Introducing Naturebuilt  Chlorella with KELP extract in tablet form.  This is the only product of its kind on the market.

1. KELP extract has no fiber, no protein or vitamin C.  It is water soluble and therefore has high penetrability into the body and our cells.
2. KELP Boosts the immune system.
3. KELP Can help protect against thyroid cancer and other cancers.
4. KELP Helps regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
5. KELP Improves hair and nails and help them to grow.
6. KELP Detoxifies the body from heavy metals, especially smokers from strontium and cadmium.  It detoxifies radioactive elements and other toxins.  It’s a free radical scavenger.
7. KELP Helps those who are overweight by improving the function of the gastro-intestinal tract.
8. KELP has more FAT BURNING qualities more than it directly promotes weight loss.
9. KELP has iodine, the highest of any plant in the world.  This increases metabolism, which translates into the ability to burn fat more easily.
10. KELP Extract also assists with lymph drainage, which is part of the endocrine system.   It is this endocrine and metabolism connection – the synergistic effect of these systems working together – that boosts metabolism and BURNS FAT.
11. Fucoxanthin found in KELP is a powerful antioxidant.  There is a product that claims that Fucoxanthin helps with weight loss and I don’t see the evidence for that.  It’s the Iodine in KELP that works with endocrine and metabolism connection that is the real fat burner.  It is very effective for weight loss.

Check out my video on Chlorella-KELP here

One of the most ridiculous comments I have ever heard Dr. Andrew Weil made is “They are good sources of chlorophyll, but there is little to no research supporting the claims made about the algae.” I wrote a rebuttal to his remarks.

Chlorella and Spirulina are the two most studied foods in history.  The studies come from countries all over the world and they never stop coming.  There are literally thousands of them.  We have compiled a few of them here.  At the bottom of the list of studies here is a compilation of studies on spirulina that was complied by Cyanotech.

Here is the link to the Chlorella Studies page: 

http://watershed.net/chlorella_studies

Here is a list of the studies: 
Algae assisting in Amalgam Detoxification

Antigenotoxic activity of natural chloryphylls

Chlorella and Spirulina – Isolation of 3 High Molecular Weight Polysaccharide Preparations with Potent Immunostimulatory Activity

Chlorella extract inhibits IL5 production by mast cells

Chlorella extract reduces body weight

Chlorella for Fibromyalgia patients

Chlorella in the treatment of Fibromyalgia, Hypertension and Ulcerative Colitis

Detoxification by Freshwater Algae

Effect of Chlorella Pyrenoidosa on Fecal Excretion

Effect of Dietary Chlorophyll Derivatives on Mutagenesis of Tumor Cell Growth

Effects of Chlorella on Activities of Protein

Heavy Metal Detoxification Program

Immunoenhancing effect of a Chlorella Derived Dietary Supplement (Double Blind Trial)

Immunostimulatory Bioactivity of Algae Polysaccharides from Chlorella

Immunostimulatory Polysaccharides from Chlorella Pyrenoidosa

Immunostimulatory Principles from Chlorella Pyrenoidosa

Improving Glycogenesis in STZ diabetic mice with Chlorella

Isolation Characterization and Structural determination of a unique type of arabinog alactan from an immunostimulatory extract of Chlorella Pyrenoidosa

Potential Hypoglycemic effects of Chlorella

Preventing dyslipidemia by Chlorella in rats and hamsters after chronic high fat diet treatment

Purification and Characterization of Corrinoid Compound from Chlorella Tablets as an Algae health food

Supression of liver Cancer in rats by Chlorella

The Discovery of a unique natural heavy metal chelator

Spirulina Studies: 
Scientific Studies on Spirulina Platensis from Cyanotech

Bob McCauley, CNC, MH

One of the most common questions we are asked about Chlorella is whether it has vitamin K.  For the record, Chlorella does have vitamin K in it, as do all green plants to some degree.  Vitamin K is found in a plethora of foods.  Chlorella has a lot of vitamin K, 46mg per 1 gram.  The body requires vitamin K for a number of reasons.  It is an antagonist for arterial calcification in humans.   A ten-year study documented that people who consumed the most vitamin K2 have a 50% reduced risk of arterial calcification. They also exhibited a 50% reduction for being at risk for cardiovascular events during the 10 year period of the study.  In 2009, a 16,000-person study demonstrated that high consumption of vitamin K2, not K1, protected from cardiovascular disease.   Vitamin K also helps with calcium assimilation and retention in the bones and throughout the body.  It helps prevent osteoarthritis and is essential for the production of skin cells.

The main function of vitamin K is that is allows the blood to coagulate so we do not bleed to death when we get cut.  Newborn babies are given a shot of vitamin K when they are born for this reason, although I believe them to be unnecessary if my health protocol would be followed for the mother through pregnancy.   And it is for this reason that people are prescribed the drug Coumadin, which is said to prevent strokes, heart attack, deep vein thrombosis, blood clots to the lungs, and other circulatory disorders.  Doctors prescribe Coumadin to shift the balance away from clot formation in the body and toward increased circulation.  It is a blood thinner that causes an imbalance in the body, as do all medications which is why they all have side effects. The normal functions of the body and the way it handles vitamin K becomes a major issue because Coumadin causes imbalances.  Under normal circumstances, the body handles vitamin K quite well.  However, once an artificial substance such as Coumadin is introduced, one of the most important nutrients required by the body must be avoided, that of chlorophyll, the life-blood of plants.  Avoiding foods with Vitamin K means avoiding foods with chlorophyll, which is insanity.

Coumadin thins the blood and guards against blood clots that can lead to a stroke.  Since Coumadin does what it is designed to do, it is blindly accepted by the medical community as well as anyone who believes in medicine and the drugs that doctors push on us.   We are force fed the notion we should take drugs and that medicine is the only answer, which in fact is the exact opposite of the desired outcome.  Drugs create imbalances in the body that in turn no longer allow us to consume other foods that may interfere with it, even those such as Chlorella that encourage sugar level stability and blood consistency.   Hypertension, or thin blood, is the most common of all diseases.  All drugs interfere with the body’s natural processes and Coumadin is a glaring example of it.  Dr. Bernard Jensen, the Father of Nutrition, warned against taking Coumadin in the 1970′s when it was first marketed.

I personally know almost nothing about medicine and medications so I cannot make a recommendation to you about whether you should take medicine that has been proscribed to you by a doctor.  That is your decision.  However, what I do understand is health, which has nothing to do with medicine.  And I can say without any doubt that I would never put anything in my body that would stop me from consuming foods whose nutrients are required by the body if we expect to be healthy, such as those with chlorophyll.  This of course would include the most powerful food on earth, Chlorella.  Chlorella gets its name for being the food with the highest concentration of chlorophyll, our most important nutrient.  Caution to those who would take anything that would deny the body that key nutrient.

By

Bob McCauley

Much has been said about how the cell wall of Chlorella pyrenoidosa is cracked or opened. Chlorella is a green algae whose outer cell wall is composed of thick layers of dietary fiber that is excellent for digestion and binds with heavy metals and other synthetic toxins and removes them from the body.

“Chlorella’s cell wall is comprised of 3 layers. The middle layer contains the thickest cellulose microfibrils. The outer layer is extremely resistant to tearing or breakage. The characteristics of this fiber are unique to Chlorella and why it is so important that we consistently have Chlorella in our diet because it is not found in any other food source. Even dead Chlorella has the ability to soak up toxins after it has bonded with them. ”

From Achieving Great Health by Bob McCauley

This fiber that surrounds the cells must be cracked or broken so that the nutrients inside can be completely absorbed by the body. If the Chlorella cell is not opened, then only a small amount of nutrients would be available to the body. All Chlorella that is imported into the United States must be cracked or open cell according to FDA regulations.

