggs or dairy in my diet, I still run daily, often at a six minute sustained pace.  I am a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and still spar quite often.  I am 53 (born in 1957) and can outlast anyone in the ring.  I am no one special, and I am living proof that a vegan diet is not only healthy, but is indeed the healthiest diet that we can live on, as long as we go about it the right way.

Who Promotes What and Why
Dr. Mercola is 100% wrong in promoting an animal based diet.  Dr. Mercola sells ostrich meat, salmon, buffalo, as well as fish oil and krill oil for the omega 3 fatty acids it contains, which is also unnecessary in my opinion because these fatty acids can easily be found in the plant world.  Dr. Mercola believes that only “high quality” meat and fish that have not been factory farmed should be consumed.  I have nothing against him selling any of these things because I think it is an extension of what he believes.  However, I have seen people such as David Wolfe interviewing him and referring to him as some sort of health guru when they should be taking him to task for his promotion of animal consumption.  David Wolfe is a vegan and it is my opinion that when it comes to such a fundamental principle, such as whether it is healthy to eat animal products, it does not suffice to simply say that we will agree to disagree.

Why Meat Kills
The reason that eating animal protein is one of the worst things for our health is simple.  First, we should establish that everyone always cooks their animal protein.  Rarely does anyone eat raw meat, fish, eggs or dairy, although there is a strong movement to consume raw dairy, in particular raw goat’s milk.  I am not against this, but it certainly is not necessary for us to consume if we wish to be healthy.  The problem with animal protein is that it is a pre-formed protein chain of amino acids that are then brought to high temperatures during the cooking process.  The higher the temperature and the longer the animal protein is cooked at these temperatures, the more harmful the animal protein becomes to our health.  Although it is not desirable, exposing plant proteins (unstructured amino acids) to high temperatures does not have the same deleterious effects on our health.

The Raw Paleo-Diet
Around 1900 – 1910, the latest health fad to sweep through Europe and the United States was the Raw Milk Cure.  People found that if they began consuming fresh raw cow’s milk, they felt better and their health improved.  Eating raw, organic meat, fish, eggs or dairy products is not harmful to our health, although I do not believe they are necessary for good health and are not required unless no other protein source is available.  Eating raw animal protein from a commercial size factory-farm could potentially be detrimental to our health.

The Flaw in the China Study
The China Study by Dr. Campbell is easily one of the best books I have read on the subject of health and vegetarianism.  It is one of the few books on health I have read twice.  It is a comprehensive study, the most comprehensive controlled study in history, and it demonstrates beyond any doubt that those who live on a meat-based diet have far greater incidences of serious health problems such as heart disease, stroke and cancer.  When I first read it, I was amazed to see in print what I had been saying for over 20 years, that removing meat from your diet leads to an overall healthier life.  However, where the China Study falls short is in suggesting protein sources other than fish, eggs and dairy products.  Nor does it attempt to determine whether there is a difference in health if we eat our vegetables cooked or uncooked.

Why They are Both Wrong
And this is why Dr. Mercola and Dr. Campbell are both wrong, although for different reasons.  I am amazed that anyone in the “natural health movement”, which Dr. Mercola purports himself to be, would even consider promoting animal protein as a primary food source.  I believe those that do so are sadly mistaken and are unwittingly misleading people.  Dr. Jordan Rubin, Garden of Life, told me that it was important that we have meat in our diet.  When I asked him why, he claimed it was because meat contains the amino acid L-Carnine, which does not stand up to scrutiny.  Our bodies are capable of producing L-Carnine, therefore it is not essential, meaning that it must be consumed because our bodies cannot produce it.  There are only eight essential amino acids that our bodies cannot produce.  In fact, there is nothing in meat that cannot be obtained in other foods.   The only reason to eat animal protein at all is for the taste.  Meat, for instance, is only about 20% protein on average.  The other 80% of meat is essentially useless to the body since it is sinew, tendons and fat.

The Raw Food Diet
Dr. Campbell is wrong to promote a vegetarian diet without suggesting an alternative protein source other than soy, which is terrible for our health.  Anyone moving to a vegetarian or vegan diet without adding an alternative protein source is eventually going to become ill, such as the case with Angelina Jolie and Daniel Vitalis, who lived primarily on fruit during his 10 years of veganism.  The Hygienists movement heavily promotes the consumption of fruit and are virulently opposed to consuming algae, which is why I have benighted them the food-nazis of the raw food movement.

Algae: The Perfect Protein Source
Now that I have soundly denounced the consumption of any kind of cooked animal protein, the question must be asked as to where we should get our protein.  The answer is from algae, Chlorella and Spirulina, which are 60% protein with 18 different amino acids in them that are in the correct ratio to one another.  Animal protein contains high amounts of some amino acids while others barely register.  It is this uneven amino acid compliment that makes animal food a poor choice for a protein base.  The notion that poultry is a superior food to red meat is a myth in my opinion.  For instance, chicken has 15 times the amount of methionine, a sulfur-based amino acid, than beef.  This is why you begin to smell like sulfur if you eat a lot of eggs since they contain even higher amounts of sulfur.  There are thousands of different kinds of algae that have been identified.  Spirulina, a blue-green algae and Chlorella, a green algae, are the healthiest and easiest to grow.  A person of any age could live exclusively on Chlorella and/or Spirulina and be perfectly healthy.  Essentially, there are no side effects, although both are extremely detoxifying, which some mistake as side effects.

I have been consuming both Spirulina and Chlorella for 14 years without any animal protein in my diet.  I have high amounts of energy, I am able to perform athletically better than I have for most of my adult life.   Another claim made by opponents of the vegan diet is that Vitamin B12 cannot be absorbed from plant sources such as algae.  Once again, I have had my vitamin B12 levels measured several times and they are fine.  The body is capable of manufacturing vitamin B12.  Probiotics stimulate the production of all the B vitamins.

Bob McCauley, CNC, MH

. . . doesn’t mean you’re healthy.  In fact, no one older ever does.  The idea that someone dies of old age is just a way of saying that there is no telling what killed that person exactly because essentially some and then all of their organs stopped working.  This happens because disease has long ago entered their bodies and has destroyed them.   It is the inevitable result of living on a cooked food diet, especially a diet that is highly acidic, such as processed and fried foods.

One of the common refrains I hear is that they know someone who ate junk foods and/or smoked their whole life and lived to be 98.  Perhaps they were never ill until the final months of their lives.  Why someone who never smoked dies of cancer at 25 years old and someone who smokes lives to be 98 is not really a mystery if we were to look at their lifestyles in its entirety, including whether they had a positive or negative attitude, or if they were a spiritual or religious by nature.  My old friend and mentor Jack Lalanne died in January 2011 and I wrote that he only lived to 96 years old because he was only on a 70% raw food diet and the 30% of his diet that was not comprised of raw fruits and vegetables was acidic and what inevitably lead to his demise.

The Oldest Woman in the World died recently.  She was confined to her bed for several years, which doesn’t sound like much of a life to me.  My 7 Component Health Protocol is more about quality of health today rather than longevity, living a long life.  For without quality of health what is life worth?  If you can’t get out of bed for years, what kind of life do you have?  We hear all the time that modern medicine has extended the life expectancy by 15 years in the last 50 years, and that people are living long lives each and every year.  While that is true, what is the quality of their health and therefore their lives in those final years?  I would rather live 50 years with quality health than to live 100 years and suffer the misery of incessant disease.

No one wants to live to be 100 years old because everyone they see who is 100+ is decrepit.  However, if you woke up on your 100th birthday and felt great, jumped out of bed and said “I’ve got lots to do today so I better get moving” you would relish the thought of living to 100+ years.   We live with the perception that old is good when in fact that living to an old age is worthless without quality of health.  And we live with the idea that aging and becoming decrepit is inevitable, when it is the result of what we put in our bodies, which in the end is our choice.  ”We are all the author of our own health or disease.” ~ Buddha

Bob McCauley, CNC, MH

“Beware of false knowledge.  It is more dangerous than ignorance.”

