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.

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.

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

Section One: Vitamins of the Air

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section Two: Inhaling Minerals For Health [ Top ]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Section Three: Prehistoric Atomosphere [ Top ]

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

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

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

“Trans fatty acids are chemically altered substances in the same way that microwaved foods are chemically altered, although trans fats are much more dangerous. Their shape does not fit the natural shape of our bodily enzymes and membrane structures, thus they do not allow the body to function naturally as it should. The melting point of trans fats is higher (111 ° F), which makes them solid at both room and body temperature. Thus they are sticky rather than liquid, which causes blood platelets to clump together. This inability of trans fats to disperse increases the chances of a blood clot causing poor circulation, strokes and heart attacks.

Natural fat burns at 100 ° F. When we bring the body temperature to 100 ° F or higher through exercise we burn fat. Death occurs in humans when the body temperature rises above 109 ° F, thus trans fats cannot be burned by the body because their melting point is 111 ° F. The only way to rid the body of trans fats is to detoxify them, which is far more difficult than simply burning them off through exercise.

Trans fats interfere with electrical conductivity in the body because of their odd shape. They can be compared to a spark plug that has too large of a gap that causes an engine to misfire. These odd shapes that don’t belong in the body interfere with energy flow because the precise structural configurations of trans fat molecules are radically altered beyond their natural state. This is why all drugs have side-effects and why any artificial substance we put in the body should be considered a toxin. They are oddly shaped, deformed molecules that interfere with natural functions in the body. Trans fats cause disease because of their unnatural molecular shapes and the drugs that are supposed to cure us only worsen our health for the same reason.

It is paramount that the molecular shape of substances we put the body match those that belong in the body. Nothing artificial exactly matches what is found in nature at a molecular level. The chemical formula may look the same on paper, but in reality we cannot reproduce anything exactly the way nature made it.

Trans fats interfere with the production of prostaglandin, which regulates blood pressure, kidney function, immune system response and blood clotting. They can lead to atherosclerosis by increasing cholesterol and blood-fat levels, in part because they interfere with EFAs nutritional effectiveness in the body. Trans fats have a tendency to collect in the brain because of its sponge-like quality. The damage of trans fats can potentially cause to the brain is immeasurable.”1

Currently, all that is required for a food label to contain are the words partially hydrogenated fats to inform the public that it contains trans fats. By 2006 all food labels will need to state clearly that they contain “Trans Fats”. In the meantime, the trend toward using trans fats is increasing throughout the food industry. Even processed food companies that have traditionally never added trans fats to their products have begun adding them. Pepperidge Farms , for example, has traditionally been regarded as high quality cookies that are made from only the finest ingredients. However, they have begun using trans fats in nearly all their products, apparently because they no longer care about quality and what their cookies are made out of and are more about increasing sales and making money. Dove products are another example of processed food companies buckling to the temptation of adding trans fats to their products. Dove Ò was once a company that prided itself on the high quality of their products, which gave them a stellar reputation.

“The fact that trans fatty acids interfere with vital functions of essential and other highly saturated fatty acids makes their involvement in cancer likely.”2

Trans fats are found in nearly 90% of the pre-packaged foods on the market. It is in all ready-to-bake cookies, dinner rolls and biscuits, pre-packaged cookies such as Oreo Cookies Ò most frozen pizzas, frozen breads such as Texas toast type products. Trans fats are found in nearly all frozen TV dinners and frozen snack foods. Because we are pressed for time with busy schedules, we resort to ready-made meals to make things easy on ourselves. To save a little time in the kitchen, we end up poisoning our bodies and leading ourselves down the path to disease.

For more information visit: www.bantransfats.com. It is a very informative website that will tell you everything you need to know about why you should avoid deadly trans fats.

1. Achieving Great Health , by Bob McCauley.

2. Fats that Heal. Fats that Kill , by Udo Erasmus, p111. 1986.

There are three pillars of Great Health. Most bodybuilders and other athletes work hard to obtain two of those health pillars, exercise and a positive mental attitude or motivation . By neglecting the first pillar, nutrition and water, we only destroy the very foundation of what we are trying to achieve: a healthy, sculpted, athletic body. We don’t obtain the perfect body we desire when we don’t eat a truly healthy diet. We cheat ourselves out of health and appearance.

Health and Bodybuilding

Until now, the worlds of bodybuilding and true health have not coincided. Bodybuilding today still revolves around various supplements such as creatine and whey protein. The body creates some of these substances through its natural processes. For instance, creatine is created by the body from amino acids. However, when we consume synthetic forms of these substances, the body may still use them to build muscle, but not without a cost to the body’s overall health. Some of these substances do not belong in the body whatsoever because they cause great detriment to our health. Whey protein, whether derived from a cow or goat, contains a protein structure that may appear on paper to be exactly what the body needs, but how the body handles it is an entirely different matter that causes severe imbalances in the body that can eventually lead to disease.

We can stay healthy and carve our bodies into the shape we want. To do this, we are use to pain and sacrifice, but to be truly healthy it takes a kind of sacrifice that most of us are not use to. Moving to the healthiest diet known will take more discipline than you can imagine because you will be required to change one of the most fundamental parts of your life, the diet you grew up with and are conditioned to believe is healthy. The diet we all live on is the cooked food diet, which leads to all disease.

