THE THINKING PERSON'S GUIDE TO PERFECT HEALTH
Chelation (pronounced key-lay-shun) is a chemical reaction that results in a bond being formed between a metal ion and an organic (i.e., carbon-based made mostly of carbon) molecule. The resulting complex, metal bound to molecule, is called a "chelate" and contains one or more rings of atoms in which the metal ion is so firmly bound it cannot escape. This allows the metal ion to be transported in the same manner as a prisoner, first handcuffed, then moved from one location to another.
In the presence of aging and disease, the cells' ability to move metal ions through the system and eliminate them when they are in excess becomes progressively impaired. This is especially true for calcium.
Calcium has vital functions in the human body. Without calcium, teeth and bones could not exist. Nevertheless, as the body ages, lipid peroxidation damages the walls of the arterial tree which is repaired leaving a scar. Then calcium and oxidized cholesterol are incorporated into the resulting scar tissue.
There are several known, and easily avoided, risk factors at work in the creation of arteriosclerosis. Lipid peroxidation begins the inflammatory process in the wall of the artery and is facilitated by the presence of: (1) polyunsaturated fatty acids (present in many "junk-foods"), (2) oxidized cholesterol (from cooked, i.e., pasteurized, milk and other animal foods cooked in open air), (3) the relative absence of antioxidants, such as vitamins A, C and E, and (4) high levels of homocysteine (a condition easily prevented with vitamins B6, B12 and folate). Tobacco smoke drains the body's resources of antioxidants, particularly vitamin C, and further accelerates arteriosclerosis.
If you know and apply these facts from an early age, there is no reason for arteriosclerosis to develop in your body. "Hardening of the arteries" is not an inevitable disease of aging, as you have been led to believe; it is a disease of bad habits. To know and apply these facts, you have to be willing to think for yourself and ah, there is the reason arteriosclerosis will continue to kill people. Maybe the good do die young but so do the uninformed and dogmatic.
As the years pass, calcium deposits build up, and in association with cholesterol, calcified plaques and atherosclerotic plaques form, lining the arterial vessels. When calcium predominates, this process is called "hardening of the arteries" or arteriosclerosis, and when cholesterol predominates it is called "atherosclerosis." The exact content of the plaques is determined by the individual's diet, antioxidant intake and duration of the process. Regardless of where on the arterio-/athero- sclerotic continuum any particular individual falls, the result is the same: less and less fresh oxygen delivered to the tissues of the body.
It once was thought this process began in middle or old age. It is now known to begin in childhood in many people. The severity of this life-long process is determined by genetics, level of exercise and dietary habits. By age 21, many individuals have arterial disease, easily recognized at surgery or autopsy.
This is a disease of modern civilization. Never before have people so young had arteriosclerosis. As recently as the year 1900, heart disease was very rare. It may be that airborne industrial pollutants, as well as herbicides, pesticides and preservatives in our food, have a lot to do with arterio-/athero-sclerosis.
The cholesterol content of these plaques can be handled by shifting to a no-fat, high-fiber diet. Plaques actually decrease in size, and the cholesterol content can eventually disappear. Lipid peroxidation itself can be halted by the liberal intake of antioxidants such as Beta-carotene (the precursor of vitamin A), mixed tocopherols (vitamin E) and vitamin C, so no further damage is caused to the arterial tree.
The calcium content of the scar-plaques already present is another matter. Diet and pure water have little effect on it. Therefore, if you want to restore your health to a completely youthful condition, you are facing a real challenge with arteriosclerosis.
The list of problems that can be caused by artery disease is truly impressive, but it should not be surprising that it is so extensive given that a fresh supply of oxygenated blood is absolutely necessary for proper functioning in any organ. Even diseases that are more complicated, in that they have causes other than decreased blood flow, are made worse by arterial disease.
A prime example is Alzheimer's Disease. True Alzheimer's Disease is mimicked by simple aterio-/athero-sclerosis of the arteries and arterioles supplying the brain. Diabetes is known to be made worse by poor blood flow to the pancreas, and poor blood supply also can cause decreased output of digestive enzymes from the exocrine part of the pancreas, causing incomplete digestion.
Decreased blood supply to the kidneys results in the inappropriate release of angiotensin by the kidneys, inducing hypertension throughout the vascular tree. The joints, particularly the joints of the low back, react with inflammation and pain to decreasing blood flow and this, along with the degeneration of ligament tissue and disc disease, is responsible for the so-called "low back syndrome."