~ George Bernard Shaw

My Video on the Quack Watchers.

I have been hearing for years what a scam Ionized Water is.  I have heard it called “snake oil on tap”, yet no one has ever called for them to be removed from the market.  Alkaline Water, Alkalized Water, Kangen Water, Miracle Water, Micro Water, Ion Water, Ionic Water, Electron Water, Electrolyzed Water: It’s all the same.  Water that has been electrolyzed is most commonly called Ionized Water.  And for some reason there is a great deal of opposition to it.  Recently Dr. J. Mercola denounced Ionized Water.  Dr. Andrew Weil has also found some excuse to dismiss ionized water.  In fact, he did it twice.  I am not a “believer” in Ionized Water anymore than I am a believer that the world is round and not flat.  To have a belief Ionized Water and its positive effects on the health of those who consume it is a fact and not a “belief”.  It is a fact what ionization does to the pH, ORP and structure of water it ionizes.  I don’t have faith that raw fruits and vegetables are healthy for us, I understand it as a fact.  The same is true for Ionized Water.  I wrote the book on it.

To be perfectly honest with you it boils my blood to hear http://watershed.net/Water-Ionizers/, the healthiest substance we can possible consume, described as snake oil and a scam.  The main reason is because this kind of thinking plants doubt into the minds of so many people that it leads them to the decision never to purchase a Water Ionizer, never to drink Ionized Water, and never to make a part of their daily lives.  To me, Ionized Water is the bread of life.  I thrive on it.  As you will see below, none of the detractors of Ionized Water have ever consumed it or bothered to measure it’s pH or ORP.  If they did, they would find Ionized Water to be the healthiest substance we can consume.

I am considered a “crank” by some, which is aptly defined by Mark Twain as “a person with a new idea until it succeeds.” Without fail, there are those who attempt to debunk great advances in every scientific field and Ionized Water is no exception.  Continental plate tectonics was ridiculed when it was proposed by Alfred Wegene in 1912.  Now it’s established fact.  The same will be with Ionized Water.  It too will one day become established fact taught in every school. Debunkers suggest that the ionization of water simply isn’t possible.  One debunker states that Ionized Water should be dismissed simply because it is too good to be true.  Others state that ionization is impossible to verify when in fact its properties are demonstrated using scientific measuring devices such as pH and ORP meters because the changes that ionization produce are radical, immediate and measurable.

Debunkers contend that most new health technologies developed outside of the traditional medical establishment are worthless and have no value beyond their hype.  They claim that nearly every unusual invention that doesn’t easily fit into the framework of conventional thinking turns out to be yet another urban myth that needs to be debunked.  And if something that they have denounced turns out to have merit, not another word is ever said about it and the debunker’s web page is quietly removed.

What health debunkers do best is plant doubt in our minds when we are trying to search out the truth about breakthrough health devices.  It’s easy to be a skeptic.  It’s difficult to blaze trails and fly in the face of every conventional thought and precept science has established.  It’s hard to believe in something that you discover and want to be true when someone with a scientific background who claims to be an expert is soundly denouncing it.  It is even harder to believe in things that others are ridiculing.  Debunkers have a chilling effect on open debate because of the way they often scoff at the technologies they are challenging.  Their attack on new health technologies that have not been conducted, sanitized and approved by the medical establishment often extends to the promoter of the new invention.  They become the focus of derision much the way Galileo was when he claimed the Sun was the center of the Solar System, not the Earth.  Debunkers ridicule those who have found a new path, uncovered a new truth and consequentially have surpassed an old belief system.  The water ionizer is a prime example of this kind of attack that stifles progress.

We tend to accept the denunciations of the debunkers because we want to believe that we can’t be so easily fooled.  We want to deem ourselves too savvy to be deceived by promises that sound too good to be true.   We enjoy hearing that ideas and inventions that may sound a little weird, or too good to be true, could not possibly be true.  Debunkers want us to believe that life is too harsh for good things to be true.  Life is too difficult for something like Ionized Water to be healthy for us and possess the miraculous health properties it is said to have.  And since someone with a scientific background has claimed it to be a hoax, it must be one.  Thus, we doubt and dismiss it, exactly what debunkers want us to do.

Debunkers tend to be heavy on opinion and light on the facts.  And they often present their opinion as fact.  They are sometimes chemists or chemistry professors who understand book chemistry, but don’t seem to comprehend the simple chemistry of Ionized Water, that of charging water by creating negative ions       (-OH) and positive ions (+H).  Nor do they understand how these ions are created by the simple process of electrolysis then separated through a membrane.  It is not difficult to understand Ionized Water, but it is difficult for some to accept that something so simple can have such a profoundly beneficial effect on everything it comes in contact with, especially our health.

I don’t expect that debunkers will ever disappear.  Ironically, debunkers’ websites are a good resource for groundbreaking technologies since they tend to dismiss anything that might possibly work.

The notion of having people around to challenge the traditional conventions and new inventions is a good one because there is plenty of fraud in the world.  Debunkers, on the other hand, are often something different than those who expose charlatans.  Debunkers stand in front of progress by denouncing and ridiculing any radical new concept.  However, armchair investigations and conclusions drawn from them will never replace field testing and something debunkers almost never do is conduct their own legitimate scientific investigations.

Debunkers often ply their trade in order to protect the status quo and the safety it provides to those who are afraid of the future and the change that it inevitably brings.  Debunkers sometimes serve no other purpose than to confuse us regarding complex issues, which is especially disappointing and destructive when it comes to natural health.

When a radical scientific concept is first introduced, there is commonly resistance to it by the prevailing scientific community.  New ideas are generally ridiculed and derided because they make people uncomfortable.  Scientists don’t want to accept new ones because their life’s work is based on the foundation of these old ideas.  They become particularly defensive and resistant when the new ideas destroy, override or completely supersede the old ones.  Often, the members of the established scientific community must die off so the next generation can be raised with the new concept and accept it from the beginning without any unnecessary bias and hand-wringing about what they once embraced as the truth that has now been superseded by the next wave of scientific discovery.  With the coming of the next generation, the new concept will no longer be regarded as radical, but rather another stepping stone to understanding the whole truth about health, nature and the very essence of human existence.   The acceptance of Ionized Water is yet another stepping stone that cannot be ignored because it is a critical component of health.

A considerable amount of research has been conducted on the effects of Ionized Water, most of it by Japanese researchers, which should be no surprise since they have embraced the concept of water ionization more than anyone else  (Appendix 5: Scientific Studies).  All of the research done on Ionized Water has arrived at the same conclusion: Ionized Water benefits everything it comes in contact with as long as it’s used correctly.[i] Physical scientific measurements, not conjecture, demonstrate the properties of Ionized Water. With this hard evidence in front of us, there is no other conclusion to reach than to claim that the properties of Ionized Water are best described as simply miraculous.

The strong detoxification effects of Ionized Water alone are enough to demonstrate that it is not like any other water you will ever consume.   This is due to the small water-molecule cluster size.  How water molecules group together is another thing that debunkers claim can not happen, thus it is so much more quackery.  This conclusion is reached despite the fact that a substantial amount of scientific research has been done on water molecule clusters.[ii] Water-molecule cluster size is measured by using a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance device.  We can also determine the change in the surface tension of Ionized Water, which is measured in dynes.[iii] A lower surface tension demonstrates the existence of smaller water molecule clusters.[iv]

Debunkers do not accept the basic concept of positive and negative ions and how they affect human health.  If they did, they would understand how important it is that we put alkaline substances in our body. Those who would attack Ionized Water and claim it is a hoax do not understand the value of consuming substances that are negatively charged and possess negative ions.  By their own admission, those who debunk Ionized Water have never consumed it, claiming there is no need to because the concept of ionizing water is impossible to begin with.