Bodybuilders do two dangerously unhealthy things to themselves. They acidify and dehydrate their bodies. They acidify it through their diet and with exercise and then deliberately dehydrate it, especially before a competition, to make themselves look better. There is nothing worse for the body than acidifying and dehydrating it. It is why bodybuilders suffer from kidney, liver, heart disease, as well as a host of other health problems at such relatively young ages. None of these processes are natural nor are the diseases that result from them. We prematurely age ourselves with the cooked food diet, unnecessarily expose ourselves to disease and bodybuilders are more guilty of this than any other group of athletes. A hard working bodybuilder appears to be a picture of perfect health as his or her muscles ripple and flex. It is the human body sculpted into a work of art, but often that body is deteriorating within, rife with disease. It does not have to be this way.

My health protocol seeks to reverse the unhealthy things bodybuilders and other athletes do to themselves by opening their minds to the incredible world of natural foods, powerful nutraceuticals such as Spirulina and Chlorella and Ionized Water, the most important substance for our bodies.

Reverse Aging

We can reverse the aging process without hormone replacement or other artificial means. We can have the body that we had when we were in our twenties regardless of chronological age. We prematurely age ourselves, both internally and externally. Our faces show age more profoundly and at an earlier age when we acidify and dehydrate it. Bodybuilding is all about look and strength. When we move to the raw food diet, coupled with proper hydration of the body, we can have both the look we want and the health we deserve. When we talk about reversing the aging process, we are talking about reversing it biologically, not chronologically.

Building Bodies – The Problem of Protein

One of the nutrients the bodybuilding world currently revolves around is whey protein because its builds body mass. On paper, whey protein looks like a sensible, healthy choice. Unfortunately dairy products are one of the worst things we can possibly put in the body for a number of reasons. They create huge amounts of mucus in the body and the amino acid structure of whey protein throws the body completely out of homeostasis or balance. Specifically, the amino acid ratio is unbalanced, meaning that there is a large amount of one amino acid and not enough of others. This kind of imbalanced protein encourages disease more than anything else, which is why doctors often tell cancer patients to avoid meat and dairy because they know it will exacerbate the problem.

The Protein Solution

If we examine plant based amino acids, we find that they are naturally in the correct amino acid ratio to one another. Dairy products of any kind are wrong for the human body because are putting the milk and hormones of another species in our bodies. We are the only species to consume milk past infancy and the only species that consumes the milk of another species.

The Most Powerful Foods Known

Spirulina and Chlorella, two types of algae, are a superior source of protein for many reasons, including the fact that they alkalize the body instead of acidifying it the way animal protein does. These two foods are 60% protein, far higher than any other natural food. They have a full compliment of amino acids in the correct ratio to one another along with the broadest array of nutrients of any foods. They are both considered perfect foods. Although it would not be ideal, a person could live on either of them exclusively and be quite healthy. Bodybuilders must learn to use this type of plant protein as many have begun to do with great success. I work out everyday, running 3-7 miles along with upper body work. Since including these two superfoods in my diet, my stamina, recovery times and overall performance have improved dramatically.

Diet Plans We Should Fear

Traditional diet plans play around with the carbohydrate, fat and protein ratio of foods we consume. High fat, high protein diets allow the body to lose weight quickly, however they cause the body great harm and have even killed people. This happens because these diets meddle with the natural balance of protein, fats and carbohydrates that the body has evolved on over millions of years. When we tinker with it, the body falls out of homeostasis and opens itself up to all disease. One of the central components of the raw food diet is detoxification. Some people have complained that going on the raw food diet made them sick, but really it only detoxified the person, which gave them symptoms of disease such as headaches, rashes, diarrhea and fatigue. They were healing, but unfortunately mistook it for illness. Simply stated, toxins are substances that don’t belong in the body. There are very mild toxins and very dangerous toxins such as heavy metals. Disease lives on toxins and we create a toxic environment in the body by living on a cooked food diet. Raw foods detoxify the body in every way, just the opposite of what cooked foods do, which is deposit their toxins. As these toxins are removed, the diseases of the body leave with it because they have nothing to live on.

Which Water to Drink

It is difficult for the body to get water from any source other than water itself. Water is the centerpiece of health, yet most people ignore it completely. The single biggest health mistake most people make, including bodybuilders, is not drinking enough water everyday. We need to drink half our body weight in ounces every day just to replace the amount of water we lose. Unfortunately, most of us reach for something other than water when we are thirsty. Or we eat something to quench our thirst, which is even worse. We have conditioned ourselves not to drink water and this is the most dangerous thing we do to our health.

There is nothing more important for the body than water, however, most health and medical professionals know very little about water, nor do they promote it. I have been in the bottled water business since 1993. Most of the water sold in health food stores is purified, either through distillation or reverse osmosis, meaning that all the minerals have been removed from the water. Unfortunately there is nothing healthy about purified water. It acidifies the body, does not hydrate it well and leaches vital minerals from the body. Spring or mineral bottled water is usually good quality and is fine to drink. But the best water by far is Ionized Water. It is a powerful antioxidant that provides the body with lots of oxygen and therefore lots of energy. It is very alkaline, which helps to balance the body’s pH and bring it into homeostasis. This is critical because all disease lives in an acid environment in the body, but will not live in an alkaline environment. The size and shape of ionized water molecule clusters are very small, about half the size of conventional water molecule clusters, therefore it is extremely hydrating. And as it hydrates the body tissue better than it ever has before it pushes out all the things that don’t belong there, which are commonly known as toxins. Ionized Water is extremely detoxifying, which is why there are various levels of ionization strength on a water ionizer so we can begin drinking Ionized Water slowly and don’t detoxify too quickly.