Arterio-/athero-sclerosis plays a big part in the cause of arthritis throughout the body. The effect of this process on the heart is angina (chest pain originating in the heart) and eventually infarc- tion and death. Poor blood supply to the stomach and small intestines results in poor digestion. Poor blood supply to the colon causes slowing of the colon with resulting colon disease.
The effect on the extremities is cold hands and feet, and in an advanced case, gangrene of the extremities can result. Impotence can be caused by decreased blood flow to the penis due to clogged arterioles. Frigidity can be caused by decreased blood flow to the pelvis. Cancer is known to be accelerated by decreased blood flow to the affected tissues. When blood flow is decreased to the immunocompetent cells in the bone marrow and spleen, the immune system itself is weakened.
The list of pains, aches, discomforts and diseases caused, or made worse by, arterio-/athero-sclerosis goes on and on. The above discussion is not complete and could not be made complete unless expanded to book size. Fortunately, there is a way to deal with arteriosclerosis. The answer is chelation.
Prevention of Arteriosclerosis: Oral Chelation
An ounce of prevention certainly is worth a pound of cure. The oral chelating agents serve admirably to prevent or halt the progression of arteriosclerosis, but do little to reverse the disease once it is present. You probably already are taking one of the oral chelating agents, vitamin C. This is an excellent oral chelating agent and also easily available. Also, fresh vegetables are loaded with other natural and effective chelating agents.
Exercise-generated Chelation
Lactic acid, produced from exercise, is an excellent chelating agent. It is the metabolic byproduct of sustained, vigorous muscle contraction. To get this chelating agent, you must exercise regu- larly. Exercise also increases your body's ability to reduce, and thus neutralize, free radicals, which are at the heart of degenerative diseases.
Awaken Nutrition
What is Chelation? Chelation (pronounced key-LAY-shun) is a term derived from the Greek chele, meaning "claw." A chelation agent is a chemical agent that, like a claw, grabs and chemically bonds with metals or other minerals and toxins. Simply put, chelation is the process in which chemicals bind with minerals. While chelation is a naturally occurring biological process (hemoglobin binds with iron to provide oxygen to tissues), synthesized chelation agents were first developed during World War II as a way to clear toxic metals from the body. Chemists discovered they could create a heterocycling ring of molecules which surround or "sequester" mineral molecules and carry them from the body through normal elimination.
This process of chelation actually removes unwanted metals from the bloodstream. In fact, chelation therapy is the only way to treat lead poisoning. But lead is not the only metal cleansed from the body through chelation. A chelation agent will also bind with most metals, mineral deposits, calcium-based plaques and other chemical toxins. Because of its positive impact on the bloodstream, chelation therapy has proven to benefit a number of medical conditions, including atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis.
At Awaken Nutrition, we consider oral chelation therapy a vital step toward cleansing the body of contaminants. However, we believe there must be a more effective product to complete the toxin-removal task efficiently. We also believe that oral chelating will soon become a primary frontline treatment for severely and chronically ill patients.
Our research and development has resulted in the creation of PCA-Rx oral chelation, a breakthrough peptide clathration formula and our solution to physiological toxicity. Laboratory studies have shown it to effectively clear heavy metals, toxins, plaque, pesticides, chemicals, and residuals from prior bacterial and viral infections.
It also seems to target the liver for detoxification and to lower both elevated enzyme counts and mercury levels in children with autism. What is Chelation? Chelation is a well-known method of heavy metal and toxin removal in which a special chemical compound called a chelate - such as dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA), dimercaptopropane sulfonate (DMPS), or ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) - is given, usually intravenously.
The chelate finds and forms a single attachment to the toxin with one reversible ionic bond. With that bond intact, the toxin is grabbed onto, pulled off the cell and carried from the body. However, the toxin is not neutralized during this process and is potentially able to attach to other cells on its way out.
Conventional chelation also has a harder time clearing heavy metals from cells (due to having only one method of bonding to the toxin) and some chelating substances even remove needed minerals from the body with the toxins, resulting in some adverse side effects.
What is Clathration? Clathration is a unique form of chelation therapy in which the clathrating substance - such as PCA-Rx - is given orally. This clathrate then finds and encloses the toxin in a three-dimensional cage-like inclusion complex (also known as a lattice structure or matrix) using three different types of irreversible bonds.