Debunkers are part of a faux-intelligentsia that does not believe in field testing before they arrive at conclusions.  The truth is that field testing often reveals many things that formulas and theories written on paper could never have predicted.  Examine debunkers and their methods closely for they are self-appointed watchdogs.  The methods of debunkers are never based on scientific evidence, but rather their own personal interpretation of the science they are debunking.  Debunkers, more often than not, need themselves to be debunked.  This has never been truer than when it comes to the debunkers of Ionized Water.  They don’t understand the simple truth that ionizing water takes it to a level of health many times above that of conventional water.

Here are my Seven Components of Great Health.

[i] For instance, never consume Acid Ionized Water because it is an oxidant that contains free radicals.

[ii] “Theoretical Study of the 6 (H₂O) Cluster,” C.J. Tsai and K.D. Jordan, Chemical Physics Letters 213, 181-88 (1993).

“Theoretical Study of Small Water Clusters: Low-Energy Fused Cubic Structures for (H₂O)n, n=8, 12, 16 and 20,” C.J. Tsai and K.D. Jordan, Journal of Physical Chemistry 97, 5208-10 (1993).

This research is supported and validated by the National Science Foundation.

[iii] A dyne is an extremely small measurement of force. 100,000 dynes= 0.224 lbs of force.

[iv] “Water molecular arrangement at air/water interfaces probed by atomic force microscopy”,  by O. Teschke and E. F. de Souza. Chem. Phys. Lett. 403 (2005) 95-101. (b)

“Water molecule clusters measured at water/air interfaces using atomic force microscopy”, O. Teschke and E. F. de Souza, Phys. Chem. 7 (2005) 3856-3865.

Mucuna is my favorite herb because it is one of the most powerful and useful herbs known. Mucuna Pruriens is an herb that contains L-Dopa, an amino acid that is often prescribed to Parkinson’s Disease patients since it helps with neurological issues. L-Dopa helps produce dopamine in the brain, which is a mood elevator and where we get the word ‘dope’ from. More importantly, L-Dopa produces Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in the brain. HGH is the number one thing we require if we expect to remain young and vibrant, therefore it becomes increasingly important as we age. HGH is primarily produced by the pineal gland in the brain, however, by 50 years of age the average person has stopped producing it. Angstrom Indium is useful for the pineal gland, which is itself the key to longevity.  Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF or Chlorella Extract) contains high amounts of nucleic acids that are the blue prints to the cells.  Without them, the cell cannot replicate itself properly and evermore diminished copies of our cells are produced.

Mucuna also stimulates the production of melatonin and serotonin which are both necessary for sleep regulation. These brain chemicals are also produced in the pineal gland. As we age, they are produced less and less, which is why some elderly people get up quite early in the morning and can’t go back to sleep. Brain chemicals are the key to a good night’s sleep and the keys to a youthful life at any age. I take one tablespoon of Mucuna in evening just before I go to bed because that is when the body produces HGH and other brain chemicals such as melatonin.

My hair started turning back to black about one month after I started taking it. Angstrom Copper helps with gray hair reversal as well.

Here are Mucuna Powder with 15% concentrated and Mucuan with Chlorella.

We need to accept responsibility for whether we are healthy or sick because it is the result of our diet and lifestyle. It has nothing to do with the disease that run in our family because disease do NOT run in families. They are due to family members living on the same basic diet. If we are sick, we have dishonored the temple that God has given us by putting foods into it that have been cooked or processed.

In my book, Honoring the Temple of God – A Christian Health Perspective, I tell you exactly what you need to do if you expect to be healthy

Disease is opportunistic and as it flourishes in the body, it creates a more acidic environment in order to spread further until it consumes the entire body.

Disease is essentially a mechanism that nature uses to recycle something that is no longer a part of itself. All chronic disease is unnatural and a result of the wrong diet. It has nothing to do with genetics as we are led to believe. Chronic disease destroys what is natural, therefore it is a result of unnatural circumstances. In this case, it is the result of the foods and liquids we naively consume.

Please visit me on Twitter for more about Honoring God’s Temple. http://twitter.com/bobmccauley51

By Bob McCauley

1. Soft drinks steal water from the body. They work very much like a diuretic which takes away more water than it provides to the body. Just to process the high levels of sugar in soft drinks steals a considerable amount of water from the body. To replace the water stolen by soft drinks, you need to drink 8-12 glasses of water for every one glass of soft drinks that you consume!
2. Soft Drinks never quench your thirst, certainly not your body’s need for water. Constantly denying your body an adequate amount can lead to Chronic Cellular Dehydration, a condition that weakens your body at the cellular level. This, in turn, can lead to a weakened immune system and a plethora of diseases.
3. The elevated levels of phosphates in soft drinks leach vital minerals from your body. Soft Drinks are made with purified water that also leach vital minerals from your body. A severe lack of minerals can lead to Heart Disease (lack of magnesium), Osteoporosis (lack of calcium) and many other diseases. Most vitamins can not perform their function in the body without the presence of minerals.
4. Soft Drinks can remove rust from a car bumper or other metal surfaces. Imagine what it’s doing to your digestive tract as well as the rest of your body.
5. The high amounts of sugar in Soft Drinks causes your pancreas to produce an abundance of insulin, which leads to a “sugar crash”. Chronic elevation and depletion of sugar and insulin can lead to diabetes and other imbalance related diseases. This is particularly disruptive to growing children which can lead to life-long health problems.
6. Soft Drinks severely interfere with digestion. Caffeine and high amounts of sugar virtually shut down the digestive process. That means your body is essentially taking in NO nutrients from the food you may have just eaten, even that eaten hours earlier. Consumed with french-fries which can take WEEKS to digest, there is arguably nothing worse a person can put in their body.
7. Diet soft drinks contain Aspartame, which has been linked to depression, insomnia, neurological disease and a plethora of other illness. The FDA has received more than 10,000 consumer complaints about Aspartame, that’s 80% of all complaints about food additives.
8. Soft Drinks are EXTREMELY acidic, so much so that they can eat through the liner of an aluminum can and leach aluminum from the can if it sits on the shelf too long. Alzheimer patients who have been autopsied ALL have high levels of aluminum in their brains. Heavy metals in the body can lead to many neurological and other diseases.
9. Soft Drinks are EXTREMELY acidic: The human body naturally exists at a pH of about 7.0. Soft Drinks have a pH of about 2.5, which means you are putting something into your body that is hundred of thousands of times more acidic that your body is! Diseases flourish in an acidic environment. Soft Drinks and other acidic food deposit acid waste in the body which accumulates over time in the joints and around the organs. For example, the Body pH of cancer or arthritis patients are always low. The sicker the person, the lower the Body pH.
10. Soft Drinks are the WORST THING you can possibly put in your body. Don’t even think of taking a sip of a Soft Drink when you are sick with a cold, flu or something worse. It will only make it that much harder for your body to fight the illness.

http://ow.ly/depf

In places where mountains are situated to the south, the south winds that blow are parching and unhealthy; where the mountains are situated in the north, their northern winds occasion disorders and sickness…The winds which must pass over mountains to reach cities do not only dry, but also disturb the air which we breathe and the bodies of men, so as to engender diseases. Hippocrates, Regimen II, Chapters 37-38

The reactions between water, land and air during the long slow physical evolution of our planet have greatly affected the course of biological evolution. To a very considerable extent, this interplay is responsible for the emergence of man – a singular product of evolution – and man, in an extremely brief span of time, through his genius for blindly manipulating natural resources, has attained the unique capacity to alter his total environment. While we have begun to express serious concern for the grim consequences of our role as spoilers in disturbing ecological balances in general, our interest is most avidly focused upon those facets of man-engendered pollution which pose the most immediate and direct danger to us.

We live in an ocean of air and each of us is inexorably required to breathe in at least ten thousand litres of air every twenty four hours just to maintain life in our bodies. Since we are utterly dependent upon the physical and chemical properties of this air, it isn’t surprising that we are now deeply immersed in exploring all atmospheric parameters. Characteristically, most of our efforts are devoted to the detection and control of those toxic particulates and gases contributed to the ambient air by industry and by the multitude of anthropocentric activities which require the combustion of fuel. Their threat to life is pressing and it is obvious that measures for their abatement must be developed in the immediate future. Other, more subtle atmospheric changes are in progress which, because they are less conspicuous, tend to be put aside for future consideration. Among these one would have to list those phenomena involving small air ions.