Cooked Foods vs. Raw Foods

Cooked foods are poison. The first time I read that statement I thought it was ridiculous that anyone would believe that cooked foods are actually harmful to the human body. It took a few years of eating raw foods to actually understand how true that statement is. Cooked foods are an addiction that acidify the body and provides it with little, if any, nutrition. If you don’t believe they are an addiction, try going a single day without them. Only raw foods rejuvenate the body because they have enzymes and organic chemical substances that are not denatured, or destroyed, by cooking. Heat is a chemical reagent thus we are chemically scrambling and destroying the nutrients when we cook food. We find no evidence of chronic disease in the wild because animals don’t cook their food. In fact, we find of disease at all amongst animals until we domesticate and put them on a processed food diet at which point we begin to find every disease in them that we find in ourselves.

The Source of All Disease

Raw foods alkalize, detoxify and rejuvenate the body in every way. Cooked foods acidify and deposit toxins in the body, creating an environment that is conducive to disease. Disease only lives in a toxic environment. All disease stems from the cooked food diet and worst of all are processed and junks foods such as soft drinks and even breakfast cereals that many of us consider so healthy. Many people believe that disease is inherited, but what we really inherit is unhealthy dietary habits, eating certain foods, living a dietary lifestyle like that of our parents and it is these habits that give us the same diseases that our parents and siblings have.

How to Begin

The human body is capable of healing itself of any disease. The raw food diet is 100% successful in curing disease each and every time it’s tried. Moving to the raw food diet is a profound change in lifestyle and the move must be slow and deliberate. We must stop putting the wrong things in our bodies and start putting in the right things, which are the powerful raw foods that nature provides us with. One place to start is with a salad before each meal that grows in size each day and week and month while our cooked food meal that follows shrinks in size proportionally. There is a whole world of raw foods and amazing ways they can be prepared to taste wonderful that the vast majority of us are completely unaware of.

The New Health Paradigm

The same bland message is repeated to us year after year about health and bodybuilding by the same voices. The words of that message are juggled to sound different each time they are delivered, but it is the same message that serves more to confuse rather than educate us on what true health really is. The message of raw foods and the New Health Paradigm has never truly been given a proper forum to be heard. As athletes, I believe it is time we heard this message so we can get on with the important business of being healthy. No matter how great we may look, it is worthless if our bodies are not healthy.

The body is an incredible machine that can prevent and cure itself of any disease. It is a temple that we must honor by nourishing and building it to its greatest potential. Considering the escalating cost of health care that is spiraling out of control, the need to have this message heard in the mainstream is more critical now than ever. I personally don’t have health insurance and it is by choice. While I do have accident insurance in case something happens, I will never spend another dime on something I will never need, and that is a doctor.

The world of bodybuilding and fitness has two components of what we must do to Achieve Great Health, that of regular, strenuous exercise and having a positive mental attitude. We must discover the missing piece of the health puzzle, that of Ionized Water and raw nutrition. It is the new paradigm of true health where disease no longer exists. It is time this message is brought out of the fringes and into the mainstream.

By Bob McCauley

(Reprinted from Achieving Great Health – How Spirulina, Chlorella, Raw Foods and Ionized Water Can Make You Healthier than You Have Ever Imagined in 90 Days or Less )

“Life is a struggle, not against sin, not against money or power, not against malicious animal magnetism, but against hydrogen ions”

~ H.L. Mencken

No one has ever seen an ion although they have been studied extensively and found to be either helpful or harmful to our health depending on whether they are negatively or positively charged, which is determined by the amount of electrons they possess. A predominantly positive ion (cation) environment can be quite damaging to our health. A positive ion buildup frequently occurs in cold climates, especially in buildings with poor ventilation where pollutants can accumulate, which can lead to Sick Building Syndrome . In general, polluted environments are rich in positive ions. Positive ions are also produced by combustion, electronic equipment, synthetic materials such as clothing and plastics, and by the wind traveling over dry, barren land, as has been witnessed for thousands of years.

“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.”

An excessive positive ion environment encourages disease of every kind, including sinusitis, high blood pressure , allergies, asthma , respiratory diseases, depression , bacterial and viral disease, nausea, cancer , arthritis and mental instability. In fact, they assist all disease in the body at any stage by acidifying bodily terrain.

While positive ions acidify the body, negative ions have the opposite effect of alkalizing it. Negative ions are typically found in high concentrations near waterfalls, in pine forests, after electrical storms and by the seashore where they are produced by waves crashing onto the shore. The average household shower produces a substantial amount of negative ions , which is one of the reasons why people often feel better after showering.

Negative ions (anion) have been called bio-energy because of the healthy environment they create for all living creatures. The human body functions more efficiently and is much healthier in a negative ion environment.