The Antiquated Method

The Dyno®-Mill technique that is used to open Chlorella’s cell wall was first developed in Japan in the mid-1970’s. This technology was originally developed for use in the meat industry and has subsequently been used in other food industries including Chlorella production. The use of Dyno®-Mill techniques in Chlorella production was indeed breakthrough technology for its time since no other technology had been developed that effectively broke open Chlorella’s thick cell wall.

The Dyno®-Mill process uses thousands of very small glass beads (2 mm in diameter) such as those pictured here that are placed in a drum with the Chlorella and spun together for several minutes. It is an effective way to open the Chlorella cell wall. However, the Chlorella cells are exposed to potential lead and other contamination from the glass beads that are used in the process, especially if some of the glass beads are cracked or broken. This milling process, which can be compared to milling wheat into flour, pulverizes the Chlorella cell rather than just gently cracking it open. When the Chlorella cell is pulverized it immediately becomes susceptible to oxidation, which leads to degradation of its nutrients. The Dyno®-Mill process also destroys the cell’s membrane, chloroplast, mitochondria and nucleus. The main problem with this archaic method of opening Chlorella’s cell wall is that the scrambling of its nutrients significantly decrease its self-life, which is critical with regard to the marketing, nutritional integrity and consumption of Chlorella.

A Superior Method of Opening Chlorella Cell Wall

Far more effective methods of opening Chlorella’s cell wall have been developed since the 1970’s. The state-of-the-art Pressure-Release® method used by our manufacturer is an entirely new approach to opening Chlorella’s cell wall. As the Chlorella cells pass through the specially designed Pressure-Release® chamber they rupture, or crack open, due to the sudden and extreme changes in pressure. There are several advantages to the Pressure-Release® technique over that of the Dyno®-Mill process. First, and most importantly, nothing comes in contact with the Chlorella cells, therefore the process is 100% natural and organic. The nutrients of the Chlorella cells are now available to be digested by the body. Second, the Chlorella cells are not exposed to heavy metals from glass or other impurities that may be present within the glass. And since they have not been pulverized, but rather only pulverized as can be seen in Examples 1 and 2, their unique nutrients remain in tact. Thirdly, oxidation and nutrient degradation are significantly reduced when using the Pressure-Release® method. You can see a significant difference between a Pressure-Release® processed Chlorella cell and one that has not be processed, or cracked open, in the photo to the right. And the digestibility of the Chlorella is just as high using the Pressure-Release® technique as it is using the Dyno®-Mill process.

Processing Chlorella using Pressure-Release® technology extends the shelf-life and nutritional integrity of Chlorella significantly.

More can be learned about the extraordinary health benefits of the Chlorella and its incredible dietary fiber on our Chlorella Information Page as well as Achieving Great Health by Bob McCauley

By Harvey Kaltsas, D.O.M.,A.P.

Janice wasn’t flattered when the German shopkeeper congratulated her on the baby she looked about to deliver. For despite her severely swollen abdomen, Janice was not pregnant. She had advanced multi-drug resistant peritoneal cancer with an accumulation of fluid in her abdominal cavity. Janice had been told she was in the end stages of an eight-year battle that had started with ovarian cancer and metastasized into liver, colon and bladder cancer.

Instead of preparing to bring new life into the world, Janice wanted to die, to put an end to her constant pain, suffering and hopelessness. Her doctors in the United States had given up on her. She was frankly sick of it all, ready to let her will ebb away and surrender. But at a friend’s pleading, Janice made one last try at a cure by going to the Klinik St. Georg in Bad Aibling, Germany, outside of Munich. The clinic, known to English-speaking people as St. Georg Hospital, nestled in the foothills of the Alps, treats 2,500 German and 2,500 foreign patients a year and has developed a widespread, word-of-mouth following.

Janice told me her story three weeks after she stated treatment at the clinic. With a joyous smile on her beautiful face- -and a stomach now flat- -she pronounced, “This is my favorite place in the whole world. I just love it here!” She said she was completely free of pain, and her energy had been restored.

She received treatment according to a standard Klinik St. Georg cancer protocol: a week of detoxification and the strengthening of the immune system with diet and nutritional supplements, followed by two weeks of localized hyperthermia treatment and low-dose chemotherapy. Hyperthermia involves raising the temperature of the body area surrounding a malignant tumor, or in many cases, the whole body itself, to levels of heat and for periods of time lethal to the cancerous tissue but not injurious to other cells.

Friedrich Douwes, M.D., of Klinik St. Georg has great success using a “synergy of treatments”- with special emphasis on the use of heat from far InfraRed radiation and direct electrical current as mainstays of his cancer-killing strategy.

In Janice’s case, the abdominal area was perfused with the chemotherapy agents cisplatain and carboplatin during hyperthermia treatment. Because the treatment heated the abdominal cavity to 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41.7 Celsius) for one hour (IR treatment), the chemotherapy was able to penetrate the membranes of the cancer cells much more easily. Thus Janice needed only half the normal dose of chemotherapy and suffered none of the usual side effects.

About two months after treatment began, Janice informed me that she was continuing to improve and felt better than she had in years. Shortly thereafter, she no longer showed any sign of disease whatsoever. Her CA 125 cancer markers (a blood test measurement of the level of antigens produced by ovarian cancer cells) dropped from above 2,500 to the 100′s and her health is now perfect. Janice says that, from talking with long-term cancer survivors she has met at Klinik St. Georg, and from her own experiences, she is convinced there is hope for permanent remission.

Ideally, before persons with cancer seek chemotherapy, radiation or surgery, they should consult an alternative or complementary physician such as Professor Friedrich R. Douwes, M.D., Medical Director and founder of Klinik St. Georg. As an oncologist who integrates holistic with conventional approaches, Dr. Douwes is widely renowned for his successes. He has published numerous papers on alternative cancer treatments and is currently Vice President of the German Society of Oncology.

Clinic patients have the opportunity to initiate detoxification, nutritional/herbal supplementation for immune modulation, exercise, positive thinking practices and psychotherapy, as well as hyperthermia and/or electrotherapy treatment. Dr. Douwes is bound by the canons of German medical ethics to also advise his German patients as to standard conventional chemotherapy’s, and feels obligated to inform his international patients of every option open to them. But if his patients decline chemo, then he becomes their biological therapist. (ND in America)

What a difference this approach is to that of many conventional oncologists who scare their patients with treatment imperatives that include threatening prognoses: “If you don’t do this surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, you’re going to die in so many months.

Building Immunity
One of the long-term cancer survivors I met in Bad Aibling is Friedhelm, a former schoolteacher who couldn’t wait to tell me his story. We talked on a couch in “Professor” Dr. Douwes’s waiting room. Friedhelm was diagnosed in May 1993 with a non-small-cell lung tumor 12 centimeters by 6 centimeters (about 4.7 inches by 2.4 inches) in size. This type of cancer usually has a five-year survival rate of only 10%. Doctors told Friedhelm: “Go for chemo tomorrow. If you’re very lucky, you’ll survive six months. He knew of Dr. Douwes’s reputation and effectiveness of his therapeutic protocols because his brother had gone to university with the doctor.

In Friedhelm’s words, his immune status at the start of treatment was “nothing, absolutely terrible.” Dr. Douwes told him he couldn’t start chemotherapy right away. He could not withstand the poisons. Like most patients, he had to build his body up first. Thus, for two weeks, he was given nutritional supplements and natural immune system modulators.

From May to September 1993 Friedhelm had two cycles of low-dose chemotherapy with hyperthermia. Then in October he had radiation in Munich, nothing more. Buy the end of treatment he was cancer-free, and has been ever since. His other medical doctors are astonished and consider the case unexplainable. He suffered no hair loss from the chemotherapy, no nausea. In fact, except for a mildly reduced white blood cell count that his doctors attribute to the radiation in Munich, he had no side effects whatsoever.

“Most people call it a wonder. I think it’s a result of this therapy.” Says Friedhelm. He points out that he now has more hair than he did ten years ago. He also observes that “in the past, before health insurance, if you were poor, you died soon. Now, if you’re not informed, you die”.