Very shortly after the existence of atmospheric electricity was demonstrated by Franklin [1] and by d’Ailbard [2] in the mid 1700′s, several natural philosophers ascribed to it a variety of biological effects. For example, Father Giambattista Beccaria [3] in 1775 reported that “it appears manifest that nature makes extensive use of the atmospheric electricity for promoting vegetation” In this he was supported by Abbe Nollet [4] and Abbe Bertholon [5]. Abbe Bertholon [6] in addition concluded that the course of various diseases of man was influenced by atmospheric electricity. I 1899, Elster and Geitel [7] and J J Thompson [8] independently proved that atmospheric electricity depends upon the existence of gaseous ions in the air. It then became possible to develop generators for producing air ions and equipment for determining their numbers in the air. Using these technical aids, a vast amount of experimentation was undertaken to define the physical and biological properties of air ions. There are ions in the air around us all the time, but changes in their concentration or in the ratio of positively to negatively charged molecules can have marked biological effects on plants and animals. Indeed, ion depletion and charge imbalance may play a significant role in a wide range of human ailments including respiratory infection in office workers and the malaise caused by weather conditions such as the khamsin winds of the near East. Further, artificially generated air ions may prove valuable as a therapeutic modality in the treatment of burns, reparatory disorders, stomach ulcers nd nervous disorders.

Air ion formation begins when enough energy acts on a gaseous molecule to eject an electron. Most of this energy comes from radioactive substances in Earth’s crust and some from the shearing forces of water droplets in waterfalls (Lenard effect) or the friction which develops when great volumes of air move rapidly over a land mass (for example, the foehn, sharav and Santa Anna winds) or from cosmic rays. The displaced electron attaches itself to an adjacent molecule which becomes a negative ion, the original molecule then becoming a positive ions. Molecular collisions transfer the charge, so that positive charges come to reside on molecules with the lowest ionisation potential,while electrons are attracted to the species of greatest stability. Next, small numbers of molecules of water vapour, hydrogen and oxygen cluster about the ions to form small air ions. In normal pollutant free air over land, there are 1500 to 4000 ions/cm3. But negative ions are more mobile and Earth’s surface has a negative charge, so negative ions are repelled from the Earth’s surface. Thus the normal ratio of positive to negative ions is 1.2 to 1.

Certain properties of small air ions are pertinent to this discussion. They readily unite with condensation nuclei and with most classes of air pollutants to form large or Langevin ions. In both cases the biological activity of the small air ions is lost. This is true also of the combination that occurs between small air ions of opposite charge. Further, ions like charge (unipolar ions) repel one another and tend to flow to enclosing surfaces where their ionic nature dissipates. Since they are small and carry a charge, they are deflected by electrical fields. All of these characteristics make it difficult to maintain high concentrations of small air ions and means that air ion densities are significantly altered by the indoor living and air pollution characteristic of urban life.

While the nature of air ions was under investigation by the physicists, vigorous attempts were being made by the life scientists to determine their biological effects. Although the amount of work accomplished by the biologists is a tribute to their industry, it must be admitted that many of the results reported in the literature is not convincing. Several factors in the area of experimental design served to cloak the whole field in an aura of ambiguity. Often experiments were performed with corona discharges as ion sources, neglecting the ozone and oxides of nitrogen sometimes produced along with the ions. Ion densities, temperature and relative humidity were not monitored. Experimental subjects were not grounded; their external surfaces developed high electrostatic charges and in consequence, repelled ions. As a rule, the air was not purified and combination of ions with air pollutants led to widely fluctuating ion densities. Clinicians assessing the value of air ions as a therapeutic modality frequently committed all or some of the errors listed above and in addition, neglected to utilise the double blind cross over technique for ion administration. In view of these omissions, it is not surprising that convincing proof of the role played by air ions as physiological mediators or as therapeutic agents has been slow to emerge.

In addition to these elements of uncertainty in experimental procedures, the evaluation of air ions as biologically active agents has been hampered by the widely cultivated belief that the idea is theoretically absurd. There seems to be something about the term “ion” that provokes incredulity – consider the state of Svante Arrhenius, who first applied it in 1884 to describe atoms and molecules in aqueous solution bearing a positive or negative charge which enabled them to migrate in an electrical field. His doctoral committee thought this idea so bizarre that they accepted his work with the greatest reluctance and granted his degree with the lowest possible grade. The major obstacle to acceptance of this magnificent concept was the requirement that fundamental differences in the properties of charged molecules (ions) and uncharged molecules be acknowledged. In the case of air ions there is no disagreement about the disparate physical nature of air ions and non ionised gaseous molecules, but there is considerable reluctance to grant that this diversity is of biological significance.

At any rate, the essence of the argument against biologically active air ions is this: The maximal ion density one can attain in a closed atmosphere is approximately 1 x 106 ions/cm3, of air. Air contains 2.7 x 1019 non ionised molecules/cm3, so that the ratio of small ions to non ionised molecules is 1:27 trillion. For the reasons already mentioned above, ions have a very brief life span and under the conditions ordinarily prevailing, attainable ion densities usually are considerable less than 1 x 106 ions/cm3, making the final dilution in non ionised air greater by one or two orders of magnitude. From this unquestioned fact, the dubious conclusion has been drawn that the very sparseness of air ions places them beyond the range of biological effectiveness. The merit of this inference is more specious than real, since many biological systems respond to extremely minute chemical and physical stimuli. Two examples suffice to bear out this contention: first, the human eye can detect a flash of light when a single active quantum reaches the retina [9]; and second, the male silkworm reacts to as few as 2600 molecules of the female’s sex attractant pheromone in air containing a concentration of <200 molecules/cm3[10]. One further factor, that of commercial exploitation, has retarded development in the field of air ionisation. During the mid-1950′s air ion generators were sold directly to the public through high-powered advertising campaigns extolling their efficacy in treating a wide range of diseases. The Federal Drug Administration brought these activities to a halt and since then has prohibited the sale of ion generators for any medical application. This unfortunate episode has led scientists and laymen alike to conclude that the whole subject is permeated with mis-representation or even outright fraud.

It is evident then that progress in the field of research devoted to the detection of air ion effects on living forms has been retarded by the very real difficulties attending the performance of meaningful experiments, by an unhappy example of commercial exploitation and by categorical rejection of the whole idea as a matter of principle on the part of many component scientists. The technical obstacles are the major reason that we now are faced with enormous accumulation of data of very uneven quality. The matter of rejection is not so vital, although it is disconcerting at times to find that some of our peers classify the subject with the occult arts.

THE BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AIR IONS

The experimental observations taken as a whole serve to establish the fact that air ions are physiologically active and can produce functional alterations varying from barely discernible to substantial. Further, air ions, are capable of evoking a wide range of response in bacteria, protoza, higher plants, insects, animals and man. Sometimes both positive and negative ions induce essentially the same biological reaction, in other cases they elicit the opposite effects. A few selected examples will be presented to illustrate the range of biological effects of small air ions and the reader is referred to more detailed reviews of the experimental evidence [11, 12, 13].

A brief review of the effects of air ions on micro-organisms reveals that both negative and positive ions (1) inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi on solid media, (2) exert a lethal effect on vegetative forms of bacteria suspended in small droplets of water, and (3), reduce the viable amount of bacterial aerosols [12].