Everything discussed in this book regarding health revolves around putting substances in the body that are negatively charged. For instance, Alkaline Ionized Water has a negative (-) ORP (-50 to -400mV), which counteracts the oxidation of the body. It also possesses an abundance of electrons (negatively charged subatomic particles) that act as free radical scavengers in the body. The minerals in the water that the electrons attach themselves to become negatively-charged mineral ions that the body more readily absorbs because of their charge. The electrons that attach themselves to oxygen molecules are called hydroxyl ions. Fresh raw foods are negatively charged and also possess an abundance of electrons and negative ions . The minerals in raw foods are absorbable by the body because they possess a negative ion charge or spin. Once oxidized, processed or cooked, all the negatively charged characteristics of the food are gone having been destroyed. Human health revolves around negatively charged particles, yet most of our activities remove them from our bodies and our environment.

Negative ions weigh much less than the positive ions that compose cooked foods, which is why cooked foods feel heavier in your stomach when you eat them. They are harder to digest because they lack the electrons that make food readily absorbable by the body. When we eat cooked foods, we are consuming hydrogen ions, which are positively charged and cause oxidation in the body, accelerated aging and disease of every kind.

North Pole (-) magnets change the spin of ions from positive to negative, which alkalizes the blood and allows the body to heal faster. Far-infrared waves also generate negative ions . Surrounding yourself in FIR waves while in a FIR sauna bathes the body in negative ions , thus creating a healthy, healing environment.

The air we breathe should also be filled with negative ions because of their cleansing and healing effects on the lungs. As negative ions enter the bloodstream, they perform their alkalizing magic on the blood itself. Positive ions have the opposite affect of acidifying the body and discouraging the body’s self-healing abilities. Negative ion generators pump trillions of ions per second into the air and restore its negative/positive ion balance. They are especially needed during the winter months when the air is dry and the doors and windows are shut. With the absence of leaves on the trees, a strong November wind will easily strip the negative ions out of the air because they are so much lighter than positive ions.

Nearly all airborne dust particles have a positive charge. Negative ion generators cleanse the air by pulling up to 90% of the dust out of it, much of which accumulates on the generator itself, which is why they are sometimes called dust collectors . As the air becomes filled with negative ions , the floor remains positively charged. This causes dust to be pulled toward the floor as particles begin to magnetically clump together. Negative ion generators have many commercial and industrial applications where dust and other airborne debris are a problem, such as farms, mills and other dust-laden work environments.

Negative ions reduce bacteria and viruses in the air. They help the body heal more rapidly, by stimulating healthy cellular growth. Mental concentration increases in a negative ion environment, enhancing meditation practices of all kinds. Long distance drivers often use negative ions generators to help them stay mentally alert.

lacing ourselves in a negative ion environment

Refers to a set of symptoms that affect some of a building’s occupants during the time they spend in the building that diminish or disappear after they leave the building. SBS cannot be traced to specific pollutants or sources within the building. Symptoms are headaches, dry or itchy skin, dizziness and nausea, eye, nose, and throat irritation, a dry cough, difficulty in concentrating and fatigue.

Regimen II , by Hippocrates , father of medicine. circa 400 B.C. Chapters 37-38.

Jones DP, O’Connor SA, Collins JV, et al. Effect of long-term ionized air treatment on patients with bronchial asthma . Thorax 1976;31(4):428–32.

Gualtierotti R, Solimene U, Tonoli D. Ionized air respiratory rehabilitation techniques . Minerva Medica 1977;68:3383–9.

The Ion Effec t, byFred Soyka and Alan Edmonds Bantam, 1977 [review].

Effect of negative air ionization on ambient particulates in a hatching cabinet . Mitchell W. Bailey TEKTRAN, United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. SE Poultry Research; Athens , GA 1997.

Use of Negative Air Ionization for Reducing Bacterial Pathogens and Spores on Stainless Steel Surfaces. Arnold, Judy Boothe, Dorothy Mitchell, B. – USDA/ARS SEP. Journal Of Applied Poultry Research. January, 2004

I was already drinking a gallon of water everyday and did not have a poor diet (I was a vegetarian) so I did not suffer the detoxification effects of Ionized Water, which are extremely powerful, but won’t be noticed by those who are not toxic. I drank it at the highest (strongest) level and I drank at least a gallon everyday. At present, I drink nearly two gallons everyday and, honestly, have never felt better in my life.

Since I was not ill at the time and had no chronic disease, I cannot claim that Ionized Water cured me of anything. Ionized Water is best used as a preventative health measure, a tool that can be utilized to keep you in the best health possible.

Some of the things I have noticed over the last eight years of drinking Ionized Water is an overall increase in stamina and recovery times after exercising. I have noticed this especially during and after running. I run 2-6 miles everyday as I have for years. My stamina has increased 25-30% and my recovery time has decreased a proportional amount. I never get sore joints; in particular my knees have not given me any trouble since I started drinking Ionized Water. I surmise from this that the accumulated acid waste has been washed from my joints for the most part. I am also far more limber than I was before, thus I find it much easier to stretch than I ever have before.

Colds and the flu have completely disappeared from my life since I began drinking Ionized Water. If I do feel a little something coming on, such as a sore throat, I find that drinking a few extra glasses of Ionized Water helps put it at bay quickly. It is my contention that if people were to simply drink enough water and keep their bodies properly hydrated, 60%-80% of the chronic disease in our society would disappear.

