Day 40 – Hack Rant

Having messaged Donia Alawi of Eczema Natural Healing I got an email back today that I’ve found quite provocative, and, dear reader, here’s why.

Ever since a Computing teacher at school showed me this absolutely fantastic demonstration of why you should be careful what you read on the internet (and what you read anywhere, for that matter), I have been a naturally cynical person. I am especially cynical about things I read from people who have something for sale, and think this is a good rule of thumb generally. Another strong memory I have: when I was younger me and this guy were debating whether chillies are good or bad for your general health, and we Googled it. The website I found made a decent case for chillies being *good* for your health, and the first thing the guy asked was whether the website was American or not. He came up with the (possibly racist?) accusation that all American websites are not to be trusted because they are all trying to sell you something.

As it happened – the website was not American, and we both continued with our lives having decided that chillies are probably not such a bad thing to have in one’s diet.

Now, WHY is this all relevant to Ms. Alawi? Well – her email to me ended with this punchline:

“The supplement program I will recommend for you will help get your digestive system functioning better. If the intestinal tract works better, then it will remove any burden off the liver.  When the liver and intestinal tract work better in eliminating metabolic toxins, the skin will no longer have eczema.”

To get going on the supplement programme Donia suggests I “get started” on “four products to help the digestive system to work better (probiotics and enzymes) and a whole food product (the micro algae) to nourish the body.” All of which come to $180. There’s a $36 Algae Lotion she also recommends.

So there’s definitely a commercial interest here. Suffice to say I won’t be buying any of the probiotics and enzymes for the moment. The problem is that this taints some of the following other information Donia gives, some/all of which may be very useful. Stuff like:

– Hydrocortisone doesn’t wash out of your body every time you use it, but is stored there as fat. I can feel my dermatologist wincing (he actually loves steroids), but I’m not put off yet.

– “The main cause of allergies is a leaky gut which means that your foods are not digested well and leak out of your gut so your immune system reacts to such food particles as if they are foreign molecules.  When your immune system becomes hyper, you develop allergies.  Allergies lead to eczema.  Eczema is always the body’s attempt to use skin to detoxify from toxic metabolic waste because the liver and digestive system are not doing their job properly.” – Phew! Big talk. I can feel Ben Goldacre’s wrath at the door, but note that Goldacre has seemingly never approached the eczema subject head on (cowardice?). My dermatologist has probably passed out. I have no fucking idea what to think about this.

– “Sugars in fruits do not raise blood sugar or feed Candida.  Sugars from fruits and veggies have enzymes attached to them and all the other co-factors needed to produce energy in the body.  Energy is produced efficiently from sugars in fruits.  Fruits also have fiber in them.  Therefore, these sugars are absorbed through the hepatic pathway from the small intestine and they end up in the liver to be processed further.  The liver will store the sugars and put glucose back into the blood only when needed.  The sugars in fruits are perfect to create energy and they NEVER raise blood sugar levels as long as you eat the fruit whole and raw.” – More scientific detail. Hmmm. A real, proper scientist at the wedding I attended on Day 35 told me that a common test for diabetes is to starve the patient for 12 hours, give them a glass of orange juice, and observe how their body responds to the sugar rush. I’m almost certain that orange juice causes a peak in blood sugar, and am therefore unable to believe the rest of this paragraph.

– “Microwave changes the molecular structure of foods and water so anything that is heated by a microwave becomes toxic to the body.” – Having widely read about the safety of microwaved foods I am pretty convinced they are every bit as safe as oven-cooked foods, and believe that the nutritional content is possibly superior. I then pay little attention to the next sentence: “The violent change that microwaving causes to the food molecules creates new life forms called radiolytic compounds.” etc.

The email ends:

“
Wishing you extraordinary health,
Donia
Organics USA, Inc.
206-522-2422
“

Well my suspicious hack-o-meter has gone up to 11, I’m sorry to say.

Let me try and sum this up – the reason I’ve opted to go against all my normal instincts and defy my NHS dermatologist is precisely because there seemed to be enough evidence that he is, or might be, part of some Kafka-esque pharmaceutical company supply chain desperate to peddle steroids to anyone unfortunate enough to have eczema. Although there is plenty that Donia says, with relation to diet etc, that I can get on board with, I can’t shake that feeling I’m being sold something – in exactly the same way as the dermatologist was selling me something. And, even worse, being sold something the American Way, with all the emotive language, eczema-porno images, and shock factor you’d expect. This, you’d probably agree, completely destroys the independent anti-establishment vibe of her website, complete with plenty of what I’d call eczema-porn.