With mammalian cells in tissue culture, Worden found that Girardi’s human heart cells exposed for fourteen days to unipolar ionised atmospheres and then transplanted into non-ionised atmospheres for an additional fourteen days showed adversely affected growth characteristics and rate of proliferation with positively ionised air; growth was normal with negatively ionised air. Using fibro blasts he obtained statistically significant evidence that negative ions increase and positive ions decrease the rate of proliferation. Furthermore, when the fibro blasts were removed to a non-ionised atmosphere, the cells previously exposed to negative ions continued to divide at an increased rate, while the cells treated with positive ions recovered slowly and eventually attained the normal rate of growth [14].

Over the past nineteen years, the Air Ion Laboratory of the University of California has conducted experiments to detect ion-induced physiological changes in plants and small animals. The subjects were maintained in a controlled micro-environment supplied with pollutant-free air, the sole variable being concentration of air ions in the ambient atmosphere. Soft ß (beta) emission from tritium absorbed on zirconium served to ionise the air without evolving toxic by-products; selection of positive or negative ions was accomplished by applying a corresponding charge to the generator electrode.

Plants appear to benefit from increases in both positive and negative ionisation, and we have shown that such ionisation markedly increases the rate of growth of higher plants such as barley, oats and lettuce. With seedlings grown in chemically defined media, we found that unipolar (one charge only) ionised atmospheres containing approximately 10,000 positive or negative charged ions/cm3 increased the rate of growth by as much as 50%(as measured by integral elongation or weight) without altering the protein, sugar, or chlorophyll content of the plant. In marked contrast to growth stimulation elicited by air ions, their removal from the atmosphere resulted in a lower rate of growth, reduced turgor (pressure in plant cells) and the development of soft, fleshy leaves. Chlorophyll production was not affected[15]. Several clues to the biochemical mechanism were uncovered. Positive and negative ions expedite both the uptake of iron and its utilisation of the production of ion-containing enzymes. The ions stimulate the metabolism of the high-energy compound adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in the chloroplast’s and augment both nucleic acid metabolism and oxygen uptake. All of these phenomena are consistent with the observed ion-induced increase in growth rate.

Similar results were obtained when silkworm eggs and emergent larvae were exposed to ions of either charge. Hatching began earlier, larval growth accelerated and there was increased synthesis of three enzymes (catalase, peroxidase and cytochrome C Oxidase). Spinning began earlier and cocoons were heavier [16].

Much of the work we have done with animals has been on air ion effects in the respiratory tract and we found that air ions influence survival in respiratory diseases. High concentrations of positive ions substantially increased the death rate of mice infected with measured doses of a fungus (Coccidiodes immitis), a bacterium (Klebsiells pneumoniae) or a strain of influenza virus, all administered intranasally. Ion depleted air (comparable to ion concentrations found in urban environments) also increased the death rate in mouse influenza while a high concentration of negative ions decreased the death rate [17]. In other experiments where the influenza virus was introduced as a fine aerosol, this by-passing the protective mechanisms of the upper respiratory tract, changing ion concentrations had no influence on the death rate. This and other observations suggest that the site of action of air ions is the mucosa of the upper respiratory tract [18].

An Ecological View of Health

MECHANISM OF AIR ION ACTION

With regard to the mechanism underlying the response of animals to air ions, we have worked for several years on the changes in blood levels of serotonin (5-hydroxy tryptamine or 5-Ht), a powerful neurohormone capable of producing profound neurovascular, endocrine and metabolic effects throughout the body. In the hypothalamus 5-Ht participates in various processes such as sleep, the transmission of nerve impulses and in our evaluation, of mood. We found a readily reproducible and significant change in blood 5-Ht levels in mice exposed to air ion densities of 4-5×105 positive or negative ions/cm3. Positive ions raised blood levels of 5-Ht, while negative ions had the opposite effect. Additionally, we found that the brain content of free 5-Ht was responsive to the concentration of ions in the air. Because of the chief metabolic route for removing Serotonin (5-Ht) depends upon the enzyme monamine oxidase, we hypothesised that small negative ions stimulate, while small positive ions block the action of monamine oxidase, thus producing respectively a drop or rise in the concentration of free 5-Ht in certain tissues and eliciting a corresponding physiological response [19].

This general mechanism of air ion action has been confirmed by other investigators. Grant Gilbert at Pacific Lutheran University demonstrated that continuous treatment with negative ions produced statistically significant reductions in emotionality and brain Serotonin levels in rats [20]. Jean-Michel Olivereau of the Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Paris conducted extensive experiments on the endocrine systems and the nervous mechanisms of rats treated for various periods of time with air ions [21, 22]. Employing elegant biochemical and histochemical techniques, he surveyed air ion action on the hypothalamus, the hypophysis, the adrenals, the thyroid, brain metabolism, behaviour, eating, spontaneous activity, psychomotor performance and adaptation to stress. He concluded that air ion-induced alterations in blood levels of 5-Ht account for very significant physiological changes in the endocrine glands and central nervous systems, these, in turn, substantially alter basic physiological processes. A significant facet to Olivereau’s research is his observation that negative ions exert a measurable anxiety lessening effect on mice and rats exposed to stressful situations, a phenomenon noted by several other workers [23]. This response parallels that which follows administration to animals or man of the drug reserpine. Both reserpine and negative ions reduce the amount of Serotonin in the mid-brain and this apparently accounts for the tranquillising action.

Direct and indirect evidence supporting the theory that 5-Ht is an important mediator of air ion action on animals and humans is found in the reports of several investigators [24-25] and is reviewed elsewhere [26,27]. However, there is no reason to suppose that 5-Ht is the sole agent responsible for air-ion induced alteration of physiological function.

Such tentative biochemical probings are really no more than the first step in elucidating the arcane mechanisms when air ions make contact with the tissues of the test organism. Our ignorance extends from the interface between the atmosphere and the cell wall to include the cellular organelles, their component enzyme systems and almost all the tissues and organs of living forms.

When we turn to the matter of air ion dosage necessary to elicit biological responses, the situation is somewhat better. Dosage constitutes a very practical element, for if extremely high ion densities are demanded, there is little likelihood of air ions playing a significant role in nature and the whole topic becomes academic, or at best, is limited to therapeutic applications. If on the other hand, biological effects are associated with such displacements of ion densities or charge ratios as are known to occur in Earth’s atmosphere, or even with relatively small shifts in ion concentration that can be affected by ion depletion or artificial ionisation in ordinary living and working quarters, the subject acquires great interest and importance.

An outstanding example of dependence of physiological response upon dosage has been reported by Bachman and his co-workers [24]. In studying the influence of air ions on the spontaneous activity of rats they noticed a curious zonal response with activity levels falling, rising and peaking then falling again as negative ion concentrations were increased.

Several studies, however, have demonstrated marked biological effects with lower dosage approximating natural conditions (1.5×103 to 4×103 small ions/cm3). In the experiments of Knoll and his collaborators on the effects of ions on simple visual reaction time in humans, ion concentrations of only 2×103 ion cm3 produced a remarkable decrease in reaction time [28]. Delaneau and his colleagues found that relatively small ion dosages, for example, 5×103 to 15×103 ions/cm3 of air effectively influenced the development of gastric ulcers in starving rats [29]. Silverman and Kornblueh were able to detect changes in alpha frequencies of the EEG in humans exposed to only 1.8×103 positive or negative ions/cm3 for thirty minutes [30]. Also, a sudden increase in negative ions or a precipitate drop in positive ions within the atmospheric range of 1×103 to 2×103 ions cm/3 was reported to increase moulting in aphids [31].

In our studies mentioned above on the effect of air ions on the course of mouse influenza produced by intranasal challenge, we found that ion dosage influenced the cumulative mortality rate. Unipolar low densities of positive or negative ions (comparable to indoor and urban environments) increased the rate of death, mid-range concentrations of ions of either charge had no effect, while a reduction in mortality rates occurred when the animals were exposed to high concentrations of negative or to low concentrations of mixed ions with mixed ions with negative ions predominating [17].

Natural Ion Environment
We have already presented evidence that air ion concentrations comparable to those found in nature can modify physiological processes in a variety of living forms under laboratory conditions. Now it seems appropriate to ask, Do air ion-linked phenomena occur in humans outside the laboratory? This question can be answered affirmatively with some assurance in light of recent investigations of large scale weather-related changes in air ion concentrations and charge ratios coupled with concurrent clinical studies.