These bonds attach to and completely envelop the toxin - essentially neutralizing it - to keep it from coming into contact with any other bodily tissues as it is carried from the body. In this way, the unnatural contaminant has no way of re-attaching to and damaging the body as it is flushed out. This method is especially effective against heavy metals. Herein lies the power of PCA-Rx. For more on how PCA-Rx and clathration work in the toxin removal process, see Learn More About PCA-Rx.
Reversing Heart Disease
You can bypass drugs, surgery, angioplasty or bypass procedures to heal or prevent heart and other modern diseases such as asthma and diabetes. Here is a simple prescription you can use to chelate (pronounced key-late), or cleanse arteriosclerotic blockages, stimulate your immune system and cleanse toxins from the cardiovascular and all cellular systems and organs of the body.
It is not news that living an imbalanced life is stressful to the body. Here the focus is upon the physical body; however, unwholesome spiritual, mental and emotional bodies can be as toxic to your physical body as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.
Chelation (pronounced key-lay-shun) therapy has proven to be a safe and effective alternative to bypass surgery for atherosclerosis?and it has been shown by research that illnesses traced to toxins in the body, such as cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome, can also be eliminated using chelation therapy. (Elmer Cranton, M.D.,Well Being Journal, January/February, 1998.)1
What is chelation therapy? The simplest explanation is that it is a process wherein molecules of toxic debris, such as heavy metals found in accumulations of plaque on artery or vascular linings in the brain and all systems of the body, are bonded with molecules of chelation substances that pull them out of the body. The chelation effect also takes place automatically from natural bodily processes. It is when disease has taken a foothold that you may wish to accelerate or amplify the natural chelation processes of the body. How?
There are many ways to support and accelerate the body's natural chelation process. Certain foods help the process and some hinder, or are part of the disease creation process throughout the system. Evidence is pointing to foods with additives, hydrogenated oils, simple sugars and carbohydrates, and foods grown with chemicals, pesticides and herbicides as being poor health choices, and of course plentiful research shows toxins in the water and air are also causing a great deal of disease from chemical sensitivities in most human bodies.
SEVERAL SOLUTIONS
Most of us eat conventionally grown foods, lacking in nutrition, rather than organic, and then we don't drink enough water to flush out the toxins that were used to make the conventional foods grow. The water most of us drink is chlorinated and probably fluoridated. Add to that all of the processed foods sold in the supermarkets, foods with additional chemical additives, flavorings, colorings, sweeteners, salts and artificial sweeteners, and you have toxins entering the body on a constant, daily basis.
(Solution: Many people have begun writing to and calling the corporations that produce and market foods asking for organic products; they may boycott conventionally produced foods, or buy only organically produced fruits, vegetables and animals, even driving many miles extra to stores that sell these products.) Why? Organically grown foods, and especially the nutrients and fibers from fruits and vegetables, naturally nourish the body and chelate toxins from it. Most organic growers use strong seed lines, not environmentally (generationally) or genetically modified seeds.
Regarding drinking water, F. Batmanghelidj, M.D., has shown without doubt that the vast majority of us humans have not been drinking enough water.2 Mountain spring water, with its mineralized and magnetic properties, is the best water to drink. Pure artesian water is a second best choice. Pure, vigorous water nourishes and chelates toxins from the body due to its magnetic and trace mineral properties. However, if you are putting too many toxins into the body, it would take far more copious amounts of water to cleanse them out than you or I would wish to drink.3
You may wish to chelate toxins, residues and plaque from your body in a more immediate way if you have an emergency situation, and then gradually include an organic diet to both cleanse and prevent recurrence in the future. What is an immediate, clinical way to chelate, especially in cases of cardiovascular disease?
CLEANSING OUT THE TOXINS
An immediate way to speed the chelation process very dramatically is to go to a clinic as an ?out-patient? and have a doctor inject ethylene diamine terra acetic acid (EDTA) into your veins. This is also a natural chelating procedure that specifically targets toxic metals, and it works systemically. It has been proven that EDTA chelation therapy is not only effective, even in ?emergency? cases of cardiovascular disease, but also much safer and far less expensive than surgery or angioplasty.1
The staff at the American College for Advancement in Medicine will refer you to medical doctors who practice EDTA chelation therapy nationally: 1-949-583-7666.
Preventive or non-emergency measures also exist for chelating the body. There are ?oral chelation? formulas, or supplements that can be taken, and these are available at health stores. Also, large amounts (varying for each individual person) of up to 25,000 mg./day of vitamin C, mineral ascorbate form, is a very effective chelator, as are vitamin E (400-800 IU/day), bilberry and ginkgo biloba, as all are antioxidants.