Dr. Douwes says that killing malignant tumors is usually not difficult, and a synergy of treatments works best for that. The biggest challenge comes about afterwards, to keep tumors from coming back once patients leave the clinic and resume a normal lifestyle. To prevent their reoccurrence one must keep the immune system strong with diet, exercise, nutritional supplementation and especially a positive mental attitude.

Friedhelm has taken this advice to heart. He is on a regular supplementation program and visits Dr. Douwes faithfully four times a year for reassessment and cancer screening (early detection). He says he retired from teaching and fulfilled a life-long dream of riding his motorcycle down Route 66 in the U.S.

While in Bad Aibling, I met patient after patient who would not have considered undergoing more chemotherapy unless it was low dose chemo in combination with hyperthermia or electrotherapy. Not only do these treatments reduce the amount of chemotherapy needed, but also they markedly reduce side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, and they allow for achieving much greater results. Dr. Douwes backs this bold statement by referring to many oncology studies, both in the laboratory and in actual patients.

Prostate Cancer
Another one of Dr. Douwes’ many success stories is Les M., an engineer from California who had prostate cancer. From his professional education he brings a skeptical, inquiring, scientific perspective to viewing various situations. Before Les came to Klinik St. Georg for transurethal prostate hyperthermia treatment, he carefully reviewed the literature on different treatments. He chose the clinic after learning that local-region radio-wave hyperthermia has produced “fabulous results” (whereas the U.S. study of hyperthermia using microwaves cause patients agonizing urethral pain and made U.S. doctors thereafter shun the procedure). Les was also impressed to learn how sophisticated the clinic’s method of determining efficacy of treatment is. The traditional Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test gives a high rate of false negatives (about 30%). Les had a particular from of aggressive form of aggressive prostate cancer that is not revealed by elevated PSA’s. Klinik St. Georg also uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique to determine whether cancer cells are still circulating in the blood stream.

When I met Les just before he was to go in for his first treatment. He sat in a comfortable upholstered chair with flexible radio-receiving plates affixed to each buttock. With local anesthesia he had a probe containing a tiny radio transmitter introduced through a transurethral catheter into his enlarged prostate. Unlike the American protocol, which used high-energy microwaves that burned both cancerous and non-cancerous tissue alike, the Klinik St. Georg treatment employs short-wave radio transmissions. These heat the prostate area to between 113 and 158 degrees Fahrenheit and adversely affect only malignant cells. At times Les felt some discomfort during the treatment, as if he had to urinate, but otherwise the three-hour process was not traumatic, and he was asleep for much of the time. I interviewed Les fifteen minutes post-therapy, after his catheter was removed and he had urinated without pain or any burning sensation. He was positively joyful and downright playful.

I received a call from Les Two months later, just as I was finishing writing this article. He had to tell me that he had just visited his previous two conventional oncologists. They performed the ultrasound imaging and digital rectal palpation that had revealed his cancer in the first place (later confirmed by biopsy). They found nothing: there was no evidence of cancer left. They could not perform a follow-up biopsy because there was no mass left to target.

A Trailblazer in Oncology
Dr. Douwes is a large, muscular bear of a man. He reminds me of a middle linebacker from the National Football League, or one of those undeniably self-confident athletes who says to his opponent, “You think you’re tough. So bring it on. Show me what you’ve got.” That’s the doctor’s attitude toward cancer, and his upbeat optimism sets the tone for the entire clinic.

For the most part, clinic staff and patients alike are happy and at times ebullient. The setting probably helps, the clinic rivals any five-star hotel for comfort and accommodations, quality of food, service and majestic view. The only morose patients I saw were those who had just recently begun treatment. I assumed that they, too, would be soon infected by the good cheer freely shared among patients in the dining room and group therapy rooms. A patient with prostate cancer said to me that Klinik St. Georg “is the only cancer clinic I’ve ever been to where people laugh”.

Dr. Douwes was not always so upbeat. Following his training in oncology at medical schools in both the U.S. and Germany, he served as head physician of the oncology department at the University of Gottengen, where he got severely discouraged. “I decided after 10 years,” he said “to either quit medicine or to become a landscape gardener, because I was so disappointed about the results in clinical oncology”.

“I had my first fight with the faculty after I was supposed to publish a paper about patients with non-small cell cancer of the lung. We had a double-blind study, one placebo group and one that received Adriamycin, Cytoxan and Oncovin. The results were that from the placebo group, the median survival rate was 9.6 months and in the treated group it was 13.4 months, and this was statistically significant. I was supposed to publish it because the pharmaceutical companies gave us a grant.

“I told them that this may be statistically significant, but is was baloney. What does it mean? Three or four months. If you take into account that these people in treatment survived this experience only four months longer, then I was not going to publish it. They had a lousy life quality; they had to be hospitalized most of the time; they had more chemotherapy, more blood transfusions, and we actually stole several months of their lives from them.

“They told me that if I wasn’t going to publish the paper because it‘s insignificant, then they would cut our grants. This was the minute when I quit and said, ” This is it. I cannot do it anymore because this is not the way to treat these people.” So I slowly adopted complementary methods into my medicine besides conventional and still stay with conventional medicine because St.Georg is a fully licensed hospital. All major insurance’s pay and I somehow had to balance it and, therefore, we call it integrative medicine. We have practiced this now for 15 years.

“As soon as I adopted these methods, I became more and more successful, especially when I had the opportunity to introduce hyperthermia into our treatment and protocol. This was in 1983 and 1984, and my mentor was an American surgeon, the late Dr. Harry Levine. Also, there was Dr. Rudi Falk from Toronto, also deceased. They were the first I met with experience in hyperthermia. Later we made our own machines, and at the moment I think we are now the leading such hospital in the world because we have all varieties of hyperthermia.”

Hyperthermia and Electrotherapy
“There are no other treatments I know,” Dr. Douwes says, “that have such a high specificity to kill and inactivate cancer as hyperthermia and electrotherapy.” These two methods form what Dr. Douwes calls “the new strategy,” which he anticipates will become a mainstay of conventional cancer therapy in the near future. “They have few side effects and are absolutely cancer specific.”

Dr. Douwes showed me a study by the European society for Hyperthermic Oncology on the five-year survival rates of patients with malignant melanoma. Only 28% of those treated with radiation alone survived five years. Whereas in the group treated with both radiation and hyperthermia, 46% were alive after five years.

Keep in mind that these studies were performed by conventional oncologists who added only hyperthermia to their standard treatment protocols. Nothing was done to support their patient’s well being and immune systems. Unlike Klinik St. Georg, they did not use detoxification regimens, biological dentistry, special diets, nutritional supplements, exercise programs like yoga and swimming, sessions in the hot tub and mud baths, lymphatic drainage massage, and visits with a staff psychologist for positive imaging. They were able to nearly double five-year survival rates for melanoma patients by using hyperthermia once a week with conventional radiation treatment.

Ovarian Cancer
In another trial with late-stage, therapy resistant ovarian cancer patients who had undergone multiple previous courses of chemotherapy (in some cases up to eight), 69.2% responded positively to a combination of chemotherapy and hyperthermia, and 15.5% went into remission.

Breast Cancer
In a Klinik St.Georg trial, 36 patients with advanced multi-drug resistant breast cancer were treated with whole-body hyperthermia, chemotherapy, anti-hormone treatment and local region hyperthermia. The positive response rate was 66.4%, of whom 13 patients (36.1%) went into remission. No change was noted in 11 patients (30.5%).

In Vitro studies performed by Doctors Douwes and Jurij Bogovic of Klinik St. Georg have documented that cancer cells treated with a group of chemo agents showed an exponential increase in anti-tumor efficiency when combined synergistically with hyperthermia.

Dr. Douwes says that patients who do best are those on a comprehensive biological program, which includes proper diet, nutritional supplementation and exercise. Chemotherapy and hyperthermia are applied if necessary. But do not get the impression that hyperthermia is effective only when used with chemotherapy or radiation: it is also used to potentiate the effects of various nutritional and herbal anti-cancer remedies.