Since my brain and cranial fluids are always sufficiently hydrated, I think much clearer now. This is crucial because the brain uses 80% of every sip of water you take! Ionized Water provides the body with lots of oxygen, much of which will be used by the brain to function properly. Thus, the clarity of my thought processes have definitely improved.

1. The first thing that Ionized Water does to the body when a person begins drinking it is flush out the digestive track. People often comment how often they have to go to the bathroom when they first start drinking Ionized Water. The smaller water molecule cluster size cleanses the lining of the digestive track and hydrates the body tissue better than any other water. As it does so, it forces out toxins and this can lead to diarrhea, rashes and other detoxification symptoms. The more toxins that are accumulated in the body, the more profound the effects of Ionized Water. Water ionizers have several levels of strength so one can begin drinking at a weak level and then increase as they get use to it.
2. I have reduced acid levels in the body and balanced my overall body pH, which is not measured through the blood, but through the urine or saliva. But this did not happen overnight. I did not get into the shape I was in, which was not at all bad, but I was not about to correct it in every way overnight. Years of accumulated acid waste in the joints and throughout the body takes years to completely undue. And a large part will depend on your diet as to how quickly you will rid the body of acid waste.
3. I have increased my blood oxygen level and my energy level at the same time. Oxygen is a nutrient that can saturate the blood, but cannot be stored. Thus it is crucial that we constantly provide our bodies with sufficient oxygen. Oxygen carries nutrients around the body, provides us with energy and kills bacteria, viruses, even cancer cells. 100 million years ago the atmosphere of the Earth contained 30% more oxygen than it does today. We evolved in a higher oxygen environment than we find ourselves today, partly due to pollution, partly due to natural changes between the Earth and the Sun. Ionized Water is a great source of oxygen. The oxygen that is derived from Ionized Water arrives in the form of a very potent antioxidant, which has an extra electron. The oxygen from Ionized Water comes from the hydroxyl ions that are produced when the water is run over positive and negative electrodes and there is an exchange of ions. This hydroxyl ion is an oxygen molecule that carries an extra electron which is donated to a free radical (an oxygen molecule that has only one electron). What remains are two stabilized oxygen molecule; a higher blood oxygen level is the result.
4. Ionized Water has bathed my body in the negatively charged liquid, which promotes rejuvenation at a cellular level. All RAW fruits and vegetables have a negative charge or ORP (oxidation reduction potential). Anything that is oxidizing, such as metal has a positive charge. Our bodies are constantly being attacked by oxidation; the older we are, the higher the charge (ORP) is. When we drink negatively charged substances such as Ionized Water, this oxidation is retarded and our body’s cells are allowed to rejuvenate. This is known as Reverse Aging because it allows the body to rejuvenate at a cellular level. We do not become young in physical years. If we are 40 years old, we do not become 20, but we have the body of a 20-year-old person at a cellular level. This means that the cells that make up our body are as active, productive, communicative and functional as those of a 20 year old person. However, achieving this would not be possible if you only drank Ionized Water; in conjunction with that did not move toward a more Raw Foods, away from cooked and processed foods and put Spirulina and Chlorella at the center of your diet. The Whole Food Raw Diet is the only way to achieve true health, Great Health!
5. I know that overall my body is much better hydrated than it ever has been since Ionized Water is up to six times more hydrating than conventional water. I am much more sensitive to being dehydrated than I use to be. For example, I become aware that my body needs water after only an hour or so of not drinking any. Simply by keeping my body constantly hydrated, I am accomplishing many things I wish to regarding my health. By staying hydrated we help stave off disease better than anything else we do. My blood is never too thin or too thick because of lack of water. My organs function as optimally as can be expected because they are not starved for water. I do not retain salt, nor do I have thin blood and high blood pressure because I drink enough water, especially Ionized Water.

The effects of Ionized Water on the human body are profound, yet subtle. Ionizing Water does not change the taste of the water rather the “feel” of it. By that, I mean that ionizing water makes it smoother by changing the size and shape of the water molecule clusters. Conventional water molecules group together in clusters of 10-12 molecules. Ionizing water breaks the molecule clusters in half so they form a group of 5-6 water molecules, thus they are smaller in size and more penetrating.

What YOU can expect from drinking Ionized Water

Consuming Ionized Water can and will benefit everyone. You will definitely get all the effects discussed above: a negatively charged substance, a free radical scavenger, more oxygen in the body, a balanced body pH, better hydration and detoxification. If you drink Ionized Water the way I drink it, strong and in abundance, you will see the same benefits I do. However, remember that your body is different from mine and everyone else’s, thus the effect of Ionized Water on your body will be different than it was on mine. It will depend on your historical diet and your current diet, how much water your currently drink, how much you exercise, how stressful your life is and how much medicine you both historically and currently take.

Scientific Evidence

There is not a lot of hard scientific evidence concerning Ionized Water for simple reasons. Scientific evidence, real scientific evidence, is expensive and difficult to recoup costs. The Japanese have done many studies on Ionized Water but they are not willing to release them plus the translation would be costly. However, ionization itself is not a great mystery and a great deal is known about what happens when water is ionized. Fundamentally, ionization causes a transfer of electrons between molecules, which is on the surface quite a simple process, however is very complicated upon deeper investigation. The articles below shed light on the ionization process and what makes water so valuable to the human body.