Well, after my use of the (absolute weakest) steroid yesterday my skin has totally calmed down today and I’m feeling pretty dam good. Because of the impossibility of eating anything else where I am at the moment, I’ve eaten cow’s yoghurt and loads of white bread (although I must say it’s fresh, high quality white bread) and so far don’t seem to have noticed any ill effects. I say – long may that continue. Next time my skin goes into disaster mode perhaps I’ll be reaching for the phone to beg for some Algae supplements, but I hope I will just keep a level head and keep looking at my triggers in a peaceful and level-headed way.

I’m still delighted that I haven’t used anything stronger than Hydrocortisone Ointment 1% for well over a month now.

Below is all the information Donia sent.

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Cortisone doesn’t wash out of your body every time you use it.  Cortisone builds up in your body fat, as it is a primary site for toxic accumulation.  So the more cortisone you take or apply, the more it gets to be incorporated into the fat tissue and the worse eczema will be when you stop using it on your skin.  When you improve your diet, and take the whole food supplements I recommend the body will release the cortisone into the bloodstream.  This is why your eczema will get worse before it gets better in the initial stages of healing.

You should google Red Skin Syndrome to learn about side effects of steroids.

Elidel and Protopic are two creams that now carry with them very strong warnings to alert consumers that the drugs may increase the risk of some forms of cancer.  The more drugs you use the more the eczema will come back with a vengence and worse when you stop using the drugs.

–

All eczema patients have increased levels of histamine. This is the main reason leading to intense skin itching and sometimes hives.  Understanding why the body increases histamine levels may convince you NOT to use antihistamine drugs.

If you need further information about the topic of Histamine email me back and I will send you a detailed article.

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You can’t have eczema without having allergies.  Food allergies come first, followed by environmental allergies. The main cause of allergies is a leaky gut which means that your foods are not digested well and leak out of your gut so your immune system reacts to such food particles as if they are foreign molecules.  When your immune system becomes hyper, you develop allergies.  Allergies lead to eczema.  Eczema is always the body’s attempt to use skin to detoxify from toxic metabolic waste because the liver and digestive system are not doing their job properly.  

Fruits are sources of energy for the body.  Healing requires a lot of energy so fruits are very important component in the whole food diet I recommend to heal.  Your body doesn’t make energy efficiently from high fat and high protein foods.  Therefore, you need to eat a lot of fruits at least 4 to 5 types of each a day (smoothie/or eat whole). 

Sugars in fruits do not raise blood sugar or feed Candida.  Sugars from fruits and veggies have enzymes attached to them and all the other co-factors needed to produce energy in the body.  Energy is produced efficiently from sugars in fruits.  Fruits also have fiber in them.  Therefore, these sugars are absorbed through the hepatic pathway from the small intestine and they end up in the liver to be processed further.  The liver will store the sugars and put glucose back into the blood only when needed.  The sugars in fruits are perfect to create energy and they NEVER raise blood sugar levels as long as you eat the fruit whole and raw.

Allergies means that you don’t have the proper enzymes or friendly bacteria in your gut to break down food particles.  As a result many pieces of foods like bread or pasta escape from your gut before they get digested properly into the blood and the immune system will then react to such pieces of foods as if they were foreign molecules and will send anti bodies to remove them from the blood.  This is called an allergic reaction.  And yes eczema doesn’t happen unless the body has already many types of allergies. Usually environmental allergies develop after food allergies. To address allergies, you simply need to work with effective enzymes and probiotics to break down your cooked and processed foods and allergies will disappear.  

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Try as hard as you can to eat your fresh fruits and veggies from organic sources.  Not only do you avoid the toxins sprayed on these foods, but also these foods have very little nutrients in them since only a few types of minerals are added to the synthetic fertilizer.

Commercially grown fruits and vegetables are not as nutrient rich as the organic ones and that is one of the biggest negatives.  The soil where these vegetables are grown has only 4 types of nutrients that are added back to it vs. naturally fertilized soil, which has 40+ types of minerals and trace elements.  And of course you have the toxins from all the sprays and preservatives that are applied during growing and harvesting seasons.  Some people say to wash the produce with vinegar.  But I don’t think anything can reduce the toxic stuff on these vegetables and fruits.  