To begin with, a great deal of work has been done in France, Italy, Germany and the USSR on the ionic environment of spas, particularly those situated near waterfalls. The consensus seems to be that the air in many such locales for whatever reason, contains a high concentration of small air ions with a ratio of negative to positive ions being considerably greater than normal – The Lenard effect. Bio climatologists are inclined to attribute to this fact some of the vis mediatrix of these resorts. This is an attractive hypothesis, but one that is difficult to prove, since many curative modalities are brought to bear on patients simultaneously.

Turning to the adverse effects associated with certain ion environments, there have been long traditions in the folklore of nearly every country that link certain changes in weather with changes in health and behaviour. One such tradition has to do with the winds of ill repute, for example, the Foehn (Southern Europe), Sirocco (Italy), Santa Ana (United States), Khasmin (Near East), and Mistral (France). Wherever they prevail, their victims attribute to them the ability to induce respiratory distress of various sorts, nervousness, headache and a multitude of other ills. So malign is their influence that when they blow, judges deal leniently with crimes of passion, surgeons postpone elective surgery and teachers expect more than the usual fractiousness from their students.

Since the turn of the century, several scientists and physicians have hypothesised that the immediate cause of such malaise is the upset in electrical balance of the atmosphere that precedes or accompanies the winds. This relationship between air ions and disease, tenuous at first, is finding support in the meteorological observations of investigators such as Robinson and Dirnfield who studied the Sharav, a weather complex afflicting the Near East and characterised by persistent wind, a rapid rise in temperature and a fall in relative humidity. Robinson and Dirnfield measured solar radiation, temperature and relative humidity, wind velocity and direction and the electrical state of the atmosphere before, during and after the Sharav. They found that 12 – 36 hours before the characteristic changes in wind, temperature and humidity, the total number of ions increased (from 1500 ions/cm3 to 2600 ions/cm3) and the ratio of positive to negative ions jumped from the normal 1.2 to 1.33. This early shift in ion density and ratio coincided with the onset of nervous and physical symptoms in weather sensitive people and was considered the only meteorological change that could be responsible for the discomfort associated with the Sharav [32].

This conclusion is supported by the extensive studies of Professor Felix Sulman and his colleagues in Jerusalem. They designate as the “Serotonin Hyper function Syndrome” the cluster of signs and symptoms that afflict a considerable segment of the population a day or two before the onset of a hot dry wind characteristic of the Sharav. Individuals in this category suffer from insomnia, irritability, tension, migraine, amblyopia, oedema, palpitations, precordial pain, respiratory distress, hot flashes, tremor, chills, diarrhoea, polyuria, vertigo etc. These patients display an increased output of Serotonin in the urine and they experienced relief when treated with negative ions or with Serotonin blocking drugs [33,34]. There exists then, a scientific basis for accepting the tradition that the winds of ill repute can produce malaise in humans, that air ion imbalance is the direct meteorological incitant and that the proximate cause of the irritation syndrome is the positive air-ion-induced hyper secretion of Serotonin. Supporting laboratory evidence for the adverse effect in humans of air ion imbalances comes from a well controlled double blind experiment by Winsor and Beckett in which volunteer subjects developed a dry throat, husky voice, headache, itch or obstructed nose and a reduction in maximum breathing capacity when exposed to nasal inhalation of positive ions in concentration of 3.2×104 ions/cm3 [35].

AIR IONS AND THE HUMAN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

In modern urban life, man often faces ion conditions far different from natural ion balances, with a significant depletion of small air ions and a markedly increased ratio of positive to negative ions commonly encountered. A fourteen day study in 1971 by B. Maczynski and others showed that in an office containing four people the small air ion concentration dropped as the day went on, falling on the average to only 34 positive ions and 20 negative ions/cm3 [36]. Central heating and air conditioning, smoking, the usual household activities of dusting and cooking all combine to lower levels of small ions in indoor environments. Further, the static electricity generated by the widespread use of synthetic fibres in clothing and room furnishing as well as stray electric fields add a different dimension to the indoor climate which is not conducive to the preservation of small air ions [37].

The effects of air pollution on air ions in the ambient atmosphere are also marked. As stated earlier, the small physiologically active air ions readily combine with gaseous and particulate pollutants to form large (Langevin) ions that are considered physiologically inert. A test in a light industrial area of San Francisco by J C Beckett in 1959 showed a small ion count of less than 80 ions/cm3 as compared to levels of 1500-4000 small ions/cm3 found in fresh unpolluted air [38]. The fundamental reaction is disarmingly simple: man- atmospheric pollutants; atmospheric pollutants + small air ions – air ion depletion.

That this progression has attained significant magnitude is evidenced by the fact that small air ion levels far at sea – normally very constant – are becoming appreciably lower with time, as air pollutants drift out from land. Thus wile very few of our activities add small air ions to the air, much of what we do cumulates in ion loss. The question then amounts to this: Will the smogs, hazes and invisible pollutants we generate with a lavish hand so reduce the small ion content of the atmosphere that plants, animals and man must suffer the harmful consequences?

Although the early results of ion depletion very likely will be unimpressive compared to the immediate and dramatic action of known toxic components of polluted air, this alone should furnish little solace. We have every reason to be aware from past experience that adverse effects may follow continued exposure to a small amount of a minor irritant (for example, organic solvents) or the long term deprivation of an essential metabolic requirement (for example, trace elements or vitamins). People travelling to work in polluted air, spending eight hours a day in offices or factories and living their leisure hours in urban dwellings inescapably breathe ion depleted air for substantial proportions of their lives. There is increasing evidence that this ion depletion leads to discomfort, enervation and lassitude and loss of physical and mental efficiency. This syndrome appears to develop quite apart from the direct toxic effects of the usual atmospheric pollutants.

Physicians and environmental engineers have long suspected that the inimical effects of “dead air” in crowded rooms are due to ion depletion. In 1939, three Japanese Scientists, S Kimura, M Ashiba and L Matushima showed that if temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels were all kept within ranges considered suitable for human comfort, but the ion level was reduced, individuals suffered from such as perspiration and depression. Further, these symptoms were promptly relieved when normal ion densities were restored by the use of ion generators [39]. Recently, a team of Soviet scientists tested the effects of varying ion conditions on humans employing an impressive battery of tests to measure cardiovascular functioning, reaction time and blood chemistry. They concluded that any enclosed compartments with “conditioned” air such as a space capsule, are likely to be depleted of ions and have a considerable excess of positive ions and that prolonged stays in such an ion environment is detrimental. The Soviet scientists recommended that ionisation in such environments be increased to a more normal 2000 ions/cm3 and that the addition of negative ions be alternated with positive or bipolar ionisation [40]. The effect of various ion concentrations and charge ratios on human performance, reaction time, vigilance and psychomotor tasks is suggestive but inconclusive and has been reviewed elsewhere [41].

ARTIFICIAL ION GENERATION: CLINICAL APPLICATIONS

So much for the potential role of an air ion-depleted environment in man’s future. There remains the more promising consideration of the environmental and medical applications of artificially generated air ions. At present, there exists several means of artificially producing air ions, including corona discharge and tritium generators. These ion generators make it possible to re-establish natural and optimal microclimatic conditions in living and working quarters. Eventually air ion standards for comfort and health may be established, just as we now have set limits for temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide levels, etc. It may also be possible to make available, highly beneficial ion-rich micro environments that could serve various hygienic and therapeutic functions. However, the development and use of this technology must go hand in hand with efforts to reduce air pollution from industry, automobiles and tobacco smoke, which effectively interfere with attempts to create a balanced ionised atmosphere.