1. Dr. Young promotes the consumption of fish, which is a problem for two reasons. First, almost everyone cooks the fish they eat. Cooked foods acidify the body and lead to nearly all disease. However, even if fish is consumed raw such as with sushi, it has become extremely laden with heavy metals, in particular mercury. The US pumps 40 million tons of methyl-mercury into the atmosphere, China over 300 million tons and Russia reportedly even more. Because of this, mercury has accumulated in fish, especially larger species such as Tuna, Albacore, Sword and Shark. Heavy metals are replete throughout our environment, having accumulated because of industrialization over the last 200 years. Cooked animal protein is one of the leading causes of disease. Eating raw meat, fish, eggs and dairy is not a health hazard as long as it is organic, non-medicated and disease free. The higher we eat on the food chain, the more concentrated the toxins we consume because animals have hundreds and sometimes thousands of meals that contain toxins that become concentrated in the flesh of the fish, animal or the milk and eggs they produce. When we consume animal flesh, we are consuming those concentrated toxins found in the animals. Because of these reasons, I would never suggest anyone eat fish.
2. Dr. Young promotes a diet that is only 80% raw, 20% cooked. He offers many cooked food recipes in the back of his book, something I would never do. People don’t need to be tempted with cooked foods, nor instructed on how to make them in delicious ways. Of course, I want people to be eat as many raw foods as they possibly can. If someone is only able reach 20% raw foods in their diet, it is better than nothing. On the other hand, I encourage everyone to strive for a diet of 100% raw foods. Most of us won’t reach that goal. It has taken me many years of hard work to reach a 99% raw food diet. When I first started eating raw foods, I believed that 20% of our diet should be comprised of cooked foods, mostly starchy carbohydrates such as rice or potatoes. But after four years of eating that way, I eventually realized that chronic disease does not exist in the wild not because those animals who live disease free do so on a 100% raw food diet, not 80%. There are others who promote less than a 100% raw food diet, but they do so in ignorance. Or perhaps they want to rationalize their inability to reach a 100% raw food diet. It is very difficult to achieve that goal, but that is no excuse for promoting anything less. It may appear to be a practical approach to encourage people to eat cooked foods, but that will only encourage and sustain their addiction to cook foods. It is no different than offering an alcoholic a beer occasionally because you think they need it. Giving an alcoholic a drink is encouraging alcoholism in that person and suggesting anyone eat cooked foods is telling them to engage in an activity that prematurely ages us and leads to all disease. If you do suggest anyone eat cooked foods under any circumstances, then you are an enabler. People often will ask me which cooked foods are healthy and I answer that none of them are. And as to which raw foods are healthy, they all are, which is why I promote a 100% raw food diet and attempt to eat that way each and every day.
3. Dr. Young states that “spirulina and algae supplements . . . thrive in acid conditions and . . . are the scum you see growing on the surface of stagnant ponds and lakes.” While you may find algae mixed with scum growing on a pond, it is not scum itself and should not be confused with it. There are over 70,000 species of algae and most are quite nutritious. I quite often hear nutritionists and dietitians refer to algae as pond scum and it demonstrates a profound ignorance about some of the most powerful foods on Earth. They regurgitate this ignorance of the facts because that is what they are taught during their college years and they have never bothered to research it themselves. It does not take a lot of research to discover the truth about the miraculous health properties of certain species of algae. Dr. Young also states that algae are drawn from natural sources such as lakes. All the Spirulina and Chlorella found on the market is grown in a controlled environment in ponds and not harvested in lakes such as Klamath Blue Green Algae, which is sold under various brand names. He also states that the vitamin B12 derived from algae is “made by bacteria that get into the algae via bird feathers and droppings. ” Spirulina and Chlorella naturally contain the entire vitamin B-Complex, including B-12. The body will not easily assimilate vitamin B-12 when it is not consumed from a natural food that contains the entire vitamin B-Complex, such as Spirulina and Chlorella. Dr. Young also suggests that broccoli and algae are equally nutritious, which is an absurd notion. “Fortunately, a day’s dose of algae differs little from a serving of organic broccoli, so you can reap the benefits without facing the risks.” A nutritional analysis of broccoli will show it to be a food that contains a very narrow range of enzymes and other organic chemical nutrients that are particular to that food. Nutritional analyses of either Spirulina or Chlorella reveal them to be the two most nutritional foods known. They contain the broadest array of nutrients and are the most nutritionally dense foods known. They also happen to be the two most scientifically researched foods in human history.
4. Dr. Young also promotes the consumption of soy. Soy is rarely consumed raw unless it is sprouted. Nearly all soybeans are eaten after they are processed into tofu, textured protein or fermented into foods such as tempeh. Once you have cooked or processed any food, you have altered its natural chemical structure. Heat is a chemical reagent that radically alters anything it comes in contact with, including the foods we consume. The energy footprint of soy is unlike any other food we commonly consume. All raw foods contain negatively spinning ions, which are advantageous to our health and in fact are an absolute necessity if we want to be healthy. However, soy contains positively spinning ions, which are counter productive to our health, as are all positively charged particles. There are plenty of other problems with soy and its negative effects on the body, such as it produces a lot of gas for many who consume it. Other digestive problems often disappear when soy is removed from their diet, including infants. Processed soy products are rich in phytohemaglutinin (PHG), a glue-like substance that unbalances body chemistry, slows circulation and thickens the blood, numbing the immune and nervous systems. Enzyme inhibitors found in soy interfere with the action of trypsin, a digestive enzyme that breaks down protein. Soy also contains goitrogens, which suppress thyroid functions; phytic acid, which can block the absorption of essential minerals such as calcium, copper, magnesium, iron and zinc in the intestinal tract. The high amount of manganese found in soy-based infant formulas, 200 times that of breast milk, can cause brain damage in babies and a slowing of brain functions in children. One study concluded that the last thing women should do to prevent breast cancer is to consume soy. Another study showed accelerated brain aging in those who regularly consumed soy. Women who are pregnant should avoid soy because of the risk of breast cancer. Soy has also been linked to pancreatic cancer. Soy can slow sexual performance because isoflavones interfere with estrogen function. In one major study, Asian men who ate tofu increased their chances of getting Alzheimer’s Disease. “Soy can be used as a transition food to move away from meat and other animal protein to plant protein, that of Spirulina and Chlorella. But once that bridge has been crossed, it must be burned and soy should be completely avoided.”
5. Lastly Dr. Young offers rather confusing advice regarding the most important component of human health, that of water. “Getting liberal amounts of alkaline water (having a pH between 9 and 11) neutralizes stored acid wastes and, if consumed every day in conjunction with a good diet, gently removes the acids from the body.” This is essentially true and I agree with Dr. Young, although I don’t recommend drinking water with a pH over 9.9 because it has become too caustic at that level. Ironically, Dr. Young promotes consuming purified water produced by distillation or reverse osmosis. He claims: “Distilled water comes closest to rain water, which, if our atmosphere wasn’t so polluted, would be the ideal source of water.” Distilled water is not anything like rain water. Rain water is full of oxygen and crystallizes into snow flakes unlike distilled water which has no crystalline structure. Dr. Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, first introduced the concept of micro-cluster water molecule clusters. Using Magnetic Resonance Analysis, he demonstrated that water which had been distilled, polluted or passed through the body after consumption had lost its structure or inner order. It has been changed beyond its natural structure the same way cooking foods changes the natural chemical structure of food. The water found in plants is quite similar to distilled water in its purity. However, when we consume a plant such as a carrot, we do not only consume the water, but the whole plant as well, thus the water is buffered by the alkaline nature of minerals and enzymes of the plant. But to extract that water and consume it without neutralizing its purity and acidic nature, our body becomes the buffering agent and alkaline minerals are leached from it. I have written extensively in both my books about the dangers of drinking purified water. “[purified] water – like rainwater—have more oxygen atoms or hydroxyl ions (OH-), and fewer hydrogen ions (H+). More hydrogen makes water acidic.” Purified water is acidic, yet Dr. Young prescribes drinking both purified and alkaline water. Ionized Water and purified water are the exact opposite from one another in every way. Purified water is acid; Ionized Water is alkaline. Purified water leaves the body dehydrated; Ionized Water is extremely hydrating. Purified water leaches minerals from the body; Ionized Water provides minerals to the body. Purified water does not provide the body with oxygen; Ionized Water does. Purified water does not scavenge for free radicals; Ionized Water does. Purified water encourages oxidation of the body; Ionized Water reduces oxidation. On the other hand, Dr. Young seems to promote ionized water and even helps promote a water ionizer.