One aspect of the clinic that Dr. Douwes says that he is expanding and always improving is the use of herbals and nutritional supplements to target cancers and boost the immune system. Recent research has revealed that plant-based phytochemicals modify the permeability of cellular membranes, thus allowing nutrients to enter and be metabolized within healthy cells, while making cancer cells more pervious to attack from outside.Klinik St. Georg has long used alkylglycerols on all patients for this very purpose. Dr. Douwes uses Ecomer ™ Alkylglycerols exclusively. The clinic also employs many other supplements, including thymus protein, vitamin C, selenium, Coenzyme Q10, mistletoe, high-dose antioxidants and enzymes to enhance immune response.

Dr. Douwes has started using two new lines of products to complement his standard therapies. One is the Natura Herbals™ line of Chinese herbal formulas. These are derived from remedies that have been proven in China to efficacious reportedly in 83% of 400,000 patients. The other is Nutrizyme™ from American Nutriceuticals. This formula combines protein-digesting enzymes with other immune stimulants and can strip the sheaths (made of fibrin polyglucoprotein) from around cancer cells, rendering them more vulnerable to attack. It is likely that, used in combination with hyperthermia, several of these products may be able to virtually supplant conventional chemotherapy agents in some cases.

Author: Harvet Kaltsas, D.O.M.,A.P., is President Emeritus of the Florida State Oriental Medical Association and the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAOM). In 1996, he was selected “Acupuncturist of the Year” by the AAOM. Dr. Kaltsas was recently re-appointed to the Florida Board of Acupuncture.

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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.

The harmful positive ion (kation) is a particle that loses an electron. The healthful negative ion (anion) gains an electron in the valency orbit; that is it increases the ability to absorb and utilise oxygen and reduces any excess of harmful serotonin.

These two small invisible electrified particles have an effect on our physical and mental well-being and we are constantly bombarded with negative and positive ions eg. polluted air. The negative ions make us feel good, they destroy harmful bacteria. The positive ions make us feel bad (TV. screen produces positive ions).

If the positive ions occur naturally in sufficient numbers, for instance during the onset of the commonly known hot and dry desert winds, the winds cause depression, nausea, insomnia, irritability, lassitude, migraine, asthma attacks, and also affect the normal function of the thyroid glands. Biochemically speaking, the body becomes exhausted and this can lead to an increase in accidents, violent crime and suicides. These can be counteracted with the beneficial negative ions.

The negative ions contribute to the feeling of well being. They reduce the number of active harmful bacteria in the air; the severity of illness; in general they have a stimulating effect also on plant growth like rainwater, which has an abundant source of negative ions. For instance, a shower will re-ionise and has a tonic effect on the body, just like rainwater which clears the air.

Therefore the surroundings of a water-fall, fountains, showers and the breaking surf of sea spray have a much more stimulating effect on the body and mind.

Remember that emotional stress produces serotonin. According to Dr Irving Oyle, serotonin is “the ultimate downer” while norepinephrine is the “ultimate upper”.

An excess of positive ions also affects the neurohormone adrenalin which responds to external stress and our five senses control the production of adrenalin hormone. This universal phenomena is a primeval ancestral link, for ion-charged air around breaking or splashing water which attracts us and makes us feel good.

The ions affect our body chemistry eg. serotonin which plays an important role in the working of the brain; is a neurohormone.

For instance: Negative ions cut down the serotonin level and act like a beneficial natural tranquilliser. An excess of serotonin in brain leads to an exaggerated sense of physical and emotional well-being (euphoria), that follows with a state of (lassitude) then to the electrical change from rhythms of the cerebal cortex (over arousal) and finally irritability, anger and violence.

If anyone is exposed to a high level of negative atmosphere, within half an hour serotonin appears in the urine; that is the disposal of excess serotonin.

These experiments can be tested at home under a shower (supply of negative ions).

Note: Hydrotherapy is based on re-ionising of the body, that is increasing the negative ion supply.

Every individual, either consciously or unconsciously must continue to make the effort to attract this natural energy from the cosmetic storehouse. The YANG or positive magneton attracts the negative ions in the body. The YIN or negative magnetron attracts the positive ions in the body.

An equal strength of YIN and YANG magnetron will automatically balance these interplay of ions.

This interplay of ions happen in the body itself but not in the atmosphere. Therefore to clear the air one has to use a negative ioniser.

The Magneton Bio-Rhythm Inductor (healing frequency) combined with the Magneton disc (body ion-balancer) and the negative ioniser (air-cleaner), will balance the strain of external stress and tension. This combined treatment uses existing Natural Healing Forces.

Acupuncture points are ion absorption points, therefore the body can be re-ionised through Magneton metal radiation techniques or acupuncture needling. It enhances the body’s ability to utilise oxygen properly and vitamins also have a similar effect.

Negative ion devices prevent horses from stall-walking, a syndrome characterised by horses endlessly oscillating their heads from side to side. Similar phenomena such as hypertension can be observed with human beings who wear an excess of clothing especially if made of synthetic fabric. All movements obviously increase ionic flow by causing friction with immobilised ionic particles in an electro-magnetically shielded environment.

Under normal conditions the body balances the ionisation by means of nasal cycle eg. taking the breath in through the left nostril negatively ionises the air and the right nostril positively ionises it. Note: running water also produces negative ions.

Dimethylsufoxide (D.S.M.O.) (CH3) acts biologically as a weak donor of electrons when applied externally and a similar dramatic relief of pain. It has local analgesic properties and is absorbed through intact skin. Cortisone (C21H28O5) is also a weak electron donor in tissues.

Observations according to James Beal of N.A.S.A. – 1974

Interesting observations with regard to bio-chemical deviations experienced by astronauts suggest that they may be related to abnormalities in environmental electro-magnetics.

Frequent ventricular contractions (P.V.C.’s), loss of Calcium and a decrease in red blood cell volume of up to 20% have been observed as were certain intestinal gaseous disturbances.

Mice placed in a de-ionised environment showed a generalised physiological deterioration – became ill and died in 24 days. Cold electron emission from acupuncture points might, under these circumstances, be a biological effort to replenish the atmospheric ionic concentration which is necessary to enable the current flows induced by external electro-static and electro-magnetic fields. Body electrical balance then would require elimination of kations eg. Ca+ and K+. Biological systems thus understandably attempt to normalise external environments at the expense of internal electrical reserves, such as Calcium and Potassium.

CONCLUSION: without ions we could not aborb oxygen in the quantities needed to live.

BIOLOGICAL FIELDS AND STRESS

In summary, a general observation of the Biological Fields and stress would lead one to believe that life’s cognising functions lie within the parameter of a biological field. These biological fields may be affirmed to become defective during emotional or physical stress which, if prolonged, subsequently result in cellular disease.

Acupunctural augmentation (increase) of ionic flows to counteract such defective biological fields relieves pain because it is really within these fields that pain is experienced. Similarly, anaesthesia can be produced. Cellular disease is remedied therefore as cells begin to conform to overlying biological fields.

This correlation of psychological stress to biological fields and physical disease is most intriguing.

Acupuncture needles in the mid-forearm cure headaches and needles in the big toe produce anaesthesia for dental extractions. Presumably the mechanism is due to their effects on and within the intricate, continually cognising, biological field. The function of the acupuncture needles is supported by observations of physics, geophysics, biology, biophysics and psychiatry.

THE MINIATURISED BIO-RHYTHM INDUCTOR

The highlight of the Bio-Rhythm Inductor is a new approach of Simple Extra Low Frequencies with oscillating magnetic pulses. Frequency pulses, according to Professors W Ehrmann and W Ludwig at the University of Freiburg and Tubingen, have a resonance to specific body tissue in harmony with the particular patient. It is also in harmony with the numerical philosophy of acupuncture and the theory has more connection with the electrical physiology phenomena (nerves can receive 2500Hz). With a higher wave frequency, the muscle may go slightly into spasm and the feeling of numbness and heaviness – this is a normal reaction.