If the results of our experiments with respiratory disease in mice can be extrapolated to man, we might expect that the ion depleted air of our offices and factories would lower resistance to influenza and perhaps other infections. Conversely, inhaling a mixture of air with, say, 4000 ions/cm3 and with negative ions predominating, should increase resistance. A recent study in a Swiss bank indicated that this is so. In the test, 309 volunteers worked for thirty weeks in an area where the air was treated to develop a high ratio of negative to positive ions, while 362 controls, worked in untreated air. During the test, the ratio of days lost because of respiratory illness in the two groups was an incredible 1 to 16 [42].

Finally, one can look at some medical applications of high ion concentrations. Kornbleuh and his colleagues have used negative ion therapy successfully for burn patients. Hospitalised patients were treated for 1 to 1.5 hours a day and out patients for twenty five to thirty minutes, to negative ion concentrations as high as 10,000 ions/cm3. Pain, restlessness and incidence of infection were reduced and healing promoted [43]. This application may be related to Serotonin hypothesis of air ion action. Burn patients present increased levels of Serotonin (5-hydroxtryptamine) in damaged tissues and in the blood and Serotonin is known to be associated with pain under some circumstances. We have shown in laboratory animals that inhalation of negative ions increases the conversion of Serotonin to 5-hydroxyindolacetic acid (a physiologically inactive metabolite) and this reaction may be involved in the relief of pain reported by burn patients treated with a high concentration of negative ions.

Another instance of laboratory observations coinciding with clinical usage is to be found in our work at the university of California and that of Palti, De Nour, and Abrahamov at Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. Smith and Krueger noted that the inhalation of positively ionised air by small animals contracted the smooth muscle of the tracheo-bronchial tree and decreased the operational efficiency of the mucus escalator, effects that could be duplicated by the intravenous injection of 5-HT; negative ions had the opposite effect[44]. Palti and his colleagues found that exposure to positive ions increased the respiratory rate and degree of bronchospasm in infants with asthmatic (spastic) bronchitis while treatment with negative ions produced an opposite and therapeutic effect. The negative ion therapy terminated the spastic attack after a much shorter period than that required by the conventional mode of treatment and, in addition, no adverse side effects common to the drug therapy, were observed with the negative ionisation. Further, since the subjects in this experiment were infants under the age of one year, the possibility that the observed effects were due to physiological factors was minimised [45].

P C Boulatov, a Soviet investigator, has summarised his experiment work over the past thirty five years involving the treatment of over 3,000 bronchial asthma patients with high concentrations of negative ions. He has reported that after a short period of temporary exacerbation there followed substantial improvements in the general state of the patients, a normalisation of the blood picture, improved respiratory function and a reduction in the frequency and intensity of attacks of bronchial asthma [46]. Kornbleuh, the pioneer American investigator of air ion phenomena and his co-workers obtained temporary relief of acute hay fever symptoms in patients treated with high concentrations of negative air ions. They speculated that the mode of action might be due to some physical and/or chemical effect on microscopic airborne contaminants such as dust, spores, bacteria and pollen or to a direct physiological action on the respiratory tract [47].

More recently, Dr A P Weaner reported on a closely related therapeutic modality: electro aerosols in which minute water droplets act as a vehicle for electric charges. This therapy used extensively in Germany and the USSR has reportedly been applied with success in the treatment of respiratory disorders and various manifestations of autonomic dysfunction such as migraine, nervous tension and depression [48]. Wehner also reviewed the work of K H Schulz who found that negatively charged aerosols seem to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system and therefore can help to restore autonomic balance in cases of an overstimulated activation. From these observations, Schulz postulated that the effect of the ions would depend on the state of activation of the autonomic nervous system and further, that if the proper charge of ions is administered to a given ion “type” individual a normalisation of autonomic functioning would occur [49].

In line with this theory were the findings of Monaco and Acker, who performed a large number of tests on a group of Psychiatric patients and a group of non-patients. In the psychiatric patients, negative ionisation decreased systolic blood pressure, increased skin resistance and increased pulse finger volume, indicating increased parasympathetic nervous system activity. For the non patients, only a significant decrease in pulse finger volume occurred, indicating slight increase in sympathetic nervous system activity. Thus, it appears that the negative ions had a normalising influence, lowering activation of the psychiatric patients and increasing the activation of the non-patients [50].

Noting the relationship between air ions and neurohormones and following the reports that negative ions produce a sedative effect, R Ucha Udabe, R Kertesz and L Franceschetti at the Catholic University in Buenos Aires tried treating a large number of patients suffering from psychoneurosis and anxiety syndromes. Sessions varied from fifteen minutes to two hours and the number of treatments from ten to twenty. These authors were very impressed with the conspicuous disappearance of simatic complaints and claimed favourable results in 80% of their patients [51]. M Deleanu also claims success in the treatment of gastro duodenal ulcers in animals and man using relatively low dosages of air ions (5000 to 10,000 negative ions/cm3 and 1000 to 2000 positive ions/cm3) [52].

This is only a brief review of some of the developing areas of clinical research, but based on the evidence surveyed in this paper, it appears that air ion investigations constitute a legitimate and promising branch of biological research. As more information is acquired about the mechanisms underlying the reactions between air ions and living systems, we should be able to evaluate more clearly than at present the importance of air ions in nature and assess their potential for clinical and non clinical applications.

By John Heinerman, Ph.D.
Foreward by Lendon Smith, M.D.

Section One: Vitamins of the Air

Approximately half-a-century ago, a certain woman living in a large, crowded city contracted tuberculosis. Doctors did what they could for her without any avail. They gave her a morbid prognosis of inevitable death and she was consigned to a gloomy existence without any hope or reason to live.

Deciding that she would at least die in more pleasant surroundings, she moved from the big city to a humble log cabin in a pine forest somewhere in the State of Maine. For an entire Winter she stayed there, busying herself with things that kept her mind happy and occupied.

By next Spring she noticed a peculiar thing about her respiratory state of health. Virtually all of her symptoms of her former disease had abated. Going to several medical doctors and a local hospital for various checkups, she was pronounced free of TB. Her recovery was later chronicled in a national best-seller entitled, I Lived in the Woods.

It wasn’t anything in her diet that promoted such a remarkable turnaround in her incurable disorder. Rather it was what she breathed every few seconds that accomplished the most good for her.

In a past issue of Soviet Life magazine (April 1969, p. 43), a leading Russian biologist, Nikolai Kholodkovsky made the following highly interesting observations: “The air we breathe in the woods or in gardens contains vitamins given off by plants.” His studies had shown that in each cubic meter of air there are several milligrams of volatile substances, including vitamins.

Two of the nutrients emitted from the tree bark and needles of fragrant pine odoe, he discovered, were vitamin C and a form of bioflavonoid called proanthocyanidins. Because bioflavonoids and ascorbic acid often appear in combination with each other in plants, they form powerful antioxidant effects.

The woman who previously suffered from TB obviously benefitted from the forest air charged with vitamin C, which the research of twice Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling has shown to be outstanding for fighting viral infections of any kind. But the bioflavonoid with it, the proanthycyanidins, also deserves considerable merit for the prevention and treatment of many infectious diseases. This vital nutrient is better known by its trademark name of Pycnogenol, based on the clinical research of Dr. Jack Masquelier of the University of Bordeaux in France, who discovered it in the bark of the French maritime pine tree which grows in the Les Landes pine forest along the Atlantic coast of southern France.

Both of the powerful antioxidants, which Kholodkovsky first reported on over two decades ago, are extremely useful for controlling the deadly activity of a group of compounds within the body called free radicals. These scavenger molecules are lacking an electron and roam through the body at random, robbing normal molecules of their electrons. In doing so, free radicals create a great deal of havoc and mischief with the body’s delicately structured biochemistry. What antioxidants do is to curb or check this destructive action.

Thus, it was that this woman’s particular health condition, which the doctors had completely given up hope of ever curing, was unwittingly reversed by her geographical relocation into another environment totally charged with nutrients in the air. It was, in a very real sense, these “vitamins of the air,” which had healed her lungs of this ravaging disease.