–

Microwave changes the molecular structure of foods and water so anything that is heated by a microwave becomes toxic to the body. 

The violent change that microwaving causes to the food molecules creates new life forms called radiolytic compounds. These are mutations that are unknown in the natural world. Ordinary cooking also causes the formation of some radiolytic compounds, which is no doubt one reason why it is better to eat plenty of raw food, but microwave cooking causes a much greater number of these compounds.

This then causes deterioration of the blood and immune system. In addition, they found that the number of leucocytes increases after eating microwaved food-something which hematologists take very seriously, because this is often a sign of highly harmful effects, such as poisoning. Also, after eating microwave food, cholesterol levels increased.

Please do not even heat water in a microwave oven.  From the studies of the late Freeman Cope (MD and biochemist) and others, it has been shown that water is “structured”.  This structure is altered in the electromagnetic environment of the microwave oven.

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For cold preparations like salad dressings, use only cold pressed olive oil and for cooking use raw coconut oil or ghee, which is clear butter.

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Tap water is highly toxic.  You want to see what’s toxic about it then do this experiment. To test tap water, pour in a white bowl the water you want to test, about 1/2 of the bowl.  Let it evaporate naturally (takes about 2 weeks).  Do it one more time.  Then see what residue is left in the bowl once the water is evaporated.  If the bowl is still white, then the water is clean.  If the bowl has discoloration, then you don’t want to use that water. The discoloration is usually chemical residue.

I would highly suggest that you drink spring water, and hopefully your grocery carries good quality spring such as Fiji or Evian water. 

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Tea is a mild stimulant and it does have some health benefits, providing we do not drink too much of it.  Green, oblong and black tea are made from the leaves of the same plant.  The process of making teas darker reduces, but does not remove, their health value.

How much to drink?  Tea varies widely in its content of tannins and other flavonoids, with green tea highest, followed by oblong, then black.  Adding milk to tea inactivates some of the protective tannins.

Don’t drink too much tea.  Drink tea once in a while,  not daily.  Drinking too much tea is counterproductive.  Excess fluoride mottles the teeth and excess caffeine hurts the liver. All tea drunk with meals reduces the absorption of iron from food.

The best type of teas are made from fresh ingredients.  For example hot water, fresh lemon and honey.  Other types of fresh teas are mint, fennel, ginger, caraway and anise.

–

Your diet is still acidic.  When you learn about the importance of the acid/alkaline concept in keeping the body healthy, you’ll know how to use foods to reverse eczema and most other degenerative conditions.  Fruits and vegetables are alkaline foods. Alkaline means high mineral content in foods, which is so important in the healing of the skin.  By adding high mineral foods to your diets, eczema can be reversed.  Your diet should be 70% fruits and veggies (breakfast and dinner is your raw meals made of fruits and vegetables) and 30% acidic (lunch is your cooked meal).  A good book to read on this topic is “Your Health, Your Choice” by Dr. Ted Morter, Jr.

The supplement program I will recommend for you will help get your digestive system functioning better. If the intestinal tract works better, then it will remove any burden off the liver.  When the liver and intestinal tract work better in eliminating metabolic toxins, the skin will no longer have eczema.

Here are the supplements I will recommend to get you started on:

• Acidophilus micro-blended with organic micro algae (probiotics).  $25.00
• Bifidus micro-blended with organic micro algae (probiotics).  $25.00
• Enzymes micro-blended with organic micro algae to help with digesting foods.   $36.00
• Proteolytic enzymes to help reduce inflammation and itching.  $64
• Wild crafted micro algae to nourish the body with vitamins and minerals.  $30
• Algae Lotion to help nourish the skin & reduce itching.  $36.00

Right now four products to help the digestive system to work better (probiotics and enzymes) and a whole food product (the micro algae) to nourish the body.

Later on I will recommend other products to further the detoxification process like different algae, wild mushrooms and CoQ10 as antioxidants for the health of the liver and kidneys.  So the idea is to start with mild supplements as far as detoxification and slowly move up to stronger and stronger products.

The four digestive products that I’m recommending can help the intestinal tract regain its integrity and that’s the first step towards healthy skin.  When the intestinal tract works better, all the negative symptoms will no longer bother you. 

If you wanted to get started on the supplements I recommend you call me to place the order or I can give you a website to visit and place your order from.

I look forward to working with you and becoming of service in your journey towards a healthier life.