One may observe the muscle, tendon and joint moving together. This has a relationship to the nerve meridian – muscle and tendon functions.

The reaction at the local muscle will follow the frequency of the wave induced by the magnetic pulse. If the dosage of stimulation is correct, the patient after treatment will be relieved of his syndrome. The body function will be in harmony and he will feel comfortable and full of energy. This treatment is suitable for patients who are scared of acupuncture needling or other treatment.

NOTE: IMPORTANT – One must determine the condition of the patient when determining the degree of stimulation ie. disease condition – acute, chronic, internal or external. Weak magnetic waves can alter brain rhythms. The body itself is a system of electric-magnetic energy.

THE BIO-RHYTHM INDUCTOR

Some basic phenomena on which the Bio-Rhythm Inductor is designed and operated.

An appreciation of some electro-magnetic bio-physics helps to explain acupuncture observations of the past and its relevance also to electro-magnetic low frequency pulse units. Electric currents flow through the acupuncture meridians in the human body; they originate from cellular metabolism and ionic atmospheric and geomagnetic forces and result in electrically measurable force fields about the human body. Electro-magnetic energy can adversely affect these fields, resulting in subjacent cellular derangement’s or disease.

Sub-atomic Particles: The relationship between electrons and magnetic fields.

Moving a wire relative to a magnetic field produces an Electro Motive Force which tends to drive a current (ie. Flowing electrons) within the air in a direction at right angles to the magnetic field. This relationship is involved in all electric motors and generators.

The ion is an electrified particle as in H+ = Hydrogen and OH- = Hydroxyl ion.

H+ Kation (+) is an atom that has lost an electron. Therefore it has a positive charge.

OH- Anion (-) are a pair of atoms that have gained an electron, therefore they have a negative charge.

H+ and OH- are electrified and behave in magnetic fields in exactly the same way that electrons circulate in wires – except that in having more mass, they move more slowly and H+ ions move in the opposite direction to OH- ions.

The way ions tend to behave in magnetic fields, one way or the other, depends upon the ionic charge, and the North/South orientation of the magnetic field. For example, this charged particle/magnetic field relationship shows promise of finding commercial application in generating electric power. Some 50% efficiency can be achieved by driving charged particles (ie. ions) through magnetic fields. Known as M.H.D. or Magneto Hydro Dynamics, this phenomenon also appears to have distinct bio-logical implications. For example, red blood cells rotate on their flat axes in-vivo; in-vitro they will rotate if a magnetic field is applied.

In-vivo = (lively) natural

In-vitro = (sliding) external force applied.

The direction of red blood cell rotation in-vitro reverses if the field is reversed, an observation precisely to be expected of a body presenting ionic surface charges.

Seemingly, the electron spinning while orbiting the atomic anatomy is somewhat similar to our Earth’s rotating while orbiting the revolving Sun.

When radio energy (electro-magnetic waves) is applied to substances at proper frequencies, it causes the electrons to resonate. The frequency at which resonance occurs is also dependent upon the magnetic field strength. In other words, at any fixed radio frequency, electrons may be made to resonate (echoing) by adjusting the magnetic field strength. This phenomenon is called E.P.R. (Electron Para-magnetic Resonance). Electrons therefore may be spinning faster or slower, resonating at different frequencies, switching orbits, with associated emission and/or absorption of light energy (Photons). Medicine of course is acutely interested in the pH (hydrogen ion concentration) of the blood, always seeking to keep it in its balance. When the Bio-rhythm electro-magnetic field pulse is used, and be restored to their correct in-vivo rotation.

Each living cell appears to be a tiny battery generating its own current by chemical action, ie. the Sodium/Potassium Pump. When ions are in motion, they are invariably associated with magnetic fields; these fields have electro-magnetic qualities, therefore underlying the variations in these fields there are tissues of varying activity and resistance.

Extra-ordinarily active tissues are associated with more intensified fields and inactive tissues with diminished fields. There is definitely a relationship of diseased tissue to magnetic fields, so that when an oscillating magnetic pulse is applied at the right frequency and penetrating strength, cellular metabolism through correction of red blood cell rotation is re-established at the proper level. (Phagocytes activity is stimulated at frequencies of 1 – 4 Hz).

It is likely that cold electron emission from acupuncture points or reflex areas may be a biological effort to replenish external atmospheric ionic concentrations outside the body, and as this requires discharge of certain kations eg. Ca+ and K+, the depletion of internal mineral reserves may result.

In summary, a general observation of bio-logical fields and stress, would lead one to believe that life’s cognising functions lie within the parameter of a bio-logical field.

Biological fields may be affirmed to become defective during emotional or physical stress, which if prolonged, subsequently results in cellular disease.

Electro-magnetic augmentation of ionic flows to counteract such defective biological fields, relieves pain, because it is really within such defective fields that pain is experienced. Similarly analgesia can be produced.

According to Robert O Becker, the presence of life regulating organisms is based upon electronic conduction mechanisms; he also proved that such systems can be used in a clinical fashion by applying appropriate levels of externally generated electro-magnetic energy; eg. the oscillating Bio-rhythm inductor.

Cellular disease is therefore remedied as cells begin once more to conform to their overlying biological fields.

The frequency used for dilation and constriction depends on the blood vessel sizes, so one should allow a random sweep through the range required, say 5 minutes for each frequency.

Certain frequencies have proven results in eliminating the specific problems listed.

• 8Hz and below causes vaso-dilation (enlarged blood vessels)
• 12Hz and above causes vaso-constrictions (narrowing of the arteriolar lumen)
• 0.87-3 Hz = for tendons and muscles, nerve system in harmony with blood and lymph.
• 2 Hz = used where there is inflammation or infection.
• 3-8 Hz = central and peripheral nervous system where distribution is to the skin of the superficial structure of the body which is a branch of C.N.S.
• 1-4 Hz = counteracts infections. It stimulates phagocytes and the immune system. Phagocytes engulf and digest foreign particles which are harmful to the body.
• 4-8 Hz = dating effect counteracting muscular spasm.
• 8 Hz = Is an analgesic tonic and is stabilising (stops pain)
• 5-13 Hz = the human brain’s electrical activity in the alpha and high theta range. A case can be made that human beings evolved within mimie and are dependent upon the earth’s electro-magnetic phenomenon.
• 8-16 Hz = analgesic, tonic and stabilising, relieves tension and chronic tension eg. headache or directly to organs.
• 16 Hz = specific for rheumatic complaints. It responds to a range of frequency; use 16 Hz for a chronic case.
• 16-32 Hz = generally stimulating. Also has a recuperating effect on patients who are stressed and have low vitality.
• 32 Hz = stimulating and tonifying.
• 1-32 Hz = generally for acute pain syndromes or compulsive disorders, eg. obesity, alcoholism and drug addiction.
• 64 Hz = short burst on Lo points.
• 2000 Hz = removes cravings for methylphenidate in the addict.

Researchers believe that through control of the electrical charges in the air we breathe, our moods, energy and health can be markedly improved. Condensed from The Rotarian., byRobert O’Brien

One sweltering day in Philadelphia this summer a man sat before a small metal box resting atop a hospital file cabinet. It was plugged into an ordinary wall socket. A doctor flipped a switch. Inside the box a small fan whirred; the box hummed distantly, like a high-tension wire, and gave off a faint, sweetish odor. Soon the man felt alert, magically refreshing, as though he’d been taking deep gulps of sparkling October air. The doctor turned the machine off, switched on another that looked just like it. The air grew quickly stale. The man’s head felt stuffy. His eyes smarted. His head began to ache. He felt vaguely depressed and tired.

With this simple experiment, the scientist-Dr. Igho H. Kornblueh, of the American Institute of Medical Climatology- demonstrated the effect that atmospheric icons can have on human beings. The first machine generated negative ions; the second, positive ions.