Health-related reference literature is abundant with research studies reporting beneficial results of using these vitamin and nutrient chelators as supplements. Consult your health practitioner if you need assistance in determining amounts for you. From hereon this article will focus on a form of exercise that has been found remarkably efficient in chelating toxic elements from the body. Journal readers will recognize rebounding and its immune system stimulating and cellular-level toxic debris removing effects from the Fall, 2001 issue of the Journal (?Bouncing for Health?).4
CREATE YOUR OWN CHELATION THERAPY BY REBOUNDING
Dr. Morton Walker, D.P.M., states that exercising on a rebounder (mini-trampoline) causes ?a natural process of chelation therapy to proceed throughout the body.? There are many sources indicating the overall health-giving effects of rebounding exercise. (See Well Being Journal, Fall, 2001, for more information.)4 Rene and Maggie Gaudette and the Wonders write: ?The protocol [of taking antioxidant supplements and doing rebounding exercise]... eliminates a good portion of cellulite, which is an accumulation of toxins within the fat structure of the body.
Also that exercise 'bouncing up and down on a mini-trampoline' is a good way of loosening up all of that fat structure so that the toxins can be eliminated... You shake it up and down. Rebounding clears the lymph glands, it provides the aerobic exercise for the heart, it provides oxygenation to the body, it is not destructive to the joints of the body, it loosens the toxins within the subdermal portion of the skin in the body, it allows the body to perspire, it even allows your hair to grow a little longer because when you go up and you come down it pulls the hair out of your scalp. And it tones the muscles. There are many [more] benefits...?3
Dr. Walker writes: "Exercising on a minitrampoline for its beneficial rebounding result enables you to create chelation therapy within your body and brain.? How does chelation take place? First of all, each cell in the body is ?exercised? when bouncing up and down. The force of gravity first pulls, then releases each cell, thus stimulating cells to move their fluids and flush out toxic material as well as absorb nutrients.
Additionally, the valves in the lymphatic system, the powerful force behind your immune system, open and close and pump lymphatic fluid during bouncing, even with very gentle up and down bouncing movements. The lymph fluid then removes toxins from the body as a whole, and it even produces more white blood cells. Those who have had major illnesses, such as cancer, attribute healing to the use of rebounding once per hour for two to three minutes. White blood cells increase dramatically during a short session of two to three minutes of rebounding.
Albert Carter, who first discovered the rebounding effect in the late 1970s, called it ?the most efficient, effective form of exercise yet devised by man.?5 Dr. Walker states that ?your whole cardiovascular system becomes stronger even without increasing its heart rate,?5 thus the elderly or ill need not begin vigorously exercising in order to receive chelation or other health benefits from rebounding.
One of the many ways rebounding helps chelate toxins from the body and specifically from the cardiovascular system is through the stimulation of production of lactic acid by the muscles.
Lactic acid is a natural by-product of muscular activity. Shirley Vanderbilt writes: ?There are elevated levels of lactic acid in muscle tissues after exercise....?6 She cites research by exercise physiologist Dr. George Brooks from the 1980s: ?Lactic acid is a key substance for providing energy, disposing dietary carbohydrate, producing blood glucose and liver glycogen....
Lactic acid goes through a chemical cycle ultimately becoming lactate, which can then be transported quickly from the muscle into the blood. Lactate levels in the blood rise during moderate exercise. At the completion of exercise, lactate levels return to normal within an hour. Light exercise is the most effective approach to speed this process. The muscles copiously produce lactic acid during light exercise.?
Dr. Walker notes that lactic acid is a weak organic acid that chelates toxic components. He states, ?Because natural lactic acid acts in the same way as does the medical intravenous infusion of the chelating amino acid EDTA, the resulting responses from rebound movements produce numerous therapeutic effects...:
1. They dissolve atherosclerotic plaque attached to the intima (the innermost layer of arteries);
2. They pull [toxins] out of the media layer of blood vessel walls; and
3. They trap the foreign proteins that occupy space between cell membranes and then remove these unwanted proteins for deposition as waste, carrying away also the toxic type of proteins for processing through in the kidneys as urine, through the liver as nitrogenous waste, and then through the bowel as feces.?