All too often we’re inclined to thick of vitamins as only coming from food or health food supplements. But the very definition of the word “vitamin” suggests otherwise. “Vitamin” is really a composite of two separate words with different meanings to them: but when linked together surely do present a compelling argument for considering the air we breathe in a nutritional light.

Now “vita” comes from the Latin word for “life”. And an “amine” is defined by dictionary experts as “any of various compounds derived from ammonia by replacement of hydrogen by one or more univalent hydrocarbon radicals.” Which is a fancy way of saying in cruder terminology that a vitamin is essentially a “life gas” or for our purposes here, “life air”. Thus, it would be linguistically correct to assert that a vitamin is, indeed, an “air nutrient” as given by the formula definition above.

Section Two: Inhaling Minerals For Health [ Top ]

A very popular self-help manual by James F. Balch, M.D. and his wife Phyllis has become a favorite of the health food industry within the last several years because of its total emphasis on food supplement consumption as a ready Prescription for Nutritional Healing (the title of their book). On page 17 they identify macro (bulk) and micro (trace) minerals as coming from soil, plant foods, meat, and, of course, mineral supplements in tablet, capsule, liquid, and powder forms. But nothing is ever siad by them or any other nutritionists concerning minerals from the air!

You don’t need a college education to figure out that if we aren’t supplied with hydrogen and ixygen in sufficient quatnities, we’re going to die within a matter of minutes. These two trace elements are considered to be micro minerals without which the body could not function and would readily perish in no time at all.

Beyond them, however, are other minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc, which the body depends upon for the normal maintenance of good health. Because of massive advertising by the health food industry and the single-mindedness of scientific opinion, consumers are led to believe that the best source for minerals is food and food supplements. Very little is ever said about water, let alone air, as being potential contributors of minerals.

This realization first dawned upon me in the early summer of 1979 when I accompanied a delegation of scientists and lay people to the Soviet Union for several weeks. Our trip was arranged for by the Citizen Exchange Corps out of New York City and Boston and the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow. A colleague and friend of mine who accompanied me on this historic trip was the late Professor Emeritus Walter McCain of the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Because he could speak Russian fluently, I had opportunities available to me that many of the others in our group didn’t have to do some investigative research in health institutes we visited along the way.

Dr. McCain and I spent an afternoon on Monday, June 4th by ourselves touring the “Central Scientific Research Institute of Health Resorts and Physical Therapy” located on Kalinin Avenue in Moscow. Dr McCain knew the directors in the institute from a previous visit – - Drs, Victor G. Yasnogorodsky and Dr, Vasily M. Bogoljubov.

While giving us a personal tour of this large facility, we became very intrigued by a room with a sign on the door reading “Climate Therapy” in Russian. Inside we were shown rather curiously engineered devices designed to mimic different types of air quality for specific ailments. For instance, tuberculosis sufferers were recommended a machine simulating “mountain air”; asthma sufferers were prescribed a machine generating warm, dry, desert’like air; while emphysema patients and those experiencing chronic lung inflammation were put on a machine yielding an air reminiscent of a sea coast.

They told us that the success of these machines and the airs they simulated from different environments in nature, was due largely to the mineral ions found in each of them. I, of course, had always been familiar with air ions in general, and knew from published scientific research that positive ions (posions) could make a person feel crummy and sick, while negative ions (negions) stimulated vibrant health and left you with an exhilarated feeling. But this was the first time I had ever heard them referred to as “mineral” ions.

My introduction to this radically different concept of air minerals was something of a new experience for me. And, just like the Wonderland into which Alice tumbled gehind the Looking Glass, I became more “curioser and curiouser” as our trip continued.

The real clincher, though for vitamins and minerals from the air. came to a head in the oil producing city of Baku beside the Caspian Sea, in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaidjan (now a newly self-declared nation of its own). There we had ample opportunity to learn a great deal more about the benefits of nutritional air at the Zone Z’drovia, or Zone of Health.

On Friday morning, June 9th, our group visited this remarkable midical clinic situated just inside an ancient stone wall ssurrounding the oldest part of the city. Here we discovered to our utter delight and astonishment, a wide range of natural therapies available for a host of illnesses. Some of those therapies, as I look back on that time through the pages of my well-kept journals, were a little on the exotic side.

Take phytotherapy, in which young and old alike with problems ranging from hypertension and chronic bronchitis to fatigue disorders and heart disease spent an average of ten minutes or so sniffing the fragrances of laurel, geranium, or rosemary (the fragrance of the geranium, we were told, is especially good for “acute headache, neuroses, high blood pressure and insomnia”). And, if that sounds a little bizarre, consider this: those plants were being “fertilized” with mineral water, glucose and even drugs – - including common aspirin!

This course of treatment, I learned, differs from the popular European and American aromatherapy in one important respect. The former utilizes the whole living plant, while the latter uses just the natural aromatic essence extracted from it. The concept is basically the same as whether you derive your essential nutrients from food or from food supplements. Common sense dictates that the first is always better for you than the second, because the nutrition you’re ingesting is complete and alive!

We were informed by Dr. Abdul Kuschev, the clinic’s Director of Medical Science, that the ultimate benefit to their version of phytotherapy lay in the fact that the patient obtained his or her necessary minerals from the invisible air ions emitted from different garden herbs. These, he stated through an interpreter, were what made patients feel better by solving their problems nutritionally – - through nutrition from the air!

These things brought me full circle a couple of years later while watching the “Tom Snyder Show” on television in my home on December 9th, 1981 at 12:25 a.m. His guest was an exceedingly thin fellow named Wiley Brooks (then age 48) from Boulder, Colorado. Mr. Brooks was exceptionally unusual in that he claimed to obtain all of his nourishment from just two things – - namely air and water! He styled himself a “breathairian” who lived by breathing his “food” insteac of eating it in the conventional way the rest of us do.

He said that the key to understanding his off-the-wall philosophy was found in Genesis 2:7, which he quoted from memory: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the groung, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

When asked what the difference was between those in self-imposed starvation and himself, he continued: “The difference between me and hunger strikers [imprisoned members of the terrorist organization the Irish Republican Army] in Belfast is that they quit eating to die, while I quit eating to live better!”

He added: “I’ve discovered by breathing pure mountain air in the high Colorado Rockies that I’m able to obtain just about all of the nutrients my body could ever want; the water I drink to keep myself from dehydrating, supplies the rest.” He joked by saying that the hardest problem he now faced with this new change of healthful lifestyle was when his old friends and acuaintances invited him out to dinner. “I’ll usually tell them, ‘you go ahead and eat and I’ll just step outside for my snack – - a few breaths of fresh air!”

However ridiculous or extreme this may seem to some readers, it does underscore a significanttruth: air contains many of the vitamins and minerals our bodies need in trace amounts in the form of very minute, beneficially charged molicules known as negions. This is the food we inhale from air near the ocean, in the tops of the mountains, by a waterfall, after a good rain and thunderstorm, and in our bathroom showers. This is the nourishment which will belp us to retain youghful vitality and enfoy longer life. It is the type of air the Antediluvians breathed before the Great Flood.

Section Three: Prehistoric Atomosphere [ Top ]

Something in the Bible used to puzzle me for years until my research into negions was the great discrepancy in age differences between pre-Flood and post-Flood man. Genesis informs us that the Antediluvians enjoyed astonishing longevity rates reahing into many centuries and, in some cases, almost climaxing a complete millennium before their expirations. Whereas, we find the age of men in Abraham’s time diminishing considerably to the point that a few who managed to live beyond 150 were considered to be very old.

But part of the solution to this vexing problem for scholars may be found in the words of the great.

Question: Is there such a thing as Ionized Water that is charged Negative Ions?
Answer: Absolutely. And it’s the Most Beneficial Thing a Person can Possibly Put in their body.

Algae is also a much cleaner crop to produce since there is no manure or fertilizer used to grow the algae. Thus there is no possibility of contamination from commercial manure or chemical fertilizers and of course there is no run off pollution from them.