The air around us is filled with these electrically charged particles. They are generated in invisible billions by cosmic rays, radioactive elements in the soil, ultraviolet radiation, storms, waterfalls, winds, the friction of blowing sand or dust. Every time we draw a breath they fill our lungs and are carried by the blood to our body cells. They appear to have a lot to do with such varied things as our moods, why cattle grow skittish before a storm, why rheumatic joints “tingle” when the barometer falls, and how ants know in advance that it’s going to rain, in time to block their tunnels.

Falling barometric pressure and hot, dry, seasonal winds, such as the Alpine fohn and the Rocky Mountain chinook, for example, pack the air with an excess of positive ions. Not everyone is affected; healthy young people swiftly adapt to the change. But countless others are distressed. The aged come down with respiratory complaints, aching joints; asthma sufferers wheeze and gasp; children grow cranky and perverse; crime and suicide rates climb.

The Positive Effect of Negative Ions On the other hand, a preponderance of negative ions spices the air with exhilarating freshness. We feel on top of the world. Dr. C.W. Hansell, research fellow at RCA Laboratories and an international authority on ionization, illustrates the effect with a story about his ten-year old daughter. “We were outside, watching the approach of a thunderstorm. I knew that clouds of negative ions were filling the air. Suddenly my daughter began to dance across the grass, a radiant look on her face. She leaped up on a low boulder, threw her arms wide to the dark sky, and cried, ‘Oh, I feel wonderful!’”

Negative ions “cure” nothing that we know of, at most afford relief only so long as one inhales them. Many doctors doubt their therapeutic effects. But there is a growing army of people who swear by them.

“Total Relief” At the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate Hospital and at Northeastern and Frankford hospitals in Philadelphia, Dr. Kornbleuh and his associates have administered negative- ion treatments to hundreds of patients suffering from hay fever or bronchial asthma. Of the total, 63 percent have experienced partial to total relief. “They come in sneezing, eyes watering, noses itching, worn out from lack of sleep, so miserable they can hardly walk,” one doctor told me. “Fifteen minutes in front of the negative-ion machine and they feel so much better they don’t want to leave.”

It was RCA’s Dr. Hansell who, in 1932, stumbled upon the behavioral effects of artificially generated ions. He noticed a startling swing in the moods of a fellow RCA scientist who worked beside an electrostatic generator. Some days the scientist finished work alert and in bubbling good spirits. On other days he was rude, ill-tempered, depressed. Dr.Hansell investigated, found that the scientist produce negative ions, morose when it was producing positive ions. A few months later, reports of ionization research in Europe confirmed the strange experience.

A few years ago atmospheric ions became suddenly important to military researchers in environmental medicine. How would they affect men locked in submarines? In space ships; What were the possibilities of ion therapy? Research programs multiplied, with fantastic results. Effective Pain-Killer

In Philadelphia Dr. Kornblueh studied brainwave patterns and found evidence that negative ions tranquilized persons in severe pain. In one dramatic test he held a high density negative ionizer to the nose and mouth of a factory worker who had been rushed to Northeastern Hospital with second- degree burns on his back and legs. In minutes the pain was gone. Patients are left in the room for 30 minutes. The treatment is repeated three times every 24 hours. In 85 percent of the cases no pain-deadening narcotics are needed. Says Northeastern’s Dr. Robert McGowan, “Negative ions make burns dry out faster, heal faster and with less scarring. They also reduce the need for skin-grafting. They make the patient more optimistic. He sleeps better.”

Encouraged by this success in burn therapy, Dr. Kornblueh, Dr. J.R. Minehart, Northeastern’s chief surgeon, and his associate Dr. T.A. David boldly tried negative ions in relief of deep, post-operative pain. During an eighth- month test period they exposed 138 patients to negative ions on the first and second days after surgery. Dr. Kornblueh has just announced the results at a London congress of bioclimatologists. In 79 cases- 57 percent of the total- negative ions eliminated or drastically reduced pain.

“At first,” says Dr. Minehart, “I thought it was voodoo. Now I’m convinced that it’s real- and revolutionary.”

Experiments by Dr. Albert P. Krueger and Dr. Richard F. Smith at the University of California have shown how ionization affects those sensitive to air-borne allergens. Our bronchial tubes and trachea, or windpipe, are lined with tiny filaments called cilia. The cilia normally maintain a whiplike motion of about 900 beats a minute. Together with mucus, they keep our air passages free of dust and pollen. Krueger and Smith exposed tracheal tissue to negative ions, found that the ciliary beat was speeded up to 1200 a minute and that mucus flow was increased. Doses of positive ions produced the opposite effect: ciliary beat slowed to 600 a minute or less; the flow of mucus dropped.

Counteracting Cancer In experiments that may prove important in cancer research, Drs. Krueger and Smith also discovered that cigarette smoke slows down the cilia and impairs their ability to clear foreign, and possibly carcinogenic (cancer- inducing), substances from the lungs. Positive ions, administered along with the cigarette smoke lowered the ciliary beat as before, but from three to ten times faster than in normal air. Negative ions, however, counteracted the effects of the smoke. Observed Dr. Krueger, “The agent in cigarette smoke that slows down the ciliary beat is not known. Whatever it may be, its action is effectively neutralized by negative ions, which raise the ciliary beat as well as in a heavy atmosphere of cigarette smoke as they do in fresh air.”

Mood Alteration How do ions trip off our moods? Most authorities agree that ions act on our capacity to absorb and utilize oxygen. Negative ions in the blood stream accelerate the delivery of oxygen to our cells and tissues, frequently give us the same euphoric jolt that we get from a few whiffs of straight oxygen. Positive ions slow down the delivery of oxygen , producing symptoms markedly like those in anoxia, or oxygen starvation. Researchers also believe that negative ions may stimulate the reticulo-endothelial system, a group of defense cells in our bodies which marshal our resistance to disease.

Dr. Krueger predicts that we shall some day regulate the ion level indoors much as we now regulate temperature and humidity. Ironically, today’s air-conditioned buildings, trains, and planes frequently become supercharged with harmful positive ions because the metal blowers, filters and ducts of air-conditioning systems strip the air of negative ions before it reaches its destination. Says RCA’s Dr. Hansell, This explains why so many people in air- conditioned spots feel depressed and have an urge to throw open a window.”

Air-conditioner manufacturers are designing new systems that increase negative ionization. The American Broadcasting Co. will equip its new 30-story New York City headquarters with ion control. Two national concerns, Philco and Emerson Electric, already have ion-control air- conditioning systems on the market. RCA, Westinghouse, General Electric and Carrier Corp. have similar products under study or development.

We still have much to learn about atmospheric ions. But researchers believe that these magic bits of electricity, under artificial control, will soon be helping millions to healthier, happier, more productive lives.

There is no need to diet. In fact, the few diets that do work only manage to keep the weight off people for a relatively short period of time. What is required is a steady diet of foods that provide the body with the exact nutrients it needs. If we do this, the body is not constantly crying out that it is starved for nutrients of every kind.

Almost every diet I have run across tries to trick the body metabolically into losing weight. They combine this protein with this carbohydrate or they eliminate fat or carbohydrates entirely from the diet. Sometimes protein is eliminated or foods are rotated or re-combined in the diet and all this is suppose to cause people to lose weight. Ironically, all that has ever been needed is a natural diet of Raw Fruits and Vegetables, anchored with powerful, high protein foods such as Spirulina and Chlorella. It is the healthiest, most natural and economical way to live. Raw Foods prevent disease, provide the body with rejuvenating nutrients and allow for a balanced body that will not become overweight. Being overweight is not natural for a human. Only certain animals gain weight to make it through the winter such as bears. Obesity is an extreme condition where the body is completely out of balance in every way. It has been so starved for nutrients that the body’s most basic daily chemical reactions no longer occur. Instead, these enzymic and hormonal sequences and reactions are greatly altered if not entirely missing. What could we expect to receive from that kind of scenario other than a complete mess resulting in diabetes, cancer, obesity, arthritis, etc. What we lack most in our diet are enzymes, which only come from Raw Foods. They other thing we lack is an adequate amount of water, which we are often trained to avoid from birth.