If Dr. Young wishes to be considered someone who promotes true health, he needs to re-examine some of the basic tenants of his ideas about health, particularly those I have outlined in this article.

_____________________________________________________________________
Endnotes:

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Time Warner Book Group. 2000. Pg. 120.

Mercury In Your Fish, by Ken Cook, President of the Environmental Working Group.

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Pgs. 117 – 118.

Ibid. Pgs. 86 – 87.

Ibid. Pg. 87.

Ibid. Pg. 87.

Ibid. Pgs. 63 – 64.

Phytohemaglutinin: Phyto=Sun hema=blood + glutin=glue or blood glue.

Nutritional status and phytate: zinc and phytate X calcium: zinc dietary molar ratios of lacto-ovovegetarian Trappist monks: 10 years later, Journal of the American Dietetic Association 88:1562-1566, December 1988.

Dietary estrogens stimulate human breast cells to enter the cell cycle. Dees, C. et al., Environmental Health Perspectives (1997) 105(Suppl. 3):633-636.

Dr. Lon White, Honolulu Heart Program. 1965-1993.

Oncol Rep 1999 Sep-Oct;6(5):1089-95.

The USDA trypsin inhibitor study. I. Background, objectives and procedural details Rackis, Joseph J. et al., Qualification of Plant Foods in Human Nutrition, vol. 35, 1985.

Heather Patisaul et al, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. 2003. Study done with rats produced blood levels of the isoflavones similar to those in women regularly taking the supplements.