Walker cites a study done in Sweden almost twenty-five years ago, where exercise therapists evaluated a group of hospitalized patients whose chief difficulties were palpitations of the heart, breathlessness from cardiovascular inadequacy, peripheral vascular insufficiency indicated by cold hands and feet, dizziness, headaches and deep sighing. He states that ?each patient averaged 5.4 symptoms.?
Collectively these patients had been suffering from 150 different clinically recorded ailments, but by the end of the program of rebounding the clinicians found only 21 persisting symptoms; 68 symptoms had diminished and 44 ailments were entirely gone. ?The average number of symptoms per patient had dropped from 5.4 to 1.1,? writes Walker.
The clinicians at the Karolinska Institute who conducted this investigation concluded that ?rebound exercise protects and strengthens the cardiovascular and peripheral vascular systems,? and offsets any potential harm caused by catecholamines, or nerve transmitting chemicals released under stress, that increase blood pressure.
Dr. Walker concludes: ?For a sick person who is able to rebound even in the midst of illness, rebounding serves as a physiological antidote to [catecholamines] that act as internal stressors. Besides cellular detoxification and nourishment, rebounding produces a kind of cellular sedative that gives any damaged or sick cells the opportunity to heal themselves.?5
James R. White, Ph.D., an exercise physiologist at the University of California, San Diego, whose research Walker cites, asserts that a rebound exercise program has the following cardiovascular health benefits:
1. Increased strength and size of the left ventricle of the heart;
2. Increased diameter of the heart;
3. Increased diameter of the arteries of the heart;
4. Increased number of latent arteries used for distributing blood to the heart and the rest of the body.
5. Slowdown of the heart rate; and
6. Decreased amount of oxygen needed by the heart.
Rebounding even causes peripheral vascular improvement of occlusive disease by encouraging blood clots in the limbs to dissolve.
Since rebounding also stimulates the immune system through lymphatic fluid drainage and more production of white blood cells?due to the force of gravity pull and then release during the act of jumping?the effects are beneficial not only for the rest of the body, but especially for the blood circulatory system. Walker cites the work of Hitendra H. Shah, M.D.
[Dr. Shah strongly recommends rebound exercise. Rebounding, he emphasizes, must be part of any chelation/detoxification program for reaping the optimal advantages of intravenous EDTA chelation therapy], who notes: ?Several problems occur when the lymph drainage slows and fluids begin to accumulate around the cells....
Cells are forced to survive in their own waste and toxic byproducts. Such a situation can eventually lead to the degeneration and destruction of organs. For example, poor lymphatic drainage of the extremities can lead to tissue damage and then to poor blood circulation with swelling and pain.... [S]imilar problems can happen in any other organs of the body.?
CONCLUSION
Given the amount of toxins in our water, air and food?and thus entering our bodies?and given the viruses and bacteria we encounter, it is not difficult to understand why doctors and other health professionals not only rebound every day themselves but recommend it to their patients.
Rebounding stimulates the immune system like no other form of exercise due to its effects on the lymphatic system; it stimulates cellular cleansing, exercises the musculo-skeletal system, and helps restore bone density?and it is simple, gentle on the joints of the body and an enjoyable! exercise anyone can do. Dr. Walker recommends the Soft Bounce? Needak? brand of rebounders in his book, but any good quality rebounder will give you results and be gentle on the body at the same time.
The Needak? absorbs 85% of the impact when you jump. Imagine the potentials, if rebounding alone can help you achieve these kinds of results, if you combine this exercise with drinking plenty of pure mountain spring or artesian water and a wholesome organic food diet (thus helping clean up the ?outer? environment too), along with a balanced spiritual, mental, emotional and physical life. It seems it may very well be easier to be healthy than ill.
Posted by philcutrara1
at 11:31 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, 26 January 2006 8:14 PM EST
with the Church, that God's grace is freely given to everyone. Jesus Christ fully revealed God, enabling each person to know God as good, as totally giving, and as one who shares fully in the human experience.
(usually weekly) in an atmosphere of love and support for one another in an effort to grow in the knowledge and love of God, and to show this love in their attitude to their neighbour.Each prayer meeting is open to anyone who wants to come. Those who attend CCR prayer meetings are predominantly Catholic, but groups are open to anyone.
helps people to grow in their spiritual life. Each prayer meeting has a teaching program. In addition to these times, there are times of prayer ministry, and times of intercession. People are encouraged to share what God has done in their lives as a most important way of building the faith of others. The Eucharist is often celebrated for the prayer group, and time may be spent before the Blessed Sacrament. There is much variety in the prayer meeting.