Our eating habits traditionally couldn’t be further from what they ought to be if we want to remain healthy and be at our natural weight. We began consuming highly processed foods nearly a century ago and it has taken its toll, considering that one in three people will get cancer in their lifetime. This is a staggeringly high percentage considering that cancer was still relatively uncommon before 1920. The more processed foods enter into a country’s diet, the more those people begin to develop cancer. For instance, Korea has taken on the western fast food, processed food diet over the past 30 years and the result has been escalating stomach cancer rates. Japan sees the same trend for the same reason. Take a fast food meal of pizza or a burger and fries. There is little or no nutrition in either of those. They are void of fiber, which is critical to human health.

“I can think of nothing worse than a fast food burger meal of substandard meat, white bread, french fries and a soft drink. I ate my share of them before I learned how horrible they truly are for your health. Neither the meat, french fries nor white bread has any dietary fiber. Strike One. If you skin potatoes, slice them thin to expose their surface area, freeze then deep fry them in oil, there is no fiber, nutrition, minerals, nothing left but a wad of acidic starchy waste that is impossible to digest. It can take weeks for them to move through the digestive system. Strike Two. The caffeine and acid level of soft drinks shuts down the digestive system precluding the possibility that the body might actually absorb any nutrients. Strike Three. After having spent the money, you’re less healthy and more acidic than when you started. Bon Appetite!” Confessions of a Body Builder, p. 46. B. McCauley, Ó2000, SE Inc. Press.

I will be the first to admit that the Raw Food Diet approach is not conventional, but it really is not a diet in the traditional sense. It is simple a natural way to eat and live. Eating that way will return the body to its natural state and weight loss will occur naturally and healthily. We have been cooking our food for millennium and cooked foods will certainly always be a part of our diet. Part of the question is, how much can we limit cooked foods in our diet. The ideal is to eat a 100% Raw Food diet, but that is difficult to achieve, even for someone like myself who has been actively promoting the Raw Food diet for years now. Eating Raw Foods is a way of life and to begin to eat the healthiest food you could possibly put in your body, you need to change your lifestyle. You start by limiting your cooked food diet as much as possible. To do that you should start each meal by eating as much raw foods as possible. That means trying to have a larger salad than you might be use to and don’t use lettuce, it’s a weak food that contains little, and in some cases, no food value. This primes the stomach for the cooked foods that are many times more difficult to digest and extract nutrients from than Raw Foods.

Eventually, we stop creating metabolic enzymes because of the body’s constant demand for the digestive enzymes it needs to attend to high maintenance cooked foods. All Raw Foods are self-digesting, meaning that they require no special attention or extra enzymes to be digested.

“Civilization has revolved around a cooked food diet, one mostly void of enzymes, for thousands of years. Today’s typical diet is so laden with cooked foods that the body is constantly overburdened with the difficulty of digesting that food because it has no enzymes. The consequence is that other areas of the body are robbed of their enzymes in order to meet the enzyme demands of digestion. The depletion of certain metabolic enzymes happens because the body is busy producing digestive enzymes, which are given top priority because it is paramount that more nutrients be constantly supplied to the body in great numbers, especially as we age.” Confessions of a Body Builder, pg 36.

The Raw Food Diet is a far more economical way for the average person to eat compared to a traditional cooked food, processed food diet. Regarding nutritional content, processed foods, those that come in jars, boxes, cans, etc, are astronomically expensive compared to the nutrients that are readily assimilated by the body from Raw Foods.

“It is interesting to note that when captive wild animals are fed a diet resembling human food in the sense of it being largely heat-treated, they develop diseases similar or identical to those found in human beings.” Food Enzymes for Health and Longevity, by Dr. Edward Howell, p.121.

Taste Rules

We eat Cooked Foods for once reason: Taste. We eat meat for taste exclusively. We eat dairy products, which should be completely avoided, because of taste. Dairy products create large amounts of mucous in our bodies and have been linked to many diseases, including cancer. Eggs are a very acidic food containing inferior protein types that are difficult to digest, because we cook them.

Cooking foods, however, removes 90% of the rejuvenating properties of the food and transforms it into mere sustenance, not something that renews. Your food may taste better because it is cooked, but your health will suffer because of it, now and even more in the future. Eating Raw Foods is about longevity, but even more it is about quality of health today and tomorrow. Food tastes better when it is cooked and it tastes better when it is contains fat. Once we recognized this, at least we understand what we are doing to the body when we eat cooked foods, especially when our diet is largely composed of cooked foods. When we begin eating Raw Foods and supplementing the diet with Spirulina and Chlorella, the basic nutritional needs of the body are met. Once that happens, the body stops constantly crying out to us that we need to take in more nutrients to meet the body’s basic requirements. Weight loss under these circumstances naturally and healthily follows.

The Importance of Fat In the Diet

It is crucial that 10-20% of the diet is comprised of Fat. However, animal fat is essentially useless to the body. Only fat that comes from fresh fruits and vegetables is good for the body. If the fat has been cooked, then it has been denatured and therefore is altered from its original state. While it still has benefit to the body, it has greatly diminished its value from its natural state. This is also true for any food, once cooked, its nutritional value is greatly diminished. Profound things happen when fat comes in contact with the body’s cells, but whether that effect is of benefit is determined by whether it is a vegetable fat or animal fat.

“Essential fatty acids are required by the body and are found in abundance in the vegetable kingdom in foods such as avocado, sesame oil, olive oil, flaxseed oil, black and wild rice, almonds, hazelnuts, Spirulina and Chlorella. These are monounsaturated fats with antioxidant qualities that fend off arterial damage from LDL cholesterol.” Confessions of a Body Builder, pg 46.

What is wrong with other Diets?

There are three kinds of foods required by the body: Fat, Carbohydrates and Proteins. Other than organic chemicals substances, enzymes and water, there is nothing else that the body requires. And all three of these are required by the body with each meal. Removing one of them completely will cause the body to be thrown out of metabolic balance. It may lose weight quickly, but hormone levels will be thrown out of balance, pH may drop, enzymes may not be produced in sufficient numbers. The possibilities are endless, but what is certain is that doing something as unnatural as completely removing one of them will throw the body out of balance. And once the food group is reintroduced, there is no telling what will happen to the delicate balance of the body due to this removal and reintroduction.

For example, eating a lot of sugar at once will cause a surge of insulin to be produced by the pancreas, which will cause a “sugar crash”. Done often enough exposes one to the risk of developing diabetes.

How To Begin a Raw Food Diet

1. We begin a Raw Food diet by eating 2-3 grams Spirulina and Chlorella before every meal. Augment your traditional breakfast of cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, eggs and bacon with fruit. Fruit contains simple carbohydrates or sugar that will be burned easily and immediately by the body, which will provide us with a lot of energy. Sugar is the fuel of the body and sugar provided to the body through raw fruit is organic in nature and will never cause a problem for us. Refined sugar found in soft drinks and nearly every processed food on the market is quite a different story and should be avoided. It is acidic to the body and causes an overabundance of insulin to be produced, which will eventually cause an unbalanced state in the body. We balance by eating alkaline foods such as Spirulina, Chlorella, fresh fruit and other Raw Foods.

1. Remove meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products as your main protein source, which are acidic, and replace it with Spirulina and Chlorella, which are alkaline. You can also get rid of your vitamin and mineral supplements once you begin taking Spirulina and Chlorella since they contain all the vitamins and minerals your body needs in a natural state that makes them so much more powerful than the extracts and concentrates that most vitamins and minerals are made of.

1. Begin each meal with a salad of any kind as long as it is full of Raw Foods. Lettuce is a weak filler and should be avoided. Eat heartier greens such as kale, spinach, greens, parsley, and sprouts as the base of your salad. Fill up on the salad as much as possible to make it as large a part of your diet as possible.