White LR, Petrovich H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Association of mid-life consumption of tofu with late life cognitive impairment and dementia: the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study. Fifth International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease, #487, 27 July 1996, Osaka, Japan.
White LR, Petrovitch H, Ross GW, Masaki KH, Hardman J, Nelson J, Davis D, Markesbery W, Brain aging and midlife tofu consumption. J Am Coll Nutr 2000 Apr;19(2):242-55.
ACHIEVING GREAT HEALTH. How Spirulina, Chlorella, Raw Foods and Ionized Water Can Make You Healthier than You Have Ever Imagined In 90 Days or Less, by Bob McCauley. Pg. 52 – 54.

The pH Miracle, Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Dr. Robert Young. Pgs. 92 – 95.

Ibid. Pg. 94.

Effects of alkaline ionized water on formation & maintenance of osseous tissues, by Rei Takahashi Zhenhua Zhang Yoshinori Itokawa (Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Dept. of Pathology and Tumor Biology, Fukui Prefectural University).

Bob McCauley

“Dr Benjamin Frank, author of The No-Aging Diet, suggests that human RNA/DNA production slows down progressively as people age, resulting in lower levels of vitality and increased vulnerability to various diseases. He recommended a diet rich in nucleic acids to counter this “aging” process. Current levels by laboratory analysis shows 3% RNA and 0.3% DNA in Chlorella which would make it one of the highest known food substances in nucleic acids…..When our RNA and DNA are in good repair and able to function most efficiently, our bodies are able to use nutrients more effectively, get rid of toxins and avoid disease. Cells are able to repair themselves and the energy level and vitality of the whole body is raised….Dr Frank had thought that brewer’s yeast was the highest RNA food but then he found out sardines were 10 times higher (with 343mg per 100 grams). Chlorella is 10 times higher than sardines with 3g RNA per 100 grams….Eating foods high in nucleic acids provides the material for the repair and production of human nucleic acids, and it is the breakdown of DNA and RNA in the cells that is believed to be one of the main factors in aging and degenerative diseases.” – Dr Bernard Jensen,D.O.,Ph.D.

Chlorella – The sun-powered supernutrient and its beneficial properties

“Since Chlorella Growth Factor is so effective in stimulating growth in human beings and beefing up the immune system to fight off various diseases, Dr Bernard Jensen and other researchers have wondered whether or not Dr Frank’s pioneering work on aging might apply to Chlorella….Dr Frank found that his treatment actually did help his patients regain energy and a more youthful appearance. In addition, long-standing problems with arthritis, memory loss and depression began to abate.” – William H. Lee, R. Ph., Ph.D. and Michael Rosenbaum, M.D.

Subscribe To My Blog

“Immunology is the study of the immune system; the body’s mechanisms developed to fight off foreign invaders, whether they be bacteria, viruses, chemicals or foreign proteins. The body’s defenses have a unique way of inactivating or detoxifying each of these types of substances. B cells are active in fighting against bacteria; T cells are active against viruses and cancer; macrophages are active against cancer, foreign proteins and chemicals. Interferon is a natural secretion of the body and is thought to be a physiological stimulator of macrophages….Many more studies also demonstrate that Chlorella stimulates the immune system by way of macrophage stimulation.” – Dr David Steenblock,B.S.,M.Sc.,D.O.

Chlorella – The sun-powered supernutrient and its beneficial properties

“Antitumor activity linked to stimulation of immune elements was demonstrated in experiments reported to a 1985 immunology conference in France. The researchers concluded that the chlorella derivatives used enhanced macrophage activity and the cell-destroying ability of certain lymphocytes….In humans, immune system resistance to cold viruses was shown in a group of approximately 1,000 Japanese sailors in 1971. Roughly half the men got two grams of chlorella a day, the others none. At the end of the three month cruise, the untreated sailors had had 41% more colds than the chlorella takers. Chlorella contains 180mg of beta-carotene in each 100 grams. Beta-carotene has the greatest vitamin A activity and antioxidant activity of all the known carotenoids…The immune system is as susceptible as any other system in the body to free radical damage…Extracts of algae were also studied and were shown to be more effective than beta-carotene alone.” - William H. Lee,R.Ph., Ph.D. and Michael Rosenbaum, M.D.

Chlorella, Jewel of the Far East

“I feel that chlorella’s main contribution to the body’s natural defense system is its beneficial supportive effects on so many of the organs and systems, especially the immune system and eliminative channels…..in 1957, Dr Tadechi and his associates in Japan found that chlorella promoted rapid growth of lactobacillus, one of the bacteria that promotes colon health. The chlorophyll in chlorella helps to keep the bowel clean, while the tough cellulose membrane of chlorella (which is not digested) binds to the cadmium, lead and other heavy metals and carries them out of the body. The CGF stimulates repair of tissue damage. To summarize, chlorella restores bowel regularity, normalizes beneficial bowel flora, assists in detoxifying the bowel and stimulates repair of damaged, broken down tissue.” - Dr Bernard Jensen,D.O.,Ph.D.

Chlorella

“A combined report, from researchers at the University of Kanazawa, Japan, and of Taipei in Taiwan, was presented at an International Congress at Reims, France in 1985. It dealt with the anti-tumor effect of chlorella and the strengthening of the immune system. In several studies on mice, tumors had been overcome by inoculation with derivatives of chlorella cells; this was considered to be due to the increased strength of their immune systems, resulting from the chlorella administered.” – Special Edition of Health World Magazine 1989

Subscribe To My Blog