1. Eat fatty foods and starchy carbohydrates in the evening because they are more difficult to digest and will provide you with a better night’s sleep. Eaten during the day, they will cause fatigue and drowsiness.

1. Always take a tablet that contains the bacteria for your stomach. There are 7 different bacteria in your body and each performs a different function in a different part of your digestive track. Your body CANNOT take in nutrients and keep its digestive track clean without these bacteria present at all times. If you have bad breath, your digestive track has stalled and your food is rotting in your stomach. A tablet with this friendly bacteria will clear that problem within a few hours of taking it.

1. Add fresh squeezed juices to your diet. They CANNOT come from a carton or from concentrate if you intend to get any true benefit from them.

Consuming Raw Foods is less a diet than a lifestyle. You are replacing the foods that have been denatured by cooking with those that the body must have to remain healthy. And no diet in the world will work, nor will it be healthy, without adequate amounts of the most important element required by the body. The best water to drink is Ionized Water.

We are designed to live 120-150 years, yet making it to 100 without the onset of senility is next to impossible. Your chances of contracting Alzheimer’s or some Dementia-related disease by age 85 is now 50/50. This occurs because of toxin accumulation in the body, particularly the brain, which it is prone to because of its texture and material it is composed of. It is also the most difficult place to hydrate in the body. Toxins accumulate after a lifetime of eating cooked foods and not drinking enough water. Over the years, denatured (cooked) foods deposit acid waste and a plethora of other toxins throughout the body, especially accumulating in the joints, in and around the organs and in the brain. Dementia related diseases are a sure sign of a lifetime of chronic dehydration. Every time you take a sip of water, 80% of it is used by the brain, especially to supply the cranial fluids. When we fail to do this over a lifetime, toxins begin to interfere with the brain’s delicate chemical balance. Once a single chemical reaction in the brain is stopped or significantly altered, the ripple effect will be felt throughout the brain. How it will manifest itself exactly will depend on the person’s background, diet, etc.

Reversing these psychiatric conditions is not easy, but can be done to some degree by following the Raw Food Rules and drinking 2-3 gallons of Ionized Water each day. I drink 2 gallons myself everyday and it not hard to do at all.

All foods contain certain levels of natural toxins in them such as heavy metals. For instance, Chlorella contains lead as well as other toxins, however they are minute and will not deposit in the body because it is fresh, i.e. raw, NOT denatured by cooking, pasteurizing or other forms of processing. Examine any food, organic or commercially grown, and you will find toxins that deposit in the body in dangerous levels only when it is consumed after it is cooked or otherwise denatured.

I would like to point out that it is difficult to get Chlorella manufacturers to admit these toxins exist in their products, however there are a few who openly speak of it. However, these toxins will be removed when the food is consumed raw. Chlorella is famous for removing heavy metals such as lead, which is why toxins consumed with raw vegetables are not deposited in the body.

Chronic disease doesn’t exist in the wild. Animals don’t have the long life span that we could have if we wanted. But there or other things to consider with animals in the wild.

Raw Foods Rejuvenate, Cooked Foods Merely Sustain

When you eat raw foods, you know you are really eating something. Its full nutritional power is in your mouth and your taste buds are sending a myriad of passionate signals to the brain: hot, sour, bitter, sweet, strong. When you cook food, you tame it, de-claw it, rob it of savage vitality as well as its ability to renew and cleanse the body at a cellular level. It’s the enzymes and other organic chemicals that explode on your pallet to announce they are full of life renewing qualities. Raw foods are immediately absorbed by the body because of the presence of enzymes in the food. It is for the same reason that the nutrients in raw foods are so readily available to the body and are many times more easily digested by the body.

Cooked foods are a great deal of labor for the body to digest, absorb nutrients from and pass through. Deep fried foods pose the greatest difficulty in this regard.

Raw Foods essentially come pre-digested, meaning they are ready to be absorbed by the body and do not have to be digested. Cooked foods require enormous bodily resources, especially enzymes, to be digested.

People don’t stop to consider what they are putting in their body because they are not educated on nutrition. Instead, sadly, we are conditioned. Conditioned to believe that if it comes out of a box, can or jar, its okay to eat it, regardless if it contains chemical substances and preservatives we cannot even pronounce. Consuming soft drinks is not questioned because marketing has duped us into believing their couldn’t possibly be anything wrong with putting something so profoundly acidic as a carbonated soft drink into our body. The nutritional panels on packages reflects the pitiful amounts of nutrients that are actually in processed foods. And that assumes the body is going to absorb those nutrients, which it has a lot of trouble doing if they aren’t consumed with the enzymes that are found only in raw foods.

They must work five to seven times harder when digesting and converting cooked foods into nutrients that can actually be used by the body than when digesting raw foods. This fact needs no further elaboration other than to say that cooked foods simply have no place in the body. The digestive tract must call on metabolic enzymes to do its job. Our organs are strained and must work overtime to produce sufficient amounts of enzymes to help with the difficult task of digesting cooked foods.

Building the body’s cells with raw foods naturally protects us from bacterial infections and viruses of every kind. It fortifies the cells in ways that only raw foods can because the human body, as well as all life on Earth, has been conditioned to receive its nutrients in that way for billions of years. However, highly processed foods first appeared in the 1930’s. The rise of chronic disease of all kinds correlates precisely with the increased consumption of processed foods. Cancer is a perfect example of this. It has continued it meteoric rise since the 1930’s and now one of every three people in the United States will get cancer in their lifetime. Switch to a raw food diet and disease will disappear from your life for good, or for as long as you remain a raw foodist.

The Importance of Fat In Our Diet

Raw foods are never fattening. Regardless of the amount consumed, the body will assimilate the amount of nutrients it needs and expel the rest. People often believe that bananas, avocados and coconut are fattening, which they are not if they are consumed raw. Once cooked, processed or otherwise denatured, the fat, which has been chemically transformed, will undoubtedly deposit in the body. Fat deposited in the body this way is not a normal bodily process because denaturing food is not a natural process in and of itself. The body also stores them in such a way as to make them unavailable for use by the body except to burn the fat off. Fresh foods contain saturated fats, unsaturated fats and essential fatty acids, all of which the body requires. However, the body is also able to store these fats in its cells so it can use them as required by the body.

Hunger and Cooked Foods

Hunger is a basic instinct that is easily satisfied with cooked foods. The major reason for this is conditioning. The hypothalamus, the on/off hunger switch in the body, has been triggered and the cooked-foodist feels full. While the belly is indeed full, but it is filled with substances that do not carry with them the enzymes that allow their nutrients to be immediately absorbed and utilized by the body. Instead, we force the body to work many times harder to absorb nutrients from the foods we consume because they are denatured. We strain our enzyme reserve. Other areas of the body become neglected, most importantly our immune system. This should be the real reason we call it the common cold. As we age, we deplete our enzymes reserves until we begin to call upon our metabolic enzymes to help digest our foods. The body strains ever harder to absorb nutrients. The digestive tract becomes ever more clogged because of the absence of crucial digestive enzymes whose presence helps keep it clean and flowing. Simply put, we should not put anything in our bodies other than substances that are pure nutrients, i.e., raw foods.

The thing most people want from eating is a full belly. They equate this with having fed their body and satisfied its need for nutrients. Many realize they have done nothing but turn off the hunger switch. A belly full of cooked food is slow moving if not stagnant, especially if it has not been primed with raw foods, such as a hearty salad, before their cooked food meal.

However, we can learn to truly satisfy our hunger pains without resorting to cooked foods.

Upon introducing someone to the raw food theory, many people, especially vegetarians, their first thought is to proudly state that they eat a lot of steamed vegetables. Steamed vegetables are not at all acceptable because steaming kills the enzymes and therefore much of the nutritional potential of the food. It distorts the natural state of the food and therefore the original intent of the nutrients effect on